Chapter 260: The End of a Battle

By the time the beast tamer jerked his head to look at the Cataclysmic Seal, the soul armament had already ‘pulled’ into the air, and under his terrified gaze, it flew up to strike him down!!

If he could scream, the man would surely have this to say to the heavens, “Don’t joke with me!! How could a whelp, an early-stage Soul Ancestor have such a strong control over a strong soul armament like this!?”

The shine from the Cataclysmic Seal was enough to send the elder into a fluster, but he wasn’t stupid enough to sit around and wait for his death. Pumping even more soulforce into his feet, he pushed against the air to travel as fast as he could to get out of the soul armament’s range.

“Bang!”

One loud crack later, the Cataclysmic Seal slammed into the elder’s body with a speed equally as fast as the elder. Unable to stop himself from coughing out a mouthful of blood, the pale-faced elder did his best to grit his teeth and use the momentum from when he was hit to aid his escape.

The next second caused the elder to feel yet another moment of despair!

A blaze of fire erupted forth from the Cataclysmic Seal and coiled around his body as if it were a snake!

The +10 effect of the Cataclysmic Seal: the Flame Twister!

Cooldown of 1 minute.

With the Cataclysmic Seal above the elder, it made an immediate descent down to the mountain peak below!

“Boom!!!”

This time, the immediate descent was far beyond terrifying in comparison to before. The resulting tremors were violent enough to kick the loose dust and stones into the air, and without any further obstructions, the Cataclysmic Seal embedded itself into the mountain!

With that, the hundred-meter-tall mountain collapsed to the ground!

The black-robed man, who was already kilometers away, paused momentarily at that with eyes filled with fear.

The aura of the beast tamer had been snuffed out a second ago!

“He’s dead… he’s dead!!!” The black-robed man cried out to himself in extreme disbelief. He was once part of a group of four: two Soul Exalts and two Soul Ancestors.

Yet, a single early-stage Soul Ancestor had wiped out three of them!!

Despite the restlessness and disbelief, his soulsense was confirming the reality of the situation.

Increasing his escape without even looking back, the man disappeared into a blur of shadows as he flew into a nearby forest and out of sight…

Time hadn’t even past two minutes since the appearance of the Cataclysmic Seal, but in those two minutes, a late-stage Soul Ancestor and an early-stage Soul Exalt had been killed without any resistance!!

The sole survivor, a mid-stage Soul Exalt, was forced to flee in fear despite being filled with bravado during the entirety of the fight before!!

……

Both Jiang Fan and Song Lin were supporting each other by the shoulders as they stared blankly at the collapsed mountain in front of them and the almost fully buried body of the Cataclysmic Seal.

An early-stage Soul Exalt; squished to death by such a baffling entity!? He was a Soul Exalt! A being that could be said to be strong in any area without a doubt!!

“Ugh…” Jiang Fan hissed as the wounds on his body dragged him out of his daze. Swiftly after that, his head grew flushed before he let loose a cough of blood from his mouth.

Remembering that Jiang Fan was heavily injured with a start, Song Lin hurried to stabilize the swaying Jiang Fan. Song Lin himself was injured, but he was able to handle his wounds enough to ask Jiang Fan, “Jiang Fan , are you alright?”

Though Jiang Fan waved his hand and tried to reassure Song Lin, his wounds forced him to cough out yet another mouthful of blood. On his chest was a horrifyingly deep wound with several other major wounds adorning the other parts of his body. Were he any regular person, each one of these wounds would’ve been fatal. His left shoulder, though uninjured, had several strands of black energy twirling around as it drooped uselessly by his side.

It seemed that he was unable to move it.

All of a sudden, the sound of rocks and dirt being dislodged could be heard, causing the two men to look up in surprise. The very first thing they could see was an object coming out of the crater from where the Cataclysmic Seal crashed into the earth. Neither of the two were able to clearly see what the object was other than the fact that it was glowing red. It quickly shot off to their left to where Bai Yunfei was.

Back in its original form, the Cataclysmic Seal returned to Bai Yunfei’s side. From within the red light, a small fire came floating out.

It was Bai Yunfei’s essence fireseed.

The only thing was that the essence fireseed wasn’t as bright as it once was. Not only was it dimmer, it was also smaller—similar to a flame that’d be snuffed out of existence if a small wind were to blow on it.

After the essence fireseed slowly melted back into Bai Yunfei’s chest, his face went pale and sweatdrops began to drip down his face. It seemed as if he couldn’t feel a thing, and even the zealous killing intent from before was nowhere to be seen and was replaced by a look of anxiety.

Lowering his head, Bai Yunfei began to take notice of what shape Tang Xinyun was in. Wisps of black energy intermittently rose from her face as if she had been cursed. Her eyes were closed shut, and her eyebrows were knit together. Her pearly-white teeth were clenched together as if suffering from an unimaginable amount of pain.

Her suffering was a stab to Bai Yunfei’s heart. Regret flooded his mind in an endless wave as if he was being cursed by Mara.

He grabbed at Tang Xinyun’s wrist and attempted to push his soulforce into her to help her heal, but when she let out a cry of pain from his attempt, he let go of her hand as quickly as he could.

There was some sort of bizarre energy in Tang Xinyun’s body that was stopping Bai Yunfei’s soulforce from entering her body, and his attempts to do so only served to make the pain even worse for her.

As if being swallowed, Tang Xinyun’s soulforce was growing fainter and fainter. Bai Yunfei was at a complete flummox and a loss for what to do.

“Soulforce… oh right! The ring that can replenish soulforce!” A spark of realization popped into Bai Yunfei’s mind. Tearing off the soulforce replenishing ring on his left hand, he placed it on one of Tang Xinyun’s fingers.

“Ungh…” Another pain-filled cry came from Tang Xinyun’s mouth, but it wasn’t as loud as before. In fact, she looked slightly more comfortable and relieved than before, though she was still in danger.

“It’s not enough! Dammit, why do I only have one of those!!” Bai Yunfei cursed himself. From her situation, Bai Yunfei could infer that Tang Xinyun’s soulforce was being eaten away faster than she could regain it. Not only was her soulforce being taken away, her very soul was being attacked!

Her life was in danger!

“I’ll have to use the spirit accessories to stall for time!” Bai Yunfei decided as he fitted Tang Xinyun with the said accessories.

Just then, the sound of wind being displaced could be heard, causing Bai Yunfei to look up just in time to see a green light flying toward him. Within a single second, the light landed several meters away and disappeared to reveal two figures: Xiao Binzi and Cang Yu.

As soon as Cang Yu was seen, she flashed toward Tang Xinyun’s side and cried out, “Xinyun, what’s wrong!?”

Tang Xinyun wasn’t even able to hear her, let alone reply…

Realizing help was here, Bai Yunfei was quick to start to beg the two to help him, “First elder, third elder! Please save Xinyun, something’s eating away her soulforce!”

Cang Yu’s face grew dark as she listened to Bai Yunfei. Studying Tang Xinyun’s face with even more anxiety than before, she grabbed Tang Xinyun’s hand and tried to transmit her soulforce into Xinyun.

“Third elder, don’t do—” Nearly leaping up in surprise, Bai Yunfei was about to shout out a warning when Cang Yu’s eyes narrowed and she released Tang Xinyun’s hand. Her reaction to Tang Xinyun predicament was far faster than Bai Yunfei’s, so Tang Xinyun didn’t feel any pain when Cang Yu pulled back.

Gravely, Cang Yu turned her head to Xiao Binzi, “Senior, Xinyun is in an odd predicament. This isn’t something elemental darkness should normally cause…”

“Eh?” Xiao Binzi muttered as he moved toward Bai Yunfei. He stared at Tang Xinyun for several seconds before pressing against her right arm with his own hand. After a moment’s study, his eyes flashed brightly as if discovering something.

“First elder, what’s wrong with Xinyun? Please save her!” Even though Bai Yunfei could tell that Xiao Binzi was deep in thought, he still couldn’t help but plead with him.

Xiao Binzi nodded slowly, “Yunfei, don’t worry. Her life is not in danger…”

Bai Yunfei felt relieved at that, “Really? He asked, “As long as Xinyun isn’t in trouble, that’s go—”

Before he could finish what he wanted to say, Bai Yunfei felt a wave of lightheadedness hit him. The next second, Bai Yunfei felt his body lock up, and his eyes fluttered before he fell to his knees and fainted.