Beastmaster of the Ages

Xiaoxiao swam towards the exalted blood, quickly assimilating it into her body without any trouble. Instantly, a thick scent of blood came wafting from her as draconic patterns appeared in her eyes. It was as if she had turned into a raging tyrant with a death toll of millions. Her gaze swept through the sea of blood and settled on Tianming. She wore a complex expression, a remnant of will that remained in that drop of blood. More accurately, she was looking at the weapon Tianming had bound.

“You can let go now,” she said.

Tianming unraveled the chain and the spear shot toward Xiaoxiao and turned back into its bow and arrow form. She held the bow, and the blood dragon arrows circled around her. When she reached out, one of the arrows landed in her hand. She nocked it on the bow, putting the two dragons together. Then she pointed it at Tianming.

“What in the?!”

“That was a reaction from the bow’s will.” Xiaoxiao hurriedly pulled it back.

“Oh… looks like the weapon belonged to an enemy of the Ninedragon Emperor.” Tianming waved at her.

Now that she had claimed the Dragonblood Desecration, the Seablood Formation quickly dissipated and peace returned to Blooddragon palace. However, the commotion above was about to finally reach them. Tianming had settled this so quickly that the threat from above hadn’t arrived yet.

“How does it feel?” he asked.

“Even if I can only unleash a small part of its potential, it’s still really powerful and hard to control,” she said, looking at the weapon in her hand.

“No worries. Get used to it over time. I’m sure you’ll be able to use it for a long time to come.”

“Such an expensive divine artifact—”

Before she could finish, Tianming said, “Didn’t you ask me to work you to the bone? How would you be of any use to me if you didn’t even have a weapon? This is your occupational tool. Take care of it.”

“Alright.” What a fortunate employee she was.

“Back then, I thought I’d have to fight this plunderer to continue to grow… But why does it feel like my potential is endless now that I’m following him?” The Archaionfiend was confused. “If I knew that from the beginning, I would’ve given him my eye long ago!” It was finally willing to let bygones be bygones.

While Xiaoxiao was inspecting her weapon, Tianming joined up with Lingfeng. Though they had the weapon now, the Blooddragon Palace was still sealed from the other sides and they were still in trouble.

“Sigh… friend, do you like Xiaoxiao or something?” Yu Ziqian asked.

“Nope,” Tianming said.

“Then why’d you give her a grade-seven divine artifact like that?”

“How’s that your business?”

“Give me one too next time, won’t you?” He blinked seductively.

“Fine. I’ll take one kidney in return.”

Though they were only joking around, Tianming wouldn’t forget that he had only been able to get the Lifesteal Silverdragon in part thanks to Yu Ziqian’s efforts.

“Damn, you’re ruthless.” Yu Ziqian took a step back in fright, though he recalled something. “Hey, once the Voidsky Skirmish ends, you should be careful. If possible, you should announce your backing. Otherwise, there’ll be people coming to rob you two young folks of these treasures, the Dragonblood Desecration especially. The Xuanyuan Dragon Sect’s other branch has been searching for it for hundreds of millennia.”

“Other branch?”

“That’s right. Their clan and sect has broken apart before. The other branch now serves the sun emperor. They’re his killers.”

“Got it.”

It wasn’t uncommon for there to be splits and betrayals over histories that stretched across millions of years. Since some on the celestial orderian side were looking for the Dragonblood Desecration, they would have to be careful.

Right then, a wave of blood mist came swirling toward them, behind which was countless gigantic beasts. “Careful!” Tianming beckoned.

The four of them huddled together to face the threat. If it weren’t for Tianming’s quick actions, they would have been facing threats from above and below. Fortunately, they had dealt with the artifact souls, so their backs were safe. Amidst the sound of war drums, one beast after another emerged from the pathway.

“Dragons?” Tianming saw tens of thousands of them charging out of the pathway, some thousands of meters long and others only around a meter or two in length. Even so, that didn’t mean the smaller ones were weak, much like Ying Huo and Meow Meow’s sizes didn’t indicate their lack of strength.

“Are these lifebound beasts or wildbeasts?” The latter didn’t sound possible. This tomb belonged to the Ninedragon Emperor and had been sealed for hundreds of thousands of years. There shouldn’t be any wildbeasts here. Yet Tianming ruled out lifebound beasts as well, as there were no beastmasters to be seen. Lingfeng also added that they didn’t have any souls.

There was too much mist, making it hard for them to see anything. But when the beasts finally descended to attack, Tianming could finally see what was going on. These dragons were not of flesh, but of divine ores! There were metal-based and mineral-based ores, and even some in liquid form! They were covered in dense celestial patterns, which were usually found on formations or tomes. These celestial patterns endlessly moved about the bodies of the dragons; they were obviously a product of a formation.

“These are formation effigies, a really unique technique. By fusing divine ores with a special formation, such golems can be made. They can be maintained for long periods of time as long as there’s enough nova source for them to keep operating. They’re essentially autonomous formations!” Yu Ziqian said.

“Something like that exists?!” Tianming was quite stunned. A nova source was truly something that could boost formation arts to a whole new level. He had looked down on it before, but when he saw Lan Huang sent flying, injured, after colliding with those dragons, he finally knew how powerful they could be.

“Don’t look down on these dragon golems! They could be something the Ninedragon Emperor left behind. If the formation and ores used to make them are high enough level, they have terrifying potential. I heard that not even my master would be able to defeat the most powerful formation golems in Orderia. They could eradicate everything!” As he spoke, Yu Ziqian hid away.

“Careful!” Tianming finally realized how serious things were. “Is this one of the tests in the Voidsky Realm? I wonder if I can get points for defeating the golems. Then again, did obtaining the Lifesteal Silverdragon and Dragonblood Desecration increase our score as well?”

Those were his motivations. He had joined this event to boost his backing and achievements. The higher he ranked, the better backing he would get. It was obvious that the dragon golems could potentially kill them. Tianming and the rest could be completely wiped out thanks to their low numbers. These soulless enemies were akin to thousands of formation explosions at once.

“Hold on! Our only hope is for their nova source to run out!” Yu Ziqian cried.

“How long will that take?”

“No idea!”

Tianming raised both weapons as Xian Xian took root below him. Lingfeng also activated the formation in his weapon and engaged the golems. Both the Grand-Orient Sword and Lifesteal Silverdragon were tough and sharp enough. Tianming’s chain was able to crush a two-kilometer-long dragon far away, but ten others instantly took its place. Some breathed fire and some breathed frost, while others engaged in a melee with their sharp talons.

Hundreds of golems wrapped around Xian Xian’s tree body and began gnawing away at its branches. Both Trisoul Fiendsong and Evernight Curse were useless against these piles of rock and metal. There were some tens of golems on Lan Huang as well, overwhelming it with sheer numbers. All Meow Meow could do was blast away at the golems with its lightning, but it did little to damage the core formations that kept them running. Only Ying Huo had luck cutting apart the smaller golems with its Cosmic Blade.

“Dammit!” The ruthless waves of enemies almost instantly crushed them all. Even the Archaionfiend was crying out in pain. Xiaoxiao familiarized herself with the bow and kept firing. The blood dragon arrows were capable of piercing the dragon golems, but their bloodsucker ability didn’t have any effect. Though they pierced the golems, they didn’t destroy the formations thus weren’t able to defeat them at all. Lingfeng fared even worse. His third regal soul was completely useless here, so he could only bash away with his staff. But his physical capabilities weren’t strong enough. The counterattacks he took left him bloodied all over.

“Hold on, all of you!” Yu Ziqian almost had his head bitten off when he popped it out and he quickly hid away.

Lifesteal Silverdragon streaked past, wrapping around tens of dragons. Then Tianming gave it a full-force tug, causing shattered metal and stone to rain down. Still, there were far too many enemies. They wouldn’t just lose, they might die if this went on.

“What do we do?” It was Xiaoxiao’s first time using her weapon, yet she had run into these dragon golems. Had the Archaionfiend not been protecting her, she would have long been torn to shreds.

“Formations!” Tianming was feeling a headache welling up.