Beastmaster of the Ages

Tianming’s eyes swept across a dozen familiar people. They were those whom he had defeated during the trial of the Skyward Grandpath as well as those who had mocked him when he claimed his manna reward.

”Looks like they’ve somewhat recovered in the past six months or so and are itching to get beaten again.” Tianming smirked, but he wasn’t nervous at all.

Li Fan, however, seemed rather unnerved and tapped Tianming on the arm. ”Do you see that fatty?”

”I do.” How could Tianming not see someone who stood out so much?

Beside the three-meter-tall Huang Daoxiong stood a five-meter-tall giant of massive proportions. He looked like an anthropomorphic polar bear with a broad face and a pale body, which was covered by nothing more than a few ropes. Even though he seemed like a complete beast, he wore his hair up in a bun. From the stars in his eyes, it was obvious that he was a specter. Tianming glanced at his gold myriadpath ring and saw that he was named Zhao Ge.

”Who’s that?” Tianming asked.

”One of the servants of House Huang, Zhao Ge. He’s a maniverse disciple that’s over a thousand years old with a cultivation equal to mine, a tenth-level cosmic cartographer. But even though I’m hurt right now, you can’t defeat me. There’s no way you can measure up to him! Zhao Ge and my master are both skyghoul pale phantasms,” Li Fan quickly explained.

Just like Mister Taihe? It was no wonder he had an identical rectangular mustache as well. Tianming had recently learned that skyghouls were a large clan of specters with many subdivisions among them.

The kind that could turn into five-eyed, white-haired fiends were actually pale phantasms. Those like Li Fan with orange hair and eyes were the most common type of skyghoul and were simply known as ’twilighters.’ As for those of House Huang, they were the strongest skyghouls, known as ’beastpaths!’

Beastpaths were considered to have trace amounts of wildbeast blood in them, which, when coupled with their innate specter bloodline, made them far stronger than pale phantasms and twilighters. Examples included Huang Daoxiong and Huang Jihuang. As for the strongest of the skyghouls, it had to be the sacredfiend skyghouls! Zi Zhen was one of them.

While Zhao Ge’s bloodline wasn’t as impressive as Huang Daoxiong’s, he was a maniverse disciple four times his age and a true tenth-level cosmic cartographer of Myriadpath Valley, making him likely as strong as Dongshen Zhuojun!

Back then, Tianming had only managed to defeat Li Fan by relying on omnisentient power. But he couldn’t take Li Fan on without it even when the latter wasn’t in his prime. There was a gap of eight levels, after all.

Vassal houses of House Huang were actually outsiders who bore different surnames. Those like Zhao Ge served House Huang and enjoyed their protection. Basically, they usually served in bodyguard roles and others that might require them to risk their lives.

As such, Zhao Ge’s tiny eyes squeezed toward the center of his face the moment they locked on to Tianming. When they contacted each other, they suddenly expanded greatly and he turned into his five-iris white fiend form. His appearance and Huang Daoxiong’s sinister expression told Tianming that the dozen inner valley disciples from the trial had been waiting to have Tianming killed.

”Li Fan, I know he’s someone you’re guiding! But you have nothing to do with this. If you don’t wish to die, you’d better scram!” Huang Daoxiong yelled as he came forward.

Tianming could definitely outrun his pursuers with Fiveway Blitzrun, so the one in trouble was the injured Li Fan. Li Fan knew about Tianming’s speed and shot him a glance. Tianming nodded, so Li Fan said, ”Alright, fine! I have nothing to do with him! You guys have fun!”

He wasn’t afraid that Tianming would get angry. After all, it would be safer for the both of them if Li Fan made it clear to others how his relationship with Tianming was. Li Fan quickly proceeded to back away.

Huang Daoxiong turned back to Tianming and smirked. ”You really traveled nonstop since coming here, you little mutt. To think that you were willing to be away for more than half a year after coming all the way to Myriadpath Valley. You made us wait a long time indeed. No matter. We’ll have all the fun we want now. Let me show you how we have fun here in Myriadpath Valley!”

Tianming almost broke out in laughter. He had managed to avoid being killed by Huang Daolie before, so why would he fear Zhao Ge?

But at that moment, a sharp cry came from behind him. It was Li Fan! Tianming quickly turned back and looked into the dark corner of the ship. Li Fan’s body seemed to be entirely pierced through by a tiny hand, causing his body to fall apart into astrons once more! His sole remaining cosmic chart seemed like it was about to be destroyed.

”Save me!” As Li Fan cried out, a white lightning array appeared next to him. Tianming instantly appeared beside him and let a blast of lightning out of his left arm! Then the grand lexicon wonder stabilized Li Fan’s cosmic chart, saving his life for now.

But alas, the specter body that Li Fan had so painstakingly reconstructed was no more! Heaping on another layer of injuries, he snapped with rage. ”Huang Daoxiong, you aren’t human! You said you’d let me leave, then ambushed me!”

”How laughable. I’m not human to begin with, I’m a specter!” Huang Daoxiong gloated. ”You really are heavily injured. Tao Ying is on your level, but managed to defeat you in one blow! Tsk tsk....”

”Why’d you try to kill me?!” Li Fan cried.

”Isn’t it obvious? You were the one that brought this mutt to Myriadpath Valley! That deserves a death penalty!” Chu Tianyu cackled.

”Are you slow or are you looking down on us?” Qiu Ciling mocked.

Li Fan had no choice but to grit his teeth in frustration. He had expected something like this to happen, but what could he do about it? He had no choice but to count on Tianming, who really had saved his life this time around. ”Quickly, use your ability and take me away! Zhao Ge and Tao Ying came together. If they encircle you, I don’t think we’ll be able to run!” With only a single cosmic chart remaining, it wouldn’t be hard for Tianming to leave with him.

”What joke are you spouting?” Tianming said in a deep voice.

”What?” Li Fan didn’t get it.

”They almost killed my guide. How can someone as sentimental as me run just like that?” Tianming’s voice sounded exceedingly cold.

Li Fan looked at him and despaired. ”It’s over!”

Tianming’s eyes were filled with the black smog of rage! He had changed into a completely different person. That was why Huang Jihuang had ended up dead in the first place! He used the grand lexicon wonder to secure Li Fan’s cosmic chart on his back. In the next instant, countless bolts of lightning surrounded his body, leaving only his glowing eyes visible through the chaos.