“After reaching the seventh level of the Empyrean Saint stage, lifebound beasts have 50% more saint ki in their saint springs, compared to their beastmasters,” Tianming said. “At the eighth level, their saint springs will have twice as much as their beastmaster. At the ninth level, it’s three times.
“Lifebound beasts exhaust their saint ki to execute their abilities, unlike beastmasters who use exquisite battle arts. So the more saint ki a lifebound beast has, the more powerful their abilities will become. Xuanyuan Cangcang is in the ninth level of the Empyrean Saint stage, and the strength of his lifebound beast’s ability must be near the limit.” Tianming lowered his head and looked at the Greatwood Cage’s power.
Ying Huo breathed out the Sixpath Infernal Lotus into the sky, unleashing a wave of flames toward the wooden claws headed toward Tianming and the others, instantly incinerating the wood into ashes. But hundreds of dragon claws converged into a huge tree that bound Lan Huang and slowly stretched out, expanding into a wooden cage.
Lan Huang grew furious and tore the cage apart with brute strength. That left Xuanyuan Cangcang briefly stunned and his face changed drastically.
“That’s impossible! How can it possibly destroy the Greatwood Cage with brute strength? Didn’t you just become an Empyrean Saint during the faction battle?” But the reality before him proved that his eyes weren’t messing with him.
“Kneel down, you ant!” Ying Huo disappeared in a flash and suddenly appeared before Xuanyuan Cangcang.
“Leave!” Just as Xuanyuan Cangcang made up his mind to escape, he turned around and saw a black cat hanging on a tree, yawning and looking at him. That made Xuanyuan Cangcang’s face turn dark, and he had a feeling that he couldn’t defeat Tianming.
“He has a growth speed that can shock the entire Archaion Sect!” Xuanyuan Cangcang had guessed correctly. Tianming and his lifebound beasts had already caused an uproar outside the battlefield when the audience saw them. However, something even more exciting took place when Fang Chenyu showed up.
The scene looked even more breathtaking when the point of view changed to Fang Shuyu, who was hidden somewhere nearby. From her perspective, the audience could see Fang Chenyu charging toward Tianming right away when he saw him engaging in a battle with Xuanyuan Cangcang.
“Capture any of his lifebound beasts, and he won’t be able to leave!” That was Fang Chenyu’s only opportunity today. He even felt like giving up if he failed to catch Tianming today.
As Tianming was engaging Xuanyuan Cangcang, he suddenly felt a threat looming over from his rear. It was Meow Meow who warned him of an incoming enemy. When Tianming turned around, he saw Fang Chenyu charging at him.
“I’ve been waiting for you!” Tianming’s eyes blazed with rage when he saw Fang Chenyu.
“You’ve been waiting for me?” Fang Chenyu’s eyes lit up. He had been insulting Tianming over the past few days; it was futile even if he insulted Tianming’s family. Tianming finally couldn’t take it anymore?
“Has my luck finally turned around?” Fang Chenyu felt that happiness came too quickly for him. He took a deep breath to calm himself down and immediately summoned his three lifebound beasts; he was also a triple beastmaster.
Three phoenixes of different colors appeared above his head. The one on the left was a fiery phoenix, with an astonishing sixteen wings. It was shrouded in flames, and aside from having several pairs of wings, it looked exactly like an enlarged version of Ying Huo.
But it naturally didn’t have as many stars as Ying Huo. The fiery phoenix only had two hundred and ninety-nine stars, which was already the highest in the Earth Branch.
Fang Chenyu was the strongest disciple in the Earth Branch. Although Xuanyuan Cangcang’s cultivation was the same as his, there was no way Xuanyuan Cangcang could be compared to him.
Fang Chenyu was only seventeen, and was someone who had hope of becoming a Heaven Branch disciple this year. Aside from the sixteen-winged infernal phoenix, he also had two other phoenixes, both with more than two hundred and ninety stars.
One was a deepsea nether phoenix. It was a rare ice-type phoenix lifebound beast. A phoenix was an aerial beast, but this was also an overlord of the ocean. The other was an eight-clawed gale phoenix. It was a phoenix with eight claws and its body decorated with azure feathers.
With the addition of Xuanyuan Cangcang and his lifebound beasts, it was now a six to four battle. Xuanyuan Cangcang was smart. When he saw Fang Chenyu, he immediately retreated and focused on launching sneak attacks with his hidden weapons.
The flower in his hand was called the Bloodsob Rose, a hidden weapon with two tribulation patterns. He was using the Bloodrain Flowerburial Art to match the weapon. The nine petals manifested a storm of blood, which swept up a great hurricane and caused great troubles for Tianming. His lifebound beast, the azure wooddragon, had gone into hiding in the earth and was launching sneak attacks together with Xuanyuan Cangcang from time to time when there was an opportunity.
“Get lost!” Fang Chenyu yelled at Xuanyuan Cangcang. However, Xuanyuan Cangcang didn’t pay any attention to him.
“I’ll deal with you after I’m done with him!” Fang Chenyu sneered and took out his weapon. It was a tribulation weapon with three tribulation patterns, the Firestorm Sword. It was a longsword shrouded in flames and storm. The sword body was beautiful crystal blue.
Among the Earth Branch disciples, only Fang Chenyu, who was halfway into the Samsara stage and possessed some life-tribulation energy, could use a tribulation weapon with three tribulation patterns. After all, each tribulation pattern was created from a combination of hundreds of saintly heavenly patterns. When he swung the Firestorm Sword, it created a hurricane that looked even more powerful than that held in Tianming’s Grand-Orient Sword.
“Li Tianming, die!” Fang Chenyu’s face was cold. It was his style to go for the kill right from the start.
However, Tianming chuckled and used the Grand-Orient Sword to block Xuanyuan Cangcang’s Bloodrain Flowerburial Art. However, his gaze was firmly set on Fang Chenyu.
Tianming summoned the Prime Tower, and the soul servant entered the tower. The Prime Tower swiftly started expanding in the sky.
Tianming yelled, “Suppress that person over there!”
A loud rumble rang out and the Prime Tower headed toward Xuanyuan Cangcang, hiding in the distance using hidden weapons. The Prime Tower was also part of Tianming’s strength!
“His three phoenixes possess a certain life-tribulation strength. They’re on a higher cultivation level than you guys. Are you confident in dealing with them?” Tianming asked.
“Beat them up!”
“Alright, let’s have a competition then. Let’s see who can take out their opponent the quickest! I’ll call the winner ‘Big Brother’ for the next three days!” Tianming smiled coldly.
“Ah?!” Ying Huo, Meow Meow, and Lan Huang became excited. They weren’t the kind who could take stimulation, and they became excited by the thought that they could enjoy being called ‘Big Brother’ by Tianming for the next three days.
“Kill!” Ying Huo was clever and targeted the sixteen-winged infernal phoenix right from the start. There were many phoenixes here, but Ying Huo was a fire-type lifebound beast, so it was immune to all fire-type attacks and abilities.
“Who the hell are you? Are you a chicken, or are you a mixed feather bird?” The sixteen-winged infernal phoenix was aloof and enveloped in a noble air. It was looking at Ying Huo with contempt in its eyes. It couldn’t figure out where this little thing got its courage from to fight.
“You dare call me a mixed feather bird? You’re so finished!” Ying Huo completely lost it and executed its Infernal Haze, dividing into tens of thousands of illusions and filling the sky.
The sixteen-winged infernal phoenix sneered and used its ability, White Flare. Explosions echoed as the blazing flames swept out and formed into a huge white sun, devouring and absorbing Ying Huo’s Infernal Haze along the way. The sixteen-winged infernal phoenix laughed, “Go and die!”
Suddenly, a tiny figure dashed out. Ying Huo’s sword was like a bolt of lightning that exploded, “TAKE MY SWORD, YOU STUPID BIRD!”
The sword instantly pierced into the sixteen-winged infernal phoenix drew an earsplitting cry from it. Its abdomen had been penetrated, and the pain made its body tremble.
“H-h-how is this possible?!” After all, Yin Huo was only a mixed-feather bird in the phoenix’s mind. It might have four hundred stars, but how powerful could it possibly be with its limited cultivation?
“Get lost!” The sixteen-winged infernal phoenix executed another one of its abilities, Incineration Array.
Four flaming vortexes swept over, and the sixteen-winged infernal phoenix soared into the sky. But Ying Huo was nowhere to be found when it gained a higher viewpoint. The sixteen-winged infernal phoenix was dumbfounded when it lowered its head. That mixed feather bird had actually burrowed into its body through the wound!
The phoenix suddenly felt something was amiss. Right at that moment, Ying Huo’s voice echoed out from its stomach, “I hate people who look down on me the most. You’re sooooo finished!”
In the next second, the Infernal Blaze exploded. The fiery impact coming from within its body, along with the skypiercer ki wreaking havoc, tore the sixteen-winged infernal phoenix into pieces that rained down from the sky.
The sixteen-winged infernal phoenix was blown into pieces without even an opportunity to cry out in pain. Ying Huo was simply a demon, and the sixteen-winged infernal phoenix had underestimated its opponent. That resulted in its death before it could even display its full strength. Even Tianming was dumbfounded by how quickly Ying Huo took out his opponent.
Ying Huo had already killed its opponent; the Primordial Chaos Beasts truly were brutal by nature. Tianming then observed the battlefield. The other two battlegrounds were still doing pretty well. The sixteen-winged infernal phoenix’s death had scared the two other phoenixes, and they were also consumed by rage for the loss of their companion. When they became serious, they could fight well with Meow Meow and Lan Huang.
“Weak ass shit. That was boooring! I’ll go slaughter the dragon.” Ying Huo’s figure disappeared. That dumbfounded the azure wooddragon and Xuanyuan Cangcang, and they immediately fled in a panic.
Evidently, this ‘mixed feather bird’ with four hundred and eighteen stars had become the overlord in the battlefield that everyone feared.
As Ying Huo left the battlefield, Tianming was facing Fang Chengyu’s rage by himself.
“The death of a lifebound beast was a huge drop in both my strength and talent. This was something that’ll affect me for a lifetime. A lifetime!” Fang Chenyu’s eyes were gushing with raging flames and he looked like a lunatic fiendgod.
“I think there’s a mistake in your line of thinking. You should be paying attention to the loss of a family member instead of the decrease in your strength,” replied Tianming.
“Are you trying to teach me to be a saint here? Trying to talk morals into me?!” Fang Chenyu’s murderous aura was shooting through the roof.
“Oh, sorry about that. Perhaps I was a little too talkative.” It was true that Tianming didn’t have any qualifications to interfere in how others interacted with their lifebound beasts. He pointed his sword at Fang Chenyu and said, “If you think you can control the life and death of others, then you should’ve already made preparations to pay the same price. You previously claimed that you’d break my arms and butcher my lifebound beasts. So may I ask how you feel right now?”
“I’ll be asking you that question when you lie crippled and trembling beneath my feet!” Fang Chenyu attacked furiously.
In that instant, when he attacked, Lan Huang executed its newly obtained ability on another battlefield, the Primordial Wheel. The nine mountains on its back became a wheel and knocked the deepsea nether phoenix into the water, then shredded it into pieces.
Fang Chenyu felt another knife stab into his heart when he saw the death of another lifebound beast. But it felt even more terrible when the eight-clawed gale phoenix on the other side was spouting white foam from its mouth due to Meow Meow’s abilities. Its entire body was trembling and on the verge of death.
In the end, it was Tianming who stopped Meow Meow. He waved his hand and said, “Meow Meow, leave one alive for him. We can't take it too far, or it’ll be awkward if we meet again in the future.”
Meow Meow was feeling bored now that there weren’t any more battles for it to fight. It let out a loud yawn before turning around and found a place to fall asleep. It was intending to let Tianming pick it up when he decided to leave. When things had come to that point, the battle had practically come to an end.
At the same time, the power of Tianming’s lifebound beasts caused an uproar outside in the Deepstar Battlefield. However, Fang Chenyu had gone insane from the anger tearing him apart.
“I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you! I swear that I’ll make you taste suffering worse than death and make you beg to die!” Fang Chenyu drew the energy from within his body and slammed it down on Tianming, trying to oppress him with his advantage in cultivation.
“You know, we don’t actually have to do this. I’m just now realizing that you’re thinking with your heart. Isn’t it fair to taste having your lifebound beasts killed if you want to kill someone else’s lifebound beasts?” Tianming actually didn’t want Ying Huo and Lan Huang to kill the two phoenixes, but everything had taken place too quickly and he couldn’t stop them in time.
Then again, Fang Chenyu had been chasing after him for the past nine days, and he definitely wasn’t chasing him to chat over tea.
“Shut up!” Fang Chenyu let out a heartbreaking roar. He raised the sword in his hand and charged over, executing the samsara battle art Three Fatality Sword. The first sword was Flameslave Sword, the second was Extremewind Sword, and the third was Ripplesea Sword.
The attack possessed the intent of the samsara sword, and it was a sure kill strike. It was an attack born purely for killing. The essence of the Three Fatality Sword was to merge the three swords into one.
It was a sword art with three varieties, and brandishing a sword gave birth to three flowers created from the sword’s afterimages that bloomed and came crashing down on Tianming’s head. Fang Chenyu wasn’t stupid, because he knew that Tianming had an Astral Formation. When he saw that Tianming’s lifebound beasts weren’t going to interfere in his fight, he decided to chop off Tianming’s arms and legs.
“I’ll make you admit your sins!” Fang Chenyu roared. He was truly worthy of being the son of Judgment Hall’s palace lord; he had already deemed someone sinful the moment he opened his mouth. But it was a pity that it was Tianming he ran into.
With his powerful empyrean golden body, Tianming held onto a pair of Grand-Orient Swords. At that moment, his heart was calmer than anyone else’s. “Strength is always the truth, and we will speak with our strength!”
He was able to accomplish this because he had been tirelessly pursuing strength. His swords were divided into life and death as he executed the strongest sword art in the Flameyellow Continent, the Hexapath Samsara Sword. He was already growing more and more familiar with the art.
The frightening sword intent made the Grand-Orient Swords tremble. At that moment, Tianming was no longer alone, but he was like an emperor with a troop of thousands that were sweeping through tens of thousands with their swords.
Three consecutive sword slashes were done with the golden Grand-Orient Sword, using the Life Sword to create an endless loop. The three attacks that Fang Chenyu gave his all to use were easily resolved by Tianming’s Life Sword. Tianming was like a puddle of water that quenched Fang Chenyu’s rage.
In the next second, Tianming stabbed forth with the black Grand-Orient Sword. The sword whistled and stopped all of a sudden just when it stabbed into his target’s mouth, because Fang Chenyu’s Astral Formation had been activated into the protection state.
But Tianming’s Hexapath Samsara Sword was still going strong and ground Fang Chenyu’s tongue to pieces. But the Astral Formation came into place just when his sword was about to pierce through Fang Chenyu’s head and protected the latter’s life.
Within his Astral Formation, Fang Chenyu took several steps back from the impact. Tianming finally withdrew his sword. He took a look around and saw that Ying Huo had activated Xuanyuan Cangcang’s Astral Formation. Furthermore, the Azure Wooddragon was yelling out in pain from being burnt.
All of that meant that Fang Chenyu and Xuanyuan Cangcang had both been defeated. At the same time, it also meant that Tianming and his lifebound beasts were standing at the Earth Branch’s summit after this battle.
The audience fell silent when they saw what had played out. After all, Fang Chenyu’s prospects had been greatly affected with his tongue shredded into pieces and two of his lifebound beasts killed. It would greatly decrease his talent.
“How does it feel? Great?” Tianming looked at Fang Chenyu with a faint smile on his lips.
“Woooo…. Woooo.…” Fang Chenyu couldn’t pronounce a word with his tongue gone, so he was just hammering the Astral Formation with his fists and his eyes wide open. Tianming saw the pure hatred deep in his pupils, but it was a pity that he couldn’t come out.
“Don’t bother hitting it anymore. If it wasn’t for the Astral Formation, you’ll be a cold, hard corpse lying on the ground by now,” said Tianming.
“Wooo! Woooo!” Fang Chenyu collapsed on the ground with despair on his face, but he was still looking at Tianming viciously.
“Mhm? Are you trying to say that your father will take revenge for you?” Tianming asked, and Fang Chenyu didn’t reply. He had silently acknowledged what Tianming said.
“Let’s wait and see then,” Tianming replied with an indifferent tone. “Today is only the beginning. Let me give you a word of advice: don’t provoke me.”
Tianming then left, leaving behind Fang Chenyu, who felt as though he had been stabbed in the heart with a sword.
……
The audience outside saw the white-haired youth walking toward the point of view that came from Fang Shuyu, so it meant that Tianming was approaching Fang Shuyu! In the blink of an eye, he was standing in front of her.
As they continued staring at the screen, they could tell that Fang Shuyu was trembling, because the point of view was trembling. The angle suddenly changed to looking up at Tianming, and it made everyone uncomfortable because that meant Fang Shuyu was kneeling to Tianming.
Then he engaged in a conversation with Fang Shuyu. But the audience couldn’t hear what they were talking about; they could only roughly guess what Tianming was trying to say based on how his lips moved.
In the next second, everyone fell into silence because Tianming said: tell Fang Xingque on my behalf that he can dream about going to the Deepstar Pool with me around.
……
In the highest secret chamber outside. Fang Taiqing had come again, but the person beside him had changed into another person. They were dressed in a black robe and had thick and sharp brows. They gave off pressure even though they were maintaining indifference without any expression on their face. Their posture was like a wild beast, and felt oppressive to others.
Their emperor aura was stronger than that of Fang Taiqing’s. But even so, they still stood behind him, which was a sign that he had the higher status here.
“Shenyu, what do you think?” Fang Taiqing asked.
“Chenyu is half-crippled, and what we were expecting of him has gone down the drain.” He was Fang Shenyu, the palace lord of the Judgment Hall. His gaze was indifferent, and no rage could be detected from him despite it being his son that was crippled.
“It’s not easy bearing a kid after reaching the Samsara stage, not to mention that Chenyu was your hope. I can understand how you’re feeling right now,” said Fang Taiqing.
“This is life, and there’s nothing we can do about it. Who could expect that Li Tianming would rise so quickly? Her Eminence’s eyesight is truly impressive,” replied Fang Shenyu.
“The key here is Xuanyuan Dao,” said Fang Taiqing.
“Sect master, you’re trying to say…?”
“Her Eminence instructed Xuanyuan Dao to give Tianming third-grade tribulation manna, but he gave him a fourth-grade tribulation manna instead. Do you think he found out about Xingque’s conflict with Tianming and did it on purpose in order to make Tianming strong enough to face Xingque?” asked Fang Taiqing.
“That isn’t far from the truth.”
“So we’re playing schemes right now?” Fang Taiqing snickered.
“Sect master, what do you intend to do next?”
“Get our men in the Deepstar Hall to tell Xingque to lead our men to kill all of Tianming’s lifebound beasts,” said Fang Taiqing.
“Oh, yeah.” Fang Taiqing’s eyes lit up. “Tianming belongs to Her Eminence, and the eminent even got Jian Wuyi to protect his safety. But I heard that Jian Wuyi didn’t enter the Deepstar Battlefield, due to the Deepstar Formation.”
“Since it’s a grudge between the younger generation, let them resolve it themselves. Since this brat started it by killing our disciple’s lifebound beasts, he should have a taste of his own medicine. Her Eminence can’t say anything if we kill all of his lifebound beasts, right?”
“That’s right.” Fang Taiqing looked at him and said, “Shenyu, you’re my brother. Xuanyuan Dao has caused trouble for me, and even implicated your son this time. I want to take revenge for you on this matter.”
“Thank you, Sect Master.”