"Wang Fenghong, come here.” Long Cangyuan picked another person.
Hearing his name, an old man widened his eyes and vehemently shook his head.
“Obey!” said Long Cangyuan.
"Sect Master, why me? I’ve made great contributions to the Quadform Sect. I’ve worked hard my entire life. Have I ever let the sect down? Have I ever disappointed you?” The old man's eyes were filled with grief and indignation.
"You’re old,” said Long Cangyuan.
"So I deserve to die just because I’m old?!” The old man laughed bitterly.
"Stop spouting nonsense. Someone hold him down.” Long Cangyuan ordered.
The people of Quadform Oceanic Sect hesitated for a moment, then restrained the old man.
"Long Cangyuan, you shameless dog, kneeling and licking without the slightest shred of dignity! You’re the Quadform Oceanic Sect’s greatest shame! The descendants of the Quadform Seagod are ashamed of you! You’re not worthy to be the seadragon king!” the old man angrily cursed.
"Shut up!” Long Cangyuan was humiliated. He had never seen such an ignorant man. More importantly, they were in the presence of outsiders.
However, Xue Yi wasn’t bothered by the farce. Once he had used a lifesoul stone on the old man, the people of the Quadform Oceanic Sect tossed Wang Fenghong into the black hole star.
The lifesoul stone shattered, indicating that the old man was dead. They all looked at each other and couldn't help but shrink back, afraid that Long Cangyuan would continue picking test subjects.
The branches of the Radix World Tree in Xue Yi’s hand proved that Tianming was still alive. But these people were dead. What did that mean?
"It’s the bloody Great Emperor Xuanyuan again! The man has been dead for two hundred thousand years. Why hasn’t his soul scattered?”
Xue Yi appeared gloomy and murderous.
……
With danger lurking in every corner, Tianming was cautious and careful not to expose himself. The stronger he was, the better he grew at hiding himself. He wasn’t sure how many days had passed with him killing and hiding, but he certainly knew how many people he had killed!
His Eyes of Judgment quietly swept across each and every star. If he were to run into a wicked man, he would naturally send him to hell.
The power of good karma never disappointed Tianming. Even without the Old Deepstar Path, Tianming’s Imperial Will grew at a frightening rate, surpassing the limits of the Samsara stage.
He was reaping gains the entire journey. At least five hundred people had perished at his hands; in fact, his enemies had even taken precautions, believing that he was still alive. But they were all useless. In order to search the stars, they had to spread out or their efforts would be inefficient.
As long as they were scattered, Tianming had a chance. After assassinating more than five hundred people and traveling through hundreds of stars, Tianming finally entered the death phase once more.
"Fourth-level death phase!”
The more he progressed, the clearer his path to becoming a god became.
"Samsarans above the eighth-level life phase are suppressed by the formation. That’s to say, there isn’t a large disparity in strength between the top experts in the Kilostar Domain and me.”
Li Tianming circulated the power of death through his body. When the aura of death was within him, his temperament underwent drastic changes. In contrast to the life phase, Tianming was filled with death energy and resembled an assassin in the shadows.
"Perhaps I won’t have to hide from now on.” He looked out at the stars in the Kilostar Domain, a cold light flickering in his eyes. After hiding and fleeing for all this time, he felt upset, even though his enemies were hopping mad.
"There may be a huge disparity between these people and me outside the Kilostar Domain, but in here, I have an opportunity. It's up to me whether or not I can do something for the sect and ensure Ling’er’s safety. Ling'er, be good and wait for me to bring back good news....”
In the starry sky, Tianming descended into the next star with Archfiend wrapped around his hand. The experts of the five divine realms who were searching for treasure on this star had yet to realize that a more terrifying nightmare had arrived. He continued on the road of slaughter, growing more brutal.
Having steeled his heart, he would no longer show mercy, even if it meant he became the executioner of the Heavenly Dao. He had to kill them here; he wouldn’t have another opportunity to gather these nefarious men in the future.
It wasn’t easy to obtain good karma.
During this period of time, Tianming had also undertaken another task besides playing the role of a murderous demon in the Kilostar Domain—that is, looking for black hole stars.
He had overheard the name last time. Since he didn’t have a starmap, he could only try his luck. Fortunately, the Dragonhide would guide him every time he was close to one. As a result, Tianming had encountered four different black hole stars in the process of his cultivation.
Every time he entered one, the number continued increasing, up until the sixth one.
"It's the sixth one. How many more are there?”
Tianming stared at the vast Kilostar Domain as he came up with his own conjectures.
"It's been so long. I wonder how much treasure the five divine realms have obtained.”
……
Somewhere in the Kilostar Domain, above an erupting volcano on a fire star, hundreds of tribulation elders gathered together. They came from the five divine realms, and each sect had its representatives. Xue Yi, the bloody ghoul king, and Long Cangyuan stood in the middle of the crowd, their expressions gloomy.
“Ghoul King, we’ve done a count. More than six hundred people have disappeared without a trace during this period. They’re obviously dead. We found some of the bodies.”
“There were only a few missing on each star, so everyone assumed they’d ventured into other stars. If we hadn’t checked carefully, we wouldn’t have noticed.”
"By the look of the corpses, they all died at the hands of the Imperial Son, Li Tianming. The strongest victim was at the seventh-level life phase. There were branches and leaves belonging to his lifebound beast around the bodies.”
"This young man is very cunning and cruel. He hasn’t even been spotted once!”
Only after thoroughly investigating and reporting their finds did they realize that the man they considered a sitting duck had actually caused such pain to the powerhouses of the five divine realms.
“He’s only twenty, yet he can kill second-origin tribulation elders that are over two hundred years old. Isn't it unbelievable?"
“Ghoul King, if this continues, more and more people will die. I think we should temporarily stop searching for treasure and kill him first.”
"Yes. After all, we have enough time."
The powerhouses continued discussing amongst themselves.
"This kid is only causing so much trouble because we never really considered him a threat. He’s certainly incredible if he can get the five divine realms to suspend the search for treasure.”
Those on the scene were mostly first-origin tribulation elders. If there was such a killer present, they wouldn’t dare to act alone.
There was silence all around.
"I'm just curious. The Kilostar Domain isn’t exactly the place for cultivation. How has he progressed? Not even seventh-level life phase samsarans can deal with him." The seadragon king couldn’t quite figure it out.
That was because their minds were set on the Flameyellow Continent. They didn't even know what the Primordial God-Emperor was! Right now, the inheritance of the Primordial God-Emperor had become a crucial part of Tianming's talents, almost as important as the Primordial Chaos Beasts and the Aeonic Grandbane.
They all turned to Xue Yi. The question now was, should they stop searching for treasure and focus their attention on capturing Tianming first?
“Alright, let’s suspend the search. Notify everyone that finding those two is a priority," said Xue Yi.
Upon hearing that, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. In truth, this was a humiliating decision to make. If the world knew all these powerful elders from the five divine realms had been forced into this situation by a young man, they would certainly laugh.
Xue Yi was filled with killing intent the moment he made the decision. However, someone raised an objection at that point.
“Uncle Xue Yi, Seadragon King, I don’t think we should stop the search.”
The others did a double take and turned to look at the speaker, finding that a man had descended from the sky. He was a young man dressed in white, his robes fluttering in the wind. He was slender and fair. His eyes, ears, mouth, and nose resembled gemstones, radiant and vibrant.
He was perhaps the most good-looking man in the world. However, he was bald, his head shiny and covered with eight black dots. He was barefoot and had a string of Buddhist beads around his neck. On his arm was a little golden monkey with six ears.
The monkey flung itself onto his shoulders, making a face and sticking out its tongue while laughing at the others.
"Ye Bodhi, did your father send you?" asked Xue Yi. From his tone, it didn’t seem as if he was speaking to a junior.
“Yes, I just ended my retreat. I’ve succeeded,” said the young man.
“Congratulations,” Xue Yi replied.
“Let’s focus on business first.” Ye Bodhi had a starmap in his hand. Although it was merely a duplicate, it was enough to show his status in the Nonahall Divine Realm was incomparable among his peers.
"I marked the stars where Li Tianming has killed. They’re divided into six regions. The strange thing is that these six regions aren’t adjacent to each other. Moreover, I heard that he entered a black hole star, but somehow disappeared. It’s very likely that he’s gone elsewhere. Finally, from the order of the murders, he jumped from region to region in a short time when he’s in the vicinity of a black hole star. In conclusion, we can speculate that he’s able to travel via black hole stars, and may be looking for the three that remain as we speak," Ye Bodhi explained.
“So all we have to do is wait for him at these three black hole stars." Xue Yi smiled. With his big mouth, his smile looked extremely hideous.
“We should hide and wait for him,” said Ye Bodhi.
“The others will continue looking for treasure,” said Xue Yi.
“Yes.”
“I’m a mess due to Luan’er’s death. The starmap has been in my hands all along, yet I failed to see the pattern,” said Xue Yi.
“If I come across Li Tianming, I’ll avenge Yunge and Luan’er,” said Ye Bodhi.
They exchanged a meaningful look. Because he had no pupils, Ye Bodhi’s eyes appeared apathetic. However, many of those present would never forget how Ye Bodhi crushed all his opponents more than ten years ago. At the time, no one could compete with him and he was the victor of the previous Number One Summit. Gu Yunge and Xia Ziluan had only reached the semifinals.