Chapter 647: Victory
The explosion gradually dissipated away to reveal a now very dusky area where flames were still licking away at the remnants of Cheng Yao’s attack. With the hurricane more or less gone and the thunderclouds scattered, everyone could see that the skies were back to to their normal color and that the natural disaster-like image from before was gone as if it had only been an illusion before.
But the entire area was sweltering with heat as if there was now a severe drought in the area, reminding everyone that the events taking place here was indeed real.
“Yao’er!!”
A horrified cry erupted from the audience. A streak of purple light came flying from Wu Hong’s side with such great speed that the person moving had disappeared completely from sight just three meters after he moved. Reappearing half a kilometer away, the person was holding a person in his arms.
The one who suddenly came forth from the audience was the Minister of the Right, Cheng Huayu, and the person he was holding was his son Cheng Yao!!
Cheng Yao’s robes was in a raggedy state. Singed all over and his hair messy, Cheng Yao looked as if he had only just escaped from a burning wildfire. Having fallen from the skies before Cheng Huayu took him into his arms, Cheng Yao was having a hard time trying to stand right now. His entire body was trembling fiercely and his face was deathly white. But both of his eyes weren’t look at his father who saved him, but at the area where he fell from with a look of shock.
His lips trembled for a moment as if he was trying to search for the right words to say. Then, his mouth dropped open to ‘puke’ out a large amount of blood!!
“I…Impossible….I…I…I can’t….believe this!!!”
He spoke in between mouthfuls of blood. His eyes rolled over to the back of his head and then….he fainted!
“Yao’er!!”
Cheng Huayu cried out again before his entire body glowed purple in light as he transmitted his own soulforce into his son’s body to heal his wounds.
Cheng Huayu was a lightning-type mid-stage Soul King.
As he was feeding his son his soulforce, Cheng Huayu was also scanning Cheng Yao’s body with his soulsense in panic. After not seeing anything too serious, the panic in Cheng Huayu’s face faded away. He turned away to stare where Cheng Yao had fallen with wrathful indignation and even a bit of killing intent.
Floating a hundred meters high in the sky from where the elemental fire was still burning was a single person who slowly stepped forward and out from the fires.
It was Bai Yunfei.
Like Cheng Yao, his robes were in a state of disarray, but not as badly as the other. His face was slightly pale, his breathing hitched, and his soulforce slightly waned. But compared to Cheng Yao, Bai Yunfei was in a far better state.
By now, the spar in front of the nobles of the empire was over, and the result was….clear to see.
Bai Yunfei watched on as Cheng Huayu gave him a nasty glare with raised eyebrows. He wasn’t really afraid. He was sure that Cheng Huayu wanted to kill Bai Yunfei but couldn’t due to the current place they were in.
The sounds of footsteps echoed through the air as Wu Hong and the others came forward.
Bai Yunfei stood to attention and faced Cheng Yao being held by Cheng Huayu. “Lord Cheng, I’ve won.” He spoke ‘politely’.
It was an unkindly thing to say at the end of something and nearly led to Cheng Yao fainting again. There was a hiccup in his breathing as his lips trembled slightly. Reluctant and wanting to say something, Cheng Yao found himself unable to actually speak any words and could only think about how unbelievable it was for him to lose.
Bai Yunfei turned back to face Wu Hong and the others, “Your Majesty….” He began respectfully.
Wu Hong gave him a slight nod. “Very good. It was a wonderful fight between the two of you. I am pleased to see it.”
The ruler turned to Cheng Huayu and his son next, “How is Cheng Yao?”
Eyes still burning slightly with anger, Cheng Huayu managed to reply to the ruler, “Thank you for your concern, your Majesty. Yao’er is slightly injured, but nothing consequential.”
Anyone could tell that Cheng Yao was definitely not ‘slightly injured’, but Cheng Huayu would never admit that his son had been more than just ‘slightly’ injured by Bai Yunfei.
“Instructor Bai, are you alright?” Wu Yang rushed to Bai Yunfei to whisper to him.
“I’m fine, nothing consequential either.” Bai Yunfei shook his head.
Bai Yunfei was making use of the same lines as well. He might’ve looked a lot better than Cheng Yao, but he was putting up a good front to hide his pains. The battle just now had done a number onto him, and he was already having a hard time continuing to stand. His head felt like hundreds of needles were stabbing into him, and also, he felt slightly out of it.
But all in all, he was in a much better state than Cheng Yao.
“Whoosh!!”
A brilliant streak of multi-colored light came flying towards the group. As everyone turned their heads, the streak of light came to a sudden stop right in front of Bai Yunfei.
“Yunfei–are you alright?! What happened?”
A frantic voice came from within the streak of light before it disappeared, revealing a little bird in it.
It was Xiao Qi.
“Haha, it’s nothing. I was just comparing notes with somebody else, that’s all.”
He took Xiao Qi to introduce him to everyone else. “Your Majesty, this is my contracted soulbeast, his name is Xiao Qi.”
Using the bond between him and Xiao Qi, Bai Yunfei reminded the bird to be respectful to the people here. Chirping respectfully on Bai Yunfei’s shoulder, Xiao Qi spoke to both Wu Hong and Wu Hao, “Xiao Qi pays his respects to Your Majesty and Prince Hao.”
“Oh? This is your contracted soulbeast?” Wu Hong gave an appraising eye to Xiao Qi. “A class seven prisma oriole….how unprecedented, haha. Even your soulbeast is quite special….but why wasn’t he with you before?”
“I….” Bai Yunfei didn’t know to respond at first, but then he saw a small figure come running towards the group from a distance.
“Xiao Qi came with me to the Royal Palace, but then he went to play with Princess Wu Ping.” He admitted.
“Xiao Qi! Xiao Qi! Wait up for me! Why are you flying so fast, I can’t keep up!!”
Wu Ping’s half-tired cries could be heard as she ran towards Xiao Qi. When she realized Wu Hong and the others were here, she came to a screeching halt. Sticking her tongue out, she teetered to her father, “Father, uncle…”
Wu Hong shook his head helplessly, but his eyes had a doting light in them, “Ping’er, you snuck out to play again I see.”
“I….I was just trying to relax…” Wu Ping pouted. Seeing that her father wasn’t angry with her, she turned to obediently walk to where her fourth and first brother were.
“Your Majesty,” Cheng Huayu bowed to the ruler, “your humble servant wishes to return home to treat his son’s wounds, if Your Majesty will allow it.”
Wu Hong raised an eyebrow inquisitively, but he nodded. “The battle just now was a hard one and surely requires time to rest. I’ll allow it.”
“Thank you, Your Majesty, your humble servant will withdraw now!”
……
Cheng Huayu left with the injured Cheng Yao in tow, and Bai Yunfei took this pretense to leave as well. Saying only a few words more with the man, Bai Yunfei was granted permission to leave and left with Wu Yang leading him.
On the roads leading out from the Royal Palace, Wu Yang was staring at Bai Yunfei with wide-open eyes. “Instructor Bai,” He spoke at last, “you really are super amazing….Cheng Yao was on the same level as a Soul King almost, and yet you beat him so easily….”
He knew Bai Yunfei was a strong one ever since he defeated instructor Zhou Yu, but then today was the real icing on the cake to prove just how immensely strong Bai Yunfei was.
“Easily?? It wasn’t that simple…” Bai Yunfei shook his head with a laugh, touching the Charm Bracelet on his hand subconsciously, “I was actually in trouble there….”
In that battle when the Thundercloud Tempest was nearly upon him, Bai Yunfei found himself at a bit of a loss. He had only protected himself against half of the wind blades coming at him when the protection from the Cataclysmic Seal had failed him. Without being able to resupply the barrier with any more soulforce before it collapsed, Bai Yunfei knew he had to act now and make use of his strongest technique.
So he used the Charm Bracelet to activate his pseudo soul attack.
He put all his strength into the soul attack so that the Thundercloud Tempest would lose control for just even a little bit. Then in that pause, Bai Yunfei used the Dual Dragon Burst to further break the control Cheng Yao had on the technique.
Doing that had led to Bai Yunfei’s own body practically collapsing from exhaustion though. The ‘coil’ and ‘fusion’ form and then the soul attack had drained a great deal of strength from Bai Yunfei and made his head feel slightly light. If he was at his peak strength, using those three wouldn’t even had done much, but in his current weakened state and the traces of his soul still somewhat damaged, the fatigue the three things had on him was unexpectedly immense….
However, Bai Yunfei still learned a lot from this battle, and Bai Yunfei felt like the insights he gained from it was great.
