Beastmaster of the Ages

The thought that he would become a skeleton as well and be nailed onto a pole in the lake made Tianming feel butterflies in his stomach. Right at that moment, he heard an alluring female voice ring out from behind him.

"Dearie, why would you come here? It's getting cold out here. You wouldn't want to catch a cold, would you?"

He felt his hairs stand on end. Closing his eyes, he carefully withdrew his hand from the formation. He turned back and saw a lightly dressed woman, smiling at him. The moonlight seemed to add a sheen of luster to her skin that was adorned by her lustrous hair. The curve of her smile made her look like a pixie under the moonlight, exuding boundless womanly seduction. Anyone who saw it would unconsciously feel a thirst, but Tianming felt only a threat.

However, he wasn't someone that couldn't control his impulses. After seeing the skeletons, he immediately perceived her as a venomous snake, and he was probably its next target. But in an instant, he calmed himself and feigned ignorance, turning to meet the sovereign's gaze.

"Why aren't you resting this late at night? Finding it hard to sleep in a foreign place? Feeling a little homesick? Do you need consolation?" she said as she approached.

"I thought this was my home now," Tianming said.

"That's right. It's your first day in your new home. One would think that you'd be able to rest easier with a warm hug, right?" Between her lazy-sounding words, she had already made her way in front of Tianming, looking closely at his eyes. Her eyes seemed to be smiling as well.

Being so close to her, Tianming could smell the fragrance she exuded. Sovereign Xi stretched out a hand and placed it against Tianming's cheek, then tugged his head to angle his gaze toward her twin peaks. She whispered in his ear, "Do you like it? You can do anything you want, you know."

As tempting as it was, Tianming immediately recalled the skeletons and knew the consequences of succumbing to it. Ying Huo, save me!

Tianming had no choice but to use his ultimate move. Before the sovereign could push his face into her bosom, a little red phoenix appeared between them, staring wide eyed at the both of them.

"Damn, this is some radical shit! Beauty, how did you do it?! It's too amazing! Can I touch it?" Ying Huo asked, perched on Tianming's head. It immediately turned the situation awkward.

"I'm really sorry." Tianming hurried to pull back Ying Huo and took a few steps back. "This beast hasn't been properly tamed."

"Nonsense! I don't need your taming!" Ying Huo struggled free. "Beauty, I consider myself a connoisseur of all things concerning human mating rituals. May I be granted the precious opportunity to observe your upcoming session of intercourse? Worry not, for I will stay silent and do nothing but watch... from a close distance, that is."

Sovereign Xi merely stared blankly at Ying Huo without reacting.

"Wait, surely that can't be a refusal? That won't do! Someone like you must be incredibly experienced! Please teach me your ways!" Ying Huo begged.

"Hahaha..." Sovereign Xi couldn't hold back her laughter after a few moments. "Your lifebound beast truly is interesting."

"As a result of being a wildbeast before the blood pact, its nature is wild and hard to control. I worry that its mental faculties suffered as a result," Tianming said.

"Hey!" Are you calling me a retard for stepping out to save you?! "Nonsense. My request was nothing but reasonable."

After laughing for a while, Sovereign Xi turned to Ying Huo. "For a lifebound beast bound by a blood pact to grow to this degree is rare indeed."

"I only wish its intelligence kept up with its growth," Tianming said. The move was effective as expected. Its googly eyes could defuse even the tensest of situations. It seemed that Sovereign Xi wouldn��t continue pressing her seduction, and more fortunately, she wasn't aware that Tianming had already seen the lake of blood. He was relieved to have dodged that bullet.

It'll be difficult to save Feng! However, I have to be ready before I'm exposed. Since he had chosen to risk coming here, he cast his fear away.

Sovereign Xi no longer seemed interested in flirting. "We brought the manna you desired. Don't go running around next time. We wasted quite some time locating you. The palace is really big, you know?"

"Understood! It was my fault." He secretly rejoiced that he had learned what he had. Otherwise, he wouldn't know what had happened to the rest.

"Aren't you curious why there's only the two of us here?"

"I am a little."

"All of them angered Us, so We killed them. They��re buried within this lake," she said without warning.

While Tianming couldn't see her expression under the mask, he was shocked to hear that. Turning back to look, he said, "Surely Your Majesty jests...."

"It was a joke, of course. They��re all cultivating in Nullity Hall. Our concubines are all geniuses in their own right. They make up Our strongest fighting force and are in charge of administration and security. When you grow up, you��ll join them. Perhaps you might even take your place by Our side one day."

"Understood! I will endeavor to work hard like my seniors!"

"They��re all working hard to repay Us. So, sometimes, you��ll be the only one from whom We can seek company. We��re lonely, you know."

"I will do my best." Enough nonsense! Hand me the manna!

As if she heard his inner thoughts, Sovereign Xi removed a white-jade ring from her finger and placed it in his palm. "There��s eighteen universal manna in total. The ones of the highest grade among them have four stars. Since you have four lifebound beasts, I prepared four of the highest grade. If your beasts fail to evolve with those, use the others. These treasures are now yours. Even though we see no good use for manna, it must be unimaginably precious for the rootbeast race. And now these treasures are all yours, just because you're someone We dearly wish to spoil."

Tianming received it. She was generous indeed, though Tianming wasn't in a grateful mood at all. All he had his mind on was trying to dig this femme fatale's gold dry. Perhaps that might just be what he needed to survive! "I��m extremely grateful, Your Majesty."

"Me too, beauty! Are you going to do it after all? Quick, I can't wait!" Ying Huo said.

"Damn you, stupid bird!" Tianming smacked it on the head.

"Hehehe...." Sovereign Xi turned around and chuckled before taking her leave. Not long after, she vanished from their sight.

"We'll have plenty of time to enjoy ourselves." Her last words reverberated in Tianming's ears.

"I succeeded in defending your chastity today!" Ying Huo said as it posed, wings on its waist.

"We already got what we wanted, so get back inside!" Tianming stuffed it back into the lifebound space and was about to head back to Origin Hall. As he left, he turned to look at the blood pool behind him one last time. "Let's hope that isn��t how my story ends. If she's going to be that cruel, she can't blame me for returning the favor."

Now, his eyes were far colder than before. Nobody else knew what the lake really was.

......

Since there wasn't anyone else around, Tianming let his beasts roam freely around Origin Hall; it was large enough for them anyway. Though they were a little noisy, they took a little bit away from the eerie silence in the area.

"Since I'm able to act freely in Divine Moon Skycity, doesn't that mean I can also leave as I please? There's a defensive formation of the highest caliber here. Not even Bodhi has come here yet. It's plain that Huiyue Hai saw me leaving the Veneramoon Formation though. The fact that they didn't inquire more into it must mean they think the formation malfunctioned."

So far, Sovereign Xi might still be unaware of his ability to nullify formations. Having seen what he had tonight, he decided to make plans for what he intended to do. He had the Prime Tower and his Plundering Arm as fallback plans.

With backup plans in mind, he intended to enrich himself as much as possible to gain more power for even more options. Among them, manna was the one thing he looked forward to gaining the most from the sovereign. She was the ruler of the entire Divine Moon Realm, so she definitely possessed the best manna obtainable. Since the divine moonrace didn't have any need for them, they had plenty of manna to go around, which was to Tianming's benefit.

Ying Huo and the rest's current star count of about a thousand was considered average at the Ascension stage. But that aside, Tianming was more concerned about unlocking their bloodline aspects than using the manna to strengthen them.

"This is something I can't get from the wondersky realm." The cultivation resources in the wondersky realm were exclusively ethereal and abstract, whereas weapons, manna, and the stellunar source were only available in corporeal reality. Now, he finally had access to manna and a stellunar source as planned.

"Since she has plans for my life, I shouldn't get too hung up on using her treasures," Tianming said.

"Yep, you shouldn't. Not even if you suck her entire realm dry," Ying Huo said.

"That's right. Then don't hold back on me."

"Who's going to hold back? Enough chit chat. Give me the goods, bring out all eighteen of them! Let me pick!" Ying Huo said, jumping up and down.

"What's the rush?"

"How can I not rush? I'm already a divine beast! I can't wait to unlock some bloodline shackles and see if I can grow a little larger! I don't want to be a little chicken for life!"