Beastmaster of the Ages

"Nobody stays a victor forever?" Tianming thought the words had a point. In fact, Li Wushuang was the one who needed to hear them the most. However, he kept quiet about it and went along with Long Wanying's plan, continuing to feign arrogance. "You accuse me of not daring to accept your challenge? Stop joking around. I wouldn't even bat an eye even if three Li Haochens came to challenge me. The problem is that you aren't even offering me an incentive for giving you a chance. The last time we fought, we were at least able to fight over the universal manna and divine herb. Are you going to challenge me empty-handed this time?"

"An incentive?" Li Haochen turned to look at Li Wushuang. After she gave her permission, he took a deep breath and asked, "Alright, what kind of incentive do you want?"

"If you lose, I want those two beauties behind you to be my concubines. They came here with you, but they won't be leaving," Tianming gleefully said. Immediately, many senior swordpupils blankly looked at him with their mouths agape, marveling at his courage. Those two beauties weren't just normal people; one of them was from the Veildragon Palace, and the other was a soul tribulator. Their statuses were almost as high as Li Haochen's, and more importantly, they were engaged to him. If Li Haochen agreed and lost, it would be ten times as humiliating as before and the story would be told again and again for tens of thousands of years. The celestial orderians definitely wouldn't tolerate any such treatment.

"Li Haochen, consider it well. They're so beautiful that I'm bewitched by them. Won't you give me a chance?" Tianming continued. He knew better than anyone that he was absolutely acting like a despicable villain. The three nervous youths almost seemed like the protagonists that were being humiliated; however, it was important for the plan to work.

As expected, Li Haochen wasn't the one who exploded with anger first. Li Wushuang was. She glared at him angrily and thrust toward the formation, causing tens of thousands of others to raise their swords at her.

"What is it, Senior Li Wushuang? You want to kill me through the formation? Don't be in such a rush. It isn't like Li Haochen will necessarily refuse. You celestial orderians can't accept losing face, right? Do you consider the people you love less important than winning?"

Though Li Wushuang stayed silent, her glare was so fierce it was terrifying. Triggering her was the very thing Long Wanying and Tianming were trying to achieve. The angrier she grew, the deeper she fell into Long Wanying's trap. Tianming's shamelessness and his fearless performance was completely irresistible bait to someone like Li Wushuang, who got mad at every little thing.

Li Haochen endured the shame and grit his teeth. "I didn't think you'd be such a shameless person despite being so powerful. I can accept anything else, but I won't tolerate using people as betting chips."

"Fine. Then go back. Call me when you think it through. A piece of advice: honor is like your limbs. Without them, you can't even properly live your life. But women… women are just like clothes. They can be worn and removed as you please. Those two outfits of yours have really beautiful designs. What's the harm in letting me try them on?"

"You ingrate! Shameless sicko!" Long Youyou cursed, tears forming in her eyes. She had been born into high status, and while she had endured the hardship of battle, this kind of humiliation was completely fresh to her. Not to mention, though their seniors didn't hold back on giving them corporeal punishment as a form of character building, people of their status never had to suffer any real consequences like experiencing the deaths of their lifebound beasts or being trampled beneath the feet of others and completely losing their dignity.

"Leave me alone and buzz off," Tianming said.

"No. If you don't come and fight, I'll wait outside. Let's see if you can wait out your entire lifetime without leaving here," Li Haochen firmly said. He would even go so far just to be able to win.

"No incentive, no rematch. My lessons don't come free, you know. It takes effort to beat you up, you see." It didn't matter what they said as long as Tianming and the rest were safe within the boundaries of the formation. The terms of battle were his to dictate, and he wasn't in a rush to reclaim his honor like Li Haochen was.

This was a complete fiasco. Many had thought that Tianming didn't dare to fight because he was afraid of losing, but even they had to admit that seeing the son of the sun emperor get talked down to like that was a guilty pleasure. It made for a really awkward situation. Li Wushuang's eyes were completely bloodshot with rage; she was probably considering bringing in more forces to break down the formation so she could kill Tianming and Long Wanying herself.

Right at that moment, Yun Tianque shuffled close to the Tumulus Pill God and said, "It won't do to let this continue. Why don't we offer up an incentive and see if they agree to it? I doubt it'll be good for us if Li Wushuang's anger continues getting stoked." He touched his face, subtly reminding the Tumulus Pill God about the time he had been given a fist to the face.

"What incentive? We used a seven-star universal manna last time. There's nothing more precious than something like that, especially not to a beastmaster. That little brat really is really devious. There's no way Li Haochen will take the risk of losing his women just for a fight."

"I know. I didn't think the brat would be so shameless. However, we came all the way here, so it's not easy to back down. But Li Wushuang is getting more and more annoyed and the young prince doesn't want to leave without a fight. What can we do about this? If the fight doesn't happen, it'll be rather troublesome."

"Lady Wushuang is too obsessed with winning, to the point that she cares so much about fights between juniors. However, we're at a crucial time now with the appearance of the saplings. Lingering here for too long can't be good for us… wait, what about the saplings?"

Yun Tianque's eyes glowed as he thought, you finally took the bait. "Do you mean we should offer the rights to defend some of the saplings to them? Lady Wushuang did say that we should take all thirty-five sapling pairs…. But that means we'd have to fight the Empyrean Sword Sect for them."

Tianming hadn't brought up the saplings the entire time, just as Long Wanying had planned. If he was the one who brought them up himself, it would be far too obvious. Long Wanying intentionally had Tianming humiliate them through Li Ruoshi and Long Youyou to make Li Haochen lose his reason and give Yun Tianque an excuse to offer them the perfect alternative. It turned out as they had expected when the Tumulus Pill God brought up the suggestion to Li Wushuang himself.