Beastmaster of the Ages

The dynamic of fighting nine people at once was different from fighting only one opponent. One could join hands with others in a group fight to deal with some other opponents first. For now, the battlefield was still. Soon, Tianming found a barrier, and as expected, it was walled off like before. This time around, the locks had a thousand strokes each, and there were a thousand of them.

It’s much more complex than before, so it’ll be harder to break. He didn’t care either way and focused on unlocking. I’ll break all but the last layer. If the enemies are too strong, I’ll leave.

Nobody dared to approach anyone. It was the calm before the storm. The nest didn’t show us any scenes like before, though.... He had been waiting for the fog to give them some hints. It wasn’t until Guchi Xiaoyin had killed someone that the hints had been given. Then again, there’s no longer bee heads to worry about. Without that pressure, there shouldn’t be a need for anyone to be killed. The nest didn’t specify that we had to kill each other until one is left, after all.

As such, the other nine didn’t make any rash moves against unknown foes. Even a second-ranked participant could run into the first-ranked one, if they were unlucky, and the latter could even be attacked by the rest of the group. Before they knew the rules, they wouldn’t make any reckless moves. It wasn’t even certain whether killing others would do any good, either. But as the forest expanded, it would accommodate even more types of beasts with different sensibilities and, eventually, someone would take the initiative to attack.

......

When Tianming unlocked half of the characters, Yin Chen had finished scouting out the entire battlefield. So, it’s five times the size of the previous room....

He had been expecting as much, but that wasn’t the key point. What was more important was who his opponents were. Yin Chen had managed to get a read of them through their disciple cards. Of the nine, five were ebons; that was a rather scary distribution. The ebons made up half of all the people in the room, so they would no doubt band together to wipe out the others first. What made it worse was that all of them were orderans, ranking seven hundred and thirtieth at the lowest, which was still higher than Tianming. The highest ranked was one hundred and ninety-second. While that was still quite far off from Yi Taoyao’s ranking, it was far higher than Lin Jianxing’s. No doubt that person was a few times stronger than Shuntian Bohan.

If they join up, the rest of us will be wiped clean. If the non-ebons don’t stand united, we’ll be crushed for sure. Right as he thought that, a melodious sound came from the direction of five of the green lights. Yin Chen said that the ebons were using a special musical instrument called the xun, which was a globular flute of sorts. The sound it made contained soul power and spread throughout the battlefield.

Oh no! The ebons are proving their identities with the power of their souls. They should know that they have allies! It wouldn’t be long before they joined up. There’s far too many ebons here, so this battlefield will be tough. Let’s try my luck with another!

The ebons made up three thousand of the ten thousand participants, so a normal number of ebons in a room would be three, not five.

”If you leave, it’ll be harder for the other four,” Ying Huo said.

”That’s true,” Tianming agreed.

”We cannot... leave here,” Yin Chen said.

”Why?” Tianming had a feeling it had to do with the other four disciples. Was there someone he knew? ”Are some of them Lin Clan disciples?”

”That’s right... two are.”

”Two disciples from the Lin Clan?” He grit his teeth. Now that he was stronger, he had a duty of protecting them. ”What’re their names?”

”Lin Jianxing... Lin Linglin!”

”Those two? Really?” Tianming froze.

”That’s right!”

After some deliberation, he said, ”Those two are loyal hounds of the ebons, so there’s no point in protecting them. Let’s see if the ebons will take kindly to them this time.”

If they really did join up, then the ebons would have seven people on their side. ”I thought the remaining five could try fighting off the ebons, but it looks like that won’t be possible.”

Given the relationship between Lin Jianxing and the ebons, there was a good chance that he would work with them to wipe out the other three in the room. Tianming wanted to leave even more now. Though he wanted to give it a try, he knew he wasn’t capable of facing off against Lin Jianxing right now. Not to mention, Lin Jianxing absolutely wanted to get rid of him, as was proven from their encounters up to his elimination of Lin Lele.

”If he hadn’t tried to humiliate me when we first met, I would’ve died.” While he hated Lin Jianxing with a passion, he wasn’t confident in his abilities to defeat him for now.

”Even so... we still... can’t leave,” Yin Chen said as Tianming continued with the unlocking.

”Why? Tell it to me in one go.” He had a feeling it had to do with the other two.

”Of the... other two... one is... actually your... cousin sister...”

”My cousin sister? Since when did I have one?”

”Her name’s... Dongshen Xiaoli.”

Tianming finally remembered that his grandmother was from the Grandnorth Dongshen Clan. She was the older sister of Dongshen Yang, who had a granddaughter named Dongshen Xiaoli. That made her Tianming’s cousin in a way! Though he hadn’t met her before, Dongshen Yue had brought her up once.

Before Tianming had arrived at the clan, Dongshen Xiaoli had cultivated at Brokensword Peak for a time and was really close with Dongshen Yue, who reciprocated the affection. Before Tianming left, Dongshen Yue had told him to take care of her if he ran into her. In terms of blood relation, Tianming was closer to Dongshen Xiaoli than he was to the other Lin Clan disciples, given that Lin Xiao only had one son.

”She’s here?” He furrowed his brows. Yin Chen had said that she was also ranked around seven hundred, which meant she was around the level of Lin Lele and Shuntian Bohan. There was no way she could fight Lin Jianxing and five other ebons.

”The reformists in the clan won’t hesitate to hammer at the Grandnorth Dongshen Clan to get closer to the ebons. No doubt, a ’smart’ man like Lin Jianxing will use Xiaoli to prove himself.” That greatly displeased Tianming, and would no doubt make Dongshen Yue unhappy as well. She was the younger sister of the leader of her clan, yet she had married into the Swordgod Lin Clan and served it, only for them to push the Dongshens aside for the sake of getting close to the ebons. It put her in an incredibly difficult position.

”Can’t we just take her with us?” Ying Huo asked.

”I kind of don’t want to leave now.” Back then, he hadn’t been capable enough, but it was different this time. His rage burned bright.

”Oh? Are we taking them on, then? Tsk tsk.” Ying Huo didn’t seem afraid.

”Yin Chen, who’s the last one? What’s their ranking?” Tianming asked.

”Yi Zhuojun... ranked a... hundred fifty... highest here!”

”Alright, we’ll stay!” Tianming made up his mind.

”So you’re saying we’re going to join hands with Yi Zhuojun of the luxdaemons and Dongshen Xiaoli to fight the other seven?” Ying Huo asked, shocked. It was clear from that surname that Yi Zhuojun was one of the luxdaemons. Did he also have some kind of tie to Yi Taoyao?

Tianming took a deep breath and said, ”That’s right. Yi Zhuojun is rather powerful, and Lin Jianxing happens to be here, so I want to try fighting him. I hope that the people back at the Infinitum Swordsea can see what’s happening. I’ll show them whether I, Lin Feng, am a failed son of Lin Mu or a miracle of the Lin Clan! Lin Jianxing will be my stepping stone! It’s my turn to crush him!”

Ying Huo seemed pumped. ”Oh? Lin Feng, I see? Someone’s getting into their role.”

Ji Ji popped out of the lifebound space with a displeased look. ”Hey, which one of you kicked me?!”