Tianming found this group of people to be rather familiar; they were none other than Su Li, Su Tao, Gonsun Yu, and Feng Chiyu, as well as a few others who had been by Yuwen Shengcheng's side. However, Tianming spotted a unique woman in white in the middle of the group.
"Darn it." He finally saw what stood out about the one that seemed like a young woman in man's clothes—it was actually Yuwen Shengcheng himself. Tianming had thought him to be a woman, thanks to him mingling among them. Then again, his pretty looks, fair skin, and the traces of lip makeup on his face would make most think he was a woman unless they scrutinized him closely. He truly blended in well with the rest.
It seemed like he had encountered someone troublesome again. Back at the Imperial Ninefold Gates, Yuwen Shengcheng had been beaten up by Tianming. His face still stung from the fight and he had gone through lots of trouble to get the swelling to stop.
"Hah! To think that you showed up in front of me without me having to look for you!" he said, squeezing himself through the beauties and gawking at Tianming.
"Brother Shengcheng, he definitely took five top-tier manna just now. There’s a water-attribute one among them. My little sister Su Tao needs one, I believe," Su Li coquettishly said.
"Brother Shengcheng, we discovered it first, yet they took it away! With so many of us here, we definitely can't let him off!" Su Tao said in an equally cutesy voice.
"That's right. We noticed it first. Who are these two? How dare they take what is ours? Don't they know who we are?" a new member of the Wuyou Faction asked.
They looked at the siblings and blocked their way with ill intentions. Yuwen Shengcheng, standing ahead of the group, said, "That's right. We discovered those manna first. My wonderful sisters, watch how I get the junior sect master to kneel and prostrate himself to me."
He was already snickering at his lucky break. He had never had an opportunity to vent until now.
"This person is the junior sect master?"
"That's right, this is him. These two are from the Li Saint Clan's Apex Branch."
"That line of descent still exists?"
"I knew he was up to no good when I saw his dyed hair. Our Shengcheng's much more handsome, especially his hair color."
"That's right. Even though Shengcheng is still young, he'll be a handsome man in two more years, no doubt. He might even look better than his elder brother."
"I'm sure he'll be the most handsome in the whole sect in a few years. He also has a different vibe from his cold elder brother. Shengcheng's handsome and lovely."
Tianming chuckled. Was the effeminate Shengcheng really the most handsome guy in the whole Grand-Orient Sect? Their beauty standards were definitely off. What was worse was that they meant what they said. They shot starstruck looks at Yuwen Shengcheng in all earnestness, much to Tianming and Qingyu's surprise.
Yuwen Shengcheng seemed pretty proud of his looks, intentionally striking a pose to draw the gazes of the beauties. Then, he squinted and grimaced at Tianming.
"Make your choice. Hand over the manna and get beaten up, or get beaten up first before handing over the manna. If you choose the former, I'll make the beating a little easier on you. You'll be able to start walking again in less than half a year." He sounded so domineering that a few girls behind him blushed and squealed.
"I choose to make you cry and ruin your makeup," Tianming said.
"Very well." Shengcheng waved for the girls behind him to back off. Turning to Qingyu and Tianming, he said, "Come at me at the same time. I'm in a rush."
"Big Brother?" Qingyu didn't feel like ganging up on Yuwen Shengcheng.
"Go play around at the sidelines."
"Okay!" she said, then darted off.
Yuwen Shengcheng's savage grudge could only be settled by fighting. Tianming knew what sort of status he held, but if he didn't fight now, neither he nor Qingyu would be able to leave, so he decided to oblige the effeminate boy. The little chick and Feiling were ready. Out of his lifebound space leapt the black cat, glaring at Yuwen Shengcheng in a rage. It let out a deep roar despite its small form.
"You really don't know what's good for you, do you? You think you can show off just because you broke through to first-level Unity?" His eyes were filled with killing intent, having offed a few people himself despite being only thirteen. He had been cultivating for ten years, since he was only three years old.
This was the first fifth-level Unity opponent Tianming would face off against.
"Careful. Even though he's young, he must be rather powerful." Otherwise, he wouldn't be a candidate for a prime disciple. Lin Xiaoting couldn't even compare to someone who was at fifth-level Unity at the age of thirteen.
Right at that moment, Yuwen Shengcheng's lifebound beast crawled out of his lifebound space. It was a gigantic, ferocious chimera with parts from a lion, tiger, panther, horse, goat, and bull. Its talons and fangs were as sharp as the most terrifying of carnivores. Calling it grotesque would be an understatement. Tianming had never expected the dainty Yuwen Shengcheng's beast to be that fierce and ugly, with its standout feature being its four beastly arms atop its four squat legs.
"Big Brother, this is a Four-armed Taotie. Taoties are top-tier lifebound beasts, and most of them are saint beasts. They are also the signature beast of the Yuwen Clan," Feiling explained.
"How do you know that?"
"I had nothing to do a while back so I read all the books Qingyu gave me," she said. She had indeed worked hard to be of help to Tianming. Since he had no time for such reading, she’d taken the initiative to become his encyclopedia.
"Four-armed Taoties are top-tier eight-star lifebound beasts. They belong to the category of dark-type terrestrial lifebound beasts."
"Dark type?" Tianming hadn't encountered any beast like that before. Now that he looked at it, the Four-armed Taotie did indeed look really sinister, contrasting greatly with the dainty Yuwen Shengcheng.
Meow Meow used its spiritsource ability to transform into a Regal Chaosfiend. Now it looked no less domineering than the taotie, not to mention looking much better. After all, it was a truly fierce beast, as opposed to the taotie, which looked more like an amalgamation of large beasts.
Out of the taotie's mouth leaked a green goo, adding to its ugliness and ferocity. There was no doubt that this lifebound beast would be even harder to fight off after evolving into a saint beast. Yuwen Shengcheng was currently wielding a bloody warblade that gave him a masculine air. The blade was broad and had nine rings secured to the back, and they would chime whenever it was swung.
The taotie bellowed, and Yuwen Shengcheng charged in for the kill. He couldn't wait to completely dominate Tianming.
"I haven't learned a unity-ranked battle art yet, so I can't use the full power of my unity field. My opponent has the advantage there. Since that's the case, I want you two to deal with the Four-armed Taotie." Compared to Tianming, who had Feiling's help, his two beasts were slightly worse off. So he had them deal with the taotie, aiming to disrupt Yuwen Shengcheng’s unity field and increase Tianming's odds.
"No problem, meow!" The black cat charged in with its beastly form and unleashed its black lightning bolts all over the place.
"Meow Meow! Wait for your Big Brother Chicken!" Ying Huo said as it scampered over. The joint attack by those two was sure to be terrifying even for the taotie.
The little chick spat out Infernal Blaze to force Yuwen Shengcheng and his lifebound beast apart. Then, it manifested Infernal Armor, causing Tianming to be protected as well. Tianming wielded the Grand Thunderflare Sword in his right hand and charged into the fray.
The skies were covered in darkness where Yuwen Shengcheng was. His lifebound beast was tangled up with Tianming's own beasts, too. Even so, the taotie was rather good at close-quarters combat; the black cat with a few levels disadvantage might not be able to fully take it on. Little did it know, however, that the puny little chick was its true nightmare, while the Regal Chaosfiend was just a lazy fellow.
Tianming could immediately tell that the little chick had served up three spiritsource abilities and the Demise of Man-Earth-Heaven. With Meow Meow holding the gigantic foe back, the little chick managed to fully unleash its attacks.
With his lifebound beast occupied, Yuwen Shengcheng's unity-ranked battle art was greatly weakened, along with his unity field. Tianming, however, used a heavenly-ranked battle art!
"Die!" Yuwen Shengcheng cried when he executed his unity-ranked battle art, Demonic Rabid Slash. His fierce and crude fighting style was emblematic of the Yuwen Clan.
Tianming deployed his own unity field, causing his humongous nexus to begin sucking in a limitless amount of spiritual energy. The area within twenty meters of him burned with flames and was covered in lightning bolts, causing his white hair to flutter in the chaotic energies within the area.
The huge amount of spiritual energy gathered around the Grand Thunderflare Sword. Tianming angled his other palm toward Yuwen Shengcheng, who was charging over as he executed his battle art, intent on cleaving Tianming's head off. Tianming merely smirked.
Bewildering Eye! The illusion-type spirit veins of the third eye on his left palm eerily flashed, causing his foe's eyes to widen. He didn't understand why Tianming had suddenly turned into Qingyu, even less so that she was wielding the Grand Thunderflare Sword and executing a heavenly-ranked battle art.
Demise of Man, Spectral-Dance, Soul-Extinction!
Yuwen Shengcheng groaned as he was forced back by Tianming's overwhelming strikes. His legs softened as the ground shook from Demise of Earth, Earth-Quaker, but Yuwen Shengcheng slashed his blade downward to interrupt the strike. To think that he would be able to react that quickly despite being influenced by Bewildering Eye.
Tianming reacted even quicker and with more savagery. Demise of Earth, Hell-Shaker! As the strike landed, boundless sword ki filled the sky, causing Yuwen Shengcheng to haggardly back away, only to find that he had run into a wall.
The Spatial Wall was shattered as he retreated through it; he would have died from the slash, had he not done so, but charging through the wall left his head bleeding.
"Darknight Corrosion!" he called out to his taotie with a pale face. The Four-armed Taotie roared and sent out a black substance toward Tianming.
Tianming wouldn't give his lifebound beast a chance to help him. He saw the little chick use its new spiritsource ability, Skyscorch Featherblast, to turn the taotie into a bloody pincushion with thousands of fiery steel needles, all burning with Infernal Blaze, embedded within. More importantly, the little chick didn't retract its feathers and continued fighting without its plumage; it had Infernal Armor on, so at least it wasn't buck naked.
With Meow Meow handling the physical fighting, the little chick had too easy a time. The taotie wasn't able to touch it at all! Now it was being burned alive by the steel needles, and the longer the fight went on, the worse the burns would grow.
There was no way for the taotie to help its master when it couldn't even help itself.
However, even if Yuwen Shengcheng had had Darkness Corrosion, he wouldn't be able to block Demise of Heaven, Divine-Fury. That strike conjured the rage of the heavens and condensed it into a thrust, sending Yuwen Shengcheng smash back into a large boulder and forcing him to spit out a mouthful of blood.
Next came Heavenly-Judgement. A loud bang was heard when the Nine-ring Bloodblade was sent flying. That strike came down on Yuwen Shengcheng like a bolt of divine punishment, utterly defeating him. Tianming held back and didn't unleash his final sword strike, lest he kill Yuwen Shengcheng. Instead, he punched him in the mouth with his left arm.
It was gruesome to watch Yuwen Shengcheng's nose cave in as four of his teeth fell out. He almost swallowed them. Tianming's scale-covered fist left bloody hexagonal imprints around Yuwen Shengcheng's mouth and sent him flying toward the group of girls.
Now his nose was flattened and his front teeth were knocked out, and blood was trickling out of his mouth. Tianming was tempted to ask the beauties whether he could still be considered the most beautiful boy in the Grand-Orient Sect.
Meanwhile, the Four-armed Taotie couldn't withstand Meow Meow and Ying Huo's joint attacks. No matter how strong it was, it was outnumbered, not to mention Ying Huo constantly evaded capture by its arms. Skyscorch Featherblast also made sure that the more it moved, the more it would hurt. It had no choice but to try to escape when it was almost burnt to crisp.
There was no question that Tianming won by a landslide. The moment Yuwen Shengcheng landed, the girls looked down and took a few steps back, looking at the former handsome youth, then at one another.
This battle was so swift it ended in a moment completely one sidedly, just like the time at the Imperial Ninefold Gates. Yuwen Shengcheng had thought he merely wasn't in top fighting form. But this battle proved that even if he had been, he would've lost anyway.