Beastmaster of the Ages

Those were the circumstances created by the alliance of the Three Great Cults. Jiang Linxi and Mo Fan no longer had any cards left to play, but the Wargod Cult did. Xing Daoyin had wanted to pressure Jiang Linxi and Mo Fan and take the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb for themselves, only for Tianming to kill off all the geniuses from the Wargod Cult, leaving only Xing Baizhan alive. How could he possibly let that slide? If he didn’t work with the other two cults, there would be no way for him to explain the losses to the millions of members of the Wargod Cult.

”Long Qian, you have an opportunity to take control of those three stinkbugs. If you can’t bear to kill them, you can just capture them and hand them over. Not only will the Wargod Cult give you five million slaves, we’ll even give you a chance to return home!” Xing Daoyin said.

”Home?” Long Qian furrowed her brows even more.

”That’s right! Home!”

”Which home are you talking about?”

”The home of the Wargod Cult, of course!”

”So you want us to continue being slaves that transport middlekin stars for you? You want us to continue accepting your humiliation, trampling, and killing? And you’re calling that a home?!” Long Qian’s eyes turned bloodshot.

The members of the Three Great Cults suddenly laughed.

”Long Qian, isn’t that what you slaves are meant to do? You’re quite talented at that, don’t you know!”

”That’s right! That’s all lowborns like you are good for! What’d you expect? Did you want us to serve you instead?”

”Wake up! So what if you’re a fifth-level overflower? You’re still a slave at the end of the day! Take your clothes off and look at the brand on your back. That’s your status, as the Heavenly Dao has decreed! It was so in the past, is so in the present, and will continue to be so in the future for countless generations!”

”There’ll always be people at the bottom rung of the ladder to be stepped on. That’s the script life wrote for you slaves to perform! Did you think slaves like you would get a lead role in this play? Wake up from your delusion!”

”Who’d be slaves other than unruly sorts like you? You were born to be stepped on!”

”We gave you a home like dogs, so you should be wagging your tails in gratitude instead of glaring at us like that!”

Everyone had something hateful to throw their way, to the point that the words became a murmur of unrecognizable noise. Everyone contemptuously smiled at the dragonoids.

”Long Qian, come home! At the very least, you won’t have to be transporting middlekin stars. We still need you to oversee the other slaves!” Xing Daoyin gleefully said.

”Surely you wouldn’t send three million of your kind to their deaths over three outsiders, would you?” Xing Daoshan said.

”Second Brother, Long Qian’s a sentimental person! She definitely knows which choice is the right one to make!” Xing Daohe laughed.

”Hahahaha!”

”What a joke!”

”Did these dogs the Heavenly Dao’s judged to be slaves think they’d be able to rise up?”

The piercing laughter enraged the dragonoids, though they didn’t say anything. They had no right to speak. Everyone turned to Long Qian to see what kind of answer she would give.

”Long Qian!” Xing Daoyin, Mo Fan, and Jiang Linxi yelled to pressure her.

”Come home! Xing Baizhan said you’re quite a talented fighter and wants to spar more with you. You alone are worth more than a million slaves! That’s why you won’t live a bad life. You’re an empress among the slaves! You deserve a good life!”

”Come home!”

The mocking laughter felt like sharp blades that mercilessly pierced toward her. Long Qian clenched her fists tight and looked at the Mountain God. Taking a deep breath, her eyes darkened. With her head lowered and eyes tearing up, she struggled to say, ”Very well....”

The dragonoids felt their innards being ripped apart when they heard her.

”Sigh!” Everyone looked down and grit their teeth, tears flowing.

The five million cult members endlessly laughed.

”Slaves are slaves at the end of the day.”

”They’re already used to kneeling, so what’s to be embarrassed about? I bet their knees have hardened from all that groveling. There’s no need to be shy anymore.”

”The slave race is truly low. No worries, we have tons of them!”

The laughter persisted for a long while.

***

Within the three ships, the descendants of the flameyellow divinities were kept locked up within divine astralship formations. They could see and hear everything outside, even the things within the Cosmic God Palace. When Long Qian had assented, everyone squinted with disbelief. They looked down as their tears uncontrollably flowed. Every face in the dim lighting revealed a look full of despair.

”Mom, will everything stay the same? Is nothing ever going to change?” a boy asked, looking at the woman beside him who didn’t say a single word.

”I knew it! I knew it!” The boy grabbed his mother’s arm. ”I hate you! Why’d you even give birth to me?! There’s so many good things in life that a slave like me can’t have! No matter how hard I work, we’ll always be looked down on! What’s the point of living?!”

The woman blankly stared at him and couldn’t think of a single thing to say.

”Tell me! Why’d you give birth to me?!” The boy glared at her with rage.

The woman shook as tears blurred her vision. ”If we don’t procreate after the age of two thousand, we’ll be put to death.... I’m afraid of dying!”

”Because of that, you let me be born just to suffer! If I were you, I’d choose death!” The boy burst out crying in pain.

”Little Yuan, stop crying, please?” She hugged him as her tears continued flowing.

”Mom... I’m filled with hate! I don’t want to live like this! Every day, I cultivate with all I have in hopes of changing my life, but I can’t see any trace of hope! I’m tired! I don’t have anything but hate!” Eventually, the boy softened. He knew that hating his mother was a cowardly display.

”Everyone else is the same.... At least we aren’t alone, right?” the woman said.

”Not alone....” The boy shook. He looked up and saw the other seniors looking at him. The same blood flowed in all of their veins. Every one of them had felt what he was now feeling. ”You’re right. At the very least, we aren’t alone! Everyone’s nice, so my life wasn’t a complete waste! But just as I thought we finally had some hope, this is how it turns out....”

All of them had been heartbroken when Long Qian looked down. They had been willing to embrace death if it meant two million of their kind would be able to safely leave, but they couldn’t even do that! The ones who could make the choice were Long Qian and her overflowers, but who could blame them? It was three million lives, six if they included the lifebound beasts! Who could possibly condemn them all for the sake of three people?!