"Boom boom boom boom boom!!"

Explosions rocked Bai Yunfei"s barrier one after another as the green blades of energy lashed across it. Eventually, cracks started to form over the surface despite the more energy Bai Yunfei was trying to feed into it. In the end, he was forced to retreat backward when the barrier was on the verge of collapsing.

"Die!!"

Qin Long roared. Brandis.h.i.+ng both arms forward, he summoned a giant tree over his head to slam it onto Bai Yunfei!

"Boom!!"

There was a splash of elemental energy as the tree slammed down onto the ground. The energy continued to spread out for a moment before a figure came leaping out from it.

It was Bai Yunfei!

The barrier around him was all but broken. Parts of his robes were in tatters and the areas where his bracers didn"t provide protection had cuts on the surface of it. All in all, Bai Yunfei did not look as completely unharmed as before anymore.

Taking on the brunt of those last two moves took a decent amount of energy out from Bai Yunfei. He was in a worse state than before and looked defenseless.

Because of that, Qin He, Qin Long, and the other two Soul Kings had all sharp eyes that glistened at the opportunity. A hard-earned chance like this was impossible to pa.s.s up. Mustering their soulforce, the Soul Kings began to ready another barrage of attacks to finish off Bai Yunfei.

But that was when…everything changed!

Prior to this, Bai Yunfei was like a piece of driftwood being forced to go down a river. Because of his constant retreat, the four Soul Kings hadn"t the chance to surround Bai Yunfei and had to constantly chase him down. By the end of things, Bai Yunfei had already retreated a far distance away to a chain of mountains.

It was then when they were all gathered on top of a mountain top when a black figure suddenly shot out from the mountain towards Bai Yunfei!

The speed in which this figure in black was coming from was fast enough to shock everyone there. A black demonic-looking claw exuded out from the figure with an eerie-looking light. It looked like it was going to grasp onto Bai Yunfei"s head!

And at the same time of the claw"s approach, four beams of light were converging onto Bai Yunfei for another attack!

    ……

Li Yue had been in wait for some time now. His eyes gleamed with antic.i.p.ation when he saw Bai Yunfei rapidly approach his direction, and a cold smile appeared on his face shortly afterward.

His hiding abilities had been decent enough for him to remain undetected even in a chaotic battlefield like this. And without moving even a single inch, Li Yue was given the ability to simply just wait there for the best moment to strike.

Only one strike was needed. A single strike to end it all and then another moment to take Bai Yunfei"s body and flee!

The moment came fast for him. When Qin He and Qin Long were coming in to attack again, Li Yue saw the perfect opportunity. Bai Yunfei would surely show a moment"s weakness with this next moment, so he"d take it as a sign of a.s.sistance to strike him down. 

And to make things even better, Bai Yunfei was coming closer to him!

If this wasn"t the best time to strike, then when would it?

He moved without hesitation. He was fully dedicated to disposing of Bai Yunfei in one and with all his might. If he could do that, then it"d be a cinch to grab his body and run!

The claw he was sending out was moving so fast that it tore apart even the air in its path. Li Yue was fully confident Bai Yunfei wouldn"t be able to defend against this strike!

It was getting close now!!

The antic.i.p.ation in Li Yue"s eyes was getting brighter and brighter. The claw was just about to grab and crush Bai Yunfei"s head into mush when… 

The joy was wiped away from his face when he heard the sound of nothingness and felt nothing but air in the claw. Astonished, Li Yue"s eyes zoned into where Bai Yunfei should"ve been!

There wasn"t the sight of a crushed Bai Yunfei anywhere to be seen. At the moment when it should"ve been there, Li Yue simply saw the claw go…straight through Bai Yunfei!

It was as if the Bai Yunfei was an illusion. Dumbfounded, Li Yue sent some soulsense over to peer at Bai Yunfei only to discover that he wasn"t actually there!

He had been so confident in his attack. So sure that his powerful move would finish things off.

But it had failed!

"What"s…what"s all this?!"

Li Yue couldn"t even comprehend what was going on. Things were going wrong with his plan so fast that his mind was having trouble keeping up. Bai Yunfei was distinctly standing right there in front of him, but his soulsense was saying otherwise… 

He hadn"t the time to think about it either. Moments after his attack failed to land, Li Yue realized four different blows of elemental energy were about to collide with one another above him!

"d.a.m.n!!"

He roared internally before wrapping himself in a layer of black light to shelter him from the fallout.

"Boom boom boom boom!!!"

The attacks Qin He and the other three Soul Kings were launching was about to strike down Bai Yunfei, and Li Yue was right within that range of ground zero!

"What"s that, what"s that?! Another person coming out now? It"s a Late-stage Soul King! Is he from the Qin too?!"

"A dark-type soul cultivator! I haven"t heard of the Qin having anyone like that, who is he?"

"I thought Bai Yunfei was dead for sure! How in the world did he evade that dark-type Soul King"s attack just then?"

"He might"ve dodged it, but there"s another Late-stage Soul King added to the mix now. How"s Bai Yunfei going to survive this onslaught now?"

"……"

Li Yue"s entrance to the battle hadn"t gone unnoticed by the spectators. Multiple people were already discussing what they had just witnessed and were busy remarking to one another about the peculiarity of what happened in awe… 

    ……

"You!!"

It was a furious Qin He that roared out at the "a.s.sistant" to their attempts to kill Bai Yunfei. His face was absolutely thunderous at the sight of the newcomer.

He never would"ve imagined that Li Yue would appear here and now! Was he trying to further accelerate the death of the Qin?!

Multi-colored light flashed everywhere across the skies as the four attacks struck one another. It had nearly given Li Yue a healthy dose of injuries, but thanks to the curtain of black light he put around himself he was able to get away with relatively minor wounds.

Li Yue spared only a glance at Qin He at his remark before looking away to where Bai Yunfei was retreating. Bai Yunfei was already several hundred meters away and was now "fully there" according to his soulsense. This was further confirmed when Bai Yunfei started to radiate elemental fire all around his body without at all seeming like he had been injured by Li Yue"s attack earlier.

Bai Yunfei"s eyes were focused on Li Yue extraordinarily hard as if he was thinking hard about something. 

Had he not used the +10 additional effect of the Core Stone, Bai Yunfei surely would"ve died at that moment prior, if not heavily injured by the attack.

This effect was what Bai Yunfei used to evade total injury from Li Yue"s attack and also the attacks from the four Soul Kings. As they would say in another world; a stone that struck two birds in one.

The black light exuding from Li Yue"s person was the final hint Bai Yunfei needed to see. "Soul. Refining. School!!!"

Li Yue had only attacked and defended twice, but Bai Yunfei was able to see who he really was. He was a soul refiner!!

Those from the Soul Refining School employ a very unique method of attacking. Any Soul King could distinguish who a soul refiner was the moment they attacked. The undulations brought forth from regular dark-type soul cultivators hadn"t the same peculiarity soul refiners had. And Bai Yunfei was exceptionally perceptive to how soul refiners worked due to his past with them. He could tell just by the aura of Li Yue alone that he was a soul refiner!

And the others from the Qin were starting to notice who Li Yue was as well!

"They know each other!!"

It was just a single moment, but Bai Yunfei came to a quick realization of the situation here!