Beastmaster of the Ages

It was clear that the cry came from Huiye Shi. She screamed right after entering and scrambled her way back out, bumping straight into Huiye Yin.

“Stupid lass, are you trying to get killed?!” Huiye Yin snapped as she tugged on her collar.

“Aaaah! Aaaaaah!” Face pale, Huiye Shi was still shrieking nonstop.

“Shut up!” Seeing that some hair had grown from Huiye Shi’s scalp, Huiye Yin was furious. She was still bald herself.

“Your brother… his head exploded!” Huiye Shi squeezed those words out with all her energy, before continuing to shiver in fear.

“There’s no way that happened!” Huiye Yin snapped. She had just been talking with her brother moments before. Huiyue Jie’s facial injuries had mostly recovered, and his totems were only temporarily disabled.

“Just go inside to see, I beg you! Stop messing with me already! I’m pitiful enough to have had my feelings exploited by that wretch!” she begged. By now, everyone in the city knew she had been used by Li Tianming after they fled.

“Your tricks won’t work on me. You’ll go in with me.” Huiye Yin really wanted to laugh. As far as she was concerned, Huiye Shi was nothing but a joke. She dragged her into the courtyard, insults still spewing from her mouth, and turned up to look at her brother, who was sitting on a stone bench.

However, he was slumped weakly on the stone table with his arms limply hanging. The table was covered in white-red liquid that had flowed along his hand and dripped off his finger. The sight was an utter shock to Huiye Yin.

“Didn’t I already say it?! His head is gone!” Huiye Shi said, her eyes closed in fear.

Huiye Yin’s world fell completely silent. Just moments ago, she had lost her father, and she thought that was the end of it. But now Huiyue Jie had died under the weirdest of circumstances, with Huiyue City still sealed up.

“Aaaaaaaah!” she shrieked and slumped weakly to the ground in despair.

“Someone, anyone, call Granny Yuehe!” Huiye Shi cried.

Hearing the cacophony, quite a few people came in and saw that sight. Following the deaths of many Huiyue City elites, Huiyue Jie had become the last hope of their clan. The sovereign had even chosen to leave him here to rebuild the clan as a sign of her trust in him. But now, he was dead.

“Who did it?!”

“No idea. We didn’t hear anything.”

“I was just talking to him fifteen minutes ago!”

“Put your guard up! The killer might still be nearby! The white-robed man must’ve returned!”

Chaos broke out once more and Huiyue City collectively tensed up. The defenders prepared themselves for the reemergence of the nightmare Bodhi had inflicted upon them. Everything was as Tianming had predicted. It had been quite some time since he last fought Huiyue Jie, so nobody could ever imagine that he had killed him using the Imperial Sword Prison. There was no way he would remotely be suspected to be the culprit. Just like that, he had easily returned the favor.

This was something that was beyond negotiation. Tianming knew how hard Feiling had had it during that month. He had even guessed that the Huiyue Clan would definitely pin that murder on Bodhi. Nobody but Tianming could get away with killing someone without anybody noticing.

The remaining elders of the clan all gathered following the commotion. When Yuehe saw the sorry state of her grandson, she immediately fainted and only reawakened half a day later, only to sob. She was devastated by the loss.

“Granny, Jie wasn’t weak, so only someone at Nonahonor Sky and above can kill him unnoticed.”

“The killer must’ve entered again!”

“That’s impossible! The whole city is on lockdown now. The last time he tried to barge in, it caused so much commotion it was impossible to miss.”

“You can’t say for sure it isn’t him! We have to notify Her Majesty about signs of the killer immediately! Now he’s managed to find a way to come and go unnoticed!”

“Strengthen our defenses, now!”

A single elite killer lurking among them was enough to terrify the divine moonrace. Now, all of the Eightmoon Skycities were waiting for his emergence. The Huiyue Clan were dependent on Yuehe and her two remaining sons.

Huiye Shi huddled in a corner in fear. As she was a samsaran, she wasn’t considered a suspect. After all, she had only been inside the courtyard for the slightest moment before scrambling out in fear.

It doesn’t look like the work of the killer. Not to mention, if it was really him, a dozen more would already be dead by now, she thought. Many others shared the same idea, but they were too terrified to follow that train of thought. Like frightened birds, the slightest sound of a bowstring being drawn made it feel like they were already shot down.

Amidst the chaos, Huiyue Jie’s corpse was moved into a coffin and hauled away. Just like that, his life had come to an end, with nobody knowing that it was due to Tianming’s machinations from far away.

“I’d better sneak away now!” Huiye Shi tiptoed away while nobody was paying attention, only for someone to come flying when she reached the entrance. It looked like the royals, around thirty of them. All of the Huiyue Clan members greeted them with reverence.

Yuehe stood up and welcomed them. “The Huiyue Clan welcomes Prince Fengyue and all the other esteemed lords.”

Prince Fengyue was Sovereign Xi’s younger brother from the same parents. After his sister took power, he dutifully served her. Currently, he was among the top ten strongest members of the divine moonrace. He was incredibly fair and handsome, with features resembling those of his regal sister. He was dressed in a long white robe adorned with blue full moons. The thirty-odd people behind him were his elite subordinates.

Huiyue Tianyu was someone who had just barely enough status to stand on equal footing with the prince, but now he was gone. Everyone that remained had to show absolute deference to the prince.

Right after arriving, Fengyue furrowed his brow. “It seems that the killer appeared again.”

“We can’t be sure of that as of now, but my grandson….” Yuehe forced herself to suppress the pain from losing her son as she took a glance at the crystal coffin that housed his body.

“Understood. Huiyue Clan, heed the royal decree!” Fengyue announced. The Huiyue Clan members respectfully knelt. “Following the killer’s rampage, Huiyue City has suffered too many casualties and is no longer capable of self-defense. As such, the city shall temporarily fall under control of me, Prince Fengyue. All of you are under my command.”

“Yes, Your Highness!”

With Huiyue Jie now dead, the Huiyue Clan was utterly terrified.