Beastmaster of the Ages

Chapter 2007 - One Wielding a Sword, Two Carrying a Coffin (3)

"Just watch closely!" The sun emperor took a deep breath, telling himself that complaining was pointless. The only thing he could do now was turn this around and make the star fall under his control once more! "How could that sword of yours be so powerful?! It isn’t a divine artifact of the Flameyellow Imperial Star! Where did it come from?!" He looked at the Grand-Orient Sword in a new light. The impetus of the sun started gathering around him again, fueling his divine will and giving him a stark rise in power. The impetus wasn't just pure power, but the aura of a true ruler. It was a push of fate granted by the star itself. As long as he fought there, the sun emperor's might would be greatly boosted to the point that most would retreat before even engaging.

His killing intent toward Tianming kept rising. I only have one more chance to kill him. If I fail, it’ll all be over! That's why.... The sun emperor seemed driven to perform a desperate final attempt.

The moment the sword had managed to block the coffin was when Tianming's faith had peaked. "Let's settle this once and for all! Let the world say who shall become its next ruler!" He didn't stop for a single moment. His lifebound beasts all assembled, surrounding the sun emperor and the eleven remaining totems. Tianming had already managed to eradicate seven of the three-legged golden crows.

"Kill them!" His war cry shook the heavens as the Imperealm Sword Formation manifested once more. Tianming charged at the front, flanked by his lifebound beasts that launched all kinds of abilities, battle arts, and physical attacks at the two figures and the coffin. The strongest of all those attacks was Tianming's, naturally, which had allowed him to neutralize the sun emperor's own strongest strike. The sun emperor was no longer capable of hunting down Tianming with abandon; it was time for the counterattack.

No matter how powerful the sun emperor was within the Flameyellow Guard Formation, he wasn't able to stop the impetus of the sun around Tianming from growing. It had all started the moment he felt fear after seeing the sword collide against the coffin.

"Sun Emperor, you're done. I will be the one to take over everything." Tianming had waited for this moment for far too long. Without his prompting, his lifebound beasts continued the assault. Ying Huo's feathers seemingly covered the entire coffin; before the mighty phoenix, the legendary golden crows looked like little black birds.

"Hahahaha...." Facing Tianming's onslaught, the bronze-faced sun emperor was still able to laugh. "My son, the death toll of the extermination of both Skywolf stars numbers up to four trillion lives. I’ve been the one to bear the burden of extinguishing those worlds, yet you would take the glory of the victory from me? How dare you even consider doing something so ludicrous? Do you think you can be the saint and the hero without doing any dirty work?"

His expression was even more contorted than before. This was something he would not stand at all, and he wouldn't let Tianming get away with something so hypocritical. Yet Tianming didn't seem affected at all. Even if Skywolf's invasion hadn't started, this confrontation was eventually bound to happen. Their final fight to the death had never had anything to do with Skywolf.

"Only in your dreams! Even if I die, I won't let you do as you please! I worked hard to achieve all I have. I bore the burden of all those baleful souls. Even if I'm going to hell, I'll drag you down with me!" His raging wail made him sound like a baleful soul himself. His golden eyes were so filled with rage that they were about to pop out, yet the only reply he got was a merciless attack by Tianming. The more the sun emperor raged, the more desperate his situation became.

What Tianming didn't expect, however, was that the sun emperor's expression would suddenly shift after all that venting. All of a sudden, he seemed relaxed and even laughed, though Tianming wasn't sure at what. He had ignored the sun emperor while he was losing it, so the sudden levity in the sun emperor's behavior sent chills down his spine.

Why’s he so hard to kill? What else can he do? All kinds of doubts filled Tianming's mind, yet they weren't unjustified, for the sun emperor's threat and cunning knew no bounds.

"Careful!" The reminder seemed too little too late. The Flameyellow Coffin suddenly expanded to around twenty thousand meters long in an instant. It looked like a gigantic island of gold and crimson, and right after that its lid began sliding open, something completely unprecedented! That alone showed Tianming how well the sun emperor hid his tricks like an absolute expert.

He quickly reacted, but the coffin didn't seem to be targeting him or anyone else. Instead, the remaining totems of the sun emperor and Li Wudi were sucked into the coffin and seemingly melted down into molten metal. The insides of the coffin resembled a forge, and the totems had been sucked back in as material to be refined. Then the quiet furnace suddenly burst to life, sending waves of power shooting up into the clouds.

"Do you think the likes of you can possibly wrestle away the dream of the imperial star I had for thousands of years?!" The sun emperor's face was once more bathed in flames that came from the flaming torrent bursting out of the coffin. It looked like a small Flameyellow Divine Pillar had sprouted from it, shooting toward Tianming and his lifebound beasts. The sun emperor had sacrificed his totems for that strike, much like Tianming's second totemic calamity!𝐟𝚛e𝗲𝚠𝗲𝑏𝓃𝑜ν𝐞𝘭. c𝒐𝓂

It was a ruinous attack that would no doubt be fatal. Even if Tianming had been prepared to receive it, he didn't have enough time. The blinding light instantly filled the skies, permeating the entire Imperealm Sword Formation. It was the critical moment!