Tianming had no idea how many people he killed. This was a battlefield, and he had killed more people than he normally would in a lifetime. But it was inevitable. Under this atmosphere, everyone had been turned into killing fiends. After all, they had to kill or they would watch their companions being killed. There’s no turning back once you’re on the battlefield.
A battle with your life on the line could allow one to grow, and Tianming had gained many insights in the process.
“So much death is the result of the Imperial Will and the Emperor’s rage? The Elysian Emperor is the emperor of the Grand-Orient Realm, and it was his ambition that resulted in so much bloodshed.” Imperial Will was a positive, but there were some negative sides to it as well, and Tianming had firsthand experience of how terrifying it could be.
He only knew what war was after looking at the corpses and blood that littered the ground. This had all been caused by the Elysian Emperor. Tianming gained an insight as he continued the slaughter. “So, this is a crucial insight into the Heavenly Will realm. Furthermore, many insights come from battle and slaughter.”
Tianming had slowly found his own Imperial Will in the bloodshed. This battle had greatly benefited him, and it was all because he had to be on the front line as the junior sect master. This was definitely the most earth-shattering sect war in the history of the Grand-Orient Realm.
“Yuwen Taiji first allied with the Onyx Sect. And although father had grudges with him, he still inherited Yuwen Taiji’s will. This is also the reason why we’re able to slaughter our enemies. So that means that Yuwen Taiji made a great contribution to the sect. No wonder father had to emphasize that killing Yuwen Taiji was because of personal grudges.…” Tianming could clearly see that most of the corpses lying on the ground belonged to the Cloudmist Sword School and Heaven’s Elysium. They had gone too deep into the barrier, and facing an army of similar numbers that wasn’t affected by the barrier, along with Sikong Jiansheng’s death, the army had collapsed, and not many of them managed to escape.
But the battle was still ongoing. The purifiers hid behind the keepers, so the keepers would die before them. As for Tianming, he had already killed many purifiers. They weren’t much older than Mu Yang, but all of them had died in Tianming’s hands.
All of a sudden, the earth began trembling right before Tianming’s eyes and a colossal beast broke out from the ground; it was a tortoise beast.
Black tortoises were top-tier lifebound beasts, and they were on the same level as phoenix and dragons. But even among black tortoises, there were differences. This black tortoise before him looked enormous, with an impenetrable defense. Even the snake looked incredibly tough. In its eyes were fifty-six stars!
“A fifth-order saint beast!” Tianming was shocked. A fifth-order saint beast was at least on the level of Ye Shaoqing. Among the younger generation, no one had such a powerful lifebound beast aside from Yueling Long. Moreover, this colossal tortoise was clearly growing.
Standing on the black tortoise’s head was a young man with brown eyes. Judging from his appearance, he only seemed to be in his twenties at best. But that young man had a powerful aura with a pair of ferocious eyes. It was clear that he had a noble bloodline, otherwise he wouldn’t be looking at Tianming from high up with disdain.
“Who are you?” Tianming questioned. His danger sense was giving off alarms when he saw this young man.
“You’re not qualified to ask me that question!” the young man sneered. In the next second, his fifth-order saint beast slammed on the ground, sending countless spikes rising from the ground in Tianming’s direction.
Tianming immediately flew into the sky to avoid the spikes. On the other hand, Meow Meow struck the tortoise shell with Chaos Disaster, but the shell was tough and took it head-on.
“You want to run?” Neither the young man nor the black tortoise could fly, but the young man leaped into the sky. He chased after Tianming and threw a punch, creating rumbling noises that instantly broke apart Jiang Feiling’s Spatial Wall. “Since you dared to kill Jun Niancang’s woman, you can only dream of escaping after meeting me!”
Tianming could sense that this young man was at least in the seventh-level of Heavenly Will. He turned around and threw out the Trivita Fiendfist—Cataclysm. But when their fists clashed, Tianming flew into the sky and spurted a mouthful of blood from the impact.
He’s strong! Tianming was puzzled. After all, there shouldn’t be anyone who could injure him with a single punch at such a young age, aside from Jun Niancang. Honestly speaking, he was reaching twenty-one, and he wasn’t any younger than his opponent. If he included the Aeonic Grandbane, he would be reaching twenty-five!
He could tell that his opponent wanted to capture him. The young man jumped once more when he touched the ground. But it was a pity that his punch had blown Tianming away, and relying on the rebound force and his wings, Tianming had climbed to a higher altitude. Moreover, the shock that Tianming felt to his internal organs gradually recovered thanks to the Prime Tower. Although he wasn’t injured, Tianming was furious that he was being suppressed by someone close to his age. He didn’t recall that there was such a figure among the five sects. “Who are you?!”
“You’re pretty good at running. But you’re dead the next time I catch you,” the young man said, a sneer on his lips. He couldn’t be bothered to tell Tianming about his identity because he felt that he was unworthy. But just as he was speaking, someone suddenly appeared before him and threw a punch.
The black tortoise immediately summoned a huge shield around them. When the shield shattered, the young man and black tortoise had both been blown away, gushing blood from their mouths as they fell to the ground.
When Tianming looked over, he saw it was Yuan Huntian. As the hall master of the Azure Dragon Sword Mountain, Yuan Huntian was a saint. So he was more than enough to crush this young man.
“He’s not dead?” Yuan Huntian landed on the ground and charged over at the young man once again. Although Tianming didn’t say anything, he knew Yuan Huntian had been following behind him, worried that he might encounter a formidable foe.
When Tianming saw Yuan Huntian, he descended from the sky. This wasn’t a spar, but a life and death battle. So even if the young man was powerful, he wouldn’t be able to escape death facing Yuan Huntian’s attacks.
Yuan Huntian threw out another punch, one that was ten times stronger than the previous. It would instantly kill the fifth-order saint beast if his fist connected.
“STOP! I’m Yuan Chen, the junior sect master of the Earthorigin Sect! If you dare to kill me, my Earthorigin Realm’s army of five hundred thousand will trample your Grand-Orient Sect!” The youth was covered in dirt as he got on his feet, resorting to threats since he was facing a saint.
Although he sounded arrogant, he was terrified by Yuan Huntian to the point of immediately declaring his origin. To protect himself, he even mentioned an army of five hundred thousand to threaten the Grand-Orient Sect. Now that he had suffered a loss, he finally became obedient.
“Earthorigin Sect?!” Yuan Huntian immediately stopped to look at the young man in shock.
“A fifth-order saint beast, Hellshaker Black Tortoise—you’re indeed someone from the Earthorigin Sect. The Grand-Orient Realm doesn’t have a black tortoise bloodline. But why are you here?! This is a sect war and it has nothing to do with the Earthorigin Realm!” Yuan Huntian clearly didn’t dare to kill the young man.
“I’m a good friend of Jun Niancang. So why can’t I be here?” The young man’s gaze turned dark.
“Jun Niancang is also here? Is he dead?” Tianming immediately came up and asked with a murderous gaze.
“How can he die when you and the Grand-Orient Sect still exist? You’re nothing but a frog in a well,” Yuan Chen mocked.
“I bet that tortoise doesn’t dare to come in. Oh, wait… you’re the tortoise!” The Hellshaker Black Tortoise was a combination of a tortoise and snake, so wasn’t it naturally a tortoise?
It was taboo to call the Earthorigin Sect’s clan a tortoise clan, so Yuan Chen immediately flew into a rage. “You’re courting death! Come and fight me if you have the guts! Don’t just hide behind someone else!”
“Do you think I’m an idiot? Get lost immediately. Otherwise, don’t blame anyone if you die here.” Tianming smiled. Tianming could tell that Yuan Chen was clearly stronger than him from their previous exchange; he was at least in the seventh level of Heavenly Will, not to mention that he even had a fifth-order saint beast, the Hellshaker Black Tortoise. So Tianming wasn’t foolish enough to court death. After all, there were plenty of chances in the future for them to fight again.
“Coward!” Yuan Chen mocked.
“Scram!” Yuan Huntian roared, showing that he would make his move if Yuan Chen still stayed around.
“I’ll remember you! As for you, you’re dead!” Yuan Chen sneered and burrowed into the ground with the Hellshaker Black Tortoise, escaping the battlefield. It seems that he was relying on his unique lifebound beast to not be affected by the fog, which was the reason why he had dared to enter. If Yuan Chen hadn’t revealed his identity, he would’ve already been killed by Yuan Huntian.
“Young sect master, there’s nothing we can do about him. The Earthorigin Realm is just beside the Grand-Orient Realm, not to mention that they’ve already unified their entire realm. So they’re stronger than Heaven’s Elysium. And we can’t kill him, since he proclaimed that he’s their junior sect master,” said Yuan Huntian.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll take revenge in the future, if there’s an opportunity,” said Tianming. Yuan Chen was pretty daring to wander around on the battlefield, and had even attacked Tianming.
“With your talent, it’s just a matter of time before you defeat him. There’s something that I admire about you, your ability to control yourself. You can bow your head when needed, and you’ll never put yourself at risk if you’re not confident about it.” Yuan Huntian smiled.
“Is that how you compliment someone?”
“Haha!”
So it turned out that Yuan Huntian had been protecting him in the dark.
“Junior sect master, we’ve almost won. This battle will surely create a huge sensation and leave a mark in the Grand-Orient Realm’s history!” The purifiers had also collapsed after the keepers.
“Junior sect master, let’s go and watch a show!” Yuan Huntian laughed.
“What do you mean?”
“Did you not see that the masters of our sect and the Onyx Sect have already surrounded the East Cardinal King, Jun Dongyao, and the forty elders that came with him?”
When Tianming turned around, he noticed that all of the Cloudmist Sword School’s elders had been eradicated, so Li Wudi, Ye Shaoqing, and the Onyx Emperor had gone after Jun Dongyao. Yuan Huntian brought Tianming and headed over to the final battlefield. “We’re finally going after those arrogant bastards now!”