Beastmaster of the Ages

Qi Hongzhen’s fauna worldstone was covered in complicated divine celestial patterns. The faces of fierce beasts could vaguely be seen on the stone, partially exposing his battle potential. But for normal beastmasters, the number of lifebound beasts they had was usually fixed, and not kept secret. Relatively speaking, it was harder to assess the full combat potential of ebons compared to beastmasters. Even if it was known that Qi Hongzhen had tens of nova warbeasts, there wasn’t any way to tell how powerful they were, making going against him a rather risky proposition.

However, Lin Lele knew that Tianming didn’t want to give up on that skeleton, so she didn’t shrink away, either. ”You’d better be careful. If you find that you can’t handle him, don’t force it.”

”Alright.” By the time they finished their discussion, the ebons had come to theirs as well.

”Very well. Considering the amicable relations between the ebons and the Swordgod Lin Clan, my elder sister won’t impose on you. However, Lin Feng, you have to keep your word. If you lose, hand me what you put away just now,” Qi Hongzhen said.

”What if you lose?” Tianming asked.

”Me? Lose?” He shrugged. ”You’d better get this straight: I’m the one that’s stopping you from leaving. If you want me to stake something on the fight, then let’s forget the duel and have all four of us fight.”

”Forget it, then.” Tianming didn’t want to waste time with him. The value of the remains of the green giant was still unknown, and troubling Lin Lele for a fight over something that uncertain wasn’t something he was keen on doing.

”The battle for the minor reges mundi ranking has just started and people probably haven’t been running into one another yet. They’re all feeling things out, so our fight might actually be the first. Looks like you’re going to be in the limelight, son of Lin Mu,” Qi Hongzhen said, smiling. While the smile by itself wasn’t a big deal, it was clear from the mention of Lin Mu that it had been meant as an insult.

”Alright, let’s get out of here.” Tianming just wanted this to be over with.

”Fine.” Qi Hongzhen exchanged glances with his sister before the two of them left the ore vein. There was a rather large open space outside, making it a good place for infinite beastmasters like him to fight at his best. One of the reasons Tianming had wanted a duel was to experience the might of such a race in an actual battle.

......

It didn’t take long before the two pairs left the tunnel. It was clear that Qi Hongzhen wanted to get Tianming’s mysterious item as soon as possible, before anyone else could come and interfere.

”Come!” The Infinitum Bodhimanda was unnecessary for a fight here.

”On your mark!” Tianming growled.

Lin Lele stood to the side and Qi Qiling followed suit. The two of them were only indirectly involved in this. Should something go awry, either of them would interfere in the duel, so they each kept a close eye on the other.

Tianming was rather calm, even though it would be his first time facing off against an infinite beastmaster. He had recently made impressive gains, after all. Without holding back, he allowed streams of silver to flow out from his lifebound space, forming a sea before him and giving the impression that he was the ruler of those silver bugs. He was using five billion Yin Chens in the fight! It was a terrifying number, as Yin Chen’s bodies were about the size of fists. Fortunately, there was enough space around them to work with. Tianming, with his black arm, white hair, black and gold eyes, being surrounded by silver bugs made for quite the eerie sight.

Qi Hongzhen, however, didn’t seem like a pushover, either. He rose into the air, robes and hair aflutter, and a long black whip appeared in his hand. It looked like the spine of some beast and was completely pitch black. Each and every link of the spine had grade-nine divine ordered patterns, and there were ten of them in total. It was a saturated divine artifact! Countless souls swirled around the whip, and the divine patterns that adorned it were also of the soul aspect. It was sure to be a devastating weapon.

As a master of the soul, Qi Hongzhen gave off quite a similar aura to Lingfeng. He menacingly hovered there as if he was within a dark storm. His whip was named the Soulscatter Dragonwaste. It could extend and contract as he pleased. His lips curved into a smile as he looked at Tianming. Then he held the whip between his teeth and covered the fauna worldstone near his neck with both hands. There were actually eyes in the center of each of his palms, which were his soul eyes. Tianming could vaguely see the violet glow emanating from the stone necklace.

”Violet soul eyes.... He must be a grade-seven talent of the ebons.” Soul eyes were the core aspect of ebon talents, much like the Lin Clan’s swordheart and swordbeasts. Grade seven wasn’t the highest, but it was rather decent.

”Come out, my darlings.” Nova warbeasts took a little longer to emerge compared to lifebound beasts. When the violet light of his palms entered the fauna worldstone, bestial howls and cries rang out. The nature of wildbeasts was the same no matter what, whether they be nova or cosmic wildbeasts.

Green mist wafted out of the fauna worldstone. In an instant, one fierce creature after another charged into the battlefield. All of them were snakes, but different kinds. These particular nova warbeasts were incredibly colorful with terrifying scales, spikes, and fangs. Those that managed to survive past birth in the world down under were easily much more savage than lifebound beasts. The venomous snakes were large and oddly shaped. The moment they appeared, they locked on to Tianming and hissed at him, their stomachs hungrily grumbling.

”Huh?” Tianming could see the character for ’ebony’ clearly marked on the heads of the snakes. It was a rather familiar marking, and it finally occurred to him: it was the same character he had seen in the bloodline hairfiend’s body!

Just as he was wondering why the mark of the ebons would be on a wildbeast inside the Swordsoul Purgatory, Lin Lele shouted a warning. ”Lin Feng, he has thirteen mid-deific-class nova warbeasts and one high-deific-class one! Be careful!”

Mid-deific-class beasts were comparable to fifth- to eighth-level stellaminors, while high-deific-class ones were comparable to ninth- to twelfth-level stellaminors! What was noteworthy was that the classification was made with the combined might of a beastmaster and their lifebound beasts as a point of reference. In other words, high-deific-class beasts could be harder to deal with than Qi Hongszhen himself!

”The ebons are pretty impressive, after all....” The inability to gauge their rough combat potential made them quite risky to handle. Even though Qi Hongzhen was merely a ninth-level stellaminor, almost all the disciples from other Infinitum Regal Clans would have a hard time dealing with him.

Calm down! Ebons are like divine wonderians. They share a certain fundamental weakness: once their main body is defeated, the nova warbeasts will go out of control, much like divine wonders! That was hardly a secret. Divine wonderians, like Moran, couldn’t break the limit of normal humans when it came to fighting with their physical bodies.

The next moment, fourteen gigantic snakes surrounded Tianming. The high-deific-class nova warbeast menacingly loomed over him.