Beastmaster of the Ages

”What’re your plans?” Xiaodao asked. He and the rest were beside Tianming.

”Let’s try to hold on for a while with the Sky Palace Formation and Flameyellow Guard Formation. No matter how dastardly Yi Daiyan is, she won’t go for a star-wide massacre. At the end of the day, we’ll probably be fighting it out one-on-one, so I better rest up and recover,” Tianming said.

”Alright.” Since Xiaodao wouldn’t be the one who was fighting Yi Daiyan, the pressure fell to Tianming. ”I’ll bring a few ships and some astral gods to the Flameyellow Guard Formation to give them some trouble and slow them down.”

”Alright, but make sure to be careful of her.”

”Don’t worry. With your godfather around, even if she breaches the Gladean Ruins, I can simply abandon ship and escape. The Flameyellow Coffin’s pretty good at keeping us alive.”

”Okay.”

Even though the regal clans didn’t have their own infinitum-class astralship, they had quite a few ether-class ships. Being able to stop them was the same as stopping Yi Daiyan. Xiaodao departed to face the incoming army. As their main goal was to buy time, they didn’t feel much pressure even though they were only setting out with some seven hundred thousand ships. The gigantic sword-shaped ships lifted off into the air.

As Ji Ji was still hibernating, the Flameyellow Guard Formation had weakened, even with the support of the Flameyellow Divine Pillars. It simply couldn’t be helped. Tianming watched the flaming clouds above, feeling a heavy heart. He relied on herbs, the Greenspark Tower, and omnisentient power to recover from the injuries he had sustained from the Bloodweaver.

”With Ji Ji asleep, I can’t help, either,” Moran said, crestfallen.

”It’s fine. You and your sisters have been working a bit too hard lately anyway. You should all rest and leave it to me,” Tianming said, shutting his eyes to rest.

”I noticed that you’re much more confident than before,” Moran gently said.

”Of course! Did you see who’s inside him and giving him a strong foundation?” Ying Huo said.

”Chicken Bro, Xian Xian and I are the ones giving Boss a good foundation. We’re the ones who stand firm on the ground, and look at the bark and scales on his waist! You and Cat Bro are just building upon the firm foundation we’re setting up there at best,” Lan Huang said.

”I’m so envious of you two. If you felt like it, you could even give his junior a little cut,” Ying Huo said.

”Chicken Bro, we should be the ones who envy you. You’re the one that’s always the closest to his junior in the wondersky realm,” Meow Meow weakly said.

”What did you say?!” Ying Huo would not survive that level of humiliation.

At that point, the aerial battle in the formation had begun. Everyone nervously watched the flaming clouds shift. Tianming looked up and saw the golden, crystalline star that was the Upper Star Ruins.

”She’s still there.” He felt much more relieved and turned his sights to the battlefield. Things had gone past the point of no return. ”Yi Daiyan, once I’m recovered, I’ll have your head!”

......

Xiaodao and Wudi led ships and astral gods to resist the Infinitum Bodhimanda’s troops, aided by the flameyellow fiends in the formation. They focused on destroying enemy ships. As they had the Gladean Ruins and the Flameyellow Guard Formation, they had enough of an edge that they fared rather decently against an enemy that was roughly seven times their size.

However, it was pretty unlikely for them to be able to completely wipe out the Ebonians. Xiaodao and Wudi carefully ensured that Yi Daiyan wouldn’t easily be able to target them. The rumbles of war echoed nonstop from the sky as fire rained down on the Sky Palace Formation as the battle started anew. The folk within the formation watched the skies once again.

”When the invaders from other mundi came, these cowards hid and left us to fend for ourselves. But once the foreign enemies were eliminated, they hurriedly came back! How shameless!”

”Yi Daiyan and her flock are all alike!”

Rage spread across the hearts of the people, the same rage that Tianming, their ruler, felt.

Tianming spent the time recuperating and a few days passed just like that. Quite a number of astralships from the Infinitum Bodhimanda had passed through the Flameyellow Guard Formation and reached the surface. However, their numbers were still low, so they hid and waited for more to come before regrouping.

Eventually, enough of them had made it through that the rest could no longer be stopped. Once there were three million of them outside the Sky Palace Formation, Xiaodao led the Sun’s ships back into the formation. It was a relatively laid-back battle with few casualties, though the enemy didn’t lose much either. They had, however, managed to buy enough time. By the time the surviving millions of enemy ships made it through the Flameyellow Guard Formation, fourteen days had passed.

During that time, Tianming had fully recovered to his prime. He even returned to Ebonia to collect the trillion Yin Chens that had multiplied there. Then he had a hundred billion of them split up into ten trillion invisible cockroaches to spread them across the Sun and Ebonia. That numbered ten times the population of Ebonia as a whole! The remaining nine hundred billion Yin Chens fused into a single, colossal silver egg within Tianming’s lifebound space. Once he channeled a part of his omnisentient power to it, it grew to be as physically powerful as the Thousand Foundation Divine Puppet.

He was completely ready.

He stepped out of the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb as trillions watched. The battle was still ongoing, and he saw five million enemy ships outside the Sky Palace Formation. Though it made for a much more terrifying sight than the invading wonderians had, the denizens of the Sun weren’t afraid. Instead, they were angry!

The deathly silence was just the calm before the storm. Both sides were revving up for the start of the clash. Just then, Yushan Taifeng and the dozen of other leaders of regal clans stepped out from their ships. Sternly, they looked at the folks in the Sky Palace Formation and announced, ”The first rex mundi has decreed that Lin Feng and Lin Xiaodao are to be sentenced to death! Mercy will be afforded to any within the Sky Palace Formation that surrender. To be spared, all you have to do is to prostrate yourselves on all fours with your head on the ground!”