The battle of the second day had reached its zenith! Mu Yang, together with his beast and a sword in hand, stood against the three brothers of the Lightning Manor. Within their generation, the Lightning Marshall Lin Tianjian had always been one of the best in the nation, and his two brothers Lin Xiaofeng and Lin Tianxuan weren’t that far off either. As one, the three of them stepped into the arena.
The stadium roared at their appearance. Li Yanfeng? Sage Chen? No one thought about them anymore. After all, a real hero that was going up against three apex experts of Vermilion Bird was right here!
No one knew whether Mu Yang would survive this, but even if he didn't, he would have gone down gloriously. That being said, no one understood why he had to take the risk of fighting three people together, and waste the opportunity that Sage Chen had created for him. Only the Wei Clan knew the reason behind it.
Within the arena, the beastmasters were already ready for the fight of their lives. The Lin brothers had summoned their lifebound beasts the moment they entered, all of them brimming with killing intent.
The three brothers commanded four beasts in total. The first lifebound beast was a wasp dancing in the air, about the size of the Cloudspark Mosquito seen yesterday. It was the Woodland Thunder Wasp, a high-tier seven-star beast that belonged to the third brother, Lin Tianxuan. It was a dual-type bug beast, its two types being wood and lightning.
The second beast was the massive blue wolf that Lin Xiaofeng was currently riding. It was a bloodthirsty predator, its figure agile and claws sharp. From its drooling jaws, the beast was more than ready to feast on the bodies that would fall here. It was the Tempest High Wolf, a wind-type terrestrial beast belonging to Lin Xiaofeng.
The third beast was a Penta-Coloured Darkthunder Bird, the exact same type as the one Lin Rong had yesterday. All these three beasts were seven-star beasts, and the Darkthunder Bird belonged to Lin Tianjian, the Tempest Marshal!
But just like his children, Lin Tianjian was a twin beastmaster too! His second beast was standing right beside him, a colossal golden ape glowing with power and its furs like needles. It was an eight-star imperial beast, an evolution of the Vajra Berserk Ape!
Its most obvious feature was the six muscular arms growing out of its abdomen. As such, it was named the Vajra Six-Armed Ape. It was also a terrestrial beast with two types, lightning and berserk. It was a lifebound beast that resembled wildbeasts greatly, thus making it the most dangerous opponent in terms of savagery.
In no time at all, the three brothers and the four lifebound beasts had Mu Yang completely surrounded. The beasts were led by the roaring Vajra Six-Armed Ape, their bodies so big that the barrier barely had enough room for them to move about.
“Mu Yang, once you are dead the Wei Clan is finished for sure. It's saddening that you won’t get to see the family getting wiped out completely for blocking the Lightning Manor’s way. As for your death, you have no one to blame but your own foolishness.”
Lin Tianjian was almost prepared to give up the battle today. He had thought that even with the three of them exhausting Mu Yang one by one, they would have difficulty winning. But now that Mu Yang had offered to fight all three of them at once, this was the best opportunity to be rid of that pest forever!
Against Lin Tianjian’s provocation, Mu Yang did not say a single word, opting to unsheath his longsword instead. The ground shuddered as a gigantic lifebound beast had appeared by his side. Its figure was covered with black scales from head to toe. From the looks of it, it appeared to be a terrestrial beast with powerful legs and claws.
However, what was most obvious about the beast was its head. It clearly had the head of a dragon! Its head was even bigger and more majestic than a regular dragon’s head, and its eyes were filled with a majesty of sorts.
It was a mythical qilin! Qilins, phoenixes, and dragons were all creatures from legends, with their quality determined by their bloodline. For example, the lowest bloodline amongst the dragons, the Blizzard Dragon, could barely be considered a dragon since it wasn’t even an imperial beast.
Mu Yang’s lifebound beast was the Ink Qilin, a mid-tier eight-star lifebound beast! Even if it was the lowest tier of qilin and wasn’t even a saint beast, it was the only mid-tier eight-star beast across the entire Vermilion Bird. Other beasts like the Twelve-Winged Goldroc and the Octo-Starred Imperial Lion were all low-tier.
The Ink Qilin was a dual-type terrestrial beast, its two types being water and earth. As the king of terrestrial beasts, its presence alone was enough to pressure the four other beasts in the arena!
As Mu Yang stood in the arena with his qilin and the sword in his hand, the crowd cheered fervently. Even if everyone had heard stories about how majestic his beast was, it was the first time most people had seen it, since it usually stayed in the vicinity of the Sanctum. Mu Yang, on his part, hadn't battled for a long time either.
Since there were no real phoenixes in Vermilion Bird, the Ink Qilin was already the top lifebound beast across the nation, and the king of all beasts in the land! Even the Vermilion Bird King’s beast was also only low-tier eight-starred.
“It’s alright, no matter how strong his beast is, there’s only one to deal with our four beasts.”
“He’s dead for sure.”
“Charge!” At Lin Tianjian’s command, the three men and four beasts attacked in tandem!
The three brothers each cast their own heavenly-ranked battle arts with their weapons. As for the four beasts, they took to the frontline with their tough physique and myriad spiritsource abilities.
The Woodland Thunder Wasp’s attack reached first, as thousands of blue poisonous needles showered down onto Mu Yang and his qilin. The attack didn't end there either; once the needles pierced into the ground, it turned into vines that tangled the Ink Qilin.
That was just one of the many spiritsource abilities that Mu Yang had to deal with! He was facing far too many attacks at once, especially since at Heavenly Will the coordination between master and beasts was at its peak.
On top of the wasp, Lin Tianxuan held a bow, one far more powerful than Lin Xiaoxiao’s Roaring Thunder Bow. Within moments, he had loosed ten arrows that turned into electric bolts, half of them attacking Mu Yang and the other half targeted at the qilin.
As for Lin Xiaofeng, he was armed with a cane, moving to flank Mu Yang. His beast followed beside him, stirring up a storm that shrouded the arena with dust! It was the Tempest High Wolf’s spiritsource ability, the Sandstorm Blizzard!
It was difficult enough to evade the cane and arrows, not to mention the five-colored lightning bolt that the Penta-Coloured Darkthunder Bird continued to cast. The three beasts had a total of twenty-one different varying spiritsource abilities, each of them threatening and unique. Even if Mu Yang could block ten different spiritsource abilities at once, there would be eleven more waiting for him!
It was obvious how dangerous a scenario Mu Yang was in. To make matters worse, Lin Tianjian was approaching from the front with his ape, a golden halberd beaming with electricity in his hands!
The Vajra Six-Armed Ape used its ability to turn into its vajra form, making it even bigger than it already. Howling, it punched the ground, sending golden waves of electricity flowing towards Mu Yang. At the same time, Lin Tianjian used his heavenly-ranked battle art, Lightning Slash of The Three Daos!
“Die!” They attacked from all angles concurrently, and a bevy of abilities barrelled towards Mu Yang!
Lin Tianjian was certain that Mu Yang would fall under such an assault. This was an attack that no one in Vermilion Bird could possibly live through.
But was that really the case?
From the beginning, the Ink Qilin’s expression was just like Mu Yang’s, calm like water and firm like a mountain. Water was everlasting, its waves magnificent and energetic. The qilin was like a mountain, in more ways than one. Most of the time, it was stable, unyielding. But if it were to move...
With a growl, the Ink Qilin cast two different spiritsource abilities almost simultaneously. The Underworld Ink River came first, manifesting as a stream of ink circling around Mu Yang and itself. Inside the river of ink, shadows flashed past like figures in an ink painting, concealing the pair inside. The stream alone was enough to negate all the spiritsource abilities that the opposing beasts had just used!
The other ability was the Throbbing Earth. With the ability activated, the ground seemed to turn into a living thing, one in a contract with the Ink Qilin. The earth trembled and spikes shot out from beneath, forcing the three men and four beasts to avoid them.
If water shared the same principles as the Spectral-Dance of the Demise of Man, then a mountain represented the Earth-Quaker of the Demise of Earth.
“Six-Volt Crash!”
Balls of lightning formed in each of the Vajra Six-Armed Ape’s six hands. A thunderclap shook the barrier as all six of them charged at Mu Yang as one! Dust and wind whipped outwards as the balls of electricity detonated, but the other beasts kept up their assault. Lin Tianxuan’s arrows and Lin Xiaofeng’s cane also continued to find the opportunity to strike Mu Yang when his defenses were down.
“Mu Yang, die!” Lin Tianjian pressed forward once more.
“Die?” Mu Yang suddenly disappeared.
Li Tianming's eyes widened. So that was Spectral-Dance, the real Spectral-Dance! He took out his Grand Thunderflare Sword and started practising the battle art in the room. For him, it was as if the battlefield was divided into two, one being the one Mu Yang was on and the other being the room he was in.
“Demise!” At the core of Demise of Man-Earth-Heaven, the sword art aimed to bring demise to its opponents!
At that moment, the Ink Qilin swept Mu Yang into its Underworld Ink River, before jumping into the stream itself. With that, the two of them were both concealed, nowhere to be found.
Moments later, the qilin reappeared, its massive claws targeting the Penta-Coloured Darkthunder Bird! It was Lin Tianjian’s lifebound beast. Since he mostly relied on the ape, the Darkthunder Bird was mostly used for harassment.
Unfortunately, that particular quality also made it Mu Yang’s prime target! Mu Yang leapt out of the stream towards the bird. With the Spectral-Dance, thousands of swords stabbed towards the bird, courtesy of Mu Yang, who had turned into a phantom. The illusory flower of swords bloomed in mid-air, making it a grand sight to behold.
Within a second, the Penta-Coloured Darkthunder Bird was pierced through over a thousand times. Blood shot out from the innumerable holes on its sieve-like body, and with a shriek, the beast dropped to the floor, dead!
But that was just the beginning.