Beastmaster of the Ages

Fu Xun stood with both arms behind his back, shooting Tianming a teasing glance. Even without opening his mouth, Tianming could hear what he said. ”It’s quite funny to see you desperately chase me down like a silly pug.”

Was Sixth insulting him through their telepathic link? Tianming was already used to lifebound beasts having their own quirks and the way they referred to him, like Little Li, for instance. But ’silly pug’ was definitely new. Well, since you’re at a rebellious age, I won’t hold it against you. He maintained his calm.

Fu Xun turned to face him and drew an ice-blue sword. Though the sword seemed tiny, it contained a terrifying cosmic impulse within, causing the surrounding temperature to fall the moment it was brought out. It was a low-ether-class cosmic artifact called Frostrime. The blade twirled around his fingers like an agile little bird, glinting with cold sharpness. Fu Xun pointed it at Tianming and continued telepathically communicating. ”So, you think you’re really strong, huh? Do you fancy yourself the favored son of the heavens?”

”Why would you communicate telepathically with me? Is there something you’re afraid of?” Tianming asked instead of answering the question. He suddenly recalled that Fu Xun had used telepathy when he’d called him a Primordial Chaos Beastmaster as well. Tianming probably didn’t take note of it because of the shock.

”Why do you think I am?”

”You still feel for your fellow siblings and you don’t want to expose them.”

”Hahahaha....” Fu Xun laughed so hard that he bent over. ”How naive you are! Do you really know what kind of relationship I had with them? If you ever stood at the peak of the universe, would you want nine other beings to exist on the same level as you?”

”So?”

”Both you and them are huge headaches for me. I didn’t expose them because I didn’t want it to affect me!”

”Does that mean you’d want us dead if it were up to you?”

”Of course. What else did you think?” Fu Xun pointed the sword at Tianming and slowly approached. His cosmoforce surged as his nine bane-rings began to shudder. Being a genius sacred shaman, he was naturally a totemancer. ”If I had a chance to face you, I’d have no choice but to kill you!”

”Hahaha...” Tianming laughed all of a sudden.

”What are you laughing at?”

”You gave it away. Back then, you said that you were omnipresent. But now you just revealed that you need a chance to come face-to-face with me. How dare you claim to be omnipresent in the Xenoworld? Even though you called Ying Huo and the others little chicks and cats, it seems like you aren’t doing that well apart from me either.”

Tianming had been quite startled by this little one at first. But after some deep thought, he managed to calm himself while he went through the facts. Ying Huo and the rest, along with Tianming, had spent enough time together to round off the sharper corners of their personalities so that they could get along. Even Ji Ji, who was among the more volatile of them, seemed to have settled down once Tianming had learned how it clicked. As such, it was his belief that no matter their original nature, the Primordial Chaos Beasts were capable of being swayed. They were neither inherently good nor evil. No matter what Sixth believed now, Tianming felt that it was his responsibility to properly communicate with it and eventually welcome it home no matter how hard it would be. That was also the wish of his other beasts.

Dealing with Sixth required a unique approach. As Tianming had undergone symbiotic cultivation with his beasts, if he were to end up dead, the beasts would still have a future. Sixth, on the other hand, had left him before engaging in symbiotic cultivation even once, but it still had impressive capabilities. Even so, Tianming believed that it wouldn’t be too different from its other siblings, as it had also come from his lifebound space and was telepathically connected to him as well. Even though it said as much, it probably didn’t actually want Tianming dead. All that was nothing but an attention-seeking tantrum of a misbehaving child. An adult like Tianming wouldn’t fall for that. He’d only said what he had to test its reaction.

Fu Xun burst with anger. ”Li Tianming, I advise you to stop treating me like you treat those fools. You don’t know how much I differ from them! Don’t flatter yourself. Your symbiotic cultivation is nothing more but you stealing our bloodlines and forcefully binding us when we’re at our weakest. It’s nothing but disgusting enslavement! Not to mention, you even try to enslave our minds to make us puppets you can easily control! You almost succeeded, but unfortunately for you, you brought me to this world!”

He took a deep breath and calmed down, then raised an eyebrow and continued, ”The Primordial Chaos Beasts are powerful by nature of their creation. Yet they’ve been domesticated and made into pets. Even if they managed to retain their bloodlines, they’ve lost everything else! You might think you’re a super genius in your tiny little circle, but your existence with them is nothing but an insult to the concept of Primordial Chaos Beasts! Not only do I hate you, everything I do is for the sake of wiping out the consequences of those dirty contracts you have so that they don’t affect me.”

Though Fu Xun appeared calm, Tianming could tell that it was still rather agitated. ”Is that it? Fine, I understand. You’re basically saying that we’re still connected to each other in ways that can’t really be severed, right?”

”Yes. That much, I admit. That’s why you’re such a dastardly thief.”

”I see. So, all the threats you made toward me were because of the bone-deep fear you have of me, right?” Tianming said in a mocking tone.

”I? Fear you?”

”If you aren’t afraid, tell me where you are. I’ll go look for you and give you an opportunity to wipe me out.”

”Ah, trying to trick me into revealing myself, I see.” Fu Xun glared at Tianming, who glared back. The short moment felt like an eternity. Eventually, Fu Xun grit his teeth and said, ”Even if you are, I’m not afraid. I’m in the Xenoabyss. Come if you dare, but abandon all hope of returning.”

”Trying to sound menacing again? That’s a pretty good impression of someone who’s trying really hard to be.”

”Hehehe....” Fu Xun shrugged. ”That’s right. Your shameless attitude got to me, but no matter. You’ll soon come to understand how different I am from those pets you keep.”

”Why don’t you enlighten me? Maybe you really will come to scare me,” Tianming nonchalantly replied.

Fu Xun merely glared at him, feeling its hate boil at how Tianming was acting. All that hate made it really hard to control its thoughts and words. With the coldest tone Fu Xun could muster, it said, ”No matter how powerful a Primordial Chaos Beast is, they only have one soul. Among the ten Primordial Chaos Beasts, I’m the only soulbeast, so I benefit the most from changes to the soul! The symbiotic link between us gave me all three parts of the tripartite soul, the caelum, terra, and vita! That gives me the potential to be three times stronger than other Primordial Chaos Beasts. If I manage to get rid of you, I’ll transcend everything, even myself!”