Beastmaster of the Ages

"Jiang Wuxin!" Tianming intercepted him. Jiang Wuxin crawled back up and launched toward the divine body once more.

"Li Tianming, you won't be able to stop me this way. As long as you die, I’ll immediately leave this place, I swear!" He laughed cruelly and sped up even more. "Make your choice! Everything I do is due to your sins! Li Tianming, you can only atone for your sins through death!"

It was Tianming's death against the destruction of the divine body. While it would be hard for Jiang Wuxin to kill him, destroying the body would probably not be too difficult.

"If you're not going to die, make way!"

Tianming grit his teeth. "Ying Huo, let's not overthink it. There's no way I'll choose to die. All we can do now is kill him! If we fail to stop him, we'll have to face off against the specters!"

They had already survived the battles at Tianming City and Taiji Peak Lake. Di Zang, Po Suo, and Dugu Jin were all dead. Right now was the time to unite humanity. They definitely had a chance for survival. Tianming had seen and killed countless specters himself, so how scary were they, really?

"You're right. Since we have no choice, let's fight to the end! No matter what Jiang Wuxin says, doing what he says to ‘save the world’ is something only a madman would do!" Ying Huo said.

Their telepathic conversation was over in an instant. They had come all this way, surviving one despairing situation after another. Just like the will of Great Emperor Xuanyuan, they shouldn't give up until the very end. Not to mention, even if he failed today, he still had the Divine Moon Realm as a trump card.

"Kill him!"

They no longer cared about anything else. With Jiang Wuxin wanting to destroy the divine body, it became a rather difficult battle. Ying Huo activated Imperial Radiance while Tianming summoned the Dragonhide and they both flanked Jiang Wuxin.

"Scram!" Even though Ying Huo charged at him like a meteor and used the Ninesky Beastsoul Formation, it was sent flying off by Jiang Wuxin's punch. A moment later, Tianming came charging in with the same move.

The fists and swords clashed. Jiang Wuxin avoided the fatal sword ki attacks, but he still ended up hurting Tianming quite a lot. He had applied his Heartless Sword Art to his fists. While he took quite a few cuts as a result of the exchange, he still managed to land a punch on Tianming, caving in his chest and causing him to pale from the pain. Right after that, Ying Huo appeared again. With a flash of Infernal Haze and sword ki, it forced Jiang Wuxin back again.

"Get out of my way!" Jiang Wuxin lashed out with a rapid flurry of punches, ignoring the fire that burned on his body as he continued his mad dash.

Tianming charged toward him again, his chest restored to normal.

"So you can't die after all!" That disappointed Jiang Wuxin greatly. The only hope he had left now was the divine body.

The battle continued for quite some time in the darkness. Tianming and Ying Huo used all their tricks to stop Jiang Wuxin, but to no avail; he was getting ever closer to the divine body, though his wounds kept piling up. One of his hands was completely cut off by Tianming, and his body was mostly charred. There were even a few bone-deep wounds. He was even cut in the neck by Tianming, his head nearly severed. Comparatively, he was struck far more often than Tianming, who seemed to be in a much better state.

Not having a weapon to parry Tianming's Grand Orient Sword with was really bad for Jiang Wuxin. Coupled with the Greenspark Tower, there didn't seem to be any way for him to kill Tianming. Even then, killing Jiang Wuxin wasn't the goal, protecting the divine body was. As injured as Jiang Wuxin was, especially after the constant burning of Infernal Blaze, he was still fighting like a mad dog. He knew he wouldn't be able to kill Tianming, so his entire focus was given to reaching the divine body.

"Li Tianming, had I known you were a twisted monster like this, I wouldn't have waited for you to come in here! This was such a waste of my time!" As he continued his charge, he laughed maniacally. "Don't blame me, Master! He was the one who forced me to do this!"

Despite the struggle in his heart, he blamed everything on Tianming. Eventually, he gave up on blocking altogether and quickly closed a lot of distance. "Break!"

He seemed unstoppable. Even after Tianming cut off one of his arms, he still kept going. Then Ying Huo intercepted Jiang Wuxin once more.

"So this is your lifebound beast!" It was widely known that Tianming's beasts were among the most unique things about him. That thought made Jiang Wuxin salivate. Smiling, he allowed his body to expand to ten times its size to crash into the divine body, ignoring Ying Huo's attacks and stretching his last remaining arm out to grab it before stuffing it into his mouth and swallowing it like it was a little snack! "Haha, I ate it too quickly and didn't get to savor the taste!"

He turned back to Tianming with a more twisted smile. "How does it feel to have your lifebound beast eaten?"

"You sure you want to eat it? I'm worried you'll get indigestion." Tianming got back up and charged into the madman once more.

"There's nothing a royal specter's body can't digest!" After stopping to taunt Tianming, he turned back to the divine body. "Now, it's over! Li Tianming, let me say this once more. I really don't want to destroy the body, let the specters return, and disappoint my master. Otherwise, I wouldn't have bothered waiting for you to come! You've forced me to do what I'm about to do! It's your fear of death that doomed everyone!"

"Is that really important to you? Why do you keep repeating it nonstop?"

"Of course it is! I can't accept that you accused me of disappointing my master!" All he needed was an excuse to push the blame onto Tianming. That way, he could convincingly lie to himself. It all started when the seed was planted in him by Feng Qingyu's suicide. Who was in the right now was no longer important.

Tianming gave it one last swing with all he had, yet Jiang Wuxin wouldn't let it end just like that. He snickered and spun around to punch the divine body. Just then, a loud explosion was heard and Jiang Wuxin's abdomen burst open, letting a flaming phoenix out.

"You think you can digest me with your bloodline?" Ying Huo's Infernal Blaze flared up, burning up even more of Jiang Wuxin and blasting him into Tianming's attack.

"Now, die!" Tianming used his fastest attack, Animacorpus Eradication, twice in succession and pierced them through Jiang Wuxin's body. He let all the sword ki in his body out in fear that it wouldn't be enough! By now, no matter how many hearts he had, they were surely pierced through by the Grand-Orient Swords. His sword art’s name was Heartless, and now he finally lived up to it. Tianming slashed down on his head one final time. "It's over for you, Jiang Wuxin."

Tianming's face was pale and he breathed a sigh of relief. The decapitated head was still staring back at him. "It's over!"

It was too close a call. Tianming really needed to vent.

"Hahaha... as expected of the savior of the Flameyellow Continent.... You're practically unbeatable. Why isn't that savior me?" Jiang Wuxin continued to chuckle.

"Stop wasting time. It was a personal grudge from the very beginning. I'm no saint, nor are you a demon. We simply fought and you lost."

Ying Huo returned to Tianming's side. With the Greenspark Tower, it was impossible for even a royal specter to digest it. Swallowing Ying Huo basically amounted to suicide. Yet even now, Jiang Wuxin still continued to laugh.

"What are you laughing at?" Tianming said, furrowing his brow.

"Well, you're just wrong. I am a demon. An evildoer. And I haven't lost yet. Li Tianming, you chose your own life and set things in motion. Don't blame me for the return of the specters. It was all your fault! You've doomed all of humanity!" After that, the last bits of his consciousness vanished from his eyes.

But the next moment, his head, body and limbs suddenly began expanding, sending Tianming flying and slamming into the divine bodies of the emperor and his five dragons. Then the gigantic monster exploded, sending Tianming crashing into a corner of the cauldron. Whether it was a specter's ability or some kind of forbidden art no longer mattered. The point was that Jiang Wuxin was dead for sure, but all of Tianming's efforts had still seemed to come to naught. It seemed that he was determined to release the specters as long as Tianming was alive, and the only difference was that he had ended up self-destructing to do it.

"This will be troublesome...."

It seemed that this was all inevitable. One single madman had sent the entire Flameyellow Continent into hell. Tianming closed his eyes at this despairing situation.

"Fuck!" Ying Huo cursed. They exchanged glances, to no avail. After the explosion, the dust began settling in the cauldron. The bodies of the emperor and the five dragons were completely gone.

"What else can we do?" Ying Huo asked.

Tianming stood up and patted the dust off his body. Calmly, he said, "Let's find the keys and open the cauldron. We'll go straight to the Old Deepstar Path."