Beastmaster of the Ages

The dense spikes pierced thousands of holes into Ying Huo and drew much blood. Such an injury couldn't even be recovered by the Greenspark Tower in the real world. Every single spike was sharper and harder than Ying Huo's feathers. Long had clearly spent a lot of effort on them in his twenty-odd years of cultivating. His body had grade-eight sword ki, and perhaps even more than one type.

The spikes continued on toward Tianming before three halls formed from black lightning formed to stop them. Every single tile of the halls was formed from dense lightning bolts, their appearance ushering in a storm of destructive lightning that bathed Long's body.

"Hehe!" He merely smirked and charged into the electrified zone, his blood spikes forming a shield around him that kept all the lightning out. He wasn't hurt at all as he passed straight through the Triworld Afterlife Bolts and made his way to Meow Meow. "Die!"

A bloody color flashed, piercing through the sea of lightning as a fist landed on the Regal Chaosfiend's head. Meow Meow's head was smashed open and its entire body fizzled away.

Even though it was all fake, seeing them struggle to their deaths was triggering to say the least. Tianming felt the pain in his bones and fought even more desperately. "Ying Huo, Meow Meow!"

Long burst through with brute force, reclaiming the dignity of the mysterians and showing that he was on a wholly different level than Tianming.

"Keep coming to get killed, won't you?" Chuckling, he didn't stop for a single moment and quickly made his way to Lan Huang, who was accompanied by Xian Xian and a gigantic centipede formed from the remaining Yin Chens. Long could easily circle around them to reach Tianming, but he didn't. After killing the previous two beasts, he felt all of his frustration from the past six days fizzle away. To regain his honor in the Mysterium Cluster, he would have to resort to this brutish way of tearing his enemies apart. The blood spikes around him formed thousand-meter spears, nailing Lan Huang to the ground before breaking apart anew within it, tearing its organs to shreds and causing blood to spill out of all its orifices, immediately killing it.

"Too weak!" Long growled. He then charged toward Yin Chen, immediately crushing it before shooting his blood spikes into Xian Xian's trunk, causing bloody flames to ignite all around it and burn up its flowers. Tianming's lifebound beasts were quickly slaughtered in his rampage.

"The difference is too stark!"

"They're not in the same league!"

"Long is the number one genius of Skyway Tristar. He's in the Celestial Beings for a reason."

"He's too ferocious! Even if Li Tianming goes to the Mysterium Cluster, he'll only be as good as Yanwu Ming! He'll still be second rate!"

That summed up the views of most of the spectators. Long's brutal style of fighting was an artistic expression of violence. His strikes were simple and fierce, drawing blood like brushstrokes on a canvas. The visuals he conveyed made even those who supported this non-mysterian blush at how fiercely he was dominating Tianming. Right as their side was giving the mysterians trouble, the mysterians had sent their best to crush them and send them back to where they came from, making them regard them with even more fear and respect. Long kept punching again and again, eliminating Tianming's beasts in quick succession and reducing half of the threat of this 'dual cultivator'. The next instant, he made his way right before Tianming.

"You really disappointed me. I thought you would at least be tough as a log, but you're as soft as tofu." The bloody flames around Long burned away quite a number of Yin Chens as he locked on to Tianming. It was a collision between steel and tofu, the results of which were clear to envision.

"Tofu?" Beyond the many Yin Chens in the air, it was hard to see the bloody air around Tianming. His eyes were bloodshot and his hair was fluttering all over. The power of the nine godswords gathered together. Having had experience from using it the last time, Tianming could utilize even more power by self-destructing them. He had initiated it the moment Ying Huo had sacrificed itself. While this move would be hard to execute in real life, there was no hesitation about using it in a battlefield like this!

He unleashed his second totemic calamity, Shattered Era, Cosmic Swordsurge. There were only a few Yin Chens left, while Xian Xian had heroically faded away. Their sacrifice brought Tianming valuable time to charge up his totemic calamity in a suicidal last resort. Long wasn't able to see the nine swords combining together, as Yin Chen had blocked his sight with many of its bodies. The swords resonated together before shattering into shards that recombined into a sword of the cosmos that contained boundless primordial power. The sword began exploding with such force that it even shook Tianming's bane text. He felt like he was connected to his totems as the astralforce drained from him.

"Die!" Long mustered his blood spikes to form another tornado, tearing apart many Yin Chens. "What's this?!" Right before his moment of triumph, he was suddenly shocked to see Tianming's second totemic calamity.

"It's the sword that'll kill you!" Tianming had been waiting for this chance that the sacrifice of his beasts had brought him. He had used it to defeat Ying and Yanwu Ming before, but now it was even more powerful and hidden than the last time as it struck Long's head.

"Put away your arrogance and get schooled!" Tianming defiantly roared as he used his hands to execute the Sixdragon Tribulation. The deep mysteries of his move were invoked by his second totemic calamity, instantly causing a chaotic resonance that further fueled the explosion. The cosmic sword shrank into a singularity about the size of the Grand-Orient Sword, contorting the wondersky realm itself.

"Go!" The sword strike shook the heavens and earth, its genesis marking the destruction of his totems.

Long gathered all his remaining blood spikes near his fist for a super punch. Every instant, heaven and earth shook from the booming sound. Time itself seemed to slow down as everyone watched the sword and fist collide. It was only at the very last moment that the totems unleashed their full power into Long's body, vaporizing his fist and swallowing his entire body up in their sword light.

"How powerful!" The others who watched were glued to the ground in shock. The brilliant light smashed into Astralium, leaving behind thousands of craters. A blood-colored sphere was sent flying out, bouncing off the ground a few times. It was a smooth, crimson head with a single eye, one ear, and half of a nose and mouth. The face reveal had only come out halfway!

"Long?!" The entire universe fell silent. While the rest were in their stupor, the Grand-Orient Sword fell to the ground, nailing the smooth head to the dirt as the white-haired youth coldly descended and placed his hand on the sword's hilt. Then he stepped on the head and drew his sword back out, causing the head to fizzle away. The expression of despair on the half-face would forever be burned into people's minds.