Beastmaster of the Ages

Yi Daiyan was coming with the Infinitum Stele! The artifact contained a destructive cosmic impulse that was fit for no purpose but devastation. As such, it couldn’t serve as the driving force for an astralship, as it was too explosive, and there was no way it could travel through the astralscape for a long voyage that way.

However, the stele was good for covering short distances within Ebonia in a really short time. In fact, Yi Daiyan had arrived three times faster than those fighting at Greenhill had expected.

The ebons’ plans had been foiled time and again thanks to the unpredictability of the Infinitum Stele. After the Eastpole Skyshaker Clan and the other two clans switched sides, they gave it their all to stop the ebon army in an attempt to show their usefulness. When they saw the arrival of Yi Daiyan, they were even more agitated.

”The first rex mundi is here!”

”The end of the ebons is upon us.”

”Brothers, if we do well, the Eastpole Skyshaker Clan will have a chance to atone!”

”We can’t miss this chance!”

”Die!”

After the astralships launched their attacks, the astral gods from the three regal clans came charging out with their beasts into a melee. It was a sign of dedication; leaving their ships meant that they wouldn’t be running off and retreating. It wouldn’t be so easy to flee back into their ships once they had come out.

”Keep pushing!” The three regal clans’ warriors’ morale soared when they saw Yi Daiyan. The troops, beasts, and ships all worked together to swarm the ebon ships. Actual lifebound beasts were far easier to control than Ebonian nova wildbeasts for operations like this one. ”Don’t let them run!”

The three regal clans feared nothing, as they would be reinforced by the Greenhill Yushan Clan and Central Shuntian Clan’s forces. It also helped that Yi Daiyan had almost instantly made her way to Greenhill to join the fight. Not to mention, the first wave of reinforcements had arrived from the faster ether-class ships. Many of them were the ships of the Central Shuntian Clan.

”Whether we’ll be allowed to keep five ether-class astralships will depend on if the ebons perish!” The Central Shuntian Clan was determined to wipe out all the ebons. It wasn’t hard to tell them from the rest, even among the chaos.

”Die!” Shuntian Bohai and Yushan Taifeng’s orders got the reinforcements to attack as well as encircle the enemy with their one-and-a-half million astral gods and astral ships. That was almost three times the number of the forces the ebons had sent!

Destroying the Greenhill Yushan Clan should have been a walk in the park, but it now seemed almost impossible.

”Retreat!” Shenxi Xingtian commanded, his voice resounding throughout. It was yet another humiliating defeat and the ebons were all livid. How could the strongest Infinitum Regal Clan that had once looked down upon everyone else be pushed to this extent? What was worse was that they might not be able to retreat even if they wanted to!

Yi Daiyan immediately killed a few ether-class nova wildbeasts that were causing the most chaos. Then she used her sixfold simulacrum, Lux Imperius, and began slaughtering away in the beast wave like a one-woman army!

The luxdaemons and members of the Greenhill Yushan Clan were pumped at the sight. Even so, the ebons’ bloodline wisteria was elusive and all encompassing, still managing to stain the entire Greenhill with blood.

”The rex mundi has returned!”

”We held on long enough!”

”I heard all the allies of the ebons have surrendered. Five more Infinitum Regal Clans have returned to our side!”

”Our efforts and the price we have paid are worth it!”

The clan members cried tears of joy as their morale soared. They continued fighting the remnant wildbeasts that the ebons were no longer controlling. That, in fact, made them even more dangerous, as they wouldn’t retreat even after the warbeasts of the ebons had left.

”The bloodline wisteria must die!” That infinitum-class warbeast had given the entire Yushan Clan a horrible nightmare.

Yi Daiyan broke apart the ground. Immediately, countless vines of the bloodline wisteria crawled out of the cracks. It shrieked, every single thorny vine covered in blood and gore. Even Xian Xian would be scared at the sight of a monster like it.

”The bloodline wisteria’s trying to escape!” Many of the vines were retracting back into the ground.

”Please, may the rex mundi kill it for good!”

As the people prayed for the bloodline wisteria’s extermination, the ebon army had been heavily encircled. They weren’t able to follow orders to retreat even if they wanted to! Not only that, their hundred thousand astralships had been split apart. To avoid dying with their ships when they were attacked, the ebons were forced to go out of them to fight, but they were facing three times their number.

”Kill them all! Don’t leave a single one remaining!”

”Kill! Kill!”

”The ebons must be slaughtered! The first rex mundi is unstoppable!”

The bloody battle grew even more intense. Within Greenhill, cultivators and beasts fought, but outside of it were tons of ships engaging each other in combat.

The battle at Greenhill should have been a disaster, but Yi Daiyan’s arrival changed everything. She alone tipped the scales, massacring the ebons. The ebon warriors were all horrified to see her. They had many warbeasts, which gave them a huge advantage in wars as opposed to single combat, yet they were facing far higher numbers than themselves! Their warbeasts were gradually slaughtered, and before long, the ebons themselves perished.

Yi Daiyan had managed to completely flip all four allies of the ebons against them. As for the other clans that were already on her side, they were simply fighting to exterminate their nemesis. Some of them had bloody grudges against the ebons.

”The ebons are done for!”

”Even though their expedition failed, they lost another half a million astral gods simply because they thought they were unbeatable! Let’s see how much lower they can fall!”

”How dare they betray us, the Central Shuntian Clan?!”

Everyone lashed out in rage. Their confidence ballooned, while the morale of the ebons plummeted. Not even the bravest person among them had the capability to turn things around. Ebon casualties racked up in quick succession as ship after ship fell. The scale of losses suffered was almost on the level of the siege of the Sun.

Eventually, Greenhill was mostly soaked in blood and corpses. Yi Daiyan didn’t let the ships escape, either, bringing one after another crashing down. Few, if any, managed to escape. In fact, the ebons stood a better chance of escaping if they left their ships.

The secret force of half a million ebons ended up with fewer than fifty thousand survivors.