Beastmaster of the Ages

After the death of Houndgod Palewhite, Tianming came under an even more severe onslaught. Each attack he received was fiercer than the last, almost fatal even. Green Longtongue, Crimson Bloodfiend, Goldspirit Ghoulmount, and Timber Woodchild all widened their eyes as they watched the headless corpse of Houndgod Palewhite fall straight into the ocean. Right after that, Tianming fused his two swords back into one, wielded Archfiend with his left hand, and wrapped it around the head of the hell ghosthound, causing spikes to pierce into its head.

"Die!"

A sudden wave of energy reverberated through Archfiend and dragged all five of the beast’s heads over, causing the tenth-level life phase tribulation beast to be pulled around by Tianming like a pet. Then, he raised the fused Grand-Orient Sword in his other hand and used Animacorpus Eradication twice. While the speed was slower than usual, it hit far harder than when the sword was split.

The black and gold sword slashes hit the heads of the beast, the aggrieved souls that manifested loudly howling as blood splattered all over. Two of the hound's heads went flying and the remaining three cried in pain. The white flames that burned all over its body leaped onto Tianming and exploded, allowing it a chance to escape from Archfiend. At the same time, its allies came to help immediately. As Green Longtongue was still entangled in combat with Ying Huo, only Crimson Bloodfiend, Timber Woodchild, and Goldspirit Ghoulmount came to join the fight against Tianming.

"Third is gone...."

Apart from bloodlust and hate, there was also shock and disbelief in their eyes.

"What kind of monster is this fellow? How long will it be until he's virtually unmatched in all of the Flameyellow Continent? Tomorrow?"

"He's the real reincarnation of Xuanyuan Xi!"

"Perhaps he's the reincarnation of Great Emperor Xuanyuan!"

There were no words that could adequately describe the fear they felt. The youth in front of them had basically broken all precedents throughout the history of the Flameyellow Continent. His meteoric rise caused those in power, them, to feel threatened and fearful. It wasn't just the power he had displayed; they were far more concerned with the rate at which he had attained that power.

"They said he was only so strong because he was in the Kilostar Domain. Are we only realizing his true power now that he's fighting without the help of the sealing formation?"

They looked at the youth, who glanced coldly back at them with the Grand-Orient Sword in hand and felt utterly confused.

"Stop blanking out. We'll just have to swiftly kill him to rid ourselves of this nightmare. So what if he's the reincarnation of Great Emperor Xuanyuan? That doesn't mean he's immortal!" Green Longtongue said, feeling utterly frustrated at being held back by Ying Huo despite being the eldest of the five siblings.

"Kill him! He must die! Without him, Monorigin will perish! This is our opportunity!"

It only took one exchange of glances for them to convey to each other how rare such a chance was. While they didn't have many lifebound beasts, they compensated by being more powerful individually.

Crimson Bloodfiend's beast was a goreblood seadevil. It was a gory, almost bloody looking deep-sea squid with tens of thousands of appendages. Each tentacle had thousands of suction cups, making them look particularly nasty. The key point was that the ocean formed by Lan Huang’s Azure Oceanic Purgatory was the perfect habitat for it, allowing it to maneuver its tens of thousands of tentacles with ease. It sent them toward Meow Meow and released bloody clouds of underwater smokescreens from its suction cups, almost instantly coloring the ocean red.

Timber Woodchild's lifebound beast had more than nine hundred stars—for a third-origin tribulation elder to have a lifebound beast with more stars than even a divine marshal showed how high her status was. What came as more of a surprise to Tianming, however, was that her beast was also a plant-type. It was an ethereal ghostree!

The tree was ashen grey from top to bottom and didn't have many leaves. Instead, it had a lot of claw-like branches, thousands of them. Much more terrifying was the tens of thousands of bodies that hung from the branches. Tianming felt a little lightheaded just looking at it. It seemed that there were tens of thousands of young girls dressed in red hanging from the tree, shaking like bells whenever the tree moved. The grey-skinned girls even abruptly opened their eyes whenever that happened, clutching the ropes from where they hung and letting out bloodcurdling cries and shrieks. Tianming also saw the bloody claws sprouting from their fingers, as well as their sharp teeth.

"Corpse puppets?" Tianming asked.

"More or less. She also learned how to use Necromantic Metamorphosis, but instead of nightmare bugs, she's controlling them with tree seeds," Xian Xian said. "Unlike corpse puppets, these tree puppets have a lot of accumulated grievances and are incredibly effective against the soul. It's likely that they died hanging on the tree like that. While they don't number too many, much of their power was retained so they won't be easy targets to fight against."

Tianming could easily tell that Timer Woodchild was sending her beast after Xian Xian because it was the one that was throwing a wrench in the ghoul king's plans. The corpse puppets in red hanging from the tree seemed controlled by the branches, as if they had taken the place of the puppets’ nerves. When the ethereal ghostree took root near the Radix World Tree, the corpses on it shrieked and leaped onto Xian Xian and began madly biting away. They even had tribulation force, making their attacks rather devastating.

"Are you alright?" Tianming asked with concern.

"I'm fine. Watch me beat them up!" Xian Xian snapped.

Even if Xian Xian needed help, he couldn't exactly immediately come to her aid, as he was being ganged up on by Timber Woodchild, Crimson Bloodfiend, and Goldspirit Ghoulmount. Even the hell ghosthound that had lost two heads was still able to charge up to him and attack.

As he spoke, Tianming blocked Goldspirit Ghoulmount's spear, only to be struck by an arrow from behind fired by Crimson Bloodfiend. She was flying across the sky as she launched arrow after arrow from her bloody bow. Each arrow seemed to turn into a bloody shower, with the next wave more threatening than the other. The arrow that struck him pierced through his chest, causing him searing pain. If it weren’t for the Greenspark Tower, he would have been heavily wounded and be at the brink of death. However, it only took a few moments for his wounds to recover after he pulled the arrow out. Even he was surprised at how seemingly unkillable he was, let alone his enemies.

"What kind of treasure does he have on him?! Dammit! I don't believe he'll survive if we cut off his head!" Goldspirit Ghoulmount cried.

A green whip multiplied into many different illusory whips that snapped unpredictably at Tianming's back like poisonous green snakes, cracking the flesh off and revealing the bone beneath. But just like before, Tianming ignored Timber Woodchild's attack and charged straight for Goldspirit Ghoulmount, then used the Mortal Dao Sword with his sword split in two. The move tapped into the will of all sentient beings, filling the strike with sword ki that matched Tianming's current mental state.

The whip cracked again. Tianming didn't expect that this time, his whole right arm almost came off before his first strike connected. While the second strike managed to cut Goldspirit Ghoulmount's spear in two and dig ten centimeters into his body, Tianming suffered another two arrow shots. The one that struck his saint palace had been disintegrated by Purple Tower, but the other pierced through his heart.

Tianming felt his vision black out from the pain, though the feeling disappeared after he took a deep breath. His wounds were healed just like before, and even his arm was as good as new. It seemed like the Greenspark Tower's power didn't have any limit. The Purple and Soul Towers’ abilities were far inferior and less flexible than the Greenspark Tower's, which gave him a huge boost directly in combat. If not for the tower, he would've died long ago facing off against these five.

The Five Wraiths of Shoal Mountain were powerful tenth-level life phase samsarans who stood at the top of Nonahall's hierarchy. Though Tianming should have been dead, or at least dying, by now, his injuries always healed up perfectly. On the other hand, the wound to Goldspirit Ghoulmount's shoulder had decreased his efficacy in combat, which made him feel like vomiting blood in rage.

"What kind of monster is he? Is he unkillable? Are you a corpse puppet?" Even corpse puppets weren't unkillable and could be disabled with sufficient force.

However, the only reply Goldspirit Ghoulmount received was Tianming's attack. Tianming ignored the two women's attacks and kept focusing on Goldspirit Ghoulmount, thanks to his larger and less agile physique, which almost guaranteed that Tianming's attacks would connect.

"Are you alright, Big Brother?" Feiling felt really tense about such a crude and painful fighting method.

"I'm fine. It's all recovered. However, I do still feel the sensation of death creeping up on me. The Greenspark Tower might be useful, but I can't count on it entirely. I have a feeling that I won't survive my body being cut into many pieces or being decapitated."