Beastmaster of the Ages

All Shi Yan needed to know that Jiang Qingliu had been dealt with was a transmission stone from the decapitator brothers. As for a scapegoat for Jiang Qingliu's death, the Azuresoul Palace and Empyrean Sword Sect had decided on someone beforehand: the Supracloud Sanctuary, their natural enemy, and their helpers, the wargodeans and Blueblood Starocean. It was only natural for them to eliminate Jiang Qingliu so that they would have fewer obstacles in claiming the divine herb, after all. It was a watertight plan, yet Shi Yan and Gujian Qingshuang still hadn't received the transmission stone after quite some time.

"Why isn't it here yet? It shouldn't take that long for them to kill Jiang Qingliu, right?" Shi Yan asked doubtfully.

"Not even I can defeat him when he uses the Azuresoul Tower. The two of them, however, should be more than enough. Don't worry. Even if they fail, they should still be able to notify us about it. I'm sure they're still searching for him and it's just taking a little longer than expected," Ye Buzhiqiu said. As the youngest Swordbearer, he was much younger than Jiang Qingliu at around five centuries old, so his future potential was still high.

"Alright, that must be it, then." Shi Yan didn't mind it too much. What was more important now was dealing with the Supracloud Sanctuary and their helpers.

"With the celestial orderians in the mix, this battle will be framed as a conflict between the Myriad Solar Sects and celestial orderians. That's only beneficial to us. After all, it's our territory, and the other factions won't be able to sit quietly if we lose." Shi Yan was trying to get their confidence up.

"We won't budge an inch this time," Gujian Qingshuang said, almost heroically.

Before the enemy had even arrived, the roars of their lifebound beasts could already be heard from a distance. It was so resounding that it shook the leaves and branches of the divine tree, causing quite a number of them to scatter. Many ripe low-grade fruits also fell because of the tremors. That marked the eve of battle. The booming of the war drums made the atmosphere quite tense.

"Be ready!" Gujian Qingshuang roared. All of the swordpupils drew their swords and strands of powerful sword ki shot through the skies, permeating the battlefield like a dense ocean. The enemy was still far enough away to be out of sight, but the sound of a familiar beast from behind Gujian Qingshuang gave him quite a fright.

Before he turned back, he heard Long Wanying say, "Huh? Why are you all here?"

"I heard the son of the sun emperor is here, so I wanted to see how impressive he is." Gujian Qingshuang could tell it was Tianming's voice. It sounded plain without any hate or grief, something he clearly didn't expect.

"I bet you'll be disappointed. Li Haochen really isn't anything special," Yan Nuxia said with a look of disdain.

Gujian Qingshuang looked at Shi Yan and Ye Dongliu and noticed that they were just as puzzled as he was. Then they turned back at the same time only to see a few people descend from an azuresky qilin—five of them. Four of them were juniors, but the last one was Jiang Qingliu, completely renewed and refreshed. He was happily talking to Long Wanying and the rest as if nothing had happened.

"Apologies, Chief Instructor. I finally made it," Jiang Qingliu said apologetically.

"I see. Have you succeeded in breaking through?" Gujian Qingshuang asked calmly.

"Sorry for disappointing you. I thought I was going to, but it appeared to be a false alarm. I failed."

"It's fine. Keep trying. You're not at the age when you'll start receding yet, so there's still a chance."

"I appreciate the kind words, Chief Instructor." Jiang Qingliu turned back for a moment and said, "I wasn't able to stop those two Sky Palace disciples from coming to join the fuss. I'm worried that someone will accidentally hurt them in battle, so will you permit me to focus on their defense?"

"Alright, get to it." Gujian Qingshuang waved him away.

Jiang Qingliu returned to Tianming and the rest, winking mischievously with his back facing Gujian Qingshuang and the others. He didn't plan on showing off the heads of the decapitator brothers just yet. For now, he'll pretend that nothing happened and leave them in the cold. Keeping his hand hidden would be an advantage since they had clearly resolved to go against him.

......

Tianming had informed Long Wanying about what happened through Yin Chen. She was the one who suggested that Jiang Qingliu keep it a secret and pretend that nothing had ever happened, causing quite a lot of confusion among the perpetrators.

"What's going on?" Ye Buzhiqiu said in almost stuttering fashion, as if he'd swallowed a fly moments before. The joy he'd felt from before had left him.

"Did the decapitator brothers really not find him? Impossible, the azuresky qilin's such a huge target. There's no way Jiang Qingliu could've intentionally taken a detour!" Ye Dongliu said, shaking his head.

"Let me ask them. Don't panic, as long as Jiang Qingliu is here, there's still a chance," Shi Yan said, sending another transmission stone. But there was no reply. "Impossible! Let me ask the Northdipper Swordsage if those two are messing with me."

How could their rare opportunity be gone just like that? For now, they merely thought that the decapitator brothers had messed up and didn't kill their target according to their agreement. With the enemy's army so close to them, they had to focus their attention on defending the divine herb instead. Even so, their confused and doubtful expressions were entertaining to watch.

......

Fifteen minutes later, the defending side was fully prepared. Tianming and the rest stood at the front, watching the hundreds and thousands of enemies charging toward them. Anywhere they passed, leaves, fruits, and branches were torn apart. As the Supracloud Sanctuary had wanted to cut down the divine tree themselves tens of thousands of years back, they'd never really cared for it that much. The Azuresoul Palace was the one that stopped them from doing so, but they wouldn't even care about the tree at all if it weren't for the divine herbs it produced.

The noises of beasts, war drums, and bells grew louder as they approached. They only stopped when the army was right before the defensive formations the Azuresoul Palace had put up. Now, both sides were facing one another. Tianming had expected the battle wouldn't start right away. It was only a fight for the divine herb, after all, not one to the death. The wargodeans and Blueblood Starocean were only there for the profits, not to contribute. Fighting always meant casualties, after all, so their armies were only there as a threat.

Had they had another method to determine the victor, the 'helpers', apart from the Empyrean Sword Sect who said they would fight to curb the Supracloud Sanctuary's influence, would definitely choose that option. For now, both sides were still testing each other out rather than fighting out of a bloody grudge. However, once the battle began for real, there would be no turning back.

Given how large the span of the divine tree was, they couldn't exactly fight defensively like in a siege. Any clash meant unavoidable casualties for both sides. Even so, they all had their weapons drawn.

Tianming stood atop a branch and looked at the center of the enemy army, where the most important figures gathered. It was clear that the Tumulus Pill God of the wargodeans and the murderous Lan Sha from the Blueblood Starocean were standing beside the sect master of the Supracloud Sanctuary, Yun Tianque. Despite Yun Tianque merely being the leader of a second-rate sect, his eyes looked even deeper and more calculative than Gujian Qingshuang's. They almost looked like the same kind of person.

However, even the famous Tumulus Pill God wasn't standing at the center of the large army. Instead, it was a young junior with a slender build, dressed in a white robe embroidered with the eye-catching pattern of a sun. His sleeves were laced with gold thread and there was a large sun-like bane-ring between his brows that inspired a sense of worship in those that saw it.

Those bane-rings were the most terrifying ones Tianming had ever seen. Not even the seven finger swords of Han Xingluan, a disciple of the Violetcloud Imperium, possessed that much power. It was clear that it wasn't just a single bane-ring, but rather eight bane-rings overlaid atop one another. This was the first octabane totemancer Tianming had encountered on the sun or the Violetglory Star.

Is Qingyu's real brother him or me? That thought made Tianming feel natural hostility toward him. He had to admit that Li Haochen was indeed the son of the sun emperor, and was in the same league of people as Princess Shen Yu. Both of them were born at the top of the hierarchy of a nova source world, seemingly having been chosen by the heavens themselves. The only difference was that Li Haochen was the undisputed number one among those his age across the entire sun, while Princess Shen Yu only ranked third. Tianming could tell from seeing Li Haochen alone that there was a huge gap in power between the Myriad Solar Sects and the celestial orderians.

Additionally, there were two top beauties of rather high level themselves next to him. One of them was a totemancer, while the other was a beastmaster of the Veildragon Palace. "Who are those two?" Tianming asked Yu Ziqian.