Materializing in the Core World, Bai Yunfei was surprised to see just how crazy the elemental energy was behaving within the world. Looking up, he saw a dazzling ball of light almost as bright as the sun outside in the real world.
The Core World had no concept of the sun and moon, so that meant this was no sun, this was…Xiao Qi!
In his cocooned state, Xiao Qi was emitting extremely bright rays of red light so he was very much like a dazzling sun. As bright as the light was, Bai Yunfei's eyes were gleaming with light as bright as that.
"Is…is he about to breakthrough?!"
Bai Yunfei exhaled with anticipation.
"Yes. He's about to become a Mid-stage Class Seven." Xiao Fang materialized in the air next to Bai Yunfei. "He was still well within the boundaries of an early-stage class seven, but he's been improving at an incredibly fast rate this entire day and night. How unbelievable is that? Yunfei, there's a lot you haven't told me still…according to what I saw, this sudden power-up has a lot to do with him killing those Soul Kings yesterday? Does killing give him power? That's a method of getting stronger only demons are used to, but even those require very cruel acts towards their prey for their energy. I didn't see Xiao Qi do anything out of the ordinary, what's going on here?"
"Oh? You saw even that?" Bai Yunfei blinked once in surprise. "Yes, Xiao Qi has a very special ability, but it's nothing as demonic as you think it is. As long as he kills, he can gain a portion of their energy to get stronger. He's been getting stronger like this ever since he was born a few years ago…killing those Soul Kings definitely would've helped him become a mid-stage class seven. I'm really happy to see it…"
"So it really is because he killed those people? I've never heard of an ability like tha—" Xiao Fang suddenly stopped speaking. The image of Xiao Fang convulsed a bit as if it was sputtering.
"Hold on!" It squeaked, "What was that?! 'Ever since he was born a few years ago'? What do you mean by that?"
"What do you mean what do I mean?" Bai Yunfei asked back incredulously. "He's had this ability for the past three years since he was born. That's how he's been getting stronger."
"Thr—three years?!" Xiao Fang's voice was nearly high enough to shatter glass. "You're saying Xiao Qi is only three years old?! Three years old and he's a mid-stage class seven?!"
"Yes, what about it?"
"What about it?! What about it?! That's what you're asking?!" Xiao Fang cried out in exasperation as if he had just heard something stupid. "A single soulbeast becoming a mid-stage class by the age of three?! And a prisma oriole no less! Even if he's a variant, there's no way he should be able to do something like that! It's only soulbeasts that are born at the class five or six levels that should have a rate of growth like that! Do you think he's some kind of mythological soulbeast?!"
Bai Yunfei shrugged. "Mythological soulbeasts isn't my area of expertise. That's just how Xiao Qi is. There's no need to be so surprised…"
"I…"
Xiao Qi looked defeated (if looks were possible). It turned to look at Xiao Qi.
"Am I just behind the times now? Did being stuck for an entire millennia mess up my common sense? Having a master and his soulbeast with growths beyond normal! Imagine that! What kind of timeline am I in…"
……
While Xiao Fang was doubting his own common sense, Bai Yunfei continued to observe Xiao Qi.
A slight disturbance a few minutes later prompted him to look elsewhere.
"The Core World is running out of elemental energy, pull in some more, Xiao Fang!"
"Eh?" Snapping out from his befuddlement, Xiao Fang was quick to obey. "Ah, yes, no problem!"
The skies of the Core World was quickly eclipsed by a torrent of red light as Xiao Fang started to pull even more elemental energy. There was a rush of air as it was being displaced as all the energy started to gather around Xiao Qi.
Elemental fire started to gather in the skies around Bai Yunfei. Slowly, it condensed around the bird to increase in intensity.
Then, the sounds of rumbling thunder could be heard…
"Crack! Boom!!"
From the highest points of the sky, a drop of thunder came crashing down onto Xiao Qi. But when the violet bolt came down on Xiao Qi, it suddenly disappeared as if sucked up!
The bolt of lightning had been like the signal for an entire thunderstorm to start. Amidst the burning heavens, multiple bolts of lightning were started to fall near Xiao Qi.
Then after the bolts of lightning started to descend, the area was swept up in a green whirlwind to encapsulate the fire and lightning around Xiao Qi.
A verdant dark-green glow of light erupted from the earth next. Shooting out into the sky from the grass and trees, the green light flew straight to where Xiao Qi was and connected to him like if trying to form a connection between the bird and the earth.
"This looks just as powerful as the King's Phenomena…" Bai Yunfei muttered as he watched the world start to change.
Four different colors of elemental energy were congregated around Xiao Qi now. With how rapidly Xiao Qi was taking in the energy, the outermost parts of where he was was quickly losing out on energy.
Then, a piece of space void of any type of energy pulsated once with a strange energy before a multitude of elemental energy suddenly started to pour out of it into the Core World.
This was Xiao Qi trying to pull in the elemental energy from the real world into the Core World to replenish the dwindling amount. The levels of illumination in the Core World brightened a bit when the stream of energy started to pour in, and even Bai Yunfei couldn't help but feel his mouth drop open at the amount of energy coming in.
Xiao Qi's body was practically like a black hole with how much elemental energy was pouring into his body. It never seemed like he was content with the amount of energy he was getting, and the rate in which he was taking in elemental energy was only increasing. The dormant soulforce within his body was starting to expand outside of his body to take on the form of a whirlpool to help take in an even larger amount of elemental energy for him.
……
Having been watching the entire process from beginning to end, Bai Yunfei felt himself quite speechless. Though he was watching Xiao Qi, his pupils were unfocused and glazed over for some reason. A gleam of red light covered his eyes, making it look like he was suddenly spellbound or something…
"Badump…badump…"
The sound of something pounding within his body snapped Bai Yunfei out from his thoughts. At first, he thought it was the sound of his heart, but that notion was quickly dismissed when he concentrated on it.
It wasn't his heart that was beating, but some sort of energy inside his body…
The energy poured through his entire body and spread throughout it within rapid speed. Every vein and meridian felt like it was on fire now. His essence fireseed was pulsating rapidly as if something was feeding it…
Unbeknownst to him, Bai Yunfei's right hand twitched just slightly enough to call out the Cataclysmic Seal. From inside, the fireseed in the brick floated out from it to float into his body.
The Dual Flame Artes activated instinctively the moment when the second fireseed entered his body. Rotating around one another, the two fireseeds quickly started to pulsate with power while the companion lightningseed started to crackle around the two to give the flames a slight violet hue.
"Bzz…."
A nearly inaudible buzzing sound started to sound out within Bai Yunfei's body. He started to tremble slightly at the sound, and his body started to glow a faint red. The longer time went on, the stronger the gleam of red became.
By the time several seconds passed by, his entire person was almost bright enough to make it seem like he was on fire!
And then, an inferno of intense fire sprung to life around him!
"Whooosh…"
The elemental fire that had been gathered around Xiao Qi was abruptly pulled into a new direction all of a sudden. As if being yanked, a new stream of elemental fire started to diverge from it's original course to flow towards Bai Yunfei!
In no time at all, Bai Yunfei was completely surrounded by a maelstrom of elemental fire!
……
"Damn!! Really? You too now?!"
Xiao Fang's crude cursing echoed across the Core World in a fit of disbelief and annoyance.
"Can't you at least say hello or something first!? Is breaking through some kind of normal activity now?" It grumbled. "Good thing this is the Core World, or else you wouldn't have enough energy to do this in the real world! Damn…really now…"
The space in the Core World trembled as yet another crack opened up in the skies. From the other side of the crack, a stream of elemental fire came pouring out!
It was like the Core World was being invaded by a storm of elemental fire now. One area of the Core World was being lit up by four different colors of red, violet, greenish-blue, and dark green, while the other side was being lit up almost entirely by a burning red and a very faint violet color.
"Boom!! Boom!!"
After some time, two final booms echoed across the sky before two different auras spiked in intensity!
These two auras belonged to…two Mid-stage Soul Kings!