Beastmaster of the Ages

What Long Wanying couldn’t see were the eight black bane-rings on Yang Ce’s back exploding one after another. Eight loud explosions shook the area as the darknight truefiends painfully howled. The explosion of totem ki surrounded the totems, creating a black vortex that swallowed each of them up. Then eight bloody holes appeared on Yang Ce’s body, though he persevered and kept his glare on the sun emperor like a berserk wolf.

After the vortices swallowed up the eight totems, they exploded and gathered into a pair of pitch-black wings, whose every feather was formed from totem ki that burned with black flames. The wings that were thousands of meters long burned until they turned to ash, seemingly reducing Yang Ce’s totems to nothing. Did that do anything at all? When the wings scattered, Yang Ce seemed defeated. A stifling silence descended upon them.

But the next instant, Long Wanying felt blazing heat from behind her as a wave of destructive power came shooting out of her back. Huge wings thousands of meters in length appeared behind her, filled with ravenous power that resulted from the totems’ explosions. They were wings of protection, formed using Yang Ce’s lifetime of cultivation to be used at a single moment! As they unleashed all of that power, they formed many black feathers that covered her entire body.

She had never thought that darkness could bring her so much sense of security, completely contradicting what she thought she knew about it. She recalled the time Yang Ce had mentioned that he’d unlocked a second totemic calamity called Evernight Guardian Wings. She had asked him to show it to her, but he mentioned that it was only usable once. She recalled mocking it for being useless. It was only now that she understood the reason: using it would destroy all of his bane-rings only to protect someone a single time.

Why would such a totemic calamity exist? The reason was that a second totemic calamity was formed from the will or intent of a totemancer. The thing that constantly weighed on their mind would be reflected in the function of the second totemic calamity. Totems were formed from the terra, after all, which was part of the soul!

Yang Ce’s Evernight Guardian Wings were the culmination of his wishes and desires, the second totemic calamity of this quiet, stoic and stern man. Long Wanying’s inner world instantly shattered; this was truly a useless skill that could only make her suffer. Even though she was surrounded in darkness, she could hear explosions coming from the wings. She despaired at the thought that the sun emperor would completely crush her.

However, the pain only lasted an instant. Right after that, the surroundings rumbled. She felt space itself tear open, and the next moment, she no longer knew where she was. The only thing she was sure of was that she could no longer hear anything else and was now surrounded by true darkness, yet it was far gentler than the radiance of the sun. It seemed that she was safe now. However, a pain in her heart rushed to her once more.

“Yang Ce!” she cried, suffering throughout her entire body. The fear of death had long subsided. Yang Ce’s grand sacrifice and compassion caused her to tear up even more. She burst out crying in the lonely darkness, her heartrending voice reverberating throughout.

……

The flaming clouds continued rolling about. The golden giant looked at his empty right hand, the fires in his eyes flaring up even more. He then turned to the bloodstained black-haired man whose face was completely pale.

“Why bother? Nobody can escape from me so long as they’re still on the sun. They can run for a time, but not for life.”

“You’re wrong. If she’s able to escape just for a single moment, she’ll be able to evade you for eternity one day.” Yang Ce wiped off the blood at the corner of his eyes and cracked a smile. With how he was squinting now, he seemed just like his younger self.

“I see,” the sun emperor tepidly responded to his confident claim, but he was no doubt incredibly enraged. First, Li Wushuang was dead, then Yang Ce had ruined his plans once more. The world itself seemed to cave in in response to the pressure of his anger. Now, Yang Ce was the only person left here for him to vent on.

Yang Ce’s smile looked even more radiant now. Somehow, he seemed to be at his peak, glowing more brightly than he ever had. The sun emperor was like a towering god, looking down on him with the intent of eradicating him. Yang Ce quickly drew a dagger and acted quickly, slashing his own neck. What was even crazier was how he grabbed his own hair and pulled his severed head off before showing it to the sun emperor, heartily laughing out.

“Fool! You may have messed with me big time, but I didn’t die by your hand! Does your impotence infuriate you?!” After saying that, his mouth stopped moving. His expression remained one of joy the whole time. Then his headless body plummeted to the ground. The decapitated head nudged and turned in the direction Long Wanying left in, his expression slightly warming up. “Long Wanying, let’s meet in the next life. You promised me you’d be with me when we meet again.”

Just like that, the world entirely faded from his perception.

……

The blonde giant landed on the ground, picking up a blade with his huge hand. It was the Skymoon Holyfiend, still dripping with blood. Then he approached the corpse of a woman. It was small, petite, and gentle. The ugliness of her skin seemed to have faded away, leaving behind nothing but a pale white surface. He walked a few more steps and saw her head, whose hair had reverted to its moon-white color. Even her eyes looked much better.

The giant smiled and carefully lifted her up, saying with a spoiled voice, “Don’t worry, Shuang’er, you’ve just fallen asleep.”

He walked south with the body and the blade, every step of his leaving huge craters that only grew larger and larger as he walked. It was almost like he was a gigantic mountain slamming into the ground with every step. The flaming clouds above seemed to completely change. Eventually, a huge earthquake devastated the Xuanyu Continent. Countless mountains collapsed and many crevices opened up in the ground, striking much fear into those who lived there.