Beastmaster of the Ages

All of the albi in Bodhi's body appeared to be shaking, his every drop of blood bellowing. The blood of the fiendgods that flowed in his veins was the very same that flowed in his ancestors' across two hundred thousand years, collected and distilled through the generations. Not a single drop of blood belonged to Bodhi himself.

"If I don't go against them, won't we never achieve our goal?" Little You asked, confused.

"Little You, there are some things in this world that can only be achieved through deception and tricks. You don't have to pay too much attention to the details. When it works out, I'll bring the revived Ninefold Held to the realm of chaos and we'll never return. That way, no matter how talented those two are, they won't be able to chase us down. They won't be able to reach the realm of chaos," Bodhi said.

"That sounds about right. Also, even if they survive all of this, they won't even want to care about us anymore." The eyes of the little girl began to look sadistic and hate filled. It seemed like a sea of blood had swallowed her small body whole. "Daddy, I can't wait any longer. I hear Mother and Brother's voices, as well as those of my many uncles and seniors. They're all urging me to fulfill the most important mission of my life! The descendants of the ones who brought us doom that lasted for two hundred millennia shall be repaid in blood!" Little You's white eyes were marked with hundreds of bloody capillaries, turning them entirely red.

"You aren't the only one," Bodhi said, smiling for the third time, but far more sinisterly than before. "Every drop of blood in my body is telling me what I need to do next to vent the pent-up hate of our race." Every single word he said made his tongue shake. "The Divine Moon Realm and Flameyellow Continent have both sinned! Not a single one of them is innocent. Since they inherited the blood of their ancestors, they've also inherited their blood debt. It isn't something they can escape."

The hatred for the deaths of his wife, son, and fellow kin compounded upon the hatred he had inherited from countless prior generations. The pitiful ancestors that had killed themselves in the dark, lonely world all howled from the bottom of their hearts through the blood in Bodhi's body.

"Daddy, what are we waiting for?"

"We're waiting for them to leave the mooncore. After that, we'll go in." Having seen the death of Sovereign Xi, even if Tianming wasn't his match yet, he no longer wanted to fight him or Feiling. People like them were full of hidden secrets; it would be almost impossible to tell if they still had random trump cards that could kill him if he tried attacking them, so caution was of the utmost importance.

"There's no need for us to get into conflict with them now. But when they realize that things are in motion, it'll be far too late." He stroked his daughter's head and gently said, "Little You, after experiencing so much, I came to understand that the best way to give someone payback isn't killing them. Instead, it's better to let them live and be unable to forgive themselves for the rest of their lives. They'll have to live in endless pain and torture. That's the gift I'm preparing for Li Tianming."

……

Tianming drew a cold breath in the void. It was a world that simply didn't make sense. For instance, there was a caterpillar tens of thousands of meters long with a human face that smiled at him. Then it opened its mouth and swallowed him into an abyss, but that didn't kill him. Within the dark world was another such caterpillar that also swallowed him with a smile. That repeated itself some tens of times, and each time felt like a nightmare.

"Do you really think that you've won?" said a familiar voice near him, but he couldn't really recall who. "Do you understand? You've always been dreaming, but nobody exposed you."

The voice was getting closer and closer. Tianming turned back and saw a woman in white before his old memories resurfaced. "Mu Qingqing."

Naturally, he remembered who she was. She levitated to his front and tidied up his collar with her soft, fair hands as she looked down on him with a scornful smile. "Do you understand? You never had Primordial Chaos Beasts. You've never met Ling'er or Li Muyang. Your mom's disease is just a normal one, not something as grand as Lifesbane. After Midas died, you listened to too many stories of my rise to fame and fortune that your mind crumbled. You went insane and started dreaming and living in your own reality, trapped within it. You think that what you did for all those people was real, but it was all just in your head. In the real world, you're just a mad fool. Both you and your mother were abandoned, and Li Yanfeng is your biological father. Everyone's laughing at you. You're only consoling yourself with your delusions."

Mu Qingqing lightly slapped his face and chuckled. "Do you think I'm telling you the truth to wake you up? No, it's better that you remain ignorant and asleep. You won't believe me anyway, because your imagination is far too great. You even conjured up a fantasy where gods live on the sun and moon! Surely, nobody else can top that!"

"It's all fake?" Tianming fell into confusion and his head hurt. Right as he was fraught with panic, he felt a strong tug from the rope on his waist. It felt far too real to be fake.

"Ling'er…" Everything in his mind was set right again. Everything he had experienced was definitely real, not just a fever dream. Mu Qingqing suddenly began contorting into yet another caterpillar, this one with her face on it.

"Scram." He had finally learned how terrifying the xenomemory space was. Fatal nightmares haunted the region, and everything was an illusion. Countless dream realms clashed in this space. He tightly held the rope around his waist, feeling the tension and lack thereof from time to time. Something must have been happening outside. Right as Tianming was about to pull on the rope to be pulled back, a strong power came from it and stopped him. He knew all too well that it was Feiling.