Beastmaster of the Ages

The Ninedragon Imperial Tomb’s bombardment caused the illusory and astralguard formations to explode. Countless divine celestial patterns crumbled in an instant, revealing Aoyue Palace and the astral continent it was built on. It looked like an opulent palace in the middle of nowhere; most people wouldn’t even suspect enough to look.

”My formations!” Li Aoyue’s calm demeanor immediately crumbled.

When the smoke scattered, it revealed a terrifying nine-headed mechanical dragon in the sky.

”What in the world is that?!” Ambassador Mu’s eyes widened. She had never heard of such a ship before and her panic grew. ”What kind of faction just attacked your Middlekin Star Ruin?”

”It’s Long Qian!” Li Aoyue shrieked. He had just been looking down on her moments ago! ”Long Qian! How dare you destroy my palace’s formations? I’ll massacre your people right away!”

Even though his voice was loud, the sound coming from the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb was even louder. It didn’t stop and rapidly descended toward the palace!

”Run!” Aoyue Palace wasn’t much bigger than the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb. When the ship descended, it tore apart the opulent building with its claws and tail, reducing it to shreds. Countless cult members scurried away in a panic. The palace was gone, just like that, and even Li Aoyue and the ambassador had been forced to run!

”Long Qian, you truly are foolishly bold! You must’ve gone insane! The cult leader won’t let you livestock get away with this!” Li Aoyue spat, blood boiling. This was his base, and it had been completely destroyed!

One of the dragon heads opened up, revealing a door. Ten thousand overflower dragonoids emerged with their dragon lifebound beasts, surrounded by dragon-shaped totems. The dragon cavalry had come and they immediately charged toward Li Aoyue and the rest!

One of the leaders was Long Kui, the great elder. His lifebound beast was a huge golden dragon with an incredibly large head, packed with a fearsome mouth. At the sixth level, it was a hundred meters long and densely packed with astrons. While it was only a nine-crest beast, its combat capabilities far outstripped that of Qitian Xiao’s tensource beast!

The cosmic crest beasts of the Upper Star Ruin were easily much more powerful than their beastmasters—with the exception of flameyellow divinities, who had totems that allowed them to rival their beasts in power.

The other leader of the group was naturally Long Qian. Clad in black armor that accentuated her powerful physique, she came charging, mounted on her black nine-headed dragon, and wielding a lance a hundred meters long, surrounded by nine dragon totems. It was truly an impactful sight! The heroism she was exuding was off the charts! Her totems and lifebound beast were similar to her brother, Long Chen’s, just more powerful.

After leaving the ship, she immediately locked on to Li Aoyue. ”Great Elder, we’ll each take one.” She charged toward Li Aoyue, seemingly becoming one with her beast and totems, turning into a black spear with her lance at the tip as she shot toward her target.

”Very well!” Li Aoyue angrily looked at everyone. ”You’re nothing but a weak mob! We’ll fight here and wait for reinforcements! Even though your Great Elder’s a sixth-level overflower, he’s already at death’s door at his age! There’s no way he can take you on. As for Long Qian, a slave like her only has nine-crest talent. Even with her totems, her simulacra are useless. The star count of her beast isn’t even a third as high as mine. Watch me crush her!”

The slaves had always been oppressed due to having the weakest talent. Li Aoyue’s huge body rose and mounted an even bigger silver fiendwolf. The wolf was a 14-crest beast with a star count of more than forty million, being of a rather noble bloodline. Multiplied by fourteen, it had a total star count of more than five hundred million!

Even though the difference between ninesource and 14-crest beasts didn’t seem that large, it was almost certainly not the case. The distance between fivesource and tensource beasts alone represented an insane gap. Fivesource beastmasters were equivalent to normal pentabeastmasters, whereas tensource beastmasters were powerful enough to become the valley lord of Myriadpath Valley!

Li Aoyue had a huge advantage in the beast department. Even though he hadn’t fought Long Qian before, fighting slaves had never been an issue, especially when there was a level gap between them as well.

”Die!” The ten thousand dragonoids leaped toward the thousand-plus Scorchmoon Cult members and temporarily had a numerical advantage. Long Qian and Li Aoyue, both huge overflower astral gods, clashed at the center of the battlefield. One was fifty meters tall, and the other was forty!

The two of them weren’t that far off from true astral giants in Tianming’s eyes. But to overflowers, that didn’t seem too odd. The world itself was already huge beyond measure, so growing in size didn’t feel too odd. The only thing that changed was one’s frame of reference—overflowers were still as agile and fierce as they used to be. They weren’t huge, foundationeers were simply too small! To the likes of overflowers, fortuna-class nova source worlds and astralships were still incredibly large.

”How laughable! You’re just a slave!” Li Aoyue’s silver wolf was his main means of combat. He himself played more of a support role when mounted on it. Beastmasters of the Upper Star Ruin tended to use such tactics, so they would often train in techniques that suppressed the enemy rather than directly engaging them. Their cosmic artifacts also reflected that choice. Li Aoyue personally used a galactic whip that left a trail of stars in its wake.

The whip shot toward Long Qian as the silver wolf spat out silver mist that turned into thousands of astral swords. But Long Qian didn’t seem to fear the barrage in the slightest. Her nine-headed dragon sped up, with each head unleashing a different ability! Her dragon totems, on the other hand, gathered around her hundred-meter-long lance right as Li Aoyue’s whip wrapped around it.

Just as he was about to laugh, Long Qian’s cold eyes took a furious turn. The nine dragon totems passed through his whip and directly attacked Li Aoyue, causing his upper body to explode!

It all happened in an instant. The nine-headed dragon accelerated, bringing Long Qian even closer to Li Aoyue. Like a dragon knight, she thrust her lance and pierced through!

Li Aoyue’s head exploded as he let out a deafening cry. Long Qian hoisted his body up, still pierced on her lance, as their lifebound beasts got into a biting match. She immediately delivered another three thousand thrusts with her lance and made a pincushion out of Li Aoyue.

”Long Qian, you lowly slave! How dare you touch me?! You’ll die a miserable death!” Li Aoyue cried.

”Looks like the one dying today isn’t me,” Long Qian said before she launched a final thrust that caused Li Aoyue’s body to completely crumble. He had died from just a single exchange!

”Did you think someone of your caliber could look down on my kind?” Long Qian smirked, then rose into the air once more.