Beastmaster of the Ages

It was the most stimulating moment in Long Wanying's lifetime. She weakly sat on the ground after the moment she struck that one final blow, feeling not a hint of joy or relief. Instead, her mind was completely blank. It was like her body had completely lost all feeling. Time itself seemed to stop.

She looked down at the head of Li Wushuang with much difficulty, confirming the kill multiple times. She had finally killed her for good, something she'd never dared to imagine. She suddenly hurled the ugly head away, the expression on its face forever burned in her mind. It was one of utter despair, hardship, and denial. Even though she had died by Long Wanying's hand, it looked like she was directing the hate at someone else, likely the sun emperor.

"Are you alright? How are your injuries?" Yang Ce asked.

"I'm fine. I'll just have to rest for a while." She took a deep breath. Only then did the numbness around her body begin to fade. Taking a few more looks at Li Wushuang, she took in the fact that she was dead for sure, having thoroughly suffered in the process. Long Wanying had wanted her to feel that pain. It took a while, but feelings of vindication and relief after getting her revenge flooded into Long Wanying.

"I...." Tears began forming. "Brother Xuan, my dear Tian, I... I've finally avenged you!" she uncontrollably bellowed before bursting into tears. This was completely unlike her usual demeanor. She completely let out her suppressed feelings and cried it all out, much to Yang Ce's surprise.

Then a smile appeared on her face, illuminated by the flaming clouds above. Seeing her finally being released from her dark past like that, Yang Ce was truly happy for her as the one who understood her most. The chains of destiny had finally snapped. All this time, Yang Ce had seen Long Wanying life's mission as his own. Now that Li Wushuang was dead, she could die without any regrets, in a manner of speaking. This kill was all she had lived on for.

However, Yang Ce's expression turned stern as he looked at Li Wushuang's corpse. "Even though she's dead, the storm that'll brew from her death would be even harder to deal with."

Long Wanying hadn't dared to kill her while she was out cold for good reason. Nobody would dare ruffle the sun emperor's feathers if they didn't have to.

"Wanying," he called out, helping her up after she had vented her feelings. He looked at her more closely, noticing that some of the Skymoon Holyfiend and the totems' power had permeated her body and was still doing some damage to her albi. There were two huge wounds, one on her abdomen and another on her back. Her albi there had been shattered and her flesh was rotting. It was something that could only be helped by divine pills.

"The sun emperor must already know that Li Wushuang is dead. It'll only cause the conflict at the Myriaddragon Mountains to be even more severe. The Xuanyuan Dragon Sect will be under more pressure from now on, and the sun emperor might not hold back in his rage."

However, that had been unavoidable from the very beginning. They hadn't been left with a choice. With how powerful Long Wanying was, not dealing with her for good would result in Long Wanying's eventual death, as well as the deaths of the disciples of the sect that represented its future. Ruining one of her bane-rings was no different from killing her, after all, so they might as well go all out. Not to mention, even if they had spared her, the situation at the Myriaddragon Mountains was still far from optimistic. For now, the consequences of killing her were still hard to gauge.

Long Wanying's mood turned heavier as she took a deep breath. "We had no choice since she forced our hand. All we can do now is return as soon as possible and hope we can fight alongside the rest."

"Alright." The two of them exchanged glances. For now, it seemed that nobody would be coming to Dragonbound Valley, since Li Wushuang had come alone to begin with.

"Let's go." They were short on time and couldn't afford to dally. As Long Wanying couldn't move well yet, she had one of her dragons that was less heavily injured carry them back.

Standing atop the dragon's head, Yang Ce looked ahead, his expression darkening more and more as the dragon flew higher up in the sky.

"What are you thinking of?" Long Wanying asked weakly.

"The sun emperor has a unique relationship with Li Wushuang. If he really considers her more important than his wife and children, he might go berserk and the two of us will die. There's nowhere we can hide to escape his wrath."

"I see...." She wore a look of worry as she fell into deep thought. Then she shook her head and said, "No, I was the one who killed Li Wushuang. It has nothing to do with you. It was already enough that I got to kill her in this life, so I can die without regrets. It was a good exchange. However, that isn't the case for you. You have to live on well, understood? Yang Ce, you don't owe me anything. It'll be fine."

"I see." Yang Ce nodded to her, casually agreeing.

However, Long Wanying understood his character. He was saying it, but he didn't mean it. It wasn't the first time he had tried playing it cool and brushing this matter off. "Yang Ce, I'm serious. You should avoid implicating yourself if you have the chance, and keep a low profile. When the sun emperor's enraged, I'll just let him kill me so his rage subsides," she said with a stern look.

"We'll see what happens. At the very least, I still have to fight as the Grand Minister. Asking me to hide is asking me to become a coward. I've never feared death from the moment I dared to stand up against the celestial orderians."

"Yang Ce, all the dragon imperials hope that you'll defend the future of our sect! It isn't up to you to stake your life in this fight!" she angrily snapped.

"They wish for you to be with me in fulfilling that task. You are the key. Not to mention, you're smarter and tougher than me, as well as the better leader. I'm not the kind of person who can do this. I'm lazy and I don't do anything but cultivate. I'm not fit for the role," he calmly said. Seeing her about to argue, he continued, "Enough for now. Rest up and recover. I won't be intentionally getting myself killed if that's what you're worried about."

"Fine... I just don't want you to keep giving so much away."

"Giving?" Yang Ce shrugged and feigned nonchalance. "I never felt I was forcing myself to do any of this. All of this is preparation for my next life, that's all. I've done the math, you see. Long Junxuan died early, so he'll have reincarnated earlier too. But this time, I'm closer to you in terms of age, yet my sense of presence has been drowned out by him in this life. Thankfully, he won't be around in my next life."

Long Wanying just blankly looked at him. Was he messing around, or was he expressing his true feelings through a nonchalant joke? Confused and flustered, she said, "But what about this life?"

Yang Ce brightly smiled despite his usual cool demeanor. "I doubt I'll have a chance. You love him far too much and share a lot of precious memories with him. I wasn't his match when he was alive and I can't bring myself to take you, especially not with him dead. Wanying, your feelings are pure, and I don't wish to ruin that. It isn't that bad to be in love with one person for all your life. I don't need you to empathize with or pity me. However, I'm still calling dibs in the next life."

She began tearing up despite how matter-of-factly he stated the matter. Lowering her head, she bit her lip and said, "I'm so lucky to have met men like the two of you... what did I do to deserve it?" Long Junxuan was a great man, but so was Yang Ce.

"Fine, let's put it this way: I don't like used goods, alright? Don't flatter yourself," he said with a smirk.

"Fuck off, you." She finally chuckled at the snide remark. The sudden contrast in his words broke her out of her sullen mood, distracting her from her bleak outlook with anger. "Fine, since you properly got in line, I'll be yours in the next life."

"Alright." His expression was one of joy. Time seemed to freeze at that moment.

All of a sudden, the flaming clouds suddenly began undulating. Huge shockwaves seemed to brush the sea of flames across their heads, much to their shock. A gigantic golden ball of flame with a diameter of a hundred meters appeared from beyond the clouds before rapidly charging toward them. Almost instantly, the ball of flame was right in front of the worldcleanse whitesoul dragon, which hurriedly stopped and avoided a collision with the ball.

The pressure from it felt like countless flaming clouds were pressing down on the two of them; they were pale and short of breath. In the middle of the flaming ball was a huge golden figure, half naked with his hair unkempt. His eyes looked like two burning nova sources. Flames came shooting out from them toward the dragon, heating up its scales till bright red. Hurriedly, it returned to the lifebound space since it was too huge to be able to effectively evade.

Long Wanying's fingers twitched. Everything about the person, from his looks, the aura and sense of terror he radiated, and down to the sheer superiority as a lifeform in a completely different league told them all they needed to know about his identity. He was the sun emperor! What did his presence here mean? Shouldn't he be at the wedding ceremony?