Beastmaster of the Ages

”Damn, getting savage, are you?!” Wudi’s troubles only seemed to add up. ”Why’re you in such a hurry to bury me? You’re pushing my coffin in too deep!”

The coffin loudly rumbled and resonated without end, shaking the Flameyellow Bloodsoul within. Wudi was uncontrollably shaken inside, to the point that he began to swell from all the bumps. It certainly wasn’t a pleasant sensation in the least, being subject to Meng Ying’s full wrath! They pressed the Flameyellow Coffin down and completely surrounded it with their divine wonders. One divine wonder focused on pressing the coffin down, while the other tried to pry it open using the hands of countless eightpart apparitions. They howled as they toiled away, slowly squeezing through the finest gaps in the coffin. The shaking felt like nonstop hammering on Wudi’s head!

”Their divine wonders are completely focused on me, so that must mean they’re completely defenseless toward the flameyellow fiends!” It seemed that an infinitum-class ship was made of materials so tough that flameyellow fiends would only be able to hold them back without dealing any truly substantial damage. As such, Meng Ying didn’t even bother dealing with them. Even if the surface was torn off and the ship was rammed all over, shaken, or pinned down, as long as its core didn’t shatter, it wouldn’t be a big issue thanks to the Dreamchild’s staggering recovery abilities. Like a rock in a stampede of horses, it wouldn’t actually shatter even if it was flung all over the place by the horses’ countless hooves.

Wudi tried a new tactic by using the force of the flameyellow fiends to push the Dreamchild upward. But that didn’t seem to be doing much as the ship would simply be pushed back down after ascending for a while. If the Flameyellow Coffin was forcefully opened, however, there wouldn’t be a point to doing that at all. The Flameyellow Guard Formation would be gone and nothing would be able to protect the Sky Palace Formation. Meng Ying didn’t care about the Dreamchild being pushed out of the Sun, either; there was nothing else in their minds apart from the coffin.

”Meng Ying, what’re you doing? Take out the Sky Palace Formation!” Shenxi Xingtian yelled through the transmission stone, though he was completely ignored. The reason he was so desperate was that his thousands of divine astralships were vulnerable, even if the Dreamchild wasn’t. With enough numbers, the flameyellow fiends would be able to destroy ether-class ships!

”Open!” roared the male child as his hair danced wildly. Thousands of corpse-like infants within the tanks glowed pale white with a kind of power as they became a part of the divine wonder. Eventually, the coffin’s lid began rattling; it wasn’t able to hold on after all! Wudi had seen some eightpart apparitions squeezing into the coffin and heading toward him. Fortunately, there weren’t that many, and they were soon vaporized upon coming into contact with the Flameyellow Bloodsoul like moths near a fire! However, Wudi knew that, with the right conditions, even moths would be able to make it into a flame.

While the coffin seemed to radiate with power, thanks to the complicated flameyellow fiend carvings on it, the enemy’s insistence and immense force was nothing to scoff at. The win condition for Meng Ying was simple: opening the coffin. But that simple task seemed to be taxing them for all they had. Obtaining the Flameyellow Coffin and Moran were the most important things in their lives, ever!

Wudi could see that the faces of the two children had been contorted to the point that they were completely unrecognizable from before. They were already incredibly near their final upper limit; their fear of death and yearning for a longer lifespan seemed to fuel their entire being with power!

Wudi had seen those exact expressions on the face of Emperor Qian. Humans, gods, and astral gods were separate classes of lifeforms, but all of them had tripartite souls. As such, their innate natures largely remained similar. Even astral gods had desires and needs, and they were often even more potent than those of mortals!

”It’s over!” When the two children exchanged a cold glance, they let out a dark howl in unison. The lid of the Flameyellow Coffin almost seemed to be loosened when the countless apparitions joined the howling as well. Their loud voices directly pierced Wudi’s ear. Without the coffin’s protection, he could be dragged out by some dozen eightpart apparitions, yet he could see that there were tens of thousands of them squeezing through the slight opening of the lid and speeding toward him! The opening must be pretty large for so many to be let through.

”Kill him!”

Usually, cosmic artifacts were easier to take than divine astralships, as artifacts would reset to their dormant, ownerless state whenever their owner perished. On the other hand, divine astralships required the core to be assimilated before they could be operated.

Tens of thousands of eightpart apparitions charged toward Wudi like raving ghouls. He could smell the scent of death as he paled. ”Guess it’s the end of the road for me.”

Even though he could logically process what was happening to him, he was filled with reluctance to accept the outcome. If he died, the Sun would suffer a crippling loss! Tianming would lose everything. His loved ones would probably be completely massacred thanks to the seething rage of their foe.

”Tianming, my son! Save your dad!” He used all of his hope to yell those words. He didn’t want to die! While the coffin’s lid stopped lifting, the gap held, thanks to Meng Ying’s immense force. The apparitions that rushed in were right before Wudi, threatening to rain down a complete bloodbath!

”You’re still counting on your son to save you? He’s nothing but a brat! Is that your attempt at a joke? If it weren’t for the fact that we’re in a rush to do something else, we wouldn’t have chosen to let you die so easily. Now, it’s your time to go to the afterlife. Tianming and everyone who is counting on you will soon follow.” Meng Ying had killed enough people to know that those words should be enough to cause Wudi to despair.

”Hahahahaha!” Even though the apparitions were constantly evaporated the moment they rushed into the Flameyellow Bloodsoul, they were still making headway toward Wudi. Meng Ying struggled to understand why he would laugh at a moment like that.

”What’s so laughable? You’ve just lost everything!” the female child snapped.

”I’m laughing at your bad luck! The universe is so big and expansive, yet you chose not to laze around in your cozy corner of the universe and enjoy your latter years, but to come to our territory and stir things up. You really deserve the loss you have coming. You’ve just become our stepping stone!” Wudi laughed even louder and clearer. Well, I’m just bluffing anyway. The real forces of righteousness will be stepping up for this fight!

Those forces referred to the imperial way, impetus of the Sun, Omnisentient Will, and avoiding killing innocents. If one stood tall and upright, they wouldn’t have to worry about having a crooked shadow. Meng Ying’s shadow, however, was definitely not straight. In a conflict like this, the side that holds the favor of heaven and earth could tap into luck and turn things around. Tianming, for instance, relied on the faith and will of his followers to forcefully keep his body together as he assimilated the Fienddragon Core. He had bet his life and lived to tell the tale! Wudi laughed nonstop, knowing that the bet had paid off!

Right just then....

”Out there!”

The two children were still wondering about the reason for Wudi’s sudden change in behavior when they felt a sudden threat to their lives brewing from within the dense flames of the Flameyellow Guard Formation.