Baishan City.

Several hours had already transpired since the battle between the Cao and Bai Yunfei. The skies was only getting darker and darker as the sun setted beyond the horizon. All that was left now was the ruins of the Cao and a sparse few ray of sunshine to shine over it.

In the current moment, the men of the lord-mayor of Baishan City was scouring the place in hopes for clues of some sort. With how squashed the area was, even the remnants of the people there were hard to distinguish, let alone their affiliations. As such, the searchers were stumped....

Up in the air, a group of people was standing around in silence as everyone around them moved about to fulfill their orders.

Wu Ren was the first to speak, “You are saying two Soul Kings appeared on the side of the house of Cao as well as multiple Soul Exalts. And that there was a traveling Soul King helping them too?”

𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Zhang Mo nodded. “Yes, we were unable to look into the matrix earlier due to that third Soul King, and neither were we able to find out who they were. It’s impossible that the Cao could have a force like this, they have only a single early-stage Soul King and barely ten Soul Exalts. The numbers fighting here today exceeded that by double the amount, and that Lu Fang is strong enough to beat the Cao’s Soul King, there’d be no way he’d willingly help them of his own accord....”

“Where is the rest of the Cao then?” Wu Ren asked, “You said most of them escaped before the aftermath, don’t they know anything?”

Zhang Mo looked behind to where one of the late-stage Soul Exalts stood. The man in question strode forward to answer, “If I may report, First Prince, I and a few others went to do some preliminary questioning, but we came up empty. Most of the people that fled said the battle took place without warning and escaped as soon as it started....but there were a few that did mention how strange it felt beforehand. They said that the head of the house hadn’t been around for quite some time and many Soul Exalt guests began to appear out from nowhere. There were also a few other Soul Exalt guests that disappeared around that time....”

“Oh? They said that?” Wu Ren narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “Don’t let them go so easily. Continue the questioning and report any suspicion things back to me. Other than that, increase the security and investigations here. I want to know about anything new in regards of the Cao or those who tried to attack Bai Yunfei.”

Wu Ren dipped his head low to think after the others left. “Mysterious individuals in Baishan City....the ice-type Soul King from the Soul Refining School was here as well....does the Cao have a connection to the Soul Refining School then? But why would they try to trap Bai Yunfei? And in their own homes no less, that doesn’t make sense. It’s an act of suicide—even if they killed Bai Yunfei, their own homes would be essentially destroyed. Why would they do that?”

His head snapped back up, “Were they sacrificial pawns?! The masterminds of this didn’t even plan for the Cao’s survival, or the return of that other Soul King?! What...what kind of group has that kind of power...is it really the Soul Refining School? What are they up to...”

......

“Ugh....”

A groan broke the silence of the area. Everyone turned towards the source where they saw Bai Yunfei stirring awake!

“Yunfei! Are you alright?!” Zheng Kai cried out in relieved concern.

Bai Yunfei didn’t respond right away. He was only just waking up from his slumber and was still at a loss of what was happening around him.

There was another grunt from Bai Yunfei before he spat out another mouthful of blood! His eyes were still unfocused and his face was squirming with pain—blood was still continuing to drip from his mouth!

“Wha—uncle! What’s wrong with Yunfei?! Why’s he still like this?!” Zheng Kai yelped at once for Zheng Shisong to reply.

“Be quiet!” His uncle snapped, “He’s still heavily wounded and in danger—if you want me to save him, I have to concentrate on healing him!”

Zheng Kai snapped his lips closed after that.

The furious nature Bai Yunfei had been exuding during his battle was long since gone now. He was like a deflating balloon with his energy rapidly escaping from him within the bubble of elemental water he was in. Like a flickering candle, Bai Yunfei’s vitality was slowly dying out...

“Bang!”

Just as everyone was paying attention to Bai Yunfei, the loud trill of a bird came forth from the skies above and startled them all. Looking up, they saw a sight that befuddled them....

A brilliant rainbow was pouring forth everywhere into the skies along with an indomitable energy. From the source, a tremendous being was ascending into the skies!

“Chirp!!!!”

A joyful trill came out from the being, sounding both carefree and majestic like a phoenix!

Xiao Qi!

Previously cocooned in a strange bubble of energy, Xiao Qi had at some point exploded out from it!

Everyone watched as it flew five kilometers into the sky with its wings stretched out wide. Like a multi-colored sun, rays of every color flew out from the bird’s wings to illuminate the sky as it raised its head up to pierce through the clouds!

A strange energy accompanied its trill as it ascended through the skies, and then....the clouds began to swirl!!

A giant whirlpool was starting to form in the clouds five kilometers above. The center of the whirlpool was touching down on top of Xiao Qi’s head while the rest of the whirlpool continued to pick up speed. The light from Xiao Qi’s body entered the whirlpool, seemingly staining it with prismatic light. It dyed the clouds and skies with increasing area, and before long, the entire whirlpool was completely dyed with that prismatic light!!

All around the whirlpool, countless rays of energy was starting to be absorbed from the surrounding area. In just seconds, four colors of red, violet, blue, and green were forming at the center!

These four colors shined the most prominently at the center of the whirlpool before slowly spinning downwards onto Xiao Qi!

And throughout the entire time, Xiao Qi’s aura was....rapidly increasing!

Even though it was five kilometers high into the sky, everyone could clearly see what was going on! This was a sight that felt like the world itself was being shaped! With a sight like this, everyone that saw it was stunned!