“Hey there, swallow, are ya male or female?!” The little chick rushed forward with desire. Relying on its enormous strength, it seized the swallow and gave it a sound drubbing, causing its feathers to fall off.
“AAAHHH, mission failure again! Another guy!” Ying Huo raged. The similarly seventh level Hurricane Swallow could only play a part as the one beaten up. The other lifebound beasts couldn’t help it in time before it was pecked full of bloody holes. Shrieking miserably, it fled.
Its master was a young man dressed in green with a pretty face, exerting control of the surrounding wind as if he was their favoured child.
“Die, Li Tianming!” He looked incredibly elegant with a longsword in hand. His sword strikes were fierce like the winds of a tempest. Alas, no matter how pretty they were, they didn’t make up for the fact that he was the same as Li Tianming, seventh level Beast Vein. And that was no challenge at all to Li Tianming who could fight two levels above himself!
Li Tianming directly leapt into the flurry of attacks as he used his left hand to seize the longsword.
“Impossible!” The young man’s face fell as his longsword was immediately locked in place.
“Shoo!” The next moment, a slap on his face sent him on the expressway down Halcyon Hotel’s three floors. His parents only just managed to catch him before he landed, saving him from a grim fate. The two experts from Lightning Manor had grim faces, but what was most insufferable was that they could only watch on! Still, they couldn’t understand how Li Yanfeng’s son could be so strong.
Didn’t Li Yanfeng claim he only had the strength of a seventh level Beast Vein? They immediately shifted all their anger to Li Yanfeng, as they felt that he was definitely trying to mess with them. When they looked back up, they saw Li Tianming was still continuing his one-sided abuse.
“So, you just have to be this strong to be called a genius in Lightning Manor?” Li Tianming’s mocking words filled the area.
The remaining five no longer dared to continue their infighting. They were starting to have an inkling that Li Tianming wasn’t easy to deal with, but it was already too late. Apart from the ninth level Liu Qianyang, three were eighth level and the last was a seventh level girl.
The girl took one look at Zhang Zixuan’s injuries and then said, “Well, I quit. Have fun.”
And with that, she fled, her Mythical Ice Bug hot on her heels.
Four were left!
“Are those really geniuses of Lightning Manor?” The citizens were stunned silly. To them, Lightning Manor was a superpower that could crush Flamehaven with a casual breath.
How could Li Tianming suppress them so easily? Wasn’t he kicked out of the governor’s manor like the dog that time by Liu Qianyang?
“Let’s stop the internal fighting and deal with him first. We’ll decide after we get the manna,” Jiang Yilin was shaking. She was clearly aware Li Tianming hadn’t been this strong before. She had to stop herself from quaking in her boots when she met in the eye. After all, they were down to four.
“Together!” Only Liu Qianyang could still be considered calm. It was to his advantage if Li Tianming was stronger, as it made him a tough nut that only he could crack. He may have made a strong show, but it was still within his acceptable boundaries.
Under his command, the four geniuses and their lifebound beasts, the Lightning Bolt Panther, Rumble Rat, Steelclad Giant Shrimp and Six-Eyed Flying Fish encircled him and approached him from four directions. Immediately, the beastmasters executed martial arts while their lifebound beasts unleashed beastial arts, cutting off all of Li Tianming’s escape routes!
However, was it really a successful suppression? Li Tianming turned into a blood-coloured blur as he used his supreme beast-ranked art. Fast. Precise. Vicious. The Crimson Blood Dagger stabbed forward using the Bloody Soul Hunt. The Rumble Rat’s master was shrouded in electricity, but that proved no obstacle at all as the dagger sunk into his stomach!
Another person tumbled off the roof and into his parent’s embrace. His beast immediately fled the battlefield, returning to its master’s side.
“Another one!”
“Is that his guts poking out?”
The Flamehaven citizens couldn’t see clearly if those geniuses had perished in battle, but that didn’t stop their gasps of amazement.
“Next!” Li Tianming’s voice seemed as if it drifted out from a nightmare.
Blood leaked from holes rent in the Steelclad Giant Shrimp’s shell from the little chick’s claws, while its beastmaster was nearly killed by Li Tianming’s Bloody Soul Hunt. His erratic and agile movement arts left weaker opponents no chance to retaliate. The fifth genius fell off the roof, his beast following him in retreat!
“Another one dead!”
“My goodness!”
They didn’t know none of them had died as to Li Tianming, steamrolling them was sufficient.
He didn’t need to look at Li Yanfeng and the rest of the higher levels of Lightning Manor to know how ugly their expressions were. Ugly at how strong he was!
In the blink of an eye, seven had been reduced to Jiang Yilin and Liu Qianyang.
“I surrender.” Jiang Yilin was still smart enough to tell from how Li Tianming felled her two same level peers that she would be next. She didn’t care if it was a loss of face as she jumped off the roof and returned to her father’s side. She hugged her father’s arm, her face pale as her legs trembled.
The entire third floor of Halcyon fell into a deathly silence, except for the wails of the genius beastmasters in their parent’s arms.
Li Zifeng and Li Xuejiao, who were hiding in a corner were stupefied. Li Xuejiao tried to bring her cup of tea to her lips for a sip, only for a tile to fall from the ceiling onto her head.
“Embarrassing,” Li Zifeng sniggered.
“Like you’re much better. Take a look in the mirror at how pale you are.”
“How was I supposed to know he’ll become this strong? Do you think dad’s words, that he’s stuck in Beast Vein for life, are true?” He no longer put much stock in those words when he saw Li Tianming’s performance.
The members of Lightning Manor also had rather ashen faces. They had expected taking the manna from Li Tianming to be like taking candy from a baby, and the main event to be the internal conflict after.
However, reality had given them a slap on the face! Li Tianming had gone on to solo seven by himself. Four had suffered humiliating defeats, two had conceded and only Liu Qianyang was left.
“Brother Feng, what’s going on?” Even Liu Qing was confused. She had come to Flamehaven believing everything was all according to plan, only for some minor character to wreck her plans again and again. Now, she was also rather worried for Liu Qianyang.
“Relax. Li Tianming is older, and did once hit Spiritsource. He also has abundant battle experience and a lot of combat techniques. A slightly spectacular final stand is ordinary. However, have faith in Qianyang! He’s a bona fide ninth level Beast Vein stage. As for Li Tianming, every bit of strength he uses will never recover.” Li Yanfeng was the calmest present.
“Still, Qianyang is going to have to try his best. This battle is also very useful to his long-term growth. Overcoming this difficulty and obtaining the manna will make his prospects limitless,” Li Yanfeng continued. Still, his words didn’t stop Liu Qing from looking at the roof anxiously.
On the roof, Li Tianming was facing off against Liu Qianyang under the watchful gazes of tens of thousands people. This was the stage he wanted, and he was now the main topic of conversation for half of Flamehaven. From now on, no one would ever say he had challenged Liu Qianyang a month ago only for face. He had used his actions to shut them up!
However, Li Tianming wasn’t done yet. To him, seven Lightning Manor geniuses were just the warm-up.
Liu Qianyang carried himself with a confidence similar to Lin Xiaoting as he rode the Lightning Bolt Cheetah, as if he were the master of all life. Looking disdainfully at Li Tianming, “Let me be blunt. The manna is useless to you and even if you get the Flameyellow Order, the Flameyellow Scions Institute will NEVER give you entry. You want to go back for revenge? What a joke.”
“That lifebound beast you got through a blood pact has the same lot in life as you. Is trash, and forever will be. Since that’s the case, become my stepping stone.” Sparks danced in Liu Qianyang’s eyes. He had never held fear for Li Tianming from start to finish.
“Even if all I can use it for is as paperweights, I’m still taking them from you.” Li Tianming chuckled, but the fire in his eyes told a different story.
“Anyone can talk big, like you from three years ago. Unfortunately, you’re destined to be a cripple. It’s only through crushing you that I can make you despair and return to your rightful place as a street rat.” Liu Qianyang drew his weapon.
Li Tianming frowned when he saw the weapon, as he could tell this beastial weapon was different from usual.
Beastial weapons were crafted with spirit ores with heavenly patterns as their base. They were further strengthened by adding elements such as spirit fire and spirit wind, as well as lifebound beast blood. There were many types, ranging from offensive, defensive, movement, support and so on. Beastial weapons were split into ten grades, from grade one to grade ten, based on their quality.
Li Tianming’s Crimson Blood Dagger was a grade two weapon, which was already rather precious. There were quite a number of orange heavenly patterns on it, proving that a variety of orange heavenly pattern ores had been used in its forging.
Liu Qianyang had taken out a purple chain that reached four metres in length. Each of its purple links had lightning and purple flames flowing on its surface. This meant that spirit lightning and spirit fire must have been mixed in during its production.
The so-called spirit lightning and spirit fire were actually just lightning and fire that had absorbed much spiritual energy and elemental energy, granting them great destructive power. They were called spirit hazards, and wind, water, earth, ice and others were also candidates to obtain heavenly patterns. Only, it wasn’t easy to see heavenly patterns on them.
Such spirit ores, spirit hazards and spirit herbs were all precious treasures and miracles of the world.
Li Tianming noticed some yellow heavenly patterns on the chain, which made it at least a grade three beastial weapon. It was quite the accomplishment for a beast vein stage beastmaster to be capable of using a grade three weapon.
Liu Qianyang was definitely stronger than expected. But, after what he had accomplished so far , there was no way Li Tianming would fear him!