Beastmaster of the Ages

”Once the ebons and the Swordgod Lin Clan are wiped out, the rex mundi alone will call the shots! She must be confident in her chances, or she wouldn’t dare to mess with Lin Xiaodao and Lin Feng like this! What’s laughable is that Lin Mu got stabbed in the back because he trusted the rex mundi, only to lose his life in the end. To think that two more men from the Swordgod Lin Clan would once more fall for her trap.... That’s poetry alright!” Yushan Taifeng said, shaking his head. ”Forget it. I shouldn’t laugh at them. The enemy alliance is too big of a threat to face alone, so that’s why they couldn’t afford to doubt our own alliance. Nobody could’ve predicted the rex mundi’s decision to retreat.”

......

Back in the Ebonfiend, Shenxi Tianxi’s voice rang out from his transmission stone. ”Dad!”

”What’s going on?” Shenxi Xingtian was quite taken aback by the sudden call. The Ebonfiend had descended upon Greenhill and was just about to wreck its defensive formation. Revenge was right at his fingertips!

Completely panicked, Shenxi Tianxi said, ”Yi Daiyan gave a sudden order for all four and a half million of her astral gods to retreat! They’re heading toward Ebonopolis! With how fast their ships travel, we won’t have enough time to reform the wildbeast wall if they go straight underground!”

”What?!” Shenxi Xingtian coughed out blood once more, his eyes widening in shock. ”Wasn’t she going to help the Swordgod Lin Clan? Why’d she turn back?”

He was completely dumbfounded. He’d had plans in place in case Yi Daiyan had decided to send smaller squads back. But what could he possibly do about four and a half million troops? He already felt like the ebons were so inconsequential in this conflict compared to the other bigger players, yet Yi Daiyan explicitly chose to target them!

”It’s not just that! Her actions will also result in the extermination of the Lin Clan! She’ll be left alone to fight against the wonderians, Myriadpath Valley, and Intrepidus! She’s gone insane! Is she really capable of such a feat?!” Shenxi Tianxi exclaimed.

Shenxi Xingtian felt like his brain was being reduced to ash.

”Dad, come back quickly! If Ebonopolis is gone, we’ll no longer have any foundation to rebuild upon!” the son urged. ”I’ve already ordered the ships to turn back. It’ll be really difficult to reform the wildbeast wall in time—I don’t know if we’ll make it.”

Shenxi Xingtian’s legs gave out on him. He slumped into his seat, the most panicked he’d ever been. ”That’s right! Meng Ying! Mister Taihe! Ask them for reinforcements! At least send a team of elite cultivators!” Shenxi Xingtian yelled.

”What about you, Dad?” 𝐟re.c𝐨𝚖

”Yi Daiyan’s here for me!” The call cut off right after Shenxi Xingtian said that.

”It’s over! Over!” Shenxi Tianxi quickly got out his transmission stone to contact Meng Ying.

......

Tianming and the rest got the latest updates inside the Sky Palace Formation much faster than Shenxi Xingtian, thanks to Yin Chen. They all knew what had happened the moment Yi Daiyan gave her order. Tianming, Xiaodao, Lin Xiao, and everyone from the council were stunned and silent within the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb. Wudi, who had been out fighting in the Flameyellow Guard Formation, was cursing nonstop.

”I don’t understand. What can she gain from this?” Xiaodao said, feeling quite hurt. He squatted on the ground and fussed with his hair in frustration.

”There’s only one explanation,” Tianming said, gritting his teeth. ”She’s confident that she can take down the eight million wonderians, Myriadpath Valley, and Intrepidus combined. That’s why she decided to clean up the Infinitum Bodhimanda first by getting rid of us and the ebons.”

The fact that she had been able to make an unbelievable decision at a moment of crisis like the one they currently faced showed how truly confident and daring she was.

”I’m convinced that she’s powerful, alright. But without Yin Chen, she won’t be able to stop the wonderians from invading using markers. Even though they won’t have ships, they should be able to wipe out the regal clans and even kill innocent civilians. Ebonia doesn’t have the Sky Palace Formation. If a war breaks out on the surface, they’ll lose billions of people!” Xiaodao said.

”What if she simply doesn’t care about how many people die?” Tianming had always found Yi Daiyan’s intentions impossible to grasp. However, his impression of her as a madwoman was getting more and more defined in his mind.

”Everyone seems to be forgetting something.... She never bothered saving the luxdaemons when they were under attack during the war in Ebonia, even though she could’ve. In fact, she chose the move that would cost the ebons the most even at the cost to her own people. You can tell that she doesn’t care what she loses!” Tianming had seen many other examples of such people, like the sun emperor. However, the sun emperor was different in that he cared for his own people like treasures, but didn’t bat an eye at the loss of billions of Skywolf lives. Yi Daiyan, on the other hand, didn’t care about her own people or others.

”What kind of selfishness could possibly drive a person to act like that without losing their cool?” Lin Xiao’s recent respect for Yi Daiyan evaporated in but a single instant. She was the kind of person that would do the very thing that nobody expected her to do.

From Tianming and the others’ point of view, once the Lin Clan and the ebons were wiped out, Yi Daiyan would have to face all the enemies alone. No matter how powerful she was, there was no question that her Ebonian subjects would suffer for it. There was a good chance that the regal clans would be wiped out! The Sun wouldn’t be there to hold back the seven and a half million astral god enemies, and the raving mad Meng Ying wouldn’t stop his bloodbath, either. He had to justify the loss of wonderians one way or another. Yushan Taifeng and the rest might be glad now, but they would surely regret it.

”We know that the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb and Gladean Ruins can’t be controlled by anyone else even if we perish, but Myriadpath Valley and Yi Daiyan don’t know that. They believe they’ll be able to obtain our infinitum-class ships, and if the enemy gets them, it could spell destruction for Ebonia! But Yi Daiyan chose to risk letting the enemy get their hands on our ships anyway.”

She had never cared for the future of the Ebonian people. All she cared about was herself and what she stood to gain. As long as she was powerful, nobody could touch her. She would be the one to end up with all the treasures.

”That fraud! We fell for her tricks again!” Dongshen Yue said, her temper exploding. Even she, the most skeptical of Yi Daiyan, had fallen for it. She couldn’t imagine that someone could be so selfish. Yet Yushan Taifeng and the rest were still following Yi Daiyan’s orders, thinking that she had their best interests in mind.

Tianming took a deep breath and said, ”I think she must have something else that’s fueling her confidence, considering she made a decision like this.”

”What is it?” The others turned to look at him.

”She knows that we have many tricks up our sleeves. Perhaps she’s certain that we’ll be able to hold up against enemies ten times our number even without her help. She believes in our ability to create miracles, so she’s betting on us being able to greatly wear down the forces of Myriadpath Valley, Intrepidus, and the wonderians. Once both sides are battered enough, she’ll just swoop in and clean everything up!”

Even though the Sun’s forces weren’t that strong, they still had the best combat record. The problem with that was that there was nothing Tianming and the rest could do to sabotage her bet. They had no choice but to desperately fight for survival.

”That must be it, then.” The others agreed and the atmosphere grew heavier. The wonderians were descending one after another from the sky, followed by a hundred powerful elites. Mister Taihe, Demoness Yin, Meng Ying, and others were right outside the Sky Palace Formation. The Sun had never been under as much threat as it was now.