Beastmaster of the Ages

Before they departed, Tianming turned back and said, "Qingyu, help me inform Big Sister Bai about the challenge."

"Okay." Li Qingyu knew the location of the Divine Pattern Hall, and Bai Zijin could be found there.

Zhou Yuanyuan looked nervous, and he only felt relieved when he heard that Tianming was going to call Bai Zijin over.

"Don't worry about it." Tianming patted his shoulder.

"Tianming, I'll rely on you for the rest of my life if I become a cripple. When that happens, you'll have to take care of me for the rest of my life," Zhou Yuanyuan cried out.

"Okay. Why don't I find a lady to serve you?"

"Aren't you too cruel?! Why can't I have a dozen beauties?" Zhou Yuanyuan wailed. They left the First Pavilion and headed toward the Evil Suppression Plaza. Other than Li Qingyu, Feiling and Ye Lingfeng went along as well.

"Big brother, can you give him a Mountshield Tome? It might come in handy during the challenge," Feiling asked.

"He can't use it even if I give it to him. According to the rules, only patternscribes can use heavenly pattern tomes in ranking battles, on the grounds that the heavenly pattern tome was personally inscribed by them." The rules mainly prevented wealthy disciples from spending money on heavenly pattern tomes, which was obviously unfair. However, if the disciple was a patterscribe himself, then the heavenly pattern tome would be part of his ability, and he could naturally use it in battle.

But there came the problem. How could they judge the origin of the heavenly pattern tome and distinguish if it was bought? In the process of inscribing the heavenly pattern tome, every patternscribe was required to leave a blood pattern imprint in it. The blood pattern imprint was made with blood, and only the tome's creator could leave it. With the blood pattern imprint, the patternscribe only needed a thought to use his heavenly pattern tome, and it was more efficient that way.

However, if the disciple participating in the ranking battle used a heavenly pattern tome that belonged to someone else, they would need to drip their blood on it to replace the blood pattern imprint. As the creator, Tianming didn't have to use his blood to activate the Mountshield Tome.

The Mountshield Tome he had created with Feiling was unique, so much so that adding the blood pattern imprint in the final process required the two of them. The advantage of that was that Ling'er could also activate the heavenly pattern tome, since they were both considered its owners.

For the ranking battle, the activation of the blood pattern imprint was used to determine the origin of the heavenly pattern tome. Therefore, Zhou Yuanyuan couldn't use Tianming's Mountshield Tome, according to the rules.

"Fatty, what happens if you use a heavenly pattern tome you bought in the ranking battle?" Tianming asked.

"It'll be deemed a loss," said Zhou Yuanyuan.

"Here, I'll give you a Mountshield Tome. If you admit defeat and they still try to do anything against you, use it immediately." Tianming gave out a Mountshield Tome with heartache. After all, a loss was still better than being beaten up.

"Holy shit!" Zhou Yuanyuan was stunned. "Aren't you from the Grand-Orient Realm? Why are you so generous? This Mountshield Tome is worth over a thousand saint crystals; it's more expensive than manna! You can't treat me so well!" Zhou Yuanyuan was crying. Although he had verbally refused, his hands snatched the Mountshield Tome.

"It's that expensive?! Holy shit, return it to me! Your life isn't even worth so much money!" Tianming wanted to grab the Mountshield Tome back.

"No way!" Zhou Yuanyuan immediately placed the Mountshield Tome into his spatial ring.

Looking at the two of them from the side, Feiling smiled bitterly. Tianming turned to look at her and held her finger. "Does it still hurt?" The Mountshield Tome needed a drop of her blood, and even a needle prick made Tianming feel heartache for her.

"Don't be so dramatic. I'm fine now, with the Jadeite Liquid that you borrowed from Big Sister Bai," said Feiling.

"Let's take it easy in the future. I can't let you tire yourself out," said Tianming. Over the past few days, the two of them had inscribed a total of five Mountshield Tomes, taking half an hour to inscribe each book. It caused considerable exhaustion for Feiling. The blood needed wasn't much, but the physical and mental fatigue was inevitable.

Thus, Tianming set a rule that their monthly output shouldn't exceed ten tomes. But even so, one book could be sold for thousands of saint crystals, and that was an enormous amount of wealth. With no more than ten books a month, it should be easy for Feiling.

If it weren't for Tianming's strict rules, Feiling didn't think it would be a problem for her to inscribe twenty Mountshield Tomes. Then again, she could use her free time to study the Infernal Soul Heavenly Pattern Canon. She even told him that she would take care of heavenly pattern tomes and barriers so that Tianming could focus on his cultivation.

After all, she was in control when inscribing, while Tianming's task was only to provide beast ki. She had a lot of time, and with her Heavenly Unity ability, she could create more powerful heavenly pattern tomes and barriers in the future. As for Tianming, he just had to sit back and ride on her coattails.

The two of them had perfectly divided their work, each performing their own duties. Tianming could protect her, and she could empower Tianming. Who knew if Feiling could learn another heavenly pattern tome after his seclusion and breakthrough?

"Big brother, you're just responsible for staying beautiful. Ling'er will be responsible for making money to support you." That's what she had said when she woke up that morning, and after sleeping, she'd already recovered from her exhaustion and immediately started reading. She felt great being hugged by Tianming. The only downside was that Tianming would bring the Grand-Orient Sword along to the bed, which made Ling'er feel uncomfortable from the hilt. However, she was still too innocent. Was that really the Grand-Orient Sword?

……

Now that the national mourning was halfway through, the Decimo Dao Palace was more lively, and people could be seen everywhere. In the Divine Capital, those under the age of thirty were considered the younger generation, and the upper limit for age in the Decimo Dao Palace was also thirty. So as a result, Tianming could see many youths who had reached the Saint stage.

After all, this was the gathering of geniuses from the entire Theocracy of the Ancients. Except for some core members of the Theocrats, the strongest among the younger generation were all here. When Tianming's group walked, their presence attracted the attention of many disciples.

"See that person? That one, with the white hair. He's the son of Li Muyang. He initially came to the Divine Capital as a captive, but he survived under the protection of the Decimo Dao Palace."

"It's said that he's arrogant and domineering, an uncultured person."

"I heard that a few days ago, Wei Wushang of the Ancient Greedwolf Clan personally paid him a visit to invite him to his birthday banquet. But in the end, Wei Wushang was completely humiliated."

"There's no good outcome for being too arrogant. He's backed by a powerhouse in the Grand-Orient Realm, someone by the name of Li Wudi. Besides, he also has the pentabane of the Li Saint Clan. I heard that his talent was superb."

"How is he talented? Isn't he only in the Heavenly Will stage? The ability to fight someone stronger? The only talent that I recognize is high cultivation."

"Who knows. Arrogant people will suffer sooner or later. Anyway, there's no point paying attention to him. He'll be gone, sooner or later. Compared to him, his sister, Li Qingyu, is more tame and low profile."

"Haha. Her cultivation is even worse. I wonder if the elders are being deceived? Are their bane-rings drawn on?"

"Haha, don't talk nonsense."

Today, six out of ten halls in the Decimo Dao Palace were occupied by others, not to mention that there were also spies in the other four halls. Only less than thirty percent of the Decimo Dao Palace disciples were descendants of the Dark Hall's elders. Coupled with the status of Tianming's father, Li Muyang, it was difficult for Tianming to keep a low profile, not to mention that Feiling was a beauty. She was as famous as Tianming, and many people would ridicule them out of jealousy.

There was no helping it. Jealousy was a woman's nature, and as for men, most of them disdained the fact that Feiling was a mortal. There wasn't anyone in the Divine Capital that didn't have a trace of beast ki. Even if there were such people in history, they were all ridiculed as pests, and their status was even lower than pets.

"It looks like the Divine Capital isn't too friendly." Tianming was furious when he heard everyone distorting right and wrong, especially what they said about Feiling.

"Big brother, we don't have to care about these people. They just like to mock others to make themselves feel superior. There's also many neutral people supporting us. It was just that they don't know us, so they don't say a word. Sometimes, you might see it as everyone hates you, but that's not entirely the case. You just feel that they're arousing your disgust," Feiling said softly.

"What you said makes sense. "Tianming relaxed. He swept his gaze around the surroundings, but didn't say a word. Most of them were strangers, and there were no grudges between them. So who would be so bored to ridicule others?

"Are they heading to the Evil Suppression Plaza?"

"Look at where they're going."

"Let's go and take a look."

"Wei Wushang must've asked someone to teach Tianming's friend a lesson to get Tianming to apologize to him."

"His mouth is cheap, and he deserved it."

……

When Tianming's party arrived at the Evil Suppression Plaza, there were thousands of disciples gathered there. Most of them were disciples of the West Hall, looking at Tianming with scorching gazes. They were there to show Tianming their strength.

"Big brother!" Qingyu came over from the crowd.

"So fast?" Tianming had deliberately slowed down on purpose, but he didn't expect that Li Qingyu would arrive first.

"Big Sister Bai brought me here," said Li Qingyu.

"Where's she at then?"

"I don't know. Maybe she's too lazy to show up?"

"Alright, this is good." With Bai Zijin around, Tianming was relieved. If Zhou Yuanyuan ended miserably, it wasn't just a question about humiliating him, but also challenging his principles. Since he was the one who dragged Zhou Yuanyuan into this mess, he naturally had to be responsible for it. That was Tianming's attitude, and he even gave Zhou Yuanyuan an expensive Mountshield Tome for it.

He had called Bai Zijin over because he was worried that the other party had bribed the supervisor, and just as Tianming had expected, he could see a black-robed middle-aged man standing on the Dao Pagoda looking coldly at Tianming. There was even a trace of enmity in his eyes. The elder in charge of this stage was one of theirs.

"That's Jiang Shanjing, Mentor Jiang. He's a member of the Ancient Theocrats and a Supernal Mentor of the Death Hall. He also has another identity—the grandfather of Jiang Nancheng, the youth standing beside Wei Wushang," Zhou Yuanyuan said nervously.