A heavenly pattern tome? Something like that was forbidden in the Deepstar Battle unless it was made by the user themself. The moment this was discovered, they would immediately be disqualified from the battle and excommunicated from the sect. Apart from cases like Tianming, who had a back door that caused Yi Xingyin to not check his spatial ring, people wouldn't be able to bring illegal tomes in. Yet Fang Xingque managed to, so that meant someone in the Deepstar Battle had brought it to him.
"Is he so arrogant that he no longer even cares about the rules or his reputation?" Tianming immediately recalled the Prime Tower. He was furious at the fact that someone would cheat, and even threaten to kill his lifebound beasts after not being able to defeat him. If word of a Heaven Branch disciple doing something so shameless were to spread, it would definitely be a huge mark of shame and ridicule.
Having lost an arm, Fang Xingque seemed to have also lost his human reason along with it. If not for the Astral Formation on Tianming, he would use the thick tome on Tianming himself. As it stood now, the only tomes that could harm him were seven stars and above.
"This is the eight star starconvergence annihilation tome. Let's see how your lifebound beasts handle it!" Fang Xingque laughed maniacally and covered the tome with his blood to activate it. As Lan Huang was the largest of Tianming's lifebound beasts, thus the easiest to hit, Fang Xingque targeted it. An explosion of power came from the book and everyone nearby immediately ran away.
"Fang Xingque’s gone mad! Run!"
Amidst the panic, the tome turned into a beam of starlight and soared into the skies before contacting the Deepstar Formation.
"It looks like the tome is something made by Palace Lord Yi Xingyin that absorbs the power of the stars from the Deepstar Formation! Li Tianming's lifebound beast is in danger!" Jian Lingchen cried.
However, it was too late. The starlight had already absorbed enough power from the formation to the point that it even distorted the leaderboard. The next moment, it rapidly fell toward Lan Huang.
"Quick!" Tianming could do nothing but ask Lan Huang to defend itself as best it could. Lan Huang used the Primordial Wheel to attract as much rock and dirt onto its body as possible, turning into a mountain. At the same time, it used Mountainsea World and gathered all the stars on his body onto his back.
Then the starlight descended, but it had to breach three lines of defense first. The first was Ying Huo's Infernal Armor, but it easily cracked and shattered. The second was Meow Meow's Ninefold Chaos Thunderscape, but that also seemed to be pierced through easily. The third was Tianming's Prime Tower. The soul servant increased the size of the tower and used its sharp point to block the incoming starlight.
The concentrated beam split into a few smaller beams when it impacted the Prime Tower, but it still pushed the tower heavily against Lan Huang's back, breaking the Mountainsea World, and eventually the Primordial Wheel. Then the full pressure of the Prime Tower pressed against Lan Huang's body. Under the incredible force, Lan Huang was pushed into the ground as it shrieked in pain. Thankfully, the Prime Tower had diffused most of the blast's power and Fang Xingque wasn't able to kill Lan Huang.
"Are you all right?" Tianming asked when he came to its side.
"It hurts!" Lan Huang groaned as it burrowed out of the ground.
Tianming saw a bloody impression on its back and it did seem rather painful. After taking the Prime Tower back into his lifebound space, he said, "Go back in to rest."
"Beat them up!" Lan Huang said, but it still obediently entered the lifebound space to heal up. It was truly tragic; its large size had made it the most convenient target.
"Don't worry." Tianming's eyes were now bloodshot. After Lan Huang returned, his killing intent soared.
"Not even an eight star tome was able to kill his lifebound beast...."
"He looks really angry!"
"Fang Xingque is definitely in trouble...."
The other disciples around them unconsciously backed away when they saw Tianming marching toward Fang Xingque like a god of death. Fang Xingque's face was now pale, and he was utterly shocked by how even his tome had failed. Tianming's fierce glare only terrorized him more.
"Fine, you win. You cut off my arm, I hurt your lifebound beast, so we're even," he said as he looked to the other disciples of the Sterling House of Fang for help. However, all eight Heaven Branch disciples were held up; four of them were needed to keep Xuanyuan Muxue alone at bay.
"We are even?" Tianming spat on Fang Xingque's face. Even his spit contained tribulation sword ki.
"Aagh!" Fang Xingque cried in pain as a bloody hole formed on his face. Seeing Tianming approach, he had tried to escape and intercept Tianming with his sword guiding art, controlling the Eight Phoenix Blades to attack him.
"Fang Xingque, you tried to cut off all my limbs, and you even wanted to kill my lifebound beasts, and now you say we're even? That is the most childish thing I have ever heard! It's like your brain never had time to develop!" Sword-shaped patterns manifested on the two Grand-Orient Swords, making them even more terrifying.
"Someone, defend me, anyone!" Fang Xingque cried in a panic. The unrestrained Tianming that didn't care about his status at all struck true terror into him. Tianming had made him understand that when he was all on his own without his parents' protection, or his minions, he was nothing but a sixteen-year-old kid. There were far too many people in this world that could crush him like a bug.
"White, protect me!" He ran as he ordered his sacred sky phoenix to intercept Tianming.
"Okay," it said as it returned, knowing full well that it would probably just die. Its white feathers let out a blinding light that formed into a pillar and shot toward Tianming.
"Everything is governed by cause and effect. Since you chose to do something, you shall suffer the consequences of your actions. Fang Xingque, let me teach you this life lesson!" As he did so, he would let the Archaion Sect and the Flameyellow Continent know who he was! The faction battles were far too small a stage for him, but the Deepstar Battle was just the right place.
Tianming pointed his sword at the phoenix, using the Imperealm Sword Formation to block its ability. His next strike was infused with all his tribulation sword ki, piercing the white phoenix through and leaving a bloody hole behind.
"Die!" With his black sword, he executed the Hexapath Samsara Sword and thrust through the phoenix, killing it on the spot.
The audience and the other disciples in the battle cried in shock, their eyes glued to the gruesome sight.
"He just killed Fang Xingque's lifebound beast!"
"Fang Xingque is the son of the Heaven Branch's sect master and the precious grandson of the palace lord of Godservant Hall! The Sterling House of Fang is the top clan in the Archaion Divine Realm!"
"Has Li Tianming gone mad?"
They watched the white-haired youth with utter disbelief. Why would he dare to do such a thing? Soon after, the cries of two other birds echoed through the battlefield. Ying Huo and Meow Meow were going utterly wild.
"How dare you attack my Tortoise Bro without my permission?"
"It's my little brother! I won't let you get away with bullying it!"
Ying Huo was incredibly anxious when the starlight had come down on Lan Huang. Even though everything turned out okay in the end, it couldn't contain its rage. The helldragon flare phoenix that was the same type as it couldn't take the rampage at all. Everyone watched as Ying Huo tore into its abdomen and unleashed more than a hundred strands of tribulation sword ki, turning it into a pincushion.
The helldragon flare phoenix cried as it fell, spilling blood all over the place. The last thing it saw was Fang Xingque pathetically running away, and it was disappointed as it left this world. Almost at the same time, its fellow lightning phoenix also collapsed. It had used lightning as its main weapon for sixteen years, only to be struck down by a little black cat's own lightning bolts.
"Two more phoenixes died! Fang Xingque only has one left!"
Turning from a quad beastmaster into a normal one was a significant blow to his power and talent. It was so serious that it was even felt by those who watched from the sidelines. Defeating Fang Xingque wasn't a big deal; many others older than him could easily do it. But nobody would dare to kill his lifebound beasts.
"Now he only has his stillwater frost phoenix left. His Rainbow Phoenix Bloodline is as good as gone!”