At the same time as Bai Yunfei was working to remove Wu Hao’s seal on the Soul Seeker’s Mirror.
In a faraway land. Inside of a dark building.
A person was seated on the ground, his legs crossed and his hands resting on both knees. He was in the middle of meditating.
It was pitch-black in the building, but the faint metallic glow exuding from the person gave off enough illumination to just barely make out the face of the person. It was Wu Hao!!
“Ugh!!”
Completely out of the blue, Wu Hao let out a grunt of pain as if experiencing a sudden headache.
“Seeker!!” He roared, shocked by the sensation. “Someone stole Seeker away from me?! No, that can’t be! How could…”
Worried by the implications, Wu Hao took out a space ring and extracted a single object from it.
The object turned out to be the broken pieces of a crystal that stunned Wu Hao when he saw it.
“Shangguan Xiongyan is…dead?! That shouldn’t be!! Did the Bloodsoaked Demon Lord lose to Bai Yunfei?!”
He cried out to himself in shock. “Or…” His eyebrows furrowed together, “Did he get caught up with whatever the Bloodsoaked Demon Lord did?!
“It’s possible…no, that has to be the case!!”
Wu Hao blanched at the thought. This was a very likely scenario! He and Shangguan Xiongyan miscalculated the Bloodsoaked Demon Lord! They were so hasty in trying to get the Bloodsoaked Demon Lord kill Bai Yunfei that they failed to realize just how much of a wild card he was!
“Whether intentional or not, it shouldn’t have been easy for the Bloodsoaked Demon Lord to kill Shangguan Xiongyan. Not with the Triumphant Flame protecting him, so…why did he die?! Damn!!”
Wu Hao was under the assumption that after killing Bai Yunfei, the Bloodsoaked Demon Lord began to covet the Regalias Shangguan Xiongyan had and killed him afterward.
He lost Shangguan Xiongyan and two Regalia in his goal to kill Bai Yunfei. This was a result that made Wu Hao feel close to going insane.
“We can’t wait any longer…the Capital must fall! I’ll kill all of Wu Tianhun’s descendants and restore the Liang!!
Hatred filled Wu Hao’s eyes as he flew up to move outside!
……
After upgrading the Soul Seeker’s Mirror, Bai Yunfei decided to put it away and ignore upgrading the Triumphant Flame. He didn’t even have a second +12 Guaranteed Upgrade Stone, and would only be able to upgrade it to +11 if he really wanted to, but that wouldn’t be nearly enough to erase Wu Hao’s mark on it. And if there wasn’t a point in using it, then there wasn’t a need to upgrade it right away.
He didn’t know if Wu Hao would come for the Triumphant Flame or anything. He just knew that this man was the very same Prince Hao he met all those years ago. That being said, Bai Yunfei found it hard to believe that the very same person would become the leading figure in the rebellion against the Royal Family. Even harder to believe was how he managed to get the Soul Refining School to collude with him in this conflict.
He didn’t even enter the conflict yet and already so many people; the Soul Refining School, the Beast Taming School, the Wind Lightning School, and even Shangguan Xiongyan all came to bother him anyway. In the end, Bai Yunfei managed to win against them all and indirectly helped the Royal Family. The situation should most definitely favor them now that the rebel army was for the most part diminished of their key figures. If Wu Hao took part in the battle and died, then the Triumphant Flame would be without a master and become Bai Yunfei’s.
—————————————
Bai Yunfei took the opportunity to take a look at the space rings from both the Bloodsoaked Demon Lord and Shangguan Xiongyan. While there were quite a few objects-of-interest, none of them were worthy of mention.
And once he was finished with that, Bai Yunfei decided to spend some time absorbing the energy from the Bloodsoaked Demon Lord. But just as he was getting comfortable…
“Yunfei, Li Chengfeng asked me to bring you to the Crafting School’s halls, it’s important!!” Core suddenly appeared out of nowhere to speak to him.
Bai Yunfei flew to his feet at once. He disappeared from his building to immediately reappear in the same hall Core mentioned.
Many individuals were already gathered there in the halls by the time Bai Yunfei arrived. Shen Pojun, Ge Yiyun, and several of the Soul Emperors from both the Crafting and Fate Schools were also in attendance.
“Yunfei!” Li Chengfeng called out the moment he saw Bai Yunfei appeared in the halls.
A little confused, Bai Yunfei walked up to his friend, “What’s going on, Chengfeng? Did you predict something dangerous?”
“Yes…” Li Chengfeng smiled bitterly, “Something far more troublesome than the last. This’ll dictate the fate of the entire Empire…”
“What?! What kind of event is this?”
“We were planning on going to the Capital, weren’t we? I decided to divine if anything will happen and saw a very ominous prediction. I went to my teacher and he confirmed it. The Capital will…undergo a great change!!”
“A great change?!” Bai Yunfei exclaimed, “Does…does that mean Wu Hao or…the rebels are taking action now? Do they actually plan on attacking the Imperial Palace?!”
“I’m afraid so…” Li Chengfeng nodded. “I saw more information when I used the Heart Compass’ +12 additional effect. The skies above the palace will be engulfed by a black vortex and a golden glow. I saw many individuals fighting and laying waste to the Capital!”
“……”
A contemplative look entered Bai Yunfei’s face. This was certainly a matter to be greatly worried about! His first thought was about his good friends in the Capital and the Academy….if the Capital was attacked then his friends would be in danger!!
“We should head to the Capital right away, Yunfei!”
Zheng Kai voiced his opinion at once. He had been living this entire time in the Crafting School with Kou Tingting and managed to further his relationship with her even more. There were even plans on taking her back to the Capital so he could discuss with his family the potentiality of having a wedding. So it went without saying he had a very invested interest on the future of the Capital.
Bai Yunfei nodded. “Of course. We’ll set off for the Capital right away!!”
……
The discussions were finished a short time after that. Xiao Qi would take the Core Stone and fly as fast as he could toward the Capital while everyone else would rest and prepare for the battle inside.
Given Xiao Qi’s speed, it’d take no more than a few days for him to reach the Capital. And since the Fate School wasn’t able to divine any concrete information, the group could only hope that they’d be on time.
The reason why Bai Yunfei wasn’t using the Core Stone to teleport was because of the soulforce consumption and needing time for his other preparations. He needed to absorb as much of the Bloodsoaked Demon Lord’s soul as he could to increase his own strength!
The final battle in the Capital…was rapidly approaching!!