“Damn!! Lin Dongxiao’s dead?! But how! And by who?!”

Dozens of kilometers away from Mt. Crimson, Mo Ni gnashed his teeth in anger and confusion.

“I recall hearing about a young Soul Emperor when the Beast Taming School was attacked…a genius like that…where in the world he come from? And why haven’t I heard about him before!!”

His face was thunderous. Both of his hands were gripped tightly into fists as he ranted to himself in anger—or perhaps it was better to say ‘jealousy’.

There was a reason to his jealousy. Half a year ago, Mo Ni emerged from the ‘Path to the Nether’ alongside the Black Dragon King with more power than ever. Then, as Peak Late-stage Soul Emperor and peak late-stage class seven soulbeast, the two traveled to the Soulbeast Forest so they could enter the Tomb of the Emperor Beasts. From there, the two were both able to become Soul Emperors in strength. Because of his age and strength, Mo Ni felt as though he was the strongest of his generation. There wasn’t anyone else that could even hold a candle to him, not even Zhong Liyan from the Fire School, Lin Dongxiao from the Beast Taming School, Zheng Kai from the house of Zheng, or even the Wang’s Wang Kunpeng, the one known as the ‘spearhead’ of his generation. 

Everyone paled in comparison to him. Not even Bai Yunfei, if he was still alive, would be able to do anything to him.

That was what he thought.

Then the news of Bai Yunfei’s status reached his ears alongside the destruction of the Beast Taming School. Not only was he alive, but he was also a Soul Emperor! Mo Ni had to admit, despite his intense annoyance that his arch-nemesis was still alive, there was also a sense of ‘happiness’. That meant he’d be able to have the satisfaction of killing him himself.

Mo Ni felt like he had been trodden over by Bai Yunfei every single time after their first introduction. Bai Yunfei had been weaker than him at first, but the gap shrunk with each meeting before reversing. It was especially humiliating to have his life be thrown into jeopardy with each fight with Bai Yunfei as well. To him, Bai Yunfei was a demon that brought him no small amount of anger. In fact, he had nearly failed to become a Soul Emperor due to his intense hatred for Bai Yunfei.

But his self-confidence returned once he became a Soul Emperor. Not even Bai Yunfei’s return from death could faze him now. Mo Ni had only one thought when he first heard about Bai Yunfei being alive, and that was he could kill Bai Yunfei himself now.

Unfortunately, that thought crumbled away when he met Bai Yunfei earlier. His reunion with Bai Yunfei went nothing like he imagined. The ‘mad demon’ that was Bai Yunfei had completely overwhelmed everything he threw at him and even killed Lu Suxing with incredible swiftness. Not even his own courage had managed to survive…. 

Once again. His self-confidence and self-worth was completely kicked aside and stepped on by Bai Yunfei.

A second blow came to his pride when he saw the youth, someone who was the same age as he was, kill Lin Dongxiao in less than ten minutes. Was he a frog in the well? Mo Ni had felt so confident before thinking that the ‘geniuses’ of his generation were limited to just him and Bai Yunfei, but now it seemed they weren’t the only ones…

Resentment filled the entirety of his being at that thought. Him? A frog in the well? It was definitely a maddening thought.

“Do you plan to continue watching by the sidelines, Mo Ni? Our chances of success grow slimmer the longer we wait. If either Chu Yintian or Bai Yunfei wins, then it will be hard for our forces to retreat.”

The Black Dragon King warned Mo Ni.

“Eh?!”

That snapped Mo Ni back to reality. Growling to himself, he snapped his fingers at the faraway Li Chengfeng, “Gui Nu!! Kill that person!!”

“Roar!!”

The jittery Gui Nu let out a deafening roar before disappearing from his spot to do Mo Ni’s bidding.

The Black Dragon King raised an eyebrow, “You’re only sending him?”

Mo Ni nodded, his calm demeanor was back on his face. “Gui Nu should be enough to deal with him, we should be able to maintain the stalemate in any case. We’ll wait for Bai Yunfei and Dongfang Ming’s battle to finish before we attack. I’ll kill Bai Yunfei myself. At the very least, we can’t allow any of his Regalia to fall in Dongfang Ming’s hands…”

Despite having the status of an ‘elder’ in the Soul Refining School, Dongfang Ming was not a genuine member of the school. He had crafted many soul armaments for the Soul Refining School, but not once had he ever taught the art of crafting to anyone within the school. Not even Mo Ni was able to learn the art from him. 

They were collaborators with mutually-aligned goals, but nothing more.

Mo Ni and the Black Dragon King joining the battle wouldn’t change much. It wasn’t the right timing for it. Ideally, they should wait until the battles with the Late-stage Soul Emperors finished to see what they could do.

……

On the other side of the battlefield, Li Chengfeng was flying toward another area to help.

Yang Yao had seen better days. He had the same power as an Early-stage Soul Emperor after being injured by both Lin Dongxiao and Dongfang Ming. Likewise, Hu Yang was also fighting in a sub-optimal state. The two of them combined could only just barely hold the fort in their battle against Huo Zhenting.

“Eh?!”

Li Chengfeng felt a sense of foreboding the moment before he could join the fray. Immediately, he shifted direction and flew off to the side.

“Whoosh!!”

A blood-red beam of light shot across the sky with impeccable speed straight toward Li Chengfeng!

As vigilant as ever, Li Chengfeng watched as the streak drew closer and closer to him with gnarled teeth. Waving his hand, he summoned the same orange shield to protect himself once again.

“Boom!!”

The blood-red streak of light slammed into the orange shield with a deafening explosion. Small amounts of blood trickled from Li Chengfeng’s lips from the damage dealt to his soul armament, but he was ultimately fine, if not a little shocked.

The surface of his shield began to crack in places. A faint-red light exuded from within the cracks as if the shield was dangerously close to breaking apart.

“So they came after all…” Li Chengfeng muttered to himself, “But where’s the other two? Are they going to wait? But for what?”

He looked worried about something. His left hand rose up to tap at his chest where the Heart Compass was stored.

“This premonition I have…do they have some kind of trump card we haven’t seen yet?”

“Roar!!”

A loud roar interrupted his thoughts. Looking back, Li Chengfeng watched as a sea of blood-red light flood the area around him!

…………

……

Meanwhile, within the Interdimensional Phantasm.

“Huff…huff…”

The bent-over personage of Bai Yunfei could be seen within a sea of flames. Right now, he was gasping for breath. Plumes of white smoke radiated from his person as if he or his sweat was being steamed.

“Are you alright?”

Xiao Qi’s voice spoke into Bai Yunfei’s mind.

“I am, don’t worry…”

He gave a grimace to his avian companion.

Dongfang Ming stood above the two of them, two dark-red balls of light floating right beside him. He was smirking at them.

“You’re weaker than before, could it be you’ve used up all your strength? My poor junior…you disappoint me if that’s all you have to offer…”

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