Yan Tianxing was looking especially solemn as his mind raced to think of the best possible solution to this conundrum. On one side, he had an absolutely infuriated Qin Long. On the other was a calm-faced Bai Yunfei. He would have to make a stand now.
"This matter is a large one and cannot be determined so quickly. Regardless, the sons of Qin Long were killed in front of you, the chances of you being an uninvolved party is quite low…perhaps you should remain in Swallow City for now, my friend. Allow the Tianhun School to do their duties to clear this matter up."
"You want me to stay?" Bai Yunfei's eyes narrowed. He didn't want to stick around. The only reason he didn't leave earlier was to avoid being considered 'guilty' for running away. He had already given the proof he had and yet Yan Tianxing was still suspicious enough to want him to stay in Swallow City for the entire investigation.
"I've some business to take care of and cannot stay long in Swallow City for the investigation. I said it before, I'm an unrelated party to the deaths of the two. I didn't ki—"
"Shut your mouth!! Shut it!!" Not able to stay quiet any longer, Qin Long exploded with rage at him. "You? Unrelated? You still have the gall to say that?! My two sons died in front of you, and you dare say you're unrelated?! Even if you didn't kill them, you were the catalyst to their deaths! Because of the betrothment, you humiliated my Feng'er! You caused him to do this! And even if a third party did this, you are the reason why! Everything is your fault you murderer!"
He was getting hysterical now. Comparatively more unhinged than before, Qin Long was starting to lose all semblance of dignity that'd normally be related to a Late-stage Soul King. The death of two sons would do that to a person.
Bai Yunfei's eyes flashed with annoyance. He couldn't say that he didn't expect Qin Long to react this way. No way would any family just give up and say a person was unrelated to the deaths of someone if that someone died right in front of them.
If Bai Yunfei had to guess, he and the Qin were involved in some sort of scheme with two possibilities. It was either something to hurt him or to hurt the Qin. So in a way, there was a chance that Bai Yunfei actually was an unrelated—if unwilling—party to the deaths of the Qin brothers.
Still, it was exceedingly annoying for him to have to suffer an 'unjustified' event like this. He was already having a hard time stomaching the anger he was feeling.
It didn't matter if the goal was to hurt him or the Qin. The desired outcome was already had: Byf and the Qin would now have a grudge between the two that only death would be able to resolve. He really didn't want to make enemies with such a powerful family, but there wasn't any fighting it now. There was no way Qin Long would let him go after 'seeing' his two sons die in front of him.
Qin Long was the head of the Qin, and with him was one of the other stronger members, Qin Pingzhi. Those two by themselves would've been manageable to fight against, but they wouldn't be the only ones. Should a fight break out, the rest of the Qin would definitely make themselves known as well.
Did that mean the still-mourning Qin Long would not fight Bai Yunfei in this case, then?
The answer was…of course not!!
'Proof' and 'testimonies' hadn't any bearing on Qin Long. He wouldn't stand for talking with the 'murderer' of his sons any longer! The sound of a sword being swung into action could be heard as Qin Long charged out to Bai Yunfei to strike!
"Tch! He still wants to fight? Damn!!" Bai Yunfei cursed to himself and raised the Fire-tipped Spear up to prepare himself for battle.
And since Qin Long was taking action, Qin Pingzhi decided to follow him into battle as well!
"Yunfei, I'll stop the Early-stage Soul King, you just focus on lord Qin."
Xiao Nan called out to Bai Yunfei as he brought out an orange-colored sword to his hand for battle.
"Alright! Be careful, brother Xiao Nan." Bai Yunfei warned.
The two streaks of light of dark and light green had already traveled a considerable distance to draw close to Bai Yunfei to strike.
Bai Yunfei shot forward like a released arrow to clash with the dark-green ray of light. The two slammed into one another with Bai Yunfei's Fire-tipped Spear clashing with Qin Long's longsword.
Xiao Nan waved his sword forward to send a beam of light. It traveled faster than he did to clash with the opposing beam of light shot from Qin Pingzhi and busted apart. Soon after, the two started to battle one another away from Qin Long and Bai Yunfei.
No one aside from the four had been expecting a battle to take place so quickly and immediately took multiple steps back to retreat.
"You will cease this at once!!"
A furious roar exploded into the area with such volume that it seemed to make even the clouds darken. The rumbling of thunder could be heard from them before sparks of lightning started to crackle and violet light started to shower the entire place.
Yan Tianxing was truly angry now!
"Bai Yunfei! Life is not something so trivially thrown aside. Both sons were killed in a fight with you regardless, and even if you're not involved, you will cease this and return to my manor for investigation at once!"
Claps of thunder accompanied Yan Tianxing's voice this time. This was the anger of a Late-stage Soul King, where even his emotions could influence the nature around him. It was simple to see why; the fact that the two parties were fighting was a clear sign that neither party respected his authority.
But…there was also something else to his words that made this situation a little more complex—his words were pointed at Bai Yunfei. 'Return to the manor for investigation'? This was not an unbiased statement, this was a demand that would see to the benefit of the Qin!
Even more importantly was what Yan Tianxing did next. He disappeared into a clap of thunder to turn into a bolt of violet light straight for…Bai Yunfei!
This wasn't just him 'stopping' the battle, this was Yan Tianxing moving to 'help' Qin Long restrain Bai Yunfei!
This had not gone unnoticed by Bai Yunfei. Having been previously preoccupied with his fight against Qin Long, Bai Yunfei's eyes narrowed when he caught sight of Yan Tianxing approaching.
"So you're favoring the Qin…you want to arrest me? In your dreams!!"
Bai Yunfei was angered too now. He hadn't any good opinion of Yan Tianxing from the start to begin with since the bolt of lightning to separate the two wasn't just to stop either participant to hurt each other. The bolt of lightning had actually been aimed at him more than Qin Long! Had he not the lightning companionseed and an extraordinary defense against elemental lightning to dodge the strike, Bai Yunfei would've been injured for sure.
He could see why Yan Tianxing acted the way he did. Yan Tianxing was the lord-mayor of Swallow City, and Qin Long was head of the Qin, the strongest family in Swallow City. The relationship between the two would definitely be quiet deep and would be taken into heavy consideration if an 'outsider' were to fight against the Qin like Bai Yunfei was doing now.
If Bai Yunfei wasn't a student of the Crafting School, Yan Tianxing would've most likely spared Qin Long the benefit of the doubt and immediately move to strike Bai Yunfei down!
All Bai Yunfei wanted to do was come to Swallow City to rescind the betrothment between Tang Xinyun and Qin Shoufeng. He stayed a day extra for the auction house but left the city so they could avoid any trouble. But nothing else. With something as troublesome like this happening all at once, how could Bai Yunfei not be angry? If words couldn't convince these people, then power would do the trick!
……
Qin Long didn't bother to give Bai Yunfei any time to breathe when he retreated. Heaving his sword, Qin Long lashed out to send blade after blade of energy at Bai Yunfei!
The number of blades of wind was already quite astonishing to see, but even more bolts of violet lightning were descending down from the skies. They were all drawn towards one central point to form into a dragon made of lightning. At its head was Yan Tianxing to seemingly drop down the judgment of the heavens onto Bai Yunfei!
With wind and lightning acting together, the environment of the battleground started to surge and twist chaotically.
Then the attacks of both Late-stage Soul Kings dropped to attack Bai Yunfei!