Beastmaster of the Ages

”Let’s hear it,” Shenxi Xingtian said.

”The spoils will be split four ways. Mister Taihe, in his graciousness, is only interested in the Infinitum Stele. Those from Intrepidus, however, want a bit more, but they also promise to offer more! They want everything that belongs to Tianming, including the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb. Fortunately, I didn’t tell them about Jiang Feiling, Lin Xiaoxiao, or the coffin, so those can still be ours,” Meng Ying said.

”At the end of the day, what’ll be left for the ebons?”

”The Gladean Ruins? Not to mention, an Infinitum Mundus that’s united under ebon rule. Naturally, the Sun belongs to you, too. They won’t be able to bring a nova source world away with them, after all. There should still be quite a few secrets to discover there,” Meng Ying said.

”What’s in it for you, then?”

”We’ll take a bit of a loss and only claim Li Tianming’s wives. I hope that you’ll keep the matter of Weisheng Moran a secret. That’s something that you hold over us, so why would you worry about us? In fact, our two mundi within this vast astral void should help one another out! If the four sides can agree on that split, it’ll be a win-win for all of us.”

Myriadpath Valley wanted the Infinitum Stele and Zi Zhen, while Intrepidus wanted Tianming and his astralship. It was clear that transporting the astralship would take a long time, but the Intrepidus Mundus wasn’t that far from Myriadpath Valley. As for the divine wonderians, they wanted Moran, the reincarnation of Tian Jiu, while Xiaoxiao and Feiling were just bonuses. The ebons, on the other hand, would get the Sun, the Gladean Ruins, and control over the whole mundus. After suffering all those losses, the offer was more than tempting enough for Shenxi Xingtian.

Meng Ying had also reminded him about the secret that he was clued in on. Shenxi Xingtian knew that the divine wonderians were far more powerful than they appeared to be on the surface. No doubt, they had direct ties to Myriadpath Valley and Intrepidus. If it ever came to light that Meng Ying was secretly after Moran, other divine wonderians wouldn’t let them off.

”Brother, you must understand that my dear wife and I are near the end of our road. This is the only chance we’ll get to have a child take after us. Our daughter’s been captured by the Sun, so Weisheng Moran’s our only way out. Otherwise, the Weisheng Clan will take over everything back at the Skydome Mundus!

“I also had to gamble to bring two elite helpers in this desperate fight. We’ve worked together so many times, now. If you don’t trust me, who can you trust?” Meng Ying sincerely said and sighed. He stood up and patted Shenxi Xingtian on the shoulder. ”Make up your mind!”

Shenxi Xingtian’s eyes still looked murky as he struggled to choose. In the end, he stood up and said, ”Meng Ying, bringing outsiders into our affairs is a heavy sin in the Infinitum Mundus. If I fail, I’ll be utterly abandoned by the entire Infinitum Bodhimanda and would no longer be able to raise my head high.”

”With those two’s help, there’s no chance of failure.”

”Very well! Alright, then, tell me... what justification do they need to go to Ebonia? I’ll arrange it.”

Meng Ying smiled with delight at the agreement. From that moment, four great forces had joined up to form an alliance. The Infinitum Mundus’ power balance was once more completely upset; nothing would be the same again with outsiders in the mix.

......

Tianming and the rest of the Lin Clan were unaware of the changes that would soon come. They were still shocked at hearing about Yi Daiyan’s complete reversal against the ebons. Tianming, Wudi, Xiaodao, Dongshen Zhuojun, and the rest were gathered in the Gladean Ruins.

”It looks like Yi Daiyan’s far more powerful than Shenxi Xingtian. No wonder the five regal clans betrayed him so fast,” Lin Xiao said, sighing.

”Her combat prowess is far too high.” Ever since Xiaodao had become a foundationeer, he’d slowly gained a new awareness and had started having far less faith in formations and astralships.

”No matter what, Yi Daiyan has the ebons beat in every aspect apart from the Ebonfiend. The most the ebons can do now is slaughter innocents and blame it on her, but that doesn’t take anything significant away from her at all. In time, the wildbeasts will be completely wiped out like we did on Gladeus,” Tianming said.

”That’s right. Yi Daiyan also doesn’t have something like Granddaddy Yin Chen. Otherwise, the ebons would fall even faster,” Xiaodao said.

”Can you behave in a way that suits your age?” Tianming spat. Xiaodao calling Yin Chen his grandfather was messed up.

”Great. We have to analyze what our options are now, considering everything we know. Do we help the ebons fight back against Yi Daiyan or wait and watch? We can also run somewhere to hide,” Lin Xiong said.

”We still can’t help the ebons yet,” Wudi said, ”In the eyes of everyone in the mundus, we’re neutral toward Yi Daiyan and the ebons. If we help the ebons, our reputation and motives will fall to their level. That would be the perfect excuse that crazy witch needs to start a fight with us.”

”That’s right,” Xiaodao agreed. Before they had returned with the Sun, they believed that the ebons could at least manage to deter Yi Daiyan, only for them to lose so horribly. There would be no balance to speak of for Tianming and the rest. Not to mention, their rash policy of slaughtering innocents was earning them a really bad reputation.

”So, do we watch silently or leave?” Lin Chongyao said.

Tianming furrowed his brow. ”Yi Daiyan wanted us to leave, so if we comply, we’d be giving her face. If she doesn’t intend to attack us, it should be fine for us to sneak away. If she was going to attack us no matter what, it wouldn’t matter where we run. She can just use fiendbats to track us down.”

”Basically, leaving or staying won’t make much of a difference. We might as well stay neutral and keep monitoring the situation,” Wudi said. He had more or less the same idea as his godson, but there were some Lin Clan council members that were so terrified by Yi Daiyan that they just wanted to leave.

”If we stay, we’ll at least have some initiative to react to upcoming developments. It might be a little risky, but it’s a risk we can afford to take,” Xiaodao said, pointing at himself, then to Wudi. ”You’ll also be bringing us something soon.”

Wudi had made insane leaps in strength lately, thanks to the grade-one and -two order fragments Tianming had brought him. Together with a large amount of Flameyellow Bloodsoul, his level had shot up from the first astral phase all the way to the eleventh, something Tianming was all too envious of. The reason he was so quick was that he only had two streams of order, as well as the foundationeer caeli left behind by the flameyellow divinities in the Gladean Ruins.

His flameyellow divinity bloodline also allowed him to absorb Flameyellow Bloodsoul, which was beneficial for his orders’ growth. However, breaking through all those levels at once still made his cultivation incredibly unstable, as was apparent from how feeble he seemed. He almost couldn’t walk straight, let alone fight, but that didn’t change the fact that he could absorb more and more Flameyellow Bloodsoul as he grew with each level.

Eventually, he managed to open the second secret room! Within it was a large plaque that read ’Thousand Foundation Divine Puppets’.