Beastmaster of the Ages

"We're counting on you, Xian Xian. If you succeed, I'll award you with a delicious roast pig," Tianming said.

"Yay! I'll give it my all!" The moment the tree emerged from his lifebound space, it embedded its roots into the icy ground. Even though it wasn't as tough as its three brothers yet, it was still pretty hardy.

The sound of the roots crushing the ice beneath was rather audible. Xian Xian had touched a hell tree before, so it should be familiar with its life signature. Tianming believed it wouldn't be a stretch to call her the ancestor of all plants.

"Over here!" Xian Xian immediately withdrew its roots and used them to pull itself in the direction of the tree. "Wheeee! I'm skating!"

The last thing Tianming had imagined he would see was an ice skating plant. It used its roots as a sled and could move even faster than Tianming.

"Let me out! Boss! I want out!" Lan Huang was being driven mad by how fun it seemed. Ying Huo had to protect the other six eggs in fear that they would be crushed by the giant beast's tantrum.

The moment it was let out, it immediately slid along the ice and chased after Xian Xian, oblivious to the commotion it was causing. "Haha! This is so much fun!"

"Tortoise Bro, watch out for icebergs. Don't get your balls caught between them," Meow Meow said sleazily.

......

An hour later, Xian Xian pointed at a crack in the ice ahead and turned eagerly to Tianming. "Half-daddy, my treat! Where's my treat?"

"The hell tree..." Tianming's gaze turned cold. He had finally found it after searching for an hour. Back on the swamp layer, it took them a good six hours to find theirs. He might've taken ten whole days here if he hadn't had any help.

So, he gave Xian Xian a huge treat as promised. Meanwhile, Lan Huang was panting with its tongues out. It had its fill of ice skating after doing it for a whole hour.

"It's time to get to work!" Tianming declared as he drew the beasts back into his lifebound space. Time was running out and he had to sneak his way to the tree.

......

The Hexapath Sword Sect seniors watching in the Dimensional Battlefield fell silent once more. The atmosphere there was dead silent. Veins were popping up on their faces as they watched the white-haired youth appear near the hell tree through the Skyeye Formation.

All of them held positions at least as high as Yi Xingyin's. As far as they were concerned, the thirteen disciples, who were at most as powerful as third-level death samsarans, weren't Tianming's match at all, much to their absolute frustration. They watched as the white-haired youth slaughtered their disciples one by one after the large tree sealed off the battlefield with its glowing white vines. Many disciples and their lifebound beasts were slaughtered without being able to escape at all. It didn't take longer than fifteen minutes for the massacre to conclude, leaving nothing but corpses next to the tree. Then the youth slashed at the barrier around the hell tree five times in quick succession, breaking it.

"The Hexapath Sword Sect's hell tree is gone," someone said, breaking the silence.

Like a flaming phoenix, the hell tree was reduced to ashes. The one who cut it down stood beside it and basked in its flames with a sinister smile that contained a hint of mockery. The forty-five disciples they had sent to Nether Battlefield were the strongest of the two hundred or so Hexapath disciples that had come, yet now only two of them remained. Jiang Wuxin was a top genius, but it no longer mattered as he was on a suicidal quest for revenge.

What the Hexapath Sword Sect had wanted to do to the Archaion Sect had been completely turned back on them. It was hard to understate how severe the price they had paid was. Even so, the elites watching from the Dimensional Battlefield were masters of their craft and wouldn't lose their cool just because of that, but their suffering was no less real. The Hexapath Swordfiend Feng Qingyu's especially, to say nothing of the other observers in the Hexapath Divine Realm who were watching from their respective Skyeye Formations. Not too long ago, they had been chanting for the deaths of the Archaion Sect, only for them to suffer from what they had wished on their enemies. It was now their turn to cry.

......

The audience section of the Archaion Sect was just as shocked. Only one person could find it in him to laugh: Xuanyuan Dao.

"Hahahaha! Hahahahaha!"

Soon, Ouyang Jianwang and a few others began joining in on his laughter.

"Does anyone still feel Li Tianming isn't capable?" Xuanyuan Dao asked.

Nobody answered. They knew that he had made the right bet. But now they had something even more pressing on their minds: whether the Hexapath Sword Sect would just lose it.

The Nether Battle was still ongoing and Tianming had made sure that he would be remembered across the entire Flameyellow Continent.

"How merciless!"

"How could the Archaion Sect possibly produce someone as cruel as that?"

"He didn't even so much as blink when he killed."

Though, Tianming hadn't relished in the killing; he was merely collecting the debt they had owed.

......

Tianming looked at the corpses strewn all over the frost layer of the battlefield. They had all perished from his death tribulation force. He could clearly see the life draining into him from their bodies; they seemed a little aged after they were killed in battle, and that was all thanks to his Aeonic Grandbane. All of the absorbed energy was now in Tianming's lifesprings.

"Even I wouldn't be able to resist this deathly energy."

It was almost like a curse. Now, his power had grown so much that he was probably the strongest first-level death samsaran to ever live. Having destroyed the hell tree, his mission was complete.

"Now, only two of the forty-five remain. It's your turn next, Jiang Wuxin!"

As expected, Jiang Wuxin's hell barrier should be giving off a light now. As long as he was on the same layer, Tianming would be able to find him. However, he didn't see anything on the layer, which meant the two remaining Hexapath Sword Sect disciples were somewhere else. He hurried back to the swamp layer, only to notice that they weren't there either.

"He must've gone for reinforcements then."

At least he could be sure those two weren't on the eighth or ninth layers of the battlefield, so Xuanyuan Yucheng and the others were safe.