Beastmaster of the Ages

”Forget it! If they aren’t willing to listen to reason, there’s no point in thinking about revenge!” Zi Zhen snapped.

Tianming had worried that Zi Zhen wouldn’t get angry enough, but the aurumites didn’t seem to have any trouble getting her to that point. To think that they would dare to repeat Jin Lin’s mistake after listening to him talk about it firsthand.

Tianming could see that the fifty-meter-tall Di Tang set his golden gaze on Zi Zhen, looking her body up and down before stopping at her twin peaks. He didn’t bother hiding where he was looking either, staring far more intensely than the rest.

”Prepare to fight!” Tianming told Zi Zhen and Moran as his gaze turned cold.

”What?!” Zi Zhen wasn’t sure she heard him right. Hadn’t Jin Xiao already given Di Tang the details before asking them to come in? Why were they going to fight?

As expected, Tianming wasn’t just an emperor, but he also understood men better. Di Tang’s eyes narrowed as he roared, ”Surround her!”

”Yes!” Hearing the order, the aurumites went wild and started howling and assuming battle stations. They surrounded the three, leaving no place to escape! Their cosmoforce surged and applied pressure from continent- and ocean-class orders onto the three.

”Di Tang!” Jin Xiao knew he had been fooled by the likes of Di Tang and angrily glared at the bald aurumite. ”What are you doing?! Have I not been clear about our goddess’s circumstances?! I want to take our home back and save our kin! She’s the only hope we have to restore the glory of the heavenly favored!”

”Hahahahaha!” Di Tang laughed menacingly and pointed at Zi Zhen. ”I think you’ve turned senile, old man. She’s just a little girl, so who’d believe your claims?! Who are you trying to fool?”

”So, you’re looking down on her, eh?” Jin Xiao chuckled. ”Why not fight her in a duel?”

The other aurumites laughed at the mere suggestion.

”Enough...!” Di Tang shrugged. ”If she can convince you, Jin Xiao, I believe in her strength. There’s no doubt about it.”

”Then why are you doing something so foolish?!”

”Foolish? I think the fool is you, Jin Xiao! She’s a specter, alright, but she isn’t a specter of the Ancient Oldgod Domain! We aren’t the same race as her. She isn’t a heavenly favored, so she isn’t one of us! That’s why we can’t trust her! We can’t look into her heart!

”But you’ve already pledged to serve her a few days after getting to know her? Are you sure she won’t leave us for dead once she gets what she wants?!”

Most of the aurumites agreed with Di Tang’s point of view. Some, with their fists clenched, said, ”I won’t trust an outsider!”

”You’re calling her your goddess?! Based on what?! Does that mean that our kind will have to worship anyone as a god or goddess as long as they’re powerful?!”

”We are the heavenly favored!”

”Maybe she’s someone who serves the wonderians! A specter of her tier must’ve come from the Upper Star Ruin, which is wonderian territory!” Di Shan said.

”Jin Xiao, you’re blindly serving someone who’s only looking to use you!” Di Hai said.

”Shut it! She’s the Nightfiend’s friend. She’s also willing to fight by our side with her life on the line, so how could she be our enemy?! The first thing she wants to do is to make enemies out of the Order College and the wonderians to save the girl who was with the Nightfiend!” Jin Xiao roared.

”What if it’s a trap? What if she turns on us and works with the Order College or the wonderians against us instead? There’s only a hundred plus of us left. Do you want all of us to get buried alongside those fools?!”

”You!” Jin Xiao was so mad that his mustache almost exploded. At that moment, they heard someone speak out. This voice was soft, but clear.

The orator was Tianming! ”King of the aurumites, you mentioned ’what if’ this is a trap. But did you consider ’what if’ this isn’t a trap? What if we truly want to work with you, to save my sister on one hand and to take back the dignity and home of the aurumites? Wouldn’t you be missing your best chance to revive the dignity of your kind?!”

”Who dares speak?!” Di Tang looked around but couldn’t see anyone at all.

”Big Brother, he’s there!” Di Shan pointed in Tianming’s general direction.

Di Tang looked ahead and finally saw Tianming, who was as small as a fly to him. Bursting with impatience, he glared at Jin Xiao. ”I’m giving the four of you a final warning. Leave immediately, or be punished!”

”Di Tang!” Jin Xiao grit his teeth in rage. ”This human speaks the truth! You like your ’what ifs’ so much, so what if Lady Zi Zhen can really help us out? You’re the king of the tribe! You shouldn’t let your cowardice deprive all of us of this opportunity!

”Even if you don’t want to save your wife and daughter, I want to! The women of the Di Family are still imprisoned in the Order College. Are you really able to leave them be like that while you hide like a rat? Is this how your so-called heavenly favored aurumites are supposed to be acting? Don’t make a joke out of us! If you don’t even dare to take a risk, you’re no better than a golden rat!”

”Shut up!”

”Silence!”

Jin Xiao’s words almost shattered the glass resolve the aurumites had, but he nevertheless spoke the truth, one that resonated with many of the aurumites. Their wives and daughters were being treated like slaves at the Order College! The countless specters of the Ancient Oldgod Domain had been made into a race of slaves that didn’t even dare to speak and worked humiliating, menial jobs, serving the orderlies! But the strongest and freest of them were hiding instead of fighting.

”I, Jin Xiao, am no longer young. Unlike you, I don’t wish to die while still having so many regrets! A real man is allowed to die, but we can’t die pathetically or pitifully! As long as there’s a chance, I’ll take it, because I love my family and my tribe! I don’t want to be a coward!

”On the other hand, when the chance to take action presents itself, your first reaction was to doubt and sabotage! And you still call yourselves men?! Why don’t you castrate yourselves already?!

”How dare you look at Lady Zi Zhen with those eyes? Are you people or animals?! Heavenly favored aurumites, you say? The orderlies are humiliating your wives and daughters day in and day out, don’t you know that?!” The old man felt dazed from the rage and vomited out every single thing he felt, making the faces of the aurumites turn redder and redder.

”Jin Xiao, shut up!” Di Tang glared knives at him. ”You give a good speech, but have you considered the consequences?! When have any of our specters from God Domains One to Nine had any chance to defeat our oppressors? Don’t you know how powerful the wonderians are?!

”Do you think I haven’t tried anything over all these years? Every time I did, we ended up with dead people! Dead! Without women, our numbers dwindle day after day. If this goes on, we’ll be completely wiped out, don’t you get it?!”