Chapter 80: A Bout with Yao Chen!
On the mountain peak brushed by clear winds, Yao Chen was a soul body, and by all rights should no longer feel heat or cold. Yet now, a chill ran from head to toe throughout his entire being.
"Who's there?!"
With a fierce shout, Yao Chen's figure drifted, pulling Xiao Yan behind him. Terrifying soul power ceaselessly swept the surroundings; no anomaly nearby could escape his eyes.
"To think I would meet Mister Yao Chen here in the northwest continent. Even in my Hun clan, Mister Yao Chen's name is like thunder to the ears!"
A cold voice rang out. From the distant horizon, a figure in white robes with an extraordinary bearing rapidly approached. With every step he took, the distance between them shrank by a fraction, as if teleporting. In the blink of an eye, he arrived right before Yao Chen and Xiao Yan.
Hearing Yun Yi's words, Xiao Yan still looked utterly bewildered, merely gazing at Yun Yi with eyes full of envy, his gaze brimming with yearning for strength.
Yao Chen, on the other hand, stared fixedly at Yun Yi, his eyes alight with bone-deep hatred. His voice trembling slightly, he spoke:
"You are from the Soul Hall!!!"
Looking at Yun Yi, Yao Chen simply couldn't associate the man before him, with his outstanding bearing, with those people who exuded an utterly chilling aura and laughed with strange, eerie cackles.
As for the difference between the Hun clan and the Soul Hall, in his eyes there was none. It was just the Hun clan wearing a different skin; they were still the same detestable bunch who collected soul bodies everywhere.
"Should Mister Yao Chen not first fulfill my wish? I would also like to know just what kind of cultivation method it is that can actually evolve!"
"Might Mister Yao Chen be able to satisfy my curiosity?"
Toward Yao Chen's furious glare, Yun Yi was not surprised. He simply gazed calmly at the Medicine Sovereign.
"Hmph!"
"That I, this old man, have come to such an end is all thanks to you people! And now you dare humiliate me so? Do you truly think I am so easily bullied now?!"
"A mere Dou Huang like you dares to come hunting for this old man? Today, you shall meet your death here!"
After the initial shock subsided, Yao Chen had already discerned Yun Yi's strength: a three-star Dou Huang. To possess such cultivation at this age—worthy of a prodigy from an emperor clan.
But he was no pushover either. A Dou Huang daring to come after him—this was truly going too far.
"A Dou Huang—"
Xiao Yan, protected behind Yao Chen, now looked at Yun Yi with a face full of shock. He hadn't imagined that this young man, who looked about the same age as him, was actually a Dou Huang.
Terrifying beyond measure!
"You want to kill me?"
"You're not qualified yet!"
With a sneer, Yun Yi's expression instantly turned frigid. A terrifying killing intent erupted from within him, his full aura, comparable to that of a Dou Zong, blazing forth.
"Trouble!"
"Little one, go find that little girlfriend of yours. Whether the bond of master and disciple between us survives will be up to the heavens!"
Feeling Yun Yi's terrifying aura, Yao Chen sighed. With a wave of his hand, a force enveloped Xiao Yan and sent him away from the battlefield.
"Teacher—"
Xiao Yan, whose worldview had been constantly crumbling, felt himself being carried uncontrollably away and looked at Yao Chen with panic. Everything he had experienced today had been far too much, enough to reshape his entire worldview. Now, his instinct was to cling to his powerful teacher.
"This old man won't just meekly await capture!"
With another sigh, Yao Chen's expression immediately hardened. Vast power burst forth from his illusory soul body, approaching the Dou Zong level.
"Prey that meekly awaits capture is far too dull anyway!"
Staring coldly at the white flames igniting on Yao Chen's body, Yun Yi spoke in an icy tone. The ambient energy of the world began to churn, ready to unleash a heaven-shaking strike at any moment.
"Soul-Burying Finger!"
At a certain moment, a pitch-black radiance suddenly condensed at Yun Yi's fingertip—a profound darkness, as if it could devour everything.
With a single point of Yun Yi's finger, the surrounding air instantly froze. The black light flared violently, and a remarkably slender ray of light shot out.
The speed of the ray was terrifyingly fast. Wherever it passed, space quaked, and a faint pitch-black scar slowly appeared across the dark night sky, looking rather inconspicuous.
Watching the black ray tear through space towards him in an instant, Yao Chen raised his palm lightly. The bone-white flame lingering between his fingers fiercely blazed to life, slowly condensing into a giant beast shape.
Compared to Han Feng's Sea Heart Illusion Beast back then, this one was far more lifelike!
"Alchemy Flame Skill!"
"Roar—"
With a low roar, a massive white flame lion took form and charged toward the black ray with a furious bellow.
"Boom—"
The pitch-black ray and the white lion collided violently. In an instant, a thunderous boom resounded across the blue sky. A terrifying energy shockwave surged forth from the point of collision, and that colossal pressure swept across the entirety of Wu Tan City. Everyone trembled, staring in horror at the white light in the distance.
"What is this???"
"Is it divine punishment?"
"This kind of power... even a Dou Huang couldn't match this, right?"
Countless people stared in shock at the site of the energy explosion. Even from a great distance, the oncoming energy shockwaves still made everyone's expressions change drastically. They trembled with fear, unable to stand.
"That place is—"
"It's the Xiao family! Clan Leader, that's the Xiao family's territory!"
"The Xiao family? Could it be that the Xiao family has encountered some formidable enemy?"
"Heh, whatever the situation, it's best if the Xiao family gets caught in the fallout. Wu Tan City can't accommodate too many families!"
Wu Tan City's two other great families, the Ao Ba clan and the Jia Lie clan, echoed similar sentiments, coldly watching the Xiao family's misfortune.
"That's the back mountain!"
"Yan'er..."
Xiao Zhan, however, was frantic at this moment. He had already recognized the source of the energy—it was the Xiao family's back mountain. Today, he had personally seen Xiao Yan head toward the back mountain.
Thinking of this, Xiao Zhan's face paled drastically. Stumbling, he rushed violently toward the back mountain.
"Ling Lao, what happened on the back mountain?"
In Gu Xun'er's room, feeling the tremors from the back mountain, Gu Xun'er had also lost her usual elegant composure and asked urgently.
As her words fell, a shadow silently appeared, half-kneeling before her. This person was one of Gu Xun'er's bodyguards in the Xiao family, Ling Ying.
"Miss."
"Two unidentified powerful fighters have appeared on the back mountain. Preliminary estimates indicate they possess strengths at the peak of Dou Huang, and Dou Zong, respectively!"
"Dou Zong!"
"Then Brother Xiao Yan!"
Gu Xun'er's expression changed slightly. Thinking of something, she asked anxiously, "Ling Lao, where is Brother Xiao Yan?"
"This..." Watching the esteemed young lady of the Gu clan care so much about the Xiao family's poor boy, Ling Ying could imagine what kind of shockwaves this would cause back within the clan.
"Young Master Xiao Yan seemed to head toward the back mountain after the test."
"What—"
"Brother Xiao Yan—"
A startled cry escaped her. Golden flames flickered in Gu Xun'er's eyes as she forced herself to calm down. She said to Ling Ying: "Ling Lao, go quickly and see what's happening. I do not wish for anything to happen to Brother Xiao Yan!"
Knowing her own strength was insufficient, and that her stronger guards would not act unless she herself faced a life-or-death crisis, Gu Xun'er could only rely on Ling Ying.
"Yes!"
With a respectful acknowledgement, Ling Ying's figure vanished into the shadows.
"Brother Xiao Yan, you absolutely must not come to any harm!" After Ling Ying left, Gu Xun'er gazed worriedly at the commotion on the back mountain and murmured distractedly: "If Brother Xiao Yan is harmed... Xun'er doesn't even know what she might do."
"Bang, bang, bang—"
The bone-white heavenly flame coalesced into a massive heavy ruler. The ruler's body traced afterimage after afterimage across the sky as it ferociously smashed down upon the white-robed figure before it with unparalleled force.
Yun Yi's expression was blank, merely brandishing a pair of iron fists relentlessly, tirelessly defending against Yao Chen's fierce onslaught.
"Boom—"
Deflecting yet another blow, feeling his power rapidly draining, Yao Chen looked at Yun Yi with a grave expression and said: "What a terrifying physique. If you hadn't said you were from the Hun clan, this old man would think I'd run into someone from the Shi clan!"
"Heh—" Hearing this, a cold smile touched the corner of Yun Yi's lips. "I am no brainless brute like those from the Shi clan."
"Alright, the warm-up is over. For dealing with a soul body, naturally, I must use my Hun clan's methods!"
Looking at the wary Yao Chen, Yun Yi smiled icily. As his voice fell, vast black mist surged out from around his body, just like the guardians of the Soul Hall. The difference was that within Yun Yi's black mist, there were those black spirits dancing everywhere.
"Hundred Soul Chains!"
As Yun Yi pointed, clanking and clattering chain sounds emerged, adding three more shades of eerie gloom to the pitch-black night. Black chains the size of human heads shot toward Yao Chen with lightning speed, wrapping around him.
The chains were exceptionally sharp, their tips covered in profound runes. Spiral patterns coiled around the tip, and under the infusion of energy, faint traces of evil aura seeped through.
This type of weapon was specially forged by the Soul Hall, uniquely effective at restraining soul bodies.
"The same old tricks!"
At the chains piercing through space toward him, Yao Chen sneered, yet he dared not be careless in the slightest. He was all too familiar with these things; after all, he had experienced them once during the last encirclement, and understood deeply the harm they could inflict on soul bodies.
Bone-white flames churned in his palm, then abruptly transformed into a fiery arrow that shot out, slamming heavily against the black chains.
"Bang!"
The two collided, a deep sound echoing. There was no overly violent energy explosion. Only a ring of energy ripples, pitch-black mixed with bone-white, silently spread outward.
"Yao Chen, your attacks seem to have weakened considerably!"
As Yun Yi's words fell, in the next moment, three chains passed through the energy ripples. Shooting forth in a crisscross pattern, they just happened to completely seal off all of Yao Chen's escape routes. Then, contracting layer by layer, they planned to capture him in one fell swoop.
"Even with only a tenth of my strength left, this old man can still annihilate a whelp like you from the Soul Hall!"
Even caught in a perilous situation, Yao Chen's expression remained unchanged. The Bone Chilling Flame in his hand blazed wildly, striking at the surrounding chains.
"Bang, bang, bang—"
The sound was overwhelming, yet Yao Chen failed to notice that whenever the Bone Chilling Flame attacked, a pitch-black flame would ignite within the chains. The might of the heavenly flame was silently and stealthily worn down to nothing.