Beastmaster of the Ages

Tianming’s arms were filled with fragrant goodness! Suishen Yao, however, grabbed him by the neck in a manner completely devoid of charm and put him in a chokehold. ”Let’s see how you run away now!”

”That’s rather inelegant, stop it,” Tianming said, still holding her up even though her arm was fast against his neck.

”I don’t care,” she snapped, her cheeks puffing with rage. Right as Tianming was about to placate her, she smirked and said, ”Li Tianming, your secret is exposed! I know everything now!”

Tianming immediately panicked. Did she know all about him killing the eminents and running around as the Mistrunner?! It would be the end of him!

Before he could think of a way to deal with her, Suishen Yao pinched his face gleefully and said, ”You can’t hide it from me. You must’ve gone to the Yin-Yang World, didn’t you?”

Did she really know anything? If she did, why didn’t she seem the least bit shocked? Tianming’s mind rapidly spun and he soon reached the conclusion that she was just making blind guesses. He calmed down and said, ”What kind of joke is that? I’m not even capable of fighting fourth-level foundationeers. The Lumistar Formation won’t even let me through! What would I be doing there?”

”Stop faking it! I already made sure to research it. You were able to defeat me when you were a cosmic cartographer, and I was at the second level! You’re a foundationeer now, so you can just barely make it there.” She mischievously smiled and continued, ”Did you really think I was going to beat you up just now? I was just testing to see how strong you are now. I rammed into you with full force, yet you managed to neutralize it so easily. There’s no way you’d be able to handle me so easily unless you’re as strong as a fourth-level foundationeer! I got you!”

She seemed rather satisfied with her explanation and pointed at Tianming as she chuckled, ”Stop pretending! You were always missing for years at a time, and you kept trying to shake me off. I wasn’t able to find you anywhere in Myriadpath Valley! People are even starting to think that I’m the one who’s keeping you all for myself!

”I’m the only one who knows for sure that you weren’t in Myriadpath Valley, but you were able to improve so fast. There’s no way you’d be able to do that in an outer mundi, so the only explanation is that you’ve gone to the Yin-Yang World and got a lot of baleflame!” She seemed incredibly resolute.

Tianming burst into laughter. ”Fine, you really are a smart little brat.”

”What brat?! I’m older than you! You’re the brat!” she snapped. Despite her actual age being older, she sure tended to behave like a little girl. Fortunately, she didn’t know about the Mistrunner or the incident in Infinitum.

Tianming said in a gentle tone, ”Yaoyao, please don’t go around spreading this on account of our good relationship.”

Even if people wouldn’t necessarily believe her if she spread it around, there was still a chance that people would start coming to test Tianming’s power, or even spy on him. That would stop him from going to the Yin-Yang World for good.

”Sure!” she said, still holding him in a chokehold. ”I finally grabbed your weakness, and I’ll make you suffer so that you’ll stop bullying me!”

”Weakness? Alright.... So what do you plan to do with it? You know, after grabbing my ’weakness’ so tight?”

Suishen Yao forced herself to ignore the innuendo. ”I don’t care. You’ve messed with me so many times now, so I’ll expose you!”

”Don’t! I actually went there for your sake!”

”What?” She gleefully asked, ”What does your treasure hunting and fooling around have to do with me?”

Tianming cleared his throat. ”Auntie said that half of your mother’s subsoul is still around and that she’s probably still alive. I have a technique to track people down, so I figured I’d give it a try and see if I can help. So far, I’ve got nothing to show for it, but I’m doing my best.” He was indeed looking for Suishen Yao’s mother in between all the other things he was doing, so it wasn’t a complete lie. He had, however, slightly embellished his intentions.

Suishen Yao blankly looked at him before her eyes reddened.

”Oh? Are you moved? Should I say a bit more and turn our fake marriage into a real one?” Tianming said with a smirk.

”Shut up, you! Dream on!” With the mood ruined, her tears stopped welling up. However, she still remembered the feeling. She tilted her head against Tianming’s chest and suddenly realized that having a man she could lean on also felt rather pleasant.

”Yaoyao, can I still go there?” Tianming asked.

She glared at him and hesitated for a moment. Then she bit her lip and said, ”Just stay safe! I appreciate the intent, so don’t force yourself to go if you don’t have to.”

The entire time, Suishen Yao hadn’t been mentally prepared to be a wife, so she was still resistant toward Tianming, but that was something that was gradually shifting. Otherwise, there was no way she would remain in his embrace for so long.

Tianming, on the other hand, was just relieved that he had managed to emerge from the encounter unscathed. He had been worried that she would start causing trouble for him. ”If Auntie comes back, keep it a secret from her, too, alright? If she knows, she’ll stop me from going. Once the calm season ends, I’ll definitely give you some baleflame, too.”

”Fine! I want a few kegs! Don’t think some puny scraps are enough to buy my silence, got it?”

”No problem!” At the very least, Tianming no longer had to keep his movements from her. She could also cover for his absence, since if anyone wanted to look for him, they would definitely go to his wife first. ”Alright, I’ll go claim some springwater.”

”Let me come with you.” She pinched him and jumped out of his embrace.

The girl who had given him her Suishen Blood and could no longer marry anybody else had quite an interesting personality. She dared to love just as much as she dared to hate.

Tianming was starting to sense how deep her feelings were getting. He gave her a long look as he mulled over many things. As things seemed to be getting heated, he suddenly felt a deep gaze on him that had lingered for quite a while; he just hadn’t bothered to respond to it until now.

Having put down Suishen Yao, he turned around and saw a burly man in yellowish-brown armor leave the Myriadpath Sourcespring. The man had a cold gaze and his eyes were as deep as the abyss. He seemed to have some difficulty hiding his hatred for Tianming, especially after seeing him hug Suishen Yao in public, which only caused his chilling aura to intensify.