Chapter 1353: Cleaning Up
“Divine Ancestor!!”
“Bai Yunfei!!”
Two men shouted at the same time, but for different people. Stunned, Liang Fu and Wu Hong both stared off in a distance where Bai Yunfei and Liang Yinshen were fighting.
Liang Fu’s cry had been out of despair upon seeing the upper half of Liang Yinshen blow up. The abnormality in Bai Yunfei’s aura had told him everything he needed to know about what Liang Yinshen was trying to do.
“Divine Ancestor…aghhh!!”
The wail of agony that exploded from Liang Fu had been intense. Then he launched himself toward Bai Yunfei!
He already knew that Liang Yinshen was trying to use Possession as a way to inflict harm onto Bai Yunfei. It was their best method to beat Bai Yunfei since Liang Fu could take advantage of the time to kill Bai Yunfei, take his corpse and equipment, and escape.
As far as he was concerned, Bai Yunfei was a dead man walking if Liang Yinshen was already trying to Possess him. He just needed to head for Bai Yunfei and land the final blow.
“Bzz…”
The aura around Bai Yunfei spiked with intensity when Liang Fu was just about under a hundred steps away from Bai Yunfei. To his horror, the ‘stunned’ Bai Yunfei was now glaring at him!
“Freeze!!”
A single word was all Bai Yunfei had to say. Like a bolt of lightning, the Soul Anchor Technique struck Liang Fu and caused his body to stiffen up at once!
Fingers crooked, Bai Yunfei swiped his right hand to send a red streak of light to coil around the motionless Liang Fu. Once coiled around him, the red light melted into his body and took control of his major acupoints, effectively sealing his soul and body.
A mere Soul Emperor like Liang Fu was no match against Bai Yunfei.
……
“It’s…it’s impossible! How didn’t you die!! Divine Ancestor!!”
Captured, Liang Fu could only glare at Bai Yunfei in fury and despair before asking the big question.
“You mean Liang Yinshen? Sorry to say but he’s dead now—he was even nice enough to leave me a gift before he died.”
“Pft!!”
His emotions overwhelmed him. Liang Fu gasped as a mouthful of blood escaped his mouth before he fell unconscious.
Wu Hong touched down right beside Bai Yunfei after that. “Are you…doing fine, Bai Yunfei? Just now…”
“Worry not, Your Highness. I’m fine. I killed Liang Yinshen when he tried to Possess me.” Bai Yunfei explained succinctly, “What does Your Highness plan to do with Liang Fu?”
“I’d like to take him back with him. Though Liang Fu has taken over the soul, the body is still of that of my brother’s…”
Since he was an outsider, Bai Yunfei didn’t really care much about what happened to Liang Fu and didn’t ask any additional questions to that. His eyes swept across the battlefield to where Liang Yinshen’s corpse was. He summoned a fireball and immediately incinerated the corpse before retrieving the soul armaments and space rings. “Your Highness, we should return to the Capital.”
The flames of rebellion had yet to be quenched in the Capital and Wu Hong knew it. “Very well, let us make our return!”
……
With the sealed Liang Fu in tow, Bai Yunfei and Wu Hong both rode the Hundred Leagues back to the Capital and coincidentally came across a few escaping enemies, all of which were dealt with accordingly.
It looked like the battle for the Capital was finally coming to a quiet conclusion. There were still several fights taking place, but they were slowly being dealt with with the rebels being at a major disadvantage. Every so often, a prismatic beam of light would shoot across the sky and strike down an enemy.
Soul Emperors and Soul Kings were no match for Xiao Qi. They wouldn’t even be able to endure a single blow.
The Liang were already in a tough spot when Bai Yunfei arrived with reinforcements. Their ‘leaders’ Liang Yinshen and Liang Fu fleeing the Capital was the final nail in the coffin that made everyone decide to give up. From there, the battle for the Capital became a battle to flee from it with multiple men dying.
The morale of the rebel army was broken. With Wu Lie, Shen Pojun, and Xiao Qi joining the fray, the three of them were practically ending the war all by themselves.
Bai Yunfei didn’t even have the chance to take part in the clean-up operations when he came back…
Ultimately, roughly ninety percent of the men Liang Yinshen and Liang Fu brought with them to the Capital were killed. Many of them were killed when they attempted to escape, but roughly a dozen of them did manage to make it out from the Capital.
But their days were numbered. The Tianhun School had already dispatched men to look for them.
The magnificent battle for the Capital was finally coming to a conclusion…
…………
……
The Capital was in a sorry state, regardless of who won the battle. A heavy air choked the atmosphere of the Capital following the calm. Many commoners and soul cultivators had died during the conflict and multiple buildings were all but destroyed…
Relief efforts were already being made by the Royal Family. The Court were in charge of hiring contractors to rebuild buildings and compensations were being handed out to those whose family died during the battle.
Aside from that, the Royal Family was also beginning to send people out to reclaim the cities occupied by the Liang.
Without Liang Fu at their head, the rebel army was essentially dead. They had no one above the levels of a Soul King or Soul Emperor almost, meaning they didn’t pose a threat to the Royal Family at all. The old relic that was the Liang could be safely disposed of.
One month later and the empire’s greatest rebellion to date had been entirely pacified.
Multiple edicts were made following that month to appease the continent and the commoners of the empire. Each of the branches in the Tianhun School were slowly restoring peace and order to every city they were based in…
……
Bai Yunfei and his group of people were all residing in the Capital to rest.
Without much to worry about, Bai Yunfei was content to idle around on the campus of Tianhun Academy.
All of his past students were already notable members of the soul cultivator world. Those, such as Mo Wanxia, Dongfang Yuhui, Ouyang Yuyun, and Ye Ming were already Soul Kings or higher. Some decided to stay behind and become instructors, others decided to roam the continent. Fang Tianmeng, Zhang Zhifeng, and a few others opted to join the Tianhun School.
All sorts of families within the Capital came by to pay their respects to Bai Yunfei, but eventually Bai Yunfei grew tired of them and ‘isolated’ himself off from the public so he could ‘relax’ with his close friends.
One thing worth mentioning was how Zheng Kai brought Kou Tingting back home to discuss marriage with his family. Neither side saw any reason to object and so the marriage deals went by swimmingly smooth and would take place two months from now.
This was actually the reason why the entire Crafting School was still in the Capital. They were all preparing for Zheng Kai and Kou Tingting’s wedding and would return to the Great Plain Province afterward.
The Fate School also decided that they wouldn’t bother to find a location to seclude themselves from the world anymore. It’d be better for them to settle down right beside the Crafting School and become neighbors.
All in all, life was slowly regaining its tempo. Bai Yunfei would train occasionally or spend his days relaxing as he pleased with his close companions.
……
One afternoon a month later.
On North Seventh Street in the Capital, within Dan Teng’s teahouse: the Soothing Heart.
The teahouse had been managed by Dan Teng’s student, Yi Shu, while he was away. Thanks to the soothing properties of the tea it offered, Bai Yunfei would often come into the teahouse after trying to digest Liang Yinshen’s soul and soothe himself.
Currently, Bai Yunfei was seated on the second floor next to a window. He, Jing Mingfeng, and Li Chengfeng were all gathered there to enjoy their tea. Zheng Kai, however, was off with Kou Tingting to a world only they knew about.
A sudden commotion outside on the streets had Bai Yunfei turn his head to listen. “Haha, that Lao Sha…” He chuckled, “He’s probably more famous than I am now!”
Out on the streets, a group of people could be seen ‘admiring’ a…small dog as it passed by them on the streets.
The way Lao Sha ‘strutted’ on the streets made the dog feel as though it was very more regal than expected. Walking behind the dog was Huangfu Rui, her red magiboar, Tang Xinyun, and a few other girls who were all out on a ‘stroll’ together.
During the battle, Lao Sha spent all of its time eating away the elemental attacks that dared get close to ground-level. Thanks to the dog, a good portion of the Capital had been spared of any damages and the inhabitants of the Capital were all too happy to show their gratitude. Many of them were already trying to proclaim him as a ‘Divine Dog’.
Bai Yunfei’s eyes shifted away from Lao Sha to the stairwell leading down to the first floor. His senses had caught onto something else of greater interest.
Following his gaze, Li Chengfeng and Jing Mingfeng both looked at the two new figures that had just entered the floor…
It wasn’t just them three. Multiple other patrons within the teahouse were staring at the two newcomers now as well. The person on the left looked like a young man with an imposing presence and short black hair. But it was his golden mask that was most prominent about him. It had a single bloody crack running through its surface and two eyeholes, but one of those eyeholes had a strange golden iris that seemed demonic in appearance. The middle-aged man on the right had an eerie smile on his face that made him seem mellow and free.
Their presence was far too different from the average soul cultivator for people to not notice.
“Him?!”
Bai Yunfei’s eyes widened at the sight of the person on the left. He knew this person—he even fought this person several times before—Yao Tong!!
They were most likely enemies, but Bai Yunfei didn’t know if they were a part of the Soul Refining School or not. What was the meaning of this then? The two of them were walking straight toward him!
“You know them, Ol’Bai?” Jing Mingfeng asked after a while.
But Bai Yunfei didn’t reply. Instead, the middle-aged man on the right suddenly broke out into laughter. “Haha! To think we’d meet again, Bai Yunfei.”
“Oh?” Bai Yunfei blinked. He knew Yao Tong, but his companion didn’t ring a bell at all. “And you are?”
Two chairs flew over to the man when he waved his hand. Taking a seat without a care for anyone else, the man stared at Bai Yunfei. “Don’t bother, you won’t recognize me. The last time I saw you was back in the Lost Swamps. Back then, you were fighting against Nether’s avatar. I even saw you fall into that crack in space…I thought you died, but to think…you are alive and even a Saint now. How admirable…”
“The Lost Swamps?” Bai Yunfei’s eyebrows rose even higher, “Who might you be? And why have you come here to me today?”
“Haha!! Fine, I won’t mince words either then!” The man laughed, “I am Feng Jianyuan. I came today to ask you something…do you wish to eradicate the Soul Refining School once in for all?”