Beastmaster of the Ages

Qingyu grimaced. ”Huh? We don’t need to do that, right?”

”We do! Why not? Don’t worry, I’m not Feng, so I don’t mind if you’re ugly,” Tianming said with a smile. ”I’ll take you somewhere without anyone else around. That should be fine, right?”

She grit her teeth for a moment and reluctantly agreed. ”Fine, I’ll do it since you just gave me an imperial-class artifact.” That weapon had been taken from Xing Han and was called the Moonvoid Daemon. It would be powerful enough to last Qingyu up to the fifth level of the Overflow stage.

Tianming took her to a secret room within the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb. ”Alright, start your performance!”

”Big Brother, there really isn’t anyone else here, right?” Qingyu asked.

Ying Huo, Meow Meow, Lan Huang, Xian Xian, Ji Ji, and Bai Ye chorused, ”Nobody! No humans at least!”

Qingyu looked at them speechlessly.

”Ignore the fools,” Tianming said.

”Fine! The hell-rings of devas are a sign of their talent and they won’t ever change for the rest of their lives. The world they’re connected to has a few layers, so I’m sure my twofold hell-ring can only connect me to the lowest class of ghoul. Once the contract is signed, I can’t change types any more. But as I grow stronger, I’ll be able to reach out to stronger ghouls of the same type.”

”Are you saying that even if I kill Zhantian Feng’s spinwheel ghoul, he’ll eventually get a new one?” Tianming asked.

”No. Once a ghoul dies, other ghouls would no longer be willing to go through that hell-ring. They can’t be compelled to come.”

”Alright.” In other words, Zhantian Feng had chosen spinwheel ghouls to fight for him for the rest of his life. There was no way for him to switch types unless he changed hell-rings entirely. As he grew stronger, the spinwheel ghoul that fights for him would also grow stronger, but they won’t be the same exact ghoul. ”This world really contains so many interesting variations. Sounds like the devas have their own interesting techniques as well.”

Tianming had met wonderians and devas so far. However, there had been no sign of the ebon-like ashuras so far. The Three Divine Races were rather interesting, to say the least.

”I’m going to start now,” Qingyu said.

”Don’t worry too much. Nobody will mind your appearance in combat. You’re already really pretty. Think about it, isn’t Zi Zhen kinda cute even though she fights like a monster?” Tianming said.

”You’re right!” Qingyu laughed.

”And if Feng dares to be creeped out, I’ll beat him up,” Tianming said.

”He wouldn’t dare!” she said with a humph. She seemed rather confident about that at least.

”Let’s start.” Tianming then addressed the gray coffin in his lifebound space. ”My precious, if you know what’s good for you, don’t be in such a rush like last time. If they don’t run away next time after lifelinking with their users, you’ll have a chance to devour them in the future!”

The coffin’s dead-fish eyes shone as if it had understood his words.

”Of course, you won’t be allowed to eat my sister’s ghoul, since she needs it for fighting! We’re just testing things out, alright? If it works, we’ll know what to do to get more and more ghouls for you to eat in the future!” As Tianming spoke, Qingyu activated her hell-ring. She stood facing him, so he couldn’t see the ring on her back. All he could see was black smoke rising from behind her and billowing out around her.

Her divine lunar aura morphed into one filled with death and killing intent. She seemed like a fiend from hell even before transforming into the three-headed, six-armed form of the devas!

Tianming furrowed his brows, instinctively disliking the devan power. The only reason he was able to accept Qingyu using it was because the flameyellow ancestors had taken the cosmic god blood of the Eightpart Pantheons and made it into a weapon to be used against them.

”It’s coming!” Qingyu’s eyes snapped open in the gray mist. The hell-ring audibly opened, letting out a frosty aura of death. Tianming watched as a pair of pale white arms pressed against Qingyu’s shoulders. Then a female ghoul with a deathly face and unkempt hair dressed in white emerged from her back and peeked around. It rested its chin on her shoulder and looked at Tianming.

”It’s a darkanguish ghoul! I think it’s the strongest one available to twofold hell-rings!” Qingyu turned around and looked into the eyes of the darkanguish ghoul, whose lower body was still within the hell-ring.

”Well it doesn’t look ugly at all!” Tianming said. The ghoul did seem rather pale, but at least it still had human facial features. He could feel the coffin in his lifebound space shaking with excitement.

”Phew! I was lucky,” Qingyu said.

”Lifelink with it,” Tianming said.

”Let me try.” She stretched out her arms and hugged the darkanguish ghoul in a sisterly fashion. Then Tianming watched as the ghoul crawled out of the hell-ring and fused into Qingyu’s body. Its deathly aura radiated out from her and visibly boosted her combat capabilities. Her face turned incredibly pale as cracks formed near her eyes. Her lips turned white and green veins surfaced all over her body. She looked down at Tianming, seemingly intent on actually killing him! It was creepy, but it no doubt boosted her power.

The hell-ring is closed after the lifelink forms! So the ghoul can’t flee very fast even if it wants to! As that thought occurred to him, his body began changing as well. A dead-fish eye appeared on his chest and stared at Qingyu, who shook and instinctually took a step back. However, it seemed that the ghoul itself didn’t consciously register that fear and continued baring its fangs at Tianming.

”Good! Alright, Eighth, go back. I’ll capture some ghouls for you soon. Hold back when it comes to my sister,” Tianming said as he patted his chest. He had thought that Eighth would be annoying to deal with like Bai Ye had been, but it seemed to listen to reason and disappeared from Tianming’s chest as it was told.

Qingyu used the last bit of her reason to undo the lifelink before opening her hell-ring and letting the darkanguish ghoul back through.

”Can you increase the folds of your hell-ring?” Tianming asked.

”There’s a lot more peak-tier cosmic-god blood in the Original Sin pool. All the abilities of the Eightpart Pantheons can be upgraded, but I need to grow stronger to inherit them first,” Qingyu said.

”That’s great. You’ll be incredible once you summon the strongest ghoul!” Tianming said.

”Yeah!”

Just then, many Yin Chens yelled, ”Emergency notice!”

”What is it?”

”Prey entered... surveillance region!”

”Oh?” Tianming said to Eighth, ”I wasn’t lying, you see! You’ll have something to feast on soon!”