Beastmaster of the Ages

“The question is how you’ll make the case to the Xuanyuan Dragon Sect. The political situation of the Azurecloud Continent is rather complicated, especially considering the appearance of that thing. It’s hard to not question your sect’s motivations, especially with you approaching us,” Jiang Qingliu said.

“Make the case? Why would I need to?” Long Wanying rolled her eyes. “Our clan sacrificed so much for the sake of the sect. So what if I want to take a few peeks at my son?” Her eyes were turning slightly red.

“Don’t get it wrong. He isn’t your son.”

“If I say he is, he is.”

“Don’t delude yourself. Those who’ve passed from this world will never return.”

“I don’t need you to tell me that.”

“Fine, I’ll shut up about it. Thanks for telling me the truth. At the very least, you can be assured nobody will hear about this from me. In exchange, I’ll tell you a truth of my own as well,” he earnestly said.

“Out with it.” She raised her brow and looked at him with a slightly seductive gaze that contained a flurry of emotions.

“You wouldn’t have to bother explaining your decision to the sect in the first place. Li Tianming’s performance will be reason enough.”

Long Wanying chuckled.

“What’s so funny?” Jiang Qingliu asked.

“Now it almost sounds like you’re trying to sell your product to me.”

Jiang Qingliu really wanted to tell her that he had casually picked up that ‘product’ on the way here.

……

Tianming shattered tens of imperial star formations along the pathways. It was no easy feat, for the disciples here were ascendants. He didn’t know that he was already in first place with four hundred and thirty thousand points; he was just wiping out enemies as they came.

“This maze seems endless. Why do old folks like these always like to parade around mysteriously? Can’t they just put the treasures on display?” Tianming bemoaned.

“If they’re just out there, we wouldn’t stand a chance. It’d be a competition that depends on nothing but raw power,” Lingfeng said.

“You have a point.” Tianming had felt rather troubled by the pain of being in a cultivation bottleneck. “Sigh, I haven’t made a breakthrough for a month now….”

“What did you say?!” Yu Ziqian said with a start.

“It’s been a month!” His Lifesbane Will’s growth had ‘slowed’ now that he was at the ninth level. As for his Imperial Will, its growth had completely stopped.

“Friend, are you messing with me? I’m an absolute genius and a fourth-level constellier, but I haven’t complained even though I haven’t broken through in the past year,” Yu Ziqian said.

“Aren’t you impotent again? What level can you fight at right now? Seventh-level ascendant?”

“Hey! I’m just taking a break. You can’t just call a man impotent!”

“You were only able to perk up for three short days before you returned to normal. This Ultimate Pill Body of yours is pretty pathetic,” Tianming mocked.

“Well, I think so too! Sigh….”

“You two whiners are driving me crazy!” said the Ultimate Pill God from Yu Ziqian’s chest.

“Looks like this old fool doesn’t know his place. Friend, why don’t you dig him out and let us mess with him?” Tianming asked with a smile.

“I was thinking the same thing,” Yu Ziqian said.

“Stop! Don’t mess around… I have a way to speed up your recovery from the pill recession phase,” said the portable grandpa. Tianming and Yu Ziqian looked at each other and smiled. “But this method will cause your masculine traits to recede, and eventually, you’ll become a woman.”

“Forget it, then,” Yu Ziqian said, his skin tingling from the thought.

“So far, we’ve only seen the Silverdragon Palace. I wonder if the others have seen similar places,” Tianming said.

“This place is far too wide. There were nine entrances and tens of millions of people probably got in. Even if there were nine such palaces, I’m sure they’ve already been wiped clean by now,” Lingfeng said.

“If that’s the case, the treasures must be on the same level as the Lifesteal Silverdragon, right?” Yu Ziqian said. The thought of others obtaining something as impressive as the chain was exhilarating.

“I wonder if I’ll drop out of the top ten,” Tianming said. He had no information about the outside at all.

“There’s another formation here. It’s your turn, great formation guru!” Yu Ziqian said. These days, few things surprised him. Tianming had already shown him how he could just go through the many formations they’d come across. Even so, past those formations were just more diverging paths.

Sometimes, they would run into some universal manna or some artifacts around grade three or four. Pills wouldn’t be able to last that long, even if they had been sealed up. Naturally, Tianming planned to keep those artifacts and bring them back to the Flameyellow Continent. He also managed to obtain spatial rings from the people he eliminated and fed the caeli within them to Xiaoxiao, allowing her to approach another breakthrough.

“I’m still considerably weaker than the peak geniuses of the top ten sects, and Yu Ziqian is hardly reliable. I still have to count on myself.” Tianming greatly desired to grow more powerful, yet he had been faced with an obstacle: this path. Thinking that, he tore open the formation with his arm, gradually opening up a hole for the others to pass through.

“It smells like blood!” They immediately noted the smell once they passed through. “The smell’s coming from ahead.”

The four of them charged along the pathway and saw another building ahead that looked rather bloody. Before they approached, they saw two glowing words: Blooddragon Palace. There was a sea of blood along the way leading toward the palace, which was where the smell came from.

“It’s real blood! Tens of millions of people and beasts must’ve died for there to be so much of it!” Yu Ziqian said. The stench assailed them from all directions; It was truly a ghastly sight.

Looking around using his Insightful Eye technique, Tianming said, “Don’t panic. It isn’t real blood. This sea of blood is just a formation, probably one on the same level as the Millionblade Formation. It just presents differently. One thing’s for sure, though—once we’re through the sea of blood, we might be able to obtain the treasure behind it.”

“A formation? Oh, I think I got it. It could be the Seablood Formation, a grade-four divine formation. Even though its main purpose is to manifest illusions, the sea of blood has rather powerful attacks. It’s much harder to deal with than the Millionblade Formation.” Yu Ziqian immediately turned nervous again. “I really won’t be able to do anything now. Think thrice before you act. I won’t be able to deal with the likes of Lan Feilin for you.”

“You’re right, but this time around, nobody’s here with us.” Tianming swept his eye across the area. Based on his instincts as a ‘plunderer’, they were probably the first ones to arrive. “The question is, what’s inside? Let’s go closer to take a look.”

They flew and quietly entered the Blooddragon Palace, floating above the sea of blood.

“I hear a dragon’s roar coming from beneath. It might be a grade-seven divine artifact,” Tianming said.

“It could be.”

“I’ll go down to check. You guys stay up here to keep watch. Call out to me if anything happens.”

“It shouldn’t be hard for you, given the easy time you have bypassing formations. But it sounds too easy. It feels like there’s a catch somewhere,” Yu Ziqian said.

“I have to try either way. Our chances are even lower if others come,” Tianming said.

“Alright. But let me think for a bit…. Blooddragon Palace and Seablood Formation… what kind of weapon could be in here? Did the Ninedragon Emperor ever have a divine artifact like that?”

“I’ll know when I see it.” Tianming didn’t waste any more words and dove down. Right as his body entered the sea of blood, the palace immediately reacted and the entire Ninedragon Imperial Tomb seemed to rumble. Looking up, he saw many pathways leading to Blooddragon Palace closing up. There were initially thousands of them, but they vanished in a matter of moments.

“Only one path is left.” Xiaoxiao pointed above at the huge words they had seen; there was still an opening there. Waves of blood seemed to seep out of the walls of the opening toward Lingfeng and the rest.

“Hmph, I’m not scared,” Yu Ziqian said.

“Then why are you hugging my arm?” Lingfeng asked.”Was I? You must’ve imagined it, friend.”

The commotion grew even more. Eerie cries could be heard coming from the opening. Then suddenly, the sea of blood exploded, sending the liquid bursting up high. It was as if it had suddenly boiled and bubbles of blood went surging upward towards Yu Ziqian and the rest. There was nowhere to hide. Yu Ziqian slammed into a wall, greatly injured by the impact. “God damn that hurts!”

He looked down in a hurry and saw something poke out of the depths of the palace. Widening his eyes, he couldn’t help but exclaim, “Dragonblood Desecration!”

The sound of war drums began pulsing. With every beat, their hearts thumped.