The sweat hadn’t even formed on Yan Tianxing’s back before he threw himself to the side for the fastest possible evasive maneuver.

“Swish!!”

A golden beam of light glanced off his shoulder and left a distinctive mark on it as it traveled past the lord-mayor… 

And while he was traveling off to the side, a gold and red beam of light suddenly appeared right in front of him!

“You!!” Yan Tianxing snarled in disbelief before pushing both hands forward to push whatever it was away.

“Bang!!”

But he was a moment too slow! Qin He’s palm was the first to land upon the other’s chest!

It was a powerful strike. Combined with the fact that Yan Tianxing hadn’t expected to see Qin He actually come at him seriously, the palm-strike bypassed the lord-mayors defenses and sent him flying away!

“Qin…Qin He is actually fighting lord Yan!”

“Lord Yan is hurt! Has the entire Qin gone mad?!”

The entire audience let out a collective gasp as they watched Yan Tianxing fly away. No one there could believe their eyes that the Qin would actually lay a hand on the mediator.

“Hak..!”

Yan Tianxing came to a stop three hundred meters away. Though he was upright and on both feet, there was a large amount of blood coming out from his mouth!

The lord-mayor looked thunderous. He wiped the leftover blood from the corner of his lips and stood there with eyes that looked capable of murder. Several flashes of light traveled across his eyes as he watched Qin He fly for Bai Yunfei, but other than that, he did nothing.

    ……

Bai Yunfei was enjoying the advantage over his battle with Qin Long thanks to being in the ‘Coil’ Form. The fluid offensive he was leading with the Fire-tipped Spear was doing nothing but forcing Qin Long back with every move he made.

The two combatants had equal amounts of soulforce almost, but the true difference in their battle prowess laid in their ‘equipment’. Bai Yunfei’s equipment was on a far higher level than the ones Qin Long had. This allowed Bai Yunfei the luxury of being able to essentially ignore Qin Long’s attacks while he could press relentlessly with his Fire-tipped Spear. Bai Yunfei was gaining more and more ground with each successive attack, and Qin Long was looking more and more helpless.

It was upon the second dozen of exchanges that Bai Yunfei had to suddenly deviate from his regular attack pattern. He suddenly spun around to swing the Fire-tipped Spear in an arc to protect what had been his back.

“Clang!!”

A golden crescent-shaped soul armament collided with Bai Yunfei’s Fire-tipped Spear with a loud metallic chime. The two weapons hadn’t even bounced off one another when the golden soul light around the soul armament suddenly shot out like a pike at Bai Yunfei’s eyes!

“Bzz…”

An orange barrier materialized around Bai Yunfei. He had activated the +12 additional effect of the Cataclysmic Seal to protect himself from the blast. Bai Yunfei leaped back afterward to stare emotionlessly at Qin He who was just a hundred meters away now.

His eye traveled then to Yan Tianxing who was standing a little farther away. “Does this mean to say he’s done ‘mediating’ now? Two Late-stage Soul Kings…fine then. It’s time I see for myself if I can come out alive from another life-or-death battle.”

While he thought to himself, a golden beam of light started to drop down on his head and a green beam of light shot at his back!

The Cataclysmic Seal’s barrier was activated again to protect Bai Yunfei from both attacks. The two attacks hadn’t even finished colliding onto the barrier when Qin He and Qin Long lashed out with another attack. Clearly, the two of them hadn’t any intentions of letting Bai Yunfei any time to attack. They were moving in to kill him with all they had.

“Whew…whoosh…”

Two fireballs as bright as the sun flew out from the explosion of energy Bai Yunfei was in. They struck down the incoming attacks and exploded, negating both attacks. A third fireball was then seen flying even further out to hit Qin Long and Qin He.

Bai Yunfei wasn’t too afraid of using elemental attacks. The +10 additional effect of the Ardent Sun Glove gave him the ability to unleash such attacks for half the cost. He wouldn’t even panic about the consumption even if he had to fight another two enemies.

The amount of energy flying about in the air was enough to obscure the combatants from sight now. The only thing that could really be distinguished from anything else was the sharp points of light whenever an elemental attack exploded.

    ……

More than fifteen kilometers away from the battlefield, a figure in black stood on top of a very tall tree to peer at the battle in silence.

“Who is that young man? He’s a very capable one if even Qin He and Qin Long aren’t able to bring him down together…”

A gravelly sigh escaped from his throat to break the silence. This person was the mysterious elder that had activated the Soul Fusing Array back in the cave!

He hadn’t done anything to stand out after all that troubled started in the cave. At some point, the man made his way to this far corner of the land to simply watch the battle from the sidelines. He had no intentions to help or hinder the Qin.

“What a useless pawn the Qin are…they’ll be nothing but a second-rate family even if they survive this encounter…” The elder sighed in exasperation. “That Jing Wuying was supposed to have died years ago. Why appear now? I’ve wasted nearly a decade hiding away…what a blasted waste of time!!”

The sudden presence of someone nearby caused the elder to whirl around. “Who’s there?!” He barked. Black energy was already pouring out from his right hand to form a demonic claw over it. 

“It’s me, Mo Ni, elder Li Yue.” A voice spoke from behind one of the trees.

Two figures walked out from behind the tree afterward. It was Mo Ni and the Black Dragon King!

“Mo Ni!? Why are you here?” The elder felt his own eyebrows raise on his forehead.

“It’s a long story. Who would’ve thought something this disruptive would happen after so many years of seclusion, elder Li…”

The wariness dropped away from the elder’s eyes as Mo Ni stepped next to him. “Indeed. I’ve been cut away from all the information from the outside world since I’ve been aiding the Qin. Mo Ni…so you become a Soul King. You appear close to becoming a Mid-stage Soul King, you’ve done well…”

“I’m not worthy of your praise, elder Li.” Mo Ni smiled. “I’d be nothing but trash if I couldn’t reach a level like this with all our resources…”

The elder nodded. His eyes stared briefly at the Black Dragon King. The elder was capable of seeing that this person was actually a soulbeast and also the soulbeast partner of Mo Ni, so he said nothing about him. He turned back to watch the battle far away. “If you’re here in Swallow City, did you perhaps have something to do with the Qin?”

Mo Ni’s eyes drifted towards where Bai Yunfei was battling. “To be more precise, I’m here because of that person…I had to resort to a few measures to have the Qin make an enemy out of hm. I never expected this much trouble to brew, though I have no idea what happened in the mines.”

“Jing Wuying appeared from nowhere.” The elder remarked. “He killed a few of the Qin before causing trouble in the mines and disturbed patriarch Qin’s breakthrough process. The two of them are currently fighting for the energy over there…”

“Jing ‘Death God’ Wuying?!” Mo Ni exclaimed. “He’s alive?! And he’s the one fighting the patriarch?! How does he plan on absorbing that energy?”

“His timing was excellent…” The elder sighed. “The energy from the Soul Fusing Array turned into pure energy that could be absorbed by anyone when Jing Wuying came in. I’d wager that Jing Wuying tried to breakthrough before and has a small portion of the powers of a Soul Emperor…That must be why he can absorb that energy. It won’t be enough to help him breakthrough, but it’ll certainly stand to see him gaining some additional strength.

“Even more importantly…this means patriarch Qin won’t be able to breakthrough! Even if the rest of the remaining energy is taken in by the patriarch, it’ll only give him half the intended strength. He won’t become a Soul Emperor with that little energy left…”

“So that’s the case…” Mo Ni muttered.

It was a vexing matter that Li Yue just had to sigh over. For the sake of helping patriarch Qin breakthrough, the man had given up ten years to hide away in a cave, only to have his assistance fail at the last moment. What else could a man feel but bitter rancor?

“You said you were here for that person? Who is he? He’s far too powerful for his age.”

“He’s Bai Yunfei of the Crafting School, a disciple of Zi Jin. He’s a potential threat to us, I came here so I could eliminate him!”

“A crafter?! No wonder he has so many powerful soul armaments…and the disciple of Zi Jin, you say? A young Mid-stage Soul King that can fight off two Late-stage Soul Kings…he’s definitely an unordinary foe…how did you plan on eliminating him?”

“I planned to have a conflict started between him and the Qin so the Qin could kill him for us. I never expected Jing Wuying to suddenly ruin those plans. It also looks like Bai Yunfei is friends with the other member. Him helping out the Jing wasn’t expected either. But it doesn’t matter how this ends…Bai Yunfei must be killed today!”

“Elder Li!” Mo Ni’s eyes grew frosty. “Hide yourself and wait for a moment to kill Bai Yunfei!!”

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