Beastmaster of the Ages

”You’re really sick. If it’s fine, then alright. I’ll go interrogate Li Fan,” Xiaodao said before he left.

After Yi Daiyan got word that Fengqing Mengdie had been taken down, she no longer hurried, but remained heading there all the same. Eventually, she arrived. Xiaodao wanted to try to get something out of Li Fan before Yi Daiyan had a chance, so he tossed him straight into the gourd.

Tianming kept watching over Moran to ensure that they were safe. He got a bit closer and didn’t even dare to blink. However, Xiaodao interrupted him not long after with his transmission stone. Tianming asked, ”What’s up?”

”This kid’s rather stubborn. I’m messing with him with the gourd all kinds of ways but he’s still not talking at all. He’s even quite arrogant and keeps saying that we would pay the price a thousandfold and mocked us for being uneducated hicks. He’s saying that we’ll regret messing with the wrong people or something,” Xiaodao said, annoyed.

”He’s still that arrogant after being crippled like that?”

”Yep.”

”There’s only one possibility then. Even after learning that you’re a foundationeer, he’s still incredibly confident in the elites from Myriadpath Valley and Intrepidus. He must be certain that they’ll be able to crush us,” Tianming said, his voice deep and solemn.

”Exactly! That’s what’s been bothering me. We still don’t know how strong the reinforcements will be. We know basically nothing about Myriadpath Valley, nor whether they’ll have even more forces to send. Normally, in a war between a powerful nova source world like a sixth-class one against a weaker fifth-class one, even if the smaller one survives the first wave, they usually can’t survive what comes after.”

They were talking about normal ether-class worlds, not the Sun, of course. But not even the Sun could endure the full might of Ebonia. It was rather worrying to Tianming and his lot.

”The Sun will be their main target. Now that you’ve become a foundationeer and we have the Thousand Foundation Divine Puppet, the future is far from certain,” Tianming said, brows still furrowed.

”Li Fan saw us take down half of Meng Ying, but he still mocked us for digging our own graves. He said that Meng Ying had only wanted a sip from the pot of spoils, only for us to kill half of them and form a vendetta. Li Fan said that’ll move all divine wonderians to exterminate everyone on the Sun.”

”That’s harsh!” However, Tianming didn’t regret his decision in the slightest. The grudge hadn’t been formed due to recent events; they had long set their sights on Moran, and that was when the clashes had become inevitable. Even if they hadn’t killed half of Meng Ying today, it was just a matter of time until Skydome eventually sent their main force. The most they had done was accelerate that eventuality. Rather than being helpless sitting ducks, taking down the female half of Meng Ying for her eightpart apparition wonder had actually improved their chances.

”The most foolish thing one can do is to count on the compassion of others. In a competitive astralscape like this, the compassionate folks have long since died off, leaving only the most ruthless people behind,” Tianming said.

”Indeed. We’ve been fighting nonstop against forces within and without. That’s what the Lin Clan’s always had to deal with. Even if we perish today, I’d be proud to have come to these heights,” Xiaodao said, chuckling in a carefree manner.

Tianming didn’t speak much about the anxiety he felt, but he endured. Being able to defeat a two-thousand-year-old elite from Myriadpath Valley like Li Fan had indeed caused his confidence to grow.

”If the Sun’s able to survive this ordeal, both its people and me will become unstoppable.” He burned as bright as the star that he ruled as his confidence soared to a new peak. ”But this’ll be a difficult path to walk. I’ll defend the peace of the Sun and protect my friends and family.”

Soon, Yi Daiyan arrived. She stood atop the Infinitum Stele, facing the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb and Gladean Ruins. As usual, her fluttering white hair and colorful eyes magnificently stood out.

”Your help came too late. So much for that,” Xiaodao said.

”You were the ones that decided to instigate the fight so soon, so you can’t blame me for not making it in time. If you were fighting defensively, my arrival would’ve been just in time,” she calmly said.

”Fine! Remember to hurry up next time,” Xiaodao said. ℴℴ𝘮

Yi Daiyan shot him a glance and said, ”I didn’t think you’d be able to take out half of Meng Ying just after reaching the Foundation stage.”

”That doesn’t say much about my strength. Meng Ying had been forced to pay back the debt of lengthening their lives with that fiendish art, so they got their divine punishment.”

Yi Daiyan shook her head in mocking fashion after hearing Xiaodao brief her about the Starembryo Fiendart. ”Not even a ruthless tiger would eat their young. How the so-called ‘civilized and pure’ divine wonderians stooped to depths far lower than that of beasts is beyond me.”

”Agreed.”

”You all, however, managed to take decisive action and achieved magnificent results. How admirable. I suppose that not coming in time to help is on me, then.” That was the kind of praise that Xiaodao could never get used to. ”By the way, what’d you get out of Li Fan?”

”He’s stubborn and arrogant. Even after being tortured, he just keeps cursing and mocking us. His vita is at the peak sixth cosmic soul level, so I’m unable to forcefully look into his memories,” Xiaodao said.

”His confidence is a sign that the reinforcements to come will be really powerful,” she said.

If Li Fan wasn’t confident about that, he would be much humbler, and that wouldn’t escape Xiaodao’s eyes. The issue was that he wasn’t humbled in the slightest! ”The only thing we can be certain of is that things have changed since the death of half of Meng Ying. The wonderians will no longer just come to take our treasures, but also for vengeance. The other Meng Ying will no doubt mobilize his astralships to gain an edge in the astral war as well. There’s no way that the regal clans, even if we included the ebons at their peak, would be able to rival that.”

The ebons once had more than four million astral gods at their peak. However, nobody even dared to count the number of astral gods the divine wonderians had. Their race was incredibly expansive, far larger than all thirteen Infinitum Regal Clans combined! Even if they only sent their astral gods without any astralships, it would still be a disaster of epic proportions. Fortunately, astral gods weren’t as effective against defensive formations, and there were ways one could deal with ships as well.

Yi Daiyan’s brows furrowed at the mention of that. ”You have many treasures, so it’s no surprise that the enemy chose to attack you first. In a clash of this scale, even with astralguard formations and ships, you’re still under great threat. You likely won’t be able to last long against their assault.”