Chapter 1087: The War Begins
It was only supposed to be a test run. Bai Yunfei just wanted to see how much energy Lao Sha could absorb at once. Absorbing half of the beginning salvo would’ve been good enough for Bai Yunfei to be satisfied, but for the dog to take in everything? That was not something he anticipated.
If anything, just absorbing the first few elemental wind attacks would’ve been good enough. The Bloodhowl Wolf King could’ve stopped the rest of the attacks after that and lead the rest of his clansmen to attack.
But Lao Sha…took in everything! Every single attack!!
Over twenty attacks! All attacks belonging to a class seven soulbeast or a Soul King! Not even an Early-stage Soul King could ever hope to pull off a defense like that, but Lao Sha did it without difficulty!
Sure, the dog seemed to be a little tired, but that didn’t make the dog’s achievement any less amazing!
But this was most likely Lao Sha’s limit.
“Woof…”
A sound not unsimilar to that of a burp escaped from the dog’s mouth. As if the dog had just eaten a large meal, Lao Sha’s stomach looked much larger than before. Multiple colors of light shined around Lao Sha—green and gold being the most prominent of colors—they were symbolizing the colors of energy the dog had just eaten. One by one, they disappeared deep into the dog’s body.
Several clansmen looked worried. Would the dog explode from overeating or something?
Bai Yunfei was the first to snap out from his daze. He looked excited. Waving his right hand to take Lao Sha back into the Core World, Bai Yunfei nodded to the Bloodhowl Wolf King and to the rest of the people behind him.
“What was that?!?!” The Wind Ape King roared in thunderous confusion. Even for one as experienced as him, he had never seen anything like this before.
Over a thousand years. That was how long the Wind Ape King had been alive and cultivating. But not once in those thousand years had he ever experienced a sight like this. He couldn’t even begin to conjecture what this could possibly be.
He only knew of a few facts.
Firstly, a single person came forward when the attacks began.
Secondly, a soulbeast was summoned?
And then…the twenty attacks of multiple class seven soulbeast and Soul Kings were eaten by that soulbeast?!
The soulbeast wasn’t even there anymore by the time he was aware of the situation. Where had the soulbeast gone?
He turned to look at the Golden Roc King and Duan Tianqing, but both his allies looked as clueless as he.
“What…what kind of soulbeast has an ability like that?!” Cried Duan Tianqing.
The pupils in his eyes were dilated and trembled in their eyeballs. His heart was thumping heavily against his chest. He couldn’t even begin to guess what manner of soulbeast that was. What type of power that soulbeast had. But…if he could take that soulbeast and make it a puppet under his control…
He shivered again, but this time from excitement.
“Senior Bloodhowl, let’s begin our plans then…”
A semi-frayed hat made from straw appeared in Bai Yunfei’s right hand. He was speaking to the Bloodhowl Wolf King, but through Soul Communication.
The area around Bai Yunfei glimmered softly for a second before he disappeared from sight…
What fear the Bloodhowl Wolf King had in his eyes disappeared in the same moment Bai Yunfei did. Snarling at the Wind Ape King, he let out a single word to his clansmen, “Attack!!”
“Bzzz…”
The skies above the Bloodhowl Wolf King grew dark-red in color. The Bloodhowl Wolf King’s energy was swarming together to form the head of a blood-red wolf. The manifestation tilted its head up and let out an earth-trembling roar.
Like a wave of fire, a burst of energy exploded out from the wolf’s mouth. Many felt their body stiffen with the heat, but there was also something about the energy that chilled their bones.
A burning sensation that chilled the bones. A paradoxically strange sensation.
They knew the red light was a sign of elemental fire, but with how it gleamed so similarly to blood, everyone couldn’t help but feel something sinister to it.
“Roarr!!!”
“Roarrrr!!!”
Several soulbeasts roared aloud from behind the Bloodhowl Wolf King. Though they couldn’t compare to the head of their clan, the power of these soulbeasts were still beyond the norms of most.
Under the guidance of the Bloodhowl Wolf King, the class seven soulbeasts began their retaliatory attack!
“Hmph!! How foolish!!” The Wind Ape King sneered. Truth be told, he was still wary of whatever soulbeast it was that soaked up their first attack, but he had better things to do than try to think about what that was.
He was somewhat confused by their tactics. Why start off with something like that soulbeast before attempting a ‘last stand’ like this? The three allied forces had about three—four, actually—Soul Kings among them. The Bloodhowl Wolf King had no hopes of winning against those four. There’d still be plenty of energy to spare on wiping the rest of the wolf clan after they eliminated the Bloodhowl Wolf King even!
“If that’s how you wish to die, then, by all means, do so! Attack!!!”
He didn’t care anymore. If the enemies wanted to do something as stupid and reckless as what they were doing now, surely that meant they were fighting out of desperation or something?
To counter the energy wave brought forth from the Bloodhowl Wolf King, the Wind Ape King manifested the figure of a gigantic ape above him. The manifestation pounded its chest with its mighty fists as if drumming them for a ritual of some kind. Both arms snapped backward for a moment before the ape brought its head forward and lashed out with a punch at the giant blood-red wolf!
Both sides took action immediately. Though there was a considerable distance between the two forces, the attacks of a Soul Emperor could travel the distance in no time at all. The class six soulbeasts and under didn’t even realize the war was in full force when the attacks of the Bloodhowl Wolf King and the Wind Ape King struck one another!
Excluding certain soul skills, elemental energy was not something that can generally be sculpted into a form as solid as flesh and bone might be. It was generally something that had form, but not substance. However, Soul Emperors could shape elemental energy and turn it into a form with substance without trouble at all.
The Bloodhowl Wolf King and Wind Ape King attacked so quickly that not even the Golden Roc King and Duan Tianqing had the time to catch up with the two. Both had only enough time to prepare for impact as the two attacks collided!
“Boom!!!”
Everything within several dozen kilometers of the two forces heaved violently. The skies were cleaved into two halves; one of bright green and the other a dark red. Cracks appeared in the sky when the giant wolf and ape clashed!
And when the two giant animals struck one another, the Wind Ape King and Bloodhowl Wolf King were right underneath striking at one another!
They had no soul armament in hand. It was a fight between their fists!
“Bang!!!”
The fists collided with a mighty slam. From where their hands made contact, multiple cracks formed in space in greater numbers than before like a spiderweb!
The cracks that formed from when their elemental energies struck one another was already bad enough, but space around the two class seven soulbeasts looked like a broken mirror with how several parts of the world were breaking off!
Giant holes were beginning to appear now. The cracks were flaking away to reveal pitch-black holes that seemed to devour everything that threatened to come close to them…
“Hmph!!”
The Wind Ape King pulled his fist back. Eyes narrowed, he summoned a ball of elemental wind to push him away from the Bloodhowl Wolf King!
Something was strange about the Bloodhowl Wolf King’s attack just now. True, fractures in space could be caused when two Soul Emperors attacked, but it was generally something both sides avoided doing when engaging in close-combat. That meant the Bloodhowl Wolf King did this on purpose.
It was a stalling tactic, meant to stop the advance of everyone behind the Wind Ape King. By creating multiple holes in space, the areas of opportunity for the Bloodhowl Wolf King’s enemies to advance would be decreased. Not even a Soul King would charge forward recklessly when multiple holes obstructed their path. They would have to wait a moment for the holes to dissipate.
But that didn’t mean the Soul Kings would stop their advance. Already the Golden Roc King and Duan Tianqing stood right behind the Wind Ape King. Their eyes shined with a surprised, but determined light.
The wolf clan was making the first advance with their troops and yet they were already ‘stalling’? What was the meaning of this?!
“Boom!!!”
The world trembled again, but this time it came from the far south! A golden pillar of light exploded up into the skies with power far beyond anyone that should’ve been there!
“Roar!!”
The golden silhouette of a tiger appeared shortly afterward. Filling the skies with its light, the tiger opened its maw wide open and unleashed a roar that broke apart the clouds above it!
The three leaders froze right where they stood straight away. Duan Tianqing watched as the energy from the golden tiger started to spread out to where they stood. He looked stunned about something.
“This…this is the Demon-eyed Tiger King!! What’s the headmaster doing here?!”