Beastmaster of the Ages

Most of the friends and family of the troops lived in Feng Universe City. Once the defensive formation of the city was taken down, they couldn’t run even if they wanted to!

”No, don’t!”

”Li Tianming, you will pay for your heinous sins!”

”Curse you, you fiend! Aaaaaah!” Another rain of cosmic-god essences fell on Feng Universe City. One after another, the soldiers fell and succumbed to their wounds. Their harsh words of sanction against Tianming had turned into sorrowful cries.

”Do you not yield? Then I will keep hitting until you do!” Tianming didn’t hold back at all and even killed quite a few primalwingers outright. As the army scattered, he spent quite a bit of time wrapping out the battle, but he eventually gathered fifty million essences, thirty million of which belonged to low-leveled cosmic gods.

In other words, most of the cosmic gods in Grand Feng had been captured. They were crippled into their essence forms and taken away as hostages. They used to be rather arrogant, but once they learned of Tianming’s true terror, fear didn’t even begin to describe what they felt. The fifty million essences were brought into the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb and piled up together even as they continued whining nonstop. It made for quite the impressive sight.

Tianming entered the ship and shut the door. ”Shut up!”

The chatter quieted down in an instant as the essences kept their perception fearfully on the humanoid monster.

”Anyone else with something left to say?” Tianming looked around, but not a sound was made. ”You are nothing but pathetic trash, yet you dare to discuss what I do?”

He smirked and piloted the ship out of Grand Feng, leaving it ravaged and empty. The mound and universe cities within were completely broken through with many cosmic gods taken hostage. Even though the astralguard formation remained intact, the damage they had suffered chilled the souls of the primalwingers. After all, only one person had been responsible for all of this! Tianming had single handedly crushed an entire maniverse-class world! As they left, none of the essences made a sound. While they still feared the Eightpart Pantheons just as much, they at least began to fear Tianming as well.

”Feng Linxue, is this exciting enough? Don’t worry, there’s even more of this to come,” Tianming muttered as he turned back to look at the ice-blue star.

***

The big rainbow divine-wonder ball finally breached Grand Yue’s astralguard formation and reached the surface of the world. The army of ninety million cosmic gods had arrived like a meteor shower. The primalwingers across many cities watched the wondermancers of the Tian Jiu Cult in despair.

”Fear not! We can abandon our cities and escape into the wilderness! They can’t kill all of us! They don’t have control over the astralguard formation, so once the army of the Eightpart Pantheons arrive, they’ll have dug their own graves!” Yue Cheng said as he gave the order to scatter. They moved really quickly and were mostly spread out by the time the Tian Jiu Cult made it in.

”They know that our goal is to thin their numbers!”

”This is troubling...”

The adherents turned to their pope for instructions, but he didn’t seem troubled.”Everyone, take one of these metal insects. They will guide you to hunt your enemies down.”

”What is that?” The army looked ahead blankly and noticed a swarm of metal insects flying past them, landing in their palms.

”Start moving... you fool!” the insects cried to different people.

”What in the world?” They looked at their pope, flabbergasted.

”Didn’t you hear them? The insects asked you to move, so move! Do whatever they tell you to!” Tian Jue ordered.

”Yes!” The troops then started to spread apart. Those high up above could see the wondermancers move together in orderly formations rather than scattering randomly. It was as if every one of them received really specific instructions.

”It is true...” Mo Lingji didn’t know how else to describe this.

”Each insect is connected to the same mind, completely in sync with the rest. Our army has gained swarm intelligence!” Xing Yuantian watched the whole thing unfold, stupefied.

”What kind of insects are these? Isn’t it more like the most powerful hive mind in the universe?!”

The other paladins were all shocked by the terror that Yin Chen posed. It was able to give individual missions to all ninety million troops without causing them to collide with one another. They followed the insects’ instructions and passed each other by, focused on their own respective tasks.

Mo Lingji said, ”These insects must be something the ancestor granted that kid! It’s a miracle! Only the ancestor is capable of something that transcends this universe!”

”The ghoul army must be part of it too.”

”The ancestor is far too powerful!” They began to tear up emotionally.

”Shut the... hell up... I have... nothing to... do with... your ancestor,” Yin Chen said.

”Huh?” The pope and his paladins were stunned.

”Your ancestor... is nothing... but a... single concubine... of my... son Tianming! Stop being... so arrogant!” Yin Chen said.

”Hahahaha...” They all laughed awkwardly.

”It’s just the musings of an insect, pay it no heed,” said the pope.

”Haha, that’s right...” The paladins hurriedly agreed.