Beastmaster of the Ages

Normally speaking, if the celestial orderians sent ten million troops against the Windheed Sect, they wouldn’t be too worried as they had four million elites and tens of millions of normal gods. Their Chaos Windstorm Formation was among the top defensive formations of second-rate factions, after all. But this time around, they were up against a fully-powered Divine Sun Palace. Having gathered enough power, the golden head brightly shone and shook. Countless celestial orderians cheered and roared at the sight of the mighty structure that had been laying dormant for the past two years.

A golden beam shot out toward the defensive formation, instantly sparking destructive shockwaves. Gold and blue clashed and dissipated, flattening many mountains in the vicinity of the sect. The shockwaves alone crushed many buildings as they seeped in, rendering the beautiful landscape into ruins in quick succession. The five million defenders shed both tears and blood; however, that wasn’t enough to break their strong wills. They stubbornly resisted even as death came bearing down upon them.

”The formation didn’t break!”

”Yeah!”

”We managed to hold on!”

”Is that all the Divine Sun Palace can do? Did the sun emperor not feed his ship properly?”

It was quite a surprising outcome. Not only did those within the formation not cry from pain, they laughed instead after the first wave of attacks. That was something the celestial orderians simply couldn’t tolerate. The sixty million troops felt that something was off about the sun emperor, who was furrowing his brow as he looked at the golden wheel in his hand, frustratedly manipulating it. The Warlord, Deluge Emperor, Li Tianyi, and the rest didn’t dare to ask why.

After a moment, the sun emperor laughed and shook his head. ”Well, it is a backup core, after all, so it’s not quite there. Looks like it can only use half of its power in one attack, otherwise grade-seven defensive formations would be crushed in one shot.” He seemed quite surprised by the output of the backup core. Though he was laughing, he was no doubt filled with rage. Having the Solar Wheel stolen from him was the most frustrating thing to ever happen.

”Then... Esteemed Father, will it affect our plans?” Li Tianyi gingerly asked.

”Not really. If one attack doesn’t cut it, we’ll just launch a few more. They’re sitting ducks waiting to be slaughtered either way. It’ll just take a little more time.”

Hearing that, the nervous celestial orderians smiled and relaxed.

”So we’ll just have more opportunities to make them piss themselves in fear.”

”All defensive formations are merely cages before the Divine Sun Palace. If they don’t run, they’ll die. They’re caged beasts.”

The orderians weren’t worried that the enemy would escape at all. That would simply give them victory without any bloodshed. However, some of them had noticed that the sun emperor wasn’t the least bit relaxed. After all, just because the Divine Sun Palace could only attack with half its power didn’t mean that it would only take two strikes to break the formation. While it would still eventually break after enough attacks, it was just grade seven. How would it fare against a grade-eight defensive formation? Was it only a matter of the number of attacks? Perhaps he would have no choice but to test it out.

Billions of cultivators were gathered at the Myriaddragon Mountains. Faced with so many enemies, if the celestial orderians were unable to break down the Aeonic Infinidragon Formation, they would no doubt suffer heavy casualties. In other words, as long as the Myriaddragon Mountains held, the orderians wouldn’t be able to wipe out the Myriad Solar Sects for good even if they got all the other territories. Some of them were considering just such a problem, but they wisely decided to not speak up about it. Instead, they simply watched as the sun emperor continued channeling the palace’s power for another attack.

Once every few minutes, the Divine Sun Palace launched a blast against the Chaos Windstorm Formation. The shockwaves from the explosions caused more and more buildings to collapse into ruins and the city was now blanketed in darkness, its former brilliance having disappeared like tears in rain. It was now just a large collection of ruins. Even so, the Chaos Windstorm Formation still held, guarding the ruins within.

Every blast was separated by around a hundred breaths, which was time enough for the defenders to recover from the blast once more for another bout of resistance. However, when the Divine Sun Palace launched its eighth blast on the formation, it suddenly shook and fractured, turning many within into a mess of blood. Countless people fell, but those that weren’t killed crawled back up.

”One more time!” Their wills held strong nevertheless. They had never imagined that they would be able to defend the Windheed Pavilion for real, and they all knew that staying meant dying. All they wanted was a final showdown on this land to become a good example for their descendants that had fled.

”No matter how tough their lives are, the young ones will surely remain brave as long as they recall us old folk who died fighting here.”

The Divine Sun Palace mustered its ninth blast, the gigantic head glowing even brighter, becoming the sole point of light amidst the cloudy darkness filled with debris and dust. Even with the dust clouds around it, its glowing eyes and mouth made it look like a demonic entity. Once more, a pillar of gold smashed against the formation, properly piercing it this time. Savage flames filled the city, swallowing up many of the collapsed buildings and painting the plains with a splash of golden flames. A loud explosion marked the complete destruction of the beautiful city, burying many seniors under the rubble. The Windheed Pavilion was gone for good.

Millions of defenders were left exposed before the Divine Sun Palace, covered in blood and grime. Their lifebound beasts were burnt and charred; it didn’t help that avian lifebound beasts were particularly vulnerable to fire. But even so, they still stood together. The sun emperor probably thought that they would run away now that they had lost their ’cage’, yet they stood together without relenting in the slightest, directing their hatred toward the Divine Sun Palace and, by extension, the sun emperor himself.

The woman who stood at the very front was the famous gentle beauty, the Lady Windheeder. However, her looks had been sullied by the blood and grime. Even so, she was still their symbol. She raised her sword as she stood on her phoenix, pointing it toward the Divine Sun Palace as she screamed, ”Kill them!”

Even though the formation had fallen and the celestial orderians hadn’t pressed their attack, she led the millions of beastmasters in a charge toward the palace like moths flying toward a fire. The war cries of the seniors intermingled as they charged into the clouds. They seemed to have forgotten how to speak; it was like there was nothing left in their minds but striving to become good examples for their children.

Facing the horde of beastmasters, the celestial orderians and the sun emperor were completely cold, yet they all seemed to wonder why their ‘lessers’ didn’t just run. Even if they didn’t want to submit, there was no need for them to rush to their deaths. The sun emperor had been on the verge of ordering his troops to attack, only for the enemy to have the gall to attack them first, which considerably angered him. With a growl, he gripped the backup core and caused the Divine Sun Palace to surge in power.

”So you want to see which side is bloodier, eh? Too bad for you, the celestial orderians have never lost.” Once more, a golden pillar shot out of the Divine Sun Palace, instantly swallowing up the millions of incoming beastmasters. Many of them were vaporized right away, leaving not even a single speck behind. Fengling Suyu had been charging at the very front and was the one who took the brunt of the damage first. Perhaps she would be immortalized in the memory of others after her body was completely vaporized.

The power of the Divine Sun Palace was clear to see now that the defensive formation was gone. It was a mighty divine astralship. No matter how many millions of people fueled the formations, it would only be a matter of time until the palace destroyed them. The helpless struggle of the Windheed Pavilion had only resulted in millions of them being vaporized. What little specks of ash that remained fell to the ground and became one with the dust below. As they had wished, they were united with the ruins of the Windheed Pavilion.