Beastmaster of the Ages

The boss of the Star Hunters was far harder to deal with than Tianming and the rest had expected.

"We don't really care about killing you. If you tell us how many people from Intrepidus are coming, we'll spare your life and ransom you back to them as a hostage," Xiaodao attempted.

"Oh, so you already know." The boss immediately knew that someone had leaked their plans and smirked. "It's pointless even if you do. The Infinitum Mundus is indeed vast, but as long as you don't give up on this star, there’s nowhere you can hide! The elites of Intrepidus will wash this world clean with your blood as a burial sacrifice for the Star Hunters! Everything in this world, including Lin Xiaodao and that little runt, will end up as our property!"

Since he had met Lin Ke before Tianming killed him, Tianming figured that the boss had reported to Intrepidus that he was hiding years ago and called them to come. Whether Lin Ke died wouldn't make a difference at the end of the day; it was a convenient justification at best. With the boss around, Intrepidus would have come sooner or later.

"Lin Xiaodao, Li Tianming, await your death. Hahaha! I've requested our rex mundi to exterminate your entire world to avenge my Star Hunter brothers! You have billions of believers and your order helped everyone in this world break through all of a sudden, eh? I'd like to see what you'll be capable of once they all die off! Hahahaha!" At the very end, the boss just kept laughing like a madman within the gourd. "Brothers, I’ll join you soon."

He was tough enough that he didn't even give Xiaodao any chance to control him, managing to implode his crippled body within the gourd. Before his death, he heartily laughed and said, "Soon, you’ll all be in hell, too. I'll be waiting... hehehehe...."

That was how the boss of the Star Hunters met his end. Tianming and the others' hearts grew heavier.

"So revenge is merely a justification for what they were going to do in the first place. They're after some kind of hidden treasure," Xiaodao said. For Intrepidus, that would be the secret of Tianming's cultivation.

"I wonder how many people a mundus with six foundationeers would send," Tianming said.

"It depends on how the factions are organized within that mundus. If all six foundationeers are godshades, then all of them might come. If not, the godshades will send all the foundationeers they have and not call the others, so they won't have to split the spoils," Wudi said.

"That makes sense." They still didn't know how many of those foundationeers were godshades.

"No matter how many come, our only way to deal with them is to form an alliance with Yi Daiyan," Wudi said. No matter how painful that might be for the Swordgod Lin Clan, it was something that they absolutely had to do.

"Would she even care?" Tianming asked.

"She must. The Infinitum Mundus is her territory, at the end of the day, and even we are her prey. How could she let outsiders come and steal it? Not to mention, we can just make up another reason for her to join," Xiaodao said.

"What would that be?"

"We can tell her that Myriadpath Valley has their sights on the Infinitum Stele."

"I see!" Everyone else nodded in agreement.

"Not to mention, Fengqing Youmeng revealed the relationship between Shenxi Xingtian and Meng Ying, right? Any ally of the ebons is also Yi Daiyan's enemy," Wudi said. All in all, the close vicinity of the Sun and Ebonia seemed like fate.

"Then I'll reach out to her!" Xiaodao said.

"Alright."

Xiaodao had Yi Daiyan's transmission stone. He had worked with her back then, after all. "I have something important to tell you. Do we meet in person or just talk like this?"

A white-haired figure dressed in black appeared on the stone. "Let's talk in person." The transmission immediately cut off after she said that. Around two hours later, Yin Chen told Tianming that she had arrived outside the formation where she’d last shown up.

The Gladean Ruins lifted off the Sun and flew toward her. Now that Xiaodao was a foundationeer, they no longer feared her like before, when Xiaodao hadn’t been present. One of the two dragon heads of the Gladean Ruins turned translucent, making it seem like they were meeting Yi Daiyan face to face.

Tianming once more felt like she resembled his mother to an uncanny degree, and was even able to feel an aura of maternity coming from her. It was a special feeling. His reason told him that she was dangerous, and possibly even fatal, but his heart found it hard to truly hate or reject her.

Her white hair fluttered in the void of space. She immediately spotted Xiaodao and mused, "Foundation stage, eh?"

"I had a lucky break," Xiaodao humbly said.

"There's no such thing as luck in cultivation. Only one out of trillions can reach the Foundation stage." Yi Daiyan's voice was soft, but so clear that nobody had any trouble understanding her.

Lin Xiao and Dongshen Yue found themselves no longer able to hate her for the death of their son after learning that Lin Mu had reincarnated. However, that didn't change the fact that she had stolen their Ancestral Swordheart.

Unlike speaking to Xiaodao, Yi Daiyan seemed to like speaking to Tianming. She looked into his black-and-gold eyes and said, "Didn't I ask you to leave last time? Why didn't you listen?"

Tianming couldn't stand how much she sounded like Wei Jing when she had scolded him. He even subconsciously scratched his head like he did as a child, but he bit down on his teeth and pulled his hand back down. "We were terrified by the rex mundi's power and had planned to leave, but we discovered new information that shed light on an even bigger danger the Infinitum Bodhimanda will be facing. So, we decided to stay behind and fight for the Infinitum Bodhimanda to the very end."

"An even bigger danger?" For once, Yi Daiyan seemed mildly surprised. She lowered her head slightly in thought. "Do continue."

Tianming briefed her on how Myriadpath Valley and Intrepidus were sending elite troops over, as well as how they suspected Shenxi Xingtian was working with them to form an alliance of four factions. "It's said that Myriadpath Valley also has their sights on your Infinitum Stele, And Intrepidus is after my Ninedragon Imperial Tomb. Meng Ying has also worked with Shenxi Xingtian before. They’ll be transferring elite cultivators here using the Myriadpath Celestial Formation, so it won’t be too long before they arrive. The only way for us to survive is to form an alliance."

Hearing that, Yi Daiyan's expression was unchanged, but her gaze kept turning colder.

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