Beastmaster of the Ages

There was only a single year remaining! Tianming finally knew the bad omen he felt from his previous visit home. What could he possibly do?

”Uncle Hei, is it possible for me to publicize the crimes of House Yumo? I’m a minor pathkeeper now, so I should be able to make some waves.” This was the only thing he could think of.

”Do you have any proof?” Uncle Hei asked.

Tianming gave it some thought. ”I don’t.” Just as he wanted to say that he could gather evidence when they next tried mundicide again, it occurred to him that he could use the omnisentient threads to eliminate them himself.

”If you don’t have any evidence, it won’t work. There’s also two other things you have to take into account. First, you’ll be revealing the location of your home mundus. If you care about your home, Myriadpath Valley will use it against you.

”Second, only the Three Exalted Houses have any real say in Myriadpath Valley. If you do that, you’ll be working against their interests. Not even ten Eminent Jiguangs would be able to protect you from that. With you dead, the Three Exalted Houses will have all the time they need to control the discourse. A dead man tells no tales, after all.”

”Are you saying that House Qitian and House Suishen support what House Yumo is doing?” Tianming asked the most crucial question.

”They don’t endorse it. However, they still stand united, so they usually close one eye to each other’s misdeeds. As long as such a thing doesn’t threaten House Suishen or House Qitian’s direct interests, they won’t risk destabilizing the relationship between the three houses. In fact, if anyone threatens the balance by going after House Yumo, the other two houses won’t just let it happen. ”History’s proven that the most stable states of rule take the form of a triangle. Whenever one faction becomes too weak, the two stronger factions will attempt to establish their dominance. Those two factions will inevitably wound each other until all three factions achieve equilibrium once more, but it only gives outsiders a chance to usurp them. Such a thing has happened before, so the current doctrine of the Three Exalted Houses is to avoid conflict with one another.”

It was a doctrine to avoid internal conflict. They only put up appearances of competing with each other, while in actuality, they stood together. They were basically in the same boat! Tianming was no longer as naive as before; he knew what House Qitian, House Suishen, and House Yumo stood for.

”Perhaps that’s the reason Eminent Ranxing didn’t want to elevate me despite my performance.” He found it laughable. The only person he still didn’t quite get was the current valley lord of House Qitian. House Yumo was filled with cruel, sadist crooks. House Suishen had people like Eminent Ranxing, who appeared respectable but harbored a foul true character. It was clear from how he treated his children, and he was the current leader of his house.

”Tianming, calm down first. I don’t think there’s anything you can do about it for now. Publicly calling out House Yumo won’t change a thing. The Hellfiend and the Yumo Blood Crucible will be in their hands all the same. You’ll only expose yourself to danger. You’re the greatest hope for the future, so don’t be rash. There’s still a year left—we can find a way!” Uncle Hei said.

Tianming knew that he was right. Airing their dirty laundry wasn’t just a slight against House Yumo, but all three of the houses. There was no way he would get any traction, considering how even Fallengrace Peak managed to keep their secret from spreading. It wasn’t that nobody tried; those that did had simply been killed. The Three Exalted Houses could no doubt get rid of anyone they wanted without leaving any traces.

Uncle Hei believed that Tianming would only stand a chance of changing things if he survived to grow strong. His title of minor pathkeeper was something that Eminent Jiguang had worked to get him, so it wasn’t that useful. Tianming simply hadn’t fully spread his wings yet.

If even Uncle Hei had no way to deal with this, Tianming knew that they would ask him to be patient. Not even they could have imagined that the Hellfiend would have made its way to Tianming’s home by sheer coincidence. However, they also didn’t know that Tianming wasn’t the same person back in the Infinitum Mundus that he was in Myriadpath Valley.

All Tianming did was ask around for information. From the very beginning, he had been planning on taking out those of House Yumo that found their way to his home turf. His eyes glowed with killing intent. ”Uncle Hei, I have one last question.”

”Ask away.”

”Have you all tried to do anything about this after learning about it?”

”We have, and we failed. That’s why we’re treated as criminals.”

”Good!” That was the answer he wanted. He understood that there was no way he could truly be a true member of House Suishen, considering how their paths diverged. Tianming didn’t know what Eminent Jiguang and the Suishen siblings would think about this incident; what if they wouldn’t bat a single eyelid at the deaths of trillions of mere mortals? Meanwhile, people like Jian Qinghe and Uncle Hei were his true allies, even if they had only met a few times.

He took a deep breath and sorted out his thoughts. ”I still have a year! Well, I should focus on making it to the top ten, finding some fortuna-class battle arts, and fulfilling my promise to help Suishen Yao in her final four months. Then I’ll return to the Infinitum Mundus and fight the Hellfiend to the death.”

He had firmed his will once more. Then he took out his transmission stone to call Suishen Zhao. ”Brother, are you interested in seeing me shoot for the top ten?”

***

There was a black hall deep in Yumo Cave. It was filled with roiling, black mist, within which crying could be heard. The atmosphere chilled one to the bone. Since the construction of the mobile stareye had finished, Yumo Cave’s atmosphere had grown even more morbid, making it seem like a hall of the underworld.

A pale white girl walked barefoot and stopped before the black hall. She lightly knocked on the entrance and said, ”Big Bro, can we speak?”

”Lingyue? What do you need?” said someone with a mournful voice.

The girl bit her lip with a fierce expression. ”Li Tianming just issued me a challenge.”