Yao Feiyun was one of the few clansmen that hadn"t taken part in the battle. Instead of him, his soulbeasts, Dao Mao, Er Mao, and San Mao were there on the battlefield and did his share of the fighting. Without the approval of the others, Yao Feiyun was forbidden from entering the battlefield.

It was the strange bursts of elemental energy coming from the clan compound that caught Yao Feiyun"s attention. He thought it was a mistake at first, but then the full might of Ceng Quans.h.i.+ was revealed once he started to go all out. That was when Yao Feiyun knew something was wrong. Somehow, a stranger made their way into the city. A Soul King stranger!

The battle on the outskirts of the city was far too intense to have any reinforcements come back to the city. Calling someone now would only mean precious time would be taken, and time was not a commodity Yao Feiyun could afford to trade in right now.

As young as he was in age, Yao Feiyun always thought himself to be quite the "manly man". With the situation as precarious as it was and his father busy with the battle outside, he"d deal with the enemy inside the city himself!

But by the time he reached the source of it all, the only thing he could see were the corpses of several strangers. The battle was already over.

“Elder Cheng?!”

The first thing he saw when he reached the ruins of the pill repository was elder Cheng. Surprised, he called out to the elder and drew close to greet him.

The elder didn"t respond to him. How odd.

“Elder Cheng?” He repeated. 

No response again.

He pulled at elder Cheng"s sleeves, but the elder simply stood there as still as a statue.

“Are you alright, elder Cheng?!” Yao Feiyun"s heart pounded against his chest. He grabbed at the elder"s wrist and transmitted his soulforce into him, only to go pale in shock!

“He"s unconscious?!” He cried out in disbelief. Something was wrong here. “I don"t get it, how can he be unconscious like that?! What"s going on here?!”

“Awoo…”

Yao Feiyun"s ears perked at the sound of something crying out within the vicinity. Scanning the area with his soulsense, Yao Feiyun let out another gasp underneath his breath. “Lao Sha?!”

He dashed nearly a hundred meters away where the b.l.o.o.d.y and battered figure of Lao Sha laid. Paling at the sight of the open wound on the dog"s stomach, Yao Feiyun touched at Lao Sha with his left hand and fed some soulforce into the dog. His right hand retrieved a red pill from his s.p.a.ce ring and quickly turned it into a powdery mist to let fall onto the wound.

Several seconds pa.s.sed before the blood started to coagulate and the wound itself start to knit together. Eventually, the wound began to heal at an extremely fast rate!

“Awoo….” The pain reflected in Lao Sha"s eyes was noticeably less than before, but the dog was still barking softly and staring in a far away direction.

Yao Feiyun"s eyes followed the dog"s gaze shortly before realizing what the dog was getting at.

“Big brother Tang!”

Disappearing into a blur to reach the pile of rubble where Bai Yunfei was, Yao Feiyun began to use both hands to dig out the rubble to reveal Bai Yunfei.

Bai Yunfei was currently unconscious and had both eyes shut tight. His mouth was quivering and his eyebrows were knitted together as if he was in deep pain.

Strangely enough, his face was…covered by a faint black wisp of energy!

Meanwhile, on the other side.

Yao Wuchen was just about to start battling with a Late-stage Soul King from the Wind Lightning School when his head snapped back to look towards Yao City. 

“Something"s happened within the city!”

He was far away from it, but the power released from Ceng Quans.h.i.+ was still substantial enough for Yao Wuchen to sense it!

By the time he noticed it, another pulse of energy could be felt within the area where Ceng Quans.h.i.+"s aura came from. There was a small blip as the energy source died out before Yao Wuchen sensed nothing else. Both events happened so quickly that Yao Wuchen almost thought he was just imagining things for a moment… 

“Crackle…”

A bolt of lightning as violet as a plum dropped down from the heavens to strike Yao Wuchen; the battlefield was the last place a person wanted to be distracted from!

Three golden s.h.i.+elds manifested over Yao Wuchen and stopped the bolt of lightning stone-cold. The surface of the s.h.i.+elds crackled with energy as the lightning bolt exploded, but they did an excellent job in protecting the person underneath from being hit.

These were the soul armaments of Yao Wuchen and were one of the strongest the clan had to offer. Each one of them was high-heaven tier soul armaments.

Concern flitted across Yao Wuchen"s face. He worried for the city, but his opponent wasn"t giving him any time to do anything else other than worry. He"d have to deal with the enemy first before anything else.

On the other side of the battlefield, a few other people had contemplative looks on their faces.

One of them was…Qin Bangjie!

The conclusion came to Qin Bangjie faster than it did to Yao Wuchen. Like Yao Wuchen, Qin Bangjie was currently busy fighting the four cla.s.s seven soulbeasts, but he was still holding up fairly well and even had enough time to look off towards the city with a pleased expression...

“Did it succeed?!”

To Qin Bangjie"s side was Xu Qianqing. He too knew the circ.u.mstances behind the intruder in the city and was looking pleasantly surprised.

“Eh?!”

Ma Xucheng was noticeably confused. He looked first to the city before turning to stare suspiciously at the soul refiners.

From there, he managed to catch hold of the satisfaction in Xu Qianqing"s eyes.

The suspicious gleam in Ma Xucheng"s eyes deepened… 

Like him, the Late-stage Soul King from the Wind Lightning School realized that the Soul Refining School had to be behind whatever was happening within the city.

The world around Ma Xucheng trembled as he used his two cla.s.s seven soulbeast puppets to force the two cla.s.s seven soulbeasts and elder from the Yao clan away.

“Elder Qin, why have you yet begun to fight seriously? What do you mean by this?!”

He was glaring at Qin Bangjie with a look of fury.

Several minutes pa.s.sed since the battle started, but Qin Bangjie had yet to actually fight back against any of the four soulbeasts he was fighting.

Three late-stage cla.s.s seven soulbeasts and a mid-stage cla.s.s seven soulbeast. As strong as this was, a Half-emperor should still be able to fight an overwhelming advantage. A complete shut out wasn"t possible, but Qin Bangjie should"ve still been able to make do with a victory sooner rather than later.

“This one has his reasons!”

Qin Bangjie replied coldly at this "interrogation". Then, a wave of great power exploded forth from him!

“Swis.h.!.+”

Brandis.h.i.+ng the blood-red sawtooth weapon in his hand, Qin Bangjie unleashed a black beam of light into the sky which later fractured into several smaller lines towards a giant three-eyed lizard!

“Boom!! Hssss!!”

There was an explosion where Qin Bangjie"s attack struck the lizard. The lizard flew out from the dust cloud with a shrill cry. The scales where it had been struck were heavily cracked and had green blood flowing out from underneath in copious amounts. This was a heavy blow!

With just one attack, Qin Bangjie managed to severely hurt a mid-stage cla.s.s seven soulbeast!

The entire battlefield seemed to still as they watched the lizard fall. Then…everyone began to fight even harder!

Qin Bangjie was finally showing his true power!

“Whoosh…”

The same demonic figure from before reappeared behind Qin Bangjie. It"s right arm became a black dragon and flew next at the gigantic python nearby!

“Hsss!!!”

The late-stage cla.s.s seven soulbeast hissed loudly and spat a beam of green light out from its mouth to strike back against this dragon!

“Boom boom boom!!”

The black dragon overwhelmed the python"s attack and exploded against its scales. Like the earlier soulbeast, the python let loose a shrill hiss in anger and pain. Unlike its companion, it wasn"t blown away! It simply reared back for a moment before striking!

With the lizard needing to be left on the sidelines for the meanwhile, that left three more cla.s.s seven soulbeasts for Qin Bangjie to deal with. Vast amounts of elemental energy gathered around his body to act as a buffer between him and the soulbeasts.

These soulbeasts weren"t capable of soul attacks but they were also immune to soul attacks, so Qin Bangjie wouldn"t be able to use any. Were it possible, Qin Bangjie would"ve been finished with this battle a long time ago.

It didn"t even matter much. These soulbeasts wouldn"t be able to keep on fighting!

Qin Bangjie had the upper hand. And he wasn"t the only one. He could tell from the battlefield that the Yao clan were losing!

Everyone was using their strongest attacks to fight and kill now. Countless casualties were being had by both sides, and even the Soul Kings were starting to have a few of their numbers thin out… 

As he prepared to kill one of the soulbeasts, Qin Bangjie"s eyes suddenly flicked to an area behind him!

Yao Wuchen, Yao Tianji, Ma Xucheng, and a few other of the Soul Kings followed suit. They had all noticed the same thing Qin Bangjie did and looked off towards the south!

Two beams of light were flying swiftly towards the area. Both of the people within these lights were extremely powerful!

The only question was: Which side did they belong to?!