Beastmaster of the Ages

Within the run-down hall, Tianming came up with a plan that centered around Yin Chen.

“This fellow’s cockroach and bonegnaw ant forms are far too powerful. Even though they aren’t that suited for combat, they can’t be beat when it comes to surveillance and control. It wasn’t able to do much in the fight against Li Haochen, as it doesn’t really have any abilities. But as a tradeoff for being relatively weak in combat, it has amazing utility.”

Back in the wondersky realm, Yin Chen was still rather useful in fights against specters and beastmasters. Its hatching had been a pivotal moment in Tianming’s journey on the Azurecloud Continent. Now he was certain of what he had to do, and much of his plan relied on Yin Chen’s ability to completely control somebody. It was the only trump card he had against people who were centuries older than him. Naturally, his benefactors, like Long Wanying and Jiang Qingliu, were really important as well. They finished discussing the details of the plan.

“Five days from now, I’ll be departing with Ye Buzhiqiu. Before that happens, he might go to the Greatriver Valley first to find a good spot to deploy the Singularity Atlas,” Jiang Qingliu said.

“That’s why we have to go there even earlier so we know where he’ll be. Then, we’ll use the Divine Worldeater Cauldron to turn the tables,” Tianming said. They had the advantage of knowing where and when the enemy was at all times.

The Divine Worldeater Cauldron was a grade-eight divine artifact that had almost caused the entire Myriad Solar Sects to break out into a civil war. Apart from pill refinement, it had many other functions. These days, Yu Ziqian had been exploring what it could do and had familiarized himself with the cauldron’s artifact soul. Using it as a tool for capture like the orderian cauldrons was a good idea. He recalled that the cauldron could even turn transparent as well as partition its insides into separate battlefields. As such, Yu Ziqian could do some basic crowd control. He could even shrink the cauldron to the size of Yin Chen’s bodies.

“Ye Buzhiqiu will definitely pick a quiet place to kill you so that nobody else will find out. We need a place like that for our plans as well. So, let’s not waste any more time and look for one!”

……

In the north of the Azurecloud Continent were many mist-shrouded mountains. Within the mist was a sea of white clouds, atop which a celestial sanctuary was built. If it weren’t for the slow moving speed of this floating island, it would be no different from a miniaturized Divine Sun Palace. Li Haochen stood on the sea of clouds with his brows furrowed, deep in thought. Not far behind him was Li Ruoshi, dressed in white and holding a basket of flowers, and the seductively dressed Long Youyou. It was rare for them to walk in lockstep with each other, but their eyes were filled with worry.

“Come here,” Li Haochen said. They hurried over and hugged an arm each, pressing their bodies against him. “Shishi, Youyou, I think my aunt is messing around a little too much. The Myriad Solar Sects only tolerated what happened to the Xuanyuan Dragon Sect because the Veildragon Palace had an excuse. However, Aunt is going around the Azurecloud Continent and killing with no concern at all. That’s harder to justify. She’s neither a wargodean nor a member of the Blueblood Starocean, after all. Instead, she’s a real deal celestial orderian, my father’s sister no less. We’re pushing the limits of what the Myriad Solar Sects will tolerate by killing the people from the Azuresoul Palace like that without care.”

“So? Are you planning to tell on her to the emperor?” Li Ruoshi asked.

“Yes. Only my father can make her stop. After my loss, I’ve begun to understand why my father has such strict expectations for me, so I don’t want to stay here any longer. However, my aunt won’t let me leave. I know I’ve caused her to lose face to Long Wanying, so she’s trying to get back at them,” Li Haochen said.

“I heard that when she was young, she did whatever she wanted without holding back because the emperor cared for her a lot. I thought she’d be different now, but turns out it wasn’t the case,” Long Youyou said, poking her tongue out.

“Make sure you never let her hear you say that,” Li Haochen warned.

“Okay!”

“Big Brother Haochen, you just don’t want Li Tianming to die by her hand, right?” Li Ruoshi asked.

“That’s right. Firstly, he’s a disciple of the Sky Palace, so his identity is sensitive. If Aunt does what she wants, it’s no different from crossing the line with the Sky Palace and the Myriad Solar Sects. Secondly, if he dies just like that, I’ll never be able to conquer my demons for the rest of my life.”

“Alright. I feel that her temper is really short, shorter than even most young people’s. Perhaps we really should tell the emperor about this,” Long Youyou said.

“No, we can’t,” Li Ruoshi said.

“Why?”

“Big Brother, there’s something you have to acknowledge no matter what. The emperor only has one sister, but he’s got ten sons. Even your brothers are trying to get on her good side. In other words, she seems to be far more important to the emperor than you are. If you tell on her or offend her, there’ll be no future for you, especially with her personality. Don’t forget that not even your own mother dares to offend her,” Li Ruoshi said with worry.

“Weird…. She’s just the emperor’s sister, so why is she so cherished? I just don’t get it!” Long Youyou said.

“Alright.” Li Haochen didn’t quite understand why either. No doubt, making a report about this would earn him the scorn of his aunt. He was beginning to feel that she was quite the oddity among the celestial orderians.

“I even heard that Aunt Wushuang has slapped the empress in front of the emperor a few times without even being told off,” Li Ruoshi whispered.”Really? Who said that?” Li Haochen said, widening his eyes in shock.

“It’s in the clan grapevine. When someone’s married off, they’re always warned to never cross Aunt Wushuang.”

Li Haochen grit his teeth. “Fine. My father will surely have eyes of his own somewhere. If she really does something that could draw a lot of trouble and ruin his plans, he’ll deal with her himself. I just hope that she doesn’t touch Li Tianming.”

In actuality, it would be much better to leave the fighting on the continent to the wargodeans, Blueblood Starocean, and the Supracloud Sanctuary. There would be no issue if those in the Myriad Solar Sects were to fight among themselves. However, Li Wushuang doing the killing herself was akin to the celestial orderians showing blatant aggression.

“I heard that she’s looking for a helper, but I don’t know who,” Li Ruoshi said.

“Probably one of her many hopeful suitors. She’s not married yet, after all, and anyone that does marry her will instantly rise to the top. There’s more than enough people who’d be willing to serve her, enough to form a queue from the Divine Sun Palace all the way to the Voidsky Realm,” Li Haochen said, rolling his eyes.

“Aren’t those people afraid of getting beaten up? She’s really violent, you know,” Li Ruoshi said, fearfully patting her chest.

“Oh, like you’re so gentle,” Long Youyou said.

“You make a lot of noise yourself, you know.”

Yet another fight started, so Li Haochen covered his ears to tune it out.