Chapter 1224: The Power of A Core!
A counter-attack from the brink of death!!
Somehow, Bai Yunfei managed to spring up from a terrible position to turn the tides!!
It was an indisputable fact that he had been hit by his own soul attack. Faking it wasn't possible, not with how irregular the flow of his soulforce became when he was struck. Moreover, it seemed like his entire soul was back to normal, not even Soul Ignition was capable of restoring the soul like that.
So...how did he manage to do that?
Through the usage of the Soul Sealing Mandate!
+13 Additional Effect: Revert the state of the soul 10 seconds prior. Activated automatically when off cooldown and soul is in danger of destruction.
Cooldown of 24 hours.
Bai Yunfei was able to launch his counterattack because of this.
He nearly lost the ability to think when he was struck, but the Soul Sealing Mandate protected him just enough to grant him just enough sanity for him to activate the only thing he knew that could help him—the Soul Sealing Mandate with its +13 additional effect.
The activation of a soul armament required nothing more than a thought and a bit of soulforce, even less if it was a lifebound armament and Regalia like the Soul Sealing Mandate. The Regalia responded instantaneously to Bai Yunfei and took action at once. Like a warm gentle breeze in the middle of winter, Bai Yunfei's soul was touched by the Soul Sealing Mandate's ability and took away the pain at once. All at once, Bai Yunfei's strength had returned to him!
Ten seconds prior...that was when Bai Yunfei had only just used Soul Ignition. During that time, he hadn't used the Chaotic Dual Dragon Burst yet, so he was at his strongest!
So why had Bai Yunfei responded so quickly then? That was because he devised a plan immediately after his soul was restored. The moment he was back to normal, his soulforce exploded outward so he could seize the opportunity for a new attack!
His one punch contained all his anger for Dongfang Ming. One punch was all it required for him to absolutely destroy Dongfang Ming's right shoulder, but he wanted more to happen. And so...the Soul Sealing Mandate was casted out!
What better time to use it when Dongfang Ming's aura had dropped and he wasn't expecting it?
It was the perfect time and place for it. If he was any farther away, Dongfang Ming would've realized what was coming and could potentially dodge it.
"Bzz..."
The Soul Sealing Mandate began to buzz and emit a white light to capture Dongfang Ming within it!
"I did it!!"
Bai Yunfei's eyes lit up the moment he saw the Soul Sealing Mandate activate. Already, his heart was starting to beat wildly in anticipation.
The Soul Sealing Mandate had always been something like his ultimate move whenever he fought an extremely difficult opponent. It was his win condition as long as he could seal them with it.
As excited as he was, Bai Yunfei made sure to calm himself just enough. He was ready to activate the Core Stone at a moment's notice to transport Dongfang Ming into the Core World upon being sealed. One thought later and the Core Stone began to take effect.
But then...
He thought Dongfang Ming would be sucked into the Core World, but...he was still there!
"Yunfei! His soul is like a spirit, it's too strong for me to fully seal!!'
Soul Sealer spoke into Bai Yunfei's mind at once.
"What?!'
He was shocked. This wasn't something he expected to happen.
"Bzz..."
The Soul Sealing Mandate began to vibrate again, but this time not because of it activating its effect. The vibrations sounded like...it was being contested against!
Dongfang Ming was...fighting against the Soul Sealing Mandate!
The Soul Sealing Mandate was capable of sealing any soul, whether it belonged to soul cultivator or soulbeast. It could seal as long as it was indomitably stronger than the target, and that generally meant the Soul Sealing Mandate was able to seal most things. But the soul of a spirit...that was something that could reject the Soul Sealing Mandate!
Never had Bai Yunfei heard of such a case, but then again he never fought in a situation like this before. Dongfang Ming hadn't any one of the Ten Great Regalia, but...he was a demon armament on par of a Regalia. His own soul was the equivalent to a spirit of the armament!
That was the reason why Dongfang Ming was able to ward off the effects of Heavenfire's domain. And that was the reason why he was able to ward off the effects of the Soul Sealing Mandate!
And since he wasn't sealed by the Soul Sealing Mandate, that meant he was still able to move!
With him expecting Dongfang Ming to be sealed, Bai Yunfei wasn't ready for Dongfang Ming's next course of action. All he saw was a flash of blood-red light pour out from his right shoulder before an entire 'arm' exploded from his stump to grab onto the Soul Sealing Mandate!!
Needless to say, Bai Yunfei was shocked, but he wasn't going to let that happen. Gritting his teeth, Bai Yunfei lashed out with another punch!
"Bang!!"
This punch was aimed toward the torso where the heart should be. Landing with a satisfying thwack, the punch sent Dongfang Ming flying away like a cannonball.
Because of his quick reaction, Bai Yunfei was able to prevent Dongfang Ming from stealing the Soul Sealing Mandate. But by extension, Bai Yunfei failed to seal him away.
"Damn!!"
He cursed, but inwardly, Bai Yunfei was also relieved. Though it was regretful that he failed to seal Dongfang Ming, it was a good thing his Soul Sealing Mandate hadn't been stolen away. In the end, however, Bai Yunfei failed to finish up the battle and deal with the most troublesome enemy.
Luckily, Bai Yunfei was still in a better position regardless of the hiccups. He was in the best state of mind and body while his enemy was still in a terrible shape.
The punch he landed on Dongfang Ming earlier wasn't with the right hand, but the left. Compared to the right, his left hand was much weaker, but Dongfang Ming hadn't any defenses due to him being wholly concentrated on the Soul Sealing Mandate. Therefore, Bai Yunfei was able to create a large dent on Dongfang Ming's torso!
It was practically a hole in his chest that revealed a good portion of his innards. And among those innards was a beating red heart!
"That's his core!!"
Bai Yunfei's eyes zoned in on the object with great interest. He had seen such an object before in Qin Long, but that one was of an inferior quality. There was a great difference between that one and the 'real' one in front of him. The most noticeable difference was the quality of the aura around the core—it had the aura of a Regalia!
This core was of the same level of quality as a Regalia demon armament!
"If I destroy that then...we'll be able to kill the enemy!!"
Confidence filled Bai Yunfei once more as he reaffirmed the win condition. Stepping against his foothold, Bai Yunfei transformed into a blinding beam of light toward Dongfang Ming!
He already took notice of how quickly Dongfang Ming's wounds were rejuvenating. With time being a precious commodity, Bai Yunfei took action right away to throw a gray object at him!
The gray object flew toward Dongfang Ming's torso with even greater speeds than Bai Yunfei—it was aiming for three inches within the core!
The Voidsplitter!
It's ability was still on cooldown, but the Voidsplitter's +10 additional effect had yet to activate. That meant Bai Yunfei could have it try to pierce Dongfang Ming's core with additional force and see if that'd do any serious damage.
Then another startling development took place...
A new expression appeared on Dongfang Ming's face the moment the Voidsplitter was thrown from Bai Yunfei. An expression of maniacal fury!
The next change to take place happened in his aura. The light around him and his core dimmed in intensity, cutting the flow of soulforce to his wound and by extension, slowing down the rate of regeneration. Almost hypnotically, the light around the core swirled around it like a miniature whirlpool!
That was when the Voidsplitter made contact with Dongfang Ming. Bai Yunfei's aim was true, meaning the Voidsplitter had flown into the middle of the whirlpool!
There was no loud sound to explain the dagger hitting Dongfang Ming's core. Instead, it traveled deeper into the whirlpool and...disappeared into it!
It had sunk into the core!
"Bang!!"
Dark-red light exploded out from the whirlpool and cleared it away, revealing the core behind it at once. This time, the light around his core was shining brighter than before!
"Pfft!!"
Bai Yunfei clasped a hand to his mouth. Paling in the face, he expelled a large volume of blood out!
His soul armament had been destroyed!
"Im—impossible!!" He croaked in between mouthfuls of blood.
The Voidsplitter was his soulbound armament. It had an extremely powerful connection with him, so he could sense anything that might happen to it!
And right now, he could sense that the Voidsplitter had been...destroyed!!
It had been 'devoured' by Dongfang Ming's core!
Never would Bai Yunfei be able to expect that—Dongfang Ming was still able to pull off something like that!
Had it not been his Voidsplitter, but a lifebound armament like the Fire-tipped Spear that had been devoured...Bai Yunfei shivered. The very thought brought a chill to his spine.
"It's impossible...even if his core is a demonic armament, it shouldn't be able to do something as illogical as that!! No...I won't let you heal back up!!"
Having one of his personally-crafted soul armaments destroyed in front of him made Bai Yunfei feel like his heart was bleeding. It pained his very person and made him want to shout in frustration, but Bai Yunfei had to quell those thoughts. Instead of frustration, he'd turn his emotion into anger to kill Dongfang Ming!
He had a guess that Dongfang Ming's core probably had some kind of limit to what it could devour, but Bai Yunfei wasn't about to experiment and see. Raising his right hand high, he launched a fireball made from the Ardent Sun Glove toward Dongfang Ming!
"Boom!!"
Containing a large amount of the Law of Fire, the fireball whizzed through the air and impacted against Dongfang Ming to send him flying.
Not yet finished, Bai Yunfei sent out another salvo. Soon, the entire sky was blotted out by the multitude of fireballs.
"Whoosh!!"
A beam of dark-red light flew through the sky toward Dongfang Ming. Coming to a stop in front of it, it cut apart any fireball that got close to him and prevented them from hitting.
"Boom boom boom boom boom..."
But even that was unable to stop all of the fireballs. Countless explosions echoed one after another as multiple fireballs exploded all around Dongfang Ming.
"Chirp!!"
Xiao Qi flew over Bai Yunfei's head at the same time the helix sword returned to Dongfang Ming's side. Multiple bolts of lightning, blades of wind, and fireballs rained down like rain onto Dongfang Ming as Xiao Qi covered for Bai Yunfei.
"Now's the time!! Yunfei! Don't let up your attacks! Core and I found a way to combat his core! Find the right timing when he tries to heal and kill him!!"
Sealer's voice spoke into Bai Yunfei's mind as the squall of elemental energy bombarded Dongfang Ming...