Beastmaster of the Ages

Having a cosmic-impulse-infused sword pressed against one’s lips would force all kinds of unwillingness back down anyone’s throat. Qi Hongzhen glared at Tianming with his completely black eyes. He took a deep breath to calm himself while the cosmic impulse crackled wildly. ”Cosmic impulse, eh? You really have it all. The Swordgod Lin Clan’s rather interesting, allowing someone like you to use a weapon of this caliber!” Qi Hongzhen furrowed his brow and spoke with a sore tone, implying that he had only lost because of the disparity in their gear.

”Stop spouting nonsense. Can your babies still fight? I don’t think they’re faring any better than you.” Qi Hongzhen, despite being pinned to a boulder, hadn’t been badly hurt. Among his beasts, the high-deific-class worldring skysnake had been brutalized by Lan Huang while Tianming kept it bound. As for the thirteen mid-deific-class abyssal snakes, they couldn’t do anything against Ying Huo, Meow Meow, Xian Xian, and Yin Chen.

Yin Chen’s five billion bodies turned into a sea of insects that constantly kept the enemy snakes at a numerical disadvantage. Its staggering numbers allowed it to soften many blows for its siblings without exhausting itself in the slightest. Even if the enemy wiped out tens of millions of its eggs, Yin Chen could still replenish itself with the ore veins around the Oldgod Domain without taking too long. It was no doubt among the most ancient of all immortal beings, the Myriadworld Immortabeast. The countless different insects swarmed their enemies, biting, constricting, and harassing them to no end.

Ying Huo and Meow Meow were having an even better time. Meow Meow used its multiple abilities in an epic bombardment, while Ying Huo struck at key weak points of the enemy like an assassin from the shadows. All thirteen mid-deific-class snakes were defeated, with quite a few of them heavily injured. While they didn’t really fear Yin Chen, who was at most able to distract and annoy them, they did find Xian Xian’s roots horrifying.

Pleasant as the Oldgod Domain may be for the Myriadworld Immortabeast with its plentiful ore veins, it was an absolute paradise for the Radix World Tree. Xian Xian could feast as it pleased! It’d already had a great time feasting on nova wildbeasts in the Swordsoul Purgatory, but things were even better here. While its siblings were battling the snakes, Xian Xian’s roots would sneakily shoot toward the injured ones, enter their wounds, and suck their essence, causing them extreme pain and discomfort. Fortunately, their bodies were large enough to not have been completely consumed. They were also able to burn away some of the roots.

”Don’t run, my darling snakes! Let me have another bite! Just one more!” Even after Tianming took down Qi Hongzhen, the roots still stalked the angered and confused snakes.

”I lost! It’s over!” It was a complete defeat. Seeing how badly injured some of his beasts were, he knew that Xian Xian would definitely eat them whole if he kept fighting. Beating a wildbeast into submission and training it to fight alongside others in a coordinated fashion was quite a lot of work that he wasn’t willing to do again if he didn’t have to.

”Then put them away!” Tianming said.

”How? Do you think I’m a trashy beastmaster? You have to let me go to retrieve them!” Qi Hongzhen snapped.

”Trashy? Are you serious?” Tianming laughed. He wasn’t afraid that the ebon could do anything to him, however, so he released him and demanifested his divine wonder. The countless shapeshifting metal insects gathered around him to boost his imposing visage.

Then, a pink glow left the lifebound beasts’ bodies and returned to the lifebound space, though Ji Ji’s spiritform remained outside. It looked at the insatiable Xian Xian and rolled its eyes before pushing it aside, acting completely unsisterly. Then it loomed over Tianming’s ear and darkly said, ”Remember, Little Li. I played a huge part in this, and I expect to be compensated.”

”Can we not talk about money while I’m posing?” Tianming asked. In the past six months, the merit points he’d earned from the Swordsoul Purgatory had been used to buy useless things for Ji Ji and Feiling.

”If you want to use me to show off, it’ll cost you too.”

How tragic!

”Stupid Ji Ji, if you dare to shove your big sister again I’ll eat you!” Xian Xian raged.

”Hahaha! I have no flesh for you to eat!” Ji Ji blew a raspberry. The two spiritforms proceeded to menacingly wave their arms at each other as Tianming and Ying Huo backed off.

As they spoke, Qi Hongzhen grit his teeth and glared at Tianming. Then violet light poured out of his hands to draw the fourteen snakes in. The snakes had just been about to slaughter one another, but Qi Hongzhen’s soul energy dazzled them and drew them in. They unwillingly squirmed as they were drawn back into the fauna worldstone.

”Infinite beastmaster? Hehe....” Tianming could see how they differed, despite both being referred to as beastmasters. It was hard to say which type was generally stronger, though there was one thing he knew: the camaraderie between master and beast was incredibly precious, and that was something infinite beastmasters seldom had.

”Back in!” Apart from the Yin Chen swarm, it merely took an instant for Tianming to get his other lifebound beasts back into his lifebound space. The chaotic battlefield was emptied just like that and the damage done to it was clear.

”Lin Feng!” Qi Hongzhen yelled when he saw Lin Lele and Tianming about to leave.

Tianming turned back and smiled. ”We’re being watched by a huge audience. Why don’t you gracefully accept your loss?”

”Very well.” He clenched his fists tight and stopped his soul eyes from glowing. Squinting, he continued, ”However, being defeated by someone like you is indeed humiliating for me. Then again, you’re around a hundred years old, being thirty years my senior, and even relied on cosmic impulses.”

”Cope harder.” Tianming didn’t even bother with him any longer. Taking down an ebon had shown his stance to the Swordgod Lin Clan. He was itching to study the bones of the green giant, so he didn’t linger and disappeared into the dark caverns with Lin Lele. The sound of battle had no doubt drawn in many more people in the vicinity, after all.

Right after leaving the battlefield, Tianming felt his disciple card change.

Lin Lele’s eyes widened before she enviously squished his little face. ”Brother! Amazing! You finally got a ranking!”

”What do I rank?” he asked excitedly.

”Eight eight eight eight eight eight eight eight eight! Eight eights! Holy crap, what a lucky number!” [1]

It was even an eight-digit figure. The battle had been recorded and his combat prowess had been ranked at some eight hundred million spot. Even the slightest difference could greatly change the rank, and it was still incredibly far off from the top spot. Either way, getting ranked was the first step.

”Eights! They sound like prosperity! What a perfect start, let’s keep that going!” Tianming turned toward the depths of the Oldgod Domain as his ambition brewed.

1. In Mandarin, the pronunciation of the number 8, ”ba” (八), sounds similar to the word ”fa” (发), which means wealth or fortune ☜