Had Bai Yunfei all the time in the world, he would have never thought that it was Mo Ni that'd be standing here.
Several times before today had the two of them met, but neither times left a heavy enough impression for Bai Yunfei to really think about. In fact, he had nearly forgotten about this person.
But here Mo Ni stood. He was most likely the one behind the kidnapping attempt on Tang Xinyun and thereof the enemy most wanting to get rid of Bai Yunfei.
This place was several dozen kilometers away from where the battlefield had been, so Bai Yunfei couldn't be blamed for not knowing there was someone here. It was only because of the residual spatial energy left behind by Li Fenghai's teleportation that Bai Yunfei was able to use the Core Stone to trace back his starting location and reveal the people behind it all.
A millennium had passed since the Core Stone was last seen in the world, so information of its capabilities was long since lost. Only the royal family and the other Regalia would know of the specifics of the Core Stone. But beyond that, Li Fenghai and Mo Ni would definitely not know about the Core Stone's abilities.
Bai Yunfei had relied on Xiao Fang in order to find the general location of where Li Fenghai arrived from. By teleporting from spot to spot, he was able to narrow down the approximate distance until he was finally able to lock onto Mo Ni.
So he was extremely shocked to find out that it was Mo Ni that was standing before him today. "The one that's been after me this entire time was…you?!" He spat.
Mo Ni snapped awake when he was addressed. Shocked that Bai Yunfei had somehow managed to get here, Mo Ni gasped, "Bai Yunfei! How…how did you get here! How did you get away from elder Li!!"
In his mind, Bai Yunfei should've been a done and dealt with the problem the moment Li Fenghai left to take care of him. The fact that Bai Yunfei was here now only could only mean to him that Bai Yunfei had somehow managed to do something to evade Li Fenghai.
"Elder Li?" Bai Yunfei raised an eyebrow before he gave a cold smirk to Mo Ni. "Are you talking about that Late-stage Soul King? I've killed him already."
"What?!" Mo Ni exclaimed first in shock before forcing himself to laugh, "Hah! Big talk coming from you! Do you really think you could kill elder Li by yourself?!"
"You and I have never argued before, why come after me like this?" Ignoring Mo Ni, Bai Yunfei immediately launched into his first few questions for him.
He was still in Berserk Mode and had thus the pressure of a Late-stage Soul King, much of which was still bearing down upon Mo Ni. The other person's forehead was entirely slick with sweat, but he said nothing in preference to look around the place in silence.
Clearly, the male didn't believe even for a second that Bai Yunfei had killed Li Fenghai and was expecting the elder to arrive any moment now.
"Staying quiet are we? Then allow me to capture you first and do the interrogation on my own time…"
Beaming with merciless fury, Bai Yunfei gathered a wave of fire to his hand in preparation to capture Mo Ni.
But just at that moment…
"Roar!!!"
While Bai Yunfei was stalking towards Mo Ni, the loud draconic cry of some kind of beast stopped him!
The one who cried out had been the constantly silent Black Dragon King next to Mo Ni! And this roar wasn't just one for show, it was one of the trump cards of the Black Dragon King—The Ninth Heaven Shaking Dragon's Roar!
An extremely strong soul attack!!
Long Lan was the first to react. His eyes started to radiate with terror the moment he heard the roar, and the soulforce in his body suddenly went out of control! Then without any further hesitation, he leaped back!
Bai Yunfei's eyes widened at both events. He was completely unsure of what had just happened.
Due to the difference in strength between him and the Black Dragon King, the soul attack had only served to be a small distraction to him. As small as it was, the soul attack was still considerably strong for what it was.
"Whoosh!!"
The sound of rustling wind could be heard as the Black Dragon King took action. After unleashing that soul attack onto Bai Yunfei and Long Lan, he chose to…flee in the opposite direction rather than to attack!
He was trying to run away!
"Damn!!" Mo Ni spat in anger upon seeing the Black Dragon King run. With snarling lips, he took off towards the other side without hesitation!
"Trying to run?"
Bai Yunfei took action as well as soon as he saw the two run in opposing directions. Rather than chase down the Black Dragon King, Bai Yunfei opted to run after Mo Ni.
"Stop the other person, Long Lan."
He called out to Long Lan before he got too far away. Long Lan might not be too good of a match for the other person, but Bai Yunfei was confident that Long Lan would at the very least be able to stall him long enough for Bai Yunfei to deal with later.
"Got it!!" Snapping out from his fearful stupor, Long Lan seemed almost angry at his recent humiliation at the roar of the Black Dragon King. Rekindled in anger, Long Lan sped off towards the Black Dragon King to fight.
Nearly a kilometer of distance had been traveled in the head start the Black Dragon King had. As for Mo Ni, Bai Yunfei immediately disappeared from where he was standing to teleport right in front of him!
Screeching to a halt, Mo Ni's eyes were completely wide open at the sight of Bai Yunfei being right in front of him. Then seemingly furious, he lashed out with his right hand to shoot out a dark beam of energy!
Bai Yunfei narrowed his eyes momentarily before swaying to the side to allow for the beam of energy to go through his mirror image. Then as it grazed past him, Bai Yunfei immediately moved towards the side again to allow for the black streak of light to fly once again past him. It was the black needle!
It flew around the area twice before returning to Mo Ni who had already taken out two jadeite disks to rotate protectively around him!
"So it was you!!"
Bai Yunfei spat out at once when he saw the black needle and jadeite disks.
He had his suspicions earlier when he saw Gui Wei, but now that these two additional pieces of proof were here, Bai Yunfei was thoroughly convinced! Mo Ni was the black-hooded youth he fought back in Crushed Stone River!
It all made sense now why Mo Ni was after him—Mo Ni wanted the Core Stone!
That was, of course, the most logical of deductions Bai Yunfei could say. But the truth was, Mo Ni had been hunting him down far earlier than that.
"You inferior wyrm! First, you stole a part of my blood, and now you dare fight against me! Begone!!"
The furious roar of the Black Dragon King resounded across the skies with enough vibrato to surprise even Bai Yunfei. Turning his head, he watched as the Black Dragon King transformed into a gigantic jiao to roar and swing his tail at Long Lan!
"Bang!!"
A flash of bright blue light erupted from Long Lan's body to protect himself. It was too late to dodge the tail whip and so he was flung across several hundred meters to go crashing into a mountain and embedded in it.
The image of the jiao had only been for a moment. Gone as soon as it came, the jiao was turned back into a human to continue flying away. Several seconds later, he was gone to another mountain point five kilometers away.
"That's…the Black Dragon King?!"
Bai Yunfei exclaimed in surprise when he saw the image of the Black Dragon King in his larger form.
Snarling that Bai Yunfei would even look away, Mo Ni formed several hand seals to activate one of his soul skills to power up. His body exploded with soulforce to instantaneously elevate himself to the power of a Mid-stage Soul King.
He wasn't powering up to kill Bai Yunfei, but to run away. Turning around, he took off with speeds far greater than before! He waved his hand in front of him to seemingly summon a transparent opening in the space in front of him before he traversed through it to reappear two kilometers away.
"Hmph!" Bai Yunfei sneered as he took off to give chase once again.
Mo Ni was traveling faster than Bai Yunfei thought and was even somehow teleporting, but what was that compared to the Core Stone's ability to teleport? In one fluid instant, Bai Yunfei teleported himself several hundred meters to appear in a bubble of light right in front of Mo Ni again!
Without mercy for the male in front of him, Bai Yunfei stepped out from his spot in a blaze of fire to pressure Mo Ni with his soulforce and reach out to grab at his throat!