Beastmaster of the Ages

”Keep the wondermancers? But aren’t they the strongest group in the army thanks to the divine-wonder formation?” Lord Yue said with some confusion. Apart from them, there were the ashuras and the Sin, Virtue, Starfall and Sundown Pantheons. If Tianming could take down most of those five factions, reinforcements or not, that would be more than enough to make all kunlan primalwingers loyal to Tianming.

”Yue Xiao, don’t forget that you were forced to defect. You’re not the strategist of this army. Don’t doubt and just do what you’re told! If you don’t perform well, you might not be spared either,” Feng Linxue said before going on to ignore him. Though Lord Yue was unnerved, he was used to doing things he didn’t like as of late and was already numb to it.

By then, Tianming’s order had reached all ninety million wondermancers of the cult. They dutifully carried out their orders and strategically weakened part of the defense line to let the wondermancers through. There were around three hundred million pairs in total; the wonderians couples each only counted as one unit. Even so, Tianming had let out far more people than the previous strategic splitting off. The five factions that were let through had four hundred million in total and they were shocked to see the word prisons vanish and ghouls run off. Even the Tian Jiu Cult members were nowhere to be seen, which seemed like good news as far as they were concerned.

”The enemy has collapsed!”

”Even the Grand Xia Guard Formation stopped working! Li Tianming has been crippled!”

”We won!”

They basked in the light of victory and charged outwards, filled with glory and excitement. Their fighting spirits were even stronger now! The ashuras’ army of warbeasts and the four other pantheons’ troops made it through three of Tianming’s defenses completely unimpeded, reaching the astralscape out above.

”Did we win? Did we?”

”Why are there even more ghouls on our end now?”

”Aaaah!” The wonderians who had been left behind were still stuck in the formation. Their divine-wonder formation of six hundred million could barely advance at all. They were quite perplexed to see the other troops make it out. The devas outside could also see lots of troops make it out of the formation to join them.

Granny Yin breathed a sigh of relief and went on to receive them.” An Shen, Goat Saint, it seems like your troops have also made it out.”

The ashuras and Sin Pantheon had been together the whole time, so they were the first to emerge. An Shen coldly turned back and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that his hundred million troops had followed him closely. ”Even though we had obstacles, most of us managed to prevail.”

”It’s about the same for us,” Goat Saint said, stroking his goatee with an odd expression. With the others managing to make it out, the betrayal of the devas was no longer such a certain matter.

Granny Yin, now relieved, asked, ”What about the others?”

An Shen said, ”I also saw the Virtue, Sundown and Starfall Pantheons make it out.”

The troops of the three pantheons did indeed just emerge. In total, six hundred million of the Eightpart Pantheons’ troops made it out of the astralguard formation. Though they carried with them some of their fallen brethren’s essence, they were still quite the mighty force. However, An Shen and Granny Yin didn’t seem optimistic about this outcome at all.

”That brat definitely let us out intentionally. He’s focusing on the wonderians and Grand Xia with the forces he diverted away from us!” An Shen said. The three other marshals came over and agreed with that assessment. All the wondermancers were still stranded within! This was little relief to the rest who had escaped.

”What do we do? Do we go back to help them out? They’ll suffer quite a huge loss against the imperial-class formation if we don’t,” Granny Yin said, but the others kept silent.

Goat Saint calmly said, ”I also feel that we should help, but our troops toiled really hard to come out. Would they really be willing to go back in? What about morale? If it’s not strong enough, we stand to lose a lot.”

”I think you’re all too worried,” An Shen said. ”The wonderians have three hundred million units, and each unit is a couple of two. It’s actually akin to six hundred million, which is more or less the same as our combined forces here. Not to mention, they’re the strongest of us all with their divine wonders. How much can they lose? I don’t think it’s wise for us to go back in. What if they make it out while we’re still stuck in there? We have a much harder time coming out than they do, after all.”

Granny Yin chuckled. ”Well, at least I wasn’t the one who said that.”

”Granny Yin, rest assured. All of us share this thought. It’s the most rational decision,” Goat Saint said. ”Honestly speaking, if the wonderians had come out first, they wouldn’t turn back to save us, would they? They’re the strongest race in the universe, so they don’t need us to worry about them.”

”Sounds really reasonable!” Granny Yin said. ”Since that’s the case, why don’t we take the initiative to attack Grand Jiang? Maybe the shock of that would weaken Tianming and even cause his other defenses to collapse!”

An Shen grit his teeth. ”That’s not a sound idea either. The wonderians are the ones leading this expedition, so making rash moves without an explicit order might be tantamount to mutiny, you see. We ashuras don’t want to risk that if we can.”

”Very well. At least I didn’t call the shots,” Granny Yin said. ”I wonder if the rest of you have Mi Shen’s transmission stone?”

”Why would the lofty Mi Shen care about someone like me? Naturally, I don’t have one,” Goat Saint said.

”I think I do,” An Shen said, before snickering. ”Hmmm, I think the transmission stone isn’t working. Shucks, I can’t contact them even if I wanted to.”

”I don’t have one either.”

”I lost mine.”

Granny Yin searched her belongings and found a stone. ”I still have mine, but for some reason it’s broken at a crucial time like this.” There was indeed a fine crack across the stone, but who knew if it had been there all along or not?

Everyone exchanged glances before An Shen said, ”Let’s not worry too much. The wonderians brought six hundred million troops here to conquer the Primordial Sands, six times our number. They should be six times stronger than any of our individual factions! How can our responsibility possibly compare with theirs?”

”Makes sense.”

***

Tianming heard about everything that transpired outside the astralguard formation from Yin Chen. He knew that they wouldn’t return once they made it out. ”If they come back, I’ll be in trouble, and they know that too. However, the internal conflicts of the Eightpart Pantheons have piled up over the years. Everything’s forcefully held together by the Heavenly Dao, and when they are still certain that I won’t truly wipe out the wonderians, they’d be more than happy to let me chip away at their numbers.”

Knowing that, Tianming got even bolder. Not only did he want to put pressure on the wonderians, he brought Lord Yue and the pope with him to face Mi Shen and Empress Xia. FouThose four raging cosmic gods of ten thousand meters in height finally saw him, the root of all their woes! They immediately locked onto him.

Empress Xia also turned to Lord Yue and sighed. ”You primalwingers are naturally inferior. Is it so hard for you to admit the superiority of the divine wondersky race?”