Beastmaster of the Ages

Though Lan Huang wanted to get back into the water, the desolate seadragon hound kept dragging it out with each attempt. Working with the desolate forgehound, it kept pulling Lan Huang out for the other to gnaw at. With their master there, they bit even fiercer than wild dogs, tearing chunks of flesh from Lan Huang’s body and swallowing them right away. There was a difference in power of five levels, and they were two against one. The sheer advantage they had over Lan Huang made them bite away with glee.

“What dragon is this? A twinhead dragon?”

“Tastes good.”

“Forty-five hundred stars? What a waste of good universal manna. We were so hungry this entire time, only for the treat to be squandered.”

“What a waste!”

They were well aware that Sovereign Xi had given the precious manna to Tianming. It was something they had thirsted over for the longest time. But no matter how often Liu Qinghuan asked for them, Sovereign Xi had never agreed to hand them over. His lifebound beasts were fuming mad after seeing this young kid who had been given what they had coveted running wild on their turf. While they didn’t dare to kill him after seeing him manifest ten totems, they could still use him to vent.

“Kid, let us show you how a real lifebound beast should act!”

One went for the head and the other attacked the tail as they toyed with Lan Huang. The formation around the city no longer shook and began stabilizing. Tianming would know he had failed the moment someone else came to the lake before he could deal with this.

Lan Huang struggled to face off against so many foes at once and was crying out in pain. Though it was infuriating, it couldn’t be helped, given how many levels their foes had on them. Every time, it would be attacked from behind and wounded. It wasn’t often that it was toyed with to this degree. Even with the Greenspark Tower healing it, it still hurt to be attacked time and again. The two hounds tumbled and rolled, tearing flesh again and again in the water and causing Lan Huang to suffer over and over.

“Tortoise Bro!” Xian Xian was fuming at the sight. It was helping Ying Huo and Meow Meow, but it immediately targeted the two hounds with everything at its disposal, which managed to take a lot of pressure off the giant dragon. Thankfully, the Primal Chaos Beasts’ bloodlines were powerful and they had a high star count, otherwise it would be a miracle for them to survive fighting off multiple beasts a few levels above them.

Seeing Xian Xian join in, the desolate forgehound was all too delighted. “So a tree like you dares to mess with me, eh? I was waiting for something to burn. You would make great firewood.”

It loosened its jaw from around Lan Huang’s tail and rammed toward Xian Xian with its ability. A sea of flames began surrounding Xian Xian, igniting many of its vines, leaves and branches. Even the four types of flowers started burning. Then, the hound rammed at Xian Xian repeatedly in an attempt to uproot it. The sheer commotion was even greater than that of Ying Huo facing off against the two grand moon guides.

Putting aside destroying the formation, both Xian Xian and Lan Huang were now in peril. Ying Huo saw all of it and began burning with rage. Its younger siblings were being bullied, and it would not tolerate it. “Old dog, I’ll skin you today no matter how pitifully you cry out! Everyone, regroup!”

Meow Meow, Lan Huang and Xian Xian were reminded that fighting individually had stripped them of their teamwork.

“Regroup around our sister!” Xian Xian was akin to a base they could fight from. Lan Huang could adequately attack and defend it, which was perfect as it could take the flames Xian Xian was weak against. Not to mention, Xian Xian would definitely be uprooted if it was facing off against the desolate forgehound alone. But with the others defending it, it could continue working its magic to slowly wear away at their enemies!

Without Tianming’s help, they would have to fight for their own survival. Lan Huang gave its all and flipped the desolate seadragon hound into the lake, temporarily abandoning the thought of destroying the formation core. Then its nine kui seas quickly spun, allowing it to lose the hound and return to Xian Xian’s side, where it charged at the desolate forgehound.

Ying Huo and Meow Meow were also returning. Meow Meow swiftly shot out two Cosmic Lances, instantly piercing them through the wings of the desolate forgehound, resulting in an explosion that blasted away a lot of flesh. The hound that thought it could still toy with them suddenly found itself rolling on the ground, then smacked in the mouth by Lan Huang’s sword tail.

“Damn you! Respect your elders!” it cried. However, Ying Huo’s palm-sized body immediately appeared in front of it and attacked with two sword strikes. The first, Hadean Reincarnation, was blocked by its eyelid, but the second, Empyrean Reincarnation, pierced into its eyeball and caused it to rupture. With that exchange, it lost one eye.

“Are you going to keep biting, old dog?” Ying Huo then shot its ability, the Sixpath Samsara Lotus, into its mouth for another explosion. Both it and Meow Meow were too fast. No matter how powerful the hound was, it couldn’t reliably hit the two of them.

But during that time, the other three enemies closed in on them. Xian Xian and Meow Meow faced off against the two grand moon guides together, while Lan Huang and Ying Huo dealt with the two hounds, supported by Xian Xian’s Evernight Curse and Bloodrain Swords, and protected by many of Xian Xian’s roots. As the two of them had the same elemental attributes as their foes, they weren’t afraid of them. It would be a grand melee of life and death. Unlike before, they weren’t fighting passively at the pace of their foes. Ying Huo’s surprise attack on the desolate forgehound had significantly wounded it. Surprise attacks were its forte, after all. The hound howled and roared in pain as it blasted its abilities with abandon, but Ying Huo was so small that it easily evaded them. Like an annoying tick, it jumped around the hound’s body and kept pecking away with power disproportionate to its size.

“Here comes another!”

Everywhere Blazebane struck, wounds appeared. The hound couldn’t even see Ying Huo properly.

“Let’s see you fight back now!”

The desolate forgehound could only groan as it waited for a chance to fight back against the rapid attacks. However, Xian Xian made sure to cut them off from the rest of the battlefield, allowing the rest of Tianming’s beasts to focus on their own respective enemies without worrying about anything else.

The two grand moon guides didn’t seem to be fighting that hard. Since Tianming had showed them his ten totems, all they were trying to do was stop Lan Huang from destroying the formation core rather than kill him. They were afraid he would be another person on the level of the Ninemoon Goddess, and feared his retaliation.

“Just hold on and prevent him from destroying the formation core,” said one of the guides.

“But three moon guides already died at his hand!” cried another.

“Let Her Majesty bring him to justice! This isn’t someone we can afford to cross! Let’s see what the saint moon guide wants to do about this.”

Liu Qinghuan was engaged in a fierce battle with Tianming elsewhere on the battlefield. Tianming had clearly seen everything that had happened to his lifebound beasts. They were able to counterattack and fight as a team; given his trust in them, he wasn’t worried about them at all.

While they might have been polar opposites in the past, I’m now the rope that ties them together. They weren’t just fighting for survival. They were completely in tune in a perfect synergy.

Naturally, it hurt him to see Lan Huang and Xian Xian injured. Now that Liu Qinghuan had joined the fray, his chances of failure were exponentially growing. Ying Huo and the rest looked like they couldn’t hold out much longer against so many totems and beasts many levels higher than them, either.

Maybe I can drag the fight there. That way, I can use some of my godswords to help them. Though that was his initial thought, he dropped the notion after seeing them get it together and fight desperately to buy time for him.

“Don’t care about us! Just use your totems to break through!” Ying Huo said to him through their mental connection. It was also anxious to tip the balance of battle in their favor, as reinforcements might come soon.

Liu Qinghuan was more than happy to take his time. “You fight fiercely. As expected of a genius. If only you’d put all that effort into doing good. What good will going against the divine moonrace do you?”

Tianming ignored him. It looked like he was addicted to guarding the place for the divine moonrace.

“Whatever. I’ll spar with you then,” Liu Qinghuan said as he drew a gigantic warblade with a long handle. One side of the blade was blue with roiling waves, while the other was red with burning flames. The blade was a fusion of fire and water, called the Heaven-Earth Sunderer.