Beastmaster of the Ages

The ghouls once more swarmed together behind the word prisons, seemingly manifesting without end. They feared no death and were filled with near infinite fighting spirit, making for quite the powerful combination with the word prisons in the formation.

”Why did their numbers grow?” Feng Linxue asked.

”He was hiding his power,” Lord Yue said, his entire body shuddering.

”There’s almost two billion now... It’s double what it was!” Meng Yao said blankly. A single person who could summon an army of two billion was far too terrifying.

”Do you still want to fight him?” Feng LInxue asked, smiling.

”No... I wouldn’t dare.” Meng Yao awkwardly laughed.

”He is stunning to say the least, but the Eightpart Pantheons still have too many troops. He might not be able to hold on until his reinforcements arrive,” Lord Yue said.

”Why are you being such a downer? Those marshals already hate us to death! There’s no turning back, so let’s do our best to cling to our only option for survival!” Feng Linxue said.

”I’m only describing facts as they are! I don’t need you to tell me what the smart thing to do is.” Lord Yue glared at her as brilliant, white wings sprouted behind him. He headed towards Tianming like a heavenly messenger to show his obeisance.

”Prepare for battle!” Tian Jue, the pope, announced. Behind him, a divine-wonder formation comprising nine hundred thousand individual wonders formed into a rainbow-colored disc that blocked their rearguard. While the disc wasn’t as large as the wonder formation of the wonderians, it was nonetheless impressive. Behind the formation were many specters, cosmic godbeasts, totems and primalwings.

As the army of nine billion charged into the Grand Xia Guard Formation, the wondermancer units among them fought back against the word prisons. Using their wonder formation, they pushed through the word prisons for the rest of the troops behind them! Both sides felt a huge pressure on their own forces as explosions rang out nonstop from the clash of divine wonders and word prisons. War cries shook the area in the most volatile clash yet!

”This is intense!” Tianming shuddered slightly at the sight. Casualties on his side were inevitable with the marshals leading the charge. In the first two waves, Tianming didn’t send the forces and merely used his ghouls and the astralguard formation to push back against the enemy as they entered the swamp. Even so, many word prisons and ghouls collapsed from the Eightpart Pantheons’ charge. The countless cosmic gods of the Tian Jiu Cult behind were stunned to see that.

Right as both sides suffered heavy pushback from the clash, Tianming suddenly opened up a part of the line where the two hundred million devas were, leaving it defenseless. No word prisons or ghouls blocked their way.

”Li Tianming lost control!”

”The formation didn’t hold!”

”Charge, quick!”

The devas were elated that their push worked so quickly and immediately charged ahead. Eventually, they even shot past the wonder formation of the Tian Jiu Cult, completely unimpeded. The wondermancers merely watched as they passed.

”Haha, these idiots have lost it!” The devas continued to advance like caged birds who have just been freed. Most of them were absolutely elated, save for Granny Yin and the deva elites.

”Damn that Li Tianming, pulling tricks everywhere!” Even though they cursed him, they couldn’t help but be glad that their kind wasn’t suffering that heavy losses, so they went ahead and joined the charge.

”The defense line at the devas’ location has collapsed!”

”What in the world?”

”Are they that powerful?”

”Why are they stronger than us?”

The rest of the Eightpart Pantheons immediately had their doubts. ”Curses! Those fucking specters betrayed us!”

This came right after they heard about Lord Yue and the rest’s defection. The battlefield was a place where toxic thoughts festered to the extremes. It drew out people’s desire to vent their rage. How could they not feel miffed with the word prisons and ghouls battering away at them, not to mention the devas breaking through? The more frustrated they were, the better Tianming’s plan worked.

”That asshole is playing mind games again! Everyone’s affected!” Empress Xia tried to remind the others to calm down. However, her voice wasn’t nearly loud enough to permeate the chaotic battlefield. The other marshals grit their teeth and continued the charge while holding their rage in.

”Break through these two defenses! The rest of the Tian Jiu Cult can’t possibly hold on!”

”Kill!” The seven hundred million remaining troops were still rather capable in their desperate fight. As long as they could charge out of the formation, they wouldn’t be attacked from all sides!

”Divert some divine-wonder power to target this area!” The three Mi Shens directed the divine-wonder formation like their own sword and thrust it towards Tianming, wiping out lots of word prisons and ghouls.

Lord Yue said to Tianming, ”Your two defenses are truly powerful. You managed to render tens of millions of their troops back to their essence form. However, as the losses mount, we need to stabilize things!”

”What do you mean?” Tianming asked, smiling.

”We need to send more people there! As long as you can split a group off from the rest, you’d split their army into two. The half that’s split up will number less than half a billion, and you won’t have anything to fear once reinforcements come! Just make sure they don’t rejoin the main group!” Lord Yue said, truly considering the best option for Tianming.

”Then, who do you think we should split off?”

”The wonderians, of course. They have a formation of six hundred million divine wonders and are able to push the strongest. Once we split them off, we can lock down the others. Then, when the reinforcements arrive, we can wipe them out first!”

”Very well, let’s do just that.” Tianming turned around to give the order. ”Heed me, my soldiers! Let the rest of the army through apart from the wonderians and Grand Xia imperials! Make sure to keep the wondermancers from advancing!”

The Tian Jiu Cult’s cosmic gods breathed a sigh of relief and cheered, their fighting spirits stronger than ever. They loathed the wonderians and the Grand Xia imperials and would do their best to stop them!

”Not bad. He knows what’s good,” Lord Yue said, shooting Tianming a respectful glance.

”Wait, did you mishear or something?” Feng Linxue said, rolling her eyes.

”What?”

”He’s not trying to split off the wondermancers. Instead, he’s releasing the rest and keeping the wondermancers stuck there.”

”Huh?

Feng Linxue looked at Lord Yue and the pope. ”Be ready. I think he wants you to deal with Mi Shen and Empress Xia.”