Chapter 251: War!
In the world of soul cultivators, Soul Kings set the standard for being considered one of the best. It was therefore reasonable to say that Soul Kings wouldn’t be so easy to kill.
Yet, this black-cloaked man had been an exception to that. If a reason were to be stated, it’d have to be because of Xiao Binzi, who was even stronger than the deceased Soul King. A secondary reason could be seen when Xiao Binzi first appeared. The cloaked man had immediately lost all of his courage to even fight.
A subsidiary reason for why he had lost his courage could be the fact that the man had seen what Xiao Binzi was capable of twenty years ago and likened him to the demon Mara.
He was unwilling to fight back in the beginning.
In the end, he was unable to even offer up a desperate gambit before dying…
Nonetheless, Xiao Binzi flew back to where the Soul Exalt was on his Zephyr Sword. Though paralyzed, the Soul Exalt could see the battle that had just taken place between the two Soul Kings.
Drenched in sweat and completely at a loss for words, the Soul Exalt seemed to be having trouble trying to digest and believe what had just happened.
Ever since he and that Soul King had met each other, he had never once been recognized as somebody worth looking at.
And yet… that Soul King had been killed so easily!
No matter how many times he replayed the scene in his head, he felt like he was dreaming rather than living in reality.
Dazed as he was, the Soul Exalt managed to come to a harsh awakening when Xiao Binzi returned. His nerves were stretched to their limits. Though he was somehow able to maintain a cool-headed state of thinking. All thoughts of resistance were completely thrown out of his mind, and his eyes continued to flicker in thought as his brain raced to think about what to do.
“Do you believe that because you are of the Beast Taming School I’d spare your life?” Xiao Binzi’s completely devoid-of-emotions voice made an inquiry in front of the Soul Exalt.
Surprised by the question, the purple-robed man couldn’t help but feel some hope arise in him as the question was asked.
“Was that Soul King not from the Beast Taming School? Do you know why I didn’t bothered to ask his identity, or why I didn’t kill the both of you?” Like daggers, Xiao Binzi’s glare betrayed his emotions despite his calm voice.
The Soul Exalt’s heart skipped a beat as that feeling of hope was replaced with an uncomfortable feeling that something bad was about to happen.
Xiao Binzi cast a glance at Cang Yu who was seated not too far away, trying to recuperate from her wounds. For a moment, his eyes hovered briefly over the shocking state her left arm was in before it swiveled back to the Soul Exalt in complete indignation. “There is only one reason alone… you’ve conspired to kill a crafter of my school. There is no need to know who you are, what background you have, or even if you belong to any of the ten great schools of this continent! You will die!!”
Moving along with his final words, Xiao Binzi waved his right hand, summoning an unbelievably scorching wave of elemental fire. Mere seconds passed before the Soul Exalt was engulfed within the elemental fire!
There wasn’t even time to scream. The flames died out just as quickly as they came, leaving behind only ashes of the man that scattered with the wind.
It was as Xiao Binzi said.
There was no need to ask for identity, background, or even reason.
They would all die regardless!
It was almost astonishing to see that the normally level-headed Xiao Binzi could potentially be this protective and tyrannical!
Taking the two space rings from the dead beast tamers, Xiao Binzi picked at one of the rings and stored away the elephant soulbeast in it.
He stored away his Zephyr Sword next before appearing next to the injured Cang Yu. Concerned, he looked over the black aura that lingered on her left arm, “Elemental darkness? I hadn’t thought that one of those two would be a dual cultivator of such a rare element…”
Reaching out to grab Cang Yu’s left shoulder, Xiao Binzi transmitted his own soulforce into her. There was a gasp from Cang Yu as the black marks on her shoulder started to sizzle before disappearing from sight.
Seconds later, Cang Yu’s left arm was completely back to normal. Even the color of her face was back to normal as she let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you, senior Xiao…”
Nodding in return, Xiao Binzi said, “As long as you’re fine….”
But then, Cang Yu thought about the reason she was here; “Senior Xiao, Jiang Nan is in trouble. You must save him!”
Xiao Binzi turned to look off in the direction Jiang Nan was, “Yes, I know. Song Lin went over there first to provide assistance. I’ll be on my wa—”
“Boom!!”
An explosion interrupted what Xiao Binzi was about to say and shook the earth just slightly. Xiao Binzi was startled!
“This aura… Yunfei’s in trouble!”
…………
A few moments ago—
Both Bai Yunfei and Tang Xinyun were trying their best to erase their auras as they moved closer to the combat zone, but even then, Bai Yunfei was worried that Tang Xinyun wouldn’t be strong enough to completely erase her aura.
As a result, he took out his Walk-on Strawhat and gave it to her to wear.
At first, Tang Xinyun teased Bai Yunfei on why she’d have to wear such a silly thing, but when Bai Yunfei explained that a senior gifted him this special soul armament long ago and could conceal the aura of the wearer, Tang Xinyun realized Bai Yunfei wasn’t joking. Still, she wore the strawhat with a very skeptical expression.
As awkward as it was to have such a beautiful young woman wear such a shabby-looking strawhat, there was still a bit of charm to the sight. With the strawhat on, Tang Xinyun looked similar to a gentle young villager from the countryside
From there, the two continued to make their way toward Song Lin. Since they weren’t as fast as his flying sword, it took several minutes for them to reach their destination. Hiding on a nearby hill, the two began to observe the situation of the fight.
Just beneath a sky-reaching mountain, a series of explosions and waves of soulforce could be heard and seen amid the chaos. Several roars could be heard, and the very first soulbeast to be seen was a giant black-colored tiger. Then, a dark-yellow python that was as wide as a bucket. Finally, two birds appeared. One of them was violet in color, and the other one was azure. Based on their auras, all four soulbeasts were very strong ones.
Only the violet bird could be seen beating the air with its wings as it hovered high in the sky. The other three soulbeasts were attacking wildly at two figures whose red auras were hard at work in protecting them. On top of the violet bird, a white-haired old man wearing gray-colored robes could be seen observing the battlefield with twinkling eyes. Though he was standing on top of the bird, he was controlling the tiger soulbeast, clearly identifying him as someone from the Beast Taming School.
To his right, a gray-robed middle-aged man could be seen as well. His eyes were also focused on the battle, but both of his hands were dancing slightly as he worked on controlling the giant python and the azure-colored bird.
In the center of the battlefield, two more soul cultivators could be seen attacking two figures with the three soulbeasts.
One of the two soul cultivators, who were trying their best to coordinate with one another to protect themselves, was Song Lin.
The other person was the one who once saved Bai Yunfei back in Stonegroove City, Jiang Nan!
The elder standing on top of the giant bird was an early-stage Soul Exalt; the tiger soulbeast he was controlling was an early-stage sixth-tier soulbeast. The middle-aged man was a mid-stage Soul Ancestor; the python soulbeast was a mid-stage fifth-tier soulbeast, and the azure bird was an early-stage fifth-tier soulbeast.
The two black-clothed soul cultivators down below were of the late-stage Soul Ancestor level and the mid-stage Soul Exalt level!!
Under the assault by such a cumulatively strong force, it was completely mind blowing to see that the early-stage Soul Exalt Jiang Nan and the late-stage Soul Ancestor Song Lin hadn’t been defeated yet!
They hadn’t lost yet, but they were finding it difficult to continue fighting. The two of them were at a clear disadvantage, and if nothing was done soon, they would lose without a doubt.
Song Lin’s soul armament was a spear that glowed purple and red from both sides. Its aura was slightly stronger than the Fire-tipped Spear of Bai Yunfei, but it was capable enough to block the attacks of the late-stage Soul Ancestor and the python soulbeast.
Jiang Nan toted a blood-red longsword as he fought off the mid-stage Soul Exalt and the tiger soulbeast.
Song Lin was in a comparatively better state than Jiang Nan since he was a newer combatant and had not been injured yet.
Jiang Nan was in a very unfavorable situation. The fact that he was fighting this group alone before Song Lin came spoke magnitudes of the danger. Concentrating as hard as he could as he fought, his entire forehead was dripping with sweat. His right arm was nearly a mangled mess of blood and wounds with wisps of black aura lingering about it. There was also three deep-looking scars from where the tiger had presumably clawed him.
The wounds from where he was clawed had already stopped bleeding, but the sight of them was still dreadful.
Despite his wounds, Jiang Nan remained steadfast without any signs of weakening. His left hand swung the Red Lotus Bloodsword in a flurry of red sword strokes, and several lotuses the color of blood materialized all around his body and moved about to block the strikes of his enemies. Each time the lotuses made contact, they would violently explode. His enemies were clearly intimidated by the lotuses—even the mid-stage Soul Exalt.
Though, it was also clear to see that the mid-stage Soul Exalt wasn’t going all out. It was distinct to see that he was afraid that Jiang Nan would go for a final gambit that’d kill him, so the Soul Exalt was waiting for a sure-fire opportunity to kill him.
At some point in their battle, the mid-stage Soul Exalt felt a change happen in the area around them. Turning his head to look off to where Cang Yu was, his eyes widened in surprise as if he realized something.
“Change of plans. No more stalling. Kill them both now!!”
With a wave of his right hand, a golden machete appeared in it. The man pushed off against the ground with a burst of golden light. He completely disregarded the fire lotuses to attack Jiang Nan straight on!
His three companions were surprised by his actions, but they followed suit almost unflinchingly. In a surge of soulforce, the four of them began an even more ferocious assault.
The pressure on both Jiang Nan and Song Lin was increased multiple times over as death drew closer to them.
From the outskirts of the battle, the mid-stage Soul Ancestor continued to conduct his two soulbeasts in battle with a grim expression. There was a spark of excitement in his eyes. A victory would not have been easy for someone of his caliber even if he was fighting either Song Lin or Jiang Nan himself, but because the two of them were being distracted by the Soul Ancestor’s companions, he was able to use his two soulbeasts to strike at the blind spots in their defenses since the two of them were distracted by the Soul Ancestor’s companions.
A giant loach-like soulbeast came flying out of the ground for an ambush while the azure bird struck out with several gusts of wind. Each time the two soulbeasts attacked, Jiang Nan and Song Lin were both brought closer to death.
The fact that he was able to fight and possibly kill two crafters who were even stronger than he was filled the mid-stage Soul Ancestor with a decent amount of glee.
When the mid-stage Soul Exalt gave the kill order, the Soul Ancestor began to fight with even more glee. Waving his right hand, the giant python was commanded to swing its tail out like a giant whip to slam into Song Lin.
Though it was a surprise to Song Lin to see the snake strike at him like so, he dodged the whip-like tail, allowing for it to slam into the ground with a reverberating tremor.
Licking his lips, the Soul Ancestor motioned for the python to burrow back into the ground and wait for another opportunity.
Simultaneously, the beast tamer standing on top of the violet bird cried out in warning, “Behind you!”
“Eh?” The Soul Ancestor replied.
As he turned his head, his pupils dilated in surprise as he registered a wind-like blade of green flying toward him along with four separate throwing knives!
Even as he moved to dodge the strikes, the python’s tail came back out from the earth to block each of the attacks.
“Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!”
Four separate stabbing sounds could be heard as the throwing knives shot into the tail. There was a string of sparks from where the throwing knives made contact before they were rebuffed. The Crescent Moon Blade, on the other hand, flew around the tail as if it were being manually controlled and increased in speed to strike down the Soul Ancestor!
“Tzzk!”
The sound of metal ripping into flesh and blood being spilled could be heard then. Though the middle-aged man managed to dodge a fatal blow, his right shoulder had a clear cut mark from where the blade struck.
If he had been a second too slow to react, his throat would’ve been where the blade would’ve struck and not his shoulder!
Panicked, the man looked up in time to see the hand of someone reach up to grab the Crescent Moon Blade. A red aura could be seen flickering off this figure who was already speeding toward the man to strike again!
Bai Yunfei had entered the fray!!