What Lü Fang had used was clearly a very stealthy type of soul skill that relied heavily on elemental earth to hide himself away underground without being noticed.
Not only was he undetectable to the naked eye, but his soulforce had been masked as well. It was as if he had disappeared into the earth and had become one with it. Even Han Chong—the strongest person there at the moment—was unable to detect Lü Fang’s whereabouts.
Without his essence fireseed, Bai Yunfei was unable to sense him either.
How could Bai Yunfei possibly stop Lü Fang from getting away with the fireseed spirit mushroom?
The answer was he didn’t have to know where the enemy was!
Just three seconds after Lü Fang disappeared, Bai Yunfei’s eyes scanned the area in front of him as if calculating a solution.
His middle and index finger closed together as he pointed at the Cataclysmic Seal with his wrist facing up. Flicking his fingers up, Bai Yunfei watched as the Cataclysmic Seal followed his command. It flew a kilometer up into the air with a single ‘swish.’
What happened next was a terrifying memory that Han Chong, Wu Cheng, and the others would never forget…
For a moment, the Cataclysmic Seal was basked in a dazzling glow of red light.
Then, it happened.
Like a sponge soaking up seawater, the Cataclysmic Seal began to explode in size!
In two short moments, the small brick went from a mere ten inches to a behemoth of eight hundred meters!!
Though they weren’t directly under the Cataclysmic Seal, Wu Cheng and the others found their heads craning up. They felt like the brunt of the entire world was collapsing down on them.
“Die!!”
With that final utterance, Bai Yunfei’s right hand flew down, commanding the brick!!
“Boom!!”
Under the stunned eyes of everyone there, the Cataclysmic Seal smashed into the earth. Like a tremendous meteorite burning with energy, the Cataclysmic Seal slammed down into the vast earth in front of them!!
The earth tremored violently and the mountains quaked so much that landslides began to occur on many of the mountains.
Even though it seemed like the entire world was echoing with such awful cries, Han Chong and the others could distinctly hear a brief cry of abject terror in the distance…
The Cataclysmic Seal’s body was completely embedded in the ground, but Bai Yunfei’s eyes were still s.h.i.+ning bright. The Cataclysmic Seal was his lifebound armament, so he could sense whatever minute changes happened underneath the armament.
Rather than lift the Cataclysmic Seal up, Bai Yunfei shrunk the weapon back to its normal size above a spot just three hundred meters away from Bai Yunfei. When it reached five meters in length, a flash of orange light surrounded the armament so that it resembled that of a spherical ball of light. Diving into the ground, the Cataclysmic Seal resurfaced moments later, pus.h.i.+ng up a ball of dirt and sand!
This ball felt like a container. When it resurfaced and was pushed toward Bai Yunfei, the outermost layer began to fall apart.
When the entire outermost layer was gone, Han Chong and the others were startled to see that within this sphere… was a badly mangled corpse!!
It was Lü Fang!!
“Bang!”
A flash of fire sparked to life from Bai Yunfei’s Ardent Sun Glove. At his command, the fire swelled up in size before spreading to Lü Fang’s corpse. Within moments, the corpse had been rendered into nothing but ashes!
Two blackened s.p.a.ce rings were spat out of the fire and landed in Bai Yunfei’s hand.
Searching through the inner contents with his soulsense, Bai Yunfei was pleased with the results. “Found it!” He remarked in joy.
His right hand flickered as he brought out a red palm-sized object—the fireseed spirit mushroom!
“Whew…” Bai Yunfei sighed in relief. “I finally found it…”
Before anything else could happen, Bai Yunfei stored it into his Violet Soul Ring.
Pain and dizziness stabbed through his head a moment later; a sign of a soulforce exhaustion.
The Violet Soul Ring flickered with a gentle light as the stockpiled two-thousand soulpoints in it were transferred to Bai Yunfei’s body. As soon as they were transferred, Bai Yunfei’s dizziness disappeared, leaving him in a normal condition.
Searching briefly through the other soul ring, Bai Yunfei found nothing of importance. With his task accomplished, Bai Yunfei walked back to Wu Cheng. He handed him the soul ring that used to contain the fireseed spirit mushroom.
Across from Bai Yunfei: Han Chong, Han Lin, and Wu Cheng were all still in dazes of shock. The three of them were still in shock even as Bai Yunfei stood next to them.
“What… what kind of joke is this!? Can a late-stage Soul Ancestor die just like that!? The second death was even faster than the first!! Bai Yunfei didn’t even move a foot!”
Either Han Chong was in a dream, he was going blind, or some kind of strong illusion had been cast on him. Either of the three were very plausible to Han Chong. He simply couldn’t make heads or tails of the events that had transpired a minute ago.
Bai Yunfei continued to walk to where Wu Cheng was. He handed the second s.p.a.ce ring to him. “Uncle Wu, this s.p.a.ce ring must be yours, yes? I saw some medicine inside it. You should heal your arm right now.”
“Eh?
“Oh! Yes, yes… I, er…” Wu Cheng finally snapped back to awareness. Still somewhat numb in the head, he took the s.p.a.ce ring from Bai Yunfei with a frightful look. He was afraid to say anything more. He decided to do as Bai Yunfei ‘recommended,’ so he started to treat his own arm.
Both Han Lin and Han Chong had come back to reality by this point. Glancing at one another, the two of them nodded before walking toward Bai Yunfei somewhat hesitantly.
“Well… bro… brother Bai, we meet again I see…”
Han Chong saluted Bai Yunfei with a polite greeting, though a queer expression remained on his face still.
“Haha, I didn’t expect to reunite with you two here. I’d like to thank you two for stalling the enemies for me. Whatever the Wu has offered as a reward, I’d like to double it!” Bai Yunfei nodded in return to the two brothers. Since the two brothers had managed to stall the two Soul Ancestors long enough for Bai Yunfei to take back the fireseed spirit mushroom, Bai Yunfei knew that a proper reward was needed.
“You’re too kind, brother Bai. Had we known that it was your item that we were protecting, we wouldn’t have asked for a reward to begin with! What rewards are necessary between friends?” Han Chong modestly replied.
After weighing the value of a reward versus Bai Yunfei’s friends.h.i.+p, Han Chong decided that friends.h.i.+p with him was far better.
Still treating his arm a few steps away, Wu Cheng suddenly said, “Lo—lord Bai…”
“Ah!!”
Another voice interrupted him. Though it was extremely low in volume, the ears of everyone here were more than capable of detecting where the sound had come from.
“Who is it!?”
The expression on Han Chong’s face hardened while his hand moved to grab a flying dagger. He was prepared to fire it.