Beastmaster of the Ages

A group of people from the Three Exalted Houses gathered near the Progenitor’s Altar. Among them were Qitian Xiao, the old patriarch, and the three leaders of the current generation.

Qitian Muyue was busy watching the Qingchuan hostages. Qitian Xiao had resealed Myriadpath Valley with the Midsky Myriadpath Stele, so it was rather unlikely that she would be able to sneak the hostages out. Most of them were old and frail, after all. They didn’t even have a choice in their own procreation, let alone escape. Even though she wasn’t present, no secrets were kept from her, so she knew what they had planned at all times.

The divine toxin still flowed within the valley lord’s body, making his eyes appear even more pale and ghastly than before.

”Where do the twenty august houses stand?” Qitian Muyu asked his father. The three leaders had been picking out members to send to Skydome while Qitian Xiao and the old patriarch held a secret meeting with the leaders of the august houses.

”They’re obedient and are willing to work with us on this. They also hold Li Tianming, Jian Qingfeng, Suishen Jiguang, and Suishen Xiyue as traitors that need to be admonished,” Qitian Xiao said.

”Is that so....”

Suishen Ranxing and Yumo Diyan looked at the old patriarch, who hesitated for a moment and said, ”Don’t worry. The august houses are deeply interlinked with us. They’re unlikely to do anything foolish. As for the sacred houses and below, they’re mostly a disorganized bunch that can’t really threaten us. Even if they wish to rebel, there’s nobody to lead them.”

”That means my dad’s order to execute House Fenglin achieved its desired effect,” Qitian Muyu said, breathing a sigh of relief.

Suishen Ranxing pondered a moment in silence and said, ”It isn’t easy to gauge the human heart. The august houses are only playing nice now because we still have the upper hand, while Jian Qingfeng’s side is weak.

”If we can get rid of Li Tianming, that faction will be defanged without us doing anything. They’ll once more fully submit themselves to the Three Exalted Houses’ might. But if something goes wrong and Tianming rises up, the august houses might cave to the so-called popular sentiment and rise up.”

Even though it wasn’t pleasant to hear that, everyone silently accepted it; they were well aware of Tianming’s influence in Myriadpath Valley. The infighting among the Three Exalted Houses had also planted seeds of resistance among the cultivators. One had to put their life on the line for rebellion, and unless they were forced to that point, it was unlikely for such a large group of people to be willing to join in.

”Suishen Ranxing’s right.” Yumo Diyan was pessimistic about the august houses as well.

”To summarize, this conflict is basically between the tens of thousands from our houses against those four traitors. The unaffiliated cultivators are neutral until one side gains the upper hand, right?” Qitian Muyu said.

It was a rather humiliating state of affairs for the Three Exalted Houses. They were the rulers of Myriadpath Valley, the lords over the august, sacred, and ancient houses, as well as the other cultivators! Even though it was tens of thousands against four traitors, it still felt unpleasant that they had come to this point in the first place.

If it weren’t for Qitian Xiao’s delusional dream of making his house the sole ruler over all others and their decade-long suppression of House Yumo, not to mention their instigation of the grudge, Jiguang and Suishen Xiyue wouldn’t have had the chance to do what they did and let Tianming rise so fast.

There would be no way for those four to pose a serious threat against the Three Exalted Houses otherwise. House Qitian was to blame for the battle at Progenitor’s Altar! As for the loss of the Grand Myriadpath Ruins, that wasn’t something strategy could have prevented. It was utterly out of the scope of anybody’s imagination.

”After we take down Li Tianming, we have to heavily clamp down on any rebellious sentiment so that those dogs no longer get any ideas about rebelling,” Yumo Diyan said. Even if he hadn’t said it out loud, everyone there knew what they had to do.

They were only sending people from the Three Exalted Houses to Skydome, a thousand in total. House Qitian sent four hundred while Houses Suishen and Yumo sent three hundred respectively.

As it was only a scouting mission, each member only had to be stronger than a rex mundi. Most of them were fifth- or sixth-level foundationeers, with the weakest being around Lan Yun or Huang Daolie’s level. They were led by three eminents, who were briefing them on their mission.

The copper coffin secret realm was incredibly important, so the leaders that were picked had to be absolutely trustworthy. The one from House Yumo was Yumo Qiangming, someone who had pursued Tianming within the Yin-Yang World, but hadn’t been able to keep up. House Qitian selected Qitian Muyu’s daughter, the second rank on the Maniverse Ranking, Qitian Yi. She was under two thousand years old.

They were the only eminents under the age of two thousand. House Suishen had once aspired to have someone on their level, but since Suishen Yue’s death before he reached the level of an eminent, House Suishen had sent out his sister, Suishen Qin, who was also Suishen Shuang’s aunt. She had just passed two thousand years of age and was in the same generation as Yumo Qiangming.

Qitian Xiao told them, ”Make sure to do nothing else but scout and gather information. None of you shall enter the copper coffin secret realm!”

”Yes!”

”Only focus on investigating and discovering weaknesses. Most importantly, transmit information back to us!”

”Understood!” The mission was important enough that they had to send high-value members from the younger generation. Since Qitian Muyue had reported that the copper coffin was safe from the outside, they weren’t too worried.

”No matter what you see, immediately return to Myriadpath Valley. Make sure there’s always someone near the stareye.” They had to be strict about those instructions, as it wasn’t possible to control where people went even with their myriadpath rings.

”Infiltrate the populace and uncover everything about Li Tianming. He’s still aboard the Grand Myriadpath Ruins, so it’ll take him at least a century to make it back. If things work out well, turn his home into a farm and devour all the lifebound beasts there.”

”It’s a shame that we have no idea where the Yumo Blood Crucible is. Otherwise we could even refine starblood with it.”

”We can use some other artifact as a replacement. They aren’t as efficient, but they still work.”

The members of the team were starting to get excited. All they knew about the copper coffin secret realm had come from Qitian Muyue, so they didn’t doubt her. The seniors felt relieved enough to let them scout out the mundus. They would be safe as long as they didn’t approach the copper coffin, and as long as Tianming wasn’t there to stop them. Little did they know that the Blissful Union had already set out after obtaining a list of the names of who was in the expedition!