Not even the soul sentries could escape. In less time than it takes half an incense stick to burn, two soulgrounds were wiped completely clean of all souls....

Bai Xiaochun was extremely pleased with the number of soul spheres he had ended up with, which was enough to keep him going, at least temporarily.

However, in the moment in which he sucked up the last of the souls, he apparently triggered something in the spell formation, which sent a shining pillar of light up into the sky. Obviously, it was something that the Cai Clan would quickly notice!

“Dammit! Does emptying the soulgrounds set off the spell formation?” Bai Xiaochun thought, his face falling. The bright light of the spell formation was instantly noticed by people in the Cai Clan, who began to utter exclamations of shock as they flew up into the air.

“What’s going on!?!?”

“Is that... is that coming from the soulgrounds!?”

“What’s happened? It looks like a soulground spell formation is flaring up. No wait, two soulgrounds!!” Even the Cai Clan patriarch flew out and hurried in the direction of the soulgrounds.

Jittery with fear, Bai Xiaochun prepared to leave, but then stopped in place.

“Soul Convergence Pills leave evidence behind. If people look into it too closely, they might guess who I really am.... I need to get rid of the evidence. Even if they see me, it won’t matter as long as my true identity isn’t revealed.” He quickly pulled out a twelve-colored flame that he had conjured earlier in preparation for another attempt at thirteen-colored flame. Instantly, one of his clones stepped out, and furthered the conjuring process!

Considering how well-practiced he was, and that his clone was helping, everything went very quickly.

However, conjuring flame wasn’t his true goal. Just when the thirteenth color was about to appear, the flame destabilized, thanks to his clone. Then, the fire exploded!

Rumbling sounds filled heaven and earth as bright red clouds appeared overhead. Then, numerous bolts of thirteen-colored flame appeared and began to fall from the sky....

Incomparably intense heat filled heaven and earth, and the two soulgrounds were instantly incinerated.

In fact, not only was the evidence of the Soul Convergence Pills removed, but the spell formations were also destabilized, and began to collapse. Of course, Bai Xiaochun wasn’t the type to kill indiscriminately, so he made sure to throw the unconscious Cai Clan cultivators off to a safe location.

Even as the flames spread, Bai Xiaochun transformed into a beam of light that shot away at high speed, filled with the thrill of having robbed the souls he needed and then destroyed the evidence.

“Who told you to go rob my souls? Hmmmphh!” His heart was pounding with the realization that he had just done something big....

However, now was not the time to ponder the situation. Even as he began to speed away, an enraged roar erupted out.

“How dare you meddle with our Cai Clan soulgrounds? Do you have a death wish?!?!” Eight figures appeared out in the open, and began to move with lightning-like speed. One of them was a young man who appeared to be less than thirty years of age, but who had a full head of silver hair, and radiated the aura of the great circle of Core Formation.

There was even a bit of a Nascent Soul feel to him, as though he were so close to the Nascent Soul stage that all he had to do was go into secluded meditation and spend a bit of time, and he would succeed!

In terms of speed, he was already similar to a Nascent Soul cultivator, and as he bore down on Bai Xiaochun, a look of fury could be seen in his eyes. As for the seven cultivators behind him, they were all Core Formation experts, and their faces all shone with rage when they saw the burnt, scorched soulgrounds.

“Are you looking to die?!?!” When they saw Bai Xiaochun fleeing off into the distance, their killing intent erupted with full power.

They were just the first wave to appear. Next were the Nascent Soul clan elders.

Bai Xiaochun was startled at how quickly the Cai Clan reacted, and knew that if he got involved in a protracted fight, he would likely end up with serious injuries. Therefore, he fled at top speed.

Considering the speed he was capable off, he was instantly able to put a huge distance between himself and his pursuers. Then, he simply vanished.

When the silver-haired chosen saw that Bai Xiaochun was about to make his escape, his killing intent grew even stronger. Without the slightest hesitation, he slapped his bag of holding to produce a beast hide, which he threw out in front of him. The beast hide instantly ignited, and as it burned up, the air behind the young man rippled as a shadowy beast appeared.

It was an enormous, two-headed vulture, with a wingspan of several hundred meters. As soon as it appeared, it threw its head back and let loose a piercing cry before flapping its wings and taking to flight. At the same time, the Cai Clan chosen leapt onto its back. Shockingly, the young man was using some unknown technique to follow the evidence of Bai Xiaochun’s passage and track him down.

Bai Xiaochun staggered out into the open roughly five kilometers away. Not pausing for even a moment, he headed at top speed toward Giant Ghost City.

“Gotta speed up. If anyone from the Cai Clan catches me, I’ll be in great danger....” By now, the high he had felt from snatching all the souls was gone, and he was now starting to feel anxiety and fear.

“They forced me to do it....” he thought, wiping the sweat from his brow. As he rocketed through the air in a beam of light, Giant Ghost City got closer and closer. Within a few breaths of time, he would be there! However, that was when an intense whistling sound filled the air, and a blast of wild wind rose up. It was the type of wind that was capable of exterminating the life of anything it touched, and it instantly pierced Bai Xiaochun to the core.

Shivering, he looked over his shoulder, whereupon his eyes went wide at the sight of the enormous two-headed vulture shooting toward him.

On the vulture’s back was the young man, his face a mask of fury, and a long, black spear held in his right hand.

“Impertinent thief! How dare you meddle with our Cai Clan soulgrounds! I’m going to kill you in body and soul!!” Then the vulture accelerated as the young man drew on the full power of his cultivation base to shoot toward Bai Xiaochun, spear outstretched.

Bai Xiaochun simply couldn’t react to the incredible speed of the vulture. In the blink of an eye, it was right on top of him, and the black spear in the hand of the Cai Clan chosen was stabbing toward him!

Bai Xiaochun’s face fell as he let out a shout and threw his hands out to defend himself.

BAAAAAAAANG!

Bai Xiaochun flew backward by several hundred meters. When he came to a stop, he examined himself, and then murmured, “I’m not hurt?”

The young man’s attack moments ago had seemed incredible, and Bai Xiaochun had assumed that he would be badly hurt. However, to his surprise, he was completely unscathed.

“Fudge!” he exclaimed in delight. “That vulture is super powerful, but compared to me, it’s totally weak.... I guess it was just its speed that caught me unprepared.”

The young man on the vulture gasped in shock as he looked at Bai Xiaochun. His vulture was capable of speed rivaling the great circle of the Nascent Soul stage. Plus, he had been powering his spear with his cultivation base, which meant that he should have been able to seriously injure even someone in the Nascent Soul stage. But this thief ended up unharmed.... Completely shaken, the young man looked more closely at Bai Xiaochun’s face, which caused his eyes to widen.

“You’re... you’re Bai Hao!!"

Because of how he had rebelled against the Bai Clan, Bai Hao’s face was very well known in the area. Although not everyone would recognize him, not even many of the silkpants cultivators of the three great clans, the elite chosen had all seen his picture. Because of the urgency of the situation earlier, this young man hadn’t paid any attention to the person he was dealing with, but now that he took a closer look, he recognized him easily.

Instantly, nervousness gripped his heart; he knew that Bai Hao was a vicious fiend who had captured the chief of the Bai Clan, who was a mid Nascent Soul stage expert. He had even provoked the Bai Clan’s deva patriarch into action. Obviously, he was not the type of person to go around offending.

“Recognize me?” Bai Xiaochun shouted. “Well recognizing me won’t do you any good!”

Shoving his hand out, he sent a blast of wind toward the Cai Clan chosen.