Beastmaster of the Ages

Tianming’s words weren’t unfounded. Yin Chen had infiltrated the entire Middlekin Star Ruin. Coupled with Bai Ye’s soul seeds, they had found the slaves and understood what they were like. Long Qian and her ten thousand overflowers were proof that the slaves weren’t powerless.

”They’ve only been oppressed for far too long and they’ve forgotten how to resist. They forgot that they can fight!” Tianming said.

”Jiang Linxi and the rest kept threatening us with the lives of millions of them, so I guess I thought they could easily be dealt with,” Qingyu said.

”That’s right! It can’t be helped. It’s been too long since they’ve had any spiritual leader to lead them. Any revolt on a small scale would be swiftly crushed, and that’d be enough to instill despair in them. However, a force of millions of foundationeers isn’t easy to wipe out!”

All they needed was a chance. The constant brainwashing from the Eightpart Pantheons had convinced the descendants of the flameyellow divinities that they were meek and forced them to deny their own capabilities. Not even the dragonoid overflowers with Long Qian were that confident in their own abilities, believing themselves to have weak talent compared to the geniuses of the Three Great Cults. The most they were confident enough to do was call themselves dragonoids. Were they truly as bad as they believed?

”They were able to form a capable force despite being strapped for resources! How could they possibly be weak?!” Tianming had come from the Lower Star Ruins, so he had a clear perspective on things! ”Even with the heavenly shackles, they aren’t weak. Everyone in the Upper Star Ruin just thinks they’re people they can easily trample over! Even the slaves think that!”

”So the reason we came to the Upper Star Ruin is to change their mindset and make them fight for their own dignity!” Qingyu seemed to have a kind of realization.

”That’s right! The Sun is the Flameyellow Imperial Star. The same blood flows in us and them, especially in you and your dad. That’s why, there’s no ’us’ or ’them.’ We’re all the same kind!”

But the Eightpart Pantheons were different.

”I got it, Big Brother. I trust you and every one of us,” Qingyu said.

”Good!” Tianming’s own confidence came from Yin Chen and Bai Ye, who were already setting things up outside. His other beasts also gave him confidence in his combat capabilities. Their tasks had been neatly divided, each having their own purpose.

”Qingyu, the road to restoring the Flameyellow Imperial Star and its denizens is a bloody and violent one. That’s what it takes to liberate them from suppression, otherwise they’ll have no future! That’s why we have to strike without hesitation. The more we kill, the more we save!”

”Okay!” Qingyu hadn’t killed all that many people before, but she understood that blood must be spilled for any grand endeavor.

”Alright, let’s go! With Yin Chen around, do they think they can hunt us? We’ll hunt them down one by one instead!”

Tianming and Qingyu split up, guided by the shortest route Yin Chen had charted for them. It had even come up with the ideal order of people to kill, having every single scout group within its sphere of surveillance!

”Go left! Two people... in front... both first... level overflowers!”

Tianming flashed past and kicked one of them so hard they exploded. The other had barely made a sound before Bai Ye’s bubbles vaporized his vita within his brain.

”Let’s see how you go back and make a report!” Mere first-level overflowers couldn’t possibly discover Tianming without him noticing, even if their method would work on the likes of Luori Guiyang.

”Next!”

”On it... right now!”

Qingyu also took instructions from Yin Chen. She was slightly slower, with Moran in tow, but her effectiveness in each encounter was just as good.

”It’s the stink bug!” someone roared before Tianming slew them. Yin Chen had intentionally picked groups of scouts that were far from the others so there were no secondary encounters.

”Haha! Who’s hunting who now?!” Tianming smirked.

In two days, more and more souls had been slain by his sword. Luori Guiyang and Xing Baizhan were making the best of that time by cultivating with the galaxy-class orders, completely unaware that their scouts were being snuffed out in the dark corridors outside. Not a single one made a splash loud enough to alert the rest. Only after ten whole days had passed without a single report did they begin getting suspicious, but it was pointless! There was nobody outside their golden rooms. Even if they shouted, nobody responded.

”Where are they?!” Luori Guiyang and Xing Baizhan searched high and low, but found nobody.

”Where are they? Where’s the Scorchmoon Cult?” Luori Guiyang yelled. They had been wiped out long ago!

”Get out here now!” Xing Baizhan couldn’t find half a soul after much searching. Eventually, the two of them met.

”I didn’t see anybody,” Luori Guiyang said.

”Me neither!” Xing Baizhan said. The two of them fell silent.

”Is this place haunted?!” they both said in unison.

”They can’t all have died,” they chorused again, then exchanged glances in silence. A bad feeling weighed on their hearts, making their hairs stand on end. They kept looking without splitting up and didn’t find anybody.

”I’ll go back and cultivate,” Luori Guiyang said, his patience at a limit. He didn’t want to waste any more time. The harrowing corridors had instilled enough fear in him to convince him to stop searching. He would use the remaining time he had to advance to the fifth level and simply not care about anything else. That was the initial reason he had come to the Middlekin Star Ruin anyway. Li Tianming’s ship and the slaves have nothing to do with me!

Xing Baizhan also left, his expression grim. ”If those three stink bugs really did all this, they aren’t as simple as they seem!”

”That’s right! Did they actually kill off all the disciples of the Three Great Cults?!” Luori Guiyang said.

”Not just that! Even you folks all the way from Starmoon Haven have all died off.” After a long pause, he continued, ”I wonder what things are like outside now....”

”I bet it’s a grand performance.... One where we’ve been completely humiliated.”

”No shit! I’m guessing that the stink bugs are pining after the other million slaves. I’ll come to you in the last few days so we can face them together.”

”Alright, I’ll be waiting!”

After that, the two went their own ways once more.

***

There was nothing but silence outside until Xing Daoyin broke it with an order.

”Bring the three million slaves here!”