Beastmaster of the Ages

“Is that damned tree going to wipe out all life on the continent?” The Northdipper Swordsage didn’t understand what was going on.

“Did the tree decide to do this or did someone cause it to? It couldn’t have been us, right?”

The death of billions was such a horrifying catastrophe that even the Northdipper Swordsage couldn’t properly wrap his mind around it. It used to be that he had wanted to obtain the saplings no matter what, but now all his plans had been ruined. Right now, he didn’t care about being the leader of the Myriad Solar Sects anymore. He felt nothing but fear and awe toward the divine tree.

“Their deaths have nothing to do with me!” He took a deep breath, only to suddenly recall something. He had seen the divine tree absorbing blood from hundreds of thousands of lifebound beasts and more than two hundred thousand cultivators, all of whom were killed by his army. Immediately, something clicked in his mind and he fell into deep thought.

“Swordsage!” Wu Lingcang, Wang Hong, and Mu Qingqu came to him. He nodded a response.

Wu Lingcang looked at the tree and shuddered. “According to our previous arrangement, the Supracloud Sanctuary’s divine herbs should’ve belonged to us. But now the situation has changed thanks to Gujian Qingshuang, Long Wanying, and the Sky Palace disciples causing trouble. So, we’d like to renegotiate. If you can allow the three of our factions to split the divine herbs at the Azuresoul Palace among ourselves, we’ll return to the continent with you.”

“The Azuresoul Palace? Impossible.” The swordsage shook his head. He had assembled the allied army with the goal of crushing the two outsider factions before defeating the Supracloud Sanctuary and taking over the continent. But now his plans had been ruined. If he couldn’t attack the Supracloud Sanctuary or take over the continent, what use was there for an army? Even around four hundred thousand of the troops from the second- to fourth-rated sects had fled. Now there was no good reason for the Northdipper Swordsage to hand them the divine herbs. He no longer had any intention to work with them any longer.

“How about we split the divine herbs? You can take half, with the remaining half to be split between our three factions. At the very least, we won’t be returning empty handed,” Mu Qingqu said.

The Northdipper Swordsage still shook his head.

“Are you really going to go so far?” Wu Lingcang asked.

“That’s not my wish. The Empyrean Sword Sect has already lost too much for the Azurecloud Continent. I need to have something to show for the sacrifice of our fallen. Not to mention, your losses haven’t been massive,” the swordsage said.

“Alright. Then I hope you don’t come to the Divinemight Empire to rally troops for any future alliance you want to forge anymore. We won’t want to come back to this continent, either. Let’s go!” Wu Lingcang didn’t bother keeping up the pleasantries. His faction was ranked sixth, after all, only one below the Empyrean Sword Sect.

“See you, Swordsage.”

“May we meet again should our fates cross.”

The other two also left, leaving the swordsage behind with around two hundred thousand swordpupils, half of whom were still scattered.

“Swordsage, without their support, will we be able to demand the divine herbs from the Azuresoul Palace?” the Wind Swordlord asked.

“Let’s not talk about that and see how the situation here develops. If they all die out, it’ll be our fault. We’ll have committed a heavy sin. Would it still be right to take advantage of them after all this?” the Northdipper Swordsage said.

“What do you mean?”

“We won’t be taking the divine herbs. Let them have them! The people of this continent have suffered too much….”

The Wind Swordlord was shocked. This time around, the Empyrean Sword Sect had suffered significant losses. Not only had they failed to take over the Supracloud Sanctuary, they even drove their allies away, so the divine herbs of the Azuresoul Palace were their sole recourse for deriving a profit. Yet the swordsage had driven the three factions away just to ensure the Azuresoul Palace got to keep the divine herbs. “Do you sympathize with them, Swordsage?”

“It’s not sympathy… I just want to keep the least bit of human decency that I still possess.” The mere notion of the death of billions caused him to shudder. Taking the sole thing that could keep the Azuresoul Palace afloat was something he couldn’t permit himself to do. “I wonder how many people on the continent will manage to survive….”

“Rest assured, Swordsage. This is all the fault of Li Wushuang. She was the one who destroyed the saplings. It has nothing to do with us, so we don’t need to feel responsible for it.”

“Yes….” Though he said that, he couldn’t shake the anxiety at the memory of seeing the divine tree absorbing all of that blood.

……

“Whoa….” Tianming had a bad feeling as he stood on the divine tree’s branch. The whole world was swallowed up by the same bloody mist, which let out a sharp sizzle as it contacted his Infernal Armor. So far, none of it had been able to seep through it. He watched as the billions of people in the towns and cities were caught up in this living nightmare. ‘The rage of the divine tree will fill the skies with blood as the plague spreads and culls all life’. Every word of that ancient prophecy was coming true; Tianming found it hard to even breathe.

“Is the divine tree unleashing its rage from losing its children?” There was no way he could figure out the intentions of this ancient being that was no more responsive than an average plant most of the time. “Even the alliance’s army is gone. Will the divine tree really wipe out all life?”

Tianming traveled through the mist, followed by Long Wanying, Yang Ce, and the rest. The astralforce of the peak elites seemed able to ward off the effects of the mist, which was why the casualties among solarians were far fewer than those among constelliers.

They eventually descended into a town. The people living on Orderia always had formations around any kind of settlement to protect them against the fiery rain. It was all too easy for normal folk to die from the rain if they lacked adequate protection. The town was surrounded by a dense mist, but the density of the mist within the formation seemed less intense.

“Will the divine tree stop? How many people will die if this continues?”

Everyone watched with shock and awe, Tianming included. When they landed, they finally got some reassuring news.

“Aunt Ying, they’re saying that people whose ancestry can be traced back to the locals of this continent aren’t affected by the plague at all. Only those who moved here in the past few decades are being affected,” Tianming said.

“Is that true?” Long Wanying said. If that was really the case, only a small proportion of the population would be affected! Instead, the ones hit hardest by this would be the alliance’s army, who were all outsiders. Even though the divine tree was venting its rage, it was still protecting the other lifeforms with which it shared a continent! It simply couldn’t bear to harm them!