The prismatic light shining from the Interdimensional Phantasm began to fade away at Bai Yunfei’s command, leaving behind a small mirage-like squirrel in its place. Once all of the light was gone, the squirrel then disappeared into the Core World.

Everyone was back within the imprisoning array.

“People are coming!!”

Bai Yunfei had only just stored the Interdimensional Phantasm when Shen Pojun let out a warning growl.

He grew alert at once. Whirling around to the direction Shen Pojun was staring at, Bai Yunfei was bewildered to see a group of people coming at them!

“It’s Shangguan Xiongyan and Gu Jimie!! But...how did they get here?!”

He didn’t know why or even how these people were here. And why now of all times!

“How did they even get here?! Were...did they follow us?! But how?!”

There were too many questions and far too few answers for this situation! It also didn’t really matter now how they got here. They were here now and that was the most important part! At the time of their weakest hour, more enemies were somehow here!

Thank the heavens that they managed to kill Gu Lianhun. It frightened Bai Yunfei to think of what if this new group arrived while Gu Lianhun was still alive. They wouldn’t stand a chance! It was some consolation, but not enough to relieve Bai Yunfei. Shen Pojun and the Frostfeather Saint were definitely not in any state to continue fighting!

It would be extremely hard to win under these conditions!

That wasn’t even the worst part. Bai Yunfei felt Shangguan Xiongyan and Gu Jimie’s auras, but there was also a third aura that was even stronger than them!

There was another Saint!

“What...what do we do?!”

He felt an indescribable amount of panic begin to rise in his heart. Desperately, Bai Yunfei wracked his mind to think of something they could do.

“It’s Shangguan Xiongyan and Gu Jimie! How are they here?! And a third Saint! We can’t fight them! We must retreat!”

“Them?! And...a class nine soulbeast! This can’t be allowed, we must leave! Yunfei, take yourself into the Core World, we’ll carry the Core Stone and get rid of them!”

While Bai Yunfei was panicking, the voices of the Frostfeather Saint and Shen Pojun spoke into his mind. Their decisions were made far quicker than Bai Yunfei and were more decisive.

They both clearly knew their odds of winning in a battle were slim. Retreating was the correct choice here.

Bai Yunfei understood it as well. Ducking into the Core World and letting the Frostfeather Saint shake off the enemies was definitely the best choice. He nodded and began the preparations to bring everyone else into the Core World when...

......

On the other side, just moments before the Frostfeather Saint and Shen Pojun noticed them.

Shangguan Xiongyan was looking especially vicious at this moment. He had measured up the situation in front of him and realized now was the perfect opportunity to kill the enemies.

The Abyssal Snake Saint was in agreement with him. The pain was already receding from his eyes as he primed himself for battle.

“Teacher!!”

But it was Gu Jimie that was the only one that wasn’t ready. A loud wail of grief exploded out from him the moment he noticed the headless corpse of Gu Lianhun near Bai Yunfei.

The head was gone, but he recognized the person at once. That was his teacher!

Gu Jimie had previously been excited to see his teacher and was fully confident that he’d be alive when they arrived. He thought that he just needed to get there and they’d be able to coordinate with one another to easily kill Shen Pojun and the others. Then they could find the Supreme Saint’s Inheritance together and secure it for their side. With that, the Soul Refining School could flourish once again for a glorious comeback!

He just never imagined that in what should’ve been a touching reunion, he was reunited with the sight of his teacher’s corpse!

His teacher was dead!

Dead!!

“......”

Gu Jimie came to a standstill. The agony and grief he felt from the loss of his teacher abated and was immediately replaced by a wave of terror and panic!

Then he did something no one expected for him to do: He turned and ran!

It wasn’t a strategic retreat either, Gu Jimie was running as if he was being chased by his worst nightmare!

“You—” Shangguan Xiongyan whirled around, “Gu Jimie! What is the meaning of this!?”

“We have to run!!” Came the panicked reply, “We have to flee! Or else we’ll die!!”

“What?!”

Neither Shangguan Xiongyan nor the Abyssal Snake Saint understood what was going on—had Gu Jimie lost it after seeing the death of his teacher? Gu Lianhun was dead, yes, but the odds were in their favor. Killing Shen Pojun and the Frostfeather Saint wouldn’t be hard, why should they of all people run?

But as if to answer their questions, something strange caught the attention of Shangguan Xiongyan and the Abyssal Snake Saint. Their heads snapped back to where Bai Yunfei was with alarm. For a second, they remained still.

Then they turned tail and began to flee!

“Run!!”

Shangguan Xiongyan roared to the two Soul Emperors behind him, his voice sounding just as panicked as Gu Jimie had been!

......

“Er...what’s going on?”

Bai Yunfei asked, confused why Gu Jimie had turned tail.

Then the stench of danger suddenly erupted from behind him!

“Watch out!!”

𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

“Careful! Run from this place!”

Both Shen Pojun and the Frostfeather Saint cried out!

“Bzz...”

Something buzzed in the air around Bai Yunfei, causing ripples in elemental energy to fly everywhere.

Not too far away, a black whirlpool had somehow formed and was rapidly expanding in size!

Elemental darkness flowed into this whirlpool and expanded its size. Not only was it growing larger, but the whirlpool reeked with the stench of destruction!

“What is...what is this!?”

Bai Yunfei cried out in shock. Right there in the center of the whirlpool, a single object was absorbing any runaway elemental darkness into it—Gu Lianhun’s corpse!

The headless corpse was floating there in midair and gathering elemental darkness to itself. The stench of destruction was coming from the corpse!

This was...a sign of self-destruction!!

A corpse was self-destructing?!

......

Bai Yunfei didn’t know what to think. This situation was already too far gone from his ability to rationalize.

He was about to turn to flee when he felt something pull at him, preventing him from moving. Looking around, he saw that Shen Pojun was already flying away while the Frostfeather Saint was flying away with Jing Mingfeng and Li Chengfeng in tow.

It was all happening far too fast! By the time Bai Yunfei realized he was stuck, the devastating aura in front of him exploded!

“Boom!!!”

The world erupted into an ear-deafening explosion immediately. Everything within Bai Yunfei’s line of vision immediately went dark!

When the energy rolled over him, Bai Yunfei felt as though an extremely heavy hammer had just been swung into his body and was ready to pulverize his body to pieces!

“Ahh!!”

A barrier of elemental fire was erected at once to combat this. It carried with him his own soulforce so as to bolster the barrier.

He felt the pressure on his body lighten before the explosive force of the energy sent him flying away!

The energy Shen Pojun used to protect Bai Yunfei and carry him away shattered at once, separating the two into differing directions!

On the other side, the same thing happened to Li Chengfeng and Jing Mingfeng!

The pocket dimension trembled as the explosive energy billowed everywhere. Not even Shangguan Xiongyan and the others were spared from the explosion!

Though they were farther away and had prior warning, the group wasn’t able to make it out from the explosive range and were immediately engulfed by the energy!

......

This was an especially sinister soul skill of Gu Lianhun. It was known as...corpse explosion!!

A corpse could be rigged to explode upon death with an equivalent force than when normally self-destructing!

It was an especially vicious soul skill that could be done even when dead to kill off your opponents!

The corpse explosion didn’t activate when the corpse was in the Interdimensional Phantasm because there wasn’t any elemental energy to be pulled and manipulated. But after the Phantasm was gone, the corpse explosion was immediately triggered and activated!

Gu Jimie knew about this technique since he was Gu Lianhun’s student. He only forgot about it due to the stress of seeing his teacher dead, but he quickly remembered it afterward and fled!

The power of ‘corpse explosion’ wouldn’t be as strong as if Gu Lianhun were to try and self-destruct normally, but it wouldn’t be weaker than if an Early-stage Soul Saint were to try to self-destruct!

......

Will Bai Yunfei and his friends survive this unexpected ordeal?

What else might happen after this?