Beastmaster of the Ages

“I didn’t expect my luck would be so good. The only problem is that there’s too many flies buzzing around,” Li Haochen said.

“It’s fine, just swat them away.” the Tumulus Pill God beamed.

“Well, I’ll leave it to you guys.”

“Yes. I’ve determined that the fruit will ripen within either seventy or seventy-one days. We don’t have many people, so should we leave first for today?” the Tumulus Pill God asked.

“Fine.” Li Haochen only felt amusement.

Gujian Daoyi stepped out and called out with a stern tone, “Three sirs, this fruit is in our Azuresoul Palace’s territory. Please follow the rules and leave.”

“Really? Wow, congrats Azuresoul Palace!” the Tumulus Pill God smiled.

They didn’t say anything further and just left. They weren’t in the least worried that the Azuresoul Palace would damage the fruit, because no one would mistreat such a treasure. Their departure was a little out of Long Wanying and the rest’s expectations. However, it only meant they were going back to make preparations for battle.

“Are you Long Wanying?” Suddenly, Li Haochen turned toward Long Wanying.

“Get lost, mongrel.” Long Wanying’s voice was placid, but she had insulted both the youth and his parents in a few words.

“Shrewish and uncultured. It’s unsurprising that your husband had improper thoughts toward my aunt despite having a wife and child. Now, he’s just a rotting corpse.” Li Haochen shrugged his shoulders as he looked at Long Wanying with distaste.

“Don’t kid around, boy. Have you seen your aunt’s face? It’s like a monkey’s ass! Even a dog would refuse her if she spread her legs, and you think she compares with Wanying? It was just your daddy wanting to kill someone. If you kill someone, just be honest about it. You’re just embarrassing. Is this how an emperor should act?”

Yan Nuxia had immediately started laying down the insults. She pointed at Li Haochen and said, “If you have the guts, send your three mutts against me. This is the Myriad Solar Sects, and I want to see how you mongrels and mutts bark here.”

The Tumulus Pill God carried Li Haochen into the clouds, but Yan Nuxia ignored him. The Myriad Solar Sects and celestial orderians had an antagonistic relationship, so bending the knee was the unnatural choice.

Li Haochen was shocked. Golden fire immediately began blazing in his eyes. He had always spent all his time in his clan, so hearing someone insult his father was a first.

“When can we cut out that woman’s tongue?” Li Haochen asked the Tumulus Pill God.

“The fight shall be around the fruit then. It won’t take too long. Bring more people along. If we do it today, we may suffer a bit.”

“Fine. I can wait,” Li Haochen said.

“When the time comes, I’ll definitely give you the chance to do it personally,” the Tumulus Pill God promised.

“No need. I don’t want to dirty my hands,” Li Haochen said.

The group left, and naturally, no one tried to stop them.

“I want to vomit every time I see how lofty and cocky that family is. How do you act so pretentious when you do so many bad things? They’re all the same!” Yan Nuxia was furious.

“It isn’t important now. What matters is that they’ll be coming back.” Long Wanying considered it for a moment, then looked behind her. “Cherry, go and take a look at that fruit.”

Cherry stepped forward, and after a while of examining it, said, “I think it may be grade eight.”

“Grade eight?” Everyone was stunned.

“Looks like we need to make preparations,” Long Wanying said.

“Yes, we’ll need the Empyrean Sword Sect. They’ll be the main force. I don’t believe they’ll be able to resist a grade-eight divine herb!” Yan Nuxia said.

“Yes.…”

“Strawberry, did you feel unhappy to see these people today?” Yan Nuxia asked.

“Why would I? I’m not a kid anymore. Now, the only thing I want is a chance to kill them!” The flames of vengeance burned bright in Long Wanying’s eyes. She had said before that she was just a middle-aged woman who wanted revenge. It was the one desire that made her live on. Even if it was a fanciful notion, she held onto it.

……

Sixth Sword Branch of the Azuresoul Palace.

The Empyrean Sword Sect’s Shi Yan’s arrival made Tianming cut short his training.

Tianming stood in the doorway and looked at the woman with stone-like skin. “Is there something you need, Senior Shi?” Tianming asked.

“Let’s chat for a while,” she replied.

“Sure, come on in.”

The two sat facing each other inside. Shi Yan sat up straight, resembling a lifeless statue.

“I’m not used to beating around the bush, so may I speak bluntly?” she said.

“Alright.”

“I hear you want metal ores?” Shi Yan asked.

“Yes.”

“The Empyrean Continent our Empyrean Sword Sect is on is the location with the greatest number of ore veins. We have over three thousand currently being mined. They’re important sources for the artifacts of our sect. Even the Dreamless Celestial Nation has less than half as many as us.”

“Yes, I’ve heard of it. The material wealth of the Empyrean Continent does make people envious.”

“That’s good.” Shi Yan couldn’t be described as a gentle woman. However, she was trying her best to be gentle now and not give Tianming any pressure or discomfort.

She went straight to her topic. “You should be clear on the Xuanyuan Dragon Sect’s current situation. It isn’t optimistic, and they’ll have trouble resolving it within a century. Staying at the Azuresoul Palace is an insult to your rate of growth, so you can’t stay here long. Thus, our Northdipper Swordsage wishes to have the four of you join our sect. We aren’t that far off from the Xuanyuan Dragon Sect. At least, we can provide you with as much ore as you want.”

“In truth, our sect just wants to foster a good relationship with you two Sky Palace disciples. We’ll mutually help each other. As a Sky Palace disciple, you don’t need to worry about us plotting about you.”

Clearly, Jiang Qingliu’s lack of untimely death as well as Tianming and Long Wanying’s increasing closeness had made her anxious. Honestly, Shi Yan’s conditions were good. The ore veins were exactly what Tianming needed, and the Azuresoul Palace’s Azuresky Bridge was indeed unable to help Tianming maintain his ridiculous rate of breakthroughs. If he didn’t have the hope of challenging the Violetglory ranking, or access to the Violetglory Pagoda, the Empyrean Sword Sect may have been his only choice.

But now that he could choose between resources and people, Tianming would choose people. After all, the Empyrean Sword Sect had managed to give Tianming an amazingly bad impression.

“The Northdipper Swordsage is very sincere. If you’re willing, he’ll personally come to pick you up. He can even provide the six-star universal manna you want.”

Tianming laughed inside. The distant Divineglory Dynasty had offered him two seven-star universal manna to try and entice him. Geniuses really had it good!

Actually, the Empyrean Sword Sect was indeed not treating him badly. They wanted to form an emotional bond through a long period of fostering them. Furthermore, they would have Lingfeng and Xiaoxiao. Five hundred years later, when everyone was intimately connected, how could the Sky Palace not take care of the Empyrean Sword Sect?

They had planned well. Their only mistake was being a step slower than Long Wanying.