Beastmaster of the Ages

Shenxii Yao had been completely caught off guard. At such a close distance, she would have died in a single strike, had she been a normal god. But an astral god like her could only be properly killed after all seven of her astral organs were destroyed. Still, the heart was the most important of them, and Tianming’s Skypierce Finger had completely pierced through the astrons of it, causing blood that sparkled with starlight to explode outward.

She shrieked in pain, her face contorted. A large amount of starlight glowed around her body, especially her heart. The wound was visibly recovering, almost as if she also had a Greenspark Tower healing her. Even so, her most important astral organ would take quite a bit of time to fully recover.

Among the heptastar organs, the function of the seventh was solely for reproduction. The brain was used to stabilize the divine soul. The lungs dealt with absorbing nova source and converting it into cosmoforce. The heart, on the other hand, was for transporting energy to the rest of the body instead of blood. In astral gods, the countless blood vessels of their bodies had been converted into pathways for cosmoforce to flow through with every beat of the heart! In other words, the blood of astral gods was actually concentrated cosmoforce coupled with the legacies they inherited in their bloodlines, so losing that much blood was like having one’s energy directly drained out.

Astral gods were fundamentally terrifying beings. To take them out for a short time, Tianming had to literally break their hearts, causing her to have difficulties circulating the cosmoforce in her body and preventing her from attacking. Not to mention, he wouldn’t let her recover and leave his range of attack.

”Stay.” With a flick of his left hand, a gold sword appeared in it. He leaped out of her embrace and clenched her slender neck in his thick, black hand, the sharp and bloody nails seemingly able to tear her head off whenever he wanted. At the same time, he pierced his gold sword into her heart again to stop her cosmoforce from circulating, thereby weakening her.

”Forget your warbeasts too.” The Prime Cosmic Rings completely bound her. Her life was in his hands and he could kill her whenever he wanted. The entire process was swift and efficient.

Shenxii Yao had never thought that her tool would actually manage to take her down! Her astral heart pulsed with intense pain and she couldn’t move in the slightest. She glared at him, flabbergasted. ”How could you have escaped the control of the taixi souls? That protective treasure alone can’t be enough, can it?”

”That’s right.” The Soul Tower was merely one component of the Prime Tower. While it didn’t manage to defend against the taixi soul in time, it was still eventually able to force it away. Fortunately, she hadn’t killed him and had instead given him quite a lot of time. The Soul Tower had been underestimating the enemy, after all, not having encountered powerful enemies like this before. Perhaps it had learned its lesson this time around! Its protection should get much better in the future.

”While that treasure might be interesting, it shouldn’t be able to block my taixi soul!” she said with disbelief.

”What would you know? His treasures are just like him. They all like to hide their true power until the last moment!” Ying Huo said, flapping its wings and laughing in Shenxii Yao’s face. ”Thanks for that sweet dream. I was able to rail three thousand hens in one go.”

”Wow, what a quick shot,” Tianming said.

”Huh?!” Ying Huo immediately froze when its bluff was called.

Hearing the casual banter made Shenxii Yao even more frustrated. She tried struggling, but the arm, sword, and rings kept her firmly sealed. There was no way she would be able to call her warbeasts before Tianming could end her life.

”Brother Lin Feng, what’s with you? I wanted to give myself to you, you know,” she said, completely changing her tune and puckering her lips, then casting a seductive glance at him. Her looks were ideal for the appeal to cuteness she was trying to pull off. It was a shame that the ebons’ general cold demeanor seemed to put a layer of cold, calculating frostiness over her skin.

”I might like delicious food, but I don’t like being force fed. You won’t be getting your way,” Tianming said.

Shenxii Yao felt embarrassed by the turn of events. She couldn’t even look in Shenxi Shang’s direction. Tearing up helplessly, she turned to Tianming. ”Whatever, I yield. So? What do you plan to do to me?”

”Take out your Oldgod Ring, I’ll send you back,” Tianming said.

”That’s it?”

”Yeah. What else do you have to offer me anyway? You’re as flat as the gentlest grasslands.”

”You!” She bit her lip, feeling speechlessly insulted for the first time in her life. Someone in her position had never encountered people who dared to speak out against her. Apart from her own family, everyone else—even the tenth rex mundi—had to treat her politely. ”I’ll remember this!”

”Sheesh, how could you not when I’m being so flashy? Only idiots would forget me.”

She glared at him once more before taking out her Oldgod Ring. The spectators outside could finally see them again. It was only for an instant, however, as Tianming harshly struck the ring with his gold sword right after she put it on, shattering it. The blowback forced him to take a few steps back. She then turned into stars and vanished before them in the same fashion as someone who died in the wondersky realm. However, there was no doubt that this was real, as all three parts of Tianming’s soul were here.

Maybe the starlight is just an illusion from the ancestral world to mask her being sucked into another pathway leading outside.... Let’s hope that’s the case! She was probably still alive. If she was, then Dongshen Xiaoli, Lin Hongchen, and the others had probably survived as well. Even now, Tianming couldn’t be sure if there was even a large death toll throughout the whole incident.

”Lin Feng, we’ll meet again!” she said with an odd look before she was transported away. Perhaps she had only met mechanical, soulless people all her life, and meeting someone with an interesting soul had finally opened her eyes to a new world.

Tianming couldn’t be bothered with her state of mind, however. He was too busy trying to survive, and ideally, raise his rank even more to help Lin Xiao and the traditionalists. He was still troubled over how he could get the last finger from Yi Taoyao.

With Shenxii Yao eliminated, what comes next? He looked above at her mini star, which was in the process of fusing with his own. There were only three such spheres remaining inside the room. There can be only one last person standing at the end, holding all six fused spheres. That person will be the only victor!