Chapter 474: Thousand Fox Phantasm
The Cataclysmic Seal protected Bai Yunfei from the fox’s fireball, allowing Bai Yunfei to step forward from the crater. Gripping the Fire-tipped Spear tightly, he flew towards the fox to stab him!
“Whoosh!!!”
But before he was even halfway to the fox, Bai Yunfei felt his eyes start to blur a bit, and then the fox had suddenly….disappeared from sight?!
Startled, Bai Yunfei began to turn around, but then his eyes started to blur again and the fox suddenly reappeared right in front of him! It hadn’t moved at all from its original direction, but its sharp claws were just moments away from stabbing into his chest!
“Bang!”
Bai Yunfei raised his spear up just in time. The fox’s palm clashed with the shaft of the spear, but the claws were just long enough to scratch at the armor Bai Yunfei wore, creating sparks with the friction.
Stepping backwards, Bai Yunfei dodged another claw swipe from the fox to return to his original spot.
“An illusion!!”
When the bewitching fox disappeared the first time, Bai Yunfei felt his +12 spirit-resist ring pulsate; he was definitely in an illusion of some sort!
He never fought against an illusionist before. While illusions were a type of attack on the mind, it was still a whole field of its own.
And the illusions of the bewitching fox weren’t as shallow as to only affect his vision. It affected his soulsense as well!
Mind racing to find a solution, Bai Yunfei opted for the direct approach. Using the Flash Steps, Bai Yunfei flew straight for the bewitching fox faster than before!
The difference in speed surprised the fox, who screeched once in response. Then, right in front of Bai Yunfei’s eyes, the fox turned into three!
This was no mirror-image, this was an illusion!
A faint buzzing sound was heard in Bai Yunfei’s ears next. It came from all around him, making Bai Yunfei feel extremely wary.
The ring on his right hand was a constant source of fluctuation, rousing Bai Yunfei from the illusions just in time for him to feel a claw come straight for his head!
“Whoosh!!”
His spear came forward as well. The tip of it proved mighty enough to break through the fox’s elemental barrier and straight into its body!
But then….the body faded away!
Bai Yunfei felt soulforce start to gather from his right. Looking there, he saw the fox suddenly leap at him to tear at his heart with its claw!
Hastily bringing up his spear, Bai Yunfei tried his best to protect himself. The fox’s claw struck the spear down in the middle with a clang, but the power behind the claw was far stronger than Bai Yunfei anticipated! Severing the spear in half, the claw went straight through it and penetrated into Bai Yunfei’s chest!
It was with glee that the fox admired its handiwork. But something felt off. The fox was sure that its claws hit something, since it felt the tactile feedback from the blow, but there was no blood! The corpse fell to the ground, and then out of sight!
All of a sudden, two more Bai Yunfeis came at the fox’s head from the left as if leaping out from a nightmare!
The +12 additional effect of the Fire-tipped Spear, Doppelganger!
Knowing it hadn’t enough time to defend itself, the fox threw itself to the right to just barely evade two spear strikes.
“Boom!!!”
One of the spears grazed across the fox’s skin and exploded with an ear-deafening explosion. A furious blast of energy concussed into its body, tossing the fox several meters through the air! The ground where the tip of the spear struck had been reduced to a crater about thirty meters large!
On top of the crater, Bai Yunfei stood there with slightly bent knees. Straightening himself up with his left hand on his spear, Bai Yunfei raised his right hand up to have the palm face the fox, who was trying to stabilize itself. The Ardent Sun Glove on his hand glowed a brilliant red light as a fireball about twenty meters in circumference formed over it. As soon as it formed, the fireball shot towards the fox with a speed far faster than it took to form!
It was like a bullet with its speed!
There was another flash of red light from the crimson-red bracelet on Bai Yunfei’s right wrist, and then, the fireball grew in size yet again!
“Whoosh!”
The fox was only just then brought its feet to the ground when the fireball had formed. By the time it was still and steady, the fireball was well on its way towards it. The initial explosion from the spear had left the fox speechless; it couldn’t believe that a spear could create such a devastating explosion like that….And by the time he looked back up, the fireball was nearly upon it!
Instinctively, the fox pressed all four of its feet to the ground. With a push so mighty that it left claw marks on the ground, the fox leapt several dozen meters up into the air just in time for the fireball to impact on the ground where it once been, exploding and wrecking havoc!
Airborne now, the fox focused elemental energy to its paws, allowing it to remain in the air. It threw itself to the side again to dodge another fireball from Bai Yunfei. Now in a safer position where it could catch its breath, the fox howled furiously!
A headache so strong that it felt akin to being stabbed in the head with several daggers slammed into Bai Yunfei’s mind the instant the fox howled. His body tottered unsteadily for a moment as he tried to regain his composure.
But when he looked back up, Bai Yunfei’s eyes flew wide open!
In that one moment he looked away, Bai Yunfei found himself….surrounded!
Thousands of bewitching foxes had suddenly surrounded Bai Yunfei for hundreds of meters around!
With their numerous numbers, not even the smallest of gaps could be exploited. They all looked alike, and their fangs were sharp and ready to attack.
This was the ultimate attack of the bewitching fox, Thousand Fox Phantasm!
When the art of Mesmerization reached the pinnacle of what it could accomplish, its best feats was in the aspect of ‘illusion’ rather than ‘seduction’! Projecting its image into the world, the fox could split its body so well that no enemy would be able to tell which one was the real one!
Thousands of foxes and only one of them being actually real. A situation like this meant that the fox could attack from anywhere at any given time!
Even if Bai Yunfei was the same level of strength as the fox, he very much doubted that he’d be able to tell where the fox was. If there was one thing he was certain of, it was that the fox didn’t escape.
The only problem was that he couldn’t tell which fox was the real one with how similar they looked to one another.
Any lesser soul cultivator would most likely give in to despair by this point and try to attack at the swarm carelessly. Some might try to defend themselves fruitlessly even, but Bai Yunfei wasn’t flustered. The Cataclysmic Seal flew up above him to protect him with a barrier. He stared at the thousand foxes around him with a small smile, his spear disappearing back into his ring.
Both of his hands blurred briefly before the Desert Eagles appeared in them both. Bai Yunfei’s right foot took a half-step backwards, his chest leaning slightly backwards to adopt a strange stance.
Gun-fu!!
Bai Yunfei narrowed his eyes. His body blurred together as he started to turn in all sorts of direction, the Desert Eagles in his hands shooting bullet after bullet in an endless stream of attack!
“Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!.....”
The only things that could be heard for the next few moments was the loud ringing sounds of gunfire. Nearly a thousand bullets fired, each one aimed carefully to take down a different fox!
Bai Yunfei wouldn’t be able to find out which fox was the real one if he used his soulsense. So he decided to rely on the bullets. The soulforce in the bullets would help them lock onto their targets, no matter if it was real or not!
“Over there!!”
Bai Yunfei came to a stop facing towards the left, his Desert Eagle pointing at one specific fox before firing off a round without hesitation!