Luckily for Cheng Xin who was a mid-stage Soul Exalt, he was not as terrified as his other companions and was quick to react to Qiu Bailu’s maddened rush. Only sparing a moment to widen his eyes, Cheng Xin whirled to face the man and brought out a golden longsword to send a wave of soulforce at the killer!

“Whoosh!!”

A golden energy wave flew out from the sword with great power to attack Qiu Bailu. Without even caring to see if it landed or not, Cheng Xin turned direction and leapt out the window.

It took only a moment for Qiu Bailu to reflexively dodge the blow. Heading for the right, he aimed another sword swing.

But this was a failure as well. Cheng Xin was already too far away. As it so happened, Zeng Fei was now the closest one to him!

Qiu Bailu turned on him without any further consideration. Stalking for Zeng Fei with an outstretched hand, he lashed out to grab at Zeng Fei’s throat! Like a savage beast, all Qiu Bailu cared about was landing his prey!

“Ah!!! Get away from me!!” Zeng Fei shrieked. He had been relieved to see Qiu Bailu go after Cheng Xin first and was planning his escape, but then when Qiu Bailu turned his attention onto him, Zeng Fei was terrified. Bursting with soulforce, Zeng Fei tried to emulate what Cheng Xin did to beat Qiu Bailu back. Unfortunately for him, he was far too weak and lacked a good soul armament, so Qiu Bailu caught up to him in a flash!

“Ah—...” The terrorized scream from Zeng Fei came to an abrupt stop. He hadn’t the chance to dodge and was powerless to stop Qiu Bailu from gripping onto his throat. There was a sharp crack as the pressure in Qiu Bailu’s grip tightened, and then in a nasty spray of blood, Zeng Fei’s throat was reduced to a pulp!

In less than ten seconds, three of the people were already killed!!

All that was left was Li Chen and Cheng Xin, both of which were terrified beyond belief. Giving each other only a brief look, they ran off into the opposite direction while Qiu Bailu came exploding out from the window behind them!

“Hrnf.....Huuuu...”

Qiu Bailu was stooped at the waist with his breath exhaling deeply with emotion. His soulforce was fluctuating crazily as blood began to drip from each of his seven apertures! Not even caring in the slightest for his own state of being, Qiu Bailu glared with his bloodied eyes down at Li Chen. Locking down on his target, he took off like a bullet to give chase!

Cheng Xin hopped onto the roof after he split ways with Li Chen. Qiu Bailu going after Li Chen had filled him with joy, and since he hadn’t any intentions to help Li Chen out, Cheng Xin took off into the skies to get as far away as he could possibly get. He could feel several powerful guards stationed within another part of the property—two of which were late-stage Soul Exalts—if he could just get to them, he’d be safe.

“Ahh!!!!”

A howl of pain from behind saw to Cheng Xin snapping his head back in fear. Qiu Bailu had caught up to Li Chen and had a fist of his punched straight through him!

Cheng Xin’s heart nearly came to a stop at this frightening sight. Any last vestige of color was now gone from his face as he redoubled his efforts to run like a madman! Now that Li Chen was gone, Qiu Bailu would be going after him next!

“How did this happen! How the f*ck did this happen!! Why is Qiu Bailu coming to kill us, why!!”

Cheng Xin was brought up in the safety of the Capital where no danger had ever been anywhere close to him. For him to have all four of his companions die such violent deaths in front of him terrified the living daylights out of him. There wasn’t any time for him to even think. There was only time for him to run!

To run for his life!

“Young master!!”

Two figures came to view up on the rooftops—the two late-stage Soul Exalts he felt earlier. Several other guards Cheng Xin first brought with him were already starting to gather due to the most recent disturbance. None of them had thought that there’d be someone willing to attack this property, but they were quick to come over. And when they saw Cheng Xin running so doggedly as if being chased by the dogs from hell, the guards looked a little farther away just in time to see Qiu Bailu toss the now deceased Li Chen to the ground!

Everyone’s heart trembled in fright—especially the two late-stage Soul Exalts that were Li Chen’s guards. Their eyes were filled with despair since their young charge was now dead. “Die!!!!” They cried in fury.

Bodies lighting up with soulforce, one person brought out his green longsword to swing it in Qiu Bailu’s direction to send out ten blades of wind!!

Following his lead, the other late-stage Soul Exalt fired off an orange ball of elemental energy about twenty-meters forward!

The two powerful auras that were the late-stage Soul Exalts blew past Cheng Xin to attack Qiu Bailu. As they blew past, Cheng Xin sighed in relief and changed directions to head downwards and to the side so the guards could deal with Qiu Bailu.

“Boom!!!!”

There was an explosion of power as soulforce blew outwards behind Cheng Xin. Surging with such power that a shockwave was created, the only thing the guards saw was a person completely on fire come charging at them!

Qiu Bailu!!

He was a terrifying sight to see by this point. Wounds deep enough to see bone could be seen on his body, and his abdomen had been cut deep enough to have a part of his intestine start to trickle out. Even more terrifying, his left arm had been blown straight off to have only his shoulder remain, blood spraying out like a spring of blood.

He....he had simply brute-forced his way through the two late-stage Soul Exalt’s attacks!

As terrifying as his wounds were, everyone was simply astonished that he....he was moving as if he didn’t even notice it!! There wasn’t even a twitch in his face! His soulforce was still fluctuating crazily as if it was....as if it was on the verge of explosion!

Anyone could tell that whatever Qiu Bailu was doing was beyond abnormal!

“This....this is....he’s self-destructing!! Young master, watch out!!”

The earth-type late-stage Soul Exalt exclaimed in horrified realization at what Qiu Bailu was doing.

He was right!! Qiu Bailu was definitely trying to self-destruct!

“Self-destruct?!” Cheng Xin cried out with wide-open eyes. His relief was gone as quickly as it came. Anxious as ever, he began to make his retreat with all due haste.

But Qiu Bailu had made a beeline for him and was already right in front of him!

“Don’t come any closer—get away! Get awayyy!!” Cheng Xin howled at the top of his lungs. As hard as he tried, he simply couldn’t get away from Qiu Bailu and was within arm’s reach in just two seconds. With a right arm dripping with blood, Qiu Bailu grabbed onto Cheng Xin’s shoulder!

His soulforce spiked violently with elemental fire gathering all around him now. Surging and churning like a storm, it looked like explosion was imminent now!

......

A thousand meters high in the skies of the western corner of the villa, a distortion in space ripped open to reveal a frantic-looking elder.

It was Cheng Chaochuan.

He scanned the area with soulsense as soon as he arrived. The moment he felt what was going on, his eyes widened with horror!

“Little Xin!!”

His face drained of all color. He knew that Cheng Xin was right on the verge of being blown up by Qiu Bailu!

Back when he was chasing Bai Yunfei, Cheng Chaochuan had felt an unnatural aura fluctuate on its way to the villa. Knowing that Cheng Xin was there, Cheng Chaochuan gave up chasing Bai Yunfei to hurry back to the villa. In his mind, Wu Shang would’ve been more than strong enough to chase down that one person and come back. His run back to the villa had been a bit long, and it looked like he was a bit too late!

“Bastard! Stop right there!!!”

He spat in murderous fury. Green light exploded from Cheng Chaochuan to display his might as a mid-stage Soul King and aimed a soul attack at Qiu Bailu!

There was still a chance for him to stop Qiu Bailu from self-destructing if he launched a soul attack against him,

But that was only if a soul attack worked on the person in the first place....

Cheng Chaochuan’s eyes flew open a second later in disbelief. “Nothing! He has no soul—but how!”

He wanted to strike down Qiu Bailu at once with his soul attack, but....it didn’t even affect Qiu Bailu because he had no ‘soul’ in him!

“No!!!!”

A mixture of anguish and fury filled the air as Cheng Chaochuan watched the area in front of him explode with blinding red light!

“Boom!!!”

Qiu Bailu, a late-stage Soul Exalt, had self-destructed!!

Almost half the entire villa was engulfed by the explosion. Like a lotus blooming into the air and shaking the ground, the explosion of light kicked up a storm of dust.

Cheng Xin—who was being protected by a circle of soldiers—had no chance of avoiding the self-destruction of Cheng Xin. Try as hard as he might to protect himself from this life-taking explosion, there was no way he’d be able to survive. Even the auras of the two late-stage Soul Exalts had their auras snuffed out the moment they came into contact with the explosion!

And with that, the masterminds behind this entire plot, Cheng Xin, Li Chen, and the other three, were all dead!

And the one who killed them was the one they hired to go after Bai Yunfei’s loved one!

......

Qiu Bailu invading the villa, killing Cheng Xin and the others, and then self-destructing were all ‘orders’ given to him by Bai Yunfei.

Bai Yunfei communicated with Qiu Bailu earlier when he was escaping through their mental link. He gave him a single order, and that was to.....kill Cheng Xin and the others! At any price! And then to self-destruct!

Bai Yunfei continued to run away as soon as the order was given to until the mental link was at its limit. No longer able to give the command for Qiu Bailu to hold on, Bai Yunfei knew Qiu Bailu would carry out the command left in his mind as soon as he was out of range. He waited for Wu Shang and Cheng Chaochuan to chase after him before Qiu Bailu could carry out his orders. Hidden in the bushes when the two of them were chasing after Bai Yunfei, Qiu Bailu ran into the villa to deal with Cheng Xin and the others!

The development went better than Bai Yunfei thought even. Cheng Xin and the others were all dead, and Qiu Bailu was gone without a trace. No one would be able to link it back to him.

Him stumbling upon the private conversation between Wu Shang and Cheng Chaochuan was an accident and earned him a new enemy, but Bai Yunfei was already gone by now. The Cheng could investigate as much as they wanted, and it was possible that they might link what happened to Cheng Xin and the others to Bai Yunfei, but since they were all dead and the Desert Wolves—who were the only outside link that knew about this mission for Bai Yunfei—were gone, Bai Yunfei was safe. Qiu Bailu had thrown away his life for everyone to see, and his death destroyed any evidence that it was Bai Yunfei that did it all while getting rid of this final headache.

But still. The events today were very serious. Was it possible that he’d invite new dangers and trouble onto his head? How would he deal with that then??