Beastmaster of the Ages

Bai Junce stood magnificently, wielding his grade-four divine artifact sword, Monochromic Dao, surrounded by four great baizes. The former difficulty he'd had facing Ye Lingfeng seemed to evaporate in a moment. He pointed his sword at Ye Lingfeng with a look of contempt. "Specters like you should kneel and run away with your tail between your legs."

The only reply he got was Ye Lingfeng's attack! He wielded his Evil Suppression Pillar in one hand; it was a weapon on par with the Grand-Orient Sword. Beneath him was the three-headed, six-armed Soulfiend. The beast had accompanied Lingfeng for quite a while, and had recovered the power it used to possess.

At the Divine Moon Realm, Ye Lingfeng didn't let it out much, so nobody would link him with the night demon they had banished some time ago based on the Soulfiend alone. As specters didn't have totems or lifebound beasts, the Soulfiend looked a little out of place. It roared and groaned like it didn't have any intelligence at all. Anyone would think that it was just a normal wildbeast, had it not materialized from his body. While wildbeasts like that had combat potential, they weren't able to improve, so they were considered to be far weaker than lifebound beasts.

……

The first battle of geniuses in Orderia finally took place, with Tianming intently watching as a spectator. Ye Lingfeng was only at the Decapath Sky level, so in terms of raw power, he wasn't his foe's match. However, his attack tipped the scales in his favor!

Bai Junce executed a third-realm divine art, Bagua Skypierce. It was a move that was even stronger than the Moonnight Subdued Strike, even down to the sword intent aspect, and was far more complex. Though it was executed without totems, it was able to manifest countless variations. The sword ki gathered together and formed a bagua diagram, each strand of it created from black and white sword ki. The bagua sword ki rampantly flew through the skies toward Ye Lingfeng's head. However, he merely watched coldly. Perhaps due to the legacy of the Primordial Demonlord, he looked like a killer of the soul whenever he didn't smile.

As Bai Junce attacked, he sent his baizes to surround Ye Lingfeng, two of which used their abilities. Another charged straight toward him and the Soulfiend and struck with its gigantic claw. The two abilities unleashed toward him were Heavenly Whirlpool and Earth Prison. As the empyrean baizes were beasts of both water- and earth-type, they greatly benefited from being close to the Firelotus River.

Heavenly Whirlpool sucked water out of the river to form a magnificent vortex that shrank until it was only a meter wide. The compression allowed it to achieve the effect of Ying Huo's Infernal Blaze, threatening to tear Ye Lingfeng into shreds if he was swallowed within it.

As for Earth Prison, it manifested in the form of multiple spears bursting out from the earth, tens of thousands of them. They then turned into ropes that knotted up with one another, forming a complex cage formed of Orderian rock. Thanks to constantly being exposed to a nova source, even the normal rock was harder than the tribulation artifacts of the Flameyellow Continent. The spears were akin to tens of thousands of grade-one divine artifacts.

From those moves, Tianming could tell that the vice chief disciple was no pushover. With that power, Bai Junce could roam the Divine Moon Realm unimpeded. It was too bad he matched up against Lingfeng, who wasn't the least bit fazed by the impending attacks. He could use abilities! Black flames burst forth from all corners of his body.

"Scatter!"

The black flames swept over the three baizes around him. This ability was called Infernal Soul Curse. Unlike normal specters, Ye Lingfeng's ability was executed using his powerful vita, further increasing its potency. The black flames looked weak and the baizes didn't really mind them. But when they began burning on their bodies, the flames invaded their seas of consciousness and started roasting away at their vitae, causing them to shriek in pain. They collapsed to the ground, twitching and shrieking, causing countless trees nearby to fall and even blocking the entire river. Their abilities fell apart before they could touch Lingfeng—the baizes had completely lost the ability to keep fighting!

The other disciples of Azuresoul Palace watched wide eyed. Even Jiang Qingliu noticed how terrifying Ye Lingfeng was. Bai Junce immediately heard his beasts' shrieks and their complaints about the pain through their telepathic connection. It was only a single exchange of blows, and this was the result. He felt a chill down his spine.

"Attack him and stop the ability!" one of the baizes said.

Bai Junce's strike had already enveloped Lingfeng's entire body. Amidst the black and white sword ki, the black-haired youth suddenly looked up, his eyes flashing with a fatal red gleam. As he was armored, Bai Junce couldn't see the swirling Primordial Gate in his chest.

At that moment, a blood-curdling shriek rang out. Ye Lingfeng stretched two fingers out and pushed them against his temples, causing his head to seemingly split. However, he didn't bleed. Everyone watched as he drew a blood-red dagger from the hole in his head. He had pulled a weapon out from his head! But it wasn't a normal divine artifact. Instead, there was a terrifying soul power radiating from the dagger.

"He solidified the power of his soul! He definitely has a third regal soul, and a peak one at that!" Jiang Qingliu snapped as he smacked Yu Ziqian's head. "Where'd you find a friend like that?! He's unbelievable!""Well, you know what they say… Birds of the same feather flock together," Yu Ziqian said shamelessly.

They stopped talking and watched as Ye Lingfeng suppressed three baizes with a single Infernal Soul Curse. Now, he wielded the staff in his right hand and the dagger in his left as he charged toward Bai Junce. The dagger was actually another kind of ability, called Heartpiercer Soulblade. Anyone without a strong enough soul would immediately die if pierced by the dagger. It also worked wonders against totems, being able to completely destroy the terra that totems were made of. That way, they wouldn't be able to regenerate.

Ye Lingfeng struck with his staff using Blackmoon Bewilderment, a second-realm divine art he had learned on the moon. It wasn't too powerful, as it was designed for totem users, so it wasn't able to stop the Bagua Skypierce diagram. However, the formation of the Evil Suppression Pillar could be incorporated in the strike to mitigate much of the enemy's attack.

His staff clashed with Monochromic Dao, letting out a ringing clang as the staff was sent flying. However, Lingfeng used his soul power to bind Bai Junce, causing him to cry in pain. Then, he thrust with his Heartpiercer Soulblade. Bai Junce panicked and blocked with his hand. When the dagger pricked his skin, it turned into liquid and entered his body, immediately causing him to pale and writhe in pain on the ground.

"Gaaaaaaah!" Veins were visible all across his body as he tumbled around pathetically. The battle was already over, ending in the complete defeat of Bai Junce and all his baizes. The youth's sorry state caused the other disciples to shudder; some of them even panicked and cried.

"Stop!" Jiang Qingliu said.

"Feng!" Tianming called out.

Ye Lingfeng stretched his hand out and withdrew the dagger from Bai Junce's body, sheathing it back into his head in a gruesome spectacle. Bai Junce's pain immediately vanished, but he remained on the ground with his limbs widespread and weak, his gaze empty.

"Friend, I'm of the infernal soul race. I'm not a specter," Lingfeng said as he retrieved his staff and summoned the Soulfiend that was still tangled up with the last baize. It had managed to pin it down, dominating it with its physical and spiritual prowess. When it bit the baize, Tianming noticed that the Soulfiend was biting at its vita. Ye Lingfeng could consume terrae, the Archaionfiend could consume caeli, and the Soulfiend could consume the most important of the tripartite soul: the vita. Tianming had all three soulscourges by his side.

He decided he had to talk to Lingfeng about the Soulfiend's vita-consuming capabilities, but now wasn't the time. Not to mention, the Soulfiend only bit the vita and didn't consume it entirely. Bai Junce didn't deserve to have his beast killed. It was just a simple fight.

When Lingfeng returned to Tianming's side, the other disciples looked at him respectfully. A random youth they had encountered along the way had actually managed to defeat their number-two disciple. He was surely not someone to be messed with.