Beastmaster of the Ages

As for the mysterious crimson-haired man and his lifebound beast, they were in a pool of their own blood hovering on the brink of death. Despite that, the man was still able to flip the sun emperor off. Unquestionably, he had succeeded.

The rage of the sun emperor showed how much he had been affected by the recent events. First, Li Wushuang had been killed, and that was then followed by the loss of fifty million troops and the deactivation of the Divine Sun Palace! All of them were fatal blows in their own right. All things considered, losing Qingyu didn't seem to be much. The divine aura about him seemed to lose much of its threat; now all he could do was vent his rage.

"Keep holding out!"

"Don't worry! He can't do anything else! He's lost his palace and there's no way he alone can take on a grade-eight divine formation that's being supported by more than a billion people!"

"Kill him!"

Their courage swelled. No matter how much the sun emperor raged, he wasn't able to make it into the formation a single step of the way. Even so, his terrifying might was still shocking to behold. The people within the formation continued constantly receiving transmission stones. By now, the countless celestial orderian troops no longer attacked but only marched toward the Myriaddragon Mountains, where they would arrive in a few more days. When the army of hundreds of millions was finally assembled, there was a good chance that the Xuanyuan Dragon Sect would finally fall, though that would undoubtedly come at yet another huge cost to the celestial orderians. Compared to the sun emperor's original plans to bloodlessly take the sect, the current state of affairs was completely different.

The fact that the sun emperor had been forced to do this was thanks to the miracles caused by the mysterious crimson-haired man, Ninedragon Imperial Tomb, and the hundred thousand Dragon Imperials. All of them had been unpredictable factors that, when combined, had resulted in a huge loss for the sun emperor. And all that started from Li Wushuang's death with the aid of Tianming's bonegnaw ants! The sun emperor had only lost his cool because of Li Wushuang. When he finally realized that his attacks were futile, his gaze turned cold once more. Then he looked at the Divine Sun Palace and Li Wudi's middle finger.

"Hahahaha!" His laughter was incredibly weird. His loss had come from so far out of left field that he could only laugh to cope. Despite his meticulous preparation, he had still been thwarted by the long-dead Ninedragon Emperor. Both the divine astralship and the sudden reinforcements from Primodragon Cave had come about from him. On the other hand, Li Wudi and Li Wushuang were the sun emperor's own missteps. The combination of all that had resulted in his complete loss.

"How mystical.... This time around, luck and fate weren't on my side. Someone more fortunate than me took everything away." He could never have known that the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb was actually a divine astralship. After all, nobody but Tianming knew of the uses of the Azurecloud Divine Tree's saplings.

He looked at the Myriaddragon Mountains beneath him, still unable to swallow his rage. He had assembled the army to cut his losses, but now that he had already lost so much, should he just go all in and crush them? Even without the Divine Sun Palace, he still had a good chance of winning. Naturally, he would lose even more, but he had already lost fifty million.

So, he chose to wait. As long as he was still there, the danger wasn't over yet. Unless the Myriad Solar Sects were completely unified on a single front, there was no way they could take on the hundreds of millions of reinforcements. They had not a single second to spare. The Saintdragon Emperor and the rest were meeting up with the Northdipper Swordsage and others to discuss forming a true alliance to drive away the celestial orderians. With the Divine Sun Palace gone, that was a distinct possibility.

"Let them come. As long as the Aeonic Infinidragon Formation holds, we can work together with our forces on the other side to mount a pincer attack."

"The Divine Sun Palace is gone and they've already lost fifty million. This is a great chance to strike back while our morale is still high! If we win now, we'll set the stage for the million years to come!"

"Now that he doesn't have a divine astralship, we're on the same playing field. To be honest, he's no longer much different from us. As long as we stand united, he won't be able to take us for granted."

Such sentiment had spread like wildfire, much to the Saintdragon Emperor's delight.

"That's right. It's time for all of our factions to stand together. I will humble myself and die for the Myriad Solar Sects if need be," the Northdipper Swordsage said in a bid for the leadership position of the alliance. But now, his reputation could no longer compare to the Saintdragon Emperor's. With the alliance already forming around the Saintdragon Emperor, they could even reduce the influence of the Sky Palace.

It was at that moment that those from the Sky Palace arrived. Seven white-robed people descended from the sky in front of the sun emperor. Even now, they were still highly regarded by most normal folk.

"The Sky Palace is here!"

"We're saved."

"The celestial orderians will fall! The sun emperor will lose!"

Only the Saintdragon Emperor and the rest smirked. Now that the stage was set, the Sky Palace was obviously here to take credit. "They probably only dared to come because the Divine Sun Palace is no more."

But no matter how much they wanted to deny it, the Sky Palace was still deeply rooted in the hearts of many. That was the difficulty that came with uniting the Myriad Solar Sects: the Sky Palace might have different ideas.

......

Up in the sky, the sun emperor angrily glared at the seven. The wind blew, scattering more and more white ash from their faces.

"Number One, take your people away and stop getting in my way," the sun emperor said.

"Sun Emperor, the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb was the machination of the wooden house. It had nothing to do with us," said a white-haired old man. He was really old and had a hunched back, but he looked the most ghastly of them all, with his face being the whitest among them.

"Hehe...." The sun emperor merely chuckled.

"This time around, we've all been played by the wooden house. It couldn't be helped, and we couldn't have predicted this," Number One said.

"I have my people to answer to. Destroying the Xuanyuan Dragon Sect today is the only way to justify all that's been lost."

Shaking his head, Number One said, "Sun Emperor, I'm sure you understand that our prestige has fallen among the Myriad Solar Sects because of your actions. Now they're even forming their own alliance. If you continue attacking, you'll only lose far more by uniting them. They aren't to be trifled with when they stand together, and you can't possibly eradicate every single one of them. You don't need me to tell you that, either. The only reason you dared to do everything your way up to now was that you've never truly lost before. You were too prideful and emotional. Think twice, even thrice. The only way to cut your losses is to stop fighting."

The sun emperor merely looked at them for a long time without saying a word.