Tianming felt his world crumbling down as he realized that the jagged edges on the back of the dragon would be a literal pain in the ass to sit on.
Back in his lifebound space, the young Primordial Terraqua Dragon was still cheerfully playing around, and as the elder brothers, Ying Huo and Meow Meow had no choice but to play along with its games. They were making a huge ruckus, and Tianming realized that there would eventually be seven more joining them. Please let my lifebound space stay intact after this, he thought with a wry grin.
“Tianming, my son.” Just then, a sassy man landed beside him. Tianming didn’t need to look to tell that it was Li Wudi.
“What is it?”
“Did you make another breakthrough? The speed you’re improving at almost matches up with mine. No wonder you can be considered the second most talented person in Grand-Orient Realm.” Li Wudi said.
“Hah.” Tianming didn’t bother to rebut him.
They were still in the midst of cleaning up after the giant battle, when Tianming suddenly got an idea. “Godfather, do you have some spare manna?”
“What quality?”
“Celestial, of course.”
“Type?”
“Earth, water, or both.”
“What’s wrong with you and your dad?” Li Wudi rolled his eyes.
“Huh?” Tianming had no idea what he was talking about.
“Don’t mind me. Give me a moment.”
A short while later, Li Wudi brought Weisheng Tianlan over.
“My son says he needs celestial manna.”
“Am I being robbed?” Weisheng Tianlan smiled.
“Yes or no?”
“Of course I won’t say no. But keep in mind that this is a reward for Tianming, and it has nothing to do with you.” As he spoke, Weisheng Tianlan reached into his spatial ring. After searching for a while, he eventually found a box and passed it to Tianming.
“This is the mid-tier celestial manna, aqua meteor. It’s a small piece of meteor covered in water, so it should fit your requirements perfectly. But if I’m not mistaken, aren’t your lifebound beasts fire- and lightning-type?” Weisheng Tianlan asked curiously.
“Mid-tier celestial manna? Are you trying to bait Tianming into being your son-in-law by being so generous?” Li Wudi glared.
“Bullshit, my daughter deserves better. I can tell this kid is one that’ll have an entire harem surrounding him, so I’d rather keep my girl away from him,” Weisheng Tianlan replied.
Why? What kind of stereotype is that? Before Tianming could defend himself, the two had walked off into the distance, boasting about their kids.
“Once its evolution is complete, our third member will be a fifth-order saint beast, which is one order above Ying Huo and Meow Meow. I should get godfather to grab them some manna, and preferably some Saintbeast War-Souls as well.”
He handed the Aqua Meteor to the dragon so it could evolve, and Feiling also left his body. They were enjoying a rare moment of peace after the war, sitting on a rock right by the cliff where they had a good view of the ocean. The Southsky Barrier had been deactivated, and they watched as the fiery sun gradually set into the ocean, dying the sea red.
“How pretty,” Feiling exclaimed.
“Let’s go on a trip soon. Now that we have a mount, we can go wherever we want.” Tianming said.
“Aren’t you afraid of becoming a skewer?” Feiling grinned.
“Even you’ve been influenced….”
“Brother Tianming, what does that mean?”
Just as Tianming was about to ‘educate’ Feiling, they heard the voice of a teenager. It was Weisheng Qingluan, with his sister Weisheng Ruosu. This was the first time they had met Feiling, and after a brief introduction, they quickly became good friends with her.
“Brother Tianming, words can’t describe how impressed I was by your heroic acts today. You’ll forever be a figure that I look up to,” Weisheng Qingluan said with an exaggerated expression.
“Haha….”
The four of them had a good time chatting under the sunset, and only when Li Wudi returned did the Weisheng siblings leave.
“Sister, Ling’er and him are really made for each other, and they’ve already known each other for a long time. There really is no chance for you,” Weisheng Qingluan sighed.
“What’re you talking about?” Weisheng Ruosu asked.
“Don’t you like him?”
“What gave you that impression? I won’t fall in love with someone just because they are exceptional—sometimes it’s up to fate to decide. While I may admire him, he already has a girl he truly loves, and Ling’er is fated for him too. In this case, I’ll simply give them my most sincere wishes, so stop poking fun at me.”
“Ah, so you’re saying you know when to back off.”
“Come here you little brat.…”
……
To Tianming’s surprise, the dragon only took half a day to successfully evolve. The Aqua Meteor not only gave it fifty-five stars, but much of its hidden potential was also unlocked. In fact, the next time they cultivated together, Tianming’s primordialsource could even exceed his infernalsource and lightningsource.
The evolution had also brought many changes to its body. Firstly, its tail had turned from the normal tail of a dragon into a flail that was covered in spikes. That made the dragon a more terrifying foe than Meow Meow in close combat. Anyone that took one of those flails to the head would have their skull crushed.
Its size had also skyrocketed, and its weight increased fivefold, and presumably its voice too. Its physique had exceeded all other mature fifth-order saint beasts, and was about the same as Li Wudi’s Ancient Infernalblood Kunpeng. By comparison, other beasts at its level, such as the Hellshaker Black Tortoise, were less than a third of its size.
The contours of the nine mountains on its back had also became more distinct and deadly, and the nine bodies of water near its abdomen were now the size of lakes, rather than small ponds. It was as magnificent as the Ancient Infernalblood Kunpeng. Tianming couldn’t help but exclaim about the vast difference in the sizes of his beasts.
“Godfather, I must confess that there was something I didn’t tell you.” Since Li Wudi was there, Tianming decided to speak up about it.
“You’re actually a girl?” Li Wudi looked shocked.
“Screw off. The thing is, I’m actually a triple beastmaster.”
“My, my, you must be running a high fever.” Li Wudi put one hand on Tianming’s forehead and the other on his own. “I should get you a doctor.”
Realizing that words were no use against this godfather of his, Tianming released the dragon from his lifebound space. This was the first time it had seen the outside world as it materialized on the cliff right by the ocean. Unable to support its weight, the cliff collapsed and sent it tumbling into the ocean together with tons of rocks and sand. As it crashed into the water, it even caused a mini-tsunami that doused Tianming and Li Wudi with seawater.
“Wow, swimming, fun!”
A deafening cheer came from below. While the voice itself was as innocent as a child’s, its volume caused half of the Southsky Sect to cover their ears. It was way too loud, especially when it was excited. Its cheering sound shook the cliff again, causing even more cliffs to crumble from the soundwave alone.
Soon, Tianming saw the massive creature emerging from the ocean. Even its emergence created a tide that washed the surrounding Southsky sentinels away.
Tianming and Li Wudi awkwardly stared at each other, and eventually Tianming broke the silence.
“Godfather, this beast has always been rather timid and refused to battle, which is why I hid its presence.”
“If you insist. I remember your other beasts are named Ying Huo and Meow Meow, so what’s this one called?” Li Wudi rolled his eyes. There was no mistaking it—Tianming was a triple beastmaster. But whether this dragon was as cowardly as Tianming claimed it to be was another story.
“What do you think would be a good name?” Tianming asked.
“What about… Lan Huang?” Li Wudi smiled.
Tianming was startled momentarily upon hearing that name. The name Lan Huang referred to the imperial and azure dragon pulses. Lan meant azure, while Huang meant imperial, suggesting that Li Wudi knew about its relation to the two pulses.
“Tianming, my son, it’s perfectly normal for someone as talented as you to have your own secrets. Don’t worry, I’ll help you cover up this tortoise,” Li Wudi said in a serious tone, then patted him on the shoulder.
“Thank you, godfather, Lan Huang is a suitable name.” Together, the pair of them watched as the dragon enjoyed itself in the ocean.
“Wait a second, godfather, what did you just call it?” Tianming stared at his erstwhile godfather.
“A tortoise?”
“…Damn it!”
When Ye Shaoqing arrived with the Grand-Orient guardians and Onyx Legion, the battle was already over. All that was left was for the Southsky Sect to take care of the Earthorigin defenders while the Onyx Legion returned to the Onyx Hole. The Elysian purifiers who had surrendered also left the Southsky Sect, their group led by the South Cardinal King. They were also escorting the Aquamarine citizens back to their own land. Once all the civilians were released, Li Wudi would personally make a trip to Heaven’s Elysium. Meanwhile, Ye Shaoqing would stay in Grand-Orient Sect.
Regarding Lan Huang, Li Wudi helped make up a story. Supposedly, it had suffered an injury that destroyed its spiritsource and had been recovering in the Li Mausoleum, only recovering very recently. With his help, everyone accepted the fact that Tianming was now a triple beastmaster, which was envied by many.
As for Tianming, he needed time to bond and practice with Lan Huang, so he would soon return to the Li Mausoleum, where he could also continue learning Olympos Imperius and Oceanos Imperius.
Soon, the purifiers reached Aquamarine, and Li Wudi even made sure the Grand-Orient guardians helped resettle the three hundred thousand civilians. Many of them were children who didn’t even know the way back home, and they communicated with the Aquamarine king in order to send everyone back from whence they had come. For that, they needed to stay in Aquamarine for a period of time.
“Godfather, I need to make a trip to Ignispolis.”
Tianming always remembered his promise to Jiang Qingluan, and since they were near Vermilion Bird, he could go pick her up. Feiling also missed her sister.
“Make it quick.”
“Shouldn’t take more than a day, don’t worry,” Tianming said.
Li Wudi thought for a moment, then called Ye Yuxi over. Both him and Ye Shaoqing were busy.
“What do you want?” Ye Yuxi rolled her eyes.
“Not you, at least,” Li Wudi said casually.
“You have a death wish?” Ye Yuxi sounded irritated.
“Just kidding, haha… I need you to follow Tianming to Ignispolis.”
“Should’ve said so straight away. Let’s go, Tianming.” While she had a poor attitude toward Li Wudi, she was all smiles when she turned to Tianming.
“What delicacies are there in your hometown?” she asked.
“Hey, we don’t have much time,” Li Wudi interrupted.
“Whatever!” Ye Yuxi rolled her eyes at him again. Together, she and Tianming left Aquamarine and returned to Ignispolis.