Bai Yunfei needed only a moment to understand why this technique was so familiar to him. He saw it once before in Curopia City, and it was the very technique that nearly led to his death if not for Tang Xinyun blocking it, the Soul Refining Palm!
This man was from the Soul Refining School!
Fury like none other blossomed immediately in his head!
Once before, Bai Yunfei vowed that the Soul Refining School would pay the price, and he would make good on that vow today!
The only thing that stopped him from going after the school in its entirety was due to his lack of strength. He had to force himself to stomach his anger and bide for time.
But now that a man from the school was here, how could he not be angry?
Since that man was here….that man would die!!
The strange energy eating up his soulforce was sapping him of his strength and leaving behind only the sense of ‘powerlessness’ with each moment it remained unchecked. It was a sensation far stronger than what he once experienced back in Curopia City, and back then, that type of power had left him completely unable to move.
But this time….
“Hm!” A tingling sensation from the +12 ring on his left hand activated then, distributing a wave of warmth and comfort throughout his arm.
This attack counted as a type of mental attack?!
The two fireseeds now circling about in his body chose then to activate. Distributing elemental fire throughout his body, the fire began to burn at the intruding energy in an attempt to rid Bai Yunfei’s body of it.
Very little time was needed for Bai Yunfei to make a full recovery, allowing Bai Yunfei to glare hatefully at the other man.
His recovery gave the other man no small amount of surprise. He hadn’t thought Bai Yunfei would recover so quickly, but he smiled, “Even if you hate me so much, your inferior strength will mean your death!”
Drawing the sword close to him, the man kicked off against the ground to dash at Bai Yunfei. In a brilliant arc of orange, the sword swung down while his off-hand attacked Bai Yunfei again with the Soul Refining Palm.
Both actions were observed calmly by Bai Yunfei, whose body began to s.h.i.+mmer slightly around the edges. The s.h.i.+mmering grew even more intense before two figures separated from him, showing three identical figures with identical spears ready to greet him!
The +12 additional effect of the Fire-tipped Spear, Doppelganger!
Stepping back, the real Bai Yunfei shook his right hand, storing away the Fire-tipped Spear!
The man from the Soul Refining School narrowed his eyes, “Aren’t you a little too easy to see through? If your real body isn’t attacking, that makes this attack silly.”
But when the other two Bai Yunfeis stabbed at him rather than retreat with the main body, he put up his sword in surprise. He successfully parried the spear coming at him from the left, but then he was surprised to feel the spear from the right nick him across the side and drawing blood.
This was the real one!
His realization came almost far too late as the next salvo came at him. His sword slashed left and right as he tried to protect himself, but with each blow, the man came to realize that these two figures were ‘weaker’ than the Bai Yunfei who fought him before. Charging his sword with orange light, the man made a decisive blow onto the two by bisecting them in half!
The two doppelgangers were dispelled without any further trouble, but before the man could relax, Bai Yunfei was starting up the next part of his plan!
From his safe spot a hundred meters away, Bai Yunfei was….powering up!
Right in front of the other man’s very eyes, Bai Yunfei’s strength exploded from being a mid-stage Soul Exalt to a late-stage Soul Exalt!
Bai Yunfei’s face twisted in on itself as if experiencing a tremendous amount of pain. The expression in his eyes was the most definite, as it looked like he was on the verge of going crazy.
The seals Bai Yunfei formed gave life to two different streams of elemental fire, with both streams fluctuating differently to one another. As per usual whenever he entered the ‘coil’ form, the two essence fireseeds danced around an invisible center without ever touching.
But this time, the fires they were released were flowing into one another!
Harmonizing the flow between the two unique streams of elemental fire was impossible. One stream would have to devour the other in order to achieve ‘harmony’, but in the case that the two were fuse together without one dominating the other, then the resultant power would be…..many times stronger than normal!
This was a form that acceded the ‘coil’ form. A form that gave an additional boost of strength by forcibly combining the two streams of elemental fire, the ‘fusion’ form!
To draw a better comparison between the two forms, if the ‘coil’ form increased Bai Yunfei’s strength by a degree of two, then the ‘fusion’ form increased Bai Yunfei’s strength by three, four, and maybe even more!
But this type of explosive power couldn’t be controlled! Or at least, it couldn’t be completely controlled!
Under the ‘fusion’ form, the elemental fire becomes hard to control and explosive.
That was why Bai Yunfei called this form, Berserk Mode!
Back when he was was a peak late-stage Soul Ancestor, Bai Yunfei was able to maintain this mode for just a few scant seconds.
But now that he was an early-stage Soul Exalt, he could maintain this mode for up to….ten minutes!
Ten minutes wasn’t a very long time, so Bai Yunfei usually opted for a very fast battle!
Bai Yunfei had never felt so much power course through his body before! It was so abundant in his body that it actually hurt, but Bai Yunfei could bear the pain. All of his muscles bulged with power and his internal organs began to groan under the stress, but he was still coherent enough to give a mighty death glare at his enemy. Lifting the Fire-tipped Spear, he went still for a second before immediately disappearing into a blur!
The surprise the other man felt had already pa.s.sed, though. What Bai Yunfei used was merely just a technique to boost his strength to the levels of a late-stage Soul Exalt, so no matter how surprising it was, he still wouldn’t be a match for him!
That was what he thought, but the more he fought Bai Yunfei, the more he started to doubt his initial statement. Bai Yunfei’s attacks were harder than before and far more berserk in tempo! The Fire-tipped Spear was brandished so quickly that it was like the wind itself, and the stabs it brought were as dangerous as ever, and Bai Yunfei wasn’t in the mood to retreat. He constantly dodged the man’s sword strokes by either a hair’s breadth or by using his own bracers to absorb the damage before retaliating with his spear, leading to both parties exchanging minor injuries again and again.
An additional factor of surprise was Bai Yunfei’s speed. Bai Yunfei belonged to the fire type, but his speed was by no means inferior to those belonging to the lightning type. Not once did his soulforce seem to wane, and his movements were as strong and robust as ever.
A few precious minutes went by before the man start to feel his strength start to taper away, he was….he was losing!
The realization wasn’t debilitating to him. The man knew Bai Yunfei wouldn’t be able to last for much longer under this state. Enemies like Bai Yunfei who could increase their strength temporarily wasn’t a new thing to him, and he knew that if he could just persist for long enough, the enemy definitely suffer from the flaw in the technique.
“Cling!!”
The doppelgangers of Bai Yunfei came at him again, leaving the man without any other choice but to defend against the spear.
But then…
“Boom!!”
The explosion effect of the spear, activate!
Unexpected thrusted backwards by the explosion, the man’s chest was burning with fire and pain. Blood came out from the wounds on his chest and from his mouth in decent amounts despite having his sword to mitigate most of the damage.
Emboldened by his success, Bai Yunfei pressed on, swapping the spear to his left hand so that he could activate the Flameblade Bracer on his right arm.
It was time for the Flame Winged Blades!
“Bang!!”
It formed in front of Bai Yunfei, extending three meters in length before it pelted straight through the elemental earth barrier of the man and cutting into his right arm.
He grunted again, feeling as the pain shot through his arm in addition to the pain in his chest. When he looked up, Bai Yunfei had pointed the Cataclysmic Seal towards him, expanding in size to become a miniature mountain in an attempt to smash into him!
The one-two combo he was. .h.i.t with left him unable to regain his battle rhythm. So without any better option, the man could only cross his orange-lit arms in front of him to try and protect himself with his elemental earth.
Using the strength offered to it by a late-stage Soul Exalt, the Cataclysmic Seal was at its strongest peak of power yet. It collided with the elemental earth of the man’s barrier before breaking it into pieces and smas.h.i.+ng into him!
“Ptchhh!”
Dealt yet another blow, the man went flying in a spray of blood!