Anyone that found Bai Yunfei would definitely end up dead. But they would at the very least stall long enough for either Soul Emperors to get there and deal with Bai Yunfei. The loss of their own members was something they were loathed to do, but both Nether and Lin Dongxiao agreed that it was an acceptable sacrifice to make. If the two of them could make it there, then it"d be possible to kill Bai Yunfei very quickly.

Unfortunately, their "expectations" didn"t fit in with reality… 

The strength of Bai Yunfei was so strong that one or two Soul Kings wasn"t even enough to "stall"!

This was no longer a hunt for Bai Yunfei but a waiting game for Bai Yunfei to "visit" them!

And to make matters even worse, Bai Yunfei could employ the use of the other Soul Kings like Wu Dijian and Dan Teng by simply popping them out from the Core World, making any fight even faster to finish.

This way, it took only a moment for the Soul Kings from the Beast Taming School and Wind Lightning School to be caught and thrown into the Core World to be dealt with later.

“Recall everyone at once!!”

Nether ordered Qin Bangjie at once.

The members of each allied schools came back at once, but their forces were down another two groups!

One group from the Wind Lightning School and one group from the Soul Refining School!

Four groups had been lost already, meaning four Soul Kings were missing in action! In so little time! And none of the other groups even saw a shadow of their enemy!

A little ways away from the allied schools. On a gra.s.sy hill. 

Bai Yunfei"s head was tilted upwards to the sky as he sensed for the enemies auras. “They"re quick to pick up on our plan. Our enemies are gathering together. I"m sure they won"t give us any opportunities to strike at them again.

“Yes, they won"t be willing to venture out by themselves now…” Wu Dijian mentioned with regret. “They"re a wavery bunch. We put out the bait and they fall for it and have their two Soul Emperor out on a wild goose chase. Really now…”

Truth be told, the group initially thought Bai Yunfei"s plan was a little dangerous. But after seeing the overwhelming success of it, they now had to agree that the Core Stone was far too powerful. All they had to do was use the Core Stone to teleport away and even a Soul Emperor would be thrown off their tail… 

“What should we do now, Yunfei? Wait for a better chance? Or should we…leave?”

Wu Dijian and Yao Wuchen looked to Bai Yunfei intently once Dan Teng asked this question. Somehow, the group was taking their youngest companion to be an extremely accomplished tactician.

“We"ve only caught four Soul Kings, why stop there?”

“Oh? You still want to continue? But if they"re gathering together around the Soul Emperor, what chance do we have?”

“We don"t for now. We"ll just need to follow them.”

“Follow them?” No one knew what Bai Yunfei meant.

“Yeah, follow them. It doesn"t matter how long they try to find us, we"ll wait even when they"re dirty and tired.”

“Er…” Dan Teng grew suspicious of the strange pause, “and then what?”

“We wait.” A cryptic smile appeared on Bai Yunfei"s face.

“Wait?” Wu Dijian still couldn"t make sense of what Bai Yunfei was getting at. “Hey now, Bai Yunfei. Can"t you quit it with this mysteriousness? What do you have planned? Tell us straight and simple. What do we wait for?”

“Hehe…” Bai Yunfei laughed, “I"ll keep you all in suspense for a little longer. You"ll find out soon enough.”

He turned his head back to the southern skies with an eager look. “It"ll be soon now…”

And so eight days pa.s.sed by with the allied schools being completely fl.u.s.tered beyond belief. 

They were packed together like ants. Ever since they were ambushed and picked off by Bai Yunfei one by one, no one in the army dared branch off on their own paths.

The army never left the Qimang Mountains. Instead, they went around in circles in hopes of finding Bai Yunfei… 

To put it shortly, Nether and Lin Dongxiao had yet to give up finding Bai Yunfei.

They knew from Bai Yunfei"s previous actions that there was no way Bai Yunfei would "forgive" them so easily. It was very possible he was lying in wait for the right opportunity of some kind.

And so the two of them had the Soul Kings gather the army and form tightly-knit searching formation. That way, there"d be no way Bai Yunfei would be able to target any straggling groups without being immediately found and have enemy reinforcements after him.

They were desperately holding out on the hope that they could hopefully find a point where Bai Yunfei could be stalled and then subsequently killed.

But to Nether and Lin Dongxiao"s disappointment—and secret relief of the army—Bai Yunfei never appeared.

People were starting to think Bai Yunfei had already left the Qimang Mountains. It seemed especially dejecting that the possibility of Bai Yunfei laughing at their stupidity was a high one…

On the morning of the ninth day.

Bai Yunfei and three Soul Kings stood on top of a particularly ordinary-looking cliff. No longer able of holding back his curiosity, Wu Dijian asked, “I say, Bai Yunfei, what exactly are we waiting for? What are you planning in that head of yours? What moment is it?”

He didn"t know how many times he asked this question in the past few days, but Bai Yunfei never gave him a straight answer.

Not until now.

“It"s here!”

“It"s here? What"s here?”

Not actually expecting an answer, Wu Dijian looked at Bai Yunfei with confusion. But a moment later, the three Soul Kings realized something was coming.

Off in a distance, a bolt of violet and green light was flying through the sky!

It was very far from them so the light was practically a tiny dot, but…someone was most definitely flying through the skies!

“Rumble rumble…”

The shock grew more and more apparent to Wu Dijian and the others when the streak of light drew closer and closer!

From the rumbling of thunder and the bl.u.s.tering of the wind, the three Soul Kings realized just how powerful this newcomer was!

“Late-stage Soul King!!”

Yao Wuchen was the one to cry out first. As a Late-stage Soul King himself, he could tell from this aura that this "person" was no weakling!

“No! Hold on…this…this isn"t a soul cultivator. It"s a soulbeast!” Wu Dijian replied after him. 

“Ah!” He realized a second later, “It"s him!!”

Realization dawned across Wu Dijian"s face. At last he understood who Bai Yunfei had been waiting for all this time.

The streak of light drew closer and closer to the four. Finally, Dan Teng and Yao Wuchen were able to see just who was inside the streak of light: A giant bird whose wings s.h.i.+ned both green and violet!

“Woos.h.!.+”

The s.p.a.ce in front of Yao Wuchen and the other two Soul Kings grew hazy as the streak of light flew at Bai Yunfei!

“Yunfei! Yunfei!!!! Yunfeiii!!!!!”

An ecstatic voice cried out. The joyful tone in the bird"s voice was apparent, but so was the hints of a sob.

Since Bai Yunfei was standing still, it didn"t take more than a few spa.r.s.e moments for the giant bird to reach Bai Yunfei. Striking into him, the bird came to a stop at last for the three Soul Kings behind Bai Yunfei to look at. The wings of this bird were splayed out over Bai Yunfei"s chest as if it was "hugging" him… 

With the wings embracing his chest and the soft feathers tickling his face, Bai Yunfei laughed with joy, “Hah, your current body has gotten quite big, Xiao Qi….”

This giant bird was Xiao Qi!!

“Yunfei! Yunfei~! We"ve finally found you! I just knew you were alive! There"s no way you wouldn"t be fine!”

Xiao Qi sobbed in relief. The joy of finding his long-last family drained the bird of his words almost. It took Xiao Qi all he could to form a coherent sentence as he sobbed into Bai Yunfei"s chest.

He realized what Bai Yunfei meant by him growing big a second later. There was a brief glow of light as Xiao Qi shrunk in size to return to his original size. Small again, Xiao Qi chirped and danced with joy on top of Bai Yunfei"s arms.

They didn"t need words to show how much they missed each other. Not with the bond they shared.

Bai Yunfei"s eyes s.h.i.+fted from Xiao Qi to the direction where the bird came from.

Two figures were floating there up in the sky.

The moment his eyes s.h.i.+fted onto the figure in white was the moment Bai Yunfei felt like the world came to a stop… 

“Xinyun…”