Beastmaster of the Ages

Everything could have been prevented. "All they gave you were some minor benefits, yet you were ready to throw your lives away for them. The pitiful hundred thousand wargodeans that you got killed don't only have Li Wushuang to thank for their deaths. They truly died senseless deaths after being used by her in a conflict that should've been between the Myriad Solar Sects and the celestial orderians. You, Tumulus Pill God, are just as culpable for what happened to them!" Long Wanying chided.

"Shut up!" The Tumulus Pill God closed his eyes and grit his teeth. "Enough, Long Wanying, stop wasting words and just wait for your demise! I've already been captured by all of you, so do your worst."

"Who said we were going to kill you?" Long Wanying smiled.

"What do you mean?"

"Tumulus, you're free to leave. We won't be stopping you." Long Wanying's words came as a shock to the others, who clearly hadn't been informed about this beforehand.

"Let me go? Are you trying to get me to do something for you?"

"Go back to your disciple, the Warlord, and tell him to think twice before taking action. Don't risk any more unnecessary deaths for the Azurecloud Continent. You aren't like the Blueblood Starocean. The wargodeans aren't meant to be used as fodder by the celestial orderians. Think about it… if the wargodeans continue sending reinforcements against the alliance's army while the celestial orderians send nobody, isn't it the same as your faction going alone against the whole alliance? Does that even make sense? You may believe that the wargodeans are comparable to the Veildragon Palace in the eyes of the sun emperor, but is that really the case?"

He looked at her for a long while without saying a word. Not only did he understand her logic, he couldn't refute it! He had known it for quite some time now, but it was a little too late for him to acknowledge it outright.

"As long as Li Wushuang still lives, wargodean lives will be used as chips for her insane gamble. She may be mad that she lost a hundred thousand chips, but it won't be out of pity for your loss, it'll be because she didn't win. She'll force you to raise the stakes more and more to fuel her insane drive for winning!"

"Shut up!" He took a deep breath and said, "Are you really letting me go?"

"I trust that you're someone who's a good judge of character and can see straight through to the core of people. I respect you as a senior, so I won't be holding you here," Long Wanying said.

The Tumulus Pill God had thought that he would die, yet Yun Tianque motioned for the other elites of his sect to make a path for him to retreat. Even the formation opened up for him.

"Fine! Fine!" he said, his eyes reddened. He didn't linger and immediately left, his body shrinking to his normal two-meter height as he did so. His silhouette almost made it seem as if he had aged quite a lot after just a single battle. Everyone watched him until he disappeared over the horizon.

"Inspect the surroundings and tie up any loose ends!" Yun Tianque said.

"Yes!" The hundred thousand cultivators immediately left, leaving the core figures there along with Tianming.

The moment Tianming came back, he asked, "Aunt Ying, why'd you let him go? I was preparing to see if I could control him." Yun Tianque and the rest wanted to ask the same question.

She shook her head and said, "Tumulus isn't easy to control. Don't make the mistake of thinking that just because he submitted to Li Wushuang. Normally, he'd resist anything that could harm the interest of the wargodeans. He's simply far too stubborn. Even if you manage to control him, he'd choose to suicide instead of betray his race." He wasn't the same as the four specters, who had no principles to uphold and could easily turn at the threat of their deaths.

"Do you all understand this? He can die in the hands of the Northdipper Swordsage or anybody else, but not by the hands of the Supracloud Sanctuary. He's the Warlord's master, after all. If he dies by our hand, that'll direct the Warlord's ire to us instead of the Empyrean Sword Sect. That would only make the situation on this continent even harder to resolve. Letting him go now will lead to a much better outcome and cause the wargodeans to refrain from participating in this mess," she continued.

Tianming also understood her logic. The alliance led by the Empyrean Sword Sect wasn't necessarily considered in the same camp as the rest of the Azurecloud Continent. While they could afford to offend the Warlord, the Azuresoul Palace and Supracloud Sanctuary couldn't. Not to mention, he hadn't controlled anyone as powerful as the Tumulus Pill God before, so there was no telling if it would all go well. If he eventually went on to kill himself, he might even reveal the secret of the bonegnaw ants, which would actually achieve the exact opposite of the effect they wanted. Most crucially, he didn't care what the Tumulus Pill God did. No doubt, he would be returning to the wargodeans after the battle, and Long Wanying wanted him to consider whether sticking with a heartless person like Li Wushuang would really be worth it.

"I trust that it'll be more effective for us to convince him and get him to stop the Warlord after he comes to his own conclusions rather than directly control him," she said. No matter what kind of person the Tumulus Pill God was, he was undoubtedly someone who deeply loved the wargodeans. Li Wushuang didn't even treat them as living beings. Just like the Supracloud Sanctuary, the wargodeans would start reevaluating whether her crazy lust for victory would be worth the lives of their own people.

"I see…." Tianming nodded in agreement. His seniors had much better foresight than he did, after all. The control afforded by the bonegnaw ants was only a single avenue out of many. The best method to employ would still be convincing others to join their cause of their own free will. All Tianming was doing with the bonegnaw ants was using them to get Gujian Qingshuang and Yun Tianque to come to his side at the beginning and allow them to willingly side with him.

"If the wargodeans are willing to extricate themselves from the affairs of the continent and perhaps even cause trouble for the sun emperor over what happened today, we'll have solved half of the issues we're facing now. That only leaves the Blueblood Starocean. Surely they aren't willing to give their lives to serve Li Wushuang either, right?" Tianming asked.

"They definitely wouldn't. Even less so than the wargodeans, in fact, unless the celestial orderians themselves send troops to lead them into battle. However, there's no incentive for the celestial orderians to do so at all. They don't really care about the divine herbs here, and the potential benefits the saplings may offer, if there even are any, are still unknown. Not to mention, the ones who have perished so far aren't celestial orderians, so they don't even have a bone to pick here. At the end of the day, there's no good reason on the continent that would make them truly discard the peace treaty. After all, they went out of their way to claim that what happened to the Xuanyuan Dragon Sect is due to the return of the Veildragon Palace rather than their involvement, right? They can also argue that the battle that happened here is a result of a civil war among the Myriad Solar Sects," Long Wanying explained.

The alliance's million-man army was far too much. If the celestial orderians really sent troops without any justification, like the Veildragon Palace's recent 'return', it would be a clear declaration of war. Should that come to pass, the Myriad Solar Sects would no longer have a good reason to not help the Xuanyuan Dragon Sect resolve their issues, which would throw a wrench in the sun emperor's plans to absorb that sect.

"At the end of the day, all the chaos here was caused by Li Wushuang alone. She's single-handedly caused the deaths of more than two hundred thousand wargodeans and Blueblood Starocean cultivators."

That definitely wasn't something that the sun emperor would have wanted. If he had smoothly obtained the Xuanyuan Dragon Sect, there would be no need for him to fight over these pitiful divine herbs at all.

Tianming could tell how angry the Tumulus Pill God was at Li Wushuang from the look in his eyes, and that was exactly what they wanted. As Tianming hadn't shown up just now, nor had he used his bonegnaw ants, the Tumulus Pill God wouldn't be able to figure out how the Azuresoul Palace and Supracloud Sanctuary had come to work together. As far as he was concerned, it would probably be something along the lines of Yun Tianque caving to the pressure of the alliance's army and choosing to defect to their side. As for the Azuresoul Palace, it only seemed right that they were on the same side as the Empyrean Sword Sect was on. So, the only conclusion he could come to would be that the Northdipper Swordsage had forced Gujian Qingshuang and Yun Tianque to ally up.

……

The mountains of corpses and rivers of blood mainly came from the golden bodies of the wargodeans. The Tumulus Pill God walked through the battlefield before kneeling in agony, tears endlessly flowing. "It's my fault! My fault! Long Wanying was right! At least, those of the Veildragon Palace were considered servants. Though they have a lower status, they're still treated as fellow people. Yet the wargodeans are regarded as nothing more than the sun emperor's pets! Why are we being used as fodder the moment the battle starts even though we celebrate the celestial orderians' victories with them? Why are we the first to give our lives? Isn't this the cardinal sin that breaks all alliances? Causes internal strife? Why did they have to go so far to use us as fodder…."

He looked up at his dead brethren who probably wouldn't even make it back to their homeland to be buried and felt his grief intensify. This was never what he wanted, but a symbol of Li Wushuang's depressing cruelty and stubbornness.

……

"Lady Wushuang!" someone cried in pain. The last of her fourteen subordinates had been vaporized.

"Ugh…." Li Wushuang felt the world around her spin as she witnessed that sight. She spat out a mouthful of blood as she smashed into the ground, suffering multiple heavy injuries and knowing that the Northdipper Swordsage could have killed her long ago if he wanted to. However, she didn't feel the slightest bit of joy from that realization. Everyone beside her was now dead, without exception, yet she was left alive. It was almost as if she was being toyed with. The swordsage seemed to be planning to deprive her of her last bits of pride and dignity without leaving her with a permanent injury.

"Looks like they're all dead. It's your turn now," he said, smiling.

"You really are a boring one. Would you dare touch me if I just stand here and let you hit me?" Li Wushuang said as she struggled to get up, coldly smiling at him.

"I would!" someone cried out from behind her.

Li Wushuang turned back and saw the Wind Swordlord, his eyes as red as a raving beast's. He roared and growled as his sword stance diversified into myriad forms, forming a storm that came slashing toward her. He had gone mad! "Die!"

Though Li Wushuang didn't fear the swordsage, she did somewhat fear this madman. There was no doubt that he truly wanted her dead for his revenge. "Dammit!"

Her totems were still being held back by the swordsage, so she had no choice but to fight the crazed Wind Swordlord with her own body. His lifebound beast, the windfiend, turned into formless air and surrounded her, putting her in the heart of a storm. The strong winds ripped apart countless leaves in the surroundings.

"Li Wushuang, go to hell!" A formless sword emerged from the windfiend.

"Fuck off!" She swung Skymoon Holyfiend, sending out tens of thousands of strands of moonlight sword ki. However, the Wind Swordlord pressed on without regard for his own safety, breaking through her attacks and piercing his sword straight into her left arm. When she looked down at it, her wound exploded with the power of wind! One of her bane-rings had been there, but it had now been destroyed!