Beastmaster of the Ages

The disciples of the Archaion Sect had been suffering too much pressure from all sides. They had witnessed the deaths of their friends and the mockery from the other sects as the outsiders from the eight divine realms arrogantly pranced about at Taiji Peak Lake. Nobody had taken them seriously and had chanted for their deaths. Now, it was time for their revenge with Tianming leading the way! If they were afraid of death, they wouldn't have been there in the first place.

"Comrades, it's our time to shake the whole continent!"

That cry roused their bloodlust and fighting spirit. They were fighting for the pride of the first divine realm.

With the Radix World Tree controlling the entire battlefield, the disciples of Hexapath Sword Sect were in huge trouble. Not only had they suffered considerable casualties, they didn't have many fourth-level samsarans to lead their way. The Archaion Sect, on the other hand, had four, including Tianming.

Tianming and his lifebound beasts charged in for the kill whenever they saw a chance. No corpse would be left intact as long as the Grand-Orient Sword found its way into it! He was on a mad killing spree.

"You want to kill Ling'er too, huh?!" Tianming asked a random fellow.

"Who's Ling'er?!" That person paled and immediately stumbled away after his hell barrier formation had been shattered by Tianming, only to collapse when Tianming rushed past him, his sword pierced through his head. The body simply sank into the depths of the swamp.

Tianming immediately turned to the next one and said, "Let me ask you: do you want to kill Ling'er?"

"Die, Li Tianming! Do you really think you can scare me?!"

With three sword strikes, Tianming triggered the hell barrier formation with the first, broke it with the second, and pierced his opponent's heart with the third.

"Who's next? Answer my question!" He was rampaging like an unstoppable demon.

"Aaaah!"

"Run! He's crazy!"

"Monorigin Sect, you’ll be wiped out! Your divine realm will crumble!"

Before they could even finish, the ones who lost their hell barrier formations were pierced through by Ying Huo's Skypiercer Ki or Xian Xian's Bloodrain Swords, instantly dying. Corpses of beastmasters and lifebound beasts stained the swamp red, and the entire area was littered with incomplete body parts.

As Xuanyuan Yucheng returned with aid, they killed whoever they saw. Now the disciples of Hexapath Sword Sect would be facing off against the full force of the Archaion Sect. They were on the brink of their demise!

The Archaion Sect’s disciples stopped attacking after triggering the hell barrier formations of their enemies, since they wouldn't be able to move afterward. They would only finish them off one by one once all of them were secured. Soon, the battle ended in a bloodbath.

Tianming had contributed the lion's share, especially with Xian Xian controlling the entire battlefield with its vines and helping out many of his allies. The corpses of Hexapath Sword Sect disciples were strewn all across the swamp.

Since Tianming had joined the battle, only a few Archaion Sect disciples' lifebound beasts' hell barrier formations had been triggered, but no points were lost as a result. Additionally, he was the one to deliver the finishing blow to trigger the enemies' hell barrier formations, so he was no doubt among the top scorers.

Once Beigong Qianyu and Xuanyuan Yucheng had returned, the tide of battle had turned completely. The Hexapath Sword Sect had started with forty-five disciples, but only had fifteen remaining, making them the weakest of all nine sects. It was a suicidal mistake, though Feng Lingyin and Feng Shuoyu had almost gotten their way. Had they gotten to the hell tree in time, the Archaion Sect would have been devastated.

"Check to see if anyone managed to slip away!" Xuanyuan Yucheng said as he watched Tianming from the corner of his eye with shock. Tianming had Lan Huang spray water to wash the blood from his swords as if nothing had happened. His expression was blank, without a trace of fear or elation.

"Brother Yucheng, one is missing. There’s only twenty-nine corpses. It seems that Feng Xiaoli escaped. He's a fourth-level life phase samsaran who fought Sis Yuewei at the start. Perhaps he ran when the situation turned for the worse. Given that his lifebound beast is an earth type, he probably escaped underground."

If even one escaped, the location of their hell tree would be compromised and more foes would come their way in the days to come. The angered disciples of the Hexapath Sword Sect might work with the other sects to crush them. The impending gloom overshadowed the joy they felt from winning the battle just moments ago.

"Everyone, hear me out," Xuanyuan Yucheng said, "What did we come for? Revenge! The Hexapath Sword Sect has paid their debt after losing twenty-nine of their own. We took it back with interest. What’s left to be afraid of now? No matter how many come, we will kill them all! We would've sought them out either way. Any additional one we get to kill is already a bonus! The Flameyellow Continent shall never forget our glorious victory!"

"Brother Yucheng is right!"

"We already paid them back! This time around, the Sterling House of Fang suffered the brunt of the blows. Next time, the Archaic House of Xuanyuan shall do the same! If anyone's to die, we will be the ones!"

Sometimes, that was all it took to satisfy the young folks. Xuanyuan Yucheng soon got briefed on the situation.

"Everyone, we were able to turn this around and protect the hell tree, thanks to Li Tianming. He even killed the Feng sisters, which is a contribution to be in awe of. I’m proud to call him my sworn brother! I’ll be willing to die for him a million times over if that's what it takes!"

"Me too! We’ll be together in life and in death!" Beigong Qianyu said, stretching her hand out.

Everyone put their palms on top of each others'. There were more than forty of them and it was quite stuffy.

"Amazing. I'm convinced," Fang Chenjing said with resignation.

"What do you plan to do now?"

"Let's fight with them and see what we can achieve. That aside, I heard Jiang Wuxin loves his wives. If he doesn't go mad after finding out about this, I'll relinquish my Fang surname," Fang Chenjing said.

"That isn't much. Everyone has someone that's precious to them for whom they'll fight, whether it be Jiang Wuxin, Li Tianming, or us," Fang Yuewei said.

"You're right. Good and evil has nothing to do with this. It's all a fight for our own loved ones' survival."

"Do you think he's capable of that?"

"We'll see!"

......

"Jiang Wuxin?" Tianming stroked his Grand-Orient Sword before putting it away. "There are around four to five others here who are like him, but they all have to die!"

He knew that the outside world was no doubt in shock after witnessing the deaths of the Hexapath Sword Sect disciples. The entire continent had the Skyeye Formations broadcasting the battles, so they had doubtless watched Tianming killing the Feng sisters and having the highest kill count among the rest. This blow was far more debilitating to the Hexapath Sword Sect than Feng Daoyi's death.

How would the other elites from the sect react? How would the other disciples at the Swordsoul Mountains rage? The mere thought of that was anxiety-inducing, to say the least. However, Tianming couldn’t see it, nor would he care about it if he could. He was only here to fight and kill.

"This is only the beginning!" He would see to it himself that those who desired Feiling's death would burn from his wrath.

......

The area where the hell tree was in the frost layer of Nether Battlefield was covered in ice. The temperature there was near subzero, enough to freeze a normal person dead. There, Jiang Wuxin stood with his sword in hand as he tried to find insight into the sword.

"Shuoyu and Lingyin have gone to the ninth layer to scout. Why aren't they back yet?" someone asked.

Jiang Wuxiin didn't speak at all, his attention completely focused on his sword. In time, someone came stumbling from the distance, pale and covered in blood.

"Feng Xiaoli?" The dozen people around the tree stood up. Jiang Wuxin put down his sword upon hearing the name, though he was blindfolded and his ears were muffled. He had sensed the sound with his mind and heart.

"Why are you the only one to return? Where’s the rest of you?" Jiang Wuxin casually asked, still half-focused on cultivation.

"Senior Brother Jiang!" Feng Xiaoli knelt and shivered on the icy ground.

"What happened?"

Feng Xiaoli's mouth chattered, but no words came out.

"Stop putting up an act, Feng Xiaoli."

"You make it seem like something serious happened. Our sect didn't offend anyone else, so that doesn't sound plausible."

"Yeah, stop messing around."

The others were getting fed up.

"Senior Brother Jiang, I’ll speak, but you must remain calm," Feng Xiaoli said in a hoarse voice.

"Huh?!" the others gasped. It did sound like something serious happened. How could it be?

"Speak," Jiang Wuxin said as he caressed his sword.

"We went to scout out the ninth layer and discovered the hell tree right away. The disciples of the Monorigin Sect were there. Most of them were from the Sterling House of Fang, and there were only fifteen of them. Shuoyu and Lingyin immediately launched an attack to try destroying their hell tree. After all, we had twice their number. They were almost about to succeed when Li Tianming showed up and...."

"Out with it!" Jiang Wuxin said, lifting Feng Xiaoli into the air.

"Li Tianming defeated and killed them! Then, reinforcements came and we were slaughtered by around forty of them. All of us were wiped out save for me, all twenty-nine of us!" He broke out in tears right away.

Jiang Wuxin tossed him to the ground. Feng Xiaoli looked at him and felt boundless sword ki flowing out of him. The whole place was dead silent.

"Feng Xiaoli, that's impossible. Stop joking. Where's my brother?"

"That's right! How could you joke about this? There's no way Li Tianming could beat the sisters at his level!"

"He's just an empyrean saint! Even if he broke through, he can only deal with third-level death phase samsarans at most!"

The others were starting to panic.

"It's true, I swear!" He was flat on the ground crying, having lost all his fighting spirit. "The disciple of the goddess is really powerful...."

The whole crowd fell silent once more. Everyone turned to Jiang Wuxin, then back to Feng Xiaoli. Jiang Wuxin's eyes were covered and his expression was hard to discern; however, his body shook as it radiated a chilling killing intent.

"Feng Xiaoli, take me there," he said.

"Senior Brother, since we know where their hell tree is, I suggest we go seek out the other sects and work with them to eradicate the Monorigin Sect!" someone suggested.

However, Jiang Wuxin ignored them. He grabbed Feng Xiaoli and said, "Take me to them, now."

"Senior Brother Jiang, there’s more than forty of them—"

"Not even they can stop me from killing anyone I please. Now, lead the way!" he snapped as he tightened his grip. A deathly aura came spreading from his palm to Feng Xiaoli's neck.

The poor sod knew better than to anger him further when he was at his scariest. "Yes...."