The howls from the patriarch were gradually growing fainter from within the flames. In contrast to that, the entire audience grew more nervous with each passing second as they waited. Was patriarch Qin really going to die from that?!

Finally, the moment everyone was waiting for came. The patriarch’s scream petered off and the last of his soulforce disappeared, cutting his aura off from everyone’s senses...

“He’s...he’s dead?!”

Someone from within the audience cried out.

A figure appeared from beneath the flames then to head down to the ground.

This was a clone of Jing Wuying!

“Is he really dead?” Bai Yunfei muttered to himself in both surprise and regret. “Shame, Xiao Qi could’ve killed him if he lasted for a second longer...”

How greedy human nature was! Only a moment ago, Bai Yunfei had been worried that he wouldn’t be able to kill the patriarch. And now that he did, Bai Yunfei was sighing in regret that Xiao Qi didn’t get the ‘experience’!

But that was just a passing thought. Bai Yunfei had better things to think about. Now that the battle was over, Bai Yunfei flew straight for where the patriarch’s corpse would be!

He didn’t forget that patriarch Qin had a Regalia on him!! The first thing he had to do was secure the Regalia before anything else could be done.

“...”

To the far side of the battlefield, Yan Tianxing watched Bai Yunfei head for the patriarch with hesitation. He looked like he wanted to head over there too, but in the end, he decided to stay behind.

He wasn’t the only one with that decision. The other two Soul Kings over there remained where they stood.

They already guessed that it was a Regalia the patriarch had used, but their suspicions couldn’t be confirmed without a closer look. They probably would’ve tried to steal it from the patriarch had he won, but since it was Bai Yunfei that was the victor—and nearly overwhelmingly so—no one was willing to fight for it now. They felt afraid of him, in fact. None of them were as strong as the patriarch, and if he couldn’t outlast that attack of Bai Yunfei, then they didn’t have a chance either.

So their desire to live was heavier than their desire for the Regalia.

Another reason why was because of who Bai Yunfei was. He was from the Crafting School and so the decision was even easier to make.

Bai Yunfei was rather weak, but his speed was still considerably fast. Traveling through the skies, Bai Yunfei managed to make his way over to where patriarch Qin had fallen after a few seconds.

The patriarch’s body slammed down onto an already-destroyed hill. The force of his collision onto its surface caused the hill to rise up a few meters for a brief few seconds.

“Bang!!”

His still burning body tumbled across the forest before finally coming to a stop. The last of the flames burnt out to reveal his charred body, his face was too horrific a sight to even look at.

Bai Yunfei was just about thirty meters away from his body when he reached out to have his soulforce grab onto the patriarch’s space ring.

But then...

A premonition of danger suddenly sent Bai Yunfei’s mind into overdrive. Immediately screeching to a stop, Bai Yunfei kicked off against the ground to fly away from the patriarch’s person!

“Whoosh...”

A barely audible sound came flying out from the right side as a black beam of light grazed past where Bai Yunfei’s nose used to be!

“Whoosh!”

And at the same time, a figure in black suddenly shot out from the forest towards the patriarch!

Bai Yunfei’s back immediately went wet with sweat as he realized just how close he had been to death. Had he been even a millisecond slower, that black beam of light would’ve gone straight through his head!

As tired as Bai Yunfei was, his senses weren’t totally kaput in that he wouldn’t be able to sense anyone. He had at the very least had a sizeable range of vision that should’ve alerted him to anyone hiding within range. This meant that this enemy was especially adept at hiding to avoid his senses!

“Damn! I was careless!”

Bai Yunfei cursed to himself. He didn’t use any of his sensing soul armaments in his carelessness and nearly cost him his life in his desire for the Regalia!

This could probably be said to be a result of him being low on soulforce and not wanting to expend any more energy than needed, hence why he didn’t make any special precautions.

𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

His eyes narrowed as he looked at the black beam of light—this was a familiar presence to him!

That was when he took notice of the figure darting out from the forest. Shifting vision onto him, Bai Yunfei took a moment to see who it was before his eyes flew wide open with anger and shock!

“Mo Ni!!”

A furious roar erupted from Bai Yunfei!

The person who was attacking him for the Regalia was...Mo Ni!

Mo Ni’s appearance was the final piece of the puzzle Bai Yunfei needed. Everything was making sense now that he was here!

He definitely wouldn’t get a confession out from Mo Ni, but Bai Yunfei was confident in his hypothesis. The person who was responsible for plotting the Qin against him was Mo Ni! And the reason why Qin Shoufeng and Qin Shouhao self-destructed definitely had to be because of Mo Ni!

Bai Yunfei grew even angrier just thinking about it. His killing intent exploded almost exponentially as he took a quick step forward to fly at Mo Ni!

He was a little slower to reach the patriarch due to being ambushed. By the time he reached the patriarch, Bai Yunfei was just behind Mo Ni by two steps!

Mo Ni was ecstatic at his triumph. His right hand flew forward to grab at the space ring on the patriarch’s left hand while his left hand prepared to make use of the jadelike crystal in it!

It was obvious what he was trying to do. He was planning to grab hold of the Soul Sealing Mandate and then use his soul armament to escape!

......

But before he could even touch on the patriarch’s left hand...

The eyes of the patriarch suddenly flew open! He wasn’t dead! A furious amount of energy exploded out from his person as Mo Ni was just inches away from him!

“Wha—?!”

Mo Ni flinched reflexively. Even Bai Yunfei was surprised to see him alive!

“Bastard!!” He roared before leaping away from the patriarch! A black curtain wrapped around him to serve as a protective barrier immediately.

“Die!!!”

An unearthly howl erupted from the patriarch, blood and flesh spitting from his jaw as he gave both Mo Ni and Bai Yunfei a death glare!

He had been pretending to have died!! Somehow, he was able to fool everyone that he was dead until now!

Power began to build up within his body following his roar....he was self-destructing!!