Beastmaster of the Ages

Huiye Shi was a member of the Huiyue Clan, so the destruction of the divine moon hall caused her to panic and be in tears. Tianming couldn’t really tell her that he was eighty percent certain the killer was Bodhi, as he didn’t want the Flameyellow Continent to be made into a battlefield.

“The killer is even stronger than our clan leader, who’s only at the Decapath Sky level! Only a few of the elders and seniors are at the Nonahonor Sky level, with most others being at the Heptaglory Sky or Octasaint Sky level. Can they really stop the killer? If he can’t be stopped, there’ll be a massacre…. What’ll happen to the divine moonrace?” Huiye Shi said with a grave look.

“It’ll depend on Sovereign Xi or reinforcements from the other Eightmoon Skycities,” Tianming said. He could already see that the killer was able to hold his own against multiple enemies without being at any disadvantage.

“If the killer was this powerful to begin with, he could’ve started the massacre long ago. Does this mean he’s been breaking through the whole time he was away?” Huiye Shi said. If even Tianming couldn’t figure out how Bodhi got so powerful, neither could she.

It wasn’t Tianming’s business to meddle in the affairs of the divine moonrace. Even if the killer was Bodhi, he wouldn’t be able to stop him from massacring the divine moonrace that had caused the deaths of a billion specters. Tianming hurriedly turned to look at Feiling while Huiye Shi was still panicking. She seemed normal on all fronts.

“Are you still hurting?” Tianming asked, rubbing her back.

“It’s better now, Big Brother,” she said.

“Looks like the bumps are also gone,” Tianming said as he felt her smooth back.

“Thank goodness,” Feiling said with a sigh of relief. Turning around and holding his hand, she asked, “What do you want to do from now on?”

“I’ll get my Grand-Orient Sword back, then we’re leaving Huiyue City. I no longer wish to stay here,” Tianming said.

“Waaah! Then what would I do? Mourn for you?” Huiye Shi said.

“You’re overthinking it. I’m just afraid of the killer.”

Huiye Shi still wasn’t aware that the killer could be after her as well. Tianming planned to escape from Duyue Mansion first.

“It’s better for you to hide here and wait for things to blow over,” Tianming said.

“Alright. Oh, I remember something!” Huiye Shi said, slapping her thigh.

“What is it?”

“Today’s the day the divine moon radiance descends. If you don’t go for it now, you’ll have to wait three more months!”

“Today?” Bodhi was still out there killing.

“That’s right. It’s already evening now, so there’s only four hours left.” Huiye Shi had wanted to remind Tianming about it, only to be scared back into the Duyue Mansion when the killer showed up.

Tianming had been looking forward to gaining totems for a long time, especially with his ten bane-rings having returned to his arms and the Aeonic Grandbane taking on a new form. He wasn’t sure if he’d truly broken the curse of Lfiesbane, but the benefits afforded to Ying Huo and the rest were clear to him. The other reason he had stayed in Huiyue City was to awaken his totems.

“I’ll have to head to the radiance hall, right? Will you take me there?”

“No, I’m scared! I’ll give you a map so you can find it yourself. The radiance hall is quite far away from the divine moon hall, so the battle shouldn’t have spread there yet. Normally, there would be quite a lot of people there, but with the killer engaging in the massacre, I reckon most people will have escaped. Most of the people trying to awaken their totems are children, after all.”

Tianming gave it some thought. There were only four hours left, and he would have to wait three more months if he missed this. That would be a huge waste of time. “The two of you should hide here. I’ll go give it a try.”

While leaving now was risky, the rewards were hard to ignore. If he could take his sword back during the chaos as well, he would no longer have any reason to remain in Huiyue City.

“Stay safe,” Huiye Shi said.

Tianming left Meow Meow with them. After all, he didn’t need lifebound beasts around to awaken his totems. While lifebound beasts had terra as well, their terra couldn’t be used to awaken totems. If it weren’t for the fact that he also wanted to try retrieving the Grand-Orient Sword, he would have left the other three lifebound beasts here to protect Feiling as well.

He hugged Feiling tightly at the entrance of the bunker and kissed her cheek. “Wait for me to come back.”

“Definitely.” Feiling loosened her arms that were around his hips.

“Alright, I’m off.” Tianming slipped out and vanished.

Within the bunker, Meow Meow lazily stretched with all four legs skyward and yawned. “That’s right. You go fight, I’ll stay back and keep watch… it’s perfect….” Then, it went back to sleep.

……

In the clouds above the Veneramoon Formation, one could clearly see chaos breaking out within the city. Countless pillars of smoke and gigantic totems were all over the place, accompanied by pained cries and wails. Even so, the most eye-catching sight was the countless caeli rising into the sky past the formation. Without the divine moon hall’s protection, they wouldn’t last long outside. Amidst all that chaos, nobody noticed a black-clad girl in the clouds above. Her red eyes shone as she looked down at the rising caeli.

“This is Huiyue City. Those two should still be inside, right?” The girl was none other than Lin Xiaoxiao. The fact that she was there meant that she had finally become an ascendant with the guidance of the Archaionfiend.

“Xiaoxiao! Xiaoxiao! We’ve hit the jackpot!” The Archaionfiend, Wu You, jumped about in a frenzy within the lifebound space. Though it wanted to come out, Lin Xiaoxiao kept the lifebound space sealed.

“Didn’t you say you’d no longer consume caeli?” she said in annoyance. She knew that her talent was related to the caeli that the Archaionfiend consumed. Although, these caeli would dissipate on their own even if they weren’t consumed.

Seeing the dissipating caeli, the Archaionfiend’s stomach grumbled. “How many times do you need me to tell you? Vita is the essence of a human being, while terra and caelum are paired to it by the universe at the moment of birth. They belong to the heavens and earth to begin with. The caelum, especially, doesn’t belong to humans. It’s a method of surveillance on all lifeforms by the universe. Its purpose is to record, nothing more. It’s no different from the fundamental forces of the cosmos and spiritual energy.

“Once death occurs, caeli might retain some remnants of strong emotion like love or hate, as well as some lingering regrets. However, caeli like these that’ve been stored for nearly a million years are completely non sentient. They should have dissipated naturally if they hadn’t been stored.

“While Archaionfiends like me burn and pillage for caeli, our true aim is the caeli of other people’s ancestors. Essentially, we ruin legacies. However, our actions are fundamentally neutral in the eyes of the cosmos! After all, the caeli we consume will dissipate as natural energy into the universe after our deaths anyway. In fact, keeping the caeli of dead people sealed up goes against the natural order of the world, understood? We’re only considered evil by those who seek to defy nature! They’re the ones who pinned the label of evil on us!”

The Archaionfiend didn’t spare any effort to explain all that to Lin Xiaoxiao for the sake of consuming caeli. In fact, it had already done so countless times.