Other than the Gold-Plate Barbed Turtle and the Purple-Scaled Flood Dragon, two other beasts followed Mu Qingqing. Once lifebound beasts, the Torrential Theo-Toad and the Rainbow Regina Jellyfish were now under Mu Qingqing’s control, which could only mean that their original beastmasters had fallen at her hands.
However, the Bluefire Vermilion Bird was not within the group, which was rather telling. After all, if Mu Qingqing could kill beastmasters and enslave their beasts, claiming the Bluefire Vermilion Bird after killing Jiang Qingluan was a given.
The Torrential Theo-Toad and the Rainbow Regina Jellyfish belonged to Li Qingcheng and Gu Suyu of Aquamarine respectively. The jellyfish, in particular, was a target worth noting. As it was a mid-tier seven-star beast, Gu Suyu had been highlighted as the strongest contestant before the trials. But now, in a cruel twist of fate, her body was probably feeding the fishes now.
But all these fell in line with Li Tianming’s understanding of Mu Qingqing. Her current position was obtained through vicious acts. Otherwise, the thought of entering the Lightning Manor with Midas as a sacrifice wouldn’t have even crossed her mind. Hell, she would even use the Purple Blood-Imprint that was currently draining her life away, just to make it into the Elysium to join Lin Xiaoting! Considering the number of times she used the taboo technique, it wouldn’t be a surprise if she needed half a year just to recover from that.
What a maniac. Yet, this was the woman who acted like a lotus flower in front of the rest of the world.
Now, with the Rage-Dragon Whalelord included, five beasts were now targeting Li Tianming. Though he was slightly relieved at the Bluefire Vermilion Bird’s absence, his killing intent did not reduce by the lightest. In fact, it only got stronger with every second he spent near Mu Qingqing!
He took a deep breath, but it was a mess inside his body. That was because Jiang Feiling had gotten emotional. She was enraged, and she too had the intention to kill. Their rage only grew as her feelings harmonised with his.
To his surprise, Li Tianming found that his strength had abruptly grown. If the Spiritual Attachment he was used to was called perfect, a full score, the degree of attachment right now was off the charts. It could be thirteenth-grade, even fifteenth! Was Jiang Feiling really a normal human with no lifebound beast? Li Tianming knew that wasn’t the case, as she had blessed him with power that even he couldn’t fully control.
“Once I get rid of you, I will go to Heaven’s Elysium and explore the rest of the continent! I have you to thank, Li Tianming, for saving me back then. Thank you for changing my life, and letting me become Lin Xiaoting’s woman.”
“And once again, thank you for being my stepping stone to the Elysium! I will never forget you even after you die, since you’ll be the most important person in my life for all eternity! Rejoice, for you matter much more to me than even Lin Xiaoting,” said Mu Qingqing, one hand covering her sickly smile. “You are truly my greatest benefactor.”
How could someone like her even exist in this world? Before this, Li Tianming still had questions for her abrupt betrayal. Why would she betray him after everything he did for her?
But now he knew. The only reason was because Mu Qingqing was rotten to the core!
“A pity you never understood me properly. You told me that you loved me, but you couldn’t offer me a sense of safety. Do you know how important that was to me? Anyone could shame me, push me around. So it was then, and so it was now. I have had enough of that long ago; I’ll kill everyone who ever shamed me, now and forevermore! And I will gain the power to do so…” She stood up, swaying left and right in the wind, as if she was dancing a mad caper on the rock.
“One day! Everyone will bow before me! Even Lin Xiaoting!” A tranquil silence fell, now that she’d let loose her emotions.
“But for that future to come to pass, you must die today!” With that, the five beasts pounced at Li Tianming, controlled by her Purple Blood-Imprint.
“Midas.” Li Tianming closed his eyes for a moment. When he next opened them, his vision was now tinted with red. He didn’t need a mirror to know his eyes were bloodshot. “Today is the day I exact vengeance for you. This is the first. Another reckoning will follow. It won’t take long, I promise. I can only hope that you’re watching me, for the moment has arrived!”
The five beasts appeared in front of Li Tianming a moment later. Under the influence of the Purple Blood-Imprint, death didn’t matter to them, turning them into terrifying bloodthirsty creatures. Even Yue Lingji would not survive the onslaught of the five beasts.
But Li Tianming had already turned into a ruthless demon. He would be the master of life and death in this battlefield, and nothing could possibly stop him. A horrifying roar erupted from his mouth, and with Ying Huo at his side, he charged towards the beasts.
Who were the wildbeasts here? Was it the five beasts in front of him? No. The real beast was him, Li Tianming! He would teach Mu Qingqing regret. He would teach her that underestimating him was her biggest mistake. Thanks to her, he was no longer the fool he was three years ago.
“Midas!” In the first drop of blood that spurted out of the Purple-Scaled Flood Dragon’s body, Li Tianming saw the shadow of his dead brother. “I promised to go through thick and thin with you, and yet, I failed to live up to that promise. But you must understand, I lived not because I fear death, but because those bastards must pay! What they did to you back then, I will return ten-fold! And today will be the beginning of their suffering!”
It had turned from a battle to a slaughter. There were no rules, only a thin line between life and death. Li Tianming would dominate all others in this battlefield!
His black arm was almost completely exposed. With a ear-piercing shriek, he had wedged it into the Purple-Scaled Flood Dragon’s jaws, preventing them from closing.
“DIE!” The Blazing Dragon Chainblade went through its throat and pierced through all of its innards. Ignoring its final struggle, Li Tianming pulled out the chainblade cruelly, dragging out shards of organs and fleshly pulp with it. Blood and fragments of the beast rained from the sky, dyeing Mu Qingqing’s white shirt bloody red!
“One down!” Li Tianming’s icy voice echoed in her ears. She could see the blurry image of that teenager drenched in blood, fighting off those beasts all by himself.
Was that how fighting against fate looked like? Everything I’ve done, it was to overcome destiny, to protect my dignity...but was I wrong?
“No, NO!!” She shook her head violently, dissipating those thoughts. Mu Qingqing gritted her teeth; letting Li Tianming affect her was a death sentence.
“Use your abilities!” She shrieked at the beasts. With the Purple Blood-Imprint still draining away her blood, her head was spinning and she could barely stand straight.
“I must hang on! I must not fall! As long as I supply my blood, there’s no way he can win. I don’t want to stay in Lightning Manor, and I don’t want to wait for him to return for the rest of my life!” she roared voicelessly.
When she looked up again, Li Tianming was still dancing in the rain of blood. His left hand was as black as ink, a beast claw that had pierced straight through the Gold-Plate Barbed Turtle’s skulls to crush its eye!
“What on earth happened to him…”
He had returned three years later, a different man. But what did not change was his sincerity, his determination and his spirit! She had always laughed at him, thinking that he was naive and stupid, but was that really the case?
Or was it because he had loved her whole-heartedly…
“No, I cannot let his spirit overcome mine. Kill him, kill him!!” A clammy sensation gripped her spirit, and for the first time, she was truly afraid.
Under her command, the rest of the beasts retaliated with their spiritsource abilities. The Torrential Theo-Toad used its ‘Acid Wave’, spouting out a torrent of deadly poison that turned water in the region an unnatural blue.
But even that poison could not chew through the Infernal Armour. Furthermore, with the little chick there, whatever surface damage the Infernal Armour took was repaired moments later. Ying Huo’s Infernal Blaze fell from the skies immediately afterwards, charging into the toad’s mouth, and the beast promptly came apart in a red mist with a muffled explosion.
“Die!” The Gold-Plate Barbed Turtle died at the same time; Li Tianming had forced the Blazing Dragon Chainblade through the turtle’s head, ending its life instantly.
The turtle was dead too! No one could stop him from this carnage!
Both him and Jiang Feiling were pulsing with rage, their fury like that of an erupting volcano. They were at seventeenth-grade Spiritual Attachment! Perhaps they would never reach such a level again in the future, but that was more than enough for them.
A dazzling seven-coloured light forced Li Tianming to close his eyes. The Rainbow Regina Jellyfish was using its abilities, 'Rainbow Daze' and 'Purifying Beam'! The Rainbow Daze was a wide-area attack that released a scorching light, particularly effective at injuring one’s vision. As for the Purifying Beam, it could dampen one’s spirit. Victims of that attack would eventually lose the will to resist, making it more potent than most illusion-type abilities.
But Li Tianming had his third eye! He closed his eyes and felt the power running through the eighty-one tiny veins. The Rainbow Regina Jellyfish could see, and it too could succumb to the Bewildering Eyes!
In fact, beasts under the effect of the Purple Blood-Imprint were more susceptible to the Bewildering Eye. With their intelligence already destabilised, the Bewildering Eye would inflict far greater damage than normal.
Mid-tier seven-star? Who cares! With his Three Spring Heavy Strike, Li Tianming tore the jellyfish into pieces, the whole time his infernalsource making up for whatever energy he’d lost thus far. The him right now was unbelievably strong; Jiang Feiling had harmonised with him to the extent that their Spiritual Attachment was probably twentieth-grade now.
Li Tianming finally approached the Rage-Dragon Whalelord, ready to reap its soul.
“Blueshine, are you still on her side?”