This voice was completely unexpected and out of the blue. It chimed through the air clearly and without a direction. Then right besides the bloody-robed man, a space in the area warped in on itself to allow for a person draped in black mist to come walking out.

Teleportation!

“Soul King!”

Heart skipping a beat, Bai Yunfei flew back away from the two. In order to cover for his retreat, Bai Yunfei was about to have Xiao Qi send out a Spatial Edge at the two.

But rather than help the other person, the newcomer raised his hand to grab at the bloody-robed person. Was he stopping them for Bai Yunfei?!

“Is he not an enemy then?”

Bai Yunfei was suspicious now. This man did call out the name of the person he had just been fighting, so it was obvious they were companions or something. Him stopping the other was definitely not a gesture of goodwill towards Bai Yunfei, there had to be another reason for that.

“Die!!”

But it didn’t even seem like the newly advanced Soul King even noticed the hand on their shoulder. Aura not even weakening in the slightest, the bloody-robed person continued to stalk towards Bai Yunfei.

𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

“Hmph!!”

The other Soul King narrowed his eyes. Raising his right hand and stabbing a finger into the other person’s flesh, the Soul King had the black aura around the bloody-robed person!

“Refrain from using that move or you’ll die! Your death is inexcusable to the young master, so stand down at once!”

The last few words of his command was accentuated with a burst of power only a mid-stage Soul King was capable of. In response to that outburst, the furious aura of the newly-advanced early-stage Soul King started to calm down. Even though it didn’t seem like the person had heard the other Soul King, they were definitely looking a lot more restrictive in their movement. The indomitable aura that seemed raring to explode at Bai Yunfei was slowly starting to calm a bit, and the guttural growls was starting to grow silent. Even the blood construct was warping in on itself as the blood that made up its body started to fade or return to its master’s body.

Then the bloody-robed person crumpled like paper into the arms of the other Soul King. The person was completely unconscious now!

Their aura was completely deflated now. From where it used to soaring to the skies, the person’s aura was now at an all time low. With all the blood flowing out from the multiple wounds on their body, it seemed as if the person was a corpse rather than a deranged Soul King.

......

Bai Yunfei watched everything happen in front of him with a dropped jaw. As surprising as it was though, he was finally starting to understand what had happened in the fight. That mysterious technique the bloody-robed person used to devour the blood octopus and increase their strength was powerful beyond belief, but not perfect by any means. An explosive spike in power like that was at the cost of burning away their own lifeforce. If the person had actually used their strongest attack without being stopped, then they would’ve definitely died, even if the attack landed or not.

So the Soul King came in to stop his comrade before the final attack could be used. It served to help Bai Yunfei escape with his life, but it was an indirect effect of trying to save his comrade’s life.

Even with the two powerful foes being dealt with, Bai Yunfei wasn’t entirely happy with the situation just yet. In fact, he was still feeling quite sour. Right in front of him was yet another mid-stage Soul King after all......

“He has to be someone else from the Soul Refining School. I never thought they’d have a Soul King like this, how troublesome......”

Now that the bloody-robed person was fully unconscious in and the arms of the other Soul King, the Soul King looked over to where Bai Yunfei was.

Bai Yunfei felt himself start when their eyes met. Taking one careful step backwards, Bai Yunfei prepared himself to go on the defense.

But the Soul King didn’t seem on planning to do anything. He just stared. His eyes swept over Bai Yunfei first before to Xiao Qi, and then to the ’remnants’ of the blood octopus down below. The black mist around him trembled a bit as if angered by its death, but the Soul King didn’t do anything about that either. Looking away with a sigh, the Soul King started to....fly away to the north!

The space in front of him warped in on itself when he waved his left hand. Stepping across it with his comrade in his hands, the Soul King disappeared and reappeared a great distance away. And with several repetitions, the two were now gone beyond the horizon.

“......”

It was with silence Bai Yunfei watched the two leave the area, “Are....are they really just going to leave like that?!”

He thought he was in for a dreadful battle actually. The fact that the two of them left without fighting was completely unexpected to him!

Still feeling uneasy about the situation, Bai Yunfei looked around the area carefully before he made any sudden movements. He turned back towards the direction where the Soul King came from first. Formagua City. He could sense a few auras coming from that direction; it had to be Zheng Kai and the others.

Their imminent arrival gave Bai Yunfei a great deal of relief. Not only did it mean they were safe, it also meant Bai Yunfei was too.

......

A streak of blue light came flying down from the skies before coming to a stop next to Bai Yunfei. It was Long Lan. He swept his eyes around the area to make sure there were no enemies before asking, “Yunfei, Xiao Qi, are you two both alright?”

Bai Yunfei’s Berserk Mode was canceled out, leaving Bai Yunfei temporarily breathless. He managed to wave his arm at Long Lan. “I’m fine, the enemy’s gone now, are you all alright?”

He was completely at ease and could smile now. But then when he looked to the group coming towards him, he paused. Several of them looked quite grim, especially Tang Xinyun and Kou Tingting who both looked like they were close to tears.

A little perplexed by the situation at hand, Bai Yunfei gave an inquisitive look at them. “What happened?”

He came to a quick realization before any of them could answer, however. “Wait, where’s Doraemon?!”

Doraemon was missing! Everyone was here and accounted for in the group except for one little girl....Huangfu Rui!

And not only was she gone, her red magiboar was too!

“Yunfei....little Rui....little Rui is missing! What do we do...?” Tang Xinyun asked him in panic, her face twisted up and ready to cry.

“......” Bai Yunfei grew somber at the predicament. Tearing his eyes away from the despondent two girls, he turned to Zheng Kai, “Ah’Zheng, what happened? How’d Doraemon go missing?”

Zheng Kai was quick to calm down enough to tell the story. “When you disappeared down the hole to give chase, we were about to leave the city when we were ambushed out of nowhere. We were trapped in a strange underground labyrinth after that where we couldn’t even use our soulsense. Plenty of tentacles attacked us while we were trying to find our way out, but we managed to gather together eventually. But we....never managed to group back with little Rui in the end.....”

“And the red magiboar? He has a soulbond with Doraemon, they weren’t together, were they?”

Zheng Kai shook his head. “They weren’t. At first, the red magiboar was heading in the direction of little Rui, but then he said something was blocking the connection to her and could no longer sense her.....We tried looking around for her but then we sensed someone fighting something. We knew you were in danger so we decided to come to you first, and then the red magiboar....decided to continue to look for little Rui. We....we don’t know where either of the two are now....”

The knot in between Bai Yunfei’s eyebrows grew tighter as his mind raced to think of a plan.

“Yunfei, what should we.....do now?” Zheng Kai asked.

Bai Yunfei cast a glance over at the night sky, “What else can we do? Look! It doesn’t matter where, but we have to find Doraemon as fast as possible!”

He was about to instruct Xiao Qi to go searching for her when he noticed a strange look on Zheng Kai’s face. “Ah’Zheng?” Bai Yunfei turned back to him, “Is there something you didn’t tell me?!”

“While we were in the labyrinth....” Zheng Kai started, “We found the tracks of one of the ‘Hornets of Plum Valley’....”

“What?!” Bai Yunfei looked shocked. “You’re saying one of them are close by?!”

“Most likely.” Zheng Kai nodded. “I sensed at least two of them, though they were a little faint, so they were probably stuck like we were. We also sensed some signs of battle, so there’s probably other survivors near Formagua City.....if little Rui came across them.....”

“Damn!!” Bai Yunfei clenched his fist tightly with a curse. “Then we don’t have time to waste! Xiao Qi, Long Lan, you two go look somewhere. Ah’Zheng, Xinyun, Tingting, you’ll come with me and don’t split up! We’ll look here and look further into Formagua City. We have to find Doraemon!”

Xiao Qi and Long Lan both nodded at once and were prepared to leave when Bai Yunfei spoke to them, “Hold on. If you two come across any of the Hornets.....kill them!”

......

To the south of Formagua City away from Bai Yunfei and his group, there was a dark cave where a young girl was currently walking towards.

Basked underneath the bright rays of moonlight, it was possible to see just who this person was! It was Huangfu Rui!

But unlike her usual excited and spirited expression, Huangfu Rui looked completely wooden and despondent like a statue. Walking one step at a time, she stepped towards the depths of the cave in front of her.

Just....just what in the world was going on here?!