“……”
The beginnings of a sneer appeared on Bai Yunfei’s lips. It was a bitter reaction, one that made him curl his fingers into a fist.
It wasn’t that his strength had actually fallen, it was that the extra attributes he got from the Ardent Sun Glove had unfortunately disappeared.
He had hoped for a better outcome before the attributes wore off. Something like a more advantageous outcome for himself so he could have more breathing room for the fight later.
Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned. Not only had he failed to gain the advantage, but he was also the one being put at a disadvantage.
Bai Yunfei had seen many battles since he stepped into the world of soul cultivators, but this was a type of battle he had never experienced before.
It was stunning how the battle progressed. Bai Yunfei had practically thrown everything he had at Dongfang Ming while he still had the extra attributes, the Fire-tipped Spear, the Cataclysmic Seal, the Voidsplitter, the Chaotic Dual Dragon Burst, and so forth. And yet everything failed to do damage to Dongfang Ming—thanks to the two powerful soul armaments floating beside him.
It was because of his soul armaments that Bai Yunfei was able to be victorious in all his past battles. This was the only battle where his soul armaments had failed due to the soul armaments of another.
Neither of Dongfang Ming’s soul armaments were weaker than the Fire-tipped Spear or Cataclysmic Seal, offensively or defensively speaking. Bai Yunfei couldn’t find a single aspect where his owns arms had the advantage!
The grades of Dongfang Ming’s soul armaments had to be a high-heaven tier, but not just any regular one…they had to be demon armaments!!
A terrifying thought popped up in Bai Yunfei’s head then:
What if the enemy had more than two demon armaments…?
……
As Bai Yunfei suspected, the two balls of light that floated beside Dongfang Ming were demon armaments. An offensive-type and a defensive-type.
The offensive-type demon armament was a strange-looking longsword. It had two blades that curved outward twice like the number ‘8’ with the hilt attached at the bottom. Towards the top, the tip of the blades twisted around one another like a drill and had a dark-red light glowing around the entirety of its body.
The defensive-type demon armament was even stranger in shape. Half the height of an adult male, this demon armament was a shield in the shape of a ribcage with eight ribs. Like the other demon armament, the shield had a dark-red sheen to it, but its main body was primarily white and glossy that fluctuated rhythmically as if it was alive. Every so often, a black splotch could be seen within the light and seemed to take on the form of a small face. Each time it appeared, the air around the shield would seem to freeze.
Dongfang Ming’s sword was strong enough to force away both the Cataclysmic Seal and the Chaotic Dual Dragon Burst. Likewise, his shield was also able to stop the advance of the Fire-tipped Spear and even a soul armament-enhanced left punch from Bai Yunfei.
Each and every tactic or soul armament Bai Yunfei used to attack Dongfang Ming was rebuffed without even being able to cause a single strand of Dongfang Ming’s robes to be frayed…
Never had Bai Yunfei felt this experience of powerlessness. It was the very first time since his soul armaments had failed to help secure the advantage for him…
He should’ve had the advantage due to the terrain they were in. In the Phantasm, Bai Yunfei should’ve been able to have some kind of satisfaction. But that didn’t come true. Not even Lin Xiangtian from the Beast Taming School had been this difficult to fight and when the situation was reversed.
The Phantasm should’ve given Bai Yunfei the absolute advantage. No enemy should’ve been able to do much to turn the tides when their ability to manipulate energy was crippled. The regular soul cultivator would be absolutely crippled in such a situation, but Dongfang Ming? Bai Yunfei never even saw the man use any elemental energy to attack him. He didn’t even recall his own soul armament’s ability to bounce back elemental attacks ever activating.
Dongfang Ming wasn’t using any soul attacks either. He clearly knew about Bai Yunfei’s ability to reflect such attacks and wasn’t going to take any chances for Bai Yunfei to have a win condition.
“Tch!! How do I even fight this?!”
Bai Yunfei clicked his tongue. The demonic body Dongfang Ming had annoyed him to no ends. Him fighting an opponent with an immortal body felt like he was fighting an uphill battle. Not only was it uphill, but Bai Yunfei wasn’t even making any progress up that hill. Any attempt was rebuffed and sent him back to square one.
“If physical and elemental attacks don’t work…then I’ll just have to use soul attacks then!!”
Waving his left hand, Bai Yunfei threw out the Cataclysmic Seal once again. Magnifying to over a hundred times its original size, the brick flew off with devastating speed toward Dongfang Ming.
“What a strange soul armament. It’s powerful, but power is useless if it can’t be used properly.”
Dongfang Ming laughed to himself as he ascended to the sky. Beneath him, the Cataclysmic Seal sailed through where he had just been standing.
“Hm?”
His eyes flicked over to another spot to the left as soon as the Cataclysmic Seal flew past him. A jet-black beam of light was coming for his right eye!
“Freeze!!”
Dongfang Ming prepared to tilt his head to the side, but before he could, a voice suddenly exploded in his mind!
Eyes widening, Dongfang Ming began to make preparations to counteract whatever was being done to him, but his body was already slowing down.
“Whoosh!!”
The Voidsplitter grazed past his face and left a deep gash on it. One split-second later and it traveled through his right ear and tore it apart!
“Tzzk!!” Blood began to flow from the gash.
The sky flashed once with a violet light as Bai Yunfei appeared right on top of a violet streak of light!
The Heaven’s Thunder!
Rather than being taken back from the sudden blow, Dongfang Ming refocused on the task at hand at once. His eyes zoned in on the incoming sword with extreme concentration. One moment later and his strange bone-white shield was right there to protect him and his throat.
Though he was out of the direct path of the Heaven’s Thunder, Dongfang Ming still felt uneasy for some reason. Glancing back, he realized a violet streak of light come flying at him!
“Clang!! Boom!!”
Two things happened at the same exact time. First, the bone-white shield managed to stop the Heaven’s Thunder. Then, Dongfang Ming’s right hand gripped the demonic helix sword to break apart the second attack.
“Boom!!”
The sound of a tertiary explosion caused Dongfang Ming to snap his eyes wide-open. Whipping his head around, Dongfang Ming watched as a jar-sized Cataclysmic Seal careen away after slamming his shield away from him.
“Roar!!”
The roar of a dragon could be heard the moment the shield left Dongfang Ming’s vicinity. Two gigantic dragons had appeared in the blink of an eye!
The Chaotic Dual Dragon Burst!
Narrowing his eyes, Dongfang Ming readied the helix sword in his hand. Raising it up, he was about to send an elemental slash at the dragon when…
“Freeze!!!”
The same voice as before exploded into Dongfang Ming’s mind. Once again, Dongfang Ming felt his body start to become slugged!
“Boom!!”
Time is of the essence in any battle. A battle between Soul Emperors was no exception. If anything, time was even more crucial in such a case. Because of the soul attack, Dongfang Ming wasn’t able to raise his sword high enough in time before he was engulfed by the dragons!!
Bai Yunfei’s attack had been extremely swift! From the Cataclysmic Seal to the Chaotic Dual Dragon Burst…it was all done without a millisecond to waste!
“Hufff…huff…”
Both of Bai Yunfei’s arms hung by his side as he heaved large breaths of air. The red light around him was starting to fade in intensity much like a candle ready to be blown out.
Using two Soul Anchor Techniques in a row required a tremendous amount of soulforce. As things were now, Bai Yunfei was practically out of soulforce.
But he was happy to see that his attack landed and exploded into a sea of flames around Dongfang Ming. The raw amount of power from the Laws of Fire, Lightning, and Chaos filled him with a decent amount of satisfaction.
“Will this…do enough damage to him?”
He thought to himself. He was uncertain of the answer, but certainly not of what he should do next. Clapping both hands together, he began to form a series of complicated hand seals.
Once the last hand seal was finished, a flood of new soulforce poured forth from nowhere to fill his entire body. In one second, Bai Yunfei’s soulforce was back to full force!
Soul Ignition!!