“Ssss…”
Bai Yunfei exhaled as he felt a spasm of pain travel down his body. It was groaning under the release of his Berserk Mode even despite not really doing much in the battles. He was fortunately used to the pain, otherwise, he would’ve been in a much worse of a state.
“I’m getting a lot more power now, it’s a lot hard to believe how much stronger it is than before. Will definitely take some time before I get used to it…”
A little absent-mindedly, Bai Yunfei waved his hand so that Tang Xinyun appeared in front of him. Gingerly holding her in his arms, he turned to Long Lan. “Let’s go back.”
The three figures disappeared from the Core World a moment after to head back to the real world. Picking up the Core Stone, Bai Yunfei then disappeared once again from the real world to start teleporting…
……
The area where Bai Yunfei’s initial battle with Huang Shan and the others was back to normal in terms of elemental energy in the atmosphere. The earth was still a mighty mess with the mountains practically a pile of rubble and craters littering the place like if a natural disaster had just crossed over the place. At the base of one of the ruined mountains had several corpses with a pensive-looking Tang Wei nearby.
His friend Yan Lin was sitting off to the side upon a stone. He didn’t seem to be caring much about the corpses around him in favor of meditating.
A disturbance in the air alerted the two to the incoming presence of somebody from the northern skies.
The presence made itself known as two figures red and blue several kilometers away. Flying over to where Tang Wei and Yan Lin were in the span of several seconds, they revealed themselves to the former two as Bai Yunfei with Tang Xinyun in his arms and Long Lan behind him.
“What in the world did you do, Bai Yunfei?” Tang Wei asked at once.
Bai Yunfei nodded to the two in greeting. “I went to find the one behind everything. I was afraid he’d run when he saw things were going bad so I chased after him. Please forgive me for that, brother Wei.”
“The one behind everything!” Tang Wei gasped, not even caring about how Bai Yunfei was even to find the said person, to begin with.
“Did you capture or kill the ones responsible? Who was it?”
“I was trying to capture him, but he used some kind of soul armament that teleported him beyond what I could chase after…but I know who the person is. Mo Ni. I’m not sure if that’s his real name though. I remember hearing him to be the young master of the Mo in the Westward River Province. He’s most likely someone close to the headmaster of the Soul Refining School and is probably their junior headmaster.”
“A soul armament that can teleport someone?” Tang Wei repeated. This was a first for him.
“Hold on, the junior headmaster of the Soul Refining School?!” He gasped a moment afterward, “Are you certain?! The ones after you are from that school? And the junior headmaster no less?!”
“I fought against that person during the event for the Extreme King Pills in the Southward River Province. He used the ‘Maw of the Nether’, ‘Extinguishing Seal’, and several others. I was told by the elders of my school that the previous generation headmaster of the Soul Refining School invented those soul skills. That person has to be connected to them somehow…”
“You fought against him before? In other words, he was trying to kidnap Xinyun as revenge on you?”
“Perhaps so…I also have a few things he wants, he came here for those things today.”
“....” Tang Wei remained silent at that. He didn’t want to press Bai Yunfei about what kind of things specifically, but if this Mo Ni person was willing to use a force as large as this, then that thing was definitely something precious.
“Did you find anything of importance here, brother Wei?” Bai Yunfei nodded towards the corpses around them.
“Nothing too important. I recognize a few of them as wandering soul cultivators, most of them from different provinces. This Mo Ni person you say is a major player if he can gather a force like this…”
“Wandering soul cultivators?” Repeated Bai Yunfei in sadness. He had been hoping that these people would shed some evidence of affiliation to Mo Ni to some degree, but it seemed that hope was in vain. Mo Ni was prudent in his precautions it seemed.
“Oh?” Bai Yunfei noticed several auras coming close to them as he was speaking with Tang Wei, “Here come some more people.”
“There are?” Tang Wei and Yan Lin craned their heads to look around. Though they followed Bai Yunfei’s gaze, neither of the two saw anything. Then several moments later, they saw several streaks of light fly close to them.
Tang Wei was surprised. Bai Yunfei was the only one to notice anyone coming over, and from a long distance to boot. He himself hadn’t noticed anything.
“They’re from the Tang.” Bai Yunfei further supplied after counting the figures.
The several streaks of light were soon close enough to drop in front of Bai Yunfei and the others. The lights around their figures gradually dissipated into the air to reveal four figures. The frontmost two figures were Tang Qianchi and Tang Jing, and the other two were people Bai Yunfei didn’t recognize. But their auras were of that of Soul Kings, so they must’ve been one of the stronger elders of the family.
“So you’re here, Bai Yunfei! What in the world happened here?” Tang Jing exclaimed at once. Then he saw Tang Xinyun in Bai Yunfei’s arms, “Sister!!”
“You’re here, brother Jing.” Bai Yunfei nodded towards everyone. “Please rest assured, Xinyun is fine. She’s just asleep.”
He pointed a finger to the pile of corpses next to them, “Those are the ones who tried to kidnap Xinyun. I’ve killed them, but the mastermind managed to get away. It’s a little hard to explain, but I can explain it once we get back.”
He looked to Tang Wei next, “Ah, brother Wei was the one that managed to save Xinyun from them first. I ran into them on my way here, so this place became the battlefield.”
Everyone looked surprised at the number of things they were hearing from Bai Yunfei. Looking to Tang Wei when prompted, Tang Jing and the others couldn’t help but feel their lips slacken at the news.
Tang Wei gave them a small smile. “Second uncle, big brother, and uncles….it’s been a long time…”
“You’re…you’re…Tang Wei (brother)!!”
Both Tang Qianchi and Tang Jing reacted at once with shock at the sudden appearance of Tang Wei.
“Haha, it’s me. I’m finally back…” Tang Wei chuckled in both excitement in seeing his relatives, and regret that it had taken so long to return.
“Third brother…it’s really you!!” Tang Jing cried out, “You’re…you’re finally back! It’s been twenty years, where did you go? And for so long? Did…did you become a Soul King?!”
“I was following master Yunhai for the last few years and training hard. Once I became a Soul King, I decided to come back…” Tang Wei smiled and pointed a finger to Yan Lin next to him, “Let me introduce you to my friend, Yan Lin. He’s my soulbeat partner, a fire qilin.”
“Fire qilin?!”
Again, Tang Qianlin and the others cried out in shock. Even Bai Yunfei was surprised to hear the name of such a soulbeast. So this person had actually been a soulbeast? And a legendary one at that!
Seemingly not one for human interaction, Yan Lin nodded his head to the group before looking away.
Tang Qianchi was at a loss for words. Trying his best to clear his mind of everything, he had to take a moment before he could find the words to speak.
“It’s not convenient here, let’s talk more when we get back.”
Collecting everything of importance from the battlefield, the group soon set about flying back to Mo City.