Beastmaster of the Ages

Whatever their impression of him, Tianming knew full well how powerful his beasts and totems really were. Ying Huo and Meow Meow alone had sent two of the proud female contestants out of the ring. As for Lan Huang, Xian Xian, and Yin Chen, they weren't fighting alone and had supported Tianming against the seven remaining ones. Tianming's totems were his ultimate move. They immediately terrified the other contestants there. Even as people who stood at the top of their respective worlds, they'd never seen a nonabane totemancer that also had lifebound beasts. Not to mention, Tianming had only used his beasts in the beginning, greatly misleading them.

"Heavens...." One of them, a beastmaster called Qu Fu, had charged to the very front. Before she could react, Tianming's providence swords tore her to shreds. Then Lan Huang charged in, glowing brightly and colorfully, ramming into the totems and beastmasters ahead of it with abandon. Xian Xian used all of its flowers, Radiant Vines, and the Demise Saplings that came from the Demise Greenloti, dealing much damage in the process. Yin Chen, on the other hand, was something straight out of a nightmare in its locust form.

Every one of Tianming's opponents looked at the monsters, not knowing what to make of it. Those of their worlds were just as shocked. The denizens of all ten nova source worlds, the Violetglory Star included, were stunned.

"Don't just gawk! Come at me!" Tianming provoked. He felt pretty good about being able to shock the proud women, causing them to change their impression of him. Now, he was facing off against a totemancer from an astral hole called Oldsword, Feng Yuxue. She was an octabane, and her totems were eight-trigram celestialblades. Like Tianming, her sword totems were different from each other.

"You're impressive," said the girl in a green robe. Her long hair was bound in a ponytail, and her beauty shone without excessive emphasis or makeup. Her looks were clean and refined, and she proved to be an adept swordswoman. She hadn't uttered a single word until now, but she didn't hold back her praise toward Tianming. The way she looked at him was similar to the gaze Yudu Linger had shown him, the admiration of an octabane towards a nonabane. Not to mention, her totems were swords, like Tianming's. However, that didn't stop her from giving it her all to fight him. It was a fight between masters of the sword!

Tianming used the power of the Frozen Glasstree to execute Fienddragon Blood Transience. The Grand-Orient Sword turned into a fiendish dragon as the frost power of the Frozen Glasstree spread out, flying past Feng Yuxue's sword strikes and instantly eradicating her.

Yet another one had fallen; they felt completely dominated. Nobody in Oldsword her age could have possibly defeated Feng Yuxue in such a manner, and as such, she didn't feel any regret. In fact, she found it quite lucky to have met such a powerful opponent. Right as she was 'killed', she said, "Thank you." She wouldn't really die in the wondersky realm anyway.

Four of the nine had perished just like that, making the rest of the fight quite pointless. The remaining five were far from being able to match Tianming, his beasts, and his totems. The billions of people watching him mercilessly slaughter beauties like these didn't quite know what to make of all this. Thankfully, they were in the wondersky realm, so the beauties weren't really lost to this world forever. It wasn't even a fight between ten people, but rather a complete one-sided slaughter. The hunters have become the hunted. Nobody was able to stop the Grand-Orient Sword's fierce attacks.

"What kind of monstrous place is the Violetglory Star for such a monster to rise there?" Gudu Qingcheng tried escaping with her blacksmoke windfiends, though Meow Meow easily helped Tianming catch up to her.

"So long, little sister!" Tianming didn't bother to answer her and merely smiled. Gudu Qingcheng didn't mind being called a big or little sister. All she could do as the sword fell was bitterly smile and accept it. The rain of providence swords eradicated her and her windfiends, tearing them all to shreds.

"There's only one left." Tianming turned back to Yao Mimi from the binary system of Crimsonjade. Before he could even strike, she was already overwhelmed by Ying Huo.

"Hey, can't you be nicer to girls? You think you're a big shot or something?!" she said, wanting to cry but not being able to tear up. Her specter physique was impressive enough to tank quite a few of Ying Huo's abilities and she managed to break away and charge toward Tianming. "Hey, have your lifebound beasts move aside. I want to die at your hands." Her running form looked rather interesting and resembled skipping.

"That's right, I'm a big shot."

"Don't be in such a hurry," she said, raggedly breathing. "I've never met someone so impressive. I really want to go to the Violetglory Star to see you for myself. It's a shame that we're too far apart."

"Forget it. If we meet in real life, we'll be caught up in an astral war between specters and humans. It'd never work out," Tianming said.

"That's why it's such a shame. As far as I know, your power is unmatched among the countless races in the Tranquil Battlefield. Sorry for looking down on you before, consider me enlightened. I hope you don't hold it against me the next time we meet," she said, feigning a pitiful look in an attempt to flirt. Being the charming, foxy lady she was, it was really hard to bring oneself to hate her.

"No worries, we won't be meeting up anyway," Tianming said, thrusting his sword into her body.

"Hmph, you're a savage meanie," she said, looking at the sword. Though it was just her caelum, she still felt the pain from it, though she also felt something else. "After meeting you, I suddenly lost interest in the men of Crimsonjade," she said, then slowly dissipated.

"Huh? That isn't what you said in the beginning," Tianming said. While he did find these girls to have their own interesting quirks, he didn't hate them. Some of them were also more than met the eye. He came to understand that while the astralscape was vast, mutual understanding between different peoples wasn't impossible.

"What's the true nature of this world? Are we meant to fight each other the moment we meet, or is fighting merely a method to establish communication?" Even he was taken aback by how they had come to respect him after he showed his talent. It showed him that even people of vastly different cultures so far away were not as cold and cruel as he had imagined. It seemed that people were generally the same, no matter where they were from. When he talked to Yao Mimi, he even felt a warmth of sorts. It wasn't because she was beautiful, but was in fact a sensation that stemmed from the interaction between different lifeforms when nothing was at stake. It was a peaceful feeling of mutual recognition. Yet the real world was a cruel one at the end of the day.

"Who knows what corner of the universe Yao Mimi's Crimsonjade Binary Stars are located in. She's a specter, so that place must be specter territory as well. Yet, I somehow found her cute. Then again, the Skywolf Star is also ruled by specters. The Violetglory Star and Orderia have both run into them, and the feeling they give me is that they're cruel enemies that can never be reconciled with." This was the difference between the real world and the wondersky realm, rather than one between Skywolf and Crimsonjade. The universe was a complicated place indeed.

"Let's hope that the Astraldome can answer these questions of mine." Right as he thought that, he felt a force pulling him toward a new battlefield. As for the ten worlds that had witnessed his performance, they were still silent and awed.