Nether was a man who experienced many things in his life. He had traveled the continent and saw many things. But the way Bai Yunfei was able to instantaneously regenerate his lost soulforce was something he never saw before. If he had to wager a guess, though, Nether would probably say that Bai Yunfei was using a technique that sacrificed his originseed. A technique that was essentially doing almost as much damage to oneself for a result not much worse for the enemy…
A technique like that surely had to have a heavy price in order to be used. But…Bai Yunfei was actually using it twice in a row!
Nether had no other words to describe Bai Yunfei’s actions other than ‘suicidal’. This was some kind of mutually-a.s.sured destruction he was trying to play at!
“Do you think you’ll be able to take me down with you? Pah…how foolis.h.!.+ You’ll die alone!”
The light in Nether’s eyes was bright enough to outs.h.i.+ne a star with how they burned!
The ‘Karmic Fire of the Nether’ was already pulling the final blow on the two dragons it caught earlier. With one final roar, the flames drowned out the two dragons and utterly destroyed them!
And now that it was free, the black flames immediately set a path towards the next Dual Dragon Burst!
“Hmph! Be destroyed!!”
A ball of black light shot out from Nether’s body to envelop and transform him into a giant black meteorite to crash into the Dual Dragon Burst!
“Boom!!”
Now the light around Nether was hardly bright enough to cover over a dozen meters of s.p.a.ce from him. But his attack did its job in stopping the Dual Dragon Burst, and that was what was important. Like a pearl flying into the dragon’s mouth, Nether’s attack then exploded with a terrifying amount of force!
But the ball still retained its shape following the explosion. The Dual Dragon Burst came to an immediate stop in the air as if it struck a wall as the ball flew out from the dragon’s tail!
The two dragons began to leak elemental fire the moment when its form fell apart. The chaotic energy within the dragons was starting to react dangerously after it came into contact with Nether. It wasn’t able to do a thing to him!
“Boom!!”
When Nether was a noticeable distance away from the dragons, the two dragons reached the limit of what their form could handle and destabilized at once!
The black ball Nether was in was smaller in size now. The surface of the ball bled away to reveal Nether within it. He was wearing some kind of black armor and had an equally black helmet to cover his head. The only thing that could be seen from behind his helmet was his eyes!
He raised his right hand up before slas.h.i.+ng it in front of him!
It was time for him to deal with the second Dual Dragon Burst!
“Boom!!!”
His hand came into contact with the head of the second Dual Dragon Burst and…scattered it into shreds of elemental fire!
Then he flew forward like a hot knife through b.u.t.ter to spear through the body of the Dual Dragon Burst!
He couldn’t be stopped!
It was a terrifying sight to see. One Dual Dragon Burst was drowned out and destroyed by the black flames he emitted. The second was blown apart when he went through it in that black ball. Then the third was sundered apart with his right hand like one would tear apart a wet piece of paper!
And now he was in front of Bai Yunfei in practically no time at all!
The black armor he wore was practically gone on multiple parts of his body after destroying the second Dual Dragon Burst. Not only that, but Nether was also starting to look a little hazy in some parts of his form. The translucent facial appearance of Nether’s avatar could finally be seen!
The power he wielded now couldn’t possibly be ten or even twenty percent of what he was at the beginning. But the light in his eyes was still exceedingly bright as if unaffected by the shortage of his avatar. Swinging his right hand with extremely quick speed, Nether sent a burst of dazzling-white light towards Bai Yunfei!
……
The sudden occurrences of everything so far were catching Bai Yunfei off guard. He was more-or-less unable to comprehend what was going on right now!
He was without a doubt in a far worse state than ever before. His skin was cracking and bleeding in several places all over his body so that he looked more he was made of blood rather than filled with it. His teeth were clenched so tightly that it felt like they would shatter under the pressure. His eyes were bloodshot, and his entire body was trembling as if he was undergoing a great deal of pressure that threatened to topple him.
He was clearly in a great amount of pain. That was because he underwent Soul Ignition twice!
Ever since he realized that he was up against an avatar, Bai Yunfei knew the only way out from this fight was to throw out all the stops!
At his best, Bai Yunfei could only manage to squeak out the levels of strength of a Peak Late-stage Soul King, but that wasn’t enough to contend with a Soul Emperor in a regular battle of strength. No matter how much he tried, Bai Yunfei would never be able to fight and win against one of those, no matter how inattentive that Soul Emperor might be.
So…if he couldn’t win in a battle of ‘experience’ or ‘skill’, then Bai Yunfei would have to go with the largest factor—power!
He’d have to rely on using chaotic energy to force the enemy down!
An avatar couldn’t rejuvenate soulforce. Using the Planar Laws would require a great deal of soulforce and would undoubtedly serve as a way to whittle whatever limited soulforce the avatar had for Bai Yunfei to find a chance to finish it!
Bai Yunfei lost half of his soulforce when he used the first Chaotic Dual Dragon Burst. The second cost the remaining half before he was forced to use Soul Ignition. Then after that he made use of a third!
Two Dual Dragon Bursts were used and to great effect. Nether was forced to use more soulforce than he expected in order to stop it with the Planar Laws.
But…that still wasn’t enough!
Bai Yunfei knew after Nether stopped his third Chaotic Dual Dragon Burst with the black flames this wouldn’t be enough to stop the avatar. He had to fire a fourth one!
And that ended up with Bai Yunfei running out of soulforce again. Left with no other options, Bai Yunfei decided right then and there to use Soul Ignition for the second time!
And then he fired a fifth Chaotic Dual Dragon Burst!
Five Chaotic Dual Dragon Bursts and two usages of Soul Ignition. How else could Bai Yunfei’s actions be described than being that of someone who had gone crazy!?
The backlash of using Soul Ignition was already putting a heavy strain on his body when he used it a second time. He noticed that the enemy was already approaching him in that black ball of light, but there was nothing he could do as Nether drew close!
The true surprise came when Nether threw his right hand out to throw that dazzling white ball of light forward; Bai Yunfei knew what that object was!
“The Soul Sealing Mandate!!”
Time froze for Bai Yunfei. All ambient sounds from nature and the world around him died away as Bai Yunfei looked at the incoming object. He even forgot about the pain that was running through his body as memories of what the Soul Sealing Mandate was capable of appeared in his mind!
There was nothing he could do. The dazzling-white ball of light was nearly on his forehead by the time his eyes focused definitively on it!
“Seal!!”
The cold voice of Nether echoed across the air into Bai Yunfei’s ears. At his voice, the Soul Sealing Mandate began to s.h.i.+ne with an even brighter amount of light!
A split-second before the command was uttered from Nether’s lips and unbeknownst to him, Bai Yunfei’s figure flickered and grew translucent!
This was…the +10 additional effect of the Core Stone, the ability to be moved into a different dimension. The ultimate defense!
……
The white light surrounded Bai Yunfei’s body in obedience to Nether’s command. It was with glee that Nether watched as Bai Yunfei’s person disappeared from sight behind the dazzling light.
“Success!”
Nether let out a relieved sigh to see that Bai Yunfei was ‘successfully’ captured. He never thought a mere Soul King would give him this much trouble. Even if he was an avatar, he didn’t expect to use up that much soulforce and be forced to use the Soul Sealing Mandate!
But the results were what they were. He had finally managed to captured Bai Yunfei and by extension the Core Stone. The next and most important thing was to scan Bai Yunfei’s soul and glean the secrets behind all he wanted to know…
“What?! How can this be?!”
The spear that had been floating beside Bai Yunfei this entire time suddenly rotated around to point at Bai Yunfei. Exploding forward, it stabbed at where Bai Yunfei’s heart should’ve been behind the white light that covered his person! That shouldn’t have been possible!
“How is he still able to use a soul armament?!”
That was Nether’s first thought.
“Is he trying to kill himself?!”
The next thought was a little surprising to even think about, but he couldn’t think of any other reason why Bai Yunfei might’ve done that.
Then he watched as the red spear traveled straight through Bai Yunfei as if it had gone through an illusion!
“What is the meaning of this?”
Nether was speechless. He couldn’t even begin to formulate a reason why this might’ve happened, or how it was even happening!
In the next second, however, Bai Yunfei’s figure suddenly flickered again before he was relocated to another place several steps to his right!
A place that was outside of the white light exuded from the Soul Sealing Mandate!
Then Bai Yunfei rotated his hip to grab hold of the Soul Sealing Mandate!