Beastmaster of the Ages

”Two-on-two’s fair, right?” Tianming said. He figured that with their pride, they wouldn’t ignore the direct challenge and go for Lingfeng and the rest. At the very least, Weisheng Xi wouldn’t do so. As the one who had sent Tianming off from the Astralium Seeking, the two had an unsettled debt.

As for the comma girl, she was someone Tianming had no idea about. She hadn’t moved at all from the very beginning, as if she wasn’t even alive, so Tianming focused more of his attention on her. As he expected, Weisheng Xi and comma girl didn’t move even after Lingfeng and Shenwu Fen began their fight. At the end of the day, despite this being a group battle, each of them basically fought one-on-one rather than allowing it to devolve into a chaotic melee, as they all had important statuses.

Weisheng Xi chuckled and shook his head. ”Two-on-two? Are you sure it isn’t two-on-three?”

Tianming turned to Xiaoxiao and said, ”Don’t worry, she won’t interfere. It’s not like her capabilities bother you anyway.”

”Who said the three were from your side? I’m talking about ours!”

”Huh?” Tianming squinted for a closer look. Weisheng Xi’s body was splitting as he wore an insidious smile. He shook more and more as the front and back of his body separated. After that, the separation wound quickly regenerated. The one behind him took a few steps back before regenerating into another complete person. The one in front was the same handsome Weisheng Xi that radiated grace and elegance, but the one behind him was a soft-looking beauty of seductive proportions. Temptation radiated from deep within her bones, and the divine wonderian aura made her even more alluring. Her body seemed soft and supple, almost like she didn’t even have bones. She leaned on Weisheng Xi and turned to the rest. ”Nice to meet you. I’m Weisheng Xii.” [ref] The two Weisheng Xis are pronounced the same and are nearly identical characters. I opted for an extra ’i’ in the name for differentiation. [ref]

Tianming felt a lump in his throat that prevented him from spitting. How could a person split into two people of different sexes?

”There’s many birds in the ever-expanding forest, I see,” Ying Huo said. Weisheng Xi and Weisheng Xii looked practically identical, save for their gender.

”How are you two feeling? Isn’t it horrible to live like that?” Tianming said.

”How could it be? We were born as a pair. Since birth, we were destined to be eternally linked. We’ve loved one another since the very beginning, and we can become one in soul and flesh. Our life and death are connected. Even our souls can fuse into one. We’ll only ever love one person in our lives. Only divine wonderians like us possess such a beautiful form of love,” Weisheng Xii said, looking firmly at the man beside her.

”We’re also a natural-born couple,” Weisheng Xi said.

”To us, your so-called love may look like it’ll last until your death, but it still pales in comparison to ours. You’re unable to enter each other’s souls or bodies,” Weisheng Xii said. It was something they were quite proud of. They sounded really intimate as well. After hearing about them, Tianming and Feiling looked at each other and laughed. Weisheng Xii was wrong about something. They had, in fact, entered each other’s bodies—in more ways than just Spiritual Attachment.

Throughout the entire thing, comma girl looked like she was watching a show play out, especially when the wonderians suddenly started talking about love. The situation was almost surreal, though Tianming was actually paying attention to the other fights. It was crucial that they won and kept the others at bay. Since Weisheng Xi and the rest weren’t in a rush to fight, they must be quite confident. They even seemed like they didn’t want to work with the mysterians to take Tianming down, and he couldn’t be happier about it.

”Does truly pure love really exist? What happens if you fall for someone else and betray each other?” Tianming said while looking at Lingfeng’s fight.

”Simple. We’ll both die,” Weisheng Xii said.

”It almost sounds magical. Then, are you charmed by my handsome looks? Can I kill you off if I seduce you?”

Weisheng Xi simply laughed, while his partner silently chuckled as well. They seemed completely confident in their bond. For the divine wonderians to be so powerful, that definitely couldn’t be a weakness.

”Enough. Let’s stop messing around with him,” Weisheng Xii said.

”Very well. We’ll end his dream of winning right here and now,” Weisheng Xi said.

”Comma, the other side wants to fight you, too. Are you joining?” Weisheng Xii asked.

Comma girl just stood there like a scarecrow. Weisheng Xii lost interest immediately and ignored her.

”This is too good to be true.” Tianming didn’t know what to expect. He had deliberated strategies day in and out, yet Yanwu Dao had challenged him to a duel, while Weisheng Xi and comma girl refused to work together to take him down. Yet that didn’t mean they were stupid. Instead, their understanding of their own status and abilities made them think it was beneath them to fight Tianming and Feiling with comma girl’s help. In fact, winning and losing didn’t matter as much as them not having to fight alongside someone else.

The notion of a group battle was something that only Tianming had wanted. But since it had turned out better for him this way, he didn’t really care what they decided. ”Since you treat Ling’er and I as insignificant, don’t blame us for not holding back.”

The lovers wouldn’t be suffering from a numerical disadvantage against the two wonderians, at least, though there was something worrying about how they chose to fight them without help despite being able to extrapolate Tianming’s strength based on his fight with Yanwu Dao. No doubt, they would have to be far more powerful than Yanwu Dao to be that confident. It was yet another reminder for Tianming about how slim their odds were.

”Ling’er.” The two wonderians were already approaching them. They didn’t seem like beastmasters or totemancers. Perhaps they were similar to normal humans with the extra quirk of being able to split in two! Like beastmasters born with lifebound beasts, they were born with each other, and perhaps even shared their cultivation and broke through at the same time.

That was different from dreamless celestials, who, as far as Tianming was aware, had giant whale lifebound beasts like the Weishengs. Yet this special quirk of the wonderians seemed to be an important factor in how they came to rule much of the universe. They were said to be natural-born gurus in the arts of souls, formations, and tomes. The core of the wondersky realms was the Perpetual Wondersky Formation, after all. The moment their eyes met his, he felt something amiss. Their illusions had started taking effect.