Chapter 685: Intruder
Bai Yunfei came to a sudden stop at this intrusion of sound and looked down to his feet.
"What powerful elemental earth....what's going on?!"
If not for his power of perception, the sudden spike in elemental earth would've escaped his notice.
Two short moments after it went by, Bai Yunfei saw something from the left suddenly spark up in a brilliant shade of orange. The ground near the center of the lights rippled outwards like water for a moment before it started to rise and....let a single person explode out from it!!
The person 'leapt' out from the ground like a fish out of water. As the person slipped out, the two halves of the ground seemingly melded together to turn into solid earth once again.
The appearance of this person startled Bai Yunfei. Prior to this moment, he hadn't thought someone else would be able to get this close to him without him noticing it beforehand!
He leapt backwards ten steps in precaution, adopting a defensive positioning against this person. "Who are you?!"
Having just appeared out from the ground, the man spat hatefully onto it when he resurfaced. When he realized Bai Yunfei was there, he looked surprised for a moment before immediately growing furious with killing intent! No sooner did Bai Yunfei shout out to him did the person bring their right hand up and thrust it into his direction!
A powerful amount of soulforce gathered around the palm before it disseminated into the air. The next thing Bai Yunfei felt was the earth around him starting to shake and glow with orange light. And then after several crackling sounds, nearly a hundred sharp points began to jut out from the ground to stab into Bai Yunfei!!
"Grrrrrrnnnnnnn......"
Like if the stone spikes were iron, they started to strike against each other with a chafing sound, completely encapsulating the area where Bai Yunfei was!
Whomever was standing in the center of it all surely would've been filled with more holes than a hornet's nest....
"Boom!!"
All was still for a second before a different shade of orange light started to shine between the cracks before blowing all the spikes apart. Clanging loudly, the spikes disintegrated away to reveal an orange sphere in the middle, and Bai Yunfei standing inside.
He stared at the enemy with an ominous expression. This person had tried to kill him without even saying a word. If not for his fast reflexes, Bai Yunfei would've lost his life here.
"Eh?"
Having planned on killing Bai Yunfei quickly, the person looked startled at their failure. The person hesitated for a moment, unsure of what to do. Then in a burst of orange light, the person took off to the left to try to escape from the area.
"Trying to run?!" Bai Yunfei's eyes followed after the person. "Xiao Qi!" He barked.
"Chirp!!!"
The bird took off from his shoulder at his command. Transforming larger in size, he flapped his wings once and sent five Spatial Edges at the person!
"Spatial tears!!"
The person cried out in astonishment and stopping dead in their tracks to allow the five Spatial Edges to fly past them. From their voice, the person was revealed to be a rather elderly person.
"Whoosh!!"
A red streak of light shot towards the elder at this moment of distraction. Moving swiftly like a snake, the light coiled around the elder's right leg!
"Ho!" Bai Yunfei exclaimed, surprised that he 'caught' onto the person so easily. He activated the Devouring Chain's effects as soon as he saw it connect.
The Devouring Chains shined darkly for a moment before seemingly turning into a pipe of some kind to transmit soulforce into Bai Yunfei.
The elder's eyes flew wide open as soon as they felt their soulforce start to be drained away into the soul armament. "The Devouring Chains!! You're from the Re—"
The person broke off from their sentence, their head turning abruptly to the left in panic. With another 'tsk', the elder revealed their aura at once. Orange light spilled out from the person's body as their power started to grow exponentially. With a small sneer, the person shook their right leg and shot upwards—the Devouring Chain had been shaken off without even a second of resistance!!
Bai Yunfei gave pause after the explosion of power, "A Soul King!"
He had thought the person was only a late-stage Soul Exalt before, but the person was actually a Soul King instead! But with an aura like that, this was only an early-stage Soul King and not a mid-stage one. That meant this was still a fightable battle.
The elder didn't even spare Bai Yunfei a second glance after the Devouring Chains was thrown off. Scanning the area, the elder took off towards the west as fast as possible, but the person didn't get far before a beam of light flew forward to slash down onto their face!
At some point during this altercation, a third person had entered the fight! This newcomer was relatively short and had a sword on their back almost as long as they were tall. The moment when that beam of energy was blocked by the elder, the newcomer could be seen resheathing the sword back into its sheath.
This person was....the assistant chairman, Wu Dijian!
With their path forward blocked by Bai Yunfei, the other side by Wu Dijian, and a third by Xiao Qi, the elder glanced around furiously. Hesitating for a split moment, the elder immediately fled towards the one direction not covered!
The direction to the north of the academy where the Training Forest was!
......
Wu Dijian looked around the area when he first appeared. He already saw that the person was trying to flee towards the north, but he was surprised to see Bai Yunfei here. "Bai Yunfei? What are you doing here?!"
"I...."
"It's not safe here, hurry on back!"
Wu Dijian was already shouting for Bai Yunfei to go back though. Not even waiting for a response, the swordsman looked off towards the escaping person. "Hm....coming when the headmaster isn't here, are they trying to get the attention of 'that'? But having someone that isn't even a mid-stage Soul King....they really aren't treating me with any respect...."
With that, Wu Dijian took off into a blur of dark green light to give chase.
In the blink of an eye, the two people were beyond the Back Mountain. With them two gone, the area around the library was back to its normal quietness as if nothing had even happened in the first place....
Bai Yunfei stared at the two people flying away for a moment before looking away, "Well....what's going on here?
"An intruder in Tianhun Academy? They're clearly not here for anything good, but who are they?" Bai Yunfei muttered to himself, eyeing the ground beneath him where the elder had appeared from. "That person....was looking for something, maybe? What...was he looking for?"
He spread his soulsense out as he spoke, letting it travel towards the Training Forest.
"Eh?" No sooner did his soulsense reach a hundred meters away did he feel a strange energy prevent it from going any further!
"Strange..." Bai Yunfei narrowed his eyes. This barrier wasn't something he could break. Did that Soul King from earlier fail to get across the barrier as well then?
"Forget it. Secrets of the academy are obviously secrets....." Bai Yunfei sighed after a while. Preparing to leave in the opposite direction of Wu Dijian's direction, Bai Yunfei decided that whatever was going on, it didn't involve him.
......
"Roar!!!!"
But several steps later, a faint roar could be heard from the north.
Bai Yunfei came to a stop several stops later at the sound. Turning his head back, he exclaimed, "This voice....
"That's Xiao Lan!!" He cried out in surprise.
Stunned, Bai Yunfei whipped his head back to look at the direction of the cry, "Could this be....oh no! Xiao Qi, we're going!!"
Waving his right hand, Bai Yunfei took out his Tempest Sword and took off into the skies in a blaze of green light. Xiao Qi took off after him, flying with speed no slower than Bai Yunfei.