Beastmaster of the Ages

Suishen Yong wielded a circular war axe in each hand. The cosmoforce he poured into them gave them extra heft and weight. Like two galaxy discs, they seemed to swing with the might of the stars.

He’s rather powerful, alright. Most reges mundi and myriadpath saints wouldn’t be his match! Tianming evaluated. Just like him, Suishen Yong was someone who could fight foundationeers. However, the ones ranked in the top eighteen were super geniuses from the Three Exalted Houses and much more powerful than average foundationeers.

Like divine wonders, Suishen Yong’s mountain totems came crashing toward Tianming. He knew that Tianming had Fiveway Blitzrun, so he intended to use his nine desolate spell mountains to form a spherical prison around Tianming to limit his movements. It was one of his simulacra!

The mountains were practically impenetrable. They suddenly shrank, threatening to completely squash Tianming. The order of a twelfth-level cosmic cartographer like Suishen Yong was incredibly heavy to bear and the crowd cheered as the move landed.

”Pathkeeper Li’s in danger!” many spectators cried. Right that instant, deafening roars could be heard coming from within the sphere formed by the nine totems.

”What’s that sound?” Just as Suishen Yong was about to go in for the kill, he felt a terrifying pressure pushing back against his totems as the sphere began cracking! The roars grew louder and even passed through the barrier of the Fortuna Arena, shaking the entire colosseum.

Suishen Yong was stopped, and even got pushed back a few times! He was in his heavy mountain form, yet he’d come to a complete stop and had been pushed back. No doubt, it had been a powerful force. He furrowed his brows from the pain he felt in his eardrums.

”What?!” His desolate spell mountains’ simulacrum burst open, causing them to return to their default state. At the same time, Lan Huang used Primordial Shockblast. Its two heads loudly bellowed, causing a few nearby fortuna disciples in the audience to retreat in pain.

”What a powerful ability!”

”Pathkeeper Li’s never used it before!”

”I recall that he went to get some manna. Did he evolve his lifebound beasts?”

Everybody widened their eyes and looked. When the dust settled, they saw Tianming, as they had expected, but something caused them to hold their breaths in shock.

”His lifebound beasts!” Everyone gasped with disbelief, including Suishen Yao, Eminent Jiguang, and Suishen Zhao. They had been casually chatting, but Suishen Yao’s pink eyes were affixed to Tianming.

”Am I seeing things?” she muttered. Nobody answered her; Eminent Jiguang was just as shocked.

Everyone saw Tianming with his Grand-Orient Sword, but he was accompanied by four lifebound beasts! He was mounted on a two-headed, blue-and-brown dragon with powerful limbs, nine mountains and seas on its back, a sword-like tail, and sword-shaped scales. It was clear that the soundwave ability had come from the dragon.

The dragon reminded people of Tianming’s powerful right leg. At the thought of that, they looked at him and saw a normal-looking human leg. The same applied to his other limbs! Tianming looked like a standard human, save for his black left arm.

A black-and-red phoenix was circling in the air. The audience also saw a gigantic feline beast and a huge, towering tree. All four were lifebound beasts that had been seen fused with Tianming before. Everyone could clearly see their individual features in full view.

”Those four beasts are of completely different types and elemental aspects.... And they’re rather imposing, too.”

”They do seem to be of a rather high standard. They also seem pretty well evolved.”

”I recall that he bought 700-aperture manna. If their evolution succeeded, they should have star counts of seven million.... Wait, why are their eyes closed?”

For some reason, none of the beasts had their eyes open. Not only that, things immediately took a different turn. Lan Huang and Xian Xian returned to the lifebound space, then Meow Meow and Ying Huo shrank into two little critters, each on Tianming’s head and shoulder respectively. That way people couldn’t see their star counts!

”What in the world? What’s with all that hiding?”

”Maybe the evolution failed and it’s embarrassing to show a low star count.”

”Hey, are you guys still on star counts? You’re missing the point!”

”What point?”

”He isn’t a taint!”

”Huh?!”

Only then was the obvious noticed by the crowd.

”That’s right! His lifebound beasts separated from him!”

”I knew a monstrous talent like Pathkeeper Li couldn’t be a mere taint!”

”He can’t be more perfect!”

The audience had just been discussing the matter of Tianming and Suishen Yao. People immediately turned to see if she had been aware of it as well.

”She obviously wasn’t!” They could all see the look of shock on her face. She stared at Tianming, completely dazed, and only snapped out of it when he turned to look at her with his chick and kitten and smiled.