The Rage-Dragon Whalelord responded with a furious glare.
"To think you’ve changed too, what a pity. Since you've made your choice, then die with her!"
Li Tianming punched out once more, shattering the whale’s spiritsource ability, ‘Azure Sea’. The whale immediately fled into the water.
He raised his head a moment later. Other than that shivering pale girl, everything else had faded away. The whale reappeared in the water next to her. “Flee!”
However, Mu Qingqing didn’t leave, breaking into crazed laughter instead.
Using the Celestial Wings, a bloody Li Tianming landed in front of her.
“What’s so funny?” Li Tianming’s voice was colder than that of a demon.
“I’m laughing because no matter how strong you are, you’ll still die. It doesn’t matter if you can make me tremble, regret or cry. How pitiful,” Mu Qingqing sneered.
“Where is this courage coming from? Even at death’s door, you’re still dreaming? Do you think I’ll pity you and let you go if you act like this? Wrong. In my eyes, you’ll forever be some poison I need to eradicate!” Li Tianming stared at her intently, already trying to figure out how to best kill her to reduce the hatred in his heart and appease Midas in the afterlife.
Should he cut off her skin piece by piece, or skewer her full of holes? Decapitate her, or feed her corpse to the fishes? But nothing he came up with was enough to resolve his hatred.
“Tianming, could it be that you think you’ve won? Sorry to disappoint, but you’re going to lose. Let me tell you why. You don’t understand that this is a world where only the merciless will survive. You place too much emphasis on relationships. I indulged in that before myself, but I’m much smarter than you. Everything that happened was proof that your lifebound beast and you will die because of relationships again.” She smirked. “Still don’t understand? Look behind you.”
Li Tianming could already sense it. A hulking black beast rose out of the lake’s depths as he turned around — it was the Hecatoncheires Black-Devil. It had a hundred spines, each of them boasting tens of cruel barbs. Ninety-nine of them were currently wrapped around a Bluefire Vermilion Bird. The bird was clearly poisoned and immobile, injured to the point that death wasn’t too far from it.
Its final spine was wrapped around an unconscious Jiang Qingluan, her skin a faint green hue. Evidently, she was badly poisoned; without the faint aura around her, she would have passed as a corpse.
Li Tianming should have seen this coming, all things considered. Even if Mu Qingqing defeated her, she wouldn’t kill her just yet — Jiang Qingluan was a valuable card. She’d made the right moves.
“I wasn’t wrong, was I, pitiful bug.” Mu Qingqing smiled lightly. “You’re too inexperienced to even think of challenging me.”
“Qing’er…” Jiang Feiling became even more short-tempered, a far cry from her usual gentle self.
“Don’t worry. This is actually good news, she’s not dead yet,” Li Tianming said softly. This situation was better than not knowing her status.
“Right, right… she’s still alive…” Jiang Feiling finally calmed down somewhat, comforting herself with those words.
Still, it was troublesome when Mu Qingqing was in control of her life.
“Two choices. She dies, or you die. Since relationships are so important to you, you should kill youself. Li Tianming, aren’t you very manly? Live up to it. Your life, for hers.” Mu Qingqing tried her best to stand stably as she said coldly.
“Use your chainblade to slit your throat and I’ll free her.” With everything under her control, Mu Qingqing began to laugh. She was practically relishing her victory now, that triumphant laughter of hers echoing into the lake and beyond.
“You’ll choose death, right? I know you too well!” As Mu Qingqing spoke, the Black-Devil tightened its grip, the thorns digging into Jiang Qingluan’s flesh. Given its strength, ripping her to pieces would be an easy feat.
“I’ll be kind, and give you ten seconds to decide.”
“Ten!”
“Nine!”
“Eight!”
Despite not being very loud, each of her words seemed like it came from a nightmare. The Hecatoncheires Black-Devil continued to exert more and more force with every utterance from her.
Honestly, given her strength, Mu Qingqing had done impressively well to back Li Tianming into such a corner.
However, her mistake was that she didn’t have a truly clear picture of how much Li Tianming had changed this time he had returned, both in power and heart.
As the word ‘eight’ left her mouth, an egg appeared in Li Tianming’s hands. The egg was riddled with dense cracks, black lightning dancing on its surface.
“Look at this, Mu Qingqing.” Li Tianming extended his hand and showed that unfathomable and terrifying egg to her!
The moment Mu Qingqing looked at it, thunderclaps rumbled in the heavens, so fierce that Mu Qingqing stumbled and fell. She subconsciously lifted her head, only to see black lightning weave themselves into a net above them, turning the skies into a sea of lightning!
When had such a terrifyingly bizarre sight ever appeared in the Abyssal Battlefield?
Other than Mu Qingqing, no one else saw the egg in Li Tianming’s hands, which blew apart a moment later.
The world trembled as countless lightning bolts came pouring down in response, the sea of lightning having found a storm drain in the form of Li Tianming.
Perhaps to an outsider, Li Tianming might seem like a heinous sinner finally getting his comeuppance, but the lightning didn’t strike him, homing in on the egg instead. Mu Qingqing and the Rage-Dragon Whalelord were sent flying by the shockwaves. Of the two, the whale fared the worst — it was reduced to ash on the spot.
Just like that, Mu Qingqing’s lifebound beast was wiped out from existence.
However, this shocking scene was but one of many. Another pillar of lightning had descended on the Hecatoncheires Black-Devil, which too transformed into ash. Strangely, the Bluefire Vermilion Bird and Jiang Qingluan were unharmed, instead enclosed in a sphere of black lightning.
“BLUESHINE!” Mu Qingqing shrieked, her body finally losing the last bit of colour it had left. “How could Li Tianming control lightning?!”
She had suffered a complete and utter defeat, with all her hopes scattered to the winds. She had lost everything. Her lifebound beast was now ashes. Her trump card had been wrested away. And most of all, her nemesis was now baptised by lightning, his appearance that of a god as Li Tianming underwent tremendous changes.
“Impossible… How…” She crumpled to her knees, shaking in sheer terror at the young man she had disdained and detested three years ago.
Tens of thousands of lightning bolts had struck him, and yet... yet!
How can I lose so easily?!
“Mu Qingqing, give me a few moments. When I’m done, I’ll have all the time in the world to slowly play with you. I need to figure out how to clear this debt you owe me. Even if you want to die today, you’ll have to ask me first.” Li Tianming’s voice, imperious and dignified, shook her mind.
Mu Qingqing felt like her soul had left her body from the fright.
She was now a cripple Li Tianming could casually exterminate with a single gesture. Hence, he shifted all his attention to his hands.
The lightning continued to fall endlessly. Before his eyes, the tiny thing continued to guzzle down the lightning. It didn’t take a stroke of genius to know what that little fellow was; it was his second Primordial Chaos Beast. That lazy thing had finally hatched.
The disturbance it made when it hatched was far more awe-inspiring than when the little chick had been born. It had killed both the Rage-Dragon Whalelord and the Hecatoncheires Black-Devil with its birth. It had been the one to suggest to Li Tianming to use its phenomenon of emergence into killing the Black-Devil by controlling the black lightning. While it was at it, it had executed the whale too. This phenomenon of emergence would only happen once at birth. As for the little chick, it had been born in Flamehaven without any fire-type spirit hazards around, so nothing untoward had happened. However, this was the Abyssal Battlefield, which was filled with an endless amount of lighting-type spirit hazards!
That was how it had caused all this as soon as it hatched.
“How dare you show off! Listen, let’s be very clear on this. If I were to hatch somewhere with tons of fire-type spirit hazards, the world would burn! It’ll be way better than you, understand?” The little chick crossed its wings, miffed.
While most of these lighting-type spirit hazards were only with red heavenly patterns, the sheer quantity made them extremely useful to this newly born thing. The amount used to kill the two beasts and protect Jiang Qingluan was negligible. All of the rest was absorbed into its tiny body, helping it kickstart its cultivation journey.
Li Tianming had been waiting a long time for it. The little chick had already said it itself. It was a fierce tiger, and just the way it hatched was enough to show how impressive it would be. Li Tianming’s heartbeat was now a drumroll, as the coolness he sought was now in reach.
“Young Primordial Chaos Beast, speaketh your name,” Li Tianming said solemnly.
“I am… the Genesis Chaos Thunderfiend! Meow.”
Genesis Chaos Thunderfiend!
Genesis? Very ancient feel, nice!
Chaos? As expected of a Primordial Chaos Beast!
Thunderfiend? A fiend of thunder, very badass!
It was a peerless and domineering name, one that fitted the fierce tiger it was.
Still, what's with that 'meow' at the end…?