“Watch out!!”

On the other side of the barrier, multiple students began to cry out in alarm when they saw the dozens of Soul Kings begin to hammer the barrier. Their attacks left ripples to travel across the surface of the barrier like red waves of fire before their attacks were rebounded back at themselves!

A few of the Soul Kings were quick to dodge their own attacks while a few others weren’t so lucky. Struck by their own attacks, they stumbled backward in a worse state than before.

At the sight of this, those students on the interior of the barrier began to sneer mockingly at them.

Those Soul Kings on the outside of the barrier were amazed. Dongfang Ming’s warnings about not attacking the same place all at once. If they had done that then the reflected attacks would definitely cause a death or two!

The barrier of the Crafting School had an extremely powerful reflective ability!

“Continue the attacks!”

Qi Ning barked in cold annoyance.

“Boom boom boom boom!!”

Now that their wits were back with them, the enemy Soul Kings began to focus again. This time, they were ready for their attacks to be reflected!

Again, multiple streaks of energy struck the barrier, causing it to ripple unsteadily as if it would be destroyed. But none of the elders from the Crafting School seemed concerned. They knew that their barrier would be more than enough to deal with these attacks. Attacking the Soul Kings now would simply be disadvantageous for them.

The Soul Emperors might be able to destroy the barrier, but it’d certainly mean investing a large amount of soulforce to accomplish their goal. The disadvantage would be on them then, if they broke the barrier, since the Soul Emperors of the Crafting School could swoop in to take them out.

That was the reason why none of the Soul Emperors were attacking now. The Soul Kings were being used to exhaust the barrier since they had more Soul Kings than the Crafting School did.

Of course, that was the plan on the surface. Whether there was another purpose to their attacking remained to be seen.

“.....”

Yang Yao looked deep in thought as he watched the enemies attack the barrier. He seemed to be suspicious of the reason behind their doing so. Exhausting the barrier didn’t seem like their true intent.

As Yang Yao said before, there was no way the Soul Refining School would only send a group of Soul Kings to help the Wind Lightning School.

If the Wind Lightning School had two Soul Emperors, then the Soul Refining School definitely had a Soul Emperor or two ‘hidden’ away. But for what purpose?

The easiest guess was to simply allow the Crafting School a false sense of security. Given that guess, the Soul Refining School would wait until the battle was at a crucial moment before they revealed themselves.

“The Wind Lightning School has an Early-stage Soul Emperor and a Mid-stage Soul Emperor, the Soul Refining School will definitely have one of both too, if not more. If that’s the case, then the three of us won’t be enough…” Yang Yao thought aloud to himself while glancing over to the northern peak.

……

While Yang Yao was considering the situation, Huo Zhenting and Qi Ning were doing the same on the other side of the barrier.

“I don’t see Xiao Binzi or the soulbeast that Bai Yunfei contracted with. Does this mean those three went to assist the Water School?” Qi Ning conjectured with joy. “If that’s the case then Yue Kuangfeng has a decent chance of success. That Bai Yunfei…maybe he’s already dead?!”

Huo Zhenting took a more calm approach. “Don’t forget the Crafting School has their life slips. I would wager Bai Yunfei is still alive based on their expressions. Perhaps they haven’t reached the Water School yet? It’s also possible Yue Kuangfeng hasn’t had the opportunity to kill him yet…either way, if Bai Yunfei has gone there…he won’t be returning!”

Like Yue Kuangfeng, these two men had extreme confidence in their plan to deal with Bai Yunfei. It was a foregone conclusion that Bai Yunfei would die by the hands of Yue Kuangfeng!

Unfortunately for them, Yue Kuangfeng was already dead. Not even a single strand of hair had been harmed on Bai Yunfei’s person…

Qi Ning had a pleased smile on his face. “I doubt they’ll just wait for us to keep attacking the barrier? They’ll definitely come attacking us sooner or later, but…three Soul Emperors won’t be too much for us. Our plan seems to operating within our expectations still…”

“Don’t underestimate the Crafting School. While they don’t have many Soul Emperors, we don’t stand a chance one-on-one.” Huo Zhenting rebuked, “Furthermore…do you really think they only have three Soul Emperors? The northern peaks still have plenty of Soul Emperors that not even Dongfang Ming is aware of. They won’t show up until the time of peak danger…”

“Pah! No amount of Soul Emperors will save their school from their destruction!” Qi Ning spat angrily. “We stand in front of their gates without any worries while they do. Once Dongfang Ming is done we’ll see how they’ll be able to defend Mt. Crimson!”

……

“Must we wait here, headmaster? Even if there are more enemies lying in wait, we can simply fight them! The result won’t be known until we fight! We’ll show them how painful a death they’ll die now that they’re invading our schoolgrounds!’

On top of Mt. Crimson, Huangfu Nan was furious at the ‘attitude’ of their enemies and was imploring Kou Changkong to change his mind.

But Kou Changkong remained silent. He simply stared to Yang Yao for his advice.

While he was the headmaster, he wasn’t a Soul Emperor. The best thing for him to do was defer judgment to a Soul Emperor like Yang Yao.

Yang Yao and the others never had the intention of waiting for the barrier to break before they attacked. The true purpose of the barrier was to protect the school, Mt. Crimson, and the students from harm. Sooner or later they would have to engage with the enemies, but they would do so far away from the barrier and much later. For now, they’d wait a little longer for their enemies to exhaust more of their energy and see what other observations could be made before they committed to a battle.

It was about time now for them to act. “Prepare everyone for battle! Scan the surroundings to the best of your abilities! Return inside the barrier the moment you sense something wrong!”

“Yes!!”

Huangfu Nan and the other Soul Kings replied in affirmation to Yang Yao at once. Their killing intent began to surge like a raging fire.

……

“Oh? They’re already coming out to fight us?”

Huo Zhenting commented before commanding: “Cease your attacks. Prepare to engage them!”

“Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh…”

All of the Soul Kings attacking the barrier immediately stopped. At the same time, multiple beams of red light shot out from the barrier towards the Soul Kings!

“Kill!!”

A Soul King from the Crafting School cried out. All at once, the Soul Kings began to charge out from the barrier to attack their enemies!

Each Soul King exploded with another burst of red light as they waved their hands. One by one, each Soul King began to reveal multiple soul armaments in their hands!

“Boom boom boom boom…”

The world began to echo with the sounds of war as each of the red streaks of light smashed through the attacks thrown at them before pressing onward!