Beastmaster of the Ages

"Now that you've seen your fill, it's time to end it. Lin Feng, you were worthy enough to make me use something I haven't even shown in the Astraldome. You should be proud," Ye Chen said.

"Now that's arrogance, if I don't say so myself," Tianming replied.

"The root of arrogance is power." Ye Chen's glowing body changed once more. All of a sudden, a white star appeared in his hand. It gradually rose up as it changed, exploding in size until it became a gigantic white star, then took the form of a white-haired old man. This was a spiritform! It looked just like a totem, but in a way, it resembled the Soulfiend more.

"What in the world is it this time?" Tianming asked. He could hear gasps of shock from the outside.

"Unfettered Astralord!"

The old man seemed to have come to life. He glared at Tianming, causing him to feel like he was being analyzed.

"It's a guardian spirit," Ye Chen casually said. The next moment, his body entered the part of the old man's head before the spiritform turned into light and entered the albi in his body, making every inch of it glow like a white star.

Looking at Ye Chen, Tianming felt like he was seeing things. Sometimes, he looked like Ye Chen himself, but other times he looked like the Unfettered Astralord! During some moments, he was an arrogant and spirited youth, but during others, he was a lofty sage looking down through a veil of superiority. Tianming felt like he was going to fight the Unfettered Astralord himself. The pressure had considerably mounted.

"Guardian spirit and Chaos Dijiang, huh? Looks like this won't be easy." He gathered his beasts and totems around him. No doubt, Ye Chen was the protagonist of the chronicles of the Violetglory Star, having more than enough trump cards at his disposal to awe everyone again and again.

Ye Chen held his Grand Godless Liberty and looked at Tianming. From the moment the guardian spirit had assimilated into him, he could cover a distance of ten thousand meters in a single step. Instantly, he zipped in front of Tianming. "Come, let's have a good fight!"

The gigantic dijiang flapped its wings and accelerated its charge, each step causing the ground to shake. Its wide mouth let out a roar like a tidal wave. Then, lightning from its wings and venom from its tail, as well as the flames from its legs, gathered near its mouth and formed a black ball, which it blasted toward Tianming and the rest. The sheer force of the resulting explosion sent Ying Huo, Meow Meow, and Lan Huang flying off. Quite a few of Yin Chen's bodies were vaporized and Xian Xian lost more than half of its Radiant Vines. The fusion had made it more powerful than the sum of its parts, after all.

"Keep it up!" Ying Huo wasn't willing to relent just like that. At the same time, the four godswords covered them, immediately appearing on all four sides of the dijiang and circling it. The Chaos Dijiang could be said to be a single beast that was also five at the same time. They could each absorb seven-star universal manna.

The totems' appearance had evened the odds, at first, but now the fused beast managed to hold off Ying Huo and the rest. Despite being attacked from all sides, it showed startling vitality and explosive power. Right now, even Lan Huang was only a third of its size, and it still had its broodmother capabilities. It was producing even more child bug units than before, covering the ground with tens of millions of them.

All kinds of abilities were unleashed in a blinding flash. Ying Huo shrank its body and pierced its way through the Chaos Dijiang unabated. It was the only beast the Chaos Dijiang had trouble with. The four godswords protected one beast each, blocking any attacks. Even if they were destroyed, it didn't matter.

"This battle is epic!"

"Lin Feng's four totems and five beasts are just barely able to hold back Ye Chen's fusion beast."

"Let's see if he can take on the powered up Ye Chen with only five totems."

"Forget it! The battle was over the moment the guardian spirit was used!"

What made the guardian spirit so terrifying was that it made Tianming feel like he was fighting a senior who had experienced countless battles over thousands of years. Each and every move he executed with the halberd was filled with mystery. Once more, Ye Chen had gained the upper hand on him.

He used a seventh-realm divine art, Unfettered Wandering. It used to be a skill used by the Unfettered Astralord. Those who weren't solarians couldn't even fully utilize sixth-realm battle arts, yet Ye Chen was able to use a seventh-realm attack in combination with the guardian spirit. Unfettered Wandering, Cold Draft was followed by Unfettered Wandering, Yearning. Both moves seemed gentle, but were in fact savagely damaging. Fortunately, fighting in the wondersky realm allowed one to go all out without worrying about death on either side. Ye Chen looked like a mighty god descending from the heavens. Even while using his five totems with the Grand-Orient Sword and Lifesteal Silverdragon, Tianming wasn't able to withstand the rampage.

"Are there any more surprises you can offer me? Do you have no other trump cards apart from your nine totems?" Ye Chen gleefully provoked.

"Why would I need trump cards to deal with you?" Tianming took a deep breath and let the divine hazard sword ki in his body surge, forming a vortex of sword ki around him.

"If you have no other tricks, this will be your end," Ye Chen said with a smirk. It was almost like a practiced script. First, he would give his opponent the upper hand, then he would ultimately overcome them. The audience would be completely unsurprised by the result. He tightly gripped Grand Godless Liberty with both hands as his black hair turned white, thanks to the illusion. He had completely transformed into a terrifying old sage.

"Standing at the top of this universe is my birthright! If you're willing to roam the stars with me, you might get a chance to strive for the top as well!" he yelled as a divine light gathered around him. This was his true vocation. He didn't care about ruling the world, only that he would become the strongest person ever and have the most say.

However, Tianming completely ignored him. He gripped his sword as the five totems around him began spinning faster and faster. Each of the swords began splitting apart into countless small totem swords. It was his totemic calamity, Myriadsword Providence. A sea of swords surrounded him, making him like a sword god that ruled everything within his domain. The many swords undulated like waves of the sea, making for quite a puzzling sight. He intentionally provoked Ye Chen more by not even responding to his lofty speech.

"If you refuse to listen, forget it." Ye Chen's eyes exuded a killing aura, which he channeled into his halberd. The snow-white weapon let out an even brighter light as it was used to execute Unfettered Wandering, Deicide, the strongest move of his seventh-realm divine art. "Why would I, someone unfettered and untethered, bother to kill gods? It's because I refuse to submit to anyone, not even them!" That was the core will underpinning his move, the desire to enjoy life and all the sights it has to offer, only to remember that even greater powers lurked behind the scenes.

The move embodied the will of slaying the gods that would seek to oppress him. It was the perfect move to use to show off, but all of that was really laughable to Tianming. It felt like Ye Chen was just trying to sing his own praises. Even so, the power behind the move wasn't fake; stripping apart the sanctimonious decorations of the move revealed raw, crude power that was like nothing he had ever seen before.

The moment the halberd came crashing down, waves rose and storm winds blew. The radiance coming from Ye Chen and his halberd was so bright that it looked like a white sun was crashing down on them. The power of the move seemed even more impressive thanks to the guardian spirit's enhancement. It seemed like Tianming would lose if he had nothing he could use to counter it. Yet, the reason Tianming said he had no trump cards was that no trump card he could obtain would ever compare to how powerful the Primordial Chaos Beasts and decapath era godswords were.

No matter what tricks you have, you can't escape the fundamentals. You must be really ignorant to think that the Chaos Dijiang and legacy of the Unfettered Astralord alone are enough for you to be the most talented person in the universe! There's at least four people on Orderia that are comparable to you! Tianming didn't feel the need to speak those words. Ye Chen didn't scare him, nor could he crush his willpower. "Come!"

The five thousand providence swords began spinning as fast as they could. Using five thousand providence swords against a single target was like using five totems against a normal human. Though, with how powerful Ye Chen's body was, he could almost be considered a specter, albeit one that couldn't use any abilities.

The vortex of swords continued rapidly spinning. Then Tianming suddenly appeared, executing a shocking slash with a cold glare and a spirited war cry. It was a five-fusion strike of the Ninedragon Tribulation, now incorporating the fifth strike, the Whitedragon Exaltation.

"Your guardian spirit manifests as a spiritform, so the move my sword totems executes will surely be effective against it!" The flash of the silver dragon, ferocity of the blood dragon, roar of the blaze dragon, insidiousness of the black dragon, and sanctity of the white dragon blended together to form a brand new move that was incredibly damaging to souls and totems. The divine hazard sword ki strands blended together around the Grand-Orient Sword; at the same time, the little providence swords shot toward Ye Chen, each of them using the Whitedragon Exaltation to target the guardian spirit.

"Perish!" The sword move unleashed boundless power. The Grand-Orient Sword thrust forward alongside the five thousand smaller swords around it. By now, the guardian spirit looked like a sea of white from all the Whitedragon Exaltation attacks. The five thousand swords gathered to form a gigantic white sword that instantly pierced the sky.

"Whoa!" The audience was awed once more. Those five thousand providence swords seemed to exert far more power than the nine godswords had when Tianming had fought Princess Shen Yu last time. The totems swarmed Ye Chen's guardian spirit before Tianming's sword clashed with the halberd, sending sparks flying. A loud boom echoed throughout the Violetcloud Battlefield and rampant winds blew all over the place. People widened their eyes as they watched the Grand-Orient Sword seemingly disintegrate the moment it clashed with Grand Godless Liberty. Then, the halberd pierced through Tianming's head!

"Did Lin Feng lose?"

At the same time, the five thousand totems pierced into Ye Chen's body and reduced him to ash! One had his head pierced through, while the body of the other was gone. They had both died in battle! Not far away, the four totems and five beasts were still battling it out with the Chaos Dijiang, but they stopped after Tianming and Ye Chen's momentous clash. There would no longer be a point for them to keep fighting with both of their beastmasters 'dead'. This was the wondersky realm, after all; the results would soon be revealed.

"They both died from one another's strikes!" Even the moment of death seemed to be identical. This battle seemed to have been fought to a draw. Though it wasn't unheard of in the wondersky realm, it was still exceedingly rare, and it was even more troublesome thanks to the rankings. It would be hard to say who ranked higher if both of them had died at the same time. The entire audience fell silent, then finally remembered to breathe. All kinds of emotions assailed them; nobody had expected this would be the outcome.

"Still, I really didn't expect it to turn out this way."

"They're both miraculous!"

"Lin Feng definitely proved that he wasn't weaker than Ye Chen, not one bit."

"Ye Chen's beasts fused and he even has a guardian spirit… but Lin Feng's beasts were capable, too, and he even has nine totems…. They're both powerful!"

"But this still has to be said: Ye Chen has the advantage when it comes to weapons. Lin Feng's sword was obviously lower grade. That's why it shattered during the final clash. If the sword hadn't shattered as a function of the wondersky realm's parameters, Lin Feng might've been able to counter that move. That still doesn't change the fact that Ye Chen wasn't able to stop Lin Feng's totems at all!"

"That doesn't matter. Your arsenal is also part of your power."

People began arguing about the specifics of who won. Regardless, everyone was no doubt impressed by what Tianming could do. Either way, the battle was over and there was no changing the outcome.

"A draw?" Tianming was stumped. He had wanted to win, not tie! He didn't think the Grand-Orient Sword would be the thing that held him back.