Chapter 449: Destruction of the Throne!
In the moment the Black Dragon King died, the imprint of his soul within the Nephrite Throne began to fade away out of existence, much to Bai Yunfei’s shock.
But at the same time, a figure from the shadows lashed out with a mighty punch onto the back of his head!
Bai Yunfei’s guard was understandably lessened since Xing Yuan was dead. Even the barrier put into place by the Cataclysmic Seal was gone since Bai Yunfei didn’t sense any other dangers to be on guard for. The amazing stats that the Nephrite Throne had and the death of the Black Dragon King made him even more surprised, leaving this mysterious assailant an opening to capitalize on!
“Chirp!!”
A warning trill from Xiao Qi immediately snapped Bai Yunfei back to awareness. Hair rising up in realization of the danger he was in, Bai Yunfei whirled around just in time to block the punch with his right arm.
This move was Bai Yunfei’s go-to sequence of defense. The Flameblade Bracer on his right arm usually gave him more protection than anything else, so the chances of him being harmed was usually pretty low. It’d also give him enough time to back away and use the Cataclysmic Seal for any additional defense if he needed it, thus giving him even more time to ready himself for combat.
But as things were right now, Bai Yunfei forgot about one extremely crucial thing.
When he turned around, he was still holding onto something in his right hand, the Nephrite Throne!
So when he turned around to block, it was the Nephrite Throne that took the impact rather than the Flameblade Bracer!
It was by far too late when Bai Yunfei realized this mistake, and it was too late for his assailant to pull his punch back.
In other words, what his assailant punched was the Nephrite Throne!
“Boom!!!!”
Right in front of his very eyes, the Nephrite Throne….crumbled into pieces!!
The Nephrite Throne was one of the Ten Great Regalia, but by no means was it a defensive piece of armor. The jade that made up the throne was mysterious and enigmatic in the eyes of humanity, but no one had ever used it to stop the attack of another in its long history.
And who would ever think to use it in such a manner?
The Black Dragon King infused some of its energy into the Nephrite Throne when he threw it. Because of that black aura, the throne was safe from harm when it imprinted itself into the mountain, but now that the aura was gone, and the soulforce of the Black Dragon King nowhere to be seen or used, the Nephrite Throne was in an extremely fragile state.
Naturally, the Nephrite Throne wasn’t an object that would crumble at even the slightest of touches. It was a soul armament strong enough to withstand even the slashes of any normal blade without a scratch, but—!
The punch of a late-stage Soul Exalt with all his might behind it was a different story!
No one would ever imagine that one of the Ten Great Regalia and the person regalia of Wu Tianhun himself would…..be destroyed just like that.
And no one would ever believe it even if they were told….
Bai Yunfei went still. The Nephrite Throne crumbled from his hands, falling to the ground in pieces of threes and fours.
He felt faint, and so did his assailant who looked at his right hand in a daze. The other person hadn’t thought Bai Yunfei would use it to defend himself, and neither did he think the Nephrite Throne would be so fragile like that….
One second went by.
Then ten seconds.
A few dozen seconds after that.
Bai Yunfei looked to the shattered fragments of the Nephrite Throne, and then to the middle-aged man in black.
His body began to shiver with anger, and his eyes burned mightily with the fires of fury.
“You! F*cking! Bastard! You’ll pay for this!!”
Very rarely did Bai Yunfei elect to swear. But those were the times when Bai Yunfei was truly mad. The wrinkles on his forehead were extraordinarily wrinkled, and his soulforce was raring to burst out from his body.
The fragments in his hands disappeared into his ring as Bai Yunfei cursed at his assailant, the fiery red light around his body growing in intensity with each passing second. In a flash of light, he was upon the other man with his right hand now holding onto the Fire-tipped Spear to stab the man in the throat!
The other man had still been in a daze when Bai Yunfei moved. Though the man was looking at his fist when Bai Yunfei drew close, he was able to realize the danger he was in and drew back in an instant to dodge the spear.
Hatred leaked into his eyes when he looked to Bai Yunfei.
It was his fault! He was the one that used the Nephrite Throne to defend himself!
If he hadn’t used the Nephrite Throne to block the attack, the throne wouldn’t have been destroyed!
How would the man report this to his superiors?!
Just thinking about his failures made the man shiver uncontrollably. His hatred was practically overflowing now as he stepped further backwards. Orange overtook black as light surrounded his body before a sword appeared into his right hand.
Murderous, the man swung his sword at Bai Yunfei!
Overflowing with the strength of a late-stage Soul Exalt, the man’s sword pressed against Bai Yunfei’s spear, knocking him backwards!
Bai Yunfei was now on the defense rather than the offense!
Somewhat sobered up from his anger, Bai Yunfei was now ascertaining the man to be a bigger threat than before. The Cataclysmic Seal flew up around him, blocking another strike from the man’s sword before he called for Xiao Qi to come in and help him.
“Chirp!!”
Another furious chirp from Xiao Qi came from up in the skies. Turning his head, Bai Yunfei looked just in time to see Xiao Qi fighting with a black bird.
A late-stage class six soulbeast, the shadow vulture!
This was presumably the soulbeast of his mysterious assailant. The shadow vulture was slightly stronger than Xiao Qi despite it having the Wind and Lightning Feather, and whenever Xiao Qi tried to attack with the Spatial Edge, the shadow vulture would dodge without fail.
Bai Yunfei rubbed at his right arm, slightly worried with this development. Retreating with the Flash Step, he looked to the still motionless thunderfire wolf.
At his command, the Beast Taming Ring around the thunderfire wolf lit up with light, jolting the wolf back into activity with a furious roar!
Like lightning, it leapt towards not Bai Yunfei, but to the shadow vulture to join in the fight with Xiao Qi!
His success in ordering the thunderfire wolf to attack the shadow vulture gave Bai Yunfei some measure of comfort. The added help of the wolf would mean Xiao Qi shouldn’t be in any major harm, even if the wolf was still without sentience. In its current state, the most basic of commands could be given, and that was enough for Xiao Qi to give it an edge, and perhaps that way, it’d be able to find an opportunity to kill the vulture.
The man was surprised to see the thunderfire wolf attack the shadow vulture rather than him, but he smiled nonetheless. If Bai Yunfei was so arrogant in his abilities to think that the thunderfire wolf would be better put in attacking the shadow vulture, then Bai Yunfei was a fool. The man didn’t know how he was able to control the soulbeast from the Beast Taming School, but that didn’t matter.
With all that said, Bai Yunfei’s strength was shocking to him. He had only fought with him for several blows and knew Bai Yunfei was far stronger than a mid-stage Soul Exalt should be, but not strong enough still to defeat him.
Catching onto an opportunity, the man swung his sword to knock Bai Yunfei’s spear aside before then striking at Bai Yunfei’s heart with a fist filled with a strange black mist!
Bai Yunfei narrowed his eyes, this move was more than it seemed. Clenching his left fist tight, he gave a punch of his own at it!
“Bang!!”
One impact later, both combatants were sent stumbling backwards several meters.
Black mist coiled around Bai Yunfei’s left arm, embedding his body with a strange sensation. It felt as if his innards were beginning to corrode and sap him of his soulforce!
And at the same time, some of his soulforce was forcibly drawn out from his body when his fist collided with the other!
It was a strange, but familiar sensation. A sensation Bai Yunfei felt like he recognized….
It didn’t take long for him to realize why he felt this way. As soon as the realization hit him, Bai Yunfei’s eyes grew red with fury!
“The Soul Refining School!!”