Beastmaster of the Ages

The hundreds of thousands of dragons from the formation reacted even faster than Long Wanying, fusing together before charging toward Li Wushuang's totems, which were no different from tentacle-like spiked appendages that sprouted from Li Wushuang's body herself. Every one of them seemed completely subjugated by a dark, fiendish totem.

"What?!" Li Wushuang had never felt something like that. She cut off a finger and saw a few metal ants falling into her other palm, only to completely freeze. She immediately recalled that Tianming had a broodmother type lifebound beast and recalled seeing the silver ants somewhere before, but she would never have imagined that something like this was hiding in her bones! The mere notion of them filling one's entire skeleton would bring endless horror to any person.

"Li Tianming!" she cried, almost biting off her tongue. The next instant, she forced herself to endure the pain.

"You're crazy! Die now!" Yin Chen's metallic voice rang from inside her bones. During the entire process, Long Wanying's sword and her dragons that reemerged from her lifebound space as well as Yang Ce's spear flew at Li Wushuang with abandon!

Though Li Wushuang was shrieking in pain, she still held onto her Skymoon Holyfiend. The battle was growing more and more chaotic by the moment. "What the hell is this?!"

Her gaze contorted even more. Even she had to admit that this unexpected turn of events had instilled terror into her. She had thought that fear was no longer something she could feel after getting used to her fiendish totems. Yet the parasitic ants inside her seemed far more demonic than her totems could ever be.

"Aaaaaagh!" Her hair messily fluttered all over the place as her every action was affected by the ants. Even as she rolled on the ground, fresh blood endlessly flowed from her. Yang Ce calmly struck with his spear from the darkness, piercing her shoulder straight through. A red tongue came spitting out of her mouth, almost piercing Yang Ce's head. The tongue belonged to the totem that looked like a red-robed female. The next instant, that totem was torn asunder by the pentaphase dragons of the formation, returning to the bane-ring on Li Wushuang's shoulder.

The next instant, however, a white sword flashed across, containing endlessly arcane mysteries that made its trajectory impossible to predict. Li Wushuang tried avoiding it, but still felt a piercing pain coming from her left shoulder, causing her to howl in pain. Her bane-ring had been shattered by Long Wanying's attack! Totem ki burst out of the bane-ring, sending Long Wanying and Li Wushuang both flying.

"My bane-ring!"

She fell to the ground and smashed a boulder beneath her, only to scramble up again. Looking at her destroyed bane-ring, she widened her mouth and eyes, then stretched out her tongue and grimaced, showing an expression of absolute suffering. After losing her beauty, the absolute power she had gained was the only thing she had left. Yet now Long Wanying had ruined her only chance to become the sun empress. She would never recover from another ruined bane-ring ever again!

"Li Wushuang, you won't be able to become the sun empress with only seven bane-rings. You've lost your beauty and a bane-ring, so now you have nothing left! Maybe you were destined to end up with nothing from the very beginning!" Long Wanying charged to Li Wushuang, covered in traces of blood. Her eyes were filled with endless bliss as she spoke those words, finally venting the bursting hatred she had felt for so long. Her soul felt completely liberated!

Li Wushuang had nothing, that pitiful, hate-inducing wretch! Her pride had instantly evaporated. It hadn't been long since she'd been able to hypnotize herself into forgiving the sun emperor for what he had done to her, yet now she was beset by true despair once more.

"Aaaaaaagh!" Her lips were opening so wide that they were tearing themselves apart and dripping fresh blood.

"The one you should've hated from the beginning wasn't me, but your brother, the sun emperor! He made you the way you are! He was the one who destroyed you! Even so, that doesn't change how much I loathe you. I never imagined that the day I'd make you pay the price would ever come. Even if killing you today is doing something that I'll never be able to take back, I've already made peace with my potential death. All things considered, despite everything that's happened in my life, it's all been worth it! You weren't! I hate and pity you!"

Long Wanying seemed to understand Li Wushuang better than she did herself. There was no way she would be able to pick the most hurtful words to say otherwise. The only one responsible for Li Wushuang's ruin, envy, and being forced onto a path of no return, on which she was still able to delude herself despite her new ugly appearance, was the golden figure that appeared in her mind. At that moment, her entire being began rupturing—not just her organs or her soul, but everything down to her smallest albus!

"Ugghh...." Not even the pain of the bonegnaw ants could rival the psychological pain she felt. What had she lived for all her life? What was the point of standing at the very top? She didn't even have a normal family member, and the only memories she had were the times she coldly looked at her reflection. Her heart dripped with blood, and so did her body. Yang Ce's spear had pierced another of her bane-rings, dissipating yet another totem; it would never return again. Long Wanying followed it up, rupturing yet another bane-ring.

Li Wushuang collapsed, still holding her Skymoon Holyfiend. In her eyes, the whole world was shaking and stained with blood. Memories from her childhood onward flooded toward her mind. She recalled that the golden man had picked her up and looked at her oddly when she was really young.

Though it hurt a lot, her mind was growing more and more dull. Was he really her brother, or something else? A demon, perhaps? The figure that supported her? Why had she come to hate the world and everyone that seemed to live a better life than her? As Long Wanying's sword touched her throat, her eyes glazed over as she thought of the only person in the universe she could still call out to.

"Big Brother... save me...." She stretched out her hand, trying to reach him, yet feared him at the same time. He was the person she feared the most. Her nightmare reminded her of the odd smile that man had when she looked at him. It was burned into her mind before she felt a searing pain at her neck. Her head was gone, separated from her body.

Long Wanying's sword dripped with blood as she held the demonic head in her left hand. "Yang Ce...." That was the only thing she could mutter after mustering all the energy she had left. She slowly slumped to the ground.