Beastmaster of the Ages

Gongsun Yan finally snapped out of it and roared. The godspring on his chest circulated cosmoforce throughout his countless astrons like it was a microcosm of its own! He stretched out his hand and attempted to suppress Tianming.

”Hmph!” Tianming gave the air a tap, causing the Xia word ‘suppress’ (镇) to appear above Gongsun Yan’s head. Gongsun Yan furrowed his brow and burst with power! With eleven cosmic charts and his godspring combined, he was comparable to Lin Changkong, who had twelve cosmic charts. He unleashed a palm strike that broke through the divine wonder’s suppression!

Even after Tianming made a move to avoid it, the aftershock from the blow spread out thousands of meters, harshly smashing into all of the formations and walls nearby. Tianming’s entire body was shaken, causing blood to trail out of the corner of his mouth; his astral organs had been harmed to some extent.

”He’s rather tough. I can’t defeat him.” Tianming only had one cosmic chart and lacked omnisentient power. He was still quite far off from being able to take on a genius with eleven cosmic charts. Gong Xuan, whom he had killed, hadn’t been weak, either. He had only perished because he wasn’t nearly as ruthless as Tianming was, nor was he adept at close combat. If they’d been fighting in a proper arena, Tianming would have had less than a ten percent chance of winning.

Since he knew he couldn’t defeat Gongsun Yan, he didn’t brute force it. He descended from the wall, twisted his neck and angrily looked at Gongsun Yan without a single trace of fear. ”First, he was the one who attacked and attempted to kill me. I fought back out of self-defense.”

”You’d better save those words for Master. My task is to capture you and bring you to her!” Gongsun Yan slowly approached and kept the pressure of his order on Tianming.

”I have my own legs. Why would I need you to capture me when I can go to her myself?”

”I’m your senior brother. You’ve committed a grave sin, so I have the authority to admonish you!”

”In your dreams! We’re of the same generation, so don’t even bother bringing petty seniority into this. Might makes right. Not to mention...” as Tianming spoke, monochrome lightning bolts covered his entire body. It was as if he had turned into a lightning storm, ”do you think you can keep up with me?”

With a flash, Tianming zipped out of the courtyard, as fast as Meow Meow had ever been! Not to mention, having Lan Huang’s flesh in his leg gave him even more power. He found that his speed during the Skyward Grandpath was even faster than Meow Meow’s top speed from before!

He disappeared in an instant and got Ying Huo to use Infernal Haze, creating tens of thousands of copies of himself, every single one of them able to confuse and beguile the enemy.

”Do you think I’ll let you run?!” Gongsun Yan smirked and began his pursuit. While Myriadpath Valley was huge, he refused to believe that someone of his level wouldn’t be able to deal with this junior disciple of less than a hundred years old. But he was utterly dumbfounded not long into the chase; as fast as he was, he wasn’t able to keep up with Tianming’s monstrous body even with eleven cosmic charts!

Tianming being a jack of all trades was a weakness, according to Lan Yun, yet it was giving him a huge edge. Xian Xian, for instance, kept launching abilities from the ground to push Gongsun Yan back. The grand lexicon wonder and Prime Starchain also did their part to slow him down!

Gongsun Yan could break through some of the ability barrages only to see Tianming jump into the scenic body of water outside Grandpath Palace. He swam like a fish; his right leg had enlarged all of a sudden and the nine kui seas on his thigh began absorbing water and generating thrust for him.

The seawater contained midsky essence, which was a source of energy Lan Huang could directly use. Tianming generated countless splashes across the water as he wildly zipped through it like a fish. As Myriadpath Valley was so large and filled with many floating continents, palaces, and clouds, there were bound to be many lifebound beasts all over the place—the water was no exception. He eventually blended in among them and completely shook off Gongsun Yan’s pursuit.

”That was fun!” His eyes managed to clear up a bit. Then, he began to talk to Yin Chen. ”Get Li Fan to come and bring me to the Heavensource Starriver to claim my prize for getting first place.”

”Got it,” Yin Chen said.

Tianming had obtained some manna from Mister Taihe and Demoness Yin, but they weren’t of much use to him. Eventually, he climbed ashore and found a pleasant spot covered in flowers and waited for Li Fan. It was a rather good spot, with many girls talking in the distance. All of them were the finest examples in the astralscape order, so they were beautiful without exception. Such was what it meant to be blessed by the heavens. He gave them a few good looks and sighed in resignation; it was no wonder why so many people wanted to come to Myriadpath Valley.

”Are you insane? Fighting once is already pushing the envelope! Why’d you have to cause trouble again?!” Ying Huo snapped, glaring at Tianming with eyes on the back of his arm.

”I had no choice. Once I heard him mock my mom, it felt like I exploded. My mind filled with bloodlust, as if he had personally exterminated my family. I simply couldn’t stand the rage. If I didn’t kill him, my rage wouldn’t have been quelled and my Dao heart would’ve become misaligned,” Tianming said.

”A misaligned Dao heart? Shouldn’t you be more concerned about how well your corpse will be aligned?” Ying Huo was speechless, but it’d fought just as furiously when Tianming had made his move. It was the one who had launched the first attack on Gong Xuan, after all.

”I was just so mad that I didn’t bother to think. All I could focus on was killing him. Looking back on it now, I know that I shouldn’t have done that.”

”Well, hindsight never helped anyone avoid trouble, has it?!”

”I simply had no choice. I’m almost certain that the evil impulses are the cause for my inability to control myself when I get angry. I’m calm now, but I feel a little hollow inside.”

”Hollow your ass! That thing’s a bomb inside you waiting to explode! One day, you’ll be killed as a result of it! In fact, you’d be dead for sure if it weren’t for Lan Yun’s interference!”

”I know. It’s been a rollercoaster lately. I keep losing my reason.”

Ying Huo felt like he was going mad. ”Idiot! Why does it feel like you simply aren’t comprehending how serious this is?!”

”So what if I comprehend it? It doesn’t matter if I can’t think of anything else when I kill someone! If I see a beauty, I might even lose control!” Tianming lamented.

When half of the evil impulses of the dark mirror spirit had infested his mind, he hadn’t thought that it would affect his personality so much, or interfere with how he normally did things. ”Then again, living life so recklessly has its perks.... It felt amazing to kill that asswipe of a senior brother. I feel like I’m on cloud nine!”

”Lan Yun is really unfortunate to get a disciple like you. She lost a disciple as soon as she took you in. How are you going to answer for it?”

”What’s the point? I killed him and it’s an established fact. It isn’t like I can turn back time. By the time I kill all her disciples, I’ll be her only astralkiln left and she’ll have no choice but to make sure nothing bad happens to me. In fact, she should cherish me like I’m her own child!”