Beastmaster of the Ages

”Chen Yin! Chen—” Jiang Yong had just witnessed the death of his comrade that’d been fighting by his side for more than a thousand years. He had scattered in the winds just like that, fading like embers after a fireworks show. Emotions like shock, fear, pain, doubt, and terror flooded Jiang Yong’s mind.

”You!” He fiercely glared at Tianming, expression contorting. From his gaze, one could tell that he had completely not expected an orderan like Tianming to be capable of such a feat. ”So there wasn’t an ambush at all. He’d just happened to make a breakthrough recently. However, no orderan could possibly fight against two cosmic cartographers, and even kill one like Chen Yin....”

They were both cosmic cartographers! Rage filling his mind, he let out a bestial growl, ignoring Ying Huo and charging toward Tianming. As he did, he looked up and met Tianming’s gaze, seeing within it the might of billions of people. That wasn’t the gaze of a mere youth. He gasped, feeling the rage within him recede in an instant, leaving his body cold and chilled. ”If Chen Yin is dead, how could I possibly survive? He might have more tricks up his sleeves.”

Jiang Yong immediately wondered if he could negotiate with Tianming with everything he had, but the thought of Tianming killing Chen Yin in cold blood assured him that Tianming would kill him next regardless of the background he had. It was an emergency, and all Jiang Yong was trying to do was to survive.

”Come back!” He suddenly stopped and turned around, escaping toward his lifebound beasts. At the same time, he tugged on the excursion rope that was tied around his ankle. Tianming could tell that he was going to escape.

”Is he so sure that I won’t camp here to wait for him to return next?” Jiang Yong’s guess was right—Tianming definitely wouldn’t stay put just to wait for him. ”Well, I can’t just let him get off without consequences.”

Ying Huo and the others were bombarding Jiang Yong with abilities without even having to be told to do so. The pentacolor formless elephants were dragged around by Lan Huang, Xian Xian, and Yin Chen. Meow Meow used Triworld Afterlife Bolts, sending lightning crashing between the elephants, sending them and Jiang Yong flying. Ying Huo and Meow Meow both adopted their larger forms. A gigantic flaming phoenix and a crackling lightning liger charged toward the beasts. While their sizes couldn’t measure up to the elephants’, their claws and abilities still drew blood, thanks to Ji Ji’s buffs.

None of the elephants were able to make a single move. It would be really difficult for them to return to the lifebound space. Thus, Jiang Yong had no choice but to run toward them! Time was of the essence!

”Showing your back to me is just the opening I need.” Tianming smirked and readied his twin swords, his totems still infused in them. Then, he executed Delayed Capture, a strike that seemed simple on the surface. Instantly, his figure traveled like a mirage to Jiang Yong’s back, where his cosmic chart was.

”Ugh!” Jiang Yong turned back in a hurry to block the strike. In terms of pure energy, he was quite impressive. His cosmic artifact almost sent the black Grand-Orient Sword flying. Delayed Capture caused the sword to scrape against Jiang Yong’s cosmic artifact, sending totem ki piercing into his body and drawing blood. Despite the gory injuries, they didn’t seem to be doing much actual harm. The chunks of flesh and blood that spilled all over the place returned to Jiang Yong’s body after gathering at the cosmic chart, instantly causing the wound to recover.

Tianming was used to how cosmic cartographers healed by now. His execution of the sword arts of the reges mundi was already at an incredibly high level. Even though his first strike was blocked, there was still an unblockable second strike: Unistrike Singularity! Space itself was compressed, causing Jiang Yong to feel as if he was being pressured by an order. With the support of Delayed Capture, the sword that executed Unistrike Singularity easily went past his defenses and sword ki rampaged chaotically like a storm.

”Aaaagh!” Jiang Yong cried. The gold sword pierced into his body, sending sword ki, totem ki, and cosmoforce that tore away at his astral organs, completely bisecting his body! The smaller half of his body consisted of one arm and part of his torso, being severed from the larger half, yet no blood was spilled. Instead, it simply glowed bright and faded away. While it wasn’t as magnificent a sight as Chen Yin’s death, it was still decent to behold.

”You crook!” Jiang Yong was still alive. He glared at Tianming with the most hateful expression he could muster.

”Hmm?” Tianming was just about to continue attacking when the smaller severed part of the body exploded. The force of the exploding astrons sent him flying back. At that instant, the remainder of Jiang Yong got pulled underground, escaping the Xenoabyss for good.

”Damn! I should’ve cut the rope first!”

Jiang Yong had successfully fled. Then again, he did leave a chunk of his body and five lifebound beasts behind. Even if he survived, he would be as good as crippled and have no future to speak of. Tianming was more concerned with the black tower, however. ”Now, what’s inside the spatial ring?”

Fortunately, the ring was on the arm that had been left behind. Tianming had pocketed it when that arm exploded.

”Thank goodness!” He immediately spotted the little black tower and sighed in relief. ”One’s dead, and the other’s heavily injured. They won’t be able to pursue me any longer. With how large the Xenoabyss is, coupled with the fact that I made off with their wealth, they’re as good as dead to me.”

While Jiang Yong had survived, the loss of his lifebound beasts had completely neutralized him as a threat.

Tianming didn’t linger there; a fight of this scale had caused enough of a commotion that it would draw attention. He gathered his lifebound beasts, wiped out the remaining elephants, pocketed the spoils, and rode off on Meow Meow. It was quite a haul, with the rings containing two million soulstones combined.

”This should be enough for me to spend for quite a while.”