Beastmaster of the Ages

"Get outl!" A low shriek sounded from the trembling figure in front of her. There was frustration, rage, and despair in her voice.

"Wushuang, it's me, Yunxi. What's wrong with you?" Li Yunxi frowned, her pace quickening as she approached Li Wushuang.

"I said get out!"

Feeling like countless monsters had pounced on her body, Li Yunxi quickly stopped. "I heard about it. Is it true…" she asked, her voice hoarse.

The woman in front of her trembled but refused to respond. It was clear she was in pain.

"Wushuang, your looks might've been affected a little but you'll make history," Li Yunxi persuaded.

"A little?" Laughing miserably, Li Wushuang rose to her feet. Amidst her heartbreaking laughter, she turned around.

Qingyu was so frightened that she slammed into the door, her face pale. Li Yunxi's delicate body trembled as she threw both hands to her mouth to stop any screams from leaking out.

Li Wushuang's hair was disheveled, her scarlet eyes resembling a beast's. There were no whites in her eyeballs, only red. Her skin had turned purple, with dark purple pus oozing out of the cracks in her skin. Just looking at her made Li Yunxi sick. It was almost impossible for a human to look this hideous.

"Am I ugly? Am I still human?" Li Wushuang threw herself onto Li Yunxi, rotten hands grabbing her lapels as an awful stench assaulted her nose. Li Yunxi felt like she was about to throw up.

"It's alright, Wushuang. It'll be fine. It's okay…." She grit her teeth, forcefully holding down her churning stomach.

Both of them were beautiful, once. Li Yunxi was still the same, but Li Wushuang had become like this. At the sight of Li Yunxi's smooth, flawless skin, Li Wushuang felt even more despair. Shoving Li Yunxi away, she roared, "Leave! Get lost!"

"Alright, I'll go." Li Yunxi staggered, her face pale. Her intention had been to bring Qingyu to see Li Wushuang, but she'd never expected such a horrifying twist.

"Wait!" At this moment, Li Wushuang caught sight of Qingyu. Her purple lips parted and she let out an awful wheeze of frenzied laughter. In fact, her appearance used to be similar to Qingyu's, but now it was completely different. Swaying as she walked, she approached Qingyu. The latter leaned against the door, staring at her vigilantly. But after a while, she couldn't stand to look at Li Wushuang any longer, so she turned her head away and asked, "What is it?"

Li Wushuang grabbed her hand.

"Let go!" Qingyu struggled, but to no avail.

Li Wushuang was so thin there was almost no flesh on her hands, only skin and bones. It was impossible for Qingyu to loosen her grip. She squeezed Qingyu's delicate arm, pulling her sleeves open. Upon looking at her bane-rings, Li Wushuang covered her and giggled like a madman. She laughed for a long time before finally letting go.

Leaning into Qingyu's ear, Li Wushuang smiled and said, "You'll join me."

"What?" Qingyu grit her teeth.

"You'll become like me. It won't be long now," Li Wushuang said.

Qingyu gasped. She had undergone that process. Nine drops! She knew what Li Wushuang meant. The woman's appearance was enough to give her nightmares for a lifetime. Uncontrollably trembling, she was overcome with fear and despair.

"Accept your fate. It's too bad he loves you…. " Li Wushuang turned around, swaying like a drunkard, even knocking Li Yunxi aside as she walked away.

"Let's go." Grabbing Qingyu's arm, Li Yunxi pulled her out of the hall. During the entire process, Li Wushuang's ghostlike figure was reflected in Qingyu's eyes.

…

On the Great Saintdragon Peak, not far from the Saintdragon Shrine was the Dragontooth Spring, a place with rich nova source. Long Longlong grew up there. It was where his family had spent happy times together, once, but now it had been emptied. The Ninemoon Goddess was arranged to live there, as it was the safest place in the Myriaddragon Mountains. Even so, thousands of Sunscorch Guards still surrounded the area, rendering the Dragontooth Spring impenetrable. Anyone entering or leaving required the Sunscorch Guard's permission, including the dragon imperials of the Veildragon Palace.

Li Yunxi also stayed in the Dragontooth Spring, remaining closer to Qingyu than her maidservants. In truth, Qingyu wouldn't be in any danger. No one dared to touch her.

After the arrangements had been made, Li Yunxi turned to her and said, "I'm going out. Don't go anywhere in my absence."

"Understood." Qingyu sat on the stone chair in the courtyard with cold sweat on her forehead.

Li Yunxi looked worried when she left; it seemed she was on her way to pay Li Wushuang another visit. With Li Wushuang's current state, no one could comfort her because getting close was truly frightening.

"You can leave, too. I want to be alone for a while. You'll be living here from now. You can do whatever you want, don't worry about me," Qingyu said to the maidservants.

"Yes, Goddess." They retired.

Qingyu was the only one left in the huge courtyard. Resting her arm on the stone table, she pulled up her sleeves and looked at the malevolent ghostly faces that were faintly visible on the dark side of the moon on her silver-white bane-rings. Bloody streaks appeared near her bane-rings. At this moment, Li Wushuang's face seemed to overlap the bane-rings. Quickly covering her arms, Qingyu let out a long sigh. However, she couldn't control the trembling of her fingers; they didn't feel like they belonged to her.

"Father, what should I do…." She lay softly on the stone table, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"I am… not your… father father…" a deep, emotionless mechanical voice suddenly sounded from the surface of the stone table.

Startled, Qingyu sat up and wiped away the tears. She glanced around, but strangely there was no one there

"Who is it?" she asked quietly.

"I am… your big… brother brother…." At that moment, a little silver cockroach on the stone table caught Qingyu's attention. It looked up at her.

"Then I'm your mother!" Qingyu smacked it. When she raised her hand again, she found that the little cockroach had split in two.

"What?"

She was about to smack it once more when Yin Chen quickly raised its antennae and said, "Stop! I… am Tianming's… lifebound beast!"

Qingyu's hand froze in mid-air. "Big Brother?" It was like a drowning person grasping at straws. She was overjoyed, like she had just crawled out of deadly quicksand. Carefully holding up the little cockroach, Qingyu burst into tears. "Big Brother, why's it a cockroach? You…."

Yin Chen shouted, "Shut up… woman woman!" It was in a hurry. It spoke as if it was constipated, two words at a time.

"So I can talk to my brother through you? You handsome bug?" Qingyu's sorrow turned into joy as she stopped pretending. As soon as Tianming appeared, she would rather follow him like a little girl.

Her words made Yin Chen elated. The little cockroach was full of vigor and in high spirits. Although it was slow, Tianming and Qingyu could still communicate if time wasn't of the essence. Thus, Tianming and Lingfeng, who were far away on Whitesource Peak, had a long-distance conversation with Qingyu through Yin Chen.

"Big Brother, is it really you? Where are you? Is Feng next to you?" Qingyu eagerly asked.

On Whitesource Peak, a silver ball gradually transformed into a face similar to Qingyu's, with eyes, ears, a mouth, and a nose that resembled hers. Following Qingyu's expression and tone, it relayed her words to Tianming. It would be like she was in front of them if it didn't stutter.

"We're on Whitesource Peak, which isn't far from the Great Saintdragon Peak. The people of the Xuanyuan Dragon Sect are all here, and Feng is next to me," Tianming said.

"Big Brother, first let me say I'm sorry. I wanted to find an opportunity to come over and meet you, but I didn't expect that he would use me as an excuse to send so many people here. I was forcefully taken here and now I can't leave," said Qingyu.

"We know. It isn't your fault," Tianming replied.

"Big Brother… I've asked about you two. How are you?" she asked.

"We're fine, of course. It's you we're worried about. Qingyu, take this opportunity to tell us about your situation, including how they're really treating you, the sun emperor's attitude towards you, and your betrothal to Long Renshe. We have to know exactly what's going on," Tianming solemnly said.

"Okay, I'll explain everything."

Through Yin Chen, Qingyu briefly told them about her situation in the celestial orderians, but concealed the issue of her bane-rings. "The sun emperor isn't my father. He brought me back because I'm a nonabane. I'm not sure if he plans to nurture me or use me, but he's definitely not a good man."

Upon hearing that she had nothing to do with the sun emperor, Tianming breathed a sigh of relief. Sure enough, this Li Wudi wasn't the one that he knew.

"Did he hurt you?" Tianming asked.

"Not yet."

"Then tell me, what'd Li Wushuang say in the Saintdragon Shrine?"

Qingyu was dumbfounded.