Beastmaster of the Ages

Though Lin Jie’s voice was loud, the sounds of battle were even louder. Even so, quite a lot of people near his vicinity saw him and fell silent. Lin Jie didn’t mind their reaction. He grit his teeth and used all his energy to shout, ”Members of the Swordgod Lin Clan, after all this, haven’t you come to understand this? Lin Xiao is the actual madman that led you all on the road to certain doom! He hides in his divine astralship like a coward to save his own skin while all of you, even the old, immature, and sickly sacrifice yourselves for his sake! Hasn’t there been enough death and suffering? Why’re you all still fighting for the sake of someone that’s caused the clan to fall into obscurity? Why’re you such fools to throw away your lives?!”

He was so agitated that his eyes immediately reddened and he shed tears. Everyone in the clan, including Lin Jie’s own people within the fifth branch, merely looked at him in silence. The battle seemed to have stopped at that moment.

”Wake up, my people! Don’t fall for the cunning wiles of that old man and his grandson! They are the villains in this story, having forced all of you to give up on your peaceful days at the Infinitum Swordsea, as well as all that our ancestors had built! Someone who’s irreversibly disturbed our ancestors’ peace like that is unquestionably the ultimate sinner! If all of you choose to follow me back to the Infinitum Swordsea now, the Lin Clan will no longer be considered a traitor of the Infinitum Bodhimanda! You can still be forgiven! As one of the regal clans, we’ve been part of the Infinitum Bodhimanda for eons. How could we throw all that away and betray them?! Should our ancestors hear of it, they’d be rolling in their graves!” He seemed to be pouring out all the pent-up emotion gathered across his entire lifetime at this moment. To think that someone as calm as him would actually break down and tear up after an impassioned speech.

”Stop fighting! Stop letting yourselves be killed! Nobody has to die for that traitorous old man and his grandson from the second branch! Put down your weapons and come home! I, Lin Jie, swear that once we go back to the Infinitum Swordsea, we’ll still be part of the Infinitum Bodhimanda! We still have a chance to turn over a new leaf!”

He suddenly raised his head and looked at the members of the clan with as much emotion as he could muster. Everyone, including those in the fifth branch, was still silent. Too silent. After a while, the silence seemed to change. But it wasn’t a sign of hesitation or wavering, nay! It was a sign of utmost disappointment!

”He’s still trying to scare us with the Infinitum Bodhimanda at a time like this. Does he think that all of us are fools that dared to resist the Infinitum Bodhimanda without knowing the consequences well beforehand?”

”The ebons don’t represent the Infinitum Bodhimanda! Back when they killed three thousand of their own members for a justification to use divine astralships in warfare, the Infinitum Bodhimanda was already no more!”

”If Yi Daiyan wants to sit on her throne and do nothing but watch, fine! But your flesh and blood are things that the fifth branch gave you! We demand you to return your flesh and blood to us, but you’re free to keep your vile and disgusting soul! From now on, the Swordgod Lin Clan shall not recognize the existence of a member like you!”

”Wake up. It’s far too late for you to try to trick us with that little dramatic act of yours.”

”Turn back and look. Even Shenxi Tianxi is already running away. What are you waiting for?”

Lin Xiao and Lin Changkong didn’t have to say a single thing; the members of the clan had finally lost their patience with Lin Jie. Their remarks piled on nonstop, drowning out Lin Jie completely. He looked around and noticed that even his family and those of the fifth branch shot him gazes of disappointment and despair. Not a single soul among the billion sympathized with him one bit! The saddened looks he got were like blades that cut through his heart. He turned back and saw that the Ebonfiend Minor and Sheng Kailin’s ship, the Godly Radiance, had retreated quite a considerable distance and were preparing to leave for good.

”Lin Jie, stop dreaming your wild ambitions! The Lin Clan is already too far gone to accept a righteous person like you! Come back to us quickly. Let them think back at what you tried to do for their sake when they come face to face with ruin!” Shenxi Tianxi said, his voice radiating despair and pain. He wasn’t able to hide it no matter how he tried. Every single word revealed a wound he had just received. ”Hahahahaha....”

Shenxi Xingtian and Meng Ying had completely failed, having lost all three million astral gods even when they had a thousand ships more than the other side. Additionally, the monster’s attack had failed and another half a million astral gods were being pushed back by the counterattack. Lin Jie had gone to battle, filled with the notion that he would be able to take the reins of the clan once more once everything was over, yet every single member of the clan looked at him like they would a pest, like a rat or a fly. They simply couldn’t stand him and wanted him exterminated as soon as possible!

”Aaaaagh! Aaaaagh!” Even though the tears he had shed before were fake, he began crying for real when he internalized the thought that he’d been completely cast out by his clan, and even his family. He could taste the pain in those tears. Every single gaze he received felt like a sword piercing into his head, organs, limbs, and even his tripartite soul! All of his burdens and all that he had achieved in his life was being struck through! He’d had a sense that he could be on the wrong path a few times in the past, yet he didn’t think he could be as mistaken as Shenxi Tianxi. Even as people tried to stop him, he would shut them out and stubbornly push ahead to prove how right he was! If it weren’t for that, this ‘betrayal’ would have hurt so much less.

”I wasn’t wrong! I’m not wrong! You’re all insane! You’re all drunk, and I’m the only sober one!” Lin Jie laughed as tears of blood lined his face, giving him quite the demonic look. He felt so much hate, hate for those accursed glares! Gritting his teeth, he muttered, ”You fools don’t deserve to live in this world! You’ve stained the righteous bloodline of the clan! All of you deserve to die! The whole clan deserves to be completely wiped out!”

He was no longer in control of himself, having become a raving beast of nothing more than wild, primal instinct. He wasn’t even aware of how saying all that had only made him seem all the more pathetic. He returned to the Judgment and piloted it toward the area with the densest crowd.

”Ancestors help me! I’ve failed this poor soul, and I bear the responsibility for letting it come to this!” Lin Xiao lamented. ”Take him down!”

”Yes!”