"How dare you, Li Tianming!" In an instant, Jun Yuanjin felt the hate and frustration disciples of the Grand-Orient Sect had been feeling for the past thousand years. But while they couldn't do anything about it, he could. As he glared and roared, Tianming stood on the seaside cliff and hung Archfiend off one of the boulders, letting the five people attached to the chains flail about as they dangled. It was such an infuriating sight that Jun Yuanjin spat out blood. Though Tianming hadn't attacked yet, his two lifebound beasts were charging forward.
"You're courting death! This is Heaven's Elysium!" He charged toward Tianming with the Golddragon Trident.
"You're mistaken. We’re within the Realm Barrier," Tianming said without moving. If he could already defeat Li Jiusi and Li Wusheng, a mere Jun Yuanjin naturally wouldn't be a problem. However, Ying Huo said it wanted to train its sword skills on this fellow. Since Tianming had the time, he sat on the cliff and watched his two critters fight him. All of Heaven's Elysium saw how he was leaving the fight to his lifebound beasts. The sheer gall he had to underestimate an elysian child further infuriated the disciples of Heaven's Elysium.
"Come and fight me like a man, you coward!" Just as Jun Yuanjin was about to charge at him, a little chick appeared behind him. Ying Huo used Skyscorch Featherblast, but it didn't target Jun Yuanjin; rather, it was aimed at the Goldwing Dragon, who was engaged in a scuffle with Meow Meow. The two giant beasts fought on land then eventually moved to the shallow sea. Meow Meow took advantage of the conductive seawater to attack the dragon with Chaos Disaster.
Though the fight seemed even on both sides, it was only a matter of time before the toxin in Meow Meow's claws seeped through the blood of the dragon. However, the key lay with Ying Huo. It wanted to train its saint-ranked battle art using an opponent at Heavenly Will, so Tianming took the risk and gave him that chance. It was as if Ying Huo was the beastmaster now, but one that could use both battle arts and spiritsource abilities.
Apart from Infernal Blaze, Infernal Armor, and Skyscorch Featherblast, Ying Huo's most terrifying ability was Infernal Haze. It used the ability and caused tens of thousands of little flaming chickens to appear and surround Jun Yuanjin, each one of which seemed to be armed with a Goldflame Featherblade.
"Li Tianming, come out here now!" Jun Yuanjin still hadn't noticed that Tianming had left the fight entirely to his lifebound beasts and was still trying to come at him. Ying Huo didn't hold back and went in for a sneak attack.
"Watch your arse!" It had now mastered two saint-ranked battle arts, namely, Voidgod Sword Intent and Life-Death Claw Art, which was derived from Life-Death Whip Art. It had claw variants of all three moves in that battle art. When Jun Yuanjin turned back to face it, it and its tens of thousands of copies used the Voidgod Sword Intent and Life-Death Claw Art, targeting his privates from behind.
"Die!" it shrieked like a rabid dog—or rather, a rabid chick. All ten thousand sword strikes shone brilliantly as they were executed. Even Tianming was impressed by the sight; he noticed that his two lifebound beasts' combat capabilities endlessly neared his own, Ying Huo in particular, for it had only slightly less beast ki than him.
Never would Jun Yuanjin have expected a chick the size of a palm to be that powerful. He only had eyes for Tianming, and it was a little late for him to react to the ongoing onslaught from behind. Ying Huo's claw strikes pierced through the gaps in his golden armor.
"Aaaagh!" While he did manage to evade many attacks, some of them struck his rear and caused it to leak blood.
"Haha, how does that feel?" Like a fiendish devil, Ying Huo continued its assault, hidden amidst its clones. It followed up with Starfall, alongside all of its clones. Even though the clones' strikes weren't as powerful as its main body’s, they were still a huge handful for Jun Yuanjin. There was no way for him to block it, for he didn't know which chick was real. That was the reason Tianming didn't want to face Ying Huo in a fight—there was no way to pick it out among all the clones.
Even so, Jun Yuanjin still focused on Tianming himself. However, Tianming's cold and detached gaze sent a chill down his spine.
Jun Yuanjin had never been looked at by somebody like this before.
"Pay attention, you coward!"
The momentary distraction caused Ying Huo's actual sword strike to graze past his face, leaving a cut so deep his bone could be seen. His face was basically torn, causing him searing pain that drove him insane.
"Li Tianming, I'll deal with you later!" In the end, he had to deal with the little chick all the same, though now he seemed rather haggard. He had never encountered a lifebound beast that was so powerful and could use battle arts before. Many lifebound beasts gave up learning beastial arts at the Heavenly Will stage and relied almost exclusively on melee combat or their abilities instead. He wasn't willing to believe that his mastery of battle arts was inferior to a little chick's.
"Die!" he roared, executing the heavenly-ranked battle art Vajra Sunslash's first move, Daybreak. The trident came slashing down with a golden light that pierced heaven and earth, cutting many of the fire clones in half. However, it didn't touch the little chick at all. It was switching places nonstop, so nobody could tell where it was.
"Oh, that was a close one!" it said, snickering, causing Jun Yuanjin to pull back immediately. He had never dealt with a foe so small before.
Ying Huo used Transcendence, sending its claw slashing down. Jun Yuanjin managed to react better this time, thrusting out with his trident and properly fighting the chick with his heavenly-ranked battle art.
The clash let out a terrifying sound. In a fight of pure strength, Ying Huo was at a slight disadvantage, but that wasn't an issue. After being forced back, it mixed itself among its clones again.
"Shocked? Scared? I'll show you what true fear feels like!"
Tianming noticed that Ying Huo had started training the strongest move of the Voidgod Sword Intent, Myriad's Only. While they were on the Aircloud Godcrane, Ying Huo had trained with Tianming and comprehended some of its essence; all it lacked was actual battle experience. That was why it had begged Tianming to let it fight someone in the Heavenly Will stage alone. The thousands of clones used sword strikes like Tianming had ten thousand times each day.
"Ying Huo, think about what we saw back then. The Aeternal Infernal Phoenix that swallowed countless stars and suns was you. Do you understand what it means to be the one, the only one to rise up amongst the rest?" Tianming was trying to help it. Ying Huo had been refining its sword strike nonstop throughout the fight, almost driving Jun Yuanjin mad in the process, for he couldn't touch it one bit. Every time he came close, Ying Huo would disappear among its clones again, only to suddenly reappear for a sneak attack.
Jun Yuanjin used Vajra Sunslash a few more times. The fight had lasted forty-five minutes already, and the toxin within the Goldwing Dragon's blood was beginning to take effect. By now, it was being pressed into the ocean and zapped nonstop by Meow Meow.
"Aaaaagh!" Jun Yuanjin finally snapped. He couldn't believe he hadn't even touched Tianming the whole time he’d been fighting. What was worse was that the chick's battle art was growing more powerful by the moment. He could feel that its comprehension of Heavenly Will was higher than his, lacking only the amount of beast ki in comparison to him. It was just a lifebound beast!
"Myriad's Only! Myriad's Only!" Ying Huo chanted, feeling the brilliance of each strike. What Tianming had just told him made him feel the transcendent heavenly will infused in that move.
"Submit! Submit to me!" Its version of the will was slightly different from Tianming's. Instead, it was linked to Infernal Haze. All of the clones were using Myriad's Only too.
All of a sudden, the countless clones attacked Jun Yuanjin with Myriad's Only. Its eyes flashed as flames shot through the sky and sword intent gathered on its wings. Sword ki saturated the surroundings at that moment, and the strike seemed unblockable. There was no spot on Jun Yuanjin's armor that was untouched. It was as if all of it had been pierced at that moment. Blood spouted out from him from all over.
"Aaaaaaaagggggh!!" Jun Yuanjin dropped his trident, then knelt before Ying Huo, heavily wounded. His face was pale as he stared at the little chick, shivering. He wasn't afraid of being defeated by Tianming. Instead, he had lost at the hands of a chick that could use battle arts. This was a mark of humiliation that he would never be able to wash off for the rest of his life.
He had been dominated by a little chick.
Ying Huo flew to his head and pissed. "I'm marking you, since you're my bitch now." The piss flowed down from his forehead to the corners of his mouth. "Frustrated much?"
Jun Yuanjin shot Tianming a blank, desolate gaze, and Tianming suddenly drew Onyx Dragon and struck. Others would think that he had thrust it into Jun Yuanjin's head, but he was actually aiming for his mouth.
"Don't need to speak from now on. Just watch." Tianming slapped Jun Yuanjin’s face and took his gold ball. He now had four of them and needed only one more gold ball, along with the Southsky disciples’ black balls.
Jun Yuanjin was bleeding all over, having suffered the might of Myriad's Only. He was easily the worst off among Tianming’s defeated foes. Now, it looked like his brain had melted. He could do nothing but look at his comrades after Tianming tied him up, unable to say a word.
"Done. Next." Tianming looked at the skies. He wondered what Sikong Jiansheng was feeling now, though he definitely knew that the rest of Heaven's Elysium was mad at him. But what could they do about it?
Just as he was about to leave, a giant whale surfaced from the sea.