1At some part of the mountain, waves of soulforce was crossing over one another along with elemental energy as soul cultivators and soulbeasts fought one another.

Hardly a quarter of an hour had passed since the start, and the group with the advantage was the one with lesser people. The other group didn’t even have a chance since the very beginning.

“Ah!!”

The cries of a person could be heard in the middle of the chaos, and just like that, a person had been killed!

“Ah!! Ahh!!”

As if to follow up on that person, another two cries were heard and another two souls were snuffed out.

“Mo—monsters!! They’re all monsters! Run away! Run away!!”

At last, one of the fighters couldn’t handle it anymore and cried out to scatter.

And so the group began to scatter and run.

“It’s too late for that!”

Jing Mingfeng sneered. Eyeing the person fleeing away from him with a baleful glare, he bent down slightly towards the ground. A furious gust of wind kicked up around his person as his soulforce flared up. Then, in the next second later, he was gone!

“You should’ve been prepared to be killed if you were trying to kill us. My apologies, but I’m not the type of person to let my would-be killer go...”

The fleeing earth-type soul cultivator took a moment to glance behind himself to see if Jing Mingfeng was still there, but Jing Mingfeng was already gone from sight! He blanched at the sight and turned back just in time to hear a rustle of wind and a cold sensation flit across his neck.

Then after that, he felt nothing...

“Skree!!”

There was a second source of sound as something started to scream. Because of his death, the soul cultivator’s soulbeast partner started to screech aloud before a second gust of wind flitted past it. A gigantic soulbeast had pounced at it and snapped its mighty jaws onto the soulbeast’s head—it was Jing Mingfeng’s soulbeast partner, the wind squaller!

Jing Mingfeng wasn’t the same immature and naive youngster he was when he first met Bai Yunfei many years ago. The many years he spent traveling the world had hardened him. In many ways, Jing Mingfeng was far more aware of what it meant to live in a world where the ‘strong prey on the weak’ than Bai Yunfei. He knew what people were capable of doing when tempted by avarice, and all too many times had he seen the death of another be the result of it.

Jing Mingfeng wasn’t a merciful person. If his enemies were to try to kill him, then he would reciprocate even if they were far beneath his own strength.

Yue Feng had the same idea. The sword in his hand was like a bolt of violet lightning as it moved about. Earlier, his sword had reduced a person to practically charcoal, and now he was on his way to chase down another person and his soulbeast to kill.

Zheng Kai, on the other hand, was still fighting the other space-type soul cultivator. Having ascertained where the other person would teleport to, he beat him to the punch and landed a literal punch onto his nose. Sending the man flying away, he looked back just in time to see Jing Mingfeng and Yue Feng chase after their enemies to kill them.

“Damn!” He gasped, “That ruthless?!”

The other space-type soul cultivator was completely devoid of any color in his face now that he realized most of his companions were either dead or dying. A flicker of shock ran across his face for a second as he decided his options. When Zheng Kai looked away, the man decided then and there what to do.

Not even allowing himself time to reorientate himself on the ground, he teleported away.

“Ah? Trying to run?!”

Zheng Kai narrowed his eyes angrily. With a wave of his hand, he shot a long beam of spatial energy out from his fan.

It didn’t seem like there was anyone in the area where Zheng Kai shot the beam of spatial energy towards at first, but then the space-type soul cultivator suddenly materialized in that direction.

The beam of spatial energy was nearly upon the man’s back now. But before it could land, the person suddenly disappeared!

“A spatial barrier?!”

Zheng Kai narrowed his eyes. The other person had managed to escape through one of the spatial barriers on the mountain!

......

The battle in the mist soon came to a closure. It didn’t even take ten minutes for Bai Yunfei’s group to win, and of the eight people that attacked them, only three of them managed to escape with their life.

Of the people and soulbeasts Jing Mingfeng and Yue Feng fought, not a single one had escaped. Bai Yunfei killed one of the people he was fighting, and the other one only managed to escape by sacrificing his soulbeast partner to run into the mist. Bai Yunfei hesitated to follow him there and decided to give up.

Yu Li had been primarily focused on trying to ensure Nangong Yuexia’s safety and didn’t manage to fight at her full capacity. Knowing that she was distracted, her opponent took the chance to flee. He had been the one who cried out to the others to run away. Yu Li hadn’t bothered to chase him either.

Watching as Jing Mingfeng and Yue Feng picked up the soul armaments and space rings of the people they had just killed, Zheng Kai gave an exasperated sigh, “Damn! Why does it look like you’re a bunch of bandits?”

He might’ve been a little depressed about having his own enemy managing to escape.

Jing Mingfeng stared calmly at the corpses of the soulbeast he had just killed. “If someone wants to kill me, I’ll kill them first.” He stated calmly, a finger holding onto one of the space rings he got, “That’s the reality of our world, it might be a little hard for you to understand, brother Zheng...”

Still a little displeased, Zheng Kai responded, “Hey, I’ve gone through my fair share of life-or-death battles too, alright? Why does it sound like you’re making me out to be someone who can’t kill?”

Bai Yunfei slapped Zheng Kai on the shoulders. “Let’s change the topic, alright? Let’s get away from this place...”

......

Another two hours later, a group of people came walking out from the mist to the bottom of the mountain.

“Ugh...we’re back here at the foot of the mountain.”

Jing Mingfeng groaned the moment he recognized the sight around him.

Even Bai Yunfei had a flash of disappointment flicker across his eyes. “It’s to be expected. Let’s go down and take a rest.”

They weren’t back in the original place they left the mountain from. A little farther down from them was a forest of stone without many people. They must’ve gone into the mist to go searching again.

The group walked down to the stone forest to set up a place to rest. Placing a stone table down, the group started to eat and drink so they could rest from their previous travels.

At least thirty hours had gone by since Bai Yunfei first stepped foot into this pocket. From start to finish the skies had been as bright as day. The night was probably not something that could be simulated in the pocket then.

While everyone else was resting, Zheng Kai sat by himself with his head bent towards the table. His finger was pressed against it and drew a line from spot to spot. He was clearly drawing out the layout of the spatial barriers, so no one bothered him and sat there to watch him.

“Ol’Bai, do you see something’s...a little strange?” Jing Mingfeng nudged his shoulder to Bai Yunfei. “It looks like there are less and less people here, doesn’t it? It’s been an hour, but only three groups of people have come out from the mist. That’s not even ten people...”

Bai Yunfei had a grim look on his face. He too had noticed this. When he looked at the three groups that emerged from the mist, he nodded. “Plus...they’re all injured...”

“Did they fight someone inside the mist?” Yue Feng’s eyes narrowed together. “It hasn’t even been a day, has the fighting and killing started already?”

Bai Yunfei sighed, “The area inside the mist is the perfect place to kill people. Don’t you think the people who tried killing us were only one of the many groups that had the same idea? It was already a rough ride on the way here, there definitely won’t be any safety when two groups meet each other in the mist. As long as one group has it for the other, a fight’s inevitable...”

It was only then that Zheng Kai looked up from what he was doing. He stared at the people that had very clearly been a part of a fight recently and snorted. “There’s always going to be people like that, who cares about them! If they want to fight, let them fight, as long as they don’t bother us.”

Bai Yunfei nodded in agreement. “Ah’Kai, did you figure out anything?”

Everyone looked over to him expectantly for a positive response.

Zheng Kai flicked his hair behind his shoulders with a confident smile. “Hehe, actually, I’ve already understood a bit about the secret behind the spatial barrier...”

“Really?!” Bai Yunfei’s eyes lit up with excitement, “Don’t keep us in suspense then. Did you find a way to bypass the mist?”