Beastmaster of the Ages

The crucial words had finally demystified a doubt Lingfeng had held for a long time. He was completely different from Tianming. While he respected Tianming when he saw him stand above all others and shoulder all the burden of his subjects and believers, he knew he couldn't be the same person. Lingfeng had grown up with too much hardship and fallen for someone who’d had just as many unfortunate experiences. He had come to treat her as the most important part of his life and was willing to become a madman for her sake.

"We don't have all sentient life or a heavenly path.... There's just you and me."

He hid within the Soulfiend's embrace as it bled and howled. His tears fell and mixed with its blood before flowing into his mouth. He would never forget the taste for the rest of his life. From now on, he would no longer hesitate. His mind and gaze grew stronger and sharper as a new spark of light appeared within his eyes. It wasn't bloody and savage like before. Instead, it seemed to reflect the will of eighty thousand souls to eradicate everything.

"Whether or not I survive this, I'll leave it to fate!" Even though he was still tearing up, he smiled. From this moment on, he had become a single person. An ego unto himself. Having finally found his own soul, he had truly become Ye Lingfeng for the very first time!

A pitch-black Xenoworld Gate opened up above the head of the Soulfiend, out of which poured an insidious aura. The specters around him were startled, but kept charging. Countless abilities rained down. The staggering number seemed to threaten to wipe out both the Soulfiend and Lingfeng.

"He's there!" The specters saw the black-haired youth standing atop the head of the Soulfiend and swarmed toward him. With a flash of crimson red, tens of thousands of them instantly died and began falling from the sky. The Xenoworld Gate spun and sucked in their souls. There was no magnificent flair, just solemn and certain death. The black-haired youth's robes fluttered like he was the god of death.

Even so, that didn't stop the specters at all. They still had numbers on their side! More and more gathered until they looked like a gigantic ball of flesh of infinite size. They were all striving to be the one that landed the final blow for glory and merit, completely fearless of death. Little did they know that dying there meant that even their souls would be extinguished! Werewolf corpses flew all over the ability-ridden sky as the black vortex expanded. The youth that’d just found himself had started the path he had chosen. There was no turning back now, no matter the weight of the sins he would come to bear.

"If I end up covered in sin and deserving of the heaviest judgment by the time I see you again, all I hope is that you won't scoff at me for what I’ve become...." He kept striding forward without turning back no matter the hardship, all for the smallest, yet most precious fruit he desired. Lingfeng had also struggled a lot with Tianming's beliefs. Despite knowing that treading this path would cause him to drift further away from his very trusted friend, he had no other choice. Either way, he knew that no matter how far he had gone, he’d forever left a piece of his heart beside Tianming. That alone was enough to cause his steps to stagger.

For now, thirty million specters were still far too many for him to digest. Their weight bore down on him like a mountain, causing his flesh to bleed, bones to bend, and innards to crumble. Bloody boils formed on the soles of his feet. At the brink of collapse, he and the Soulfiend kept forging ahead along the hellward path.

"Wait for me! Wait!" He saw the pitiful girl waiting for him at the end of the road. He had promised her peaceful and carefree days ahead and would live up to that promise or die trying. There was no other choice but to grit his teeth and keep going, one bloody footprint at a time. In his time of crisis, who would be able to give him a push to overcome it?

It almost seemed as if more and more tragedies were unfolding across Skywolf Frost. But eventually, Lingfeng began to see a ray of hope on his path. He looked up and saw a nine-colored sphere falling, which reminded him of the fall of the moon. A loud explosion rang out as it burst through the astralguard formation! The nine-colored 'sun' had nine interlocking layers, shining bright and brilliant; the Ninedragon Apotheosis had been unleashed once more! The light of life illuminated Lingfeng's path of darkness. It was as if Tianming himself had appeared before him in his time of dire need to give him that final push he needed.

"Evasive action!" The specters thought they were going mad. Nobody could stop the Ninedragon Apotheosis! None of them had expected that Tianming would be able to help despite being trapped himself! The nine-colored sun shot straight through the sea of frost into the homeworld of these specters. Many people, including young specter cubs, looked up at the brilliant ball of light in the sky.

The mesmerizing scenery only lasted an instant before the ball exploded above Lingfeng's head! He had never been so close to the explosion until now. Seeing a Ninedragon Apotheosis from the ship in safety didn't quite convey the true terror of the blast. In person, it felt like the world itself was ending as light swallowed everything.

Lingfeng saw at least twenty million specters being vaporized into nothingness with his own eyes. Despite their powerful specter bodies, not a single speck of matter remained after the explosion. Eventually, the nine-colored vortex swallowed Lingfeng up, the fireworks covering a good part of the sky before turning into multi-colored rain that fell like meteors onto the star below, crashing into the lands and lakes.