Beastmaster of the Ages

Tianming had just noticed divine wonder energy coming from the waters around him. It was something similar to Etherean Zhao’s firmament ocean wonder, but on a different level, of course. Regardless, he knew that he’d been discovered the moment the ocean had enveloped him.

”Pull me away!” Tianming had tested it before and found that Zi Zhen was actually faster than Meow Meow over short distances. Meow Meow was much better when it came to longer distances, where its lightning would be able to grant a more significant boost. But in an urgent moment like this, Tianming planned to have Zi Zhen pull him by the Prime Starchain and run. Little did he expect, however, that she would carry him on her back right away, breaking free from the sea and charging ahead.

”Damn.” Tianming felt a little weird about being given a piggyback ride by a girl. While Zi Zhen wasn’t burly in the least, she was a specter through and through. Despite charging ahead like a vigorous beast, Tianming could feel the taut, yet soft flesh on her back.

”Why don’t you store your sword into your spatial ring?” Zi Zhen asked, her expression odd.

”It’ll break if I put it in,” Tianming said.

Zi Zhen’s heart rate started speeding up, perhaps from discovering that the divine wonder energy had enveloped them again instead of realizing the true nature of Tianming’s unsheathed ’sword’.

”What’s that?” Tianming asked, furrowing his brow. Ahead of them was a screen of light that looked like a gigantic wall. Zi Zhen didn’t slow down at all and smashed into it, only to bounce back with heavy injuries. If not for Tianming holding tightly to her neck, he would have been sent flying.

”It’s a divine wonder!” What an impressive range. Tianming could immediately tell that it was a territorial wonder like the firmament ocean wonder. It was a wide formation that spanned a large area. Not only did the screen of light not break, it even moved farther away to mitigate the force from the collision.

”A chessboard?” Tianming looked beneath him and saw neatly arranged squares, each one around a thousand meters wide. It was a glowing chessboard, no doubt. The reason he was so certain about that were the gigantic black and white pieces that appeared in the boxes, each looking like huge slabs of metal. They seemed so massive, heavy, and immovable.

Tianming had seen divine wonders like this before. Back in the wondersky realm of the Mysterium Cluster, the Weisheng Xi couple had divine wonders taking the forms of a string instrument and chess pieces, respectively. No doubt, this chessboard was a more powerful version of that.

More specifically, it was two divine wonders in one, one chessboard wonder, and another chess piece wonder. There could be no better combination a divine wonderian couple could ask for. The better the coordination between divine wonders was, the stronger they would be, much like the ephemeral world wonder and the eightpart apparition wonder, or the firmament ocean wonder and evernight whale wonder.

The chessboard formed screens of light at its edges to box the enemy in, moving whenever it was hit to dissipate any energy from attacks. The chess pieces, on the other hand, would work to kill those on the board.

They were already trapped.

”What do we do?” Zi Zhen quickly asked.

”Don’t panic.” Though he said that, he knew how dire the situation was. It would be hard for Feiling to drag him out while he was trapped in the board.

A sharp sound came ringing from behind. Tianming turned to look and saw a golden chess piece fly out of the light screen and land on the board, shaking the other monochrome pieces. There were quite a few people standing on the gold piece, six couples in total. They were all wonderians and would only count as six fighting units in the wondersky realms.

The leader was an old couple with a sagely aura, much like that of a chess master. They were definitely the controllers of the board and pieces. Now that they had shown themselves, Tianming and Zi Zhen were in real danger. People of such an advanced age that earned the support of others weren’t to be trifled with. They were probably at the peak of their cultivation, and there were no rules here that reverted their power to that when they were five hundred years old.

”We can’t beat them,” Zi Zhen immediately said. Having gotten renewed hope that her xeno fatigue could be cured, she had regained her will to live, which only made her even more nervous here.

”Don’t move.” Tianming got off from her back and pressed his hands down on her firm buttocks.

”You!” She turned around, almost stupefied. What was he doing at a time like this?!”

”I said don’t move! Look ahead!” he hissed in warning.

Only when the energy from the fatigue vortices started dissipating did she remember that two vortices were where Tianming had placed his hands

”Ah! I’m going to go blind!” Ji Ji said, clutching its eyes.

”Me too!” Xian Xian immediately started inscribing the scene on its bark.

”What do you guys know?! Boss is trying to get out of this alive! He’s forced to do this!” Lan Huang said.

”Why didn’t he pick other vortices then? There’s eight in total!” Xian Xian argued.

”Well, he needs to make sure that the enemies can’t see what he’s doing, right?” Lan Huang said, though its voice was unconvincingly weak.

Tianming heard that and was incredibly touched. ”Little Tortoise, only you understand me after all!”

”Don’t think I can’t feel your joy. You’re even feeling up the texture,” Ying Huo said.

”Fuck off!” At a time like this, Tianming poked his head out from behind Zi Zhen’s shoulder, looking suspiciously at the people ahead.

”Didn’t... didn’t you say that you would only help me after... you broke through?” she said.

”I got my order fragments, so there’s no point in waiting!” Tianming said. He was in a rush, too, as getting rid of the vortices would still take time. But by then, the golden chess piece was right in front of them. When it landed, the wind caused their clothes and hair to flutter.

”It’s you!” said the old couple the moment they saw Tianming.

”Do you guys know me?” Tianming wondered.

”Of course! Nobody in the Skydome Mundus wouldn’t recognize you, Li Tianming! I saw your fight against Fengqing You and the rest with my own eyes!” the old man said.

”What a coincidence. So, a friend from my hometown, eh? Friendly greetings.”

”Who’s your friend here? Child, you had your chance to get in our good graces, yet you chose to enter the gate of hell on your own accord,” the old crone said.

”Huh? Big Sister, we’re friends, I promise!” Tianming’s brain spun in an attempt to find more ways to draw things out.