Beastmaster of the Ages

”Taixi fiendbeast?” Yi Daiyan was surprised. She knew that the hardest part of eliminating the ebons was taking out their infinitum-class wildbeasts. Every single one of them was a global ruler in some respect. Supported by the ebons, they were an unstoppable blight upon Ebonia. Consuming human flesh and blood on the daily was a given.

The stronger the ebons were, the more the weaker and defenseless folk would suffer. After all, Ebonia was far too big, and not every atrocity could be accounted for. A city of a million people was like a tiny village. Even if it disappeared off the map one day, hardly anybody on the vast planet of darkness would notice. Yi Daiyan wanted really badly to kill those malevolent forces of nature.

”We can use its death as a declaration that the final war for Ebonia has started,” she said.

”The death of an infinitum-class wildbeast is the perfect thing to showcase the might of the Infinitum Bodhimanda,” Tianming agreed.

”Where is it, then?”

”I’ll give you the coordinates through a transmission stone.”

”Very well.” She took her stone out and continued, ”If I manage to kill it, you’ll be credited for it.”

”No, Rex Mundi, you’re the one who’ll be putting in the legwork. I wouldn’t dare.”

”The beast is heavily protected, but killing it won’t be hard. The hard part is finding it in the first place. If it works out, I’ll definitely inform everyone of your part in this,” Yi Daiyan solemnly said.

Tianming gave it some thought, but still shook his head. ”There’s no need for that. Our contribution will be in the form of our infinitum-class astralships. During the later stages of the war, we’ll pretend to side with Shenxi Xingtian and give him a taste of his own medicine. We can betray him at a crucial moment to deal him the biggest blow we can.”

Hearing that, Yi Daiyan shook her head with a smile. ”So, you’re quite the trickster after all.”

”I await your good news, Rex Mundi,” Tianming said.

”We’ll see!” She turned around and zipped away through the dark clouds of Ebonia without making any ripples. The negotiation had been far more successful than any of them had dared to imagine.

”Can we trust her?” Tianming asked.

”It’s hard to say,” Xiaodao said, shaking his head.

”Of course we can’t completely trust her. Let’s do everything at our own pace and prioritize our safety,” Wudi said.

”If... and I’m saying strictly hypothetically, we join hands and take down the four-pronged alliance of the ebons, we’d still have to settle things with her after that, right? Her might far exceeds ours,” Tianming said.

”The enemy alliance isn’t weak. It’ll be really difficult to properly defeat them. Let’s just take things step by step for now while things aren’t set in stone yet,” Xiaodao said.

”Not to mention, even if we do work with Yi Daiyan, our side will still be the weaker one. We don’t even know how strong Myriadpath Valley and Intrepidus are,” Lin Xiao added. Once more, they had found themselves in uncertainty in a time of strife and chaos.

”Let’s put that on hold for now. I’ll send her the coordinates, first,” Tianming said. The transmission stone he held started glowing. ”First, head in the direction of the Taixi Guard Formation.”

”Okay,” Yi Daiyan said. From the projection of the transmission stone, Tianming saw that she was in Ebonia’s underground. It was filled with wide canals and caverns to enable the astralships of the ebons to go in and out, so it wasn’t hard for Yi Daiyan to infiltrate them. However, the canals would definitely prove troubling for an army that was going in to attack.

The paths underground were incredibly complex and there was a good chance units would get lost. Battles there were completely unlike those fought in deep space or on land. In space, the astralships of the Lin Clan could even use sword formations, but there was no chance of that happening in the subterranean ebon territory. The ebons themselves, however, weren’t encumbered as their ships were normally fitted with drills, allowing them much more mobility underground.

”It’s said that the reign of the two reges mundi of our clan saw the ebons being driven into a desperate corner. The pathways leading to their underground bases were imploded by themselves, cutting off all contact with the upper level and allowing them to survive our assault when we couldn’t find our way in.” The ebons truly had the home ground advantage on Ebonia, with their terrain and wildbeasts.

”The ebons....” Tianming and Yi Daiyan had to weather away at their forces before Myriadpath Valley and Intrepidus’s cultivators arrived to bolster them. They had to fight underground no matter what!

......

Deep underground was an area where wildbeasts gathered in the billions. Their roars and clashes formed many smaller waves of beasts that flowed around an edgeless crimson sphere. The sphere was none other than the Taixi Guard Formation that guarded the base of their kind for countless generations.

While the Taixi Guard Formation was located underground, the cities within were prosperous and bright to no end. It looked like a single pearl that illuminated the darkness around it. The many ebon subclans, like the Qis and Guchis, were based within the formation.

In recent days, the core ebons that lived aboveground had been driven back to their two underground bases. As such, Taixi City was far busier than it had ever been. The so-called city had no strict borders, for it was actually a sphere the size of a heliacal-class star that could house a population of billions. There was more than enough space for their warbeasts as well.

However, it still wasn’t big enough for infinitum-class wildbeasts, unless they were unique ones with tiny bodies. The bloodline wisteria and taixi fiendbeast were both humongous creatures. Usually, those two beasts were located near Ebonia’s fusion formation. No other being than those two could endure the waves of volatile, unfiltered nova source.

These days, the ebons had languished so much that they’d never been worse off. Their repeated losses and the death of more than a million of their astral gods had depleted their might to the point that they had to hide in their underground lairs. People mocked them as if they were lowly rats.

The humiliation was absolutely vexing to the prideful and lofty ebons and cries of rage and criticism rang out endlessly within Taixi City, with many proclaiming that they would fight Yi Daiyan and her dirty followers to the death. Even though they were faced with a crisis like never before, they weren’t scared in the slightest. They were confident that the countless wildbeasts outside the city and the defensive formation would serve well as shields.

”All we do is guard these two strongholds. We don’t have anything else to work on.”

”Yi Daiyan will eventually die of old age. That’s when the ebons can rise again.”

”The only things that truly last are the bloodlines, legacies, and clans. Rogue cultivators that suddenly rise to power only last a single generation! All the other luxdaemons are trash! Who could possibly succeed her?”

”The Shenxi and Guchi clans of us ebons are the ones with stable legacies stretching back tens of millions of years.”

They didn’t even hold a shred of doubt that they would rise back to prominence one day.