“Chirp!!”
The chirping sounds of a bird could be heard from the depths of the forest. Mournful in its sound, the whistle carried far, and a flock of birds flew out in every direction…
The mournful sounds of the birds could be heard, and Bai Yunfei could also distinctly feel the clash of soulforce erupting from the same direction as well.
“Two Soul Sprites and multiple Soul Warriors!” Bai Yunfei’s eyebrows rose up in shock. Just why were there so many soul cultivators in a place like this?
The horses had halted because of the bizarre atmosphere coming from the forest. They began to neigh and stamp their hooves. It took the riders several moments before they could finally placate them, but there was still no way to move them after that.
“Brother Bai, what’s… what’s going on?” Seeing the strange look on everyone’s face, Huang Wan asked him with worry.
“Soul cultivators… and a lot of them.” Bai Yunfei looked to him with confusion. “But it’s what they’re fighting that’s really strange…”
When he heard that soul cultivators were battling, Huang Wan’s face grew anxious. “Ah? Then, then shouldn’t we hurry up and leave just in case we get involved?”
“Yes, that works. At the very least, we won’t invite any trouble…” Bai Yunfei nodded.
“Ai, no no!” Just at that moment, Jing Mingfeng’s voice could be heard as he stared back at Bai Yunfei with an interested look. “What are you trying to suggest her? How could we miss this chance!? At the very least we should go and take a peek, shouldn’t we?”
“Do you even know what’s going on over there?” Bai Yunfei asked in confusion.
“It’s because I don’t know, that’s why I’m curious!” Jing Mingfeng laughed. “I love to watch things from the sidelines. If we’re only just taking a look, we can leave anytime afterward.”
“You say it as if it’s that easy…” Bai Yunfei was speechless, but he could acknowledge that Jing Mingfeng possessed the skills to do as he wanted. If he wanted to spy on something without anyone noticing, then his ability to disguise himself was more than enough to do so. Unless the other side was too strong, then coming and going would be easy.
“That’s right, why don’t we take a look? We’ve so many experts here, so we’ll be fine even if there is trouble. We’re only taking a look, so it shouldn’t be a problem.” Tianming’s eyes lit up as he stood by Bai Yunfei’s side. He was even more excited than Jing Mingfeng, and he craned his neck so that he could look into the forest.
“Well…” Bai Yunfei was still hesitant after looking at these two. In truth, he too was quite curious about what was happening. He paid particular attention to the first bird cry…
“Aunty Zhao, we should take a look. That bird’s chirp just now was rather worrisome…” In Bai Yunfei’s moment of hesitation, Tang Xinyun spoke for him.
With narrowed eyes, the older woman debated the decision for a moment before finally nodding. “We’ll watch from afar. If possible, we shouldn’t meddle in their affairs…”
“Yes.” Tang Xinyun replied before turning to look at Bai Yunfei.
“Fine fine. We’ll go take a look, but look only, that’s all!” Bai Yunfei gave a helpless nod of his head. He reassured Huang Wan that they would be back in a short moment, and requested the group to take a short break for now. Jing Mingfeng and Tianming were both on the verge of rocketing away to the site, but they waited for the other soul cultivators before they swiftly traveled to the area of interest.
Running for another seven or eight thousand meters, the group finally felt a rather strong concentration of energy running rampant with soulforce in the air. Coming to a stop so that they could suppress their soulforce. Jing Mingfeng used his soul technique to fully extinguish his presence as he took the lead. Bai Yunfei had almost no way to detect his existence, a feat that made him feel rather envious of Jing Mingfeng. Right behind the two was aunty Zhao and Tang Xinyun who were both looking at the back of Jing Mingfeng in awe.
Tianming’s presence was extremely faint since his strength was only at the Soul Personage level. With the chaotic nature of the soulforce in front of them, no one would be able to detect them unless they were concentrating hard on soulsensing.
Up at the very front, Jing Mingfeng suddenly stopped moving. He waved his hand to stop the others before silently hiding behind a bush.
Walking to his side, Bai Yunfei peeked through the leaves to check on the situation.
Roughly a hundred meters ahead, there was a rather small lake where nine figures could be seen in a ring formation. Everyone’s eyes were faced toward the center of the circle at a spot ten meters in the air.
There were two azure-colored birds that were currently entangled with each other. Another golden eagle could be seen. There was a single bird that was trying to escape, but it would be immediately blocked and forced back ‘into the ring’ each time.
At a closer look, this one bird was completely white in color, but the azure light around it had made it seem azure in color. The abdomen and feathers of the bird were spotlessly white in color, but there were specks of blood that dyed its feathers. Its wings were spread wide. It’s two-thirds of a meter wingspan was rather disorganized in its flapping motion — it was injured on its left side.
Despite its injuries, the white-colored bird had no intention of giving up. With a low chirp that made it sound angry, the wind around its body flew out with a flap of its wings, and flew down in the form of a blade of wind.
The other bird fighting was a gray-colored bird that was also of the wind affinity. Flying around the gust of wind without trouble, it let out a gust of wind as well. There were no visible wounds on its body, making its strength on the same level of that as the other bird. However, its speed was slightly slower than the other bird. Even with its injuries, the white bird was still flying faster than it. The giant eagle flying overhead was staring voraciously down below and cut off any escape route for the bird. From the looks of things, the bird would not be able to continue putting off its future any longer.
Occasionally the blades of wind would be dodged by the people around the bird. Only a tall man and a short man stood steadfast without moving as they stared up at the sky. Their soulforce filled the air as if trying to manipulate something. Whenever a strike came at them, they would swipe their hands and an azure or a golden ray of energy would come forward to neutralize the wind.
From the looks of things, the entire crowd here was after that white-colored bird. Aside from the leading two figures, everyone else carried nets and ropes, meant for capturing animals, in their hands. They were clearly waiting for an opportunity to capture the bird.
“Are they trying to capture a soulbeast? There’s so many people here! Two Soul Sprites, three Soul Warriors, and four Soul Personages… They’re clearly not trying to kill the bird. They are trying their best to capture it…” Bai Yunfei had never seen a soulbeast fight before, let alone three of them. There was a strange glint in his eyes as he remarked, “That bird, it seems…”
“Aunty Zhao, it’s a Quickshade Bird!” At that moment, Tang Xinyun let out a low sound of surprise. Bai Yunfei turned to look at her only to notice the worry and anxious look in her eyes.
“Yes, it’s that same Quickshade Bird. I didn’t think there would be one here, or that so many people would be gathered to capture it…” Aunty Zhao’s eyebrows furrowed together to look at the bird.
Listening to the two, Bai Yunfei asked in surprise, “Eh? Miss Tang, have you seen this white bird before?”