Beastmaster of the Ages

Xiaodao gave it some thought and said, ”Let’s wait a little while longer. We’ll move the Sun a little farther away and spread Yin Chens out in the astralscape. That way, even if Yi Daiyan comes alone, we’ll discover her with time to prepare.”

”What if she stops caring about everything and kills us instead of the ebons?” Dongshen Yue asked. She wasn’t afraid of the rex mundi, but rather saw her as a nemesis of the clan.

”Based on what’s happened so far, that’s pretty unlikely to happen. But we must still be ready to defend ourselves,” Xiaodao said, his gaze turning cold. ”However, it won’t be easy for her. If we get scared away by her after coming all this way, nobody would ever take us seriously again.”

”The main thing is that we can’t trust her. Perhaps she came to threaten us because she knows she isn’t capable of fighting both sides at once, and fears our participation. Maybe that’s why she wants to scare us away. I worry that she’ll turn all of her forces on us once she finishes dealing with the ebons,” Wudi said.

”She’s indeed rather untrustworthy. Brother Li, what about the hidden rooms of the Gladean Ruins?” Xiaodao asked.

”I should be done with them soon. Once you finish up, I’ll absorb more Flameyellow Bloodsoul and see how things go,” Wudi said.

Hearing that, Tianming joined in. ”Now that we have a foundationeer, if my godfather makes a new discovery as well, we’ll stay here for good. If he doesn’t, we’ll have to act based on the situation.”

”Alright, let’s do that.”

”Good. We can’t be scared away, but we shouldn’t be overconfident either.”

”Let’s see if there’s a way to send more Yin Chens to Ebonia. Being able to control battlefield intel is crucial.”

”Agreed.”

......

Soon, Yi Daiyan proved to the Infinitum Mundus that the battle at Sacrosanct Sea was only the start of the war. The ebons’ ’unintentional’ loss of control of their beast wave resulted in the loss of many common lives. Wildbeasts crawled up from subterranean caverns and emerged into the seas and mountains. They savagely destroyed settlements, villages, towns, and cities, mostly areas without defensive formations. Even the skies and highways were filled with nova wildbeasts; nobody had seen this many of them at once in their entire life.

After hiding so long under the crust of Ebonia, nobody knew how much the wildbeasts had proliferated. Perhaps they even consumed as much as three-fourths of Ebonia’s nova source, leaving only scraps for those on the surface. The first wave of nova source was no doubt much more volatile compared to the ’filtered’ second wave that made it to the surface. As a result, the wildbeasts were always stimulated and aggressive, slaughtering away among one another.

Those same wildbeasts were then further agitated by the ebons into coming to the surface. It didn’t take more than a few days for the surface to turn into a hellscape of blood and suffering. Most of the clans, major or minor, took shelter in their formations. Yet the beast wave was so large that they could even brute-force their way through defensive formations, eventually overrunning the settlements and wiping out the people within.

The ebons also intentionally manipulated the spread of information to pin the blame on Yi Daiyan’s cruel extermination of a regal clan, which resulted in the fissures in the Infinitum Bodhimanda. No matter the veracity of the rumor, as long as it was widespread enough, it would become the truth. As such, what the populace thought about Yi Daiyan was also important to a certain degree. Her allies were fully aware of what was happening, and when they brought it up to her, she didn’t seem to care about it. In fact, she was already planning a second attack.

”There is no point in explaining the rumors away. The only way to counter them is to kill those who spread them. After that, everything will cease,” Yi Daiyan said.

”Shenxi Xingtian is the one responsible for spreading it,” Yishker Sayedi of the Yishker Clan said.

”Well, he has to die, then. But before that, we should take out his allies that have nowhere to run. Our next target is the Central Shuntian Clan.”

”Understood.” Five Infinitum Regal Clans stood with Yi Daiyan and the luxdaemons.

”They’re prepared and expecting us. It won’t be as easy to sweep through everything like the time I slaughtered the sanctlighters. It’ll be a tough battle, and I expect you all to put in effort.”

The leaders exchanged glances and immediately knelt. They had been completely shaken by the demise of the sanctlighters. Even now, their hearts beat with nervous relief that they had chosen the right side to be on. ”We’ll exterminate the traitors of the Infinitum Bodhimanda as the rex mundi commands!”

”Prepare to embark.” Yi Daiyan’s order got her alliance to rapidly prepare for the second wave of attacks in the Ebonian war.

......

Within the Ebonfiend, Shenxi Xingtian took out a transmission stone and saw Shuntian Bohai.

”Rex Mundi, Yi Daiyan’s six regal clans, including her own luxdaemons, formed a force of six hundred thousand astral gods and five million stellaminors. They also sent out thirty ether-class ships, five hundred sanctuary-class ships, five thousand deific-class ships, fifty thousand skypiercer-class ships, and half a million heliacal-class ships toward our province! The declaration of war’s been made and they’ll arrive in about two days!”

Divine astralships excelled at speed. There were six hundred thousand astral gods and roughly as many ships to match. The heliacal-class ships would be captained by stellaminors. The fact that even normal gods were participating in the war was a sign that this was the largest-scale conflict to ever grace Ebonia. It was clear that the main objective of the alliance was to eliminate the Central Shuntian Clan.

”Rex Mundi, our clan will be fighting one-against-six!” Shuntian Bohan cried in a panic. The Central Shuntian Clan did in fact have enough forces to match that. They had six hundred thousand astral gods as well, in addition to more than a million heliacal-class ships.

Yi Daiyan’s alliance, however, was formed between six regal clans. Apart from the luxdaemons, who had fewer numbers and only sent a hundred thousand astral gods, every other clan left hundreds of thousands of astral gods and ships behind to guard their base.

”Don’t panic. I’ve made preparations. You have a sanctuary-class formation and equal numbers to face them—what’re you so afraid of?” Shenxi Xingtian calmly said.

”What reinforcements will we get?”

”The ebons can send two hundred thousand astral gods, while each of the four other clans will send a hundred thousand astral gods. The astralships will soon gather and depart. At the same time, I’ll be sending a special-tier beast wave. I’m sure you know what that entails.”