Beastmaster of the Ages

"Poisoned?" Tianming didn't feel anything off about his body. Not only did he have an Ancient Deepstar Godbody, it was also a fusion of Primordial Chaos Beast physiques. No normal person could possibly compare to him in terms of constitution and growth potential.

But his reaction was completely within Hei An's expectations. The two of them were fire and water; their killing intent for each other was so intense that they seemed to be able to swallow the other whole. "That's right. Just like that, I have your life in my hands and you didn’t even notice!"

As he said that, he summoned his lifebound beasts. Even though it wasn't the first time they were seen, the two beast's appearance caused many disciples to gasp in fear. There were countless vile beasts in the Nonahall Divine Realm, and Hei An, as one of the top disciples of his sect, had some of the most nightmarish lifebound beasts.

Both of them had more than five hundred stars, making them fifth-order tribulation beasts that eclipsed even the sunscourge fiendwolf. The one on the left was a red beast that resembled a rat with wings, but with a much uglier face and threatening fangs sprouting from its mouth. It was a blood-colored bat with many bony spikes on its wings. The worst part of it was the countless black eyes that grew on the wings, all trained on Tianming. As it flapped its meaty wings, a poisonous mist began covering the entire battlefield, causing the black snow to turn red and filling the entire area with a bloody stench. It was a myriadeyes bloodbat, a toxic enemy to all things living!

And as if that wasn't already shocking enough, the other lifebound beast was just as harrowing. It was a humanoid beast that looked gigantic, even with its hunched back. It had a huge, ugly body and the hooves of a cow. Sharp fangs protruded from its green face and its ugliness was exacerbated by a flattened nose, greenish-purple eyes, and bat-shaped head. The rest of its body was covered in black fur. It wouldn't be wrong to call it a bat in human form, but what differentiated it from a normal bat was the lack of wings. Instead, they were replaced by eight powerful arms, each one having blood-red claws and a bloody mouth in its palm. It was known as an eight-armed rakshasa!

Tianming had encountered it on the battlefield before. It was just as venomous as it was proficient in close combat. Its height of sixty meters made it insurmountable for most beastmasters to overcome, as expected of a beast with such a high star count.

Hei An turned into a black shadow and stepped onto the rakshasa's shoulders. The blood bat flew around the area with terrifying speed. All of them had a stench about them that polluted the entire battlefield with vile poison; Hei An's confidence was well-deserved.

He pointed a short staff that had eight tribulation patterns at Tianming. That was about as strong a weapon as any disciple could hope to obtain. It was known as the Mourning Soul, a rather famous weapon in the Nonahall Ghost Sect.

Hei An seemed to dominate Tianming, with his beasts and weapon out. The Nonahall disciples cheered wildly back at their sect. Comparatively, Tianming's beasts were much simpler. He had a rainbow-colored phoenix perched on his shoulder, a black cat lazily sleeping in his embrace, a gigantic, jumpy two-headed dragon that roared loudly at its enemy, and a large tree that spread its roots all across the battlefield with two prominent, blooming flowers, one of which had tens of thousands of blood-colored petals and the other was pure white. Lastly, there was a cute little spiritform with petal-like wings floating above Tianming's head. All of his beasts were out now, unlike the time he had fought Changsun Xingyue without summoning even one of them. His lineup of beasts was astronomically rare.

"How ugly!" Ying Huo said, "That ugly mug isn't even in the same league as mine!" It went without saying that a beautiful rainbow bird seemed far more attractive than a bloody bat.

"Let's see who's uglier when I eat you up and shit you out," said the bat.

"You little rascal!" Ying Huo raged, then started the duel by engaging the bat.

All eight of them, two beastmasters and six beasts, clashed in a chaotic melee. Tianming, with more numbers on his side, could gang up on his enemies. Ying Huo took on the blood bat while Lan Huang turned to the rakshasa, as Tianming had instructed, with Xian Xian supporting them from the side, using Radiant Vines to tie the blood bat down and Bloodrain Swords to take care of the rakshasa's onslaught. Tianming ganged up on Hei An with Meow Meow.

However, the battlefield was chaotic in nature. Even though Tianming wanted to maintain the initiative, Hei An wouldn't just let him. The blood bat used its ability to target Tianming and all of his beasts, his tree especially! The venomous bat opened its mouth and let out a horrifying screech that instantly spread throughout the battlefield. Chaosdeath Wail was a purely sonic attack. Even without any soul damage, it was still terrifying nonetheless. In an instant, their ears felt like they had been stabbed. Even though Xian Xian didn't technically have ears, it was still really uncomfortable, causing its spiritform to return to the lifebound space. That move alone stunned the entire group, allowing Hei An to take control of the battlefield with a confident smile.

"Lan Huang!" Tianming called out telepathically. It was really enraged after being tortured by that sound and immediately used two abilities. It first used Primordial Soundwave. While it wasn't able to neutralize Chaosdeath Wail, it did damage the myriadeyes bloodbat enough to cause it to stop wailing. Then Lan Huang followed it up with Azure Oceanic Purgatory, turning the snow on the ground into a sea in an instant, allowing its heavy body to swim about with great agility. It rode the waves and crashed into the rakshasa.

Right before it fell into the water, Hei An flew up. "You want to deal with me using water? Don't you know toxins spread even more easily in liquid?" His pitch-black face contorted into an ugly smile as the ocean beneath them turned entirely black; the rakshasa had been letting toxins out through the mouths on its palms with its Eightvenom Mist! The toxic mist that came out turned into countless little snakes that turned the fresh water into still, stagnant water. Would Lan Huang still be able to dominate in a poisoned pool like that? Its Mountainsea World was being eroded by toxins from all sides, not to mention some of Xian Xian's roots were underwater. The poison would no doubt affect it negatively as well.

The rakshasa was turning the battlefield into its home turf. Now, it no longer worried about anything and got on Lan Huang's back, hammering it with all eight arms as it continued unleashing ability after ability. Not only was it able to control the battlefield, it also excelled at single combat!

However, Lan Huang wasn't fighting alone.

"I'll save you, Tortoise Bro!" Xian Xian stretched out countless vines and used the Eight Desolation Fienddragon Whip that Tianming had taught it, then rained down Bloodrain Swords on the rakshasa. A few hundred of them struck it, causing it to bleed and cry out in agony. More and more vines began wrapping around it.

"You think you don't have to worry about toxins just because you're a plant?!" The rakshasa roared in anger as the mouths on its hands bit the vines and injected venom into them, turning most of them black. They soon crumbled as the toxin continued spreading.

At the same time, the bat was blasting Blackblood Venombeams all over the place, putting Tianming and all of his beasts in great danger. The beams were fired from the bat's many eyes, each of them crimson red and poisonous. They traveled at such shocking speed and intensity that the large Lan Huang and Xian Xian weren't able to block them all from hitting them as they began suffering from the beams' toxic rot. Fighting an opponent like Hei An and emerging unscathed was nigh impossible; his reputation for being a master of poisons was definitely well deserved. He made a huge impression on everyone watching.

"Shut your eyes, you!" a little firebird shouted at the bat as it was about to turn around to help the rakshasa break free.