Beastmaster of the Ages

Yang Ce and Long Wanying watched this mysterious lifebound beast with wonder.

“This little lass looks like your daughter,” Long Wanying said.

“No way!” Tianming didn’t know how to react.

“But when are you going to find a suitable mother for this daughter of yours? Want Aunt Ying to introduce one to you? There’s many nice girls in our sect, you know,” she said.

“Aunt Pretty, my half-mother is up on the tree. That flower over there! Little Li strokes it every day!” Xian Xian said excitedly, pointing at Feiling’s light blue flower.

“Shut up!” Tianming pulled it off of his back and brought it toward the Radix World Tree. Its spiritform had to enter the Radiant Daffodil, which had the power to cleanse negative and evil forces. Xian Xian’s idea was to rely on it to neutralize the blood grudge.

Tianming hugged its spiritform and was embraced by the petals of the flower. The petals closed back up, tightly sticking to his body. Then he started symbiotic cultivation to still Xian Xian’s mind.

“Can we start now?” Xian Xian asked.

“Yeah.”

“Then sit tight! Watch me drift around!”

All of Xian Xian’s roots latched on to the divine tree, making it look like the Radix World Tree was hanging from the divine tree. The black roots served as transfusion tubes that siphoned out the blood grudge. A wave of blood red began spreading throughout the Radix World Tree, but whenever it approached the Radiant Daffodil, a strong light immediately vaporized it.

“It works!” Tianming was delighted, but still cautious. There was quite a large amount of blood grudge, after all, so it might take quite some time.

Long Wanying and Yang Ce exchanged relieved glances.

“This kid really can do everything,” Yang Ce praised.

“I heard the alliance is basically gone from the continent now. If the divine tree’s blood grudge can be resolved, it’ll be a complete victory for the continent,” Long Wanying said.

“I wonder how the tree will change from now on.”

“Guess we’ll have to wait and see….” Suddenly, she recalled someone else. “I heard Li Wushuang had one of her bane-rings destroyed. There’s no way she’ll just give up on that. I wonder where she is now. Did she go back to her people to seek help?”

“Either way, she’s sure to cause more trouble for us. You have to be on your guard. She wants nothing more than to kill you. That was the main reason she came to this continent, after all.”

“I know….” She turned to look at him; he had protected her ever since he came, never leaving her side. “You’ve contacted the Saintdragon Emperor lately, right? How’s the sect doing?”

“Not too good. They’re applying pressure, invading us more and more… but I did hear about something else.”

“What is it?”

“The daughter of the sun emperor, the Ninemoon Goddess, seems to be coming to the Xuanyuan Dragon Sect with a descendant of the Veildragon Palace.”

“How can that be? The sun emperor wouldn’t let his precious daughter come to our territory in broad daylight! What if she was taken hostage and used as a bargaining chip for the release of our Dragon Imperials?”

“I didn’t really want to believe it myself, but that’s what the Saintdragon Emperor said. I heard that the girl wants a change of pace and not even the sun emperor could stop her from coming. Naturally, there’ll be lots of people protecting her, even more than the ones who protect Li Wushuang.”

“Haha, the sun emperor really likes to put up a front of obsessing over people….”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, he used to obsess over his sister, and now he’s obsessed over his daughter.”

“Do you really believe that?”

“Not really. He’s a twisted, self-serving pervert that cares only about himself.”

“That’s true.” Yang Ce didn’t deny it. Many people had differing opinions about the sun emperor, but if there was one thing they could agree on, it was the fact that nothing the sun emperor did was orthodox. The plan to take over the Xuanyuan Dragon Sect had come out of nowhere. There was nothing Yang Ce and Long Wanying could do about him apart from holding on to their grudge.

As they talked, Tianming said something to them, sounding rather urgent. “Aunt Ying, Li Wushuang came back to the continent.”

“With how many others?”

“She came alone.”

“Then we have nothing to worry about as long as she doesn’t come to us.”

“She’s looking for the saplings that have already vanished. She’s going from one site to the other, and there’s a chance she’ll come somewhere near us where there used to be a pair of saplings.” With the Radix World Tree’s size and the blood grudge that visibly headed their way, it wouldn’t be hard for Li Wushuang to detect them.

“How long will she take to come here?”

“Around two hours, given her current speed.”

“Get Gujian Qingshuang and Yun Tianque to immediately send out a thousand elites to aid us. As for you, focus on absorbing the blood grudge. We’ll hold her back if she really comes!” Even though Li Wushuang was Long Wanying’s nemesis, she didn’t want to take any risk by fighting her.

Tianming immediately notified the two sect masters. As they had nothing to attend to, they could personally come here. He even had Yun Tianque bring the Snowsun Quadspecters along as he continued absorbing the blood grudge with Xian Xian. There was far too much of it. Given Xian Xian’s rate of processing it, it was akin to a little bird trying to drink all the water in a basin tens of times its size.

“No doubt her strength will have fallen considerably after losing a bane-ring. I think she won’t even be your match,” Yang Ce said.

“Yeah, but we can’t be careless either way.”

The two of them stood guard, serving as a barrier for Tianming. No doubt, Li Wushuang wasn’t someone who could be reasoned with, especially in her mad state. She would also travel far faster alone than she would with a group of people, so it was up to Yang Ce and Long Wanying to keep Xian Xian safe for now.

……

A figure flashed through the bloody mist at a speed no normal person could detect. It was none other than Li Wushuang. She used astralforce to form a few protective layers around herself, stopping the blood mist from touching her. The world in her eyes was completely stained red.

“What happened?” She still recalled the location of all the sapling sites. Soon, she passed the Magma Valley by, but the saplings were nowhere to be seen. “They must’ve been picked.”

The whole continent was in chaos and her subordinates had mostly died off. There was no way for her to stay up to date on the latest developments. “Did the divine tree change because someone picked its saplings?”

She was filled with hate and resentment. Still refusing to give up, she flew to the other sites to check. “They’re gone here too… Empyrean Sword Sect….”

Her eyes slowly turned blood red as her sanity waned. She was probably trying to pocket whatever benefit she could. Little did she know that the Empyrean Sword Sect had left empty-handed or that the saplings had vanished on their own accord.

The trunk of the divine tree was situated at the border between the territories of the two main sects of the continent. As she was heading into the Azuresoul Palace’s territory to see if any saplings were left, she would eventually pass by where Tianming was. Traveling alone, she was as fast as lightning. But unbeknownst to her, small silver cockroaches constantly kept an eye on her no matter where she went. As Tianming predicted, she eventually passed them by. There was quite a lot of commotion where the Radix World Tree was, given that the density of the blood mist was the highest there. The blood grudge there was incredibly concentrated with the essence and souls of the fallen that cried out in agony. Anyone who passed this place by would detect something was amiss about it.

“Huh?” Li Wushuang saw Long Wanying and Yang Ce from a distance, dressed in white and black respectively. Then, she saw Tianming’s lifebound beast sticking to the divine tree and absorbing something. There was nobody else in the vicinity.

“You could have escaped already, so why’d you come back here?” Long Wanying said.

“You think the likes of you and Yang Ce are enough to kill me?” Li Wushuang mocked as she took out her Skymoon Holyfiend, immediately closing a distance of one kilometer to attack. “Long Wanying, I’ve wanted to kill you for quite some time. I didn’t think I’d meet you here. Nobody can come to your aid now.”

Seven ghostface moongoddesses appeared, attacking with their warblades. The bloodstained tree branches in its way were torn asunder by all the slashes. Li Wushuang was fully driven in her quest to kill her nemesis. Even though she didn’t know what Xian Xian was up to, it must be something to end the current crisis. Thus, she focused part of her attack towards the Radix World Tree with enough force to completely eradicate it. Right before the attacks connected, Yang Ce came and deflected them.

“Oh, looks like the Sky Palace disciple is here too. Then all of you shall go to hell together!”

Right now, Xian Xian was at a crucial juncture, so it needed to focus all of its attention on what it was doing. Despite her boasts, the blood grudge was really powerful. Even though her spiritform was inside the Radiant Daffodil, it had still been stained red, which was why it needed Tianming to protect it and constantly cheer it on. However, all of that effort would go to waste if Li Wushuang’s attack was successful. Not to mention, there was no way a junior like Tianming would be able to take her attack.

Thankfully, she lost a bane-ring and isn’t as strong as she was before, Tianming thought, slightly relieved. He continued forging on with Xian Xian while Yang Ce and his eight darknight truefiends and Long Wanying and her five worldcleanse whitesoul dragons surrounded Li Wushuang.