Chapter 253: A Predicament

Seeing that Bai Yunfei was coming at him with a spear once again, the middle-aged beast tamer snorted. Taking two steps back with soulforce circulating through him, the man commanded the python and bird to come protect him. Bai Yunfei was weaker than him in strength, but this man didn’t have the habit of underestimating anyone from the Crafting School. Each crafter was not someone who could be underestimated. This was something he himself had always followed.

With a flap of its wings, the azure bird began to gather the elemental wind in the area around it. Soon, blades of wind started to lash out in a very simplistic attack pattern that tried to predict where Bai Yunfei would move by attacking him straight-on.

The dark-yellow python was glowing bright with orange light. Its tail was deep into the ground where it unleashed a wave of earth. It rolled toward Bai Yunfei thanks to the elemental earth it was using. At the same time, the python’s body coiled around to the side to flank Bai Yunfei.

One by one, Bai Yunfei’s spear knocked away the blades of wind coming at him. He then leaped two meters into the air to dodge the earth wave from the python, but before he could even land on the ground, the python’s tail was coming back at him again!

This time, Bai Yunfei wouldn’t let himself be thwacked by the tail. With narrowed eyes, Bai Yunfei swung his left arm forward, and the Compliant Rope wrapped itself around the python’s head. Immediately shortening its length, Bai Yunfei managed to dodge the tail and fly straight for the python itself!

Just as the azure bird was about to drop down to interfere, a sudden screech and several blades of wind came attacking it from the side before a white figure flew out!

It was Xiao Bai, the quickshade bird!

When Xiao Bai appeared, a battle between the two birds began to take place.

Both birds were early-stage fifth-tier soulbeasts, but Xiao Bai was closer to the mid-stage level. Thus, it held a small advantage over the azure bird, but as a puppet soulbeast of the Beast Taming School, the azure bird felt neither pain nor feelings. It could become even more berserk in its attacks. At first clash, the ensuing battle was extremely fierce with both birds being of the wind affinity. Blades of wind flew everywhere along with two blurry streaks of azure and white through the air. Occasionally, different colored feathers could be seen drifting to the ground.

Now that the azure bird was preoccupied, Bai Yunfei was down yet another problem. With how quickly the Compliant Rope was shortening itself, Bai Yunfei was able to reach the python in no time at all. Right as he drew close, the python turned its head and opened its jaw wide to swallow him whole!

The arrival of Xiao Bai caught the beast tamer off guard, but he was still able to control the bird as it fought Xiao Bai and the python as it fought Bai Yunfei. With how well-known the Beast Taming School was for controlling soulbeasts, a feat like this wasn’t all too hard for many beast tamers.

A pungent smell assaulted Bai Yunfei’s nose as his left hand grasped the Compliant Rope and his right hand worked the Fire-tipped Spear. He contorted his body so that he’d be in a better angle to stab at the python, but there was no reason why the python would let its maw be stabbed so easily. Giving up on swallowing Bai Yunfei, the python swung its head so that it could fling Bai Yunfei away. With how Bai Yunfei was tied to the python with the Complaint Rope, Bai Yunfei was swung around its body in a circular motion before coming face to face with another tail strike!

“Tsk!” Bai Yunfei hadn’t expected the python to be this nimble, so he had no other choice but to use his arms to protect himself.

“Bang!”

Once again, Bai Yunfei was sent flying another ten meters. Thanks to the Compliant Rope and its gradual extension, Bai Yunfei was able to counteract the momentum and continue revolving around the python.

By fifty meters, the Compliant Rope could extend no more. Loosening the rope around the python’s head, Bai Yunfei recalled the rope back to him. As soon as he landed back on the ground, he shot off toward the man once more!

Thanks to this recent exchange, Bai Yunfei was right between the python and the middle-aged man since the python threw him there!

The fact that Bai Yunfei wasn’t injured after taking two of the python’s tail strikes astounded the middle-aged man. He knew how strong the python was, so seeing Bai Yunfei completely unhurt was not within his expectations.

Though it was just a minor shock. As a mid-stage Soul Ancestor, he had experienced plenty of combat before and wouldn’t be completely surprised by something like this. As he watched Bai Yunfei run past the soulbeast and chase after him, the man let loose a sneer.

“If a person like you could play around with me, then we of the Beast Taming School would simply be too easy to fight!”

“I’ll take care of him now; we’ve no time to waste.”

A dark expression overcame the man’s face as he swung both arms up. Straight away, a strange marking appeared right in front of him before his body lit up in an orange glow. A wave of elemental earth rushed off his feet and into the ground below soon after.

“Hisss!!”

An ear-piercing hiss could soon be heard from the python as its body lit up in an orange light as well. The ground around the python began to shake slightly. Then with a twitch of its body, the python dove into the ground as if it were diving into water!

Bai Yunfei began to run even faster when the man and python made their moves, but just before he could even get halfway to the man, Bai Yunfei could feel the earth within a hundred meters of him start to shake. Certain parts of the ground rippled with an orange glow as if the dirt was acting like water, and Bai Yunfei could feel the ground grow soft before part of his legs began to sink into it!

“Crap!” Bai Yunfei gasped as he felt himself sink into the earth. It felt as if he was stepping into a marsh. Forward progress was difficult, and he was sinking with each passing second!

A spark of inspiration flickered across Bai Yunfei’s eyes as an idea occurred to him. Swapping the Fire-tipped Spear from his right hand to his left with a twirl of the spear, Bai Yunfei clenched his right fist, with the Ardent Sun Glove, he punched the ground underneath him!

Ninefold Fist Force!

Right as the fist slammed into the ground, an extremely fierce fireball came flying out of the glove and into the soil.

“Boom!!”

There was an explosion of earth and stone as Bai Yunfei blasted away the ground. Borrowing the rebounding power from the blast to aid his jump, Bai Yunfei broke free from his earthly confines and launched into the air.

Only a Soul Exalt could borrow the power of the elements to remain in the air, so after his leap, Bai Yunfei began to look all over the place in order to find a good rock or another spot to use his Compliant Rope to fly over to.

Unfortunately for him, there were no such trees or rocks suitable for his purposes within a hundred meters radius. For as far as the eye could see, the surrounding earth was swallowed up by the previous attack and was acting more like water than solid earth. If he were to fall into this now, he’d be stuck for good!

“If that’s the case, then I’ll just have to…” Bai Yunfei’s eyes lit up as he prepared to use the Cataclysmic Seal, but then something out of the corner of his eye forced him to throw up his spear in a hurry to block his front.

From deep underground, the tail of the python came straight out of the earth and moved in an attempt to slam into Bai Yunfei!

“Pow!”

Practically seconds after Bai Yunfei maneuvered his spear in front of him, the tail slammed into it and tossed Bai Yunfei back down to the ground with a thud.

A crater formed where Bai Yunfei landed. By the time Bai Yunfei picked himself up, blood was trailing from his gasping mouth; there was no time to catch his breath. When he tried to leap up into the air, another problem had occurred!

Ten meters around him, a ‘wave’ of earth was coming right at him again in an attempt to surround him in a tsunami of elemental earth!

Everything had happened far too quickly for him to properly realize it. In fact, it was only moments after he picked himself up that he realized the attack was already about to hit him!

“Bang!”

Following a muffled explosion, the waves of earth conjoined together, entrapping Bai Yunfei in a burial mound of earth!

……

A sneer crept onto the middle-aged man’s face as soon as he saw Bai Yunfei get imprisoned within the burial mound. To him, Bai Yunfei was merely a greenhorn. The boy might be talented enough to become an early-stage Soul Ancestor at his age, but he was clearly lacking combat experience and was thus very easy to deal with.

Even a mid-stage Soul Ancestor would surely die if they fought against a mid-stage fifth-tier earth python and him together. Even a late-stage Soul Ancestor would find it very hard to even run away! When he fought against an early-stage Soul Ancestor, victory was assured in his mind.

A murderous gleam flickered across the man’s eyes as he brought the orange sphere up into the air. Detaching itself away from the ground with a rumble, the sphere floated up before the earth python came flying out of the ground as well. Wrapping around the sphere, the python began to squeeze the sphere!

With a cold laugh, the man clenched his fist tighter.

The python gave a loud hiss before its body started to tighten around the sphere, and following a pulse of elemental earth, the ten-meter-radius sphere began to shrink in size!

A sight like this was reminiscent of the way Xiao Binzi had killed the Soul King with the mountain fist.

The smaller the sphere shrank, the stronger the elemental earth became. If this continued for even a minute longer, Bai Yunfei would surely be squished to death!

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