Beastmaster of the Ages

Nobody had a problem with the top four sects each getting one treasure, but a second-rate sect having close to half of all the treasures on offer was unacceptable for the top sects. There were only ten first-rate sects in total, after all.

“If I’m going to act, I’ll make sure to get first place.” Tianming, Lingfeng, and Xiaoxiao fought as quickly as they could, defeating the Blueblood Starocean disciples in droves. Around fifteen minutes later, they managed to clear out the entirety of Whitedragon Palace. A couple wanted to escape from the pathway, but Xiaoxiao spotted them. Turning their backs on her was not a good idea.

Tianming was happy for her for being able to pull her own weight. She focused hard on the back of her beast, shooting and reloading with a natural, flowing movement. Each time she loosed an arrow, the loud twang ruffled some of her hair.

“Leave the rest to us. You have to hurry,” Lingfeng said. He was getting more confident. He alone could take on hundreds of totems, much to their horror.

“Alright!” Tianming nodded. “When Ling’er wakes up and the fifth egg hatches and Qingyu finally joins us, we’ll get stronger and stronger. If we can’t find a place to call home on the sun, we’ll roam the endless astralscape. Being with my lover, sworn brother, and friends doesn’t sound too bad.” Tianming would talk to Feiling every day in this manner and she heard him every time, responding by making the flowers sway.

By now, he had reached the Ninepole Dragonsword Formation. Without anyone to bother him, he had a much easier time undoing the formation. His arm was able to pierce even a grade-four divine formation, after all.

He pushed his palm against the tough formation, grasping the divine celestial patterns in his hand. They were the rearranged and optimized forms of naturally occurring divine ordered patterns. Not long after that, he managed to tear apart an opening and enter it. Most people opted to smash entire formations apart, while all Tianming did was make a small opening for himself. What was even more amazing was that the opening would close back up right after he entered it. When he made it through the formation, he heard the sound of a war drum coming from the palace. Unsurprisingly, thousands of dragon golems surged out.

“Don’t push yourselves! Wait for me somewhere safe!” Tianming called out.

Lingfeng and the rest retreated to a pathway, so the dragon golems targeted Tianming alone. However, the formation would hold until he claimed the treasure, so they weren’t able to touch him at all. The mindless golems continued patrolling the area, expecting a chaotic battle. After all, they were programmed to show up after the formation was breached, but the formation remained even after it had been intruded upon.

Tianming made his way toward the treasure. There was one eye-catching object at the center of the formation. It wasn’t a divine artifact or a divine pill, but a nine-colored dragon scale instead. It looked to be around the size of a thumb and was made of an unknown material. Tianming couldn’t tell if it was a real scale or just something made to look like one, but he could feel that it had belonged to a peak elite from the boundless aura it exuded.

This dragon scale was like a world unto itself and shone with a sword-like light. When Tianming approached, it shuddered and let out a sky-shaking roar—obviously a threat—but Tianming didn’t fear it. He continued onward and stretched out his black arm toward the scale.

“I don’t care what you are. Don’t move.” Though he said that, he noticed terrifyingly sharp sword ki in the scale when he approached. Even with the toughness of his arm, the hexagonal scale still managed to leave wounds on it. “Damn, it hurts….”

He pulled back his arm and furrowed his brow. “What in the world is this?”

With Yu Ziqian on the outside, he had no idea what to make of it. He didn’t even know how to claim it. During his next attempts, the scale released explosive sword ki every time his hand approached it. He tried using a grade-two divine artifact chain, but it crumbled when it was close.

“Amazing… but I don’t believe you’ll be able to destroy the Grand-Orient Sword.” He took out the sword and channeled his astralforce as he reached the sword toward the scale. Loud clanging sounds rang out as the sword ki struck the sword, creating a lot of sparks.

“Aaaaagh!” He grit his teeth and stabilized the sword with all the astralforce he could muster. It was as if he had put his sword into a waterfall, resisting the strong current as he pushed toward the scale.

“Again!” Time and again, his black arm was cut by the sword ki. If he had used his right hand, it would have been turned into a minced mess. On his ninth attempt, he finally succeeded. The sound of the sword piercing the scale was so clear that it passed straight through his eardrums. All of a sudden, he felt weightless as he fell down. Had he fallen into the range of the scale, he would have been turned into mincemeat, but he didn’t die; the scale had disappeared the moment his sword touched it. Tianming quickly recovered from the stumble.

“Where’d it go?” He looked around, seeing that it was as colorless as before. He soon spotted the scale on the blade of his sword, now fused within it. It was moving toward the hilt of his sword. After some time, it took its place at the center of the hilt, shining brightly but no longer moving. Then it slowly dimmed, and the terrifying sword ki was not felt anymore.

“What is this?” He was quite certain that the sword had nothing to do with the scale, but it had managed to attach itself. When its power faded, Tianming figured it had submitted itself to him. It was probably the same as consuming a divine pill or binding a divine artifact with exalted blood, though he still didn’t know what the scale was good for. He didn’t have the time to find out as the formation immediately disappeared, marking his possession of the treasure.

“The fourth treasure!” This would be perfect if he hadn’t abandoned the Lifesteal Silverdragon. But he didn’t have time to celebrate as thousands of dragon golems swarmed toward him. There was only one thing on his mind: run! They were only good for some points anyway, and he couldn’t deal with all of them alone. Meow Meow had been accelerating in the lifebound space for a while and it burst out at blinding speed.

“Sit tight! The ultimate speed cat express is starting up!”

After a flash of lightning, the dragon golems could no longer keep up. Last time, there was only one open pathway at the Blooddragon Palace, but now there were pathways all over the place. Meow Meow brought Tianming to where Lingfeng and the rest had hidden themselves.

“So? What’d you get this time?” Yu Ziqian asked, sounding more excited than Tianming himself.

“We’ll check later. I haven’t learned much about it yet.” He grabbed Yu Ziqian’s collar and tossed him on Meow Meow’s back. Lingfeng and Xiaoxiao leaped on as well, then they zipped away. Thousands of dragons flooded into the pathway behind them, still intent on chasing Tianming down.

“If we hadn’t lost the Lifesteal Silverdragon, we’d have four treasures now,” Yu Ziqian said with awe.

“Yeah. Do you think that’s a good or bad thing?” Tianming asked.

“It’s worrying.”

“Still, it’s not like we can just discard them, right?”

“Right. How would we even do it?”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. There’s always a way. There’d be little point in getting these treasures if anyone who gets them dies because of them anyway,” Tianming said, his eyes firm.

The dragon golems were still on his tail, but they weren’t a threat now. Meow Meow took a turn into another pathway; this one was rather long, and the nearest turn was quite far ahead. The dragon golems were still able to keep up. Then a loud drumming sound boomed from up ahead. Meow Meow was traveling so quickly that it almost ran into the group of golden men and women.

“Wargodeans! Trouble ahead and trouble behind!” Yu Ziqian cried.

Tianming saw around a hundred people. The leader was a tall, wild, and enchanting war goddess.