Beastmaster of the Ages

Yin Qing was Jiang Qingliu's first disciple and the vice branch master of the Sixth Sword Branch. She was a rather powerful grade-four swordpupil.

"What'd they say about letting her go in your master's stead?" Tianming asked.

"They looked at one another and said that it'll be fine as long as things don't go wrong," Yu Ziqian answered.

Tianming was a little speechless. This matter wasn't that hard to deal with. As long as Jiang Qingliu didn't leave, nothing would happen. However, knowing what was happening behind the scenes made it even harder to deal with. "Alright, just get your master to stay no matter what. Never take any rash action."

"Yeah, I already told him that."

"He shouldn't have anything that'll affect him too much outside, should he?"

"There shouldn't be…"

"Then that's good. I'm sure the Empyrean Sword Sect will soon learn that we have a really good relationship with Aunt Ying already, so getting rid of your master won't help their cause at all."

"Let's hope it'll turn out that way."

So far, the Empyrean Sword Sect hadn't sent anyone out to negotiate with Tianming; they were banking on making their approach after Jiang Qingliu's death. However, if he stubbornly survived, Tianming felt like they would directly come to him regardless, much in the same manner the Divineglory Dynasty had. Standing at a tall place, he looked in the direction of the divine tree. "So the blooming has started, eh?"

"Yeah, but it's only the early stage, so there'll only be grade-three divine herbs or worse. There'll be a high quantity, but little quality. Most other sects don't really care about it, and our sect and the Supracloud Sanctuary would keep our harvesting efforts near our territories. But when the better stuff comes later, we might cross into their territory to fight and vice versa."

"Shouldn't the herbs belong to those in whose territory the herbs grow?"

"Yeah."

"Then how can a fight be justified?"

"The problem is that the Azurecloud Continent has many other smaller sects apart from ours. There's many territorial disputes. Whenever something good appears in disputed territory, there'll be trouble." That was when the arguments would start. If one side couldn't get the other to back down, there would be conflict.

……

A few days later, Long Wanying and her fruity friends led an entire army to help with the harvest. Tianming wanted her to help him bring fifty thousand of Yin Chen's eggs to the divine tree. They turned into invisible cockroaches when they arrived and spread throughout the leaves and branches of the tree.

"There's still far too few of them. One cockroach can only cover a range of a few kilometers, so much information will still be beyond our grasp." Tianming really wanted Yin Chen to make more bodies, but it couldn't be helped since the Azuresoul Palace didn't want to support him. He knew where their mines were, but letting Yin Chen eat them dry without permission would lead to a huge conflict. He had no choice but to seek out another way. Nowadays, the Azuresoul Palace had deployed most of their swordpupils, swordtroops, and swordcitizens around the branches in their territory. There were far more of them than Tianming's cockroaches. Amidst the hidden undercurrents, a storm was brewing.

……

The Azurecloud Divine Tree was rooted in the center of the Azurecloud Continent and stood millions of meters tall. Even its branches themselves looked like a continent of their own. Countless roots stretched out from the tree and spawned an endless forest around it. One could already see the colorful divine herbs of all shapes and sizes, some even reaching up to hundreds of meters in diameter, while others were as small as flies, in between the branches and leaves. All of them had divine ordered patterns. The higher grade the patterns were, the stronger the fragrance. Most of them were still unripened with yet-unformed divine patterns. Their medicinal effects would be only average at best, making them bad ingredients for pill refining, so picking unripe divine herbs was rather pointless.

Most divine herbs from a single plant were usually of the same type. For instance, one would only expect to see apples from an apple tree. But things were different for the divine tree—it had millions of kinds of fruits of different grades, even up to grade eight or nine. It was truly a rare miracle plant.

Countless cultivators were circling about near the tree, picking up any fruits the moment they ripened. It was a risk-taker's playground. All kinds of lifebound beasts were unleashing their abilities all over the place. Yin Chen, for instance, spread out across the tree branches far more methodically than most cultivators.

The branches of the tree that stretched to the north were mostly under the Supracloud Sanctuary's control, and there were many wargodeans and cultivators from the Blueblood Starocean there. At the very least, the part they claimed was impenetrable. They weren't going to let others take anything that belonged to them.

……

Heat radiated from the sky above. At the northernmost part of the tree's branches was a thick branch that pointed skyward. This branch in particular was hundreds of meters thick and many fresh leaves sprouted from its bark. Tens of people were standing on it, every one of them among the strongest elites on the continent. The wargodeans' Tumulus Pill God stood at the very center of the group, looking to the north in a forlorn manner.

To his left and right were the Blueblood Starocean's Lan Sha and Supracloud Sanctuary's Yun Tianque, and the rest were their subordinates, all of whom were equivalent to grade-four swordpupils. They took a deep breath as they watched what was happening.

"It's about to happen soon, right? What do you think, Brother Lan, Pill God?" Yun Tianque asked in a hoarse voice.

"Yes. I hear it now," said the Tumulus Pill God.

"Brother Yun, I'm sure you don't need to remind me, right? All we need to do is to coordinate our efforts to match his," Lan Sha said.

"Understood. I'll definitely follow his lead."

"Don't worry. This is the Supracloud Sanctuary's chance. It's not often you get to show off your prowess."

Some of the people behind them didn't know what was actually happening. Those who knew the identity of the others present actually numbered rather few. When they received word of their arrival, they hurried to welcome them. Everyone, including the wargodeans' Warlord and Blueblood Starocean's Deluge Emperor, made sure they cooperated with the efforts.

Many of them breathed a long sigh when they saw two figures descending from the flaming clouds above. Two flaming pillars shot down onto the branch as a male and female emerged. Even the Tumulus Pill God had to greet them with respect. "This humble wargodean greets the Lady Wushuang."