Beastmaster of the Ages

Ying's face was even paler than before. After losing an arm, her cherry blossom giant shattered into a rain of flowers, making it even harder for her to resist Tianming's Myriadsword Providence. However, she didn't struggle to fight back by using face reveal. Instead, she used an ability innate to all faceless specters, Skyway Godsong. She had no mouth, but used her whole body to resonate, creating a piercing sound much like that of metal scraping against metal! Right as Tianming was about to kill her, the sound suddenly dealt him a lot of pain. Even Ying Huo and the rest were affected.

"Li Tianming, you're powerful, but you can't win!" Ying felt quite frustrated for being hammered to this degree. Her praise for Tianming only applied insofar as she was still the winner. Yet now she had lost an arm, and that was a big deal! She had basically lost a third of her combat potential! Even if she used some other crazy ability, there was still a chance she could be killed by Tianming, so she used Skyway Godsong to drive him back. The next instant, she charged out of the encirclement and rapidly escaped in a different direction.

"Give chase!" Being so close to defeating her, Tianming didn't want to give up at all. He summoned his beasts back to him while Meow Meow turned into a Regal Chaosfiend, crackling with lightning and immediately zipping away with Tianming on it. The spectators in Skyway Tristar had nothing to say about that. Turning and running was definitely not something faceless specters did.

"Sister Feng, defend the astralis!" Tianming roared.

"Okay...." Bai Feng stood there with a blank look, hurriedly nodding. Yin Chen, who hadn't joined in the fight, reported a new development to him. Skyway Godsong was really loud and sharp, allowing it to spread far and wide. Yanwu Ming picked up on this ancient specter method of communication in the distance and understood what it meant, so he immediately gave up on their astralis and charged toward the direction of the sound.

"Ying's really smart and prioritizes the bigger picture. Once she was certain she couldn't defeat me, she immediately called for help." As Yin Chen's speech was too slow, there was a delay in relaying the message. By the time Tianming had heard it in full, some time had passed. No doubt, Yanwu Ming had some headway. Skyway Godsong was able to help him pinpoint Ying's location; they had already agreed upon it before the battle had started. If it weren't for the fact that she was confident she could defeat Tianming and the other four alone, she would have used it to call Yanwu Ming long ago.

"They're getting closer to each other with every passing moment!" Once they met, it would be a huge problem for Tianming. Yanwu Ming was about as strong as Ying, after all.

"What do we do, boss? Time is short, and she's really fast!" Meow Meow said. It would be difficult for Tianming to kill her while she was on the run. The longer he stayed on her trail, the riskier it would become.

He furrowed his brow in thought. "Yanwu Ming left, so their astralis must be defenseless. I have a chance if I go there to attack it, but it's risky, as our astralis is also as good as defenseless. If I don't chase her down, she'll definitely turn back and crush our astralis."

Since she was willing to run, that showed that she cared more about winning than defeating Tianming. He had a sudden spark of inspiration. "Yin Chen!"

"What, speak!"

"How long would it take for you to gather all of your bodies at the enemy astralis to destroy it?" If Yin Chen had a chance of destroying it, he could hold Yanwu Ming and Ying back; there was a good chance of success there. Letting the two of them go to Team Rou's astralis was a bad idea. One of them could already hold Tianming back, so there was no way Bai Feng could take on the both of them.

Yin Chen had some three million bodies near the enemy astralis, observing it. Combined, they could deal quite a lot of damage. This could be the key to their victory.

"I will... give it... a try... hold on," it said using its monotone, mechanical voice. However, Tianming found it rather reliable.

"I'll count on you, then!" Once Ying joined Yanwu Ming, Tianming couldn't afford to send any of his other lifebound beasts away. And if he didn't stop the enemy, Yin Chen wouldn't have a chance to deal with their astralis, either.

Yanwu Ming had already left the astralis, so Yin Chen approached it at a rate much faster than a normal cockroach's crawling speed. However, Tianming had asked it to hold back on attacking first as the Astralium Formation would sound an alarm once it was attacked, so he had to make sure as many bodies as possible were gathered for maximum damage output! Yanwu Ming could well turn back if he was still close to the astralis, though that could be viable as well. Perhaps Meow Meow could catch up to Ying before she got back to Yanwu Ming's side.

The problem now was that Yanwu Ming was a beastmaster as well. If he left a lifebound beast or two behind to stop Yin Chen, or used them to aid Ying instead of going himself, that would make things much harder for Tianming. So, he quickly reached a decision. I can only order Yin Chen to attack after seeing Yanwu Ming. Only then will we stand a chance.

Tianming kept chasing down Ying as Yin Chen gathered its bodies to the enemy astralis as quickly as it could. While it was no longer actively surveilling, it could still periodically report on Yanwu Ming's location, giving Tianming ample time to prepare.

Ying evaded left and right as Meow Meow launched attacks at her. While her right arm was gone, she seemed to have recovered her breath. "It's useless. Your lifebound beast may be fast enough that I'm unable to catch it, but it won't be able to catch me either."

Even if they caught up, Tianming would find it hard to crush someone of her level mid pursuit. "You're afraid of Yanwu Ming, right? It's a shame. He's almost here. If you turn back now, you'll still make it."

Tianming saved his energy and didn't say a word.

"Sheesh, why are you so persistent? You already managed to take one of my arms. That's more fame than you could've ever gotten for the rest of your life! You've already made your ancestors proud! Yet, you're still trying to defeat us and enter the Astralium Seeking? That's our dream! We would never let you win! It's impossible!"

Tianming's persistent pursuit only made her even more annoyed. "Ying, we're fighting fairly here in the Astralium Battlefield. Nothing you say will make a difference. Once we leave the battlefield, you'll still have my respect," Tianming said.

"Fine!" Even though his words on fairness made sense, she still found it hard to let go of her sense of superiority over a lower life form like him. As a faceless specter, being forced to run for the sake of a technical victory was quite humiliating. "Yanwu Ming, hurry!"

The way she saw it, once she met up with Yanwu Ming, Tianming would no longer be able to escape. It wasn't like Tianming knew where their astralis was, so whichever choice he made, there was no way he could win. Little did she know that Tianming was going to go with the flow and let her summon Yanwu Ming away from their astralis! Even so, it wasn't without risk. If he wasn't able to stop them for long enough, Yin Chen wouldn't have enough time to destroy their astralis.

Even if we fight now, we aren't fighting near my astralis, so there is still some advantage to the situation. The mere thought of facing off against the two of them was nightmarish. However, he still had hope; he still had Yin Chen. Without needing to hide, Yin Chen gathered at a rapid rate. While Yanwu Ming did see a lot of metal insects on the way there, he didn't pay too much attention to them. It wasn't the first weird thing he had seen at the Astralium Battlefield, anyway.

Finally, Ying's Skyway Godsong was cut off. Through the green fog, a loud bestial roar could be heard. Yanwu Ming had called out his lifebound beasts to aid Ying, and they immediately broke into a fight.

"Yin Chen, attack!"

"Got it."

The silver insects near the enemy astralis numbered up to five million. They turned into bladed butterflies and began flying at their top speed before centering in on the Astralium Formation. The blades on their wings collided against the formation, generating a lot of sparks. Every time they rammed into the formation, they regrouped for another attack. The formation immediately sounded the alarm, a sound that was quite similar to Ying's Skyway Godsong. Yanwu Ming's expression immediately changed; Ying was also initially relieved that he had arrived, but now she was utterly distraught.

"Who's attacking our astralis?!"

Tianming immediately asked, "Yin Chen, will it work? How long will it take?" It was the crucial moment. If it couldn't do it, or if it took too long, Tianming's chances of victory would be far too slim.

"Calm down. Don't panic."

"Dammit, don't leave me hanging! Tell me! Will it work or not?"

"Calm down. Don't panic."

"Dammit!"

Yin Chen was a most troubling lifebound beast indeed. What was worse was that Ying immediately reacted. "Yanwu Ming, let's go back together! Quick!"

The two of them couldn't be bothered with fighting at all. Their astralis had a far higher priority! As Yanwu Ming also had lifebound beasts, Yin Chen's surprise attack would only have one chance to work.

"Once the two of them make it back, they can easily work together to take care of me." Even though he was supposed to hold them back, he had no choice but to actively attack them now. Though the chances of him winning were small, he still had to go all out. "I'll stop them even if I die in the process!"

The Astralium Battlefield was exciting because once the astralis was destroyed, the losses of both sides no longer mattered. Dead contestants wouldn't be able to revive in the next round, but dead lifebound beasts or destroyed totems could. In other words, the fighters themselves were the key, encouraging far more desperate methods of engagement.

"Do you think I'll let you leave?!" Tianming stood atop Meow Meow's head with half of his Grand-Orient Sword remaining. With his other hand, he lashed out with the Lifesteal Silverdragon and used Goddess Flowerfall. Silvery flowers spread throughout the green fog wherever the silver dragon crossed. Though Tianming still hadn't been able to get a clear view of Yanwu Ming, there was quite a lot of commotion where his lifebound beasts were. Tianming charged toward him, betting on the fact that he wasn't nearly as fast as Ying.

"Who's this?!" Yanwu Ming cried when he joined up with Ying.

"A black horse from a heliacal-class world! He has nine totems and managed to cut off my arm!" Even though it was a hard thing to admit, Ying told Yanwu Ming.

"There's actually someone like that?!" He found it incredibly odd, too. Usually, Ying and the violethorn dragonians would go their own ways while he defended the astralis, and that would allow them to defeat most, if not all of the other teams.

The green fog was quite thick, and Tianming still hadn't gotten a good look at Yanwu Ming for now. Wordlessly, he cut a lot of gigantic branches off with the Lifesteal Silverdragon, allowing it to blend in as it was sent flying toward Yanwu Ming's lifebound beasts. The whip loudly cracked, drawing a lot of blood.

At the same time, Meow Meow's Soulchasing Hellthunder struck, enveloping the entire area in the vicinity of the three of them. Tianming dared to take the offense, despite facing off against two others, much to the surprise of the spectators of the Mysterium Cluster. Their battle drew the attention of most of the spectators there.

Only now did Tianming finally get a good look of Yanwu Ming. As expected, his face was featureless as well! He was a faceless human, and he gave Tianming an almost identical impression as the faceless specters. In fact, the faceless specters were the ones who looked really human-like. But on closer inspection, Tianming did spot some differences. For instance, faceless specters came from the Whitejade and Crimsonjade lines, perhaps more. At their base was this jade-like material that made their bodies look more pearlescent than fleshy.

Faceless humans, on the other hand, seemed to have living flesh, and even hair, but that only made their featureless faces even more uncanny. There was, however, some black text on his face that read 'yan'. It was as if that character had taken the place of his features and was the center of his consciousness. The character designated him as one of the Yanluo tribe of beastmasters, who were one of the different groups of faceless humans. Other faceless humans could have other characters on their faces that marked them as a member of another tribe.

The Yanluo tribe was among the top of the faceless humans, being comparable to the Crimsonjade line of faceless specters. In fact, his name gave a clear indication of his origin. 'Yan' denoted his tribe, 'Wu' was his surname, and 'Ming' was his given name. Among mysterians, faceless specters didn't have surnames, but the faceless humans of Skyway Monostar and Skyway Bistar were all surnamed 'Wu', though their surname occupied the middle of their full name for historical and cultural reasons.

Sometimes, it was possible to tell someone's origin from their name alone. The faceless humans had tens of millions of years of historic legacy, far more than the celestial orderians, who only had millions.

Tianming knew how much trouble Yanwu Ming would be with one look. Perhaps he ranked in the top three of his peers in his deific-class world. Unsurprisingly, he had five lifebound beasts, all of them sovereign beasts. To mysterians, sovereign beasts weren't big deals; the type of their lifebound beasts was the real differentiator. Tianming was shocked to see that all five beasts were as faceless as their master.