After that was a third fist, then a fourth....
In the blink of an eye, heaven and earth twisted and distorted as a total of nine fists in a row were unleashed on Bai Xiaochun.
Nine soul fists rumbled through the air like nine magical sealing marks. Before Bai Xiaochun could react, they were there in front of him, where they began to detonate. Although he immediately began to fall back, there was no way he could completely evade injury.
As one explosion after another ripped through the air, Bai Xiaochun staggered backward several steps, his aura flickering and his eyes widening. This was the first time he had fought such a deadly battle with someone in the mid Nascent Soul stage. As of this moment, he was now convinced that, given his current battle prowess, he could fight someone in this level without the help of his clones, but most likely couldn’t kill them.
“However, that just goes to show how much I've progressed!” Taking a deep breath, he endured the blasts of the clan chief’s nine soul fists.
Even as the air was still distorted, the clan chief lunged forward, his hair in disarray and his eyes completely bloodshot as he became a flowing stream of light that attacked Bai Xiaochun.
“Bai Clan secret magic, Hundred Ghosts Haunt the Night!!” His voice seemed to erupt from the Nine Serenities underworld. Gusts of sinister wind pulsed out as his divine sense filled the area. This secret magic was different from the similarly named secret magic from the Spirit Stream Sect. The Bai Clan’s version used divine sense to transform into ghosts....
Despite the fact that it was clearly daytime, this secret magic caused the entire 300-meter area to become as dark as night!
It was a pitch-black night that the light of day could not pierce, a place ruled by a black sun! Furthermore, within that black sun... a hundred eyes suddenly opened!!
The eyes were as red as blood, and matchlessly vicious. At the same time, countless roars split the air, causing heaven and earth to shake. Then... a hundred evil ghosts poured out from the black sun!!
The ghosts themselves were pitch black, and each one sported two horns on its heads. They had long, sharp claws, crimson eyes, and gaping, blood-red maws. They radiated the most sinister of auras, and truly seemed like the type of ghosts one would expect to haunt the night! After swirling once around the clan chief, they howled and followed the line of his finger to charge toward Bai Xiaochun.
These ghosts were the antithesis of sunlight, to the point where sunlight would retreat in front of them. As such, their passage only caused the darkness of the night to grow deeper....
“Let’s see how you get out of this alive, you unfilial bastard!!” the clan chief shouted, his voice vibrating with hatred. Bai Xiaochun was shaken; the sight of so many evil ghosts was definitely terrifying. However, after everything he had gone through in the labyrinth, and then his later experiences learning about flame conjuring in the Wildlands, he was no longer very scared of ghosts. In fact, the sight of so many evil ghosts baring claws and fangs as they rushed toward him only caused a serious expression to appear on his face.
“Alright, I’ll show you how I’ll get out of it alive!” His right hand flashed with an incantation gesture, and an afterimage appeared, which was none other than his fire clone.
Instantly, the clan chief’s eyes went wide with astonishment.
“A clone?!” he blurted. “You actually have a clone!!?”
The fire clone looked like Bai Xiaochun’s true self in every aspect, including his appearance, his cultivation base, his fleshly body, and his overall strength!!
The only difference was that the clone's aura seemed to contain a small bit of fire-type power. As soon as he appeared, he joined with Bai Xiaochun’s true self to unleash a fist strike against the hundred ghosts!!
For this clone to join the fight meant that Bai Xiaochun’s battle prowess had instantly doubled. When the two of them unleashed a fist strike, it caused a tempest to spring up in front of them, which swirled out to smash into the ghosts.
Booms filled the air, and at the same time, Bai Xiaochun’s clone grunted and stumbled backward. As for the clan chief, his face fell as he also fell backward several paces, his fury blazing and his murderous desires growing.
“It doesn't matter if you have a clone. You still don’t qualify to live when I attack you!!” With that, he took a step forward, performing something like a minor teleportation that placed him right in front of Bai Xiaochun. There, he summoned a 3,000-meter-wide cloud of souls and then lashed out at Bai Xiaochun with a palm strike.
“Minor teleportation? I can do that too!” Instantly, frigid qi poured out, filling a 3,000-meter area and transforming it into a land of ice, a world that belonged solely to Bai Xiaochun.
This was his frigid domain, and as such, the instant the clan chief’s palm was about to strike him, he vanished, to reappear directly behind the clan chief! There, he unleashed his own palm strike!
At the same time, his fire clone also struck. Simultaneously, another afterimage appeared, along with another clone! It was... his wood clone, which didn’t hesitate for the slightest moment to join his true self and the fire clone to also unleash a blow.
“Dammit!!” growled the clan chief. Spinning, he waved his right hand, causing the 3,000-meter cloud of souls to sweep toward Bai Xiaochun and his two clones.
Bang. Bang! BOOOOOOM!
The intensity of the resulting explosion caused the lands to shake violently. Crevices snaked out as the clan chief staggered backward, his face draining of blood as he glared at Bai Xiaochun. His eyes still shone with killing intent, but this time, there was also incredulity present.
“Another clone? How many clones do you have!?!?” The clan chief was shocked at how difficult it was to fight Bai Xiaochun, and was enraged at how he could increase his overall battle prowess by adding more people to the fight.
“I refuse to believe that you have another one!” Gritting his teeth, he used another minor teleportation to charge toward Bai Xiaochun. In the face of this onslaught, Bai Xiaochun and his two clones had no choice but to fall back. As he did, his face fell with the realization that, even with two clones at his side, he still wasn’t quite a match for the mid Nascent Soul stage.
Only by summoning his third clone could he bridge that gap....
If he had a fourth clone, he could be confident... in coming out completely on top!!
“Heavens! So... this is how the Heaven-Dao Nascent Soul stage works. And I'm only in the beginning levels, still forming my clones. I can’t even imagine what I’ll be like in the great circle....” Looking over at the clan chief teleporting his way in again, Bai Xiaochun’s eyes flickered, and he also used a minor teleportation.
Even as they closed in on each other, the clan chief could tell that the damnable Bai Hao was not yet going all out, and was actually using him to practice with his clones! Furthermore, he had shocking talent when it came to learning and adapting in the middle of a fight. And on top of all that, his battle prowess kept rising!
All of that left the clan chief wallowing in humiliation. Howling, he threw both of his hands out in front of him to perform a double-handed incantation gesture. Eyes shining with mysterious light, he summoned a total of nine soulhoarding pagodas.
Shrieks exploded from within the soulhoarding pagodas as a whole cloud of vengeful souls erupted. The souls which appeared were clearly different from ordinary souls. Furthermore, instead of flying out to attack Bai Xiaochun, they actually shot toward the clan chief’s eyes... and burrowed inside of him!