Chapter 209: Of Doppelgangers and Victory!
Taking advantage of the stunned look on Bai Yunfei’s face, Chen Huanghua brought his sword back up. With the same sinister smile and mocking eyes, he swung the sword back down onto Bai Yunfei who couldn’t even move anywhere now!
He was a merciful person, his blade would only target the outermost side of Bai Yunfei’s right shoulder so that not much damage would be dealt. In the best case scenario, Bai Yunfei would be able to dodge completely, but Chen Huanghua would be able to make a simple follow-up for the victory. Other than that, Bai Yunfei would dodge and come out with a grievous wound.
Bai Yunfei was shocked, but not as shocked as Chen Huanghua thought. As the giant sword came whistling down on his shoulder, Bai Yunfei’s eyes lit up brightly. Stabbing the spear into the ground with his left hand, Bai Yunfei swung his right arm up. Soulforce not as weak as Chen Huanghua began to blaze out from Bai Yunfei and gather around his right arm, and just moments later, a 1.6 meter long blade made of fire materialized over it!
The Winged Flame Blade!
Billowing tall with great flames, the blade flew up in a perpendicular fashion from Bai Yunfei’s arm. If neither of the two stopped what they were doing, then the giant sword would hit the Flameblade Bracer, and the Winged Flame Blade would strike Chen Huanghua in the shoulder!
The instant appearance of the blade caused Chen Huanghua’s eyes to dilate. The fact that such a terrifying looking blade could appear out of nowhere had been startling, but his sword would continue in its downward stroke. He twisted his hand so that the blade flipped to the flat side coming down, simultaneously blocking the flame blade coming up at him.
“Poof!!”
Upon impact, the blade dissipated like a wave striking against a hard surface and engulfed Chen Huanghua’s entire body in a bubble of fire!
“Swish!”
An arc of orange light cut through the ball of fire, clearing it apart and revealing the angry looking Chen Huanghua. Taking a step forward, he prepared to attack again.
But in that next step, something caused him to look startled!
The feeling of danger assaulted his senses, and from just the corner of his eye, the Fire-tipped Spear was coming straight at him!
And...a second one!!
Two Bai Yunfei’s were coming at him from the left and right with a spear in hand ready to strike!
“Mirror images!” Chen Huanghua had ‘realized’ what was going on at first glance, but whichever one that was ‘real’ was lost on him.
Even the soulforce coming from the two were completely identical, making identifying the real one from the fake one impossible!
“Damnit, what kind of soul skill would be capable of mirror images like this!” Left with no time to authenticate the real one from the fake, Chen Huanghua let loose an angry roar. Gritting his teeth, he grasped his sword and swung at the spear wielding Bai Yunfei from the right.
“Clank!” There was a metallic ring of metal hitting metal.
“Got it!” Chen Huanghua’s face lit up excitedly.
“Pow!!”
The elation he was only just feeling fell away to a stinging sensation from the left part of his waist, causing him to stagger backwards a step.
“Wha—what’s going on!!” Chen Huanghua’s mind went blank. He just simply couldn’t understand what was going on in front of him; was the one on the left the ‘real’ one?!
Almost instinctively, Chen Huanghua grasped his sword tightly and swung at the two incoming people...only to hit nothing but air! Absolutely nothing was in front of him!
“……”
And another second later, his entire person suddenly went stiff like a statue as if afraid to move even a finger….
The glowing red point of a spear was placed right next to the right side of his throat. The point of the spear was burning brightly, but all Chen Huanghua could feel was a freezing sense of cold throughout his body.
Right behind him, Bai Yunfei could be seen holding the spear with the same indifferent expression on his face.
The entire area went quiet; not a single person could do a thing but stare there in absolute shock. Bai Yunfei’s surprise counterattack had been completely unexpected by everyone.
Not a single one of them had thought that this battle between strong opponents would be so easily resolved.
……
Seeing how Chen Huanghua’s sword was stabbed disappointedly into the ground and how its owner was standing perfectly still, Bai Yunfei smiled.
His right hand shook slightly so as to store away his spear. “Junior Chen, thank you for letting me win!”
Chen Huanghua’s entire body was shaking dreadfully and his face was a pale shade of white. He was unable to accept such a result. He had been beaten, and by a complete mystery to boot!
But the facts were as they were. No matter how much he might be unwilling to accept this result, he was thoroughly beaten by this new ‘senior’ right in front of everyone else.
Slowly turning around, he cupped his fists together with a reluctant face. Unwillingly, he spoke, “....Senior Bai. You win. I’ve nothing else to say.”
The bravado he had been displaying before was surprisingly nowhere to be found here. He had no excuses, and even Bai Yunfei could see that there was a slight change to how he was acting now.
With a jovial smile and wave of his hands, Bai Yunfei replied, “We were only just comparing notes, there’s no need for junior Chen to pay too much attention to this.”
“Senior Bai, I’ve stuff to do so I’ll be leaving first.” Unable to handle the strange looks he was getting from everyone else, he spoke quickly to Bai Yunfei before turning around to leave.
“Junior Chen, one moment!”
“Senior Bai, what other advice did you want to give?”
“We of the same school should always be willing to help one another. I hope that in the future you’ll try not to make trouble for Si Kongxian and the other juniors.”
“.....” Chen Huanghua was silent for a moment before replying, “If that is what senior Bai says, then I will do so in the future. Goodbye!”
……
The people watching from the outside cleared a path for Chen Huanghua to walk through before he finally disappeared from sight.
The group of people began to talk to one another about the fight they had just bore witness to. No matter if they were students of the inner or outer school, they talked. But when Bai Yunfei’s eyes fell on them, they all turned away and the conversations went quiet as if they were afraid of him.
Not even bothering to speak warning or threat to the crowd, Bai Yunfei looked back to the awestruck Si Kongxian nearby, “Well then, let’s go back.”
Si Kongxian had been so excited from the match that his face was flushed red, and even now, he was still enthralled by the fight he had just seen. Giving Bai Yunfei a look of worship, he spoke, “Sen—senior Bai, you’re...you’re amazing! I thought that you two would fight to a draw, but the fight was over that fast! What was the last two moves you did? It was so cool! Was that a soul skill or something?”
Smiling, Bai Yunfei nodded his head, “Something like that.”
And so under the fearful eyes of the other students there, Bai Yunfei and Si Kongxian started to walk away from the caves. Not before long, another person came calling out to them, “Junior Bai, one moment!”
Halting in his footsteps, Bai Yunfei turned around to watch as a purple-robed young man come walking towards him. The fact that Bai Yunfei was being called a ‘junior’ meant that this person was also a disciple.
This person was called Ling Yan, the third disciple of Kou Changkong and a middle-stage Soul Ancestor.