Beastmaster of the Ages

Tianming didn't even bother hiding his hostility toward Ye Chen. He was an obstacle that he had to overcome to reach the ninth level of the pagoda, after all. While he didn't hate him, he felt that this conversation was pointless for now, so he didn't bother entertaining him either. Not to mention, he probably wouldn't meet him for the rest of his life in the real world, so there was no fear in antagonizing him.

To Ye Chen, Tianming's disinterest was a kind of provocation. He thought they were both residents of the Violetglory Star, so they would meet in real life soon enough. Thus, Tianming's aloof reaction to his efforts to befriend him felt rather disconcerting, a rare thing for Ye Chen to experience. Naturally, he wouldn't try befriending most people in the first place.

Though they were going to fight from the get go, Tianming's words caused the atmosphere to considerably cool down. Ye Chen stopped smiling and said, "Alright, let's see what we can do before anything else. We'll have more than enough time to talk at a later date."

Tianming didn't want to even talk to Ye Chen, but he couldn't be bothered to say it. "Alright."

A storm started brewing at the Violetcloud Battlefield as the two began to show hostility toward each other, causing the cheers to intensify.

"Fight!"

No matter how calm Tianming tried to be, the countless onlookers seemed to spark something in him. His albi began reverberating as astralforce surged out of his five-layered astral discs and formed a storm in his body. When his wide and heavy Grand-Orient Sword appeared, a sixth layer of force from the Grand-Orient Vortex surged into his body. Now, his fourth-level constellier astralforce was comparable to that of the likes of Princess Shen Yu, and that was thanks to his techniques and the Primordial Chaos Beasts.

Ye Chen's said to be able to fight opponents three levels above him. Maybe he has some special technique or lifebound beast. At the very least, he's definitely no pushover. Tianming watched Ye Chen carefully. His opponent was a seventh-level constellier who could defeat tenth-level constelliers, making him more or less as talented as Lingfeng, who had inherited the legacy of the Primordial Demonlord and the eighty thousand souls of his race. Lingfeng was still at the sixth level, so he was probably still inferior to Ye Chen, but once his soul reached the fourth imperial soul level, he should be able to take on tenth-level totemancers as well.

Either way, being able to fight above one's level was a sure sign of extraordinary talent. Even Xiaoxiao, who had the Archaionfiend, could only fight a level above her at most. Naturally, that wasn't her specialty. Instead, the Archaionfiend allowed her to grow by consuming caeli.

For Ye Chen to have more talent than the daughter of the dynasty's sovereign, he must be far more talented than anyone on the Violetglory Star. What makes him stand out? Tianming had gone through the information on Ye Chen before, but they only had vague descriptions of his lifebound beasts. Even his own files as 'Lin Feng' didn't cover his lifebound beasts in detail, but focused more on his nine totems.

When the Archaionfiend read the description of Ye Chen's lifebound beasts, it had some guesses based on its ancient memory. It was time to see if it'd guessed right. First, Tianming had his beasts emerge from the tattoos on his body, all five of them. Ying Huo perched on his head as usual, Meow Meow was still snoozing away by his feet, Lan Huang began to run circles around them, Xian Xian's tree bloomed all five kinds of flowers and stretched far and wide, and Yin Chen's many bodies scattered across the battlefield. Tianming had registered around two million of Yin Chen's bodies with the system. Once they were all deployed, Tianming's skin was normal again.

"Those are Lin Feng's blood-pact lifebound beasts!"

Countless gazes fell on Ying Huo and the rest. While his beasts weren't the thing that stood out about him the most, the onlookers were still awed by them.

"These five beasts are far too similar to Ye Chen's, both in terms of type and species."

"They're almost like weaker versions of Ye Chen's beasts."

"Lin Feng has nine totems, and that's where his talent shines the most. It's enough for him to have these weaker beasts."

"If his beasts were as terrifying as Ye Chen's, there wouldn't even be a fight."

Tianming smirked at hearing others describe his beasts as weaker versions of Ye Chen's.

"I heard that Ye Chen was rather weak when he was in his teens and his original lifebound beasts died. Back then, his talent was rather low and he didn't stand out at all, and even now, I hear his lifebound beasts were made through blood pacts. I wonder if that's true."

"I also heard that rumor before. He suddenly showed up ten years ago and became a saint right away. It took him less than ten years to reach where he is now, and he seems to be improving faster and faster."

People were all too happy to compare the two of them.

"Lin Feng is eager to fight, and it looks like Ye Chen's getting ready too."

"The two of them have such old-fashioned names… To think they're actually top talents. I'll name my son Ye Fan and pray it works!"

"Stop messing around. Ye Chen's lifebound beasts are showing up!"

The spotlight was completely focused on Ye Chen, who still regarded Tianming with a smile. The black tattoos on his body traveled to his palm in an eerie fashion before emerging as a black mist that turned into a black divine bird. It was far too dark without a hint of white, as if it was drenched in black ink. When it formed, there were sparks of black lightning around it, but not the same kind of chaos lightning Meow Meow had. Instead, it surrounded the bird like a vortex. Though it was a small bird, it had an impressive aura and gave off a similar sensation to the Archaionfiend. Even though it looked different, it was similarly fiendish, dark, and savage.

The bird stretched its wings, glared at Tianming, and cried out sharply. Though the bird was small, its voice was so loud that it even seeped past the battlefield's formation and out to the audience, forcing them to cover their ears.

Seeing the bird, Tianming understood why they said his lifebound beasts were weaker versions of Ye Chen's. They looked similar, but that wasn't the only reason. They considered Tianming's beasts inferior because his totems had stolen the spotlight, not to mention that he was at a far lower level.

At the same time, four other lifebound beasts appeared—Ye Chen was a penta beastmaster as well. All five of his beasts were small enough to fit in his palm, but that definitely wasn't their final form. The second lifebound beast looked like a qilin covered in black flames. It had a large mouth and was similarly pitch black, making it look like an ink painting that had come to life. The most eye-catching part of it was its abyssal black eyes that didn't have any visible whites. Tianming looked back at the bird and saw that it didn't have any sclera either, only little black beady eyes, making them look even more sinister.

The third beast was an ink-black squid with many mouth-like suckers on its tentacles. While they looked rather small now, no doubt they would look like tens of thousands of huge mouths when the squid was in its true form.

The fourth lifebound beast was a little black bug that wrapped around his neck like a necklace. There were only two orifices, one at its head and another at its tail. It looked like a broodmother-type beast. But unlike other beasts, there was a black mist surrounding it. Not to mention, its wriggling motion was rather grotesque and unnerving.

The fifth lifebound beast was a black man-eating plant that grew on his arm. Its head looked like that of a beast, and it had a mouth about as large as its whole body. While it was technically a flower, it had as many teeth as a shark and its mouth was filled with black liquid and meat scraps.

"How coincidental," Tianming said. He had a bird, and Ye Chen had a bird too. Tianming had a more traditional mammalian beast, and Ye Chen's counterpart was his black flame qilin. While Ye Chen didn't have an amphibious beast like Lan Huang, he did have a squid with countless tentacles. No doubt it thrived in the sea and probably used some kind of poison. As for the man-eating flower, it was a plant-type beast like Xian Xian. He even had a broodmother-insect-type beast.

Their beasts almost seemed to mirror each other when it came to type, but the only difference was Ye Chen's beasts had hatched at the same time while Tianming's had hatched one by one. There was another thing that caught Tianming's eye. Based on their types alone, they didn't look nearly as impressive as the princess's galaxy grandbeasts, but Tianming could tell that they were nothing like any other lifebound beasts he had encountered before.