Beastmaster of the Ages

Wudi once more entered the Thousand Foundation Divine Puppet. All of a sudden, the puppet began absorbing nova source and converting it into a usable form, similar to how flameyellow fiends charged up. This time around, the puppet no longer fell at a single touch. The body of the ancient flameyellow divinity stood on the coffin, armed with armor and blade. Then it flew out of the Gladean Ruins into the raging Flameyellow Guard Formation.

Once there, it began rapidly absorb nova source once more. In one hand, it held the blood-colored warblade. In the other, it held a shrunken Flameyellow Coffin. Its blood-red hair danced amidst the raging flames as a roar came from the puppet’s mouth, causing the whole formation to rumble. The flameyellow fiends that lurked within seemed to have been summoned and assembled into neat rows of troops!

Tianming was almost touched at the awe-inducing sight. ”Godfather really looks like the ultimate badass right now!”

”Well, he has your nurture and care to thank for this. How envious,” Xiaodao said. ”Come to think of it, you’re right!” Tianming was nevertheless thankful that Wudi often helped him hold the fort on the Sun. It had allowed him to focus on finding more opportunities to grow on Ebonia.

The puppet was able to freely move around in the formation, having absolute control over everything that happened within. The red cape over its armor really matched the energy that Wudi often gave off. Wherever it went, flames and fiends roared.

”Those not in the know wouldn’t even be able to tell that this is a corpse puppet that’s being controlled by an orderan!” Perhaps people would think it was some elite that the Sun had in hiding instead.

As Xiaodao and Tianming watched with awe, Wudi turned around to look at them. ”Brother Lin, come test this baby out!”

”I can’t wait!” Xiaodao had wanted to know what it was capable of long ago. How well could it fight within the formation that constantly fueled it? Since reaching the Foundation stage, Xiaodao had had no true opponent on the Sun. He wielded a long, gray sword and a tiny drinking gourd as he charged toward Wudi.

The sword coldly flashed and went straight for a vital point, while the blade answered with a mighty, sky-rending slash!

The two of them used completely different fighting styles. The divine puppet seemed like it ruled everything around it, constantly being powered by the formation, while Xiaodao deployed his reaper-ki-filled foundation fortress, allowing him to execute each refined sword strike with precision and power. It was a battle between simple brute force and complex techniques, a clash between raw power and the laws of order!

The Flameyellow Guard Formation’s flames surged during their fight. Even the aftershocks from the weapon clashes rocked the Gladean Ruins, sending it hovering backward. Tianming took a closer look and saw some gray sword flashes forming a cage like the one Yi Daiyan had used. It blocked out a lot from Tianming’s viewpoint.

Beyond the cage were streaks of crimson and gold slashes. In terms of oppressiveness, they didn’t seem inferior to the gray sword flashes at all! Tianming was already beyond shocked before the fight even ended. ”Holy shit... this can’t be real, can it?!”

Before that, even if Wudi was at the same level as Tianming, the latter still had a huge supporter base on the Sun and could easily take on the former. Yet the Thousand Foundation Divine Puppet, when combined with the Flameyellow Guard Formation and the Flameyellow Coffin, allowed Wudi to put up a decent fight against a foundationeer like Xiaodao. The shock had come far too suddenly.

”My godfather’s finally coming along on his own!” Tianming said, envious.

The two elders fought for quite some time, pushing and pulling at each other to the point that Tianming felt an itch to join in. Even though he wasn’t a foundationeer, he was still among the top elites within the Infinitum Mundus, and he was still growing.

Eventually, the spar ended and the two of them returned to Tianming’s side. Xiaodao’s hair seemed even more disheveled than usual, while Wudi gasped for air and coughed like a fish out of water.

”How was it?” Tianming asked.

”I’m genuinely surprised,” Xiaodao said. As he was a foundationeer, he quickly recovered.

”How so?” Tianming asked.

Wudi exited the puppet and it disappeared; it had probably shrunk and entered the Flameyellow Coffin for storage.

”The Thousand Foundation Divine Puppet doesn’t have an order or any infinitum-class battle arts, but the sheer control it had over nova source allowed it to exert three times as much energy as I could, and that isn’t even its absolute limit. Your godfather managed to resist the pressure of my order like that and put up an equal fight against me. Can you believe it?” Xiaodao seemed a little taken aback as he recounted it.

”That impressive?” Tianming almost saw Wudi in a new light.

”Haha, speechless at my badassery?” Wudi said.

”It fell from the sky onto your head. What’s it got to do with a lazy bum like you?” Tianming said.

”That’s jealousy I see! Jealousy!” Wudi spat.

As they bantered, Xiaodao said, ”The flameyellow divinities were truly insane. How could a single divine puppet possess that much power? This senior must’ve been beyond the Foundation stage in life! No doubt, he would’ve been able to crush foundationeers like me with a single breath.”

”Was he that strong?” Wudi himself seemed surprised.

”Of course. Even as you used the little power that remained in the puppet, you were able to overcome all kinds of techniques. Perhaps in life, he was someone who could shake off the power of order with his body alone!” Xiaodao said respectfully.

”Yeah, I hit the jackpot then!”

”Granted, the fact that you were able to put up a fight against me also has something to do with the armor and warblade. The armor took a huge part of the pressure of my order for you, while the cosmic impulse in the blade is particularly intense. Both of them are likely artifacts beyond the infinitum class! At the very least, they’re stronger than the Second Patriarch’s Sword in the Forest.”

”Does that mean they’re on the level of the Infinitum Stele?”

”That’s hard to say. Even beyond the infinitum class, there’s different levels. Not to mention, the amount of power of those artifacts that you’re able to tap into is no doubt limited as you’re using the divine puppet as a proxy. As such, you don’t have true control over their artifact souls. You don’t even know the names of the artifacts, right?”

”I indeed don’t,” Wudi said, snickering as he shook his head.