Beastmaster of the Ages

"Well, this is what you don't get. He was already despairing and had given up on life. Provoking him, on the other hand, would cause him to stubbornly do the opposite of what I want him to do. That way, he'd choose to live on instead," Tianming said.

"So, will you heal his xeno fatigue and save him?" Zi Zhen asked.

Tianming turned back and took a look. "It remains to be seen. I don't have any way to control him right now, not even with my Imperial Sword Prison. I already took so much of his wealth. What comes next depends on him. If he survives until I gain the ability to control him for certain, I'll help him out. It all depends on whether my ability to cure the fatigue will be leaked."

"I see...." Leaking that information would put him at incredible risk, after all.

......

Soon, Tianming went somewhere safe to deal with his spoils. Within a cave, he began picking things out while Zi Zhen watched with her hand on her chin.

"Do you think we hit an easy jackpot this time around?" she asked. She had thought that it would be a tough fight, yet she hadn’t even had a chance to join in.

"It's thanks to Yin Chen," Tianming said. Without it, it wouldn't be nearly as easy to find a target like the old man, requiring only minimum effort for maximum reward.

"Let's start counting the order fragments!" Order fragments with single hexagons were grade one, while those with two intersecting hexagons were grade two. "So, forty-nine grade ones and thirteen grade twos!"

That was a staggering number indeed. It was a shame there weren’t any grade-three order fragments. Still, forty-nine grade-one fragments were easily worth a hundred million soulstones, while thirteen grade-two fragments would cost no less than five to six hundred million. Even then, their combined value couldn't measure up to that of a single grade-three order fragment, a testament to their insane rarity. However, Tianming had more or less expected that that would be the case.

"I have too many orders. All eight of them are the strongest of their class, so I need so much more to break through, while most people with a single strand of order require much less. That also means I need many more order fragments. I wonder if the grade-two fragments will be of use to me." At the very least, he could be sure that the grade-one order fragments wouldn't do much.

"There must be other surprises in there!" The number of fragments was more or less what they had estimated based on the information Yin Chen gathered, but the number of soulstones far exceeded expectations. "Holy crap! Elder Bloodtower, that old dragon, actually had 3.8 billion soulstones!"

It was no wonder the spatial ring was so heavy. No doubt, the elder had siphoned this wealth out of the members of his cult. It was no wonder his subordinates were trying to usurp him. Tianming was in possession of all that hard-earned wealth.

With so many soulstones, I could buy four grade-three order fragments. However, my and Zi Zhen's capabilities are not high enough. There's no way we'd be able to carry out such a transaction. The risk is too high, so we should wait for a chance. Normally, folks in the Xenoabyss wouldn't sell order fragments to outworlders in the first place. Not to mention, Tianming was a fugitive of the New Shrine, so he had no choice but to use a proxy for his purchases. The same applied to Zi Zhen. "Guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

Either way, it was still a magnificent haul. Putting aside the order fragments and soulstones, since he didn't need to cultivate right away, he checked what was left in the elder's personal belongings. "Huh? What’s this?"

Deep in the spatial ring, Tianming saw something odd. It looked like an eyeball with a diameter of one meter. Taking it out, he noticed that it was slightly moist to the touch, as if it was still alive. Needless to say, it was rather unsavory. When he gave it a closer look, he saw that the eye had three irises in it. "Isn't it the same eye as the one on Zi Zhen's back when she transforms?!"

Could it be a coincidence? Stunned, he waved at Zi Zhen to come over. "Check this out."

Right as he said that, he felt something amiss. Turning back, he saw that she had already transformed into a giant of five meters in height. Filled with ferocity and covered in a demonic aura, she wildly growled, a fierce look coming from the pair of eerie eyes on her back.

"What's wrong?" Tianming felt that something was so wrong that he was about to pull on the interdimensional line. All of his instincts told him that Zi Zhen was dangerous in her current state! No doubt, the eye was the cause. He gave it a swift kick and sent it far away.

As expected, Zi Zhen roared and chased the eyeball, catching it in an instant and crushing it! The eyeball melted into a liquid that flowed into the eyes on her back, assimilating with her. Throughout the entire process, the killing intent and savagery radiating from her only intensified.

She turned and looked at Tianming, howling as she raised her claws, completely ready to hunt!

"Turn back!" Tianming yelled, causing Zi Zhen to shudder. Her six irises seemed to regain clarity for the slightest moment before being filled with hostility once more. She let out a pitiful shriek, giving Tianming one last look before turning away and rushing out of the cave at high speed and completely vanishing. She seemed to still be somewhat conscious and had decided that leaving was the best way to protect him.

"What in the world was that eyeball?!" Tianming was sweating buckets. "Yin Chen, keep an eye on her!"

She was still a fugitive, so he couldn't just let her be. She would be captured if she made her way to somewhere populated. Li Fan seemed to have plans for her. While Tianming couldn't catch up to her, he would eventually find her with Yin Chen around. He immediately followed as fast as he could. According to Yin Chen, she seemed to lose all reason once she left, running around and causing a loud commotion everywhere she went, especially with her roars.

"Is there something we can do to stop her?"

"There isn't...." Thankfully, Yin Chen was spread out enough to keep a constant eye on her. Tianming had to rely on Meow Meow to keep up with her current speed; hopefully, they would be able to catch up. How could Elder Bloodtower just so happen to possess an eyeball that resonated with Zi Zhen in that way? Had he known, he wouldn't have taken it out.

He kept chasing her, and eventually, Yin Chen reported horrible news. Zi Zhen was actually heading in the direction of the Bloodtower Cult. The power struggle there was still ongoing, and they hadn't realized that Elder Bloodtower was gone. They knew who she was, as well as the bounty on her! Once she showed herself there, things would quickly go south.

"Dammit, what's with my bipolar luck?!" Plans never turned out the way one expected them to.