Beastmaster of the Ages

Sovereign Xi's eyes were wide with flabbergastment. She wanted to go out, but slumped back into her throne instead. She scratched her head and muttered, "Lianlian, We can't be sick, are We? Why are We seeing things?"

She looked to her side, but there was no one there. She had killed the imperial guide and crushed all the transmission stones. She was on the brink of a breakdown, something she had never experienced before.

"What kind of joke is this? Even if he's a few levels above Us and could fight fifty thousand ascendants at once, he couldn't possibly hunt down the eighty thousand scattered throughout the entire continent."

It simply didn't make sense! She was a confident person, but now she didn't even believe in herself. Stabilizing her thoughts, she stood up and decided to look into the situation. The retreating troops just so happened to arrive on time. Yueshen Xu's face was completely pale as he knelt before her, almost fully prostrating. His eyes were filled with tears when he looked up.

"Speak," the sovereign coldly said.

"Your Majesty, like our reports from the transmission stones, we've lost a hundred and fifty thousand."

"Hehe.... Why is someone of your status joking around? You'll die, you know," She chuckled.

"Your Majesty...." He kept his head on the ground, knowing that this was too big a shock to her system.

"Then tell me how the eighty thousand scattered troops were picked out across the entire continent."

"Your humble servant doesn't know either! When we arrived with the next three hundred thousand, he tossed a hundred thousand heads at us and began slaughtering away. He looked like he had ten thousand totems, all of them swords of around two meters in length. However, they were all incredibly powerful. We weren't able to stop the assault at all and quickly lost another fifty thousand even after retreating."

"Ten thousand totems? Are you sick in the head?"

"Your Majesty, the other two hundred and fifty thousand that returned with me can testify to it."

Sovereign Xi's smile froze stiff. She closed her lips and deeply looked at her general.

"Hehehehe...." She suddenly started laughing heavily. No matter how much she didn't want to believe it, these were indeed facts. She had thought that there would be no turning the situation around for Tianming, but he had done just that. As fantastical as the report had sounded, she had undoubtedly lost a hundred and fifty thousand troops.

"Did I lose out of nowhere, just like that?" She didn't know about the legacy of the Primordial God-Emperor, which was something that went far beyond the scope of her knowledge. As she endured the revelation, her face began contorting as killing intent simmered in her body to the point that she couldn't stand it any longer and vomited a mouthful of black blood. Some still trailed from the corner of her lips.

"Impossible! Impossible!" Her heart felt like it was bleeding. She had even sacrificed the imperial guide for this very goal. While Tianming was growing harder and harder to deal with, she had gotten her grasp on his weakness. Yet how could he possibly have turned everything around just like that? Her confidence had been completely crushed. She didn't understand his Imperial Will, nor could she understand the Omnisentient Threads at all. This was her largest loss as of late. The death of her parents and the breach of the formation didn't seem like anything that could compare.

"Leave!" she howled like a madwoman, her hair all messed up. Her calculating beauty from before was nowhere to be seen.

Yueshen Xu lowered his head and crawled out of the palace. She was left alone within the large building, blood still trailing from her mouth; the mere thought of Tianming was bad for her heart.

"Your Majesty, urgent news! The astral killer showed up at Yangguo Manor! All three thousand people there were killed!"

"Your Majesty, the killer appeared at North Street and is still slaughtering away!"

Reports came one after the other through transmission stones, causing another bout of blood vomiting. She was being attacked on both sides. Among the two men, one had rebelled and another was ruthless. She'd thought she had a full grasp on the entire situation just moments ago, but oh how wrong she was.

"We just got a huge blow, and We have to deal with this now? You're not letting Us catch a breather, are you?" Her gaze was unbelievably cold. "Hehe... hehehe...."

It seemed like there was no way out of this. "Li Tianming couldn't possibly have grown that much stronger. He must have used some kind of special method to weed them out. If We can't deal with him now, We will eventually die at his hands, let alone fail to breakthrough. That killer is still pushing Our boundaries more and more. We have no way of dealing with him. As long as he's still here, We can't leave. If he knows We're not around, he'll start killing with abandon. Another hundred thousand royals might be lost from that."

She was at the cliff's edge and out of options. The more she stayed put, the worse it seemed to get. Not to mention, Tianming and the killer both hated the divine moonrace. If she couldn't hold on, her entire race would never rise again.

"Lianlian, should I seek the help of the celestial orderians?" She looked into the darkness ahead of her as she slumped into her throne. It was as if the imperial guide was still there. Her eyes welled up with tears again and she shook her head. "No, I can't fail. If the celestial orderians come, the killer will be dealt with but my breakthrough preparations will be for naught."

That was the only thing on her mind. "I can't lose. I won't lose! I've prepared for this for centuries and even lost you, Lianlian...."

She squirmed about in the darkness, wanting to hug someone, but she touched only air. "People I care about, eh...."

As her tears flowed, she suddenly looked into the distance. "No wonder you've always ignored Our charms. You were charmed by someone already. I heard the girl that showed up outside the palace is young and as beautiful as a goddess. Even Our own troops were moved by her beauty. While your dynasty might no longer be your weakness, what about that girl? Can you bear losing her?"

She began to cackle loudly in the darkness. "People should never fall in love! It's only a liability! We've already abandoned Lianlian, so what's the point in caring about the rest of the divine moonrace? As long as I grow powerful, we can all rise up and prosper again, so there's no point in defending Divine Moon Skycity any longer."

They had already lost a hundred and fifty thousand of their own, so what was another two hundred and fifty thousand? The deaths of the previous troops made her resolve pointless. She no longer cared about the rest and wanted to give it a final struggle. She had only one goal: the stunning girl that showed up outside the palace.

"Yueshen Xu!" she called as she left the palace compound.

"Your Majesty," he greeted as he hurried over.

"Heed my decree! Bring two hundred and fifty thousand people to the continent. Have them scatter before leaving!"

"But, Your Majesty—"

"Did you not hear me clearly?"

Yueshen Xu's body shook. Wasn't this a suicidal order? Little did he know that she intended to go down herself. Even if they died, she wanted to use them to hold Tianming back so that she could locate that girl, Tianming's actual weakness. She was going to give up on the capital entirely.

In the darkness of night, only evil was visible on her beautiful face.