Beastmaster of the Ages

Fengqing Youmeng had to feel the pain before she would truly begin fearing it. Xiaodao didn’t care about any of her resistance and threw her straight into the gourd. Soon, they started to hear agonizing cries coming from within. ”Why do you suddenly want to know how Lin Ke came here?”

”I initially had my doubts. How could a young genius come all the way to the Skydome Mundus for a girl? Wouldn’t traveling so far in an astralship disrupt his cultivation? I was only casually asking her about it, but her answers made me feel that something was off,” Tianming said.

His instincts told him that it couldn’t have been an astralship or a shortcut through the Xenoworld. If it had been the former, why wouldn’t Fengqing Youmeng know how long it took? She would have been waiting for Lin Ke from the day he said he would depart! There was no way she would mistake thirty years for a hundred.

In about half a day, she could take it no longer. When Xiaodao took her out of the gourd, she looked like she was dead; she was pale all over and foaming from the mouth. ”It was the Myriadpath Celestial Formation.... It belongs to Myriadpath Valley....”

”What’s that?” Xiaodao and Tianming wondered.

”Myriadpath Valley has a formation called the Myriadpath Celestial Formation. It’s a formation of ten thousand skypiercer-class worlds that can send people to any stareye relay. The Skydome Mundus has one of those relays set up by the elites of Myriadpath Valley! Lin Ke is Li Fan’s friend, so Li Fan first met him at Myriadpath Valley and transported him to Skydome.”

Hearing that, Xiaodao, Tianming, Wudi, Lin Xiao, and the rest fell silent.

”In other words, by using the formation, those from Myriadpath Valley and Intrepidus are easily able to reach Skydome and Infinitum, skipping a hundred-year astralship voyage, right?” Xiaodao said. He knew the implications of that, so he didn’t even need Fengqing Youmeng to confirm it.

”Don’t you know anything about the Myriadpath Celestial Formation?” she asked, stunned.

”We do now, many thanks to you,” Tianming said.

She drew a cold breath and froze. ”So what if you do? If the elites from both sides want to avenge Lin Ke, you’ll die even if you’re able to prepare!”

”Would they really do all that for Lin Ke alone?” Tianming said.

”What do you know?! Lin Ke is the son of Demoness Yin, the rex mundi of Intrepidus! That old hag never raised any other child apart from him. Why would I pick him otherwise? He’s so ugly!” That was something she had kept to herself for far too long, and it felt relieving to finally say. ”Not just you, even Yi Daiyan won’t be safe! All of you have too many precious treasures that you keep showing off! No wonder others have their sights on you!”

Tianming fell silent once more. ”All that effort for the little things I have?” He had only said all that to bait out more information from her. Meng Ying kept trying to take Moran from them, and Tianming had killed Lin Ke. There was no doubt that Demoness Yin wouldn’t let that slide.

As for Myriadpath Valley, Li Fan was still on the hunt for Tianming and also seemed to have some plans for Zi Zhen. It was likely that all three of those factions would interfere in the internal war of the Infinitum Bodhimanda. ”How powerful is Demoness Yin?”

”Their core world, Intrepidia, is seven times the size of Ebonia. They have six foundationeers, what do you think? She’ll instantly kill you all and Yi Daiyan!” she snapped with a furious glare.

”Wait, why not Shenxi Xingtian?”

”Cause they’re allied with him, of course,” Wudi said.

Fengqing Youmeng hated them so much that she accidentally let out quite a lot of information. It was truly a sad sight to see. But then again, who could blame her for her instability after being trapped within the gourd for so long and enduring all that agony? Not to mention, she had always been the hateful and impulsive type. Someone else might not be so easy to extract information from.

”Based on your words, they’re coming here for certain, then,” Tianming said.

She merely glared at him. ”I don’t know!” She seemed sick of saying anything else.

”You still have some fight in you, I see. Too bad, nobody cares. Back in the gourd you go. When you finally have some useful information for us, we’ll let you out again,” Tianming said.

Xiaodao wasted no time in sucking her into the gourd, starting the cacophony of pain once more. Tianming and the rest were in a rather sour mood from the bad news they had received.

”Had I known that Lin Ke was someone important, I might’ve spared his shitty life,” Tianming said.

”Well, they might’ve come no matter what. If not for vengeance, then for riches. Not to mention, we can’t exactly let their invasion go unpunished,” Lin Xiao said.

”But the problem is that we don’t know how many they’ll send here,” Xiaodao said.

”If they only send elites without an armada or army, then only Meng Ying and Shenxi Xingtian would know their numbers,” Tianming said.

”We can prepare all we want, but one thing’s certain.” Xiaodao turned to look in Ebonia’s direction. ”If Myriadpath Valley and Intrepidus really send people here, our war will no longer be between three factions. It’ll be a four-on-two.”

”Four-on-two? Do you mean we’ll have to work together with Yi Daiyan?” Wudi said, almost speechless.

”We might have to,” the others said in unison. Lin Xiao and Dongshen Yue seemed even more stumped.

”Fortunately, we moved the Sun near Ebonia, then. Otherwise we’d be taken out one by one,” Tianming said.

The others nodded. Their mistake had turned out to be beneficial after all.

”Do we go straight to Yi Daiyan and tell her, then?” Dongshen Yue asked while trying to keep herself calm.

”We shouldn’t need to rush things. We aren’t even sure if they’ve arrived yet,” Xiaodao said.

”Let’s wait and see if Fengqing Youmeng has more information to offer us, then,” Tianming said. She had to be thoroughly squeezed to make sure that she no longer kept any other secrets.

”If what she said is true, it seems like we’re up against some rather terrifying folks. The first thing we need to do is join up with Yi Daiyan and crush the ebons,” Wudi said.

”That’s right!” Finding the infinitum-class wildbeasts would be the first step in their plan.