Beastmaster of the Ages

Chapter 4159 - Ancestor Li

"Kneel." The Ten Paladins seemed flabbergasted at the unusual behavior of their pope; how could someone like him prostrate himself completely like that?!

"This is..." Mo Lingji and the rest were all wondermancers. They were currently surrounded by tens of millions of divine wonders that linked together to form a grand wonder formation similar to the rainbow ball they had formed during the attack on Grand Feng, yet that formation was the combined effort of ninety million people! There couldn't be that many people in a single ship like that!

There was only one person standing before them: a woman who had long, galactic hair and a frosty expression. Her ink-colored dress draped over her sinfully taboo figure, giving her an aura of absolute nobility that struck awe into the paladins on an instinctual level. Even Mo Lingji, famed for her beauty in the Primordial Sands, felt a sense of inferiority at the sight of the figure. She would even say that absolute beauties like Feng Linxue and Empress Xia couldn't hold a candle before this girl. She wasn't just beautiful; she had a huge edge compared to the rest: her youth! All of them could feel that she was just as young as Tianming, which became a source of endless inferiority that nothing could make up for. Her potential was limitless!

"Kneel, now!" the pope urged the rest who were still frozen in place.

"Yes..." As their heads slowly approached the ground, they recalled the name of the being that sent chills and rumbles down their spines and organs. If they had tails, they would be twitching nonstop.

"The portrait! She looks just like how the portrait depicted her!" Mo Lingji said with trembling lips.

"That's right! Our dear pope looks at the portrait daily, so he can't be mistaken!"

"It's her! It's really her! She's reborn and returned to us! She remembers us!" Xing Yuantian's emotions went wild as a shower of hot tears fell from his eyes.

The pope used the most solemn voice he could muster and said, "Your humble descendant, Tian Jue, greets you, Ancestor! Congratulations on reincarnating and surpassing your former self after all these generations! May your rule spread across the entire universe!"

"Greetings, Ancestor!" the paladins echoed, knocking their heads on the ground fervently just as their pope had. The wild faith in their eyes seemed more intense than Tianming had expected. It was an uncontrollable outpour of genuine emotion.

That's all it took? And there you were saying you were going to change your name to the Eightpart Cult... Tianming wanted to laugh so badly. All that stubbornness from before was fake. Before Moran, they revealed their true colors as fervent zealots. The faith of the adherents of the cult in Tian Jiu was even more dedicated than that of the wonderians!

The pope's real name was Tian Jue; it was no surprise he considered himself a descendant of Tian Jiu. The reason that the Tian Jiu Cult believed in Tian Jiu even more than the wonderians was simple. While the wonderians originated from Tian Jiu herself and could be considered her descendants, those of the Tian Jiu Cult saw them as nothing more than a product of her experiment. The legend went that Tian Jiu would eventually be reborn and gather all her split bodies to become the ultimate ruler, and for that legend to be true, the fate of all wonderians was set in stone.

In the current generation, most of the wonderians feared Tian Jiu to no end, while the members of the Tian Jiu Cult considered themselves to be her true descendants who didn't need to dedicate their own lives and bodies to facilitate the rebirth of their object of worship. Generation after generation, they yearned for Tian Jiu's rebirth and return to Grand Xia Voidback to take them away from the empire that oppressed them and grant them the fruits of defeating the Flameyellow all those years ago, which the cult had not benefited from. These core beliefs were enough to explain the pope's wild display of faith when he saw the physical incarnation that the portrait he gazed into daily depicted.

Portrait? Tianming heard their hushed whispers and furrowed his brows. From the moment I got to know Little Fish, she became more and more attractive, but her underlying features themselves didn't really change. If she really does look like the actual Tian Jiu...

This wasn't good news to Tianming, though when he recalled that he had a portrait from a hundred thousand years ago in the Realm of Chaos as well as the mysteries surrounding Comma Girl, he didn't have a reason to be strongly against it either. He gave Moran a look to signal her to say something.

She nodded and got into character. "It has not been long since my rebirth, so I have only gathered tens of millions of wonderians. This is only the start of my journey, and I will require your loyal service. Are you willing to offer it?"

Tian Jue's mind exploded as he kowtowed nonstop. "Dying for the ancestor is the ultimate honor that every single one of us yearns for!"

Tianming's ears shook from the sheer volume of the proclamation. He had really underestimated how deep the cult's faith ran. The Ten Paladins were all outshowing one another with their displays of faith.

"Raise your heads," Moran said.

"Yes!" They obliged without hesitation.

"Very well. I have remembered all of you." She stretched her hand out and pointed to Tianming. "I will have Li Tianming take charge of all future proceedings, so do as he says."

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" The pope once more continued his nonstop headbanging, shaking the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb so hard that anybody outside would think a fight was taking place within.

"Ancestor, how should we address Li Tianming?" Tian Jue asked with a hint of doubt when he recalled what Tianming had said from before.

"Him?" Moran pursed her lips for a moment. "He is my husband, so call him 'Ancestor' as well."

"Pffft--" Tianming held back his laughter.

"Huuuh?!" The pope and his paladins' mind were blown to smithereens as their jaws and eyes snapped wide open.

"What about it? Would you deny me the indulgence in a young piece of fresh meat like him?" Moran coldly asked.

The pope immediately continued his headbanging. "No! We are mistaken! Ancestor Li, may you live forevermore in ultimate bliss!"

Tianming relished in seeing the stubborn folks completely change their tune. While they wouldn't budge for anybody else, having Tian Jiu herself do the work made it all too easy.

"I still have to spend time to recover and adjust myself, so I will not be taking direct action, lest we startle those who are wary of me. The Xiavoid Stareye will no doubt lead some wonderians here, and that is a good chance for me to restore my foundations. Should you aid Ancestor Li in this effort, you will definitely be rewarded."

"Yes!" Tian Jue's headbanging continued rhythmically.