Beastmaster of the Ages

Tianming looked at Li Wushuang and knew that she couldn't accept how things turned out. Even though she had come here filled with confidence that the honor of the celestial orderians would be restored, things hadn't turned out as she'd hoped. What was worse was that they suffered an even more humiliating loss than before. Now Li Haochen completely despaired, fully knowing that he would never rise above Tianming for the rest of his life. The realization was far worse than the prospect of going back to face his aunt.

"Aunt…." He grit his teeth, barely being able to mouth the word. He didn't look up at all, keeping his eyes fixed on her lower body. She looked just like a frozen statue. He could feel the chill coming from her from a distance.

"Haochen," she said, her cold voice grating painfully on his ears.

"Aunt, I'm listening."

"You may go back."

"Yes."

"After you return, face our kind and atone for your mistakes with your death." Her voice penetrated him bone deep. Li Haochen felt like he had fallen into ice water as he struggled to breathe; it was as if his airway was completely blocked off. He desperately wanted to say that it was her hubris and obsession with victory that had doomed him for good. She was the one who should have to die, not him! He knelt on the ground, face filled with despair.

"Big Brother Haochen…." Fortunately, pairs of arms wrapped around him from either side, dragging him back out from the abyss of death. Though life was often cold and lonely, from time to time, it could also be warm.

As they were leaving, Long Wanying called out to Li Wushuang. The frosty woman turned back and looked at her hateful enemies. "Are you trying to gloat over your minor victory, Long Wanying?"

"No. I just want to let you know that everyone you know hates you, no exceptions. There's a good reason that nobody has ever truly loved you."

"Hehehe…." Li Wushuang began laughing and Long Wanying joined her. One laughed coldly in a maniacal fashion, while the other laughed in a carefree manner. Long Wanying felt absolutely brilliant for saying that, but she had the right to say those words. She was well loved by almost everyone in her life and had experienced romantic, amicable, and familial love. People generally didn't dislike her.

As Li Wushuang turned around, her nails dug deep into her palms. 'Nobody has ever truly loved you'. Those words could cut deep for people of a certain age. That was nothing short of cruelty from Long Wanying.

"You must've been left really wanting for love. That's why you want to force everyone to bow down to you! Why can't you just accept that you've failed as a person? Everyone says that the sun emperor spoils you the most, but you know why that is, right?" Long Wanying continued.

Li Wushuang turned back and faced Long Wanying again, eyes bloodshot with rage. She uncontrollably shuddered, but Long Wanying was safely inside the formation. "So lots of people love you, is that it?"

"That's right."

"Fine. Once all of them die, you'll have no one left to love you."

"I'd expect a harsher threat than that from a three-year-old. It's simply laughable. Why don't you just admit it? You're a sick, twisted, venomous woman-baby that lives in her very own reality that's been shaped by another sick fiend. You know who I'm talking about." Long Wanying wasn't the least bit agitated when she said that.

No doubt, Tianming knew that she was talking about the sun emperor, Li Wudi, a name that was all too familiar. However, his identically-named godfather didn't have a younger sister.

"Hehe… Hehehehe…." Li Wushuang shot one last hateful glare at Long Wanying before finally leaving.

Long Wanying took a deep breath and stopped smiling. She turned back and patted Tianming on the shoulder, seemingly a little worn out. "Now that's got her cooked close to perfection. It's about time for the next step."

"Alright." Tianming gave her a light shoulder massage. "Don't worry, Aunt Ying. As long as the people that love us are still around, we'll definitely win."

"Yeah…."

"With Aix Lake and Inverse Peak in hand, Shi Yan should be heading out to claim them, right?"

"Looks like she already couldn't wait," Long Wanying said, noticing that Shi Yan was gone. Everything had gone according to plan, from how Li Haochen's rematch had played out to Li Wushuang's emotional state. There wasn't a time in Li Wushuang's life when she was more vitriolic and unstable than she was right now.

……

Li Haochen's failed rematch had cost them two sapling sites. As the celestial orderians couldn't afford to lose any more face, they temporarily stopped their usual antics. As promised, the Blueblood Starocean and wargodean cultivators at the two sites had retreated after receiving transmission stones with orders to do so, but they didn't have to go far. Not far away from the two spots was another sapling site occupied by their allies.

As Tianming had expected, the greedy Empyrean Sword Sect immediately sent forces to take over those two dangerous sites that were within the Supracloud Sanctuary's territory upon receiving transmission stones from Shi Yan. The reason they gave was that the Group of Celestial Maiden Halls couldn't be tasked with defending the sites at the borders, as they simply didn't have enough manpower for the dangerous task, so they would help the Azuresoul Palace undertake this difficult mission instead. The reason was as justified as they came, and one didn't have to read between the lines to see that they meant to say they wanted everything that belonged to the Azuresoul Palace.

Now the Azuresoul Palace's side had twenty pairs of saplings in total, with the two sites near the sect being defended by the Group of Celestial Maiden Halls. Quickly, the Blueblood Starocean and wargodeans retreated from the two sites, allowing the two swordlords to send a large number of troops to occupy them. The ones who were forced to retreat were naturally displeased, so tensions were high. Even so, that still wasn't enough.

"The Empyrean Sword Sect is here to rob away everything valuable, so they won't hesitate to take the two sites we rightfully won. However, they won't attack if the enemy doesn't attack first, so real friction won't occur just yet—at least not until we light even more sparks."

The Rain Swordlord was now situated at Aix Lake. Lan Sha and a group of thousands of Blueblood Starocean cultivators were camped not far away. Now that the two swordlords were even further ahead, Shi Yan left with tens of her trusted subordinates to guard the other sapling sites behind the front lines.

"Tianming," Long Wanying called out as a reminder.

"I'll inform Yun Tianque immediately." The next phase was about to start!

……

The trip back to the Supracloud Sanctuary was a quiet one, with nobody daring to utter a single word. They all followed behind Li Wushuang. Someone who had received a transmission stone bearing the news of his wife giving birth to a son couldn't stifle his joyous laughter, only to have his head cut off by Li Wushuang, his decapitated head still smiling, oblivious to its death. After witnessing that, nobody dared to so much as let their lips twitch. The one who'd been killed had a rather high standing among the wargodeans, but the Tumulus Pill God kept quiet about it. Ruffling Li Wushuang's feathers would just be an invitation for heads to roll.

The stifling atmosphere was unbearable, but eventually, Yun Tianque took a deep breath and said, "Lady Wushuang, I'm still agonizing over having angered you the last time. Please allow me to make up for it."

"So?" She looked at him coldly as the others nervously watched in anticipation.

"As you instructed, I have our informants monitoring the movements of the other side. We're already pushing ourselves to the limits of our capabilities and reach, but I regret to say that things have been futile so far… until I got a surprising report just now."

"Out with it."

"Shi Yan of the Empyrean Sword Sect has left the sect alone with a small group of people, one of whom is my informant. He can give us pinpoint coordinates of their location. I'm guessing she's going to bring the good news to the two swordlords."

"I see…" Li Wushuang nodded, "go ahead."

"Where to?"

"Go kill Shi Yan." That was one of the items that had been on her checklist to begin with. She wouldn't hesitate to kill anyone that opposed her on the Azurecloud Continent, and as far as she was concerned, Shi Yan was on Long Wanying's side. She didn't care about the pros and cons of such an undertaking either. Not to mention, nobody dared to question her, especially not after she had just killed someone for the heinous crime of laughing.

"You've done well, Yun Tianque. I want them to dig out where the others are next! Once you find them, kill them!"

"Yes!" The group hurriedly turned around.

"Tianque, since when have you had informants in the Empyrean Sword Sect?" the Tumulus Pill God asked.

"It's a long story, but mainly, the Empyrean Sword Sect is the main sect that the Azuresoul Palace branched out from. I've always been worried that they would come to their aid, so I sent a few people to infiltrate them just in case. I didn't actually think it would come to good use," Yun Tianque convincingly said, relaying Tianming's exact wording.

"Impressive! If we let Lady Wushuang vent her rage in a bloodbath, she'll calm down. You've rendered us a great service."

"I had to make up for my… mistake… somehow. The Azuresoul Palace really pulled out all the stops when they tried enraging her, so let her vent. Though, I worry that this will cause us to clash in a full-on conflict with the Empyrean Sword Sect."

"Don't worry about that. Lady Wushuang has been intent on taking all the sapling sites from the very beginning, so it was only a matter of time until a full-on clash happened. Shi Yan's death was bound to happen sooner or later. Among the three famous elites from the Empyrean Sword Sect, the two swordlords are famous buffoons. After we kill Shi Yan, we'll have made our lives much easier."

"I see. I suppose I can rest well now." I wonder who gave Tianming this idea? It's really vicious!

Li Haochen's challenge had been expertly carried out. The first step involved Tianming demanding to be given Li Ruoshi and Long Youyou to enrage the other side. Then they got Yun Tianque to suggest offering the two most volatile sapling sites as an incentive. As a result, the two swordlords were already facing off against Lan Sha's forces. Long Wanying had also fanned the flames of Li Wushuang's anger, causing her to be filled to the brim with killing intent. Then they got Yun Tianque to offer up Shi Yan on a silver platter. Once Shi Yan died….

"Forgive my ignorance, but how many birds did we just kill with one stone?" he asked Yin Chen.

"None of… your damn… business business…" Yin Chen said.

……

Back at Fairman Peak, Gujian Qingshuang, Long Wanying, Yan Nuxia, Yang Ce, Gu Tao'er, Jiang Qingliu, Yu Ziqian, and others gathered around Tianming. Apart from Lingfeng and Xiaoxiao, who wouldn't be able to contribute to this project and were instead focused on cultivating, everyone else was there.

"How is it?" they asked him.

"They're already fighting," Tianming said. He couldn't see the battlefield himself, so he was going off Yin Chen's descriptions.

"What's the fight like?" he asked Yin Chen.

"Almost done."

Everyone waited with bated breath. Fifteen minutes later, Yin Chen finished its report and Tianming breathed a sigh of relief.

"So? How did it go?" the others urged.

"Shi Yan survived," Tianming said.

"How's that possible?" The Tumulus Pill God and Li Wushuang were there.

"They were fighting at Denserock Forest. Shi Yan is one of the stonesword race. Her four stonesword terradragons managed to hold on long enough for her to escape into a river in the forest. However, all four of her lifebound beasts are dead, and she's also at the brink of death. She only survived by using an ability unique to her race and turning to stone, but she's basically crippled now."

Shi Yan was an enemy who had been there to rob them to begin with, but at the very least, she was smarter than the two swordlords and hadn't attracted any unnecessary attention.

"Looks like we've more or less achieved what we wanted. Since she survived, the swordlords will be informed about the assault ahead of schedule," Long Wanying said.

"Looks like we can watch the play unfold now," Gujian Qingshuang said.

"That's right." Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Impressive work, Whitedragon Empress," Gujian Qingshuang said.

Long Wanying merely smiled. "It's all thanks to Tianming having a grasp of all this information. Our enemy is far too strong, so we're going to have to use our wits to avoid being crushed by them."

Even with all of that, Long Wanying had been quite adept at maneuvering everyone, even Li Wushuang, resulting in the current state of affairs. Her every word had been carefully chosen to push Li Wushuang's buttons and achieve the desired result. Now, Li Wushuang was fueled only by the desire to kill and lacked the slightest bit of reason.

Another fifteen minutes later, Tianming's eyes brightened. "It's here! The swordlords got Shi Yan's transmission stones. Lan Sha also provoked them into a conflict. Now Blueblood Starocean and the Empyrean Sword Sect are fighting at Aix Lake."