Beastmaster of the Ages

Tianming stood before Qitian Muyue with the greatsword of black and gold. She was still on the ground and pushed herself up, her hair flowing around her. Her legs were completely paralyzed from fear as she blankly looked up at him.

”You can start praying now. If this works, you’ll be spared,” Tianming said. He didn’t even give her a chance to refuse and thrust the sword into her abdomen! Her body wasn’t that tough, compared to specters and lifebound beasts, so the sword easily went through.

”Ugh....” She winced in pain and her body curled up. She hugged the sword, glaring at Tianming as her body shook nonstop. Tianming used the energy of the Galactic Emperor to activate the Imperial Sword Prison, sending it into her frail body.

As the Imperial Sword Prison improved, the patterns looked smaller and smaller, but their numbers grew by leaps and bounds. Like the divine toxin of the Yin-Yang World, the patterns infested every single one of her astrons, starting from those near her abdomen!

Each and every radiant astron in her body was pierced by a sigil shaped like the Grand-Orient Sword, which could explode at any moment to destroy that astron! While losing a few was nothing much to an astral god, losing all of them in a single instant was akin to death. It was so thorough that not even one’s cosmic charts would survive it.

She’s a major-zenith foundationeer, so all of her astrons are really powerful. Tianming was only trying to see if he could control her and wasn’t sure if it would work.

There were two things that could become issues. First, he wasn’t sure if a single sword-shaped sigil could destroy an astron, so he experimented hundreds of thousands of times. Even though Qitian Muyue’s astrons did resist, Tianming’s Galactic-Emperor-powered sword sigils were just powerful enough to eradicate them.

The second thing was even more crucial: could he even create enough sword sigils to populate all her astrons? Only time would tell.

Honestly, trying to take control of her is much more trouble than just killing her. If it weren’t for her potential use, Tianming wouldn’t even bother with the attempt. However, having a major-zenith foundationeer planted in his enemies’ ranks was something that not even Suishen Jiguang and Suishen Xiyue would be capable of.

Qitian Muyue had her unique advantages, so Tianming didn’t mind expending great effort to squeeze as much use out of her life as he could. The sword sigils gradually filled up her body until, eventually, a cage of black and gold began manifesting on her skin.

She groaned in pain as her face twitched.

She’s so powerful.... The entire process might take a few days! And I still have the ninesource beast to deal with.... Tianming was much more keen on killing the ninesource beast, but since it didn’t have any baleful souls in its body, he would try getting some use out of it in some other way. Guess we’ll wait and see!

Meanwhile, the Yumo Blood Crucible began refining its contents with Ji Ji guiding it. Tianming said, ”Don’t let them die too soon. Refine them until I finish implanting the Imperial Sword Prison in Qitian Muyue.”

”Okey dokey!” Ji Ji’s spiritform sat above the crucible with a cold expression.

Suishen Jiguang took note of its appearance and noticed that it had pink eyes similar to hers.

Qitian Muyue continued shrieking in pain along with the eminents within the Yumo Blood Crucible. The howls were rather headache inducing.

The Suishen sisters were terrified as they witnessed the sight. They had been stunned since they’d left the Yin-Yang World. Not only by the power of Galactic Emperor Tianming, but also by discovering the truth of the deaths of House Yumo’s eminents, Tianming slaying eighteen eminents in one go, and his eventual defeat of a major-zenith specter. Lastly, he had even made a major-zenith foundationeer—Qitian Muyue—surrender without a fight and become his dog.

Everything felt like it had come out of a dream. Even with the wildest imagination, they wouldn’t have been able to come up with such a scenario. The entire time, the two of them had stood there like wooden logs, constantly petrified by Tianming’s many feats.

Though they were his seniors, they had just witnessed a junior rise up to become a mighty ruler from the age of myth. His sovereign aura was overpowering and inspired worship. And even now, the cries coming from the Yumo Blood Crucible were still stunning to hear. They turned back and looked at Tianming and the princess of Myriadpath Valley, whom they had once admired, twitching and squirming from his sword.

”Ji-Jiguang.... Why does it feel like we let things get out of hand...?” Suishen Xiyue’s lips shuddered as she tugged on Suishen Jiguang’s arm. She sounded rather nervous.

”What do you mean by that?” Suishen Jiguang didn’t seem to be taking it any better. At most, she trusted Tianming more, so she didn’t fear him as much.

”When... when I first returned to Myriadpath Valley, all I was thinking was that House Suishen no longer needed my husband and brother-in-law. I would’ve helped you become the leader of the house, then the valley lord. We’d be able to maintain the status quo and reel in House Qitian and House Yumo, keeping them from doing anything drastic....

”Then, when that brat showed his power, I knew that he’d become the future valley lord. But that’d be fine, since his descendants will be House Suishen’s, too. We’d still be a family. But now....” Suishen Xiyue gripped the arm even tighter as her eyes shook.

”Are things different?” Suishen Jiguang said in a daze, feeling a lump in her throat.

”Quite a bit! He has too many secrets and doesn’t feel like a being that belongs in the astralscape of order. If this goes on, the ruling house of Myriadpath Valley will be House Li and the Three Exalted Houses might have nothing to do with it anymore. It’s different from what we planned.... We’re no longer able to control him!”

”Sister....” Suishen Jiguang furrowed her brows, having thought the same thing.

”Doesn’t that make us the real traitors who sold out Myriadpath Valley? We fought the Three Exalted Houses for his sake and went against the teachings of our ancestors. We’ve betrayed their painstaking efforts by inviting a wolf home and handing Myriadpath Valley to it on a silver platter...!”