Beastmaster of the Ages

”House Qitian themselves don’t have clean hands, either! They’ve never bothered us about refining starblood, but that’s not the case with House Suishen! Even though Eminent Ranxing is easy to talk with, there’s quite a few judgmental saints among them like Jiguang!

”But now we get to rise above them along with House Qitian. Perhaps one day, we’ll be able to become like House Qitian. As long as we reclaim the Yumo Blood Crucible, or find a suitable replacement, we’ll no longer have to sneakily refine starblood in the future.”

Yumo Diyan seemed incredibly resolute. Long had House Yumo felt like a caged beast. Even though every member of their house could absorb starblood, it was a risk for them to openly do so, as the other two exalted houses might consider cutting them off to defend their reputations.

If they were able to openly use starblood one day, like how House Qitian’s beastmasters let their lifebound beasts devour other lifebound beasts in the Million Mundi, even if they didn’t have the Yumo Blood Crucible, they could still seed many heliacal-class worlds with their youths and let them grow until they were able to devour all the lifeforms of that world. It would take more time than simply refining starblood, but as long as nobody was there to stop them, it wouldn’t be an issue.

Even if House Qitian’s on the same level as us, as long as we get to put House Suishen beneath us, we’ll still be much better off. Yumo Diyan’s thoughts raced wildly as the others in the hall watched the two seniors rapidly absorbing the formation core. The closer they were to success, the more relaxed they appeared.

”Soon....” The eight specters breathed a sigh of relief in excitement and anticipation. They were finally able to let go of the notion of ruling over House Qitian and House Suishen both. It was already acceptable as long as they were superior to House Suishen.

All of a sudden, an ear-piercing shriek resounded throughout, containing hints of mind-numbing astonishment and rage. The eight specters suddenly jerked. Only skyghoul hellfiends could let out a shriek like that, but who could it be?!

Yumo Diyan followed the voice and saw the senior madame. Had something gone wrong while assimilating the black formation core component? That was the first possibility that came to mind, but it appeared to be something else.

Everyone was shocked to see a tiny dragon tightly latched onto the senior madame, burrowing into her body with its sharp fangs and claws as it surged with terrifying cosmoforce, channeling it to unleash its white flame ability into the senior madame’s body! Fire burst out of all her orifices and instantly set her astral organs aflame!

The tiny dragon was the only tensource beast in the entire astralscape of order, embodying the fusion of ten super-zenith lifebound beasts, nine of which took the form of beastface tattoos. Its combined starcount exceeded a hundred million as a result.

In terms of cosmoforce capacity alone, the tiny dragon’s was ten times that of the valley lord, making it one of the most powerful single-combat units to ever exist! But thanks to the valley lord’s position, the little beast seldom had a chance to show its true form, leading others to gradually ignore its presence. Who could expect such a powerful tensource beast like that to suddenly launch a fatal attack when the senior madame was completely unguarded?

Though the valley lord and senior madame were of a similar age, the valley lord had aged significantly less, thanks to having myriadpath source spirits as sustenance. Not to mention, the tensource beast had already been much stronger than the senior madame to begin with; and on top of all that, it had even launched a surprise attack!

Yumo Diyan and the other specters seemed to have forgotten to breathe. Everything in the world screeched to an abrupt halt as they witnessed their senior madame being brutalized by the beast and finished off by its ability. What was most shocking was the expression of mockery that surfaced on the valley lord’s face when he paused the assimilation of the formation core.

He drew a cosmic artifact longsword and immediately ganged up on the senior madame. It was proof that everything had been premeditated. The super-zenith valley lord had assaulted an old major-zenith specter right as she had her full focus on assimilating the formation core! No matter how the rest turned out, that alone was a tragedy.

The small hall was suddenly filled with a terrifying force of order suppression. The valley lord’s super-zenith foundation fortress was able to suppress the eight elite specters of House Yumo, robbing them of their ability to even resist! The tensource beast and the oblivion-variant senior madame’s abilities flashed and clashed, each strike threateningly fatal and deafeningly loud.

”Valley Lord! What in the world is House Qitian planning?!” Yumo Diyan roared, but nobody answered him. The valley lord had been completely focused on ending things quickly since the moment he first swung his sword.

”Is that the Midsky Myriadpath Art?!” There were ten great steles in Myriadpath Valley that each contained a maniverse-class art. Each of the exalted houses possessed sole control over three of them, while the final one, the Midsky Myriadpath Stele, contained an art that only the valley lord could master. It was the strongest battle technique ever known in the astralscape of order!

Yumo Diyan saw through the white and crimson flames and noticed a myriad of swords surging forth from the valley lord’s body, attacking the senior madame in tandem with his tensource beast. All the swords pierced her heart in unison with elegance, grandiosity, and domination. The sword intent contained within each sword was enough to numb the sensation of elites on Yumo Diyan’s level.

The valley lord hadn’t shown his hand for a thousand years. only to suddenly strike fear of his caliber into the hearts of everyone. Those who hadn’t witnessed this personally would have believed that the valley lord was only a figurehead of the Three Exalted Houses, and that he couldn’t be much stronger than the houses’ own elites.

However, Yumo Diyan knew that he wouldn’t be able to take even a single one of the valley lord’s attacks, even in his prime of youth, let alone the aging senior madame who had been caught off guard! All he could do was watch as the senior madame kept shrieking as she was reduced to tiny pieces by the valley lord and his beast, pushed to the brink of death. There was no chance she could escape alive, injured as she was. She was no longer in any fighting shape.