The stench of death was so thick in the air that Lin Xiangtian felt like puking. His eyes, bloodshot and dilating, watched the spear draw closer and closer to him. Still trembling, Lin Xiangtian did his very best to try and leap back!

“Swish!!”

The next thing he smelt was the acrid burning of something being lit on fire. His entire person felt like it was dipped in cold water despite the heat. He was terrified!

“Bang!!”

Life hanging by a thread, Lin Xiangtian tried his best to dodge the spear, and...

He managed to succeed! The spear blew past him so that only the heat of the flames was the only thing to touch him. Before he could celebrate his new lease on life, Lin Xiangtian felt something slam into his chest before he was sent flying away like a kite without a string!

Bai Yunfei had punched him! Since his spear didn’t land, Bai Yunfei used his left hand to land a punch onto the beast tamer! And then when Lin Xiangtian went flying he chased after him!

Dazed by the blow, Lin Xiangtian sailed through the air without showing any signs of stabilizing himself. The pain in his chest was enough for him to feel completely at a loss. It took him a moment before he was able to get back on his feet and send two beams of golden light to stop Bai Yunfei from getting close.

He was fighting with one hand tied behind his back without any soulbeast puppets. Further hindered by his injuries and depleted soulforce reserves, Lin Xiangtian was basically on his deathbed!

The mighty headmaster of the Beast Taming School...forced in such a state!

“Boom boom boom boom...”

Countless rays of golden light splashed across the skies and illuminated the world so brightly that not even Bai Yunfei’s shadow could be seen. He had to retreat in fear of being attacked while Lin Xiangtian remained still to watch the golden light. Lin Xiangtian looked hopeful for something, as if he was hoping that the golden rays of light would kill Bai Yunfei. But...

The golden rays of light were cleaved apart by a flaming rod, revealing the radiant figure of Bai Yunfei amidst it all!

Completely unharmed, Bai Yunfei was already coming at Lin Xiangtian to stab him through the throat!

The golden light spun around Lin Xiangtian’s person to protect him. Like metal, the light hardened in an attempt to stop the spear from stabbing into him. He succeeded in doing so, the spear only managed to graze past his neck by a few inches...

But before he could properly celebrate that, Lin Xiangtian felt Bai Yunfei’s left hand plant itself onto his chest!

It wasn’t a serious wound since the Critical Glove’s additional effect didn’t activate. Lin Xiangtian had his armor and luck to thank for that. Nonetheless, Lin Xiangtian was thrust backward and was forced to face yet another spear strike!

One obstacle dodged only meant having to face another danger!

A close-combat battle was something of a rarity for Soul Kings and Soul Emperors. By their level of strength, most soul cultivators preferred to fight via elemental and soul attacks. And as a beast tamer, Lin Xiangtian was even more at a loss on how to deal with Bai Yunfei’s tactics! He couldn’t get away!

“What...what do I do? What do I do?!”

He could feel it. Death was approaching again! The veil of anxiety was closing on him once more.

He just needed time! Time to find a way to turn the tables around on Bai Yunfei! Time that Bai Yunfei wouldn’t give!

“Chirp!!”

Lin Xiangtian snapped his head up at the sound. Coming at him was a rainbow-colored phoenix! It shot waves of spatial energy at him one after another in an attempt to surround him from every side!

“What?!’

His face paled even more—what kind of situation was this?!

That type of attack wasn’t something the average soul cultivator could block. They were filled with a type of energy that required the usage of any Law in order to be protected!

And while Lin Xiangtian was desperately thinking of a way out of this entrapment...Bai Yunfei was coming up in front of him!

Was this soulbeast trying to kill Bai Yunfei and him together?!

Or was...Bai Yunfei trying to take him down with him?!

He couldn’t understand! He didn’t want to understand! Howling furiously, Lin Xiangtian summoned as much of the Laws he could to him, but at that moment...

“Freeze!!”

It was that damnable word again! That word that could extinguish hope with how cold it was!

He froze up right then and there. And to make matters even worse, those spatial tears were nearly touching him now!

This meant Lin Xiangtian was defenseless. And so was Bai Yunfei after using the Soul Anchor Technique!

𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

The feeling of helplessness filled Lin Xiangtian with despair. Glaring venomously at Bai Yunfei, Lin Xiangtian could only feel some consolation that Bai Yunfei would be dying with him.

But!

He hadn’t even finished thinking that thought when he realized he was wrong! There wasn’t something right about Bai Yunfei!

Bai Yunfei’s aura was gone! In fact—Bai Yunfei wasn’t even there! Lin Xiangtian could distinctly see the spatial tears coming at him from through Bai Yunfei’s body! Bai Yunfei was transparent!

This was some kind of illusion!

“Ah!!!”

In one last show of his fury and reluctance, Lin Xiangtian let loose one loud roar into the world before the spatial tear went ‘straight through’ Bai Yunfei and into him!

The darkness devoured everything in its way, including the golden light around Lin Xiangtian body and...his body itself!

It was a silent ordeal. Lin Xiangtian’s voice soon petered off as the last of his breath escaped him. Without a lung to contain any air, there wasn’t any way for Lin Xiangtian to continue screaming. Not even a droplet of blood was spilt from his wounds since the spatial edge ate it all up....

And just like that, the bisected halves of Lin Xiangtian fell from the sky...

The rest of the spatial edges made sure there wasn’t much left of his body, save his head!

“Phew...”

Back in the real world, Bai Yunfei let out a sigh of relief. His battle with Lin Xiangtian was finally over.

He might’ve held the upper hand for the majority of the battle, but it had been a hard-fought battle nonetheless. Using Soul Ignition twice in short succession would definitely be hurting him.

So he had to rely on Xiao Qi and the spatial edges in order to finish this battle as quickly as it did. The plan was to use the invulnerability granted by the +10 additional effect of the Core Stone and use the spatial edges to ‘mutually’ assure destruction with Lin Xiangtian.

It could thus be said that Bai Yunfei was now left without equal in this battlefield.

Canceling Soul Ignition, Berserk Mode, and ‘Coil’ Form, Bai Yunfei felt his power levels drop drastically back to his regular levels.

The familiar wave of pain crashed into his body, drawing a sharp inhale from Bai Yunfei. It was somewhat mitigated by the new strength he had as a Soul Emperor, but Bai Yunfei had no doubts that he’d be feeling the pain for a while.

Speaking of a while, only ten minutes had passed since he was thrown into the Phantasm.

Taking out a high-leveled pill he got from the Yao clan, Bai Yunfei tossed it into his mouth and swallowed. The pill was meant to accelerate soulforce regeneration and he could already feel it working to a startling degree.

“Are you okay, Yunfei?”

Xiao Qi asked in concern.

“Relax, I’m fine.”

As he waited for his soulforce to recover, Bai Yunfei took a quick look around the battlefield.

Now that the battle between him and Lin Xiangtian was over, the energy in the world was starting to stabilize a bit and grow calm.

The only other thing in sight was the sealed eight-tailed bull. Bai Yunfei took a second to bring the soulbeast into the Core World before collecting the galewing lion as well.

As such, only he and Xiao Qi were left in this strange world.

“What is this place even...?” Bai Yunfei muttered. “It’s still here even after Lin Xiangtian died, the soulbeast puppet should be completely immobile now. But...how do I get out?”

Not even Xiao Fang or Soul Sealer had an answer to his question. This was a soulbeast neither one of them had seen before.

After a moment of probing the area with his soulsense, Bai Yunfei concluded that there weren’t any hints of finding an exit.

But as that may be, Bai Yunfei looked up at the sky above after sensing something peculiar. Adding a bit of soulforce to his feet, Bai Yunfei shot high up into the sky.

It wasn’t until Bai Yunfei reached a height of five kilometers above ground that he came to a stop near the rainbow ‘fog’ there.

Chaotic energy would definitely be saturating the air by this point of elevation in the real world, but Bai Yunfei had yet to see a strand of it in this world. Curious, Bai Yunfei drew closer to the rainbow fog near him.

The rainbow fog was spread across this segment of the sky quite well, but Bai Yunfei could sense a condensed ‘ball’ of light at its center. He could also sense the aura of a soulbeast coming from it. This had to be the ‘source’.

“Is this the real body of the soulbeast?”

Bai Yunfei muttered to himself. His initial attempts to probe the light were rebuffed by the powerful willpower of the soulbeast.

“No matter how ‘rare’ this soulbeast is, it’s still a soulbeast in the end...so what if I use the Beast Taming Ring on it...?”

Retrieving the Beast Taming Ring from his space ring, Bai Yunfei tentatively threw the soul armament onto the ball of light.

“Bzzz...”

He didn’t really expect much, but contrary to those expectations, the Beast Taming Ring latched onto the light!

Then Bai Yunfei felt a familiar tug of soulforce leave his body—the Beast Taming Ring was being activated!