Beastmaster of the Ages

The remnant flames from the infernal dragon sword ki still swarmed around; Tianming had only just finished assimilating the sword ki. He turned back and saw that Li Shenjian was hammering away at Lan Huang’s back with some of his justice emblems while using others on Xian Xian, smashing its Radiant Daffodil quite thoroughly.

Ying Huo and Meow Meow were directly fighting Li Shenjian. The enemy had far too big of an edge, so they had no choice but to split up to adequately protect Tianming, but that gave Li Shenjian the opening he needed to pierce through their defense.

“At least your lifebound beasts have more balls than you! Li Tianming, you’re nothing but trash from the beginning to end! So much for a Sky Palace disciple!” Li Shenjian couldn’t be angrier after having been toyed around with by Tianming for so long. He used three of his totems to open a path, forming them into a triangular formation. Finally, he managed to get close to Tianming while blocking off his beasts with his other totems.

Tianming looked at him with a teasing expression. “I’m trash? That doesn’t sound right. You sons of the sun emperor seem far trashier. None of you can compare to the Ninemoon Goddess. No wonder the sun emperor doesn’t care about you at all. One look and he could tell that you’re destined to be nothing but wastes.” He laughed heartily, knowing full well what their insecurities were thanks to his eavesdropping. Those words sent Li Shenjian into a blind rage.

“Die!” His roar was so loud that it shook the whole area as he manifested his myriadsaint constellation. Thousands of astral bodies got into formation and covered the sky before applying an overbearing weight on Tianming. He had already used the move on Ying Huo and the rest to great effect, but back then, Tianming hadn’t been there to help them. This time around, Tianming charged toward him with the Grand-Orient Sword. Things were getting serious.

“So what if he loses? You’re twice his age and the son of the sun emperor! Even if he loses, he’s still an undisputed hero!”

“That’s right!”

Regardless of whether Tianming won or lost, it was enough that he even stepped up to fight. Nobody expected him to win in the first place. At that moment, Tianming felt the power of all sentient life once more.

“That’s right, this is the feeling!” What he needed was to become the symbol of hope for the Myriad Solar Sects—even the juniors needed an inspiring leader they could look up to. The Omnisentient Will coming from tens of millions of gods was on a whole other level compared to the mortals of the Flameyellow Continent. Not to mention, he had just broken through, bringing his divine will to a whole new level as well.

When he used that power to activate his pandemonium constellation and link up with his five lifebound beasts, he was far more powerful than before. The black and gold imperial star rose up and instantly crushed the stars of Li Shenjian’s constellation that were arranged in a square formation. Then it applied a huge pressure on Li Shenjian’s head. This was the greatest strength of Tianming’s formation; it allowed him to nullify others’ constellations and suppress them! Tianming regrouped with his beasts, his aura domineering.

“Here’s another one!” Tianming used his cyclic constellation for the first time in battle. The yin-yang fish appeared under the imperial star, forming a vortex of black and white that spanned more than half of the area in the arena. The constellation spun faster and faster with his totems’ power at their core. While he couldn’t openly use his totems, he could use part of their powers by tapping into them through the cycle of power that flowed between his body and totems, allowing him to use the totem ki generated by them as astralforce when it cycled back into his body, explosively increasing the amount of power he could output and closing the gap between his and Li Shenjian’s astralforce.

The two constellations immediately powered him up and weakened his opponent, evening the playing field. The people watching couldn’t even tell that part of his ten totems’ power had been channeled into his Grand-Orient Sword, allowing him to fight at almost full capacity. While using totem ki in his body would prevent him from manifesting the totems to take advantage of their numbers, it was more than enough for this match. On top of that, he had five strands of grade-seven divine hazard sword ki in him.

When Tianming manifested his sword ki, Li Shenjian used his totemic calamity: Worldly Descent of Justice’s Light! The eight justice emblems connected with each other to form a gigantic pillar that resembled his mace, the Oriental Despot. The words ‘justice’ and ‘light’ were visible along all surfaces of the pillar. As Li Shenjian waved his mace to strike, the gigantic pillar came smashing down as well. It wasn’t any fancy trick to speak of, just pure brute force. Putting the totems aside, the mace in his hand alone was terrifying enough, propelled forward as it was by the energy of a twelfth-level constellier. It should have been a move that could wipe out Tianming in one strike and its power caused the audience to anxiously fidget. Even the Seven Dragon Imperials could only pray that this wouldn’t result in Tianming’s death. The only thing they could hope for was that Li Shenjian’s power would be held back thanks to suppressing the Dragonblood Desecration.

“Can he take it?”

As they anxiously looked at him, the five strands of grade-seven sword ki surrounded his sword. Their great roars echoed out of the large opening of the volcano. Everyone including the Seven Dragon Imperials were shocked that Tianming had actually succeeded. They had put up the act for so long, and had been under so much pressure. Long Wanying couldn’t help but tear up in relief.

“He did it!”

This was a moment filled with elation. That youth had ignored all the mockery people threw his way and dove into the abyss, enduring unspeakable pain only to resurface even stronger than before! Respect was the least people could give him. The others of the sect finally understood what was going on and their fervent feelings were converted into Omnisentient Will for Tianming to use.

On the other side, those of the Veildragon Palace and the celestial orderians were completely stunned. They saw the five strands of grade-seven sword ki and recognized that they had come from the Sworddragon Ocean Purgatory; it felt like thousands of spikes had pierced their hearts. They were all speechless as they watched the youth’s power build up. Qingyu alone secretly pumped her fist with excitement. The two sides of the battlefield were now polar opposites as it was the Dragon Imperials of the Veildragon Palace and the other celestial orderian elites’ turn to freeze.

No doubt, the twelfth-level Li Shenjian was immensely powerful, but Tianming was going to retaliate with his enhanced sword body and two constellations! His lifebound beasts used their best abilities, and even Yin Chen’s millions of bodies swarmed toward the fused justice emblems, greatly slowing their descent with their threads.

“Let’s fuck him up!” Tianming roared. His slash caused five illusory dragons to manifest and smashed the gigantic pillar aside when combined with the beasts’ abilities. Sword ki continued pouring out of him in raging fashion, the soulscourge azuredragon sword ki leading the others in the attack and destroying two of the justice emblems outright.

“What?!” Before Li Shenjian could react, his mace had bounced back from the sheer force of the clash. Raging sword ki tore apart his grade-six divine armor, sending him flying as he spat out blood. The Dragonblood Desecration managed to escape his grasp and Tianming instantly caught it with Lifesteal Silverdragon as he used it to pierce Li Shenjian’s thigh.

“Aaagh!” he cried, then knocked away the chain with his mace. “Come back!” He hurriedly surrounded himself with his remaining totems. Even with only six of them, he could put up an airtight defense, guarding all four cardinal directions and his top and bottom. Within the formation of totems, he raggedly breathed with his face pale. His thigh was still bleeding and two of his totems had been taken out of the fight, much to his frustration.

“Aaaaagh!” He was at such a loss he almost started crying. His mind was blank. Did he just lose? How could he lose when he was twice Tianming’s age? “If the ones outside see this, they’ll….”

Would they despair as they struggled to accept the reality of the situation? What was even worse was the fact that he had sunk the reputation of the celestial orderians even more with this loss, affecting his father’s plans of taking over the Xuanyuan Dragon Sect. He had messed up royally! He didn’t dare to imagine what their faces looked like.

Tianming’s voice entered his ears like salt being rubbed on his wounds. “Li Shenjian, you called me a cowardly tortoise, yet you’re the one that built a shell for yourself using your totems! Who’s the tortoise now?!”

Li Shenjian felt his entire body shudder.