Beastmaster of the Ages

The Dragonblood Desecration was a divine artifact that stood out even among other grade-seven artifacts. Once Xiaoxiao had grown familiar with it, its damage potential far outstripped that of other grade-seven divine artifacts, and Long Yaojin’s group didn’t have anything that could rival it.

The blood arrows fired in an intricate, almost net-like pattern, almost instantly impaling one of the dragons that tried attacking the Archaionfiend and digging its way in. Then tens of thousands of blood-colored lightning bolts wormed into the dragon through the open wound, exploding within and causing a rain of flesh to burst out as the arrow’s bloodgorge dragonmark began draining away the blood. The dragon immediately fell to the ground.

“Aaaah! Kill her!” Seeing his precious lifebound beast sustaining heavy injuries, the Veildragon Palace disciple came charging at her like a madman.

“Careful!” Long Yaojin cried. As she gave chase, her lifebound beast shot an ability toward the Archaionfiend, who blocked the attack for Xiaoxiao with its own abilities like a meat shield.

The next instant, Xiaoxiao fired three arrows at Long Yaojin’s vitals, forcing her to evade. Though her vitals hadn’t been struck, the blood lightning infused in the arrows did send her flying again, completely dismounting her! The Archaionfiend charged in for a counterattack, clasping one of her dragons with its claws and biting off a huge chunk of meat from it. Thankfully, the totems of the celestial orderians came to its rescue, causing the Archaionfiend to shield itself and Xiaoxiao with its wings and grounding the both of them.

“Kill her!”

“Now’s our chance!”

People began swarming toward her, only to charge into a volley of blood arrows. The arrows were fired so quickly that it was almost like tens of thousands of them were unleashed in a single volley! The foremost two celestial orderians were roughly eighth-level constelliers. They were careless and didn’t manage to block the arrows, which pierced through their totems and continued on toward them! One got impaled in the abdomen and the other got hit on the upper torso, only to be sent flying instantly. The one who was struck in the chest cried out in pain before he was sucked dry by the bloodgorge dragonmark, his death marked by the abrupt disintegration of his totems.

Logn Yaojin and the others were utterly shocked to see that. It was completely brutal! By the time they turned to Xiaoxiao and her beast, their expressions had completely changed. Fortunately, a group of people from the Skydragon peaks came flying toward them, led by Li Shenjian, who was dressed in platinum armor. He had even more of an imperial air than Li Haochen and seemed far more regal and authoritative.

Along the way there, he figured that Long Yaojin had more or less finished taking Xiaoxiao captive, but the situation turned out to be the complete opposite. Not only were they no threat to Xiaoxiao, but the celestial orderian disciples had suffered casualties instead! His forehead immediately wrinkled in frustration.

“Yet another devilish talent?” Why was it that geniuses far more talented than the best celestial orderians kept showing up one after the other? The world seemed to have stopped making sense!

Disgruntled, Li Shenjian cried, “Let me handle it!” He accelerated, turning into a blinding beam of platinum as he charged into the battlefield, knocking away a few celestial orderian disciples. His totems manifested with a loud bang, each of them coming out from the square-shaped arrangement of bane-rings between his brows. They looked like burning metal mountains, but upon closer inspection, Xiaoxiao noticed that they took the forms of imperial seals. They all had blocky bases and a golden qilin ornament on top. The bottom of the seals had golden words that read ‘Radiant Justice’. The words shone with great power and seemed to assert a kind of imperial authority over anyone in their presence, forcing people to lower their heads from the pressure.

The eight totems were called justice emblems and they weren’t one bit weaker than Li Haochen’s vastsun godbeasts. Li Shenjian’s might came bursting out from his totems as they sealed off the surroundings, bearing down like flaming mountains. Xiaoxiao’s blood arrows merely bounced off and created sparks when they struck them, barely being able to push back at them.

“Keep your head down!” Li Shenjian ordered as the emblems pressed down on her from above, trying to force her into a world of gold.

The Archaionfiend’s lightning burst out once more, but that wasn’t enough to offset the pressure of the totems. The sheer force that crushed it caused it to suffer quite a number of broken bones. Even with its protection, Xiaoxiao was still sent flying.

“Such power….” Naturally, she was just bait and wouldn’t go all out fighting Li Shenjian. She feigned a heavy injury and let go of the Dragonblood Desecration, allowing Li Shenjian to pick it up in the nick of time. Then all nine blood arrows returned to Xiaoxiao while Li Shenjian called his totems back to keep the bow that was raging to break free subdued.

“She’s done for! Capture her!” he ordered. The remaining tens of disciples charged toward her. Right as she was about to be swarmed, a metallic stream came from Little Saintdragon Peak’s direction, bursting out of the ground and blocking them right as they were about to reach her. By the time they managed to react, the Archaionfiend had returned to Xiaoxiao’s lifebound space. The sea of metallic insects fused into a kilometer-long centipede that swatted away the surrounding dragons and totems before escaping in the direction of Little Saintdragon Peak.

“It’s Li Tianming’s lifebound beast!”

“Quick! The Seven Dragon Imperials are probably on the way here!” Li Shenjian called for his allies to charge. He had also notified his seniors to send the Dragon Imperials of the Veildragon Palace here. “Even though I got the Dragonblood Desecration back, it’s still better to keep Lin Xiaoxiao here. She’ll serve as better bait for Li Tianming to fall for the trap.”

He doubled down on his efforts, but a phoenix appeared in the distance near Little Saintdragon Peak, flying to meet with Yin Chen. Li Shenjian saw Tianming riding on the phoenix. His other lifebound beasts appeared to stop the pursuers, allowing him to quickly secure Xiaoxiao.

“Aren’t you a daring one, Li Shenjian?!” Tianming said, feigning anger. He had told Xiaoxiao to intentionally let Li Shenjian have the bow of the Dragonblood Desecration, which would be a good reason for Tianming to accept Li Shenjian’s challenge to go to the Infernal Dragon Purgatory. Additionally, the bow was useless without its arrows.

More and more elites began gathering after noticing the signs of battle, so Tianming prepared to take his leave.