Chapter 991: Profiting
This reaction to the undoing of Soul Ignition was a magnitude heavier than the one before.
The burden of the technique had been noticeably lax the first time he used it. He was only up against an Early-stage Soul King and used a few techniques like teleportation and the Cataclysmic Seal to destroy a mountain. Even then, he was only in that state for about forty seconds at most.
This time was distinctly different. He first recovered his strength with Soul Ignition and then shot a full-powered blast of Dual Dragon Burst with a mix of chaotic energy and then an all-out burst of the Soul Anchoring Technique. Those two techniques alone would've been enough to take out a massive chunk of his soulforce. Then there were the effects of his soul armaments. Added that with a few teleportations and Bai Yunfei was basically all out of soulforce!
One of the major problems was the Dual Dragon Burst. That alone had caused a tremendous amount of damage to his body!
Him being in both Berserk Mode and being fueled by Soul Ignition was basically all that was holding him together. The moment he undid both techniques was the moment when all that pain immediately assaulted Bai Yunfei's body with enough force to make him feel like his body was being ripped apart!
"Ah! Ahh!! Ahhhh!!!"
A loud wail of pain echoed across the Core World. Startled by the sound, Lao Sha popped out from its hole to give the writhing Bai Yunfei a scared whimper.
"Is it that serious?!" Xiao Fang appeared right by Bai Yunfei's side.
A ripple appeared nearby Bai Yunfei's side a second later for an assortment of white grass to appear near him.
"These are Soul Healing Grass, they'll help your injuries. Hurry up and eat it!"
These herbs were one of the remaining few in the garden Xiao Fang had left. Enough time had gone by for Xiao Fang to begin recultivating the garden, and that time spent was already bearing some fruit. Several of the herbs were already flourishing and were in a ripe enough state to be used in certain medicines.
"Ahh!!!"
It didn't seem like Bai Yunfei heard Xiao Fang with how much he was screaming. A flicker of light in his eyes seemed to indicate otherwise, as Bai Yunfei suddenly brought his hand forward to grab and stuff the herbs into his mouth.
"Ahh!!! Ahhh!!!"
Then he began to scream again...
......
Time trickled by slowly for Bai Yunfei. The screams of pain he gave now was already noticeably fainter than before but the pain was still there.
Five hours would pass before Bai Yunfei's screams finally died down.
Like the last time, the skies above the hill was dyed a bright red as elemental fire swirled around the area like in a whirlpool.
The Core World had no concept of day and night so it didn't matter how much time had passed, it would always be 'bright' outside. Laying on top of the ground, Bai Yunfei was like a statue with how he was immobile. The only signs of life within him was the steady, but faint, flow of soulforce.
The whirlpool of elemental fire was shrinking in circumference. Slowly, it closed in and was drained into Bai Yunfei's body. When the last of it was gone, Bai Yunfei's eyes fluttered open to symbolize his awakening...
"Whewww...." Exhaled Bai Yunfei. His chest was rising up and down slowly now.
A series of cracking sounds erupted from his body as seemingly every joint in his body started to pop. It felt almost blissful to Bai Yunfei, and a peaceful expression appeared on his face. It was indeed a blissful sensation in comparison to the intense pain he had been in before.
Leaping to his feet, Bai Yunfei tentatively flexed his arms and legs to see if everything was healed. Pleased by the results, he looked down at the state of his clothes. Clicking his tongue, he asked Xiao Fang for a small stream of elemental water.
Xiao Fang obliged, and Bai Yunfei used that stream to wash the blood and grime off his body before changing into a new set of clothes. A small assortment of food appeared from his space ring for Bai Yunfei to quickly consume right afterward.
Sustenance wasn't necessarily required for Bai Yunfei, but eating a hearty meal after such a devastating battle was definitely pleasing to Bai Yunfei.
Once he had his fill of food and drink, Bai Yunfei sat back down to think of the next step in the plan.
"I've definitely managed to make it out from the worst, but I'm not out of the woods just yet..." His right hand clenched several times to crack the knuckles as he muttered to himself.
The good news was that there were no irreversible damages to be noted yet from using Soul Ignition. The even better news was that Bai Yunfei noted his body was a great deal stronger than what it was before.
Fighting to the death was quite often the best and fastest way for a person to get stronger. It would've been strange for Bai Yunfei not to improve after something like this. He was now a step closer to being a Late-stage Soul King.
Perhaps this was some kind of restitution for the dangerous situation he was thrown into.
Interestingly enough, the biggest change in Bai Yunfei's body wasn't the increase of soulforce, but...
A familiar string of handseals was made before Bai Yunfei's aura skyrocketed—he was going into both 'Coil' and 'Berserk' Mode!
It seemed almost unfathomable why Bai Yunfei would do that now, but surely he had to have some kind of reason for it.
Bai Yunfei lifted his right hand up to eye-level for him to see. A small flame burst out from his palm with a 'pop'. A small gray speck could be seen in the flames.
He gripped his hand a few seconds later to scatter the flame. His aura dropped back down to his original level as he dispelled both forms and allowed for his second fireseed to float back into the Cataclysmic Seal.
There was a joyful look on his face.
"It's...the chaotic energy has gotten stronger!" He smiled. "I can feel an even better harmony between my fireseed and it now!"
This was a substantial change. Any time he used the chaotic energy was a dangerous and painful time, so Bai Yunfei didn't even want to practice using that energy normally. His usage of it during the battle with patriarch Qin and Song Qing were obviously due to extenuating circumstances, and even then, he had been comparatively conservative with his usage of it.
Before, Bai Yunfei hadn't much of a clue on how to control that energy, but now he felt like he was one step closer to it. He was more 'familiar' with how chaotic energy worked. Somehow, he felt like he'd be able to unleash even more powerful attacks with it...
The first time he used chaotic energy, it was to kill the weakened Half-emperor patriarch Qin. His second time allowed him to defeat the full-strength Half-emperor Song Qing. What kind of result would his third time entail then...
......
Another thing to note after this battle was the 'loot' Bai Yunfei got from the soul refiners. In that regard, Bai Yunfei had made it out like a bandit.
By killing virtually everyone in his path, Bai Yunfei was able to gather an assortment of soul armament and other things like space rings. He even had the space rings of several Soul Kings, and Bai Yunfei was practically giddy to find out what those rings contained...
He had to hold back his desire to go looking through them, however. Now wasn't the time for it. There was still one more pressing matter Bai Yunfei had to attend to first...
"Xiao Fang, what's happened with the man inside the King Caging Bell?"
Bai Yunfei found out about the name of the King Caging Bell when one of the soul refiners shouted out its name. It was thought by the soul refiners that Bai Yunfei stored the King Caging Bell within one of his space rings, but the truth was that Bai Yunfei used the Core Stone to transport both it and the imprisoned person into the Core World.
"He's still in there. What an annoyance he was, slamming against the bell so many times. But he's quiet now, I wonder if he's dead..."
The King Caging Bell appeared in front of Bai Yunfei as Xiao Fang brought it out.
A gleam of light flashed across Bai Yunfei's eyes as he connected with the King Caging Bell. The bell chimed once before flying up to reveal a seated figure within it...