Beastmaster of the Ages

Even though Ye Chen wasn't a specter, he possibly had a stronger body than them, and could perhaps even devour more beast flesh. Even Mu Sha, a proper specter that mainly cultivated his physical body, was probably only less than a tenth as tough as Ye Chen. This harmless, radiant youth actually had a body that was comparable to that of a beast and was seemingly able to exert the same force as Lan Huang, which was one of the reasons he was able to fight people so much more powerful than him. In a one-on-one fight between beastmasters, Ye Chen would definitely dominate. The crowd wildly cheered at the sight of him.

"Lin Feng looks like he isn't able to hold on!"

Fortunately, Tianming didn't push forward, but backed off. Then his arms brightly shone as his nine unique totems manifested. "Go!"

Four of the godswords separated from the rest, namely the Eastdivinity Acme, Westvoid Progenifiend, Southsky Chaospit, and Northapex Perpetuity. The Westvoid Progenifiend flew to Meow Meow and Tianming telepathically coordinated the attack with his beast on the black qilin. The black-and-white Southsky Chaospit shot toward the black squid and slashed at its head. The beast's weak point seemed to be its gigantic eye, which it dutifully protected from Lan Huang.

However, the sudden appearance of the godsword diverted its attention away from Lan Huang enough for it to counter with a huge bite. It managed to pin down the black squid and began wildly slashing at it with its Starfiend Sword. Then, it used Dragonprison Hell, causing many scale dragons to manifest around the squid. No matter how quickly its tentacles regenerated, it couldn't keep up with the rate of Lan Huang's destruction. The squid let out a hiss from all the suckers on its tentacles in an attempt to confuse the dragon, but it had met the worst possible match. Lan Huang easily overcame the noise attack by using Primordial Soundwave with both of its heads.

Xian Xian also managed to fare better with Tianming's totem helping it. It wielded the Northapex Perpetuity with its branches like a swordsman, swinging the frosty godsword toward the head of the man-eating flower and leaving a wound that gushed blood out nonstop.

Lastly, the Eastdivinity Acme flew toward Ying Huo, executing the Ninedragon Tribulation with it in tandem and dealing horrendous damage to the black bird. The black bird howled in pain, immediately losing the advantage.

Tianming had immediately turned the scales back in his favor. This was an almost peak performance for him, something he couldn't even do in Orderia. The combination of his totems and beasts was perfect and flawless. As for Yin Chen, it didn't need the support of the swords as it wouldn't die and would only lose some bodies. The fight between it and the black broodmother was a war between insect armies. Locusts and bugs covered the ground, crawling over one another. There wasn't much that Tianming could do to help out.

"Brothers, sister, victory's in sight! Kill them all!" Ying Huo bellowed. Their rampage caused Ye Chen's five beasts to accrue more and more wounds. It was quite impressive for the Desolate Chaos Progenibeasts to be pushed back to this extent. "Hah! These rowdy beasts only have an advantage of three levels."

The level difference wasn't the only factor. Four of Tianming's beasts were six-star divine beasts, which also had quite a huge impact.

"That isn't right…. Why isn't their astralforce as powerful as we expected?" the black bird said, surprised.

The rest were also shocked. They had always been the ones fighting foes above their level, but now it seemed that they were the ones who were of much higher level and being suppressed.

"Impossible. It's just the totems evening the odds. His real skills must lie in his totems," Ye Chen said. This was the very first time he had faced an obvious disadvantage in combat.

The crowd was already going wild from the battle.

"Having nine totems is impressive after all!"

"Not only can Lin Feng's beasts hold their own, two of them even have the upper hand! That's not what I expected!"

"They're too powerful."

"It isn't over for Ye Chen yet. Look."

In this battle to the virtual death, the combatants let out all of their fighting spirit without holding back. After a few clashes, their rage reached its peak. They charged toward each other with all the malice they could muster.

"Ye Chen, is this all you're capable of? Looks like your reputation was exaggerated," Tianming said. He still had five godswords that he could use in tandem with his Grand-Orient Sword in the fight against Lin Feng. With the added advantage of combining the powers of his totems, sword body, and sword art, he began pushing Ye Chen back and dominating the matchup.

People watched as the white-robed youth looked up, blinding white light radiating from his eyes as boundless power was unleashed from his body. "You're really impressive. You're probably much stronger than many top rankers from other worlds in the Astraldome. You're worthy of me going all out!"

With that said, Ye Chen's aura rose once more, completely changing. He turned from a carefree wanderer to a bloody slaughterer. He seemed like a rampaging berserker, admittedly a much better fit for his savage beasts. His former refinement had all been a disguise; he may feign harmlessness, but he wouldn't allow anyone to get in the way of his growth and triumph. The path of cultivation was winner-take-all! He wouldn't let anyone take anything from him. Had he not encountered someone with the same mindset like Tianming, he wouldn't have been so direct. Tianming wasn't one to pretend to be something he wasn't, after all, and preferred facing everything as himself.

"Everyone, let them see your true form. You're Desolate Chaos Progenibeasts, so don't let these wild critters push you back," Ye Chen telepathically said to his beasts.

"Pushing back? If it weren't for the totems, we would've made easy work of these beasts!" Though the beasts said that, they had to admit that Ying Huo and Tianming's other beasts had outperformed their expectations. It wasn't like they'd had a huge edge over Tianming's beasts before the totems came to help, either.

"Come!"

Ye Chen's five beasts swiftly escaped their enemy. With the black flesh bug at their center, the beasts turned into black mist and collided.

"What're they doing?" Ying Huo and the others watched as the unthinkable happened. The five beasts blended together and fused, flesh to flesh. Each of their bodies had a black vortex that served as a connection point that seemingly welded them to each other. A gigantic cocoon formed around their bodies, within which blood and flesh pulsed. It almost looked like a new lifeform. It didn't take long before the cocoon burst, revealing a gigantic black beast to the world.

"What the hell is that?" Tianming and everyone else was stunned as they saw a huge, four-legged beast that was covered in armor-like scales. Its legs resembled the black fire qilin's, but were a few times thicker. The beast was covered in black flames like before. Three pairs of lightning bird wings sprouted from its center abdomen where the broodmother insect used to be, causing countless lightning bolts to surround it. To its front was a head that looked like a transformed man-eating flower. It had no eyes, just a gigantic, bloody mouth a few times larger than before with even more gruesome teeth. On its back were thousands of tails, every single one of them the same as the tentacles of the squid. The suckers and spikes were still present on the tails. It looked horrific, eerie, and even more sinister than the Archaionfiend.

"They can even fuse into one?!" Tianming was flabbergasted. Ye Chen had never shown this form to anyone else before, either. The shock the people of the Violetglory Star experienced was probably even greater than what Tianming felt now. "Can you guys fuse too?"

"No way!" Ying Huo said, rolling its eyes. Each Primordial Chaos Beast was unique. In antiquity, they had never gotten along and often fought among themselves. On the other hand, the Desolate Chaos Progenifiends were of the same lineage and even used an identical source of power: desolate ataxium, an ancient and primal power. No doubt, their fusion form would be stronger than the five beasts were individually. Otherwise, there would be no point.

"What is that?" Tianming asked.

"You want to know?" Ye Chen said cheekily.

"It's called the Chaos Dijiang." Ye Chen didn't seem to mind revealing the name at all.

"So this is its true form, right? You've always only had one lifebound beast, not five… though you're probably stronger than a penta beastmaster," Tianming said.

"Not bad! To think you'd get that much right. But it doesn't matter. It isn't like this is a secret I'm trying to keep."

"Truly wondrous!" That was Tianming's honest feelings. A lifebound beast that could split into five was just as good as having five beasts. It was a little similar to his Myriadsword Providence; splitting his totems into many had its advantages as well.