Beastmaster of the Ages

“What’s going on?!” Tianming was still trying to get a feel for Trisoul Prime, yet something like this happened all of a sudden. He knew what the divine moon hall meant to the Huiyue Clan. It was as important to them as the Old Deepstar Path was to the Archaion Sect. Without the divine moon hall, the descendants of the Huiyue Clan would lose the guidance of their ancestors and have to cultivate using nothing but trial and error, which was easily three to four times longer. Not to mention, their potential would be severely limited. It was akin to the clan going bankrupt.

No longer having the formations within the divine moon hall to control them, the million plus caeli began dissipating in the air. The moon-shaped divine moon hall was still collapsing, with quite a number of people still within it. It was a shocking change that caused quite a lot of panic. They were even more affected by the loss of the hall than Tianming was, feeling utter despair for the future.

The question was: who was the culprit? There was no way the divine moon hall would collapse on its own accord. Tianming was only there to break through to the Ascension stage, so he barely caused any disturbance. The changes had all occurred within his own body, after all. It was only after the hall had collapsed that he noticed the entire city had already fallen into chaos while he was still breaking through.

“Did I only notice just now because I was within the divine moon hall?” He hurriedly ended his cultivation and prepared to leave. The sounds of battle could be heard all over.

“Who is it?” He had a bad omen and hurriedly hid himself, before using his enhanced senses to search out the surroundings. “Found him!”

He squinted and saw the white-robed man in the sky above the divine moon hall. He was unquestionably the culprit of the hall’s destruction, the very same person who had killed Huiyue Du and Liu Yizhao. Whether or not he was Bodhi, Tianming could finally make sure with his newfound senses. Even if he could hide it, Tianming could smell the stench of a specter from the man.

“Wasn’t the Veneramoon Formation activated? How in the world did he get in?” Tianming was quite confused about how things had played out. Even the divine moon hall was defended by multiple formations of its own; however, they were mostly deactivated as they already had an even more powerful Veneramoon Formation active.

War was a thing of the past on the Divine Moon Realm. In the past million years, they hadn’t been threatened even once. Peace had dulled their senses and desensitized them to potential threats, which resulted in an arrogance that had ultimately ruined them. From now on, they would live in worry and die in peace.

When Tianming saw Bodhi, he himself wasn’t spotted. Bodhi didn’t notice him through the gaps of the countless caeli rising up into the sky. He had destroyed the defenseless divine moon hall to cause maximum chaos and was currently engaged in a tense battle with the top elites of the Huiyue Clan. They had him surrounded and were ruthlessly raining down attacks on him.

“It looks like he’s much stronger than rumored.” Tianming could immediately tell why Bodhi was able to attack Huiyue City despite the formation after laying low for a period of time. This was his true peak state. Tianming guessed that if the specters hadn’t been massacred by Huiye Shi’s parents, Bodhi would choose to strike now rather than starting his murders some time back.

Currently, Huiyue City was the embodiment of chaos itself, with pained shrieks echoing throughout the rubble of the destroyed buildings. “He’s returned to Huiyue City to wipe out the legacy of the Huiyue Clan. He also definitely has his eyes on Huiye Shi and me!”

Huiye Shi and Feiling were now at the Duyue Mansion, so Tianming didn’t stay to watch the battle. He immediately returned as fast as he could, traveling at a speed much faster than before. This was the first time he was utilizing astralforce. The four-tiered astral discs in every albus of his body rotated rapidly, causing him to zip forward like lightning. “With the core of my power distributed throughout my entire body, I’m able to use more of my power at once.”

He had never felt this way before. Like a beam of starlight, he flashed through the streets and left the battlefield. Turning back, he saw countless caeli rising up into the skies like kites that had their strings cut as more and more buildings collapsed. It made for quite an impressive sight indeed. Such a sight was enough to send the residents of the city into a fit of pain and terror. Tianming saw all too many of them howling in pain for the loss they suffered along the way. No doubt, this was the end of the Huiyue Clan.

……

He swiftly reached Huiyue Mansion and immediately saw Feiling and Huiye Shi at the entrance. Surprisingly, the Moonsoul Blooddragon was gone and Feiling had regained her freedom. Apart from looking a little pale, she seemed completely fine.

“Why’s it gone?” Tianming asked.

“I slipped into that odd state of mind again today and broke the chains,” Feiling said.

While it was something worth celebrating, there could be unintended side effects. It might not be entirely positive. Either way, it still relieved him that Feiling would no longer have to suffer.

“Y-y-you… you actually did it?” Huiye Shi said, mouth agape. Feiling had also noticed the change. With the dissipation of his saint palace, his tribulation force was no more. Instead, it had been converted into astralforce, which was starkly different. There was no way to hide the fact that he now had a divine body. Both of them were ecstatic.

“Put that aside for now. The killer just showed up and the Duyue Mansion isn’t safe. We have to leave the Huiyue Clan immediately. Let’s find a place in the city to hide.”

The main base of the clan took up a third of the city’s area. If they hid somewhere else in the city, it wouldn’t be easy for Bodhi to track them down alone. While the Moonsoul Blooddragon had been broken, Tianming hadn’t retrieved his sword yet, so he couldn’t exactly leave the city just yet; it would probably be hard for him to re-enter it.

The three of them immediately distanced themselves from the battlefield.

“I have a hiding spot further away. Come with me.” Huiye Shi guided them through the maze of streets and entered a bridge opening. There was an underground bunker underneath the bridge that was protected by formations. Once they were activated, illusions would mask any trace of the bunker. It was rather easy for Feiling to activate the third-origin tribulation formation of the bunker. Now that they were safe inside, Bodhi was temporarily no longer a threat.

“How did he come in?” Tianming asked Huiye Shi.

“Through sheer brute force,” Huiye Shi said with a look of disbelief.

“Didn’t you say the Veneramoon Formation would be able to stop him?”

“It should, assuming his cultivation is at Decapath Sky. But his power today showed him to be at least at Lifecycle Sky. He simply forced himself through the formation. Not to mention, most formations are made for war to be used against armies. The Veneramoon Formation is weaker against a single peak elite. More crucially, the seniors had blind faith that the formation would stop him just because he stopped showing up for a time. But he came to prove them all wrong! The first thing he did when he made his way in was destroy the divine moon hall….”