Whirling around, Bai Yunfei stared off to where a large group of soulbeasts were now rushing towards him from the opposite direction. “Pah! How did I forget that this could happen?”
While the soulbeast wave did indeed stop, that only meant that no more soulbeasts were coming out from the Soulbeast Forest. The group of soulbeasts that had detached themselves from the main wave heading towards the village and town were previously heading straight for the gates to Praestia Pass were now on their way back!!
Since the strongest of Praestia Pass knew that it’d only be a matter of time before the soulbeasts try to invade the city, they mobilized the forces to drive the soulbeasts away. And after stopping the brunt of the forces, all that was left was to slaughter the rest of the soulbeasts there.
The superiority of numbers the soulbeast had over the humans wasn’t too big of an advantage. The people of Praestia Pass were strong, thus the name of their city being named as such. Having lived in such close proximity to the Soulbeast Forest, it was only natural that the forces would contain people who’d be able to fight off the soulbeasts. In the long history of the city, the amount of soulbeast waves was plenty, and no matter how bitter or terrifying it was, the Praestia Pass stood steadfast against the trials of time. Today would be no exception.
A great deal of the soulbeasts were already killed within the sparse several hours that had transpired. The soul cultivators had now the upper hand, and the soulbeasts–who were running away from the Soulbeast Forest in fear of something–were now starting to wake up to the situation. Countless of their brethren were dead; this wasn’t something that could be ignored so easily.
So thus, the soulbeasts began to flee.
The wave that had been so tirelessly going forwards was now starting to flee the other direction. Due to the chaotic nature that had been their battle, the still quite scared soulbeasts ran off in any direction available to them. They needn’t return to the forest by the official path, so as long as they could escape, they’d be able to make their ways back to the forest eventual.
But with this randomized pattern of fleeing, that made the village an inevitable destination for plenty of soulbeasts to run to….
Having been so caught up in trying to save the village from the soulbeasts in the front, Bai Yunfei had completely forgotten about the ones in the back. One would say that his understanding and experience with soulbeast waves was lacking, so there was a missing piece in what Bai Yunfei should’ve thought of beforehand. As a result, Bai Yunfei was now in for a rude awakening in the form of a hundred soulbeasts within several hundred meters from the southern entrance!!
“Tsk! I only just cleaned up the front gates and now they’re coming in from the back! Can’t I ever catch a break?!” An exasperated sigh escaped from Bai Yunfei’s lips due to his grievances. Fueling the Tempest Sword with his soulforce, Bai Yunfei flew off towards the south in a blaze of green light.
Bai Yunfei’s speedy reaction and sword could only get him so far. The soulbeasts themselves weren’t slow by any means either, and so before Bai Yunfei could reach them, a class five wind-seeking leopard was already at the helm leading the charge. Injured in many places of its body, the leopard was still somehow able to attain frightening speeds due to the green light under its paws!
“Roar!!!”
The panther roared furiously as it discovered that the village was in the way of its escape route. Unwilling to make a detour, it opened its jaws wide. There was a burst of faint green light, and in the next moment, the hut that was in front of it was blown apart.
Amidst the sounds of the hut being blasted apart, some of the villagers started to cry out in fear.
“Hey, bastard! Don’t break the houses!!”
In his anger from forgetting about these soulbeasts, Bai Yunfei was already at a boiling point. The beginning destruction of the village was all his fault, so his fury had multiplied exponentially. The Lightning Eagle appeared in his left hand in an instant to fire off a lightning bullet at the leopard’s head, only to have the leopard dodge it.
Bai Yunfei was above the village by now, making him only just a hundred meters or so away from the leopard. Just as he was about to fire another shot, the look on his face changed drastically, causing him to call out, “Cataclysmic Seal, forward!”
The reason for his sudden deviation in attack was due to the soulbeast behind the leopard. A class five goldwinged deer had flapped its wings so that several beams of elemental metal as sharp as knives shot out from them to fly towards a nearby house. No sooner did it pierce straight through it did the beams continue onwards to the center of the village!
The Cataclysmic Seal wasn’t being used for offense, but for defense, as one could tell. Before the beams of elemental metal could strike down the heads of the terrorized villagers, a barrier of orange immediately erected itself over them all, protecting them from any external harm.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!” The beams struck uselessly against the barrier and fell down, unable to fly any more.
Relief flooded Bai Yunfei’s mind. Now that the villagers were safe, he could continue his assault. Already over the airspace of the southern entrance, Bai Yunfei was about to attack when he realized something, “Who’s…”
From the eastern entrance, a single figure in purple was flying over to the village with the speed of lightning almost through to head into group of soulbeasts!!
In the moment when Bai Yunfei protected the villagers with the barrier, a purple streak of light came bursting forth from the eastern entrance. The figure’s right hand now had a blade about the length of a meter from handle to tip, and a vertical height of about two fingers (imagine a katana). Placing it in between his mouth, the figure then brought out another two identical swords to put in his left and right hands!
The figure was already just twenty meters to the right of the leopard by this point. With a twitch of his arms, soulforce began to flood into the person’s swords in the form of elemental lightning that coiled around his blades. On the other side, the leopard was getting ready to use its elemental wind in preparation against the person.
“Three Swords Style….Demon Cutter!!”
A guttural growl came from the the man’s mouth despite his grip on the sword’s hilt. In a flash of light where the man’s speed practically doubled, he reappeared on the other side of the leopard without even a blur to be seen of where he used to be!
“So fast! So damn fast!!”
That was what Bai Yunfei thought first when he saw the person move. The move at which this person was moving at was far faster than when Bai Yunfei would use the Flash Step!
“Tzk!!”
Fresh blood escaped from the leopard’s mouth as three separate cut wounds appeared on its body, slicing it down the middle!
A late-stage class five wind-chasing leopard, even in an injured state, had been killed so quickly that it hadn’t even the time to even twitch!
“Three Swords Style….Ninety-nine Lightnings!”
Another deep growl.
The two hands reversed the direction of the swords they were holding before the man started to rotate on the spot!!
“Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish….”
The only thing that could be seen from this man were slashes of purple light that soared off in every direction–even the ground to leave behind scorched cut marks–to strike down the incoming soulbeasts!
“Tzk! Tzk! Tzk….” Blood blossomed out like a rose from the bodies of the soulbeasts unable to dodge the man’s lightning quick attacks. About ninety percent of the soulbeasts had been cut down by the blades, causing them to howl in pain before tumbling to the ground, and some of them had simply been sliced straight in half!
“Three Swords Style….Lightning Flash Slash!”
Once about only ten percent of the soulbeasts were left, the man stopped his spinning and immediately flew to where the goldwinged deer was in a flash of purple light. Then in another flash of purple light, the man leapt ten meters away to where a mid-stage class five giant armored beetle was. When he arrived there, the goldwinged deer fell to the ground in a mess of blood and gore….
There was about seven flashes of light that seemed to refract the surrounding light from the man, and after the man came to a stop, seven soulbeasts were all suddenly cut in two!!
“This….this is….” Still speechless, all Bai Yunfei could do was watch this male come walking towards him.
From the group of almost a hundred soulbeasts–half of them being class five ones–this single man had single-handedly killed them all!
Now that this person was no longer moving at speeds beyond Bai Yunfei’s comfort level, his very person and personal effects could now be seen. He was about 1.8 meters tall and wore black short-sleeved robes the same color as his hair. His face was sharp as if chiseled from stone, and his eyes were perceptive, giving him the look of a very ‘determined and steadfast’ person.
Bai Yunfei finally realized where he was when the man drew closer to him. Stepping down from his sword onto the ground, he cupped his hands in thanks. “Friend, I thank you for helping me.”
“No need for thanks,” The man nodded calmly. He gave an odd look at the barrier still protecting the villagers behind Bai Yunfei, and then to the direction of the Soulbeast Forest, “what I did wasn’t as good as what you’ve done.”
It seemed that he saw Bai Yunfei’s battle with the soulbeasts earlier. Or at the very least, the last part of it.
“This one is named Bai Yunfei, might I know your name….?”
“Long.” The man gave a one worded name.
“Er….Long?” Bai Yunfei repeated; this person seriously had a one worded name!
The clues began to all fall in place.
“Are you the one Kun and the others are waiting for?!”
“Eh?” This time, Long was the one to look on in surprise. “Do you know Kun?”
His question served as confirmation to Bai Yunfei’s guess. Since he met Kun earlier, people with one worded names no longer surprised him. “I met with Zhang Yunpeng, Kun and the others a while ago in the Town of the Braves, I’ll be joining your team for a while to go into the Soulbeast Forest. We’ve been waiting for you the past few days….”
“Oh….” Long nodded. “Where’s the others?”
“They’re all back in the town to help the others fend off the soulbeast wave,” Bai Yunfei pointed off towards the direction of the guild, “there’s a lot of strong people in that direction, you should be able to find them.”
Before Long could say anything more, Bai Yunfei moved a hand up to stop him and to point behind him, “We should finish off the rest of the soulbeasts here before we talk any more.”
From the southwest, two groups of hundreds of soulbeasts were starting their rampage down towards the village.
“Alright.” Long nodded.
Brandishing his right arm, the Fire-tipped Spear appeared for Bai Yunfei to wield. Giving Long a look, the two of them nodded in conjunction.
Pressing off against the ground, they began their own rampage towards the two groups of soulbeasts….