Beastmaster of the Ages

Lingfeng and Qingyu couldn't remotely get close to one another, separated as they were by millions of people. Eventually, she couldn't keep the facade up anymore and broke into a smile, unable to bear treating him so coldly. Fortunately, people had their eyes on Tianming and didn't notice her. The four youths, Xiaoxiao included, had all seen one another and Tianming resolved to keep moving.

"The celestial orderians are trash," he abruptly said as he entered the Infernal Dragon Purgatory, much to the shock of the twenty million celestial orderians there. It was rare for people to mock them outright like that, but they laughed instead of getting angry. It sounded more like a childish temper tantrum than an actual insult.

"No matter how talented he is, he's still a child at the end of the day."

"Well, he's already fallen for Li Shenjian's trap, so let's see how he gets handled."

The moment Tianming entered the arena marked the start of the duel. However, not everyone could get a good view of everything. They weren't standing right against the entrance, after all. But with the Infernal Dragon Purgatory essentially being a place where important duels took place, it naturally had projection formations similar to skyward eyes that more or less captured what went on within.

The moment Tianming entered, a large flaming cloud appeared in the hole above the Infernal Dragon Purgatory, which formed a large battlefield. Countless flaming divine hazards gathered around the battlefield, making a magma-filled terrain that seemed to create a heat distortion effect on the light around it. However, the flames were merely illusions and didn't generate actual heat. They were there to allow the nearby audience to be able to see what happened in the arena. Through the divine hazards, sword ki and flames, they could make out Li Shenjian, who stood on top of the arena with one hand suppressing the Dragonblood Desecration. His other hand was curled into a fist as he waited for his opponent. Tianming jumped into the hole and a projection of him appeared, showing him descending toward his opponent.

Li Shenjian's eyes snapped open and locked on to Tianming. "To be honest, I've been through my fair share of battles among the celestial orderians, but none of them were nearly as grand as this one."

"You sure lucked out, didn't you?" Tianming said, rolling his eyes.

"Lucked out?" Li Shenjian was stunned. The implication was that Li Shenjian only got so much attention because he was fighting Tianming. "You think too highly of yourself. I didn't think defeating a mere Li Haochen would be enough to inflate your ego so much."

"Hmph." Tianming didn't bother to waste time. He wasn't even really here for the fight. He had Yin Chen immediately swarm out of his lifebound space, letting them turn into invisible cockroaches that he scattered all throughout the area. They were metal insects that didn't fear fire at all, allowing them to survive in this environment and give Tianming all the information he needed about unfamiliar terrain. He could use them to explore dangerous crypts in the same fashion. All the while, the people on the outside weren't able to see the small insects through the flaming formation outside at all. Soon, Yin Chen permeated the entire arena.

"Setup complete!" A million Yin Chen units blocked Li Shenjian in front of Tianming, immediately turning into countless silver spiders that spun countless Infinite Silverthreads, forming a large web that blocked Li Shenjian's way.

Li Shenjian didn't know what Tianming was planning, but this was the signal to start. Even though he only used one hand to suppress the bow, it still represented a significant part of his combat power, but he didn't really mind it. "To think a young brat like you grew so arrogant after a few minor victories…. I'll do your parents a favor and raise you right this time!"

"Not every old person is mature, you know. Least of all you, and you're twice my age for heavens' sake!" Tianming said as his spiders continued spinning a larger and larger web. Though the silver threads looked really fine, they were formed using the astralforce of the Myriadworld Immortabeast, which could cut deep into all kinds of flesh.

"Your mouth's pretty foul, huh. Very well, let's start from there, then." Li Shenjian felt his anger rising. He knew that the celestial orderians were watching his performance through the projections and immediately struck, manifesting a grade-seven divine artifact in his free hand. The golden mace looked not one bit inferior to the Dragonblood Desecration and resembled a spinal column covered in golden spikes. Complicated divine patterns filled its insides, and its handle was wide and cubical. It was named the Oriental Despot.

Like the Crimsoncloud Dragonbane, it was a top-tier divine artifact. Only the children of the sun emperor got access to weapons of this caliber. Li Shenjian held the Oriental Despot in one hand and Dragonblood Desecration in the other. Naturally, his greatest trump cards were still his eight justice emblems, which came bursting out of the square array of bane-rings on his forehead. All in all, he radiated a stark imperial aura.

It was clear to see that his totems began absorbing the fire in the environment, heating up to bright red and radiating even more power. That was why he had chosen to fight at this place, being the careful and deliberative person he was. Coupled with his near-solarian astralforce, he was far stronger than Ye Chen. Every moment of his fifty years of life had been used to the utmost for his cultivation.

The moment the totems appeared, countless flaming pillars burst out around the battlefield, obscuring the scenery for many people outside. Being three levels above Li Haochen, Li Shenjian's justice emblems were far more powerful. Fortunately, Tianming had never planned to directly clash with him. The instant the Oriental Despot appeared, Tianming sent the web flying toward the justice emblems, blocking Li Shenjian's path forward at the same time.

"Break!" Li Shenjian tried tearing apart the threads with as much force as he could, but it was like using stone against cloth, a horribly bad match. The threads eventually entangled him and his totems, making the web incredibly hard to pull off. The clash of the justice emblems sent sparks flying and created loud sounds, resulting in instant chaos around Li Shenjian.

"Aargh! You annoying little…!" Even then, this obstacle would only be temporary. Eventually, he had his emblems fly in different directions and tore the web apart. "Li Tianming…."

Right as Li Shenjian charged out of the web, he noticed that the million spiders were spreading apart into the surroundings. They looked to be only the size of thumbs and were impossible to chase down. By the time Li Shenjian changed his focus, Tianming was nowhere to be seen. The only thing he was certain of was that he hadn't left the arena.

"Where've you gone? Don't tell me you're chickening out?!" Li Shenjian mocked.

"Chickening out? That's for my Chicken Bro to do. Oops, I have to relieve myself. You don't mind if I use your head as a toilet, do you? Try to catch me if you can," said a voice from above him.

Li Shenjian looked up and saw a little black cat teasing him. Though it looked small and cute, the black lightning bolts surrounding it were terrifying to behold, each of them with black text flowing through them. He immediately recognized it as Tianming's lifebound beast.

"Hah!" He ignored the cat and began looking around with his justice emblems, mocking Tianming as he scattered the columns of flame around the area. Then stream after stream of lightning-infused liquid splattered towards him at great speed. He thought they were hidden weapons and tried swatting them away with his mace, only for the liquid to splatter all over the place, some even touching his face.

"How's the smell?" the cat said, appearing in front of him in a flash with a mischievous expression.

"Fuck off!" Li Shenjian's rage exploded as he gave chase. He unleashed a terrifying beam from his bane-rings, but the cat easily dodged it.

"Man, I didn't think you could be any slower."

The justice emblems continued rampaging above Li Shenjian, threatening to crush any man or beast in their trajectories. "Li Tianming, stop messing around! Come out if you dare! What's the point in pulling tricks like these? You were the one who accepted the challenge, yet now you're hiding like a coward! So much for all that arrogance you spouted! Aren't you embarrassed for the poor Ninedragon Army that has to watch you fight like this?!"