Correct, everything which had happened earlier had been Bai Yunfei deliberately putting on a show! Including not using weapons, including being caught up by Li Shi, including deliberately revealing that the soft armor on his body was a soul item, and including fighting Li Shi to a stalemate…
All this was done to prevent Zhang Yang from fleeing!
He and Li Shi were indeed comparable in power, but that was true only to the extent that they were on the same level of soulforce! He also had soul techniques and such soul items as the soft armor, the Fire-tipped Spear and the Glacial Piercer! It could be said that if he had gone all out right from the beginning of the fight against Li Shi, Li Shi would have been killed earlier by him!
However, he did not do so, because if he had shown that he was very powerful, Zhang Yang would definitely have run away without hesitation after noticing how fearsome he was. Even though he could have killed Li Shi very quickly, he would not have been able to kill him in an instant. As long as he had been stalled for a short period of time, this would have been enough for Zhang Yang.
If the battle had turned into a running fight, it would have been very disadvantageous to Bai Yunfei. Therefore, he could not afford to scare Zhang Yang away and had to draw him into the battle instead!
So, after killing Du Xin with a surprise attack, he engaged in a fight with Li Shi and deliberately acted as if they were neck and neck in power, and even deliberately revealed that the soft armor on his body was a soul item. Having gone through the battle on Mt. Blackwood, he already somewhat understood how valuable these soul items were. Therefore, using them as a bait, he was able to lure Zhang Yang into the fight.
In fact, the exhaustion he showed after fighting for a long time was mostly an act, because he basically had not used so much strength and soulforce as the opponents thought he had. The golden soft armor on his body was not only a soul item but also a +10 upgraded soul item!
(Goldsilk Soul Armor’s properties)
Item grade: Low rare.
Upgrade level: +10.
Defense: 267.
Additional defense: 139.
+10 Additional effect: When attacked, it has a 5% chance of increasing defense by 50% for 3 seconds.
Upgrade requirement: 64 soul points.
This soft armor was none other than the soul item of Han Xiao, the chieftain of the Blackwood Stronghold. After killing him, Bai Yunfei had naturally obtained this item. Relying on the upgraded armor’s high defense and its occasionally triggered additional effect, in fact the force he had to endure every time he took a blow with the soul armor was negligible.
Of course he could not let the opponent know about this. Moreover, how the situation was deliberately made to look by him caused Zhang Yang to feel that as long as he joined the fight and teamed up with Li Shi, they would definitely be able to defeat the enemy with great ease and obtain the soul item on his body!
When Zhang Yang finally could not help joining the battle, Bai Yunfei started the actions of the second step without hesitation.
Surrounded by two opponents, if the fight had dragged on, he would really have ended up in a difficult position. Therefore, at the first moment he had to dispose of Li Shi, who had been fighting him for a long time and had already become familiar with his ‘rhythm’. Moreover, he had to do this fast, ruthlessly, surprisingly and in only one blow!