Beastmaster of the Ages

”Lin Yun, are you certain that your clan would actually hand him to me? Do your words hold overwhelming weight in the council?” Chi Hun asked, looking up. His pitch-black eyes looked like oceans of ink without the slightest shred of emotion.

Lin Yun couldn’t even come up with an adequate response.

Lin Jie immediately jumped in to help out. ”Rex Mundi, that will depend on the situation. If he insists that he had nothing to do with it, there’s many in our clan who’ll wish to protect him in light of his recent performance. Without any hard proof, it’ll be hard for us to do anything in the open.”

He felt a huge headache building up. Lin Yun and Lin Wuyi were trying to butter the ebon up without any proper basis. One was an old fool, and the other was a jealous old lady.

”Lin Feng’s just a junior. It wouldn’t be too hard to deal with him individually, but he’s also Lin Xiao’s grandson and has distinguished himself during the ranking event. The traditionalists are gaining quite a bit of momentum right now. If we insist on touching Lin Feng without good reason, we’ll only earn the ire of the entire clan. That’ll greatly affect the possibility of our two factions working together.” Lin Jie didn’t have to state something so obvious, but he did so for the benefit of Lin Yun, who was foolishly prattling on without a second thought.

”I see. Does that mean my son will have died in vain for the sake of recruiting your clan to our side?” Chi Hun held his forehead and laughed.

”Ah, umm....” Lin Yun and Lin Wuyi helplessly looked at each other, as if they didn’t understand how the plans that’d been going so well had suddenly turned out this way.

”Rex Mundi, he’s just a child at the end of the day. His matter pales in comparison to the greater picture. Once our greater ambitions are achieved, little fish will no longer have the river’s protection and will eventually die. The thing we have to deal with now is redirecting the flow of the river,” Lin Jie said.

”I don’t need you to tell me that.” Chi Hun stood up and glared at Lin Jie. ”This is my final ultimatum: deal with your internal affairs as soon as possible, especially Lin Changkong. My patience is limited.”

”Rex Mundi, we’ll work hard regarding the ninth branch,” Lin Jie said.

”Are you saying that I should take care of Lin Xiao for you?” Chi Hun chuckled.

Lin Jie kept his head low without a single word.

”Fine. It isn’t like people don’t know who was behind the attack of the divine wonderian. Since there are people in your clan that won’t do it the easy way, the ebons will no longer waste time negotiating. It’s time for the blades to be brought up. That’d be to both of our benefit, right?”

”Rex Mundi, you’re correct. There’s never been any alliance formed without spilling blood. We should spill the poisoned blood so that we can recover and grow,” Lin Jie said.

”That’s right. Cursed toxic blood.” Chi Hun patted him on the shoulder and continued, ”Lin Jie, you’re still young and seem set to become the leader of the clan. Work hard. After all, without us, there’s no way the slot in the council would’ve been given to your fifth branch.”

Lin Jie gripped his fists tightly and agreed with a heavy tone. Chi Hun disappeared in the darkness a moment later.

”Next time, keep your mouths shut if you have nothing useful to say.” Lin Jie glared at Lin Yun and Lin Wuyi before he sat back down and closed his eyes to rest.

Though Lin Yun was unhappy to be talked to like that as a senior, he did acknowledge that he had unnecessarily spoken. Yet he still hadn’t realized how difficult it would be for them to deal with Lin Xiao and Tianming after their reputation had received a fresh boost. Lin Xiao would no doubt gain the protection of the traditionalists, now that he had managed to tame the Lin Sword of the Middle. There was no way they would be able to demand Tianming, given that there wasn’t any hard proof and how the situation inside the bees’ nest was far out of the ordinary.

The show in the nest was only just beginning.

......

Silver hair flashed as an ebon girl with an amazing figure charged out of the Firmament. Lin Xiao, Dongshen Yue, and the others had arrived not long ago.

”Xiaoyao!” Lin Lingxiao called out, but it was too late. Guchi Xiaoyao had already reached the old couple.

”You old fucks! Your grandson killed my younger brother! Your whole family should just wait to die! My dad loved him a lot. You guys are dead for sure! Dead!” Guchi Xiaoyao wanted to fight, but Lin Lingxiao stopped her. She managed to slightly clear her head when he beckoned her to stop. She knew she wasn’t a match for the old couple.

”What’d you say? Guchi Xiaoyin is dead?” Both Lin Xiao and Dongshen Yue were fraught with worry. They didn’t know what’d happened after the broadcast had been cut off.

”His subsoul vessel probably got shattered,” Dongshen Zhuojun whispered to them.

Guchi Xiaoyao, an ebon, charging toward the Firmament had drawn quite a bit of attention. There were quite a lot of people under the Infinitum Stele, all of whom were waiting for the rest of the participants to leave.

”Guchi Xiaoyin’s dead?”

”He was ranked seventh, right?”

”That’s right. He’s the son of the tenth rex mundi and had divine soul eyes. He also had eight low-sanctuary-class warbeasts.”

”Wait, then how could Lin Feng possibly kill him? They’re ranked too far apart.”

”Lin Feng’s only a twelfth-level stellaminor. It’s already ridiculous enough for him to defeat Lin Jianxing.”

”Based on the tricks he has up his sleeves, it doesn’t seem likely that he’d defeat Guchi Xiaoyin as well.”

”Perhaps it has something to do with the weirdness in the ancestral world.”

As Tianming had expected, most people wouldn’t believe that he’d killed Guchi Xiaoyin.

”Guchi Xiaoyao, can you stop with the baseless accusations? The two of them didn’t have their Oldgod Rings on. Your brother was even the one that forced my grandson to put his away. We weren’t able to see anything either. You can’t determine that it was my grandson that killed him just because your brother’s subsoul vessel crumbled,” Dongshen Yue argued, hands on her waist.

”Oh, so his subsoul’s gone!”

”It’s no wonder!”

”That means he’s dead for sure.”

The news wasn’t something that the Swordsoul Chamber would leak. Guchi Xiaoyao’s rash actions, however, were what caused the news to spread. Over the next few days, many people in Ebonia learned about the death of the tenth rex mundi’s son.

”I appreciate that you have such a high regard for my dear grandson, but if he was really that capable, we’d be smiling through the night in our sleep!” Dongshen Yue added.

”Not to mention, the disciples have all been put into a crazy situation inside the bees’ nest. They only kill if they don’t have a choice. The rex mundi announced that it’s is a freak accident, so nobody is to avenge anyone else over what happens in there. Why should there be an exception for your brother?” Dongshen Zhuojun said, smirking. As the Grandnorth Dongshen Clan already had a grudge with the ebons, he didn’t hold back in the slightest.

”I have a question for you, young lady. Lin Lingxiao is a married man, so why were the two of you hiding in the Firmament? Are you doing something behind the backs of his wife and children?” Dongshen Yue asked.

Awkwardly, Lin Lingxiao said, ”No, Granny, please refrain from wild guesses. We were only... sparring.”

”Shut up!” Guchi Xiaoyao said, glaring at Lin Xiao and Dongshen Yue. ”Just you wait.” She opened a path through the crowd of thousands with her killing intent and left.