Bai Xiaochun was quite pleased by all the looks of shock among the crowd that surrounded him. However, he didn’t allow any hint of that to show on his face, and in fact, pretended as if he couldn’t care less about what was going on.
After glancing at the tongue of flame in his palm, he looked up at the shocked Li Feng and said, “If ten-colored flame isn’t sufficient, well then... how about eleven-colored flame?!”
In response, the savages of the Blackmountain Tribe erupted into wild cheering, and the two soul cultivators let out shouts of surprise.
“Eleven-colored flame.... Only terrestrial necromancers can conjure that! No wonder....”
Zhou Yixing gasped, and up in the air, Li Feng was trembling.
Before any of them could say anything, Bai Xiaochun’s eyes glittered with profound light. The time had come to test out whether his previous analysis was correct or not. He sent some divine sense into the soulhoarding pagoda, which shivered as it began to belch out large quantities of vengeful souls.
As they filled the area, coldness spread out, an ill wind that made the place seem like a land of death. Even as the vengeful souls howled and attempted to flee, Bai Xiaochun said, “Flame, disperse!”
He waved his hand, and the ten-colored flame spread out in all directions to form a huge sea of fire. Yet again, the onlookers backed away in fear.
Ten-colored light filled the sky, and the wind screamed as the intense power of the flame exploded out in all directions. The sea of fire was like a cyclone whipping about as it devoured all of the vengeful souls.
The mist-like strands that were the fleeing souls could not possibly have been fast enough to escape the flames, and it took only about thirty breaths of time before the entire 3,000-meter area surrounding Bai Xiaochun was completely devoid of any vengeful souls.
The sea of fire raged in shocking fashion around Bai Xiaochun, making it almost impossible to see him. Everyone in the area looked on with shock and terror, their hearts battered by waves of astonishment.
As of this moment, Bai Xiaochun truly looked like a sovereign of flame!
That was even more the case when he extended his right hand and said, “Form!”
It was only a single word, but it seemed to contain the power of magical law, a power that forced the fire in the area to begin to converge onto Bai Xiaochun’s palm, a process which took only the briefest of moments.
As he closed his fingers, every last bit of fire disappeared into his hand, after which, the entire audience looked on with bated breath and quivering hearts.
No one spoke. Zhou Yixing stood there, heart pounding, almost unable to believe what he was seeing, and at the same time, more nervous than ever before.
Bai Xiaochun’s expression was the same as ever, as if everything which was happening was beneath his interest. Of course, the truth was that he was feeling immensely proud of himself, and was reveling in the gazes of the audience. He even intentionally slowed his movements as he opened his fingers.
The moment his fist opened up... a tongue of flame appeared, the heat of which caused everything in the surrounding 3,000-meter area to ripple and distort. An intense sensation of deadly crisis filled the hearts of all present, and everyone was certain that the slightest touch of that flame would reduce them to nothing but ashes.
At the same time, thunder rumbled in the sky above; the appearance of the flame had provoked a heavenly sign!
All eyes were fixed dead on the flame, which had become the most dazzling and eye-catching thing in existence to the people present!
At the same time, the ground beneath Bai Xiaochun’s feet began to melt, as if it couldn’t endure the intense heat of the flame.
However, Bai Xiaochun himself wasn't harmed in the least!
The numerous colors within the flame danced and leapt, making it difficult to see the number of colors clearly. However, anyone who focused the power of their cultivation base on their eyes would quickly be able to tell that the flame... had eleven colors!!
Shockingly, it was... eleven-colored flame!!
A short silence prevailed, after which the entire audience erupted into shouts of excitement and praise, causing a sound wave to roll out in all directions.
“Is that really eleven-colored flame!? I've never seen eleven-colored flame in my entire life!!”
“Eleven-colored flame. Eleven-colored flame! Grandmaster Bai isn’t at the master rank, he’s a terrestrial necromancer!!”
“A terrestrial necromancer.... A person like that would be welcomed with full honors in any necromancer clan. In fact, it would be the same even in Giant Ghost City!!”
The savages were completely overwhelmed, and as for the two soul cultivators, they were virtually struck mute. Shaking physically, they looked at Bai Xiaochun in disbelief, feeling like they might collapse at any moment.
“Terrestrial... terrestrial necromancer...?”
“He’s a terrestrial necromancer!!” Upon recovering their wits to some extent, they immediately flopped down and began to kowtow, their hearts filled with awe and reverence. To them, a terrestrial necromancer... was the type of grand entity that could shake all the lands with the single stomp of a foot!!
And just such a person was standing right in front of them! Then the two of them contemplated how they had just suggested that he return the soulhoarding pagoda they had offered. Despite how vaguely they had made the suggestion, the mere fact that they had struck them both with deep levels of fear and panic.
If they had such a reaction, it almost wasn’t necessary to mention Li Feng, whose eyes were on the verge of popping out of his skull. Shivering physically, he suddenly dropped out of the air and landed onto the ground.
“Grandmaster, please calm yourself....” he said, ashen-faced, his fear going so deep that his soul began to tremble. The fact that he had possibly offended someone he should never have offended caused his hair to stand on end, and filled his heart with a sea of bitterness and grief.
At the same time, he was stunned that an illustrious terrestrial necromancer would concoct soul medicine for a small tribe just to get a soulhoarding pagoda....
Zhou Yixing was equally flabbergasted, and was staring with brightly shining eyes at Bai Xiaochun. Earlier, he had had his doubts, and had even felt scorn for Bai Xiaochun, but now, he was fully convinced of what kind of person he was, and his heart began to burn with fervor.
He knew for a fact that this necromancer hadn’t been able to conjure eleven-colored flame before. Then, after not much time passed at all, he conjured that very flame with complete ease, even perfection. It left Zhou Yixing completely shaken and in awe.
More than that, he actually felt that it was good fortune for him to have become the follower of a terrestrial necromancer! That was especially because of the ease with which he conjured flame. Clearly, this Necromancer Bai was spectacularly talented, and that meant that there was always the possibility that he would reach the celestial rank! Since Zhou Yixing was his first follower, and had no one else to compete with, that meant it would be easier to curry favor.
Having reached this point in his train of thought, Zhou Yixing’s zeal and devotion grew.
Bai Xiaochun stood there for a moment, basking in the gazes, and then cleared his throat and looked over at Li Feng.
“Alright, alright, an important person like me wouldn’t stoop to the level of causing problems for someone like you. Although, considering how talented you seem, you really need to listen to me when I tell you to keep a low profile.... Look at how awesome I am! And yet, did you ever see me going around trying to show off?” He waved his hand, storing the eleven-colored flame away in his bag of holding. Then he swished his sleeve, keeping his chin stuck up as he sauntered back toward his immortal's cave.
Li Feng chuckled bitterly in his heart. As far as he was concerned, if this grandmaster considered himself to be keeping a low profile, then he obviously had no idea what it meant to do the opposite. However, he didn’t dare to speak such words aloud. All he did was gratefully voice his agreement. At the same time, he had similar thoughts to the ones Zhou Yixing had just had.
“If I could become a follower of this terrestrial necromancer, and receive some occasional pointers, that would be good fortune for me.... And what if he even agreed to teach me some things…?” Life as a rogue cultivator was hard, and people like Li Feng would rarely get a chance to even see a terrestrial necromancer. Therefore, he gritted his teeth and decided that, no matter what happened, no matter how much fawning or fighting it took, he would become this necromancer’s follower.
At that point, he subconsciously glanced over at Zhou Yixing and thought, “This guy must already be one of his followers. I've got to do better than him!”
Zhou Yixing noticed Li Feng’s glance, and could guess what he was thinking. Less than pleased, he decided to keep his guard up even more than before. “There’s no way I’m going to let this guy surpass me as a follower!!”
Both of them could see the hostility in each other’s glances.