Beastmaster of the Ages

”What do we do? What can we do?” Before the Second Exterminatus Army had even done anything, their morale had been completely ruined. All of them were panicking.

”Do we continue the assault?” Everyone turned their eyes to Shenxi Tianxi.

”We’ll halt for now. Focus on delaying their advance while we wait for my father’s orders! As long as they aren’t willing to completely abandon the Infinitum Swordsea, they won’t be able to shake us off in the astralscape above. They’ll always be our prey! No matter what happens on the Sun, we’ll still be able to win if we take them down here!” Shenxi Tianxi said. ”What’re you blanking out for? Give chase!”

The fleet resumed their advance.

......

Within the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb near the Sun, Tianming received a reply from the Infinitum Swordsea. ”They managed to break out! The enemy didn’t launch a full-on assault after they heard about the celestial tome wiping out their troops. However, they sent a lighter detachment that can travel faster to tail my grandfather and the rest and keep a lock on their coordinates at all times.” It wouldn’t be too hard to deal with a problem of that caliber.

”Even if Shenxi Tianxi’s troops launch an attack in the astralscape, defensive maneuvers should be able to minimize our losses. The only thing we’re worried about is that the Ebonfiend and the remaining ships here on the Sun will leave and mount a pincer attack on Grandpa and the others.... We can’t let that happen. We’ll have to keep a close eye on the Ebonfiend and have the Gladean Ruins constantly tail it until Grandpa and the rest reach the Sun. As for the remaining million troops here, we’ll exterminate as many of them as we can.”

The remaining troops of the Exterminatus Army were still double the forces of the Lin Clan. They were still capable of dealing a lot of damage despite their crippled state. As such, Wudi had immediately organized the flameyellow fiends to double down on the attack while Xiaodao focused on keeping the Ebonfiend occupied. The Flameyellow Guard Formation was operating at full power, engulfing each and every enemy ship with hundreds of fiends.

”We can’t let them escape!” Though Tianming, Wudi, and Xiaodao all worked toward that goal, they were surprised to learn that none of the remaining troops were retreating. Not only that, they had regrouped with three thousand deific-class ships and above along with the million astral gods, forming a spearhead in an attempt to bore into the Sun once more!

”What’s going on? Where’d they get that courage from all of a sudden?” All three of them felt that something was amiss. Why would the ebons not know fear after losing two million of their expedition? Shouldn’t they be trying to cut their losses right away?

”Has the old rex mundi gone insane? What about the others? Why’re they throwing their lives away as well?” Even though that made it easier for the forces of the Sun to wipe them out, all of them subconsciously knew that something was amiss when things lined up so conveniently. ”Yin Chen, keep an eye out for any sign of reinforcements.”

Before the fight with the Star Hunters, Tianming and the rest had suspected that Shenxi Xingtian had other plans, because he didn’t choose to launch an attack in tandem with the Star Hunters. Later on, they had discovered the existence of the fiendbats. They had thought that the crisis was over with two million of the enemy eliminated, but now they suddenly felt another wave of foreboding danger.

”Did Shenxi Xingtian really lose it because he couldn’t accept his loss?” That view of the situation was too limited. He simply couldn’t divine what was going on! With no other information to work on, Wudi had no choice but to keep wiping out enemy troops while Tianming had Yin Chen on alert, surveilling the stars, the surface of the Sun, and even the subterranean regions. It didn’t take long after the Lin Clan’s successful departure for Yin Chen to react. All of the metal insects near Tianming screamed, ”Bad news!”

”Say it!” Tianming felt a headache brewing.

”A single... terrifying ship... is approaching... the Sun! It is... very likely... infinitum class!” Yin Chen had seen more than enough divine astralships to know about their classification.

Infinitum-class ships were ultimate weapons of mass destruction in a mundus; Tianming wanted to ask Yin Chen whether it had seen wrongly, but his subconscious told him that any doubt at a juncture like this would lead to wasted time.

”What a completely unexpected turnaround. I couldn’t believe what they were doing earlier, and now I can’t trust that our moves will be the right ones! Fuck!” The frustration only kept mounting. Yin Chen had informed Wudi and Xiaodao about it at the same time.

”That ship... is shaped... like Sixth! I hate... it so... much much!” it said. Did it look like a sea of white clouds?

Hearing that, Xiaodao’s expression shifted. ”Is it shaped like a white apparition of sorts? Something humanoid and ethereal?”

”That’s it!”

Xiaodao’s eyes widened. ”That’s the Dreamchild, the ship of the divine wonderians’ ruler from the neighboring mundus, Rex Mundi Meng Ying!”

Tianming felt a frosty chill all over his body when he heard that and Moran let out an audible gasp from the side. When Tianming saw her pale expression, he instantly understood. ”After the death of Etherean Zhaohua, Little Fish obtained his divine wonder! The reason his death was suppressed in the divine wondersky realm and the fact that my actual name hasn’t spread in the Infinitum Mundus can only mean one thing: somebody has their eyes on Little Fish! The rex mundi of the Skydome Mundus!”

It was a chain of reasoning that would be nigh impossible to piece together until the enemy showed up. Tianming could never have expected an infinitum-class ship from the next mundus over to appear in this one just like that. While the two mundi were close together, they barely interfered in each other’s affairs. Yet the thought of Shenxi Xingtian managing to hire the Star Hunters immediately connected the dots. Someone like him wouldn’t mind sharing some of the spoils if it meant taking down the Sun and Tianming! There was nothing to stop him from colluding with the other mundi!

”Colluding with another mundus is a sin far worse than our pilfering of Gladeus’ nova source! Shenxi Xingtian’s committed treason against the Infinitum Bodhimanda to the highest degree!” Not that it mattered at that point, though, since the bulk of the ebon forces were here with the Exterminatus Army. The Infinitum Bodhimanda had rifts between three distinct factions to begin with, and the cracks were finally beginning to show.

Once the Dreamchild arrived, it would come in with full force and turn the tables around, achieving irreversible victory. Even if the three million troops of the Exterminatus Army were eliminated and Shenxi Xingtian killed with them, it no longer mattered. Who would care about the last remaining million after losing two?

”Enough useless thoughts. We have to stop it! I’ll gather seven hundred thousand flameyellow fiends here. Have your Ninedragon Imperial Tomb join us as well!” Wudi roared. The tension built up to its peak.