Beastmaster of the Ages

Tianming didn't give up and kept honing the Animacorpus Eradication, performing the move again and again before the Hexapath Sword God. However, the latter didn't respond any differently.

"I wonder what part I'm not getting right."

Feeling a little anxious about it, he pointed his sword right at the Hexapath Sword God.

"If I strike you directly, you should be able to feel my sword intent, right?" He then attacked the Hexapath Sword God with Animacorpus Eradication again and again. However, it was just an ethereal apparition, a kind of sword formation. He repeated it ten times and said, "I guess I'm just still lacking something."

Since he didn't get any response, he decided to leave. But just as he was about to step out of the palace, he heard an old voice behind him.

"Foolish brat, since you dared to mess with me, I'm messing with you back. Will you stop messing around from now on?"

"Senior!" Tianming turned back with his hope reignited and saw the senior stand up and smile at him.

"Your Animacorpus Eradication has been well honed and has passed my test. Today, I will be teaching you the third and fourth moves of the Hexapath Samsara Sword."

"Thank you, Senior. I won't dare mess with you again."

He had only learned the first two moves so far, but he didn't expect he would get to learn the next two at once.

"Come here and watch closely." The Hexapath Sword God looked at him with a doting gaze, seeming no different than a real person.

"Yes, Senior." Tianming skipped his way back to the sword god.

"Do you see my sword here?" The old man raised his right hand and showed him his middle finger.

"I... I do see it. It is a good sword indeed!" Tianming awkwardly said.

"I've carried this sword across the lands and it has helped me defeat many a blushing beauty, causing them to bend over to me. The ladies all across the realm would cross seas and mountains to have a taste of this sword."

"Senior, I appreciate your fine and poetic way of putting things, but can we get to the point?" Tianming said through gritted teeth. The old man seemed to be rather sleazy.

"Junior, do make way. I wouldn't want my sword ki to hurt you accidentally," the sword god continued speaking mechanically. Then, he put one hand on his waist and pointed his middle finger at Tianming. "Watch out! Here it comes!"

"Just do it already!" Tianming's patience was at its limits. The old man had started out serious, but was sounding more and more frivolous.

"The Hexapath Samsara Sword is the crystallization of the way of my sword. With this move, I raised a successful dynasty and expanded our borders beyond imagination! The first move, Omnisentient Dao, Mortal Dao Sword, and the second move, Ghost Dao, Animacorpus Eradication, represent the cycles of reincarnation for humans and hungry ghosts. They're in the same class of power and represent my very first insights into the sword.

"The third and fourth moves are a tier higher, and represent the insights I gained before I ascended to godhood. They're the cycles of reincarnation for fiendish beasts and the fierce asura!

"The first of my insights concerned the human condition and what it meant to be a ghost during life after death. Before I ascended to godhood, my mood was all over the place as I underwent lots of pressure and hardship during the troubling times of my clan. My swordsmanship back then focused on ferocity, which led to the path of fiendbeasts that connects to the path of the asuras and leads up to the heavens!"

During the whole monologue, the sword god had his middle finger raised, though he sounded infinitely nostalgic about his past experiences.

"Listen well. The third move of the Hexapath Samsara Sword focuses on the Animal Dao. Animals make up the majority of conscious lifeforms apart from humans, so they also go through cycles of reincarnation. This move of mine combines the nine most fearsome beasts, all of them lifebound beasts that were more ferocious than wildbeasts. It comprises nine aspects that are fused into a single move. The aspects are respectively the torch dragon, teng drakeserpent, taotie, guiche ghostfowl, qiongqi, taowu, suanni, skyhound, and zheng leopard. These nine aspects form the Ninesky Beastsoul Formation. Using your sword as a formation, you shall be able to dominate all!"

Tianming came to understand that the third move was a sword formation formed using sword intent with the sword itself as the basis. Yama's Grandyin Fiercesoul Formation operated in the same paradigm, but it couldn't compare to the Ninesky Beastsoul Formation. If the name of the third move already sounded that impressive, Tianming wondered what the fourth move would be like.

The old man continued, "The third move may be among the fiercest in terms of sword intent, but it's still lacking compared to the fourth. The fourth move is the one I developed that led to my ascension, and is based on the Asura Dao. Asuras are fiendgods, and are called such because they're essentially gods—or devas—but they remain tethered to their passions, making them fickle and vengeful. With the fiendgod as a base and a divine point of view, the sword intent can suppress and dominate all that is in the world.

"Asuras are dualistic creatures and their fiendish nature contrasts against their godly nature, like male against female, or yin against yang. Male asuras have nine heads and thousands of eyes, spit fire, and have nine hundred and ninety hands with eight legs. Female asuras have three heads with green and black faces, six arms, and spit water. They're also incredibly charming. These creatures stand at the very top of all things! Using the yin-yang fiendgod sword intent of asuras in the formation, you'll be able to use the Asura Fiendgod Formation."

So that was the name of the fourth move. Tianming couldn't really understand the essence of it, though.

"I have no idea what that even means. It sounds like a lot of babble and gobbledygook," Ying Huo said.

"Me neither," Tianming said, but it didn't matter. All he had to do was watch the demonstration and try copying it.

"It has nothing to do with me anyway. I still haven't mastered the second move, so you can start ahead of me and show me the ropes when you finally get it," Ying Huo said.

"Shameless." It almost sounded like Ying Huo had intentionally slowed its progress down so it wouldn't have to work so hard to figure out the new move.

As they spoke, the Hexapath Sword God started the demonstration and finally put away his middle finger.

"Animal Dao, Ninesky Beastsoul Formation!"

The move caused nine fearsome beasts to manifest in a nonagonal formation. Each of them stood a kilometer tall and had a thousand stars. Any one of them would be able to wreak complete havoc on the world, and they were formed of incredibly dense sword intent.

"It looks much more complicated than the first move. The first two moves only require understanding the sword intent behind them, but these two use sword intent to make formations! They're just like heavenly pattern formations—really complicated!"

He felt his scalp tingle at the daunting notion of mastering those moves. How hard would manifesting even one of those beasts be? Taotie, qiongqi, skyhound, and more.... When the move was executed, the nine beastsouls descended in such an awesome manner that Tianming felt like his head was about to burst.

But that was only a prelude to something even more terrifying.

"Asura Dao, Asura Fiendgod Formation!" That move caused two asuras of about ten kilometers in height to manifest. They were like divine natural disasters, ravaging across the continent! The manifestation of the formation made Tianming feel like the sky was about to collapse. Being the 'target' of the move, Tianming felt his soul shudder as the two asuras coldly stared at him. He almost felt like breaking down and worshipping them as a mortal would a true divine being! His heart was about to burst just from witnessing the moves.