Beastmaster of the Ages

Long Qian’s nine-headed dragon was at quite a disadvantage against the silver wolf with a much higher star count, but it didn’t last long! She came back and ganged up on the silver wolf with her beast.

Her dragon continued launching abilities at the wolf as its heads savagely bit it. And Long Qian used her dragon totems in tandem with her lance, delivering one fatal thrust after another while mounted on her dragon. After a dozen bouts, her thrust found its way into the eyes of the silver wolf, nailing it to the ground! Then her nine-headed dragon brutalized the poor canine and ripped it to pieces.

The many buildings that comprised the palace had been reduced to rubble from the beasts’ thrashing and abilities. Just like that, Li Aoyue and his beast had perished. Meanwhile, Great Elder Long Kui had also managed to kill Ambassador Mu, who was a totemancer. Tianming had witnessed both of the fights.

”Flameyellow divinities truly are capable on all fronts. If it weren’t for the heavenly shackles that limit their talent, no pure beastmaster or totemancer would be their match!”

If not for the fact that the silver wolf had a few times more stars and 14-crest cosmoforce, there was no way it would be able to push back against the nine-headed dragon so easily just because of a single difference in level. ”Once Long Qian’s beast’s star count grows, she’ll have no problem wiping the floor with beastmasters on the same level as herself.”

Long Qian’s fighting style was fierce and decisive, a reflection of her personality. Zi Zhen was similar to her in that regard, but her rage was more primal and only came from her transformation. Long Qian, on the other hand, carried the rage from countless years of oppression and had to bear the weight of her people’s plight. Those experiences had factored deeply into how her personality was forged. She was a knight riding a nine-headed dragon, complete with a long dragon lance that added to her dashing flair.

”It’s done,” she reported to Tianming when she returned.

”I’m almost done here, too.” Tianming used the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb to tear open the spherical astralship and suck out all the manna within it through the dragon heads. ”We hit the jackpot!”

***

There was a lot of ordered manna, a ridiculous number of them! Yin Chen said there were three million, but Tianming felt that it was more than that based on the pile they formed in the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb. ”This is the kind of thing that I and the dragonoids need the most right now!” It had truly come in the nick of time.

He didn’t want to linger too long, though, now that they had their loot. ”Everyone, come back!”

”Yes!” Even though Long Qian and the rest had done the bulk of the fighting, the battle had cemented Tianming’s position as their leader. The dragonoids all returned to the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb.

Tianming looked at the rubble that had once been Aoyue Palace. ”Did you save the rest?”

”There were around thirty thousand of my kind in Aoyue Palace. We took them all with us,” Long Qian said. Behind her were the flameyellow divinity descendants that they had rescued. Most of them were foundationeers, with only a few overflowers. They were overjoyed after finally being liberated from slavehood.

Long Chen helped introduce Tianming to them.

”We should retreat first.” Tianming immediately had the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb fly off. Once they were in deep space, they would finally be safe.

***

Everyone in the ship looked at the mountain of ordered manna in a daze. ”Many of them have more than a thousand apertures!” That made them suitable for overflowers. Tianming seldom saw any with more than a thousand apertures in the Lower Star Ruins, but they were much more common in the Upper Star Ruin. It was as if the universe picked favorites, giving them the best manna, and even middlekin stars.

Tianming’s eyes were completely dazed by all the treasure. There were so many of them, and with so much variety! Every single manna was neatly packaged and complete with descriptions of their characteristics, which was fortunate. Otherwise, sorting them when they were in a huge pile would be a nightmare.

”There’s a dozen plus with around eight thousand apertures....” Long Qian felt short of breath at the sight of manna of such high quality. She had never seen any with so many apertures.

”Tianming!” She turned her head around to him in a quick snap.

”Sister Qian?” Tianming looked at her.

”You deserve all the credit!”

”Hey, you don’t have to say that.”

”Without you, we wouldn’t have known where the Aoyue Palace is. We couldn’t break through the formation, either, nor would we have known about all the manna that was there. That’s why we’re all too aware that, without you, we wouldn’t have obtained any of this! That’s why we’ll do as we promised. From now on, all of us will be firmly in your service!” Long Qian intensely said.

”That’s right! We’ll serve you!” Long Kui said.

”We’ll serve Li Tianming!” said tens of thousands more dragonoids, descendants of flameyellow divinities. Their passionate looks made Tianming’s blood boil; he had done something incredibly meaningful!

He looked at the seed of heavenly retribution at the center of Long Qian’s brow and found it incredibly blinding. The power of the Heavenly Dao radiated from within. TheHeavenly Dao and the sky plunderers.... How far was he from the Heavenly Dao? I should speed up my growth—perhaps the Cosmic God Palace can help me with that! He no longer lacked overflow fragments, baleflame, or springwater. All he needed was some much better cosmic god caeli!

”Let’s go back to the Sun! My Primordial Chaos Beasts haven’t unlocked any of their bloodline chains for far too long. I hope there’s something good in store this time!” They had always been his true trump cards.

***

Meanwhile, in one of the Scorchmoon Cult’s bases in the Middlekin Star Ruin.

”What?! Li Aoyue’s dead and Aoyue Palace was emptied out?!” Jiang Linxi’s head almost exploded from rage at hearing the news. ”How in the world was Aoyue Palace even discovered?!”

The hundreds of overflower cult members were shocked beyond measure.

”Long Qian!” Jiang Linxi’s killing intent surged. ”I thought you’d obediently stick to the heavenly oath, but you went and did something underhanded. Very well... I might be restricted for now, due to heavenly retribution, but there’ll be consequences once the oath’s term is over!”

Jiang Linxi thought about the black-armored girl, fueling her rage more and more. ”I bet the cosmic god slave in Starmoon Haven must’ve given you some hope, huh?”

She pondered for a moment in silence before looking at the one who had brought her the news. ”Did you look into it? Was there any information about Li Tianming?”

”Leader, not even the Midsky Tristars have any information about this person! He’s like a blank slate!”

”Blank? Could he be someone from the Lower Star Ruins? How could anyone from one of those eighty-one sewers have talent that rivals that of youths in our cults?” Unable to understand, she got up and turned around. There was a black-and-gold tiger in the dark corner with a body like metal and fifteen beastface crests. In total, it had sixteen times the energy framework of a normal beast, carrying sixteen times Jiang Linxi’s cosmoforce capacity!