Chapter 1142: Why Now of All Times?!
Meanwhile, a little before Bai Yunfei arrived at the Beast Taming School.
In the ‘back peak’ of the Beast Taming School.
Lin Xiangtian—one of the pillars of the Beast Taming School, was currently seated in one of the four corners of the formation. His hands never stayed at rest for long, they were a constant blur of handseals to send more of his soulforce into the formation. The amount of soulforce that thickened the cave in here was enough to make even a Soul King feel faint.
At the center of the formation were the same two figures as before. The figure in white was still looking as peaceful as ever while the elder was trembling from fatigue and exertion. The soulforce radiating from the elder was even more intense than the ones from Lin Xiangtian and the others. The faint images of what appeared to be shackles could barely be seen. They looked like they were trying to grab hold of something!
In simpler words, the elder was trying to shackle the soul of the other!
The faint shadows originated from the elder and were barely being resisted by the white-robed figure. They were slightly transparent, but also looked blurry like smoke with how it moved.
It was only because of a transparent energy around the middle-aged man in white that seemed to fend the shackles from touching his person.
“Just a little more…we need to succeed!”
Lin Xiangtian’s eyes were focused entirely on the sight in front of him, his face the very picture of nervous anxiety.
It was at that moment when…
“Bzz…”
The outside world rumbled with a powerful soulforce no expected to feel. It appeared out of nowhere!
An enemy was here!
“A Soul Emperor!” Lin Xiangtian cried aloud. “This aura…” He murmured.
“It’s Bai Yunfei!! It’s him! How! How did he become a Soul Emperor already?!”
Lin Xiangtian cried out again, shocking the rest of the beast tamers in the cave.
“Bai Yunfei?!” A violet-robed elder repeated, “That person is Bai Yunfei?! He really came?!”
“He has,” Snarled Lin Xiangtian, “this aura definitely belongs to him! Damn! Why…why now of all times! Why did he have to come now?!”
Bai Yunfei being here was something he thought would happen. He just didn’t think Bai Yunfei would come so soon!
The events a beast tamer’s medium experienced is shared to the beast tamer itself. Thus, the experience of having his own soul be forced out from the Demon-eyed Tiger King and destroyed was known to Lin Xiangtian. He was also very aware of the possibility that Bai Yunfei might be able to glean some information from the fragments of his soul!
Consequently, Lin Xiangtian thought about Bai Yunfei being the reason why Duan Tianqing was killed the very moment he saw Duan Tianqing’s ‘lifebeast’ expire!
Like how the Crafting School uses life slips and the Soul Refining School using soul tablets to see if one was dead or alive, the Beast Taming School used soulbeast puppets in a similar way. When making a soulbeast puppet, there exists a method to link a soulbeast puppet to a beast tamer so that the soulbeast puppet would die when its owner perished.
Having so many people die in the Qimang Mountain expedition was a tremendous blow to the Beast Taming School’s strength. But the biggest worry to Lin Xiangtian’s heart was Bai Yunfei. If Bai Yunfei really was in the Soulbeast Forest, then the Beast Taming School was in extreme danger!
He knew Bai Yunfei had the Core Stone. He also knew that there’d be a solid chance of Bai Yunfei cooperating with the powerful soulbeasts in the forest. If that was the case, then the Beast Taming School would be disadvantaged!
It felt like there was a giant sword hanging over his head. It was a sword that spelled doom for his school, he just didn’t know when it’d fall!
In the end, Lin Xiangtian decided to warn the elders of this danger. Together, the school decided to do what they could to avoid the worst-case scenario. It was time for them to make use of their trump card!
The way the Beast Taming School fell in numbers meant that they’d be in trouble even without Bai Yunfei coming and reducing their numbers even more. Therefore, they had to do what they could to bolster their strength.
And that method was to turn ‘him’ into an avatar. To turn ‘him’ into a power to shield the Beast Taming School!
‘He’ was a soulbeast puppet, one that had been passed down for several thousand years in the Beast Taming School. It was the soulbeast puppet of the founder of the entire school!
‘He’ was the Beast Taming School’s trump card and final ace-in-the-hole!
Though they had such a strong soulbeast puppet, the Beast Taming School hadn’t anyone that was able to make use of him since the first use due to them not being strong enough for it!
No one in the school was still strong enough to make use of the soulbeast puppet, but time was running out. If they couldn’t use it as a proper soulbeast puppet, then they’d have to turn it into the avatar of their strongest beast tamer!
But not any regular avatar. Creating an avatar meant tearing away a portion of one’s soul. In this particular case, ‘he’ was far too strong to be controlled by a soul fragment. If they wanted to make use of ‘him’, then they’d have to use the entirety of their soul!
In other words…they’d move the soul from a human body to a soulbeast!
The Beast Taming School had a secret art that allowed a soul cultivator to give up their original body and gain possession of a soulbeast’s body. That didn’t mean they’d gain the lifespan of a soulbeast, however. The technique had a lot of drawbacks. Even if the takeover succeded, the soul cultivator’s soul would never be able to grow stronger. The soul cultivator would die the moment their original lifespan was finished.
Such were the dangers, but there was no helping it in such a case. Four Soul Emperors were trying their hardest with four of their class eight soulbeast puppets and yet they failed five times already. It seemed like their sixth attempt was looking like a success when…
When Bai Yunfei appeared out of nowhere!!
Why did he have to appear today of all days?!
Lin Xiangtian wasn’t the only one thinking this, the other elders were too!
“Chu Hongrong went to deal with him!!”
An elder reported shortly after they felt Bai Yunfei’s aura.
“Headmaster…what should we do?!”
A black-robed elder cried out to Lin Xiangtian in concern.
“Just a bit more…just a little bit more!!”
The anxiety was crushing Lin Xiangtian. It took all he had to give the man a shaky response before snarling, “Bai Yunfei came by himself, perhaps teacher Chu will be able to stall him long enough. Per—”
“Roar!!!”
The loud roar of a soulbeast interrupted Lin Xiangtian. Everyone within the cave knew that sound, Chu Hongrong was taking action!
Nerves frayed with anxiety, everyone waited with baited breaths for Chu Hongrong to do what they hoped: to delay Bai Yunfei just long enough for…
Then the next second brought all their hopes crashing back down again. Crestfallen, everyone looked at one another with horror when they felt someone’s aura disappear!
“Teacher Chu has…died?!”
Lin Xiangtian could hardly believe himself. His heart lurched in his chest at the thought of one of their own dying so quickly. It was only for a second!
Then came the next moment. The moment when multiple auras began to appear in the elder’s senses!
“The Bloodhowl Wolf King!! He’s here! He’s here!!”
One of the elders shrieked the very moment he felt the Bloodhowl Wolf King’s aura.
“This aura belongs to…the Three-eyed Tiger King! Impossible! I thought he was dead!”
Another elder cried out shortly afterward. He was so shocked by this unforgettable aura—he was only a disciple two hundred years ago when the Three-eyed Tiger King attacked the Beast Taming School in vengeance for the Demon-eyed Tiger King’s capture!
“Head out there right now!”
A gravelly voice spoke in the minds of Lin Xiangtian and the others.
“Teacher!” Lin Xiangtian’s head whipped to the shriveled elder in the middle, “but you’re…”
“Hurry! I can manage by myself!”
A powerful aura exploded forth from the elder as if to back up his words.
“Damn! Damn it all!!”
Howling in rage to himself, Lin Xiangtian snarled and stood up. “Let’s go!” He roared to the other three.
“Swish swish swish swish…”
One moment later and the four soul cultivators and four soulbeast puppets were now gone from the cave!