Beastmaster of the Ages

”Then tell me. Do you want to come back after twenty-odd years?” Ying Huo and Meow Meow asked, staring at Tianming as they waited for an answer.

Tianming cleared his throat. ”I’ll just take care of it now and settle it.”

”See?! I told you that he wouldn’t be able to resist the temptation to show off!” Meow Meow said.

”What do you know?” Tianming shot him a contemptuous look. ”Relying on an invitation to keep me alive is still risky. Since I got this chance, why shouldn’t I just crush this minor pathkeeper? Once might not even be enough. After fairly defeating him a few times, he’ll start to see me as a proper rival. He might even see me as a friend! Wouldn’t that be much safer for me?”

His lifebound beasts were stunned.

”At the end of the day, you don’t just want to show off, you want to swing that way, too,” Ying Huo concluded.

Tianming coughed out blood. He really shouldn’t take his lifebound beasts’ banter seriously. At the very least, he was certain that this was the path he should take; he should rely on his own capabilities rather than a feeble invitation to keep himself alive. Winning fairly and earning the opponent’s respect would be far more secure than a mere invitation.

He immediately issued a challenge to a ninth-level cosmic cartographer. Cang Jue had been a cultivator of that level, and Tianming had relied on a convenient circumstance to kill him back then. But now he was measurably stronger than before.

”I’ll go up about a thousand ranks with each duel, rising up to the three thousands. That’s when I’ll be able to issue Suishen Zhao a formal challenge. Let’s take care of it today!”

Tianming couldn’t be bothered picking through the Fortuna Ranking himself. He turned to the thousands that were paying attention to him and said, ”Friends, I need one of you who’s ranked around the five thousands to challenge! I want someone that can accept right away!”

The crowd broke into a commotion. Quite a few people were appalled.

”Is he really starting right now?”

”How daring. Doesn’t he only have eight cosmic charts?”

”Maybe he lucked out and broke through.”

”Didn’t he already break through once since coming here?”

”Maybe he was hiding his power on the Skyward Grandpath. There weren’t that many enemies that could give him any real trouble, after all.”

It didn’t take long before a dozen disciples showed up who were willing to accept the challenge.

”Kid, challenge me!”

”Let me test your abilities to see if you’re worthy of challenging the minor pathkeeper.”

”Let me! My rank’s the highest!”

Everyone tried to show off their ranking to provoke Tianming into challenging the strongest one. At the end, Tianming picked a female gold ring disciple with the lowest rank.

”Tch!”

”I thought he wanted to show off. Looks like he’s just picking female disciples to fight.”

”What a joke!”

Tianming was judged right away.

”One can learn a lot from another’s choices. The fact that he picked the weakest one shows that he’s only out to challenge people he thinks are weaker than him. He won’t have much of a future, this one.”

”What a bad attitude! How could he be worthy of challenging the minor pathkeeper?”

Tianming really wanted to tell them that he didn’t care. He just wanted to get into the five thousands, so who he challenged didn’t really matter.

”Enter the Fortuna Arena,” the girl said, coldly glaring at him. She stepped into the arena and seemed to refuse to talk any more with him, apparently worried that she might end up making an acquaintance of him outside of the duel.

”Female disciples here are really in high demand. All of them look as if they’re trying to fend off annoying suitors like flies,” Tianming said.

”Beat her up! Conquer her!” Ying Huo said.

”I don’t need you to tell me that.”

Right as the battle started, Tianming jumped into action at lightning speed. He didn’t even bother bringing out the Grand-Orient Sword and charged straight for the totemancer like a specter, using Azure Dragon Descent coupled with Eightruin Dragonshield!

While it was a simple combination, it was his second-strongest move. With Meow Meow’s agility and speed guiding Lan Huang’s immense strength and abilities, Tianming easily crushed the totems of the gold-ring disciple right after they manifested, sending her flying and smashing into the Fortuna Arena’s wall with a loud thud. She slumped to the ground, bleeding from all her orifices as her myriadpath ring registered the defeat.

It only took an instant! People were only just entering the audience area and were still discussing the possible outcomes of the fight. Some put the odds at fifty-fifty, while others said six-to-one. None of them had expected that Tianming’s odds against the girl’s would be zero-to-one.

Almost immediately, the Fortuna Arena opened back up. Tianming tossed the girl back to her mates without giving her another look. He then looked at the thousands of elite disciples that stared at him, at least half of them with their mouths gaping open.

”Send someone ranked in the four thousands. Quickly.” Tianming immediately returned to the Fortuna Arena and didn’t bother leaving. It was as if he was there for some relaxing afternoon tea, unlike the fortuna disciples that were incredibly serious about raising their rank.

”Dammit, he’s getting to show off again,” said a disciple of House Huang from a distance. He was none other than the Little Lion King, Huang Daosheng.

Back in the Xenoabyss, he had suffered yet another heavy blow. And before he had emotionally stabilized himself, he heard the news of Tianming being challenged by Suishen Zhao! He was incredibly vexed and his rage caused him to spit out some astral blood. He immediately got hold of Huang Jiaoyang and vented his frustrations on her as her twin sister watched.

Without the Kilopath Net, he had no way to stop Tianming at all, so all he could do was watch as he openly challenged people without fear of being captured. Some people beside Huang Daosheng had said that Suishen Zhao had misjudged Tianming’s capabilities, saying that a tainted beastmaster like him who only knew how to run could never become a ninth-level cosmic cartographer before a hundred years old.

Huang Daosheng naturally didn’t believe that either. But then he watched as Tianming defeated a ninth-level cosmic cartographer in an instant! The shock of seeing that caused his astral organs to violently twitch. It was proof that Tianming did indeed have the right to challenge Suishen Zhao, and soon!

”Brother Sheng, it’s fine! It’s fine! He only has nine cosmic charts. Anyone on his level isn’t the minor pathkeeper’s match. Once the minor pathkeeper defeats him, he’ll lose interest in Li Tianming. We still have a chance of torturing him to death!” Huang Jiaoyang consoled.

”Go away!” Huang Daosheng growled. He didn’t bother saying any cliched lines like before. Every time he’d done so, Tianming had triumphed against all expectations and proved him wrong.

”I don’t have the Kilopath Net any longer after that person in the Xenoabyss stole it. I’m far too unlucky. I wonder if Eminent Tiankui will be able to retrieve it and lend it to me again....” Even if he was a fool, he knew that the chances were basically nil.