The two dragons traveled over several hundred meters in a matter of seconds, the fires of its body revealing….a black-robed person in its path!
This figure had been waiting on the top of the mountain just a while ago. A few moments ago, this person had been moving closer and closer to the battle. And if his elemental fire underneath his feet was any indication, and the motions of his right hand, he was preparing to take action against Bai Yunfei and the bloodlion.
But when the dual dragons drew close, his pupils contracted in fear. Pausing in his footsteps, the man’s hand moved even faster to withdraw a black shadow to protect himself with!
“Boom!!”
The two dragons. .h.i.t their mark in an explosion of red light and a sound unlike any other. But from within the explosion was yet another layer of red light that seemed to block off even the Dual Dragon Burst!
“Late-stage Soul Exalt….a Soul King almost!!”
The fact that the Dual Dragon Burst didn’t stop the man didn’t go unnoticed by Bai Yunfei. From the man’s aura, Bai Yunfei was astonished to find out just how strong he was.
“Bang!” A secondary explosion scattered the Dual Dragon Burst into the area, and a black shadow came flying out to come cras.h.i.+ng down on the earth near Bai Yunfei.
Upon closer observation, Bai Yunfei realized that the object wasn’t the person, but the corpse of a bird-type soulbeast!! In his moment of peril, the figure had used a soulbeast puppet to protect himself from the explosion of elemental fire. While the soulbeast died within practically milliseconds of contact, but the soulforce it used in that one moment revealed it to be a mid-stage cla.s.s six soulbeast!
“A beast tamer!” His eyes narrowed in suspicion. That object the man pulled out had unexpectedly been a soulbeast that died before it could even scream when it was pulled out from its s.p.a.ce ring…..
In other words, the man was from the Beast Taming School!!
“F*ck….f*ck!!!” From the remnants of the elemental fire came a figure in black. The first thing Bai Yunfei noticed about the man other than his black robes was his age. The man was in his fifties, and had frazzled gray hair to go with his age. The wrinkles on his face was p.r.o.nounced, but did nothing to hide the sinister look on his face. In fact, his face was very intimidating.
The robes on the right part of his person was burnt to at least half of what it used to be, and his right arm itself was burnt slightly black–a clear sign that he had taken damage from the Dual Dragon Burst.
“Brat, were you planning to attack me?!” He glared angrily at Bai Yunfei. Not once did he imagine that he’d be ambushed by the person he was going to ambush, and so powerfully too!!
The move had been so powerful that even he himself had to go all out to protect himself! But it wasn’t enough, and he lost both his mid-stage cla.s.s six twinhead vulture and injured his right hand!
Everything was going beyond what he expected, even for someone as far-sighted as he, a late-stage Soul Exalt. At first, he had been watching the battle with keen interest because of the youngster fighting, but he didn’t expect to not only be greeted with such a powerful move, but to be hurt so much by it!
How could he not be shocked in that case?!
“Me, planning all of this? You’re mixing up the details here, it was you that was planning to attack me, how dare you have the gall to say that to me?”
Bai Yunfei snorted. He wasn’t at all intimidated by this powerful foe, but his body was already recovering his soulforce in preparation to fight.
All of the actions Bai Yunfei took so far in this fight wasn’t meant only for the bloodlion, but also for this hidden figure in the back!
Something felt off from the very beginning, but Bai Yunfei couldn’t put his finger on it. It was a weak feeling, and Bai Yunfei wasn’t too sure if he was just being paranoid or not at first, but after using the Soul Concealment Art for so long, Bai Yunfei was sufficiently proficient at sensing soulforce when it was being suppressed.
So he entered combat with the bloodlion with this slight suspicion in his mind. And then when he gained a boost in power in thanks to his ‘coil’ form, he was able to confirm his suspicions to find out the truth–someone was observing him from the mountain!
His attempt to hide was well done, but not well enough to evade Bai Yunfei’s senses. Bai Yunfei wouldn’t be able to tell just how strong the man was, but he at the very least a mid-stage Soul Exalt!
In addition to that, this man had actually been watching the fight between the purple-crowned snake and the three-eyed bloodlion before Bai Yunfei and his group arrived; and didn’t leave since then, meaning that he was clearly plotting something!
This was the real reason why Bai Yunfei ‘drove’ Long and the others away. The real danger wasn’t the bloodlion, but the mysterious man in waiting. Should they stay in the Soulbeast Forest, they’d definitely be in danger.
But if they were taken out of the equation, then Bai Yunfei would be able to fight this mysterious foe without needing to worry about any other external variables.
Bit by bit, Bai Yunfei learned more and more about the situation at hand. At one point during the battle, Bai Yunfei felt the man’s gaze switch from the bloodlion to him, and that was when it all started to click.
After showing off plenty of his soul armaments, the malicious intent of the man was all too clear now.
Anyone with a malicious heart would be tempted by the amount of soul armaments he had; that much Bai Yunfei was all too familiar with.
Since the man’s interest was in the bloodlion, Bai Yunfei was sure that the man wouldn’t allow for it to be killed.
So when he was about to deliver the final blow, he decided to ambush the man instead if he came forward.
Of course, if the man decided not to show up, then Bai Yunfei would simply kill the bloodlion and flee straight away to avoid a confrontation.
Bai Yunfei was right in his inferences. Prior to Bai Yunfei’s arrival, the man came across the snake and lion and decided to observe the fight. After a while, he was ecstatic to find out that the bloodlion was capable of attacking the mind! It was then and there that he decided to capture the soulbeast, and with luck, he’d be able to bind it to his will and turn it into a soulbeast puppet.
Bai Yunfei and his group didn’t bring up much attention at first. Adventurers like them were common here in the Soulbeast Forest. If this particular group were to decide to get in the way, he’d kill them. Things were as simple as that.
What they did next was particularly surprising; Bai Yunfei most specifically. A late-stage Soul Ancestor that could become a Soul Exalt was definitely very surprising. He’d have to investigate this matter closely, so going after the group would be a waste of time.
The more Bai Yunfei fought, the more the man found himself interested.
And the more interested he became, the more his urge grew.
The urge to….kill and steal his secrets!!
But the battle in front of him was a volatile one. Things could change in favor of another at the drop of a hat, and Bai Yunfei was still consistently surprising him with how he was pus.h.i.+ng the bloodlion back–and at some times nearly killing it!
He couldn’t allow the bloodlion to die. So when it all looked like Bai Yunfei was about to kill it, he leapt into action to stop him.
But not once did he imagine that Bai Yunfei would suddenly attack him first!
The fact that Bai Yunfei was so vigilant to him added another layer of surprise, but it also helped him realize that he had been underestimating Bai Yunfei the entire time.
That mighty strike from earlier didn’t even look like it exhausted Bai Yunfei by even a sliver–things were getting pretty ridiculous.
All these factors combined made him furious beyond belief. He was an elder of the Beast Taming School and a late-stage Soul Exalt that stood just a step away from becoming a Soul King.
In what way was it justifiable to suffer this ‘disgrace’?!
To be injured to such a degree by a not-even Soul Exalt whelpling, it was preposterous!
Bai Yunfei’s next words infuriated him even more. Up in the air now, his right arm flashed with all the indignation he had—
“Brat, I’ll tear you to pieces!!”
The ring on his right hand twinkled ominously. A shadow, crimson in color and half the height of a person, appeared by the man’s side. Soulforce as powerful as he was extended forth from the shadow’s side as its four limbs stepped into the air with purple light sparking with each step. Before the figure could even be clearly seen, it disappeared in a streak of red to descend down onto Bai Yunfei like a shooting star!
From the powerful aura of the being, Bai Yunfei’s eyes opened wide in frightful surprise.
“Fire and lightning! This is….a late-stage cla.s.s six, a thunderfire wolf!!”