Jiang Wuxin's body glowed black like before and split into two; the smaller black ball was sent flying away while the larger one, the Sunscourge Fiendwolf, charged toward Tianming as it spewed fire. They had undone their Fiendgodmorphize fusion! It wasn't that Jiang Wuxin wanted to escape; the fiendwolf had undone it on its own accord to attack Tianming, turning its own body into a fiery vortex!
With a loud roar, the black flames burned brightly. Tianming watched it coldly, then unleashed a tribulation sword ki-filled strike at it. The fiendwolf was already bleeding from the thousands of holes in its body that had been received during its initial strike, so Tianming didn't hold back and cut straight at its head.
The fiendwolf’s head audibly exploded into a bloody mess as the tribulation sword ki went wild. Tianming's sword had cut it in half, killing it before it could even howl in pain. The carcass of the beast collapsed, blood still spouting from its wounds.
"The sunscourge fiendwolf is dead!"
"Did Tianming just kill it?!"
Many disciples had taken note of what just happened.
"The disciple of the Hexapath Swordfiend is crippled!"
Word of that immediately spread all over. The disciples from the five-sect alliance that had the upper hand felt a bad fate coming. Jiang Wuxin was a fifth-level life samsaran and ranked among the three strongest disciples on the entire continent, but he only had one lifebound beast. Now that it was dead, it was over for him! Everyone had been waiting for him to avenge his wives, only for him to end up defeated. The worst part was, he couldn't even defend his life right now!
When he was flung away, he watched as his fiendwolf died trying to save him and felt his heart shatter. Tears of blood flowed from his eyes, though he merely watched Tianming with a blank expression.
"You must die... you must die!" he repeated nonstop. "You must die now!"
Tianming swung Archfiend toward the back of his chest. The instant it was about to pierce through, a dark figure appeared behind Jiang Wuxin and used a short stick to stop Tianming's fatal blow. It was one of the three minor ghoul kings, Hei An. He had saved Jiang Wuxin and immediately took him away. Behind him stood his lifebound beast, a rakshasa, guarding them as they dashed out of the cave.
Tianming gave up on the chase, figuring they were gone for good. His allies still needed help to deal with the rest of their enemies, so he couldn't just leave. But now that he was at the second-level life phase, there was even more he could do for them. He could still turn the situation around, so he hurried to aid them with the rest of his beasts.
"Li Tianming is here!" The disciples who were struggling to defend the cave were suddenly filled with hope.
"He almost killed Jiang Wuxin!"
"To think that we have a powerful fighter of his level here...."
"If it weren’t for him, there’s no way we would've survived till now...."
They’d thought they would be fighting to the death, yet hope had come through at their moment of despair. Before, all they had wanted was to put up a good fight before dying, but now they wanted to wipe their foes out, and even win!
"What’re we waiting for?"
"It's a free for all! Kill them!"
"Does Nonahall think they're so strong they can treat us like animals?!"
"They shall die!"
Now, the four sects were rising up against the alliance and turning the tide of battle.
......
There was a huge commotion on the Swordsoul Mountains within the Hexapath Divine Realm, no doubt due to the death of the Sunscourge Fiendwolf and Jiang Wuxin's haggard escape. Their disciples were almost all dead, but they couldn't even get angry at Jiang Wuxin for losing. There was only one thing on their seething minds: "We must exterminate the Archaion Divine Realm, kill their goddess, and torture Li Tianming to death!"
......
The peak experts watching from the Dimensional Battlefield were all at a loss for words. In the Hexapath Sword Sect's viewing section, the others turned and looked at Feng Qingyu without daring to say a word. They had noticed the odd change undergone by Jiang Wuxin, but they didn't dare to mention 'Fiendgodmorphize'. They had thought that the impressive technique was thanks to Feng Qingyu, but now there was nothing to be proud about, especially with Jiang Wuxin's sole lifebound beast dead.
"We’ll pay back the humiliation of our sect tens of thousands of times over during the coming war!"
They all knew that the Hexapath Swordfiend was given that title because of his fiendish methods. Jiang Wuxin was his favorite disciple, and he had spent no time on anything other than cultivating and teaching his disciple. He didn't even have a romantic partner. Though he must have been seething with anger, he didn't seem to be moving an inch.
"The trees wish to stop rustling, yet the wind won’t stop blowing...."
......
The viewing sector at the very end of the Dimensional Battlefield was Nonahall's. The sect had a different hierarchy from the others, with most of their decisions made by the Council of Ghoul Kings.
There were nine ghoul kings in the council, all of whom had equal status, and they had sent the most experts here to the summit. But even then, the three ghoul kings stood out and seemed like beings from hell itself.
"Now that his lifebound beast is dead, it's perfect. He's now crippled, so Feng Qingyu should no longer care about him. Bring him to us if there's an opportunity. As he has the sacred blood, he can Fiendgodmorphize. We can use him to create a nightmarish god of slaughter to serve our sect," said one of the ghoul kings.
"Does he really match the requirements?" asked another.
"I believe he does," said the third ghoul king.
"Did Li Tianming get all of his treasures from Xuanyuan Xi?"
"Who else could it be? Maybe it's the legacy of Great Emperor Xuanyuan? But everything the emperor had was stolen from them, apart from the Heaven Cauldron we're aiming to take for ourselves, right?"
"Let's observe the situation first. If it becomes necessary, we'll make his treasures our third priority, after Xuanyuan Xi and the Heaven Cauldron."
"That sword and tower might be beyond tribulation artifacts. It could be something like Feng Qingyu's divine artifacts, the Hexafirmament Eradicators. We must take it."
"Agreed."
"The ultimate tribulation manna in the Kilostar Domain is also really valuable. The Yama can definitely get them and even split them among Hei An and Bai Rao. But this disciple of the goddess will be a threat to them, won’t he?"
"He might be. After the Nether Battle, we'll have the three of them fight him during the final battle."
"That's right. The Kilostar Domain doesn't just have powerful manna, it also has the key to our ultimate domination. It is imperative that we retrieve them."
"The five ultimate tribulation manna might be the key to the domain!"
The three ghoul kings' eyes glowed brightly.
"Let me be in charge of strengthening them," said one of the ghoul kings.
They continued their discussion in hushed voices without anyone hearing what they were talking about.