Beastmaster of the Ages

There was now a gigantic steel bug next to Tianming. It looked like a weird mishmash of a scorpion, centipede, and spider. However, its scales were at least half a meter thick, not to mention it was armed all over. It had sharp pincers and legs, and a poisonous stinger, as if it were built for combat. Tianming had seen it in the files before—it was a fourth-order saint beast, an Onyx Bugking. Not only was it amazing in close-quarter fights, but it also had onyx venom, a toxin that could quickly paralyze its prey, rendering them powerless to resist.

Currently, there was a bloody cavity on the chest of the bug, out of which leaked toxic green blood containing concentrated onyx venom. The blood turned black once it touched the ground, letting out a pungent, acidic smell.

Li Jiusi's frantic roar was a distraction; Tianming could sense the true danger from behind him. He had long known that Li Wusheng was lurking nearby. Just as Li Wusheng thought he had gotten his way, Ying Huo and Meow Meow came in to intercept him. The moment he found out his surprise attack had failed, he retreated to his brother's side. "How did you know I was here? If you did, why come to get yourself killed? I admire your bravery, truly, but you'll soon find out that messing with us was your biggest mistake ever. Li Tianming, there's still around ten days left. We'll make sure to use all the tricks we have up our sleeves on you. Don't worry, you definitely won't die, but you'll soon regret you were born into this world. We'll make you regret you didn't kill yourself here and now!"

As he spoke, Li Wusheng's lifebound beast also appeared. It was a fourth-order saint beast, an Onyx Bugqueen. One was a king and the other was a ruler; their names were just one word different. They were probably very closely related.

The Onyx Bugking excelled in close combat and poisoning and the Onyx Bugqueen was a broodmother-type beast, as its name suggested, despite also having onyx venom. Just like its counterpart, the Onyx Bugqueen had thick steel scales, but its stomach was slightly swollen. Though it was powerful in a close-quarters fight as well, it couldn't match up to the Onyx Bugking in that regard.

Apart from its terrifying Onyx Bug Legion, it had a huge red eye on its head. The eye was bloodshot and around half a meter wide.

The two lifebound beasts looked really ghastly. Nobody would dare make light of the brothers, and not even Sikong Tianchen would be their match. As they glared and mouthed off at Tianming, he pointed his sword at the two of them. Meanwhile, Ying Huo flew into the sky as it flared up, while a towering beast of black lightning flexed its bloody claws.

"Die!" They didn't see a trace of fear in Tianming's eyes. Instead, he didn't try to escape and even lashed out of his own accord.

In an instant, he unleashed his unity field with Ying Huo and Meow Meow, greatly absorbing the spiritual energy in the area to be shared among the three of them, then charged toward the onyx disciples. Before they even covered the distance, Meow Meow used Chaos Disaster, sending lightning snakes straight at their foes' heads. In an instant, the surrounding area was covered in crackling lightning.

Countless black clouds appeared and gathered around Meow Meow, even more than when it had used Chaos Disaster. By then, the hundred thousand snakes of black lightning formed a barrier. It wasn't a heavenly pattern barrier, but a protective barrier made of pure lightning. That wasn't the end, however. The more lightning it gathered, the faster the barriers formed. It didn't stop until there were nine layers. This was Meow Meow's new ability: Ninefold Chaos Thunderscape.

The ability gave Meow Meow frightening defensive capabilities. At the very least, it prevented the onyx venom from easily entering its body, giving it a much easier time attacking the enemy. However, that wasn't all the barrier did. The Ninefold Chaos Thunderscape was deeply linked to Chaos Disaster.

The lightning snakes arcing around the barrier turned into lightning snakes and unleashed Chaos Disaster on the enemy. The execution of that attack consumed one layer of Ninefold Chaos Thunderscape. In other words, as long as Meow Meow could use Ninefold Chaos Thunderscape, it would be able to use Chaos Disaster nine times, unleashing eighty-one lightning snakes in total. But that wasn't all; the barriers would slowly charge back up again to allow for even more attacks. The interplay of those two abilities made Meow Meow rather terrifying. For now, it had much stronger abilities than Ying Huo.

The rumbling continued nonstop as Chaos Disaster was used time and again. There wasn't much the enemies could do to block the attacks, so all they could do was evade.

All of a sudden, Li Wusheng's Onyx Bugqueen sent out an Onyx Bug Legion numbering in the hundreds of thousands. Countless bugs flew all over the place, each one carrying deadly onyx venom. The bug army included a wide range of onyx bugs, such as centipedes, spiders, scorpions, hornets, mosquitoes, and flies. There were more than ten types, each with different offensive capabilities.

The hard-to-see bugs were just as hard to deal with as the huge scorpions.

The bug legion charged toward Meow Meow, as it looked like the most dangerous of the three. Had it not had Ninefold Chaos Thunderscape up, it would have been devoured like a locust-infested field.

While this legion of bugs would be a nightmare for most lifebound beasts, Ying Huo and Meow Meow were their natural enemies. Countless bugs smashed against the lightning barrier, only to be fried whole. Wherever Meow Meow went, the smell of charred insects followed. Even as it pounced around, it didn't stop using Chaos Disaster.

The Onyx Bugqueen tried to hide behind it, only to be struck by the ability twice, opening up a bloody hole on its stomach.

On the other hand, the Onyx Bugking felt threatened by Meow Meow and came charging in with its venom-coated appendages. The large body mass of the bug made it quite a threat. Even with Meow Meow's barrier taking most of its attacks, it was not one bit less terrifying. In an instant, it used two abilities, one of them being Myriad Poison Spikes. That ability coated its spikes, pincers, and legs with onyx venom. Anything close to it would be pierced through and poisoned.

At the same time, it let out an ear-piercing screech that rang so loudly in everyone's head it would hurt to no end. Tianming knew that ability; it was Soulcrush Shriek. The attack was quite threatening to Tianming and his pals. Abilities used in Heavenly Will battles were usually really hard to deal with.

Ying Huo reacted by using its new ability like a madman: Infernal Haze. It spat out a mouthful of fire that instantly split into tens of thousands of embers, each of which formed another Ying Huo. While they looked a little different from the main body, they were so realistic that they were able to execute battle arts.

Infernal Haze basically gave Ying Huo tens of thousands of clones, each one just as terrifying as the original. Not even Tianming could tell which of them was the real Ying Huo. It was both distracting and powerful. All of the clones turned their sights to the Onyx Bug Legion and lashed out.

Tianming was just as surprised as the first time he saw it; each of the clones was able to execute simplified Demise of Man-Earth-Heaven strikes. The sword strikes fell, causing countless bug corpses to fall like rain. Ying Huo was the nemesis of the Onyx Bugqueen's brood. It didn't hurt that insect types were particularly weak against fire.

The rain of bugs continued without stopping as Ying Huo slaughtered its way to the Onyx Bugking. Tianming had ordered it to fight alongside Meow Meow to take care of the Onyx Bugking, since the Soulcrush Shriek posed a significant threat to them and had the potential to suppress Tianming.

The battle was all too exciting, but most of it was thanks to Tianming, who was fighting one against two. With his right hand wielding his sword and left hand clenched into a fist, he charged toward Li Jiusi and Li Wusheng.