Beastmaster of the Ages

Shenxi Xingtian returned to his throne when he was done. His mood had plummeted considerably after the failed attack, but Meng Ying had managed to bring him new hope. ”Finally, I have a fatal trump card.”

When it came to his losses at Mount Taia and Gladeus, both of them had to do with the Gladean Ruins, which had granted Lin Xiaodao a huge advantage. A single infinitum-class divine astralship had caused him so much trouble to the point that he thought that it would be the end of the ebons.

”This is actually a good thing. Our losses caused the mighty reputation of the ebons to fall. Now, we’re weak victims. That’s the perfect setup for our final trump card which we’ll use to deal a fatal blow to them!” At that thought, he regained his calm, shown by the calming waters in his eye sockets. He put both arms on the throne’s rests and took a deep breath, before he made a soft announcement, ”Our little excursion here is over. We’ll head back and take a fifteen-year rest. Embark!”

He then began to whistle, causing the half a million astral gods in his ship quite a bit of confusion.

......

The Ebonfiend and the rest of the fleet turned and left before the very eyes of the Gladean ebons. That terrifying infinitum-class ship was finally leaving, much to the relief of the Skycross Lin Clan. There were nine elite Gladean ebons at the center of their most populated settlement, huddled around a gold transmission stone within a secret chamber. They were speaking to Qi Xuantian, who had come with the expeditionary force.

”Lord Qi, with the rex mundi gone, we’re done for!”

”That’s right! They can’t leave! We have so many years of legacy and history in Gladeus! We can’t just abandon it all!” ”Lord Qi!”

The nine elites were completely pale and shot Qi Xuantian desperate looks. They felt like they were about to hurl as the Skycross Lin Clan outside launched their final push using an infinitum-class divine astralship. It wasn’t something that the Gladean ebons, who didn’t have an astralguard formation, could deal with.

”Shut up, all of you, and listen, alright?” Qi Xuantian yelled. While two people among the nine were of equal status to him, he was passing on the edict of Shenxi Xingtian, so his words held weight.

”Understood!” They finally shut up and held their breaths quietly, suppressing the panic in them.

Qi Xuantian grit his teeth and said, ”Our Rex Mundi has decreed that you are to give up on the defensive formation and divine astralships. Take everything you can bring with you and flee immediately into the subterranean depths. Have all the ebons split up and form groups with their warbeasts. Never show yourselves on the surface and focus on survival!”

”What?” Despite their expectations, they had been given such instructions. The Gladean ebons who had just taken a seat immediately stood back up and stared blankly at Qi Xuantian’s projection. ”What will we have left after we give up on the divine astralships and defensive formation?”

Qi Xuantian sighed. ”The most important thing you can secure are lives! That’s the key! Anything else is disposable as long as it keeps you alive. Compared to the ten ether-class divine astralships destroyed in battle today, what you Gladean ebons will lose is nothing. One day, everything can be rebuilt, but that will only be possible if you’re alive.”

”Are we to lay low like that time when two generations of reges mundi came from the Swordgod Lin Clan? Is there nothing we can do but grovel?” The Gladean ebon elites sat back down, seemingly having lost their souls.

”So what? When those two reges mundi died, we survived and managed to wake up to a new tomorrow. We pulled ourselves back together. Not to mention, you don’t even have to wait that long! Gladeus is still being targeted by us. You won’t have to wait thousands of years before we come back! The only problem now is that there’s nothing you can use to stand against an infinitum-class ship. Just make sure to stay alive, brothers!” Qi Xuantian begged.

”Alright.” They were disappointed nonetheless. They shot him an earnest look and asked, ”Lord Qi, do we still have hope?”

”Trust in yourselves, trust in the ebons! We have experienced countless setbacks across millennia, yet have we ever truly abandoned anyone of us by choice? The Infinitum Mundus is our rightful dominion. The rex mundi wants more than any of us to reclaim what we have lost today!”

”Hearing that alone is enough.”

”Let’s make our moves now. We have to hurry.”

”Understood!”

Despite flowing tears, all of them knew what the most important thing to do was. As long as a subterranean region with wildbeasts existed, the ebons would always have somewhere to hide. The only difference would be a far more restricted mole-like lifestyle.

”One day, we shall rise again and make the Swordgod Lin Clan pay!”

”Every rock of Gladeus shall be stained with their blood!”

......

Tianming noticed that the ebons had given up on resisting before he was satisfied with the fight. They abandoned their base and formation outright, even their ships! Instead, they took their warbeasts underground to avoid persecution. The core members had already run off, and the ones who were left behind could only surrender. The battle to unify Gladeus was much simpler than Tianming had imagined.

”Looks like it’s going to be smooth sailing from now on. Master’s goal is not to kill people, but to ruin their defensive formations, divine astralships, and warbeasts. Now that they have given up on two of the three, we should be able to claim them for ourselves. However, Yin Chen also has a few forms to navigate the subterranean world. We’ll allow ebons to live, but not warbeasts and wildbeasts!”

Once Lin Xiaodao dealt with the divine astralships and formations, he would move on to exterminating wildbeasts, which was a huge undertaking. Fortunately, nobody was powerful enough to stop him. As long as Yin Chen was there, they would eventually be able to wipe out all wildbeasts.

”I guess there’s nothing left for me to do.” Being able to send the ebons running felt far too fulfilling.”I bet the Infinitum Swordsea will freak out again after hearing about what happened here.”

The victory was far too impressive to not relish in. His body felt somewhat light from the elation. ”Though, the enemy will not give up just like that. I must keep taking extra precautions, and for me, that means cultivating!”

Tianming wouldn’t join the cleanup work. Instead, he went to the Gladean Ruins to focus on cultivation alone, the only means through which he could usher in actual change.

”Skyhold Bridge will be able to send me straight to Voidback City. I have to check it out. But before that, let’s see if I can make some breakthroughs!”

Quiet times were ahead. As he had wished, he went into deep focus. It didn’t take long before he realized that his cultivation path with six streams of order was far harder compared to the two beauties’. The days he spent observing order passed quickly. Soon, two years flew by just like that, and he finally managed to reach the second-astral phase, obtaining his order field after so much effort!

”Dammit...” Compared to his cultivation as a normal god, it was much, much slower, yet his speed was still legendary even among geniuses. He had to learn to accept that the passing of years felt like mere months to astral gods, perhaps even days. ”The path of cultivation grows ever more profound. Making progress will get harder and harder. I shouldn’t think too much and head to Skyhold Bridge immediately. Let’s see what the elites of the Skydome Mundus have to offer, and maybe I’ll find some divine wonderian secrets lying around within it!”