Beastmaster of the Ages

The green-clad beauty didn’t have any beasts around her. Instead, five other beauties that looked identical to her had appeared. In their human form, the fiend vitae of the greenhill fiendfoxes could be incredibly harmful to people as well.

Tianming only needed one glance at the mesmerizing dance of the six celestial maidens to be heavily dazzled. It was a deadly combination of soul, smell, and sound. The worst part of it all was that lifebound beasts could easily be driven wild by it. Tianming didn’t dare to let Ying Huo face those greenhill foxes for fear that it would come back to slash at his balls.

”Li Tianming, open up! Let me deal with those ugly foxes!” Ying Huo cried.

”Me too!”

”Me three!”

All of his beasts seemed rather pumped.

”Shut up,” Tianming said. He trusted that Lin Hongchen would be adequate enough. The reason members of the Swordgod Lin Clan matched up well against those of the Greenhill Yushan Clan was that they could take their swordbeasts into their swords, basically neutralizing all the vectors of charm that could be used to affect their beasts.

That was also why the greenhill fiendfoxes changed to humanoid forms to use battle arts. They were rather intelligent on their own and were often said to be the smartest lifebound beasts in Ebonia, which made it rather easy for them to comprehend and master battle arts. For all Tianming knew, all five of them could be adept at battle arts and abilities, making them like five Ying Huos! Not to mention, they could always turn back into their beast forms for a boost in their physical strength and abilities.

Their fiend vitae were extremely effective against lifebound beasts, and even more so against the warbeasts of ebons. That was why the Greenhill Yushan Clan was the one the ebons wanted to wipe out the most. Compared to the Swordgod Lin Clan, the Greenhill Yushan Clan had a history of nearly being wiped out multiple times across the ages, yet they’d stubbornly managed to survive every time. Even after rising to become an Infinitum Regal Clan, they were still the nemeses of the ebons.

One would think that would make Tianming their friend, but not really. For the sake of their survival, they had allied with the luxdaemons during the rise of Yi Daiyan. They were one of the luxdaemons’ biggest allies, having sworn to defend each other to the death. The Lin Clan was also considered a natural enemy of theirs, thanks to the nature of swordbeasts making them harder for the greenhill fiendfoxes to influence.

At the end of the day, one of the main reasons the ebons wanted to make the Lin Clan submit to them was so that they had someone to throw against the Yushan Clan, who were far too powerful against ebon opponents. A strong and powerful Yushan Clan was the last thing the ebons wished to see. Either way, Tianming knew that there was no way the beautiful and talented girl, Yushan Tiantian, would show any mercy to Lin Hongchen.

”You Swordgod Lin Clan types are dogs of the ebons, the ones who killed so many of my brothers and sisters! You’ll pay with your lives for allying with them!” Yushan Tiantian and her clones hissed before they charged toward Lin Hongchen, who had his swordbeast-fused sword held high. Her beauty left no flaws to pick at and her foxy aura made her stand out in a unique way. All five of her twilight azure foxes were beasts with up to sixty thousand stars, experts at confusing the soul. Even in human form, the subtle gestures, expressions, and poses could easily charm and confuse.

”Let’s see if Lin Hongchen’s able to keep his head clear and hold on.” Even though Yushan Tiantian was only ranked thirteenth, Tianming still didn’t want to be the one to fight her. He would rather fight the fifth ranker than someone so unconventional. While his foe was obviously stronger in combat, at least his capabilities and fighting style were less sneaky. Tianming turned back and met the eye of his opponent below once the two above him clashed.

”Twelfth-level stellaminor, but you’re ranked fifteenth.... Is the Infinitum Stele messing with me?” the burly man said, astonished.

”Give it a try and you’ll find out,” Tianming said. His eyes were affixed to the ears of that fellow, or at least where they should be as he didn’t actually have any at all. In their place were two snakes, one green and one red. They hissed at Tianming while the man glared at him, a sign that they were sentient on their own and not simply decorative ornaments. The snakes also had more than sixty thousand stars in their eyes, proof that they were lifebound beasts!

Were there lifebound beasts that were connected in the flesh to that beastmaster? One such example had just appeared before Tianming. This man was also from one of the thirteen Infinitum Regal Clans, known as the Yishker Clan. Like the Greenhill Yushan Clan, the Yishkers also had a long history that stretched much further back than the Swordgod Lin Clan’s. There was a Yishker nation in Ebonia even before the Infinitum Bodhimanda was formed.

Yishker was a word spelled with three characters (雨师妾) from an ancient language with a unique pronunciation. It sounded gentle and seemingly suggested that theirs was a race of beauties, but the truth was exactly the opposite. All of them were large and burly and had fierce, demonic expressions. They also had long canines; gigantic, bell-like eyes and abnormally curled hair like specters. [1]

In fact, they were rather closely related to specters on the level of their bloodline, but they were actually beastmasters that were even more ridiculous than beastmasters of the Swordgod Lin Clan with six beasts. Some called the Yishker heptabeastmasters. Apart from the five independent lifebound beasts, they had two others that would grow instead of ears! The fellow before Tianming, for instance, had snakes that took the place of his.

There had been many historical debates about whether or not they counted as lifebound beasts. Arguments against that line of categorization cited the fact that the two beasts are unable to leave the body of the beastmaster at all. They seemed to share the same body, in fact. Not to mention, they had little physical strength to boast of.

However, they still had abilities, as well as independent tripartite souls of their own. They were also able to assimilate manna and evolve. Thanks to their cultivation bases being separate, they could also develop their own orders! Yishker symbiotes were distinct from their other five sibling beasts, with their roles being mainly to strengthen the combat capability of their beastmasters.

1. The Chinese characters individually translate to rain, division, and concubine (or just “rain concubine”), which are completely different from the temperament and appearance of Yishkers ☜