“Roar!!”
The b.e.s.t.i.a.l roar of a tiger reverberated through the forest before that tiger pounced straight for Bai Yunfei. It was a violet-striped thunder tiger; a relatively weak soulbeast due to it being a late-stage cla.s.s three soulbeast.
When it noticed a single human not running away from it, the tiger decided to continue on its path to attack it. With a pounce and a roar, it threw itself upon Bai Yunfei!
“You’re just a senseless beast that only knows how to kill humans. You’ll be dying today!” Faced with the b.l.o.o.d.y maw of the incoming tiger, Bai Yunfei’s eyes narrowed together. He icily stared at it. With a grunt, he slightly s.h.i.+fted his foot back and waited for a claw to swing at him. With the Fire-tipped Spear whistling forward, he jabbed it into the right side of the tiger’s hip!
“Pow!” There was a m.u.f.fled pop before the giant tiger flew backwards through the air. Blood sprinkled out of the wound left by Bai Yunfei’s spear, and with a resounding crash, the tiger fell to the ground.
It didn’t get back up!
As soon as he smashed the first soulbeast back, another three mid-stage cla.s.s four soulbeasts a.s.saulted him. The spear in Bai Yunfei’s hand twirled violently before las.h.i.+ng out thrice.
“Whoos.h.!.+”
“Whoos.h.!.+”
“Whoos.h.!.+”
The spear efficiently stabbed the throats of the three soulbeasts.
On the third stab, the explosive effect of the spear activated and blew the three soulbeasts into b.l.o.o.d.y pieces!
The b.l.o.o.d.y fragments of its fellow soulbeasts still hadn’t fallen to the ground when another mid-stage cla.s.s four soulbeast came from the right side to attack. s.h.i.+fting his feet just slightly, Bai Yunfei flew twenty meters away and sent the soulbeast to its death with a single kick.
His right arm extended out, revealing the Compliant Rope that was hidden within his sleeve. It flew forward before wrapping around the claws of a two-headed vulture before it could dive into Bai Yunfei. Even though it wasn’t near enough to harm the villagers, Bai Yunfei decided to play it safe and kill the vulture. Whether it be a ground-roaming soulbeast or a sky-faring one, Bai Yunfei wouldn’t permit any soulbeast to encroach on the village!
With the rope tightening around his clenched fist, Bai Yunfei gave a mighty pull. The force of his pull was so much that the two-headed vulture didn’t even have the time to flap its wings. With barely even a squawk, it crashed into the ground and was ultimately reduced to paste!
“An early-stage cla.s.s five stinger elephant!” While he was dealing with the two-headed vulture, another giant soulbeast was about to crush several male villagers to death!
Bai Yunfei only recognized the soulbeast because of its stinger. When Bai Yunfei identified it, the elephant let loose a mighty roar before it swung its tail with its tip ready to stab into Bai Yunfei. Flying forward like a brilliant bolt of violet lightning, the stinger looked as though it would pierce straight through him!
The elephant’s trunk was brought up, and after concentrating enough elemental earth, the trunk shot out a beam of light!
“A long-ranged attack!” A long-range attack was quite different from a close one. Bai Yunfei could opt to dodge a close attack, but a long-range attack meant that he had no choice but to top it, lest it harm the villagers behind him. Following a pulsation of his Violet Soul Ring, the Cataclysmic Seal flew into view and immediately erected a ten-meter-wide barrier to stop the beam.
“Boom boom!!” Two simultaneous explosions rocked the village.
The area where Bai Yunfei had been was obscured by the dust kicked up by the explosions. Just two seconds later, when everyone thought that a momentary break would ensue, the dust was illuminated and blown away by a figure in red!
Landing to the right of the elephant, Bai Yunfei swapped his spear to his left hand and pulled his hand back in preparation to punch.
Then, he punched!
“Bang!!”
The first sound heard was the explosion of a fist meeting flesh, and the second was of the mournful cry of the elephant. Following these two sounds, everyone could see a dark indentation in the shape of a fist in the elephant’s hide. Inch by inch, this indentation grew like ripples in calm water.
Then, like a cannonball, the elephant flew off its feet toward the soulbeasts behind it, taking several of them along for the ride before finally cras.h.i.+ng to the ground.
Bai Yunfei’s next course of action was to jump into the air, but when he did, three large ducks suddenly opened their bills. Elemental fire started to gather in the s.p.a.ce between their bills, preparing to be fired…
“Early-stage cla.s.s five cannon ducks! They’re also long-range attack beasts!” Bai Yunfei cursed to himself. Rather than panicking, the five fingers on his right hand bent slightly to hold the newly-formed ball of elemental fire made by his Ardent Sun Glove. When it fully formed, he threw it at the three ducks as hard as he could!
“Whoos.h.!.+ Whoos.h.!.+ Whoos.h.!.+” Three separate daggers of fire were formed from the sphere of fire and shot into their own individual trajectories!
Despite being made from elemental fire, the three flying daggers looked as real as anything else. They were elemental fire in solid form. The three flying daggers whistled through the air and made contact with the elemental fire being readied by the three ducks!
“Boom! Boom! Boom!!” The flying daggers blew up in a splendid visual of sparks and elemental fire. The ensuing explosion took off the heads of their respective targets, and the remaining corpses fell lifelessly to the ground!
A flying dagger soul skill, the Burstfire Daggers!
This was a type of ‘flying dagger’ outlined in the Flying Dagger Compendium. It couldn’t be ‘crafted’ due since it needed to be formed by elemental fire alone, but forming one was harder than it looked since it required a mastery of both soulforce and elemental fire.
Thanks to the Dual Flame Arts and the Art of Firebending, Bai Yunfei was able to accomplish this otherwise impossible task.
One of the greatest features of this dagger was the fact that it was intangible! It could be formed at will and would explode upon contact for an utterly powerful blow!!
If Bai Yunfei combined this flying dagger with the additional effect of his Ardent Sun Glove, the power would increase even more!
“Tzk!” His spear slammed down to skewer a centipede-like soulbeast burrowing through the ground.
Bai Yunfei looked around. There didn’t seem to be any soulbeasts within a hundred meters…
In no time at all, the first round of soulbeasts had been killed refres.h.i.+ngly quick!
Of course, this was only the beginning…
Bai Yunfei only had ten seconds to rest before another few dozen soulbeasts came forward!
Bai Yunfei looked at the tens of thousands of soulbeasts to the west, and then glanced back at the dozens of soulbeasts in front of him.
“Good thing this place is the most ‘relaxed’ part of the wave! Let’s go!”
With spear in hand and the Cataclysmic Seal protecting his side, Bai Yunfei rushed to meet the first soulbeast head-on!
Whichever soulbeast came forward first would end up as Bai Yunfei’s target. He would defend himself with the Cataclysmic Seal and would return any attack with his Fire-tipped Spear. Whenever a soulbeast was stabbed straight through with the spear, Bai Yunfei would try to activate the spear’s additional effects once the cooldown was down. Bai Yunfei had flying daggers of all shapes and size ready to beat down any soulbeast trying who tried to attack or escape into the village.
It took Bai Yunfei ten minutes to beat back the second round of soulbeasts, but no breathing room was given before the third round was upon him!!
Bai Yunfei had to fight more soulbeasts each round. Luckily, there were many weaker soulbeasts, more than half the soulbeasts were cla.s.s four at most. All the cla.s.s five soulbeasts he saw now were of the early and mid-stage. He had only seen a single late-stage cla.s.s five soulbeast since the battle had begun.
A snake-tailed scorpion took a single Eighty-one Fold Fist Force from Bai Yunfei before being beaten into the ground.
The area around Bai Yunfei was like an invisible maelstrom. Any soulbeast that dared enter the ‘zone,’ a circle with a two-hundred-meter circ.u.mference, was struck down without mercy. Any soulbeast that tried to enter the village was slaughtered straight away!
“Boom!!” A single Flame-winged Dagger brought down a mid-stage cla.s.s five cavern bat and smote it into ashes, leaving behind only a red soulgem on the ground.
“Huuu… hu…” Several gasps for breath came from Bai Yunfei. He wiped away the sweat on his forehead and tried to regain his breath, but he was exhausted. None of the soulbeasts were on the same level of strength as he was, but two hours of constant fighting was taking its toll on his body. He was feeling the consequences of battle even as someone who had more soulforce than the average soul cultivator at his level.
Bai Yunfei sucked in a deep breath of air in relief when he noticed that no soulbeasts were coming toward the village for now. He was trying hard to regain his soulforce and looked down at his left hand with a slight smile.
On the ring finger of his left hand sat a milky-white jade ring shaped like a small cloud.
It was Tang Xinyun’s soulbound armament, the Yun’s Soul Ring.
Prior to his departure from the Crafting School, Tang Xinyun gave him the ring. She said if he wore the ring, it would feel as if she was traveling by his side…
“Skreee!!”
A voice…
No, a high-pitched shrill broke Bai Yunfei from his thoughts. Looking up, Bai Yunfei could see a purple mist and a dark-green ‘stream’ rus.h.i.+ng toward the village!
“Violetmist bats! And poisonous jumping rats!!”
The pupils in Bai Yunfei’s eyes contracted in recognition of the two soulbeasts. Of the two soulbeasts, neither were very strong, the strongest being cla.s.s four at the very most, but the problem lay with their numbers.
There may very well be hundreds or thousands of these soulbeasts!
This time, Bai Yunfei couldn’t rely on the Fire-tipped Spear, the Flameblade Bracer, or the flying daggers. He had to deal with this problem in a different way.
It took two seconds for Bai Yunfei to come up with a solution. Since he couldn’t use the enlarging effect of the Cataclysmic Seal to deal with these soulbeasts, Bai Yunfei decided to go with another option.
He smiled.
“Since that’s the case, it’s a good time to see how strong ‘that’ skill is!!”