Li Tianming turned back, having just evaded death and wanting to give it all a good look. A black-haired man was standing upon the ruins in the distance. He stood ramrod straight, and his hair hung elegantly along his back, much like his refined expression. Even then, that didn't dampen the domineering aura that man gave off one bit. His eyes even resembled two mirrors that seemed to reflect whatever he saw. Tianming was dazed with the sight.
"Uncle Yang?" Wasn't the one that suddenly appeared to save him Mu Yang? Apart from his eyes, everything about him was the same as before. However, he realized a huge change in his aura. Mu Yang now felt like an empyrean saint.
How could the Heavenly Will Mu Yang become an empyrean saint after traveling with his mother for a year? It was already far beyond his common sense. He continued to stare blankly before Mu Yang turned to meet his gaze. It was hard to discern his expression from his reflective eyes, but that didn't make him seem cold at all. His lips curved into what seemed to resemble a smile.
"Long time no see, Tianming."
"Uncle Yang? Your power..."
Right at that moment, the autarch shrieked. "Li Muyang?!" He had stopped attacking and was looking at Mu Yang like a fool.
"You have decent eyesight. I didn't think you'd recognize me," Mu Yang said.
"Impossible! You're dead! I killed you myself! You died with Jing'er!" He rolled his eyes in disbelief.
"I've managed to reincarnate."
Tianming didn't know what was going on at all. He was just as shocked as the autarch was.
"What kind of joke is this? It's impossible! Even gods can't reincarnate. What kind of bullshit is a mere mortal like you trying to make up?!" Xuanyuan Xu said, fuming at his loss of a finger. He didn't know who Li Muyang was, but that didn't matter. This man was getting in his way of claiming his three divine artifacts.
He didn't believe the claims at all, yet Autarch Qian's gaze was still fixed on Li Muyang. He was so stunned that he didn't even help his lifebound beast as Li Wudi and the Primordial Bloodbane Kunpeng ganged up upon it. "Impossible! Impossible!"
Back then, he had personally killed Li Muyang and sealed him in the ice cavern for four decades. Just recently, he had personally turned his corpse into ash. How could he still be alive?
Tianming, however, knew that Li Muyang was alive all this time, but how did it turn out to be Mu Yang? "Are you really my dad's reincarnation?"
"It would be more accurate to say that you're the son of my current incarnation. I'll explain it to you when we get back, Tianming," Li Muyang said before turning to Xuanyuan Xu. "How dare you try to kill my son? Now that I'm here, you're as good as dead."
"Nonsense! No matter who you are, you'll be nothing once you're dead!" Xuanyuan Xu snapped.
With a loud boom, Li Muyang pushed Tianming a whole kilometer away. He didn't say anything else to him and began fighting Xuanyuan Xu with a normal weapon that only had some ten saintly heavenly patterns. His lifebound beast was the same Ink Qilin from back then. Even though it now had around forty stars, it still couldn't be compared to the Infernal Viledragon. Yet, he and his qilin were able to hold their ground against Xuanyuan Xu. They seemed to be fighting on even ground.
Not to mention, he used nothing but the Demise of Man-Earth-Heaven the whole time, but each strike of his was infused with a hint of the supramortal. His abilities almost seemed to equal Li Wudi's, who was a first-level empyrean saint, but his weapon and lifebound beast grade were both inferior. Even then, his sword strikes were so arcane and ethereal that even Xuanyuan Xu couldn't quite grasp it. With the simplest of sword arts, he had managed to unleash sword intent on the level of masters. Even his lifebound beast's attacks were far more intricate and technical than the dragon's. It seemed to be using every ounce of its abilities without any wastage.
"Uncle Yang is my dad?!" Tianming finally accepted that fact as they fought. "So Mom was serious when she said I’d have to call him dad the next time we meet?"
He recalled the first time he met Mu Yang. Back then, he would've never imagined him to be the person who had abandoned Wei Jing for twenty or so years.
"That can't be. He's Mom's childhood friend. If that person in Easton Domain was him, why would he abandon Mom for two decades?"
His mind was a mess, but all he could do was wait for things to pass until he got an explanation.
"I sure hope he can deal with Xuanyuan Xu." Only then would Tianming stand a chance of survival. "Alright, let's not overthink this. Godfather is hurt, and we don't have much time left."
With his biological father coming to protect him, he used this chance to charge towards the autarch and Li Wudi. "Autarch Qian's far easier to deal with than Xuanyuan Xu, and Godfather is hurt, so he'll need the help."
But by the time Tianming came to his aid, it was a little too late. Li Wudi's chest had been pierced through. It was already frightening that he managed to hold until now. Thankfully, Autarch Qian was still flabbergasted from the revelation. That sliver of hope fueled Li Wudi as he unleashed another barrage of attacks. "Die!"
While he couldn't kill Autarch Qian because of his Cyclic Mirror, he could at least kill the autarch beast.
The Primordial Bloodbane Kunpeng and the autarch beast were entangled in a web of exploding abilities. Li Wudi was completely stained in blood like a god of death as he swung the Firstbane Saber towards the beast's chest where Tianming's Myriad-Sword Demise had struck before with the full force of an empyrean saint.
The autarch beast shrieked as its organs were torn apart. The eyes on all its nine heads darkened that instant as it struggled and fell to the ground. While it wasn't dead yet, its injuries were ten times worse than Li Wudi's. It was already on its last breaths, and if it died, the autarch would no longer have any future potential. This was the fullest extent of what Li Wudi could accomplish after being wounded by Xuanyuan Xu.
"Just die for me, would you?" Li Wudi swung his blade a few more times, hacking into the autarch beast's flesh. It shrieked as it suffered from pain a few times worse than Li Wudi's, but it soldiered on. It was still able to resist and cry to its master for help.
"You're asking to be killed!" Though Autarch Qian was still preoccupied with Li Muyang, he couldn't help but snap out of it to help his beast. But when he turned around, it was already on the brink of death. "Li Wudi, you will die today!"
The tables had turned with Li Muyang showing up. Now, the autarch was once again in grave danger. However, it wasn't time to panic. His first priority was to kill Li Wudi. As Li Wudi was slashing away at the autarch beast, he slammed the Cyclic Mirror on his head.
The sheer pressure coming from the mirror caused Li Wudi to spout another fountain of blood. He had been holding on with nothing but sheer willpower and focused all his efforts on killing the autarch beast without trying to defend against the strike in the slightest.
"Die! Die! Die! Be wiped clean! To hell with your reincarnation bullshit!" Autarch Qian was crying tears of blood as his rage boiled over.
"You're afraid..." Li Wudi said with a smile as he held onto dear life.
"What am I afraid of?""You're afraid of him... Li Muyang... Hahahahaha..."
"What a joke!"
"So what if you kill me, old fool? As long as Tianming lives, he'll wipe out the Nineshades Clan for good, including the scars your clan left on the world. Once Xuanyuan Xu dies, you're next. So what if you found a crook to help you? You're gonna end up dead either way."
"Shut up!" He continued bashing Li Wudi's head with the mirror, applying the Cyclic Stigma on his forehead and causing him to faint. It was only then that he finally collapsed. As he did, he saw Tianming attacking the autarch from behind.
Live on... That was his final thought.
The autarch turned around in the nick of time to stop Tianming's blow, backing away tens of meters as he did so. He even grabbed the unconscious Li Wudi while he was at it.
"So what if Li Muyang came back? He died by my hand forty years ago, and he will die again today. The two of you will accompany him!" He tossed Li Wudi away into the muddy swamp nearby where three million citizens of Richwater City were.
"Godfather!" Tianming's eyes were bloodshot. He glared at the old man with seething rage. It was too bad that Li Wudi wasn't able to hold on any longer. He had used up all he had in an attempt to kill the autarch beast. He was so stubborn that he would do anything to piss the autarch off, even if it meant his death. Now, the autarch beast was as good as dead.
"I'm sure Li Wudi's empyrean saint soul tastes super delicious. Since he dared touch my lifebound beast, I'll use his soul and the other three million fishes to heal it!" Autarch Qian laughed as he forced the Primordial Bloodbane Kunpeng away with his black sword and tossed the Cyclic Mirror into the swamp.
"Time to cook the soup!" Now, he was trying to drag his lifebound beast from the brink of death. As he fought to push the kunpeng back, the autarch beast slowly crawled into the heavenly pattern formation.
Meanwhile, the mirror had sunk to the depths of the swamp, with Li Wudi floating right above it alongside three million other panicked folks.
"What is His Majesty going to do?"
"He's trying to kill us to extend the autarch beast's life!"
"Oh heavens, no! That's three million people! His Majesty's gone insane!"
"Let me out! Waaaaah!"
Cries and wails could be heard as all of them despaired in their final moments.