Beastmaster of the Ages

”Okay, Big Brother!” Yumo Xiaoshuang was happy to see those four-hundred-plus little beastballs. ”We’ll take these back to the Ninefold Hellstar. Even if we don’t know what they’re good for, the devas might give us a reward as long as it’s something from the Ancient Flameyellow Ruins, right?”

”I’ve asked dad about the little beastballs, and he’s negotiated with the Ninefold Hellstar about it. They promised to make it worth our while,” Yumo Xiaoyou said with a smile.

”Perfect.” They each dragged around four hundred of those little beastballs and headed toward the entrance of the heart ruins. Along the way, the little beastballs jumped around in dissatisfaction at being restrained. They loudly chirped, not knowing what their captors would do to them.

”They’re rather cute,” Yumo Xiaoshuang said.

”They’re non-sentient beings, even more worthless than the lifeforms in the Lower Star Ruins,” Yumo Xiaoyou plainly said as they approached the entrance.

”Oh?” Yumo Xiaoshuang noticed that the closer they got to the entrance, the more the beastballs seemed to cause havoc, chirping even louder and acting much rowdier than before. ”Big Brother, I don’t think they want to leave this place. They haven’t acted like that before.”

”Is that so?” Yumo Xiaoyou turned back and coldly said, ”Ignore them and take them with us anyway.”

”Yes.” The other young specters nodded and forcefully dragged the hundreds of beastballs with them. Unsurprisingly, the critters reacted more and more when they were brought closer to the entrance, shrieking with rage and horror, completely losing their cute appearance from before. Glaring at the specters, they chirped a loud Peeeep!

It became harder and harder for the specters to bring them along. The little beastballs struggled with a stunning amount of vigor right at the edge of the entrance, forcefully pushing back against the specters and preventing them from leaving the heart. That place must be really important to them.

”What do we do, Big Brother?” Yumo Xiaoshuang asked.

The cosmic god specter’s expression sank. He picked up one of the little beastballs, held its face with both hands, and tore it in two, spilling blood everywhere.

”You all saw what I’m doing right? Keep acting up and this’ll be what you’ll end up as! Anyone who disobeys will die!” Yumo Xiaoyou threatened.

”Peep! Peep!” The little beastballs’ eyes were filled with golden flames as they angrily stared down the specters, continuing to struggle and refusing to leave. Many more of them were loudly chirping!

”Kill them until they become obedient,” Yumo Xiaoyou said.

”Yes, Brother Xiaoyou!” The specters listened to the order.

”Remember where this is. Once we send back this batch, we have to bring many more geniuses from the Ninefold Hellstar here. None of you will be able to stay here,” Yumo Xiaoyou said to the little beastballs. He found it rather senseless to fight the nonsentient lifeforms that could only helplessly struggle against him.

The specters killed a few more of the beastballs just then, crushing them and laughing at how funny it was.

”They even have blood! What’re they made of?”

”How mysterious!”

”They aren’t afraid yet.”

”We have to kill a few more!” Not only that, they had to leave to bring more people there.

Considering the risks, Tianming had no other choice. Donning his purple mask, he appeared from the darkness while the specters were still terrorizing the little beastballs. A streak of sword ki shot out toward Yumo Xiaoyou, a genius cosmic god.

He looked at Tianming, stunned, and couldn’t help but smile. ”So you were the one that killed the two totemancers from Yuan Long’s group, right?”

Yumo Xiaoyou waved his subordinates to back off toward a corner with the little beastballs, temporarily sparing them.

”You wear a mask and you’re up to no good. Who in the world are you?” Yumo Xiaoyou could tell with a glance that Tianming was no cosmic god, hence how relaxed he felt.

Tianming didn’t answer, merely looking to the side to see that Moran had finished preparing. There was no way that their enemies would just let them leave, especially not with how they had shown themselves.

The only way to prevent them from bringing out the little beastballs was to fight them. Tianming looked toward the outside and saw that Qingyu was near the entrance to prevent anyone from sneaking out.

Yumo Xiaoyou, being ignored by Tianming every time he spoke, seemed even more grim than before. ”I was wondering who’d bother hiding themselves like this in the ruins. Turns out you need to hide because you’re weak. Yumo Xiaoshuang, we can’t let too many people know about this place. Go kill him and take his transmission stone.”

”Yes, Big Brother!” Yumo Xiaoshuang nodded. She was a major-zenith overflower who had reached the peak of astral godhood, at the brink of becoming a quasi cosmic god! As a specter, she wasted no words and acted. A flash of yellow rapidly approached Tianming, who was about the same size as her, even at the fifth level of the Overflow stage.

”Now!” Tianming told Moran. Sets of black and red chess pieces manifested behind Tianming, moving out toward Yumo Xiaoshuang in a neat army formation.

”What?!” Her body instantly snapped and crackled as she transformed into her scaly hellfiend form.

”An oblivion variant?” Tianming had seen that variant of skyghoul before—for example, the old matriarch of House Yumo. However, she had perished far too quickly for Tianming to get a good look at her capabilities.

The massive cosmic god divine wonders overwhelmed Yumo Xiaoshuang, aiming to crush her transformed body. Tianming’s original plan was to take her hostage, yet he had underestimated the speed of specters.

In but a single moment, Yumo Xiaoyou had zipped to her sister’s side and taken the brunt of the divine wonder’s attack, forcefully pulling her to safety. Yumo Xiaoshuang was injured, but only skin deep at best. The young cosmic god’s expression savagely twisted as he glared behind Tianming. ”A wonderian....”