The six of them, led by Fang Xingque, were all powerful disciples of the Heaven Branch. Any one of them would be able to prance about unobstructed in the Earth Branch.
"Isn't it embarrassing for Heaven Branch disciples like you to lay out in the wild waiting for me?" Tianming said, not the least bit panicked.
"Now that's weird. Don't you know that the appropriate reaction right now is to plead in fear? Li Tianming, you must’ve led a life without any hardsh.i.p.s up to now," Fang Xingque said.
"You think I'm scared of a chicken like you? Well, I might just be if you squawk a few more times."
With Fang Xingque's high status and pride, he definitely wasn't the kind of person who could stand being provoked. He would definitely lose if he got into fights off insults with Tianming. Since his birth, he had been praised to the high heavens. Nobody had ever used such horrendous words to describe his appearance, though he didn't give up. Instead, he was so mad that he breathed furiously. His other five pals were also glaring at Tianming.
"Die!" Fang Xingque said as his face contorted. He had wanted to slowly torture Tianming until he died, but now he couldn't wait a second longer. From a few hundred meters away, he turned into a rainbow-colored blur as he charged at breakneck speed. As far as he was concerned, Tianming was as good as dead.
However, a little black cat appeared in Tianming's hands. It seemed harmless, with big blue eyes that accentuated its cuteness on top of the little tongue, nose, and beanie paws. Its claws were red and its teeth were pretty rainbows, making it seem rather weak.
Fang Xingque seemed to remember that this was one of Tianming's lifebound beasts. With a bright, blood-colored flash, a lightning bolt shot out of the black cat’s eyes at him. He smiled and easily evaded it, but he wasn't expecting the bolt of lightning to suddenly turn back and strike him in his neck. "Ugh!"
It was Soulchasing Hellthunder. Once it entered his body, the lightning bolts spread throughout his veins and wreaked damage all across his body, instantly paralyzing him. The pain he felt in his organs was mortifying. However, the attack wasn't able to truly harm him, thanks to his powerful bloodline, though it did slow him down. The pain felt just like a venomous insect squirming inside his body.
How could his lifebound beast's ability be so powerful?!
Fang Xingque's eyes widened when he suddenly saw the sheer number of stars inside the black cat's eyes. The small eyes made the stars look even smaller, but the eyesight of a samsaran could easily see that the black cat had close to four hundred stars!
That can't be right! That cat was only an empyrean saint beast during the faction battles! Not even my lifebound beast has that many stars, and that’s after Granny spent so much time finding me tribulation manna!
Fang Xingque couldn’t believe what he was seeing, which only slowed him down even more. Just then, the little black cat turned into a mist of black smoke before his eyes. All of a sudden, a ferocious presence filled the atmosphere as black thunderclouds gathered overhead. A gigantic feline beast with blood-red eyes towered before him.
Fang Xingque could finally see the proper number of stars: three hundred and ninety-seven! It was really close to four hundred! The beleaguered young master could feel the countless electrodes within the beast's body, each one containing limitless lightning.
The huge beast roared loudly at him, causing thunder and lightning to go wild. Countless bolts of black lightning struck the ground, causing an avalanche. Fang Xingque quickly jumped into the sky and saw Tianming sitting on the back of his lifebound beast.
Tianming turned back and saw him. "Chicken, if you aren’t happy being called that, try and chase me down! If you can't, you’re my grandson!"
The others paled at that remark; Fang Xingque's grandmother was actually Fang Qingli of the Godservant Hall. How could Tianming proclaim to be his grandfather? Not to mention, Fang Xingque's father was the sect master of the Heaven Branch, Fang Taiqing, and an important figure in the Archaion Sect. Thus, Tianming’s words were akin to the most blasphemous of insults! However, Fang Xingque wouldn’t wait for his seniors to punish Tianming for him; he wanted to do it himself, slowly enjoying the process.
"You think you can run?" he spat as he charged, eyes bloodshot. The other disciples of the Heaven Branch quickly followed behind.
"Meow Meow, let these Heaven Branch disciples see how truly fast the Shadowless Thundersoul is."
Meow Meow's evolution had succeeded. Though its appearance didn't seem to have changed much, being about the same in its Regal Chaosfiend form, it did seem to be more or less a yet to mature tribulation beast. The greatest change was within its body, where there were an additional ten thousand electrodes, allowing it to store lots of lightning and convert it into chaos lightning, which could exponentially increase the power of its abilities.
At the same time, the Shadowless Thundersoul caused electric paths to manifest thanks to Myriad Electrodes, increasing its speed to terrifying levels. Even though it was only a level one empyrean saint beast, not even a samsaran like Fang Xingque could catch up. Tianming gripped its fur tightly as they vanished beyond the horizon. His hair fluttered amidst the thunderclouds as icy-cold droplets of rain pelted his face.
"So? Am I fast?" Meow Meow asked excitedly. It had mischievously stopped and waited for Fang Xingque to catch up, only to speed up again right before being caught, leaving him firmly in the dust.
"That's amazing. I hereby proclaim you the Blazing Fast Cat!" Tianming said as he turned back and saw Fang Xingque loudly screaming like an enraged c.o.c.kerel.
"I still can't match up to him in combat right now, but I managed to leave him in the dust all the same. If it weren’t for Ling'er, I would really have to submit myself to him or I wouldn’t be able to survive," he said with a forlorn expression.
Fang Xingque and the rest were still cursing at him from behind.
"Hey, grandson, stop chasing your grandpa. I have no money for you. Don't be mad! If you want milk, go suck on Granny's milkers!" Tianming took the chance to vent his frustration towards Fang Qingli.
Fang Xingque was so mad that he spat blood and crashed into a giant boulder. "If I don't kill you in this life, Li Tianming, I swear not to reincarnate as a human in my next life!"
"These people have issues. They need to see a shrink."
......
This had been the most exciting day in all sixteen years of Fang Xingque's life. He was so angry that he was practically bleeding from his orifices. When Tianming was gone, he knelt on the ground and started bawling his eyes out.
"Xingque, this...."
"I’ll kill him! I’ll wipe out his entire extended family!"
"He seems to have a powerful backing. Even his lifebound beast has three hundred and ninety-seven stars, far more than yours!"
"I don't care! If I can't kill him, I’ll get Grandmother to do it! If she won't do it, I’ll kill myself and end our lineage with me! She won’t have a choice!" Fang Xingque smashed the ground nonstop in a rage.
The other disciples of the Sterling House of Fang merely watched. It started with no grudges at all, yet it turned out like this. The two of them were far too stubborn and neither would let off, causing the situation to escalate out of control. Everyone knew how much Fang Qingli spoiled her precious grandson. Otherwise he wouldn't be behaving in such a manner.
"Don't tell my dad about this, got it?" he said, glaring at the rest like a fierce wolf.
"Yeah." They simply nodded.
......
Tianming eventually made his way back to the Number One Pavilion. "Even though I didn't get much today, I at least know my next goal. I have to reach the fourth level and get a good body refining technique so that Fourth can hatch as soon as possible. Also, I need to check out the Archaionfiend Eye more often. Perhaps Ouyang Jianwang knows something about it. I should try to get him to reveal something about it if I have a chance."
"Yahoo!" Meow Meow was still zipping about the snowy landscape, trying to test the limits of its newfound speed. A black lightning bolt could be seen zipping left and right, leaving a lot of sparks behind.
"Its actual body is much faster than its Regal Chaosfiend form!" Tianming exclaimed. As expected of a top grade level three tribulation manna. If Meow Meow could grow so fast, he couldn't wait to see what the other two would be able to achieve. Meow Meow had been the fastest to evolve. It said that the process was quite painful, reaching seventy percent of the threshold of its tolerance.
"I guess that’s an acceptable risk. I wouldn’t let Ying Huo attempt this if it was at eighty percent."
Tianming finally agreed to let Ying Huo refine the Skypiercing Diablos Feather to start its evolution process.
"This might push Ying Huo to its limits." Tianming had Meow Meow return to his lifebound space to watch over Ying Huo, as he felt rather uneasy about it.
Just as Ying Huo started, Lan Huang successfully evolved. Tianming went to the hot springs outside and let it out; no building would be large enough to contain it.