Beastmaster of the Ages

Those that had dared to mock Tianming only ever ended up embarrassed after the fact. Many feared him, and even more simply didn’t understand what he was and told themselves that he couldn’t be one of the slaves. That was a pretty common line of thinking in Yanri Mound as well.

”Before, he wasn’t even two meters tall, but he suddenly shot up to twenty. What level is his cultivation? Is he a second-level overflower? How could someone like that match a cosmic god? What kind of joke is that?” The discussions that raged on never had a proper conclusion.

Yanri Shuang knelt before a grand palace, her eyes shaking at the sight of the pink light in the sky of Starmoon Haven.

”You still haven’t become someone who supports him!” Bai Ye said in her mind.

”We’re too different. He’s an enemy. I find it hard to properly betray my own kind,” Yanri Shuang said, crying endless tears.

”Then you leave me no choice. We need more power, but you know too much to be left alive. More crucially, you were even discovered! You’re no longer of use to us as a hostage!”

”I beg you, please give us another chance...” Yanri Shuang and her dreambreach fiend both cried.

”It’s no longer fun and games. We’re at war against the Heavenly Dao and the Eightpart Pantheons. If we give you a chance, who’ll give us one? Or the flameyellow descendants? Sorry, but you aren’t worth wasting two infant souls on!” Bai Ye was the cold sort that didn’t hold a shred of mercy when it had to do what was necessary.

”Don’t! I’m willing to become a part of his power!” Yanri Shuang cried.

”Lip service won’t do. What matters is what you truly think, and you can’t hide that from me. You’re unable to take the final leap. In your heart, you’re still a proud and lofty member of the Sundown Pantheon. You’re still unwilling to accept him into your heart! So, goodbye! Hopefully you reincarnate fast enough to be a flameyellow descendant in your next life!” When Bai Ye was done, two pops sounded out as Yanri Shuang’s body and the dreambreach fiend’s spiritform exploded. The eighty-meter-tall giantess collapsed, her beauty nowhere to be seen on her headless form.

”You should blame Fentian He for this. If he hadn’t been so stubborn and allowed himself to die, we wouldn’t need two more infant souls. You could’ve stayed a good hostage.” Bai Ye slipped away before two other golden cosmic gods came. They were Yanri Shuang’s parents, Yanri Huang and Yanri Xun.

”Little Shuang...!” Even though they’d expected this day to come, seeing it with their own eyes had made them surge with rage just like Fentian He!

”There will be no Sundown until this grudge is avenged!” Yanri Huang roared, causing the entire mound to shake. Countless formations and buildings collapsed as everyone in the city learned of the death of another one of their bright prospects.

”That monster’s truly chosen to stand against us!”

”We thought we could use the slaves to threaten him, but that no longer works with the heavenly oath! He already ran off. How can we capture him?”

”I don’t know! Argh, what a headache!”

”All we can do is pray that he doesn’t get too much stronger in twenty years.”

”Maybe the prowess he showed earlier was his full capability all along. Twenty years is a blink of an eye for cosmic gods. Even those in imperial-class worlds can’t possibly break through that fast, right?”

”True power? Then how do you explain what happened at the Middlekin Star Ruin? I’ve seen the recordings! He wasn’t that powerful back then!”

Hearing that, many of them fell silent.

”We can only hope that the cosmic gods have a plan.”

”Only they can deal with Li Tianming and Long Xing.”

Like the denizens of Starmoon Haven, almost all the cosmic gods of the Midsky Tristars were stunned by the battle. Within the grand palace of Yanri Mound, a few transmission stones were laid before Yanri Huang, each one showing the projection of a cosmic god. They were all peak beings in the Midsky Tristars, their astral bodies fighting to outshine each other in the grand hall.

”This battle proved that making the heavenly oath was a false move! I’ve long said that any trade that the enemy offers will contain something we aren’t aware of that they can use against us! We’ve been led by the nose to act according to their rhythm! Not only have we lost the ability to threaten them with the slaves, we can’t do anything for twenty whole years! Who’ll take accountability for this?!” Yanri Huang was piping mad.

”It’s a bit late for you to say all that now, isn’t it?” Xing Zhan coldly said. The Starfall Pantheon hadn’t hesitated in the slightest to make the deal. To them, killing Tianming and Long Xing would be pointless if their young geniuses were wiped out.

The meeting was an argumentative one, and the Starfall and Sundown Pantheons grumbled the entire day without being able to come up with a countermeasure.

”I suggest that you all calm down. We should focus our efforts on actually finding a solution,” said a woman clad entirely in black and shrouded in mist. The mist around her seemed inhabited by wandering souls, a sign that she was one of the devas.

Those from Starmoon Haven quieted down at her words, knowing that arguing was pointless.

”Mo!” Mo Shen said to someone shrouded in white mist, finally breaking his silence. ”Is there an update from Saturatia-49?”

There were two figures in the white mist, a man and a woman, leaning against each other.

”Yes!” said the man.

”Why didn’t you say so earlier?” Yanri Huang asked in a deep voice.

”You were arguing so much that we couldn’t get a word in,” said the woman on the left with a charming voice characteristic of wonderian women. It sounded dreamy and pure, yet complex and teasing at the same time.

Long Xing was someone from Starmoon Haven, while the devas and wonderians were merely there to help them clean up their mess, so Yanri Huang had to be polite and force his displeasure down. Starmoon Haven had suffered enough embarrassment. ”So? What is it?”

”The sacred lord promised to lend us a treasure to locate those two, but....” Male Mo paused.

”But what?” Xing Zhan asked.

”He’s using it right now, so we have to wait,” said Female Mo. They both shared the same name.

”How long will that take?” Yanri Huang asked.

”It’s hard to say. A few months to more than a decade would be our estimate,” Male Mo said.

The others were rather speechless, but it couldn’t be helped. They had what they needed, and they had the kind of status to command respect, being cosmic gods from a maniverse-class world, a world of only cosmic gods!

”Since we need their help, all we can do is wait,” Mo Shen said. The others didn’t say a word.

”Before the treasure comes, we should lock down the entire Starmoon Haven. No astralship is to be allowed to leave or enter! All members of the Eightpart Pantheons are to head to a mound city. Nobody will be allowed to leave!” Mo Shen said after taking a deep breath. He turned to Yanri Huang and the rest. ”No matter whether you acknowledge it or not, this is war! War is merciless. That’s why we have to scrutinize every detail and ensure that every one of us is safe from enemy hands!”