The battle had only just begun and the Yao clan had already brought a giant upset onto the battlefield.

“Soulbeasts?! How are there so many of them?!”

The Beast Taming School was on the rightmost parts of the battlefield. Excluding their soulbeast puppets, the beast tamers had probably four hundred of them. Including these soulbeast puppets, there was around a thousand of them. A number like this was considerably large and was probably the largest force among the three, but this was nothing against the veritable tidal wave of soulbeasts coming at them now. Not even the Soul Exalts from the Beast Taming School was able to stop themselves from gaping at the sight of all these soulbeasts coming at them.

There was well over a thousand of these soulbeasts incoming—a number far beyond their own soulbeasts!

The Beast Taming School had planned on using the number of their soulbeasts as an intimidation tactic. 

None of them thought that their plan would backfire and the enemy would have even more soulbeasts than they did!

Like them, the members from the Soul Refining School and Wind Lightning School were equally shocked.

Now wasn’t the right time to be shocked, though, their enemy was nearly upon them! In just seconds, the Alchemy School’s soulbeasts were fighting the beast tamers!

And then the screams began to cry out one after another!

“They’re controlling them!!”

Ma Xucheng exclaimed in shock. This wasn’t within their calculations!

Their records had never mentioned the Alchemy School being able to control soulbeasts before!

Not even their soulsense picked up the soulbeasts auras. The alchemists had the soulbeasts ingest a presence-hiding pill so their auras wouldn’t be detected by even Ma Xucheng. If anything, Ma Xucheng would’ve assumed they were merely just weak students and dismissed as a non-combatant in the grand scheme of things.

This was a huge problem now for the three allied schools. The people from the Wind Lightning School and Soul Refining School turned to give an incredulous look at the beast tamers as if to say, “How did you lose to the Alchemy School in your own area of expertise?!”

“Roar! Roar! Roar…”

The next shock came to the allied schools when the roars of several soulbeasts could be heard. These roars were especially loud and contained far more energy in them than the others. 

Several streaks of light shot out from the crowd then to come to a stop beside the Soul Kings of the Yao clan!

“Class seven soulbeasts!!”

The Soul Kings of the allied schools realized straight away just how powerful these new arrivals were, Qin Bangjie most especially!

There once were soulbeasts to speak of on this battlefield. And now there were so many of them, class seven ones included!

At least one class seven soulbeast stood by each of the Soul King’s side. 

And by Yao Wuchen, Yao Tianji, and another Late-stage Soul King, there stood two soulbeasts each!

The beast tamers were already coordinating with their soulbeast puppets to fight. Ma Xucheng had two class seven soulbeast in front of him and his two companions had also two soulbeasts of their own.  There was one Early-stage Soul King that had an additional peak late-stage class six soulbeast with him.

The allied schools had eleven Soul Kings and five class seven soulbeasts, making for a total of sixteen extremely capable combatants.

On the Yao clan side stood eight Soul Kings and another eleven class seven soulbeast, making for…nineteen!

The Yao clan had gone from having the numerical disadvantage to having a complete turnaround!

“Impossible…impossible!! How are you able to control so many soulbeasts?!”

Ma Xucheng was an experienced Peak Late-stage Soul King with a considerable amount of knowledge, but not even he was able to prevent his shock from showing…he couldn’t believe what was going on!

Not many Soul Kings had a contracted soulbeast partner of their own. And if one did, then it was common for one of either two things to happen. Either their soulbeast died in battle, or their soulbeast was unable to keep up with the pace of their soul cultivator. 

For example, many soul cultivators had a soulbeast partner before they became a Soul King. And by that point, their soulbeast partner would cease growing and hover around the levels of a peak late-stage class six soulbeast. In that case, these soulbeast partners were essentially unable to help fight and generally didn’t travel with their soul cultivators. 

Many people generally had the idea of finding a soulbeast partner once they became a Soul King, but it was easier said than done. Not only were soulbeasts of the class seven level rare, but they were also very intelligent and unwilling to join with any soul cultivator. This secondary reason was due to the ‘relations’ between soul cultivators and soulbeasts. The class seven soulbeasts of the Soulbeast Forest were in a world of their own and generally had no desire to make a contract with anyone.

These were clearly the ‘feral’ beasts Ma Xucheng once read about in regards to the Alchemy School. In the records, the ferals were said to be soulbeasts that weren’t able to be contracted with anyone. 

So why was it that each one of the Soul Kings from the Alchemy School had a class seven soulbeast with them?!

And…how was it possible one of them had two class seven soulbeast?!

It was preposterous. This had to be some kind of illusionary magic. How could anyone from the allied schools believe this was real?

“Kill!!!”

While the allied schools were still trying to process this, Yao Wuchen was giving the command for their counterstrike to begin!

“Hmph!!!”

As unexpected as this was, Qin Bangjie was not a man to be stunned into inaction. A flash of cold light crossed his eyes as he readied his soulforce. A wave of energy shot into the skies to form a series of dark clouds overhead. As if day was turning into night, the skies grew dark and rich with elemental darkness. 

Then behind Qin Bangjie, a one-hundred meter tall demonic figure appeared out from the darkness!

“A Half-emperor!!”

Yao Wuchen growled underneath his breath. There was no mistaking that tremendous aura. 

He and his father exchanged glances only briefly before directing their soulbeasts to attack Qin Bangjie!

Of the four soulbeasts, three of them were late-stage class seven soulbeasts and a single mid-stage class seven soulbeast. For hundreds of years, these four soulbeasts have worked with the Yao clan and each of their successive descendants. In a way, these soulbeasts were essentially members of the clan. The familiar pill saw to these four soulbeasts gaining intelligence on par with humans. They were also very affectionate to the Yao clan, so they were infuriated that there’d be people that dared do ill against them. The four soulbeasts would tear all these intruders into pieces!

Qin Bangjie had essentially been a dead man in spirit following the wounds he received from Bai Yunfei. Him losing the King Caging Bell and then one of his arms dealt a serious blow to his mental state of being, and that wound only deepened following the loss of multiple stronghold for his school. 

Only the realization that Bai Yunfei was a part of the Crafting School brought the man back from the depths of despair and rekindled his attempts to become a Soul Emperor. 

Sparing no efforts whatsoever, the man shed sweat, blood, and tears to hopefully breakthrough, but in the end, he failed and became a Half-emperor instead.

Becoming a Half-emperor was still an accomplishment. Half-emperors were beings stronger than Soul Kings, and these four soulbeasts were without a doubt not a challenge for him. 

The other Soul Kings and soulbeasts of their level were already fighting in a different part of the battlefield. The entire battlefield was already a storm of multi-colored light as combatants from both parties fought with magnificent strength… 

In the skies.

On the ground.

Light of all color shined from both places with an intensity like none other, making visibility practically impossible beyond a certain distance. The area split the earth and moved the skies with a magnificent amount of energy that left even space warping in on itself. It seemed like not even the world itself was capable of stabilizing all of the energy here… 

Multiple people from the Yao clan were descending down from the walls to fight alongside the soulbeasts. As unfamiliar to battle as they were, these people were by no means unable to fight, especially the Soul Ancestors and Soul Exalts. If they weren’t capable of close quarters fighting, then they found themselves useful still by sending blast after blast of elemental energy from afar.

The battle was no longer as ‘easy’ as the allied schools thought this battle would be now that the familiars were here. No distinct advantages could be observed for either parties, but there was at least one thing for certain.

Both sides were taking massive casualties and injuries!

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