Beastmaster of the Ages

Everyone, welcome to 2021!  2020 has been an absolutely horrid year for many people on many levels, and I think many (most? all?) of us are glad to leave it behind.  With that said, I wanted to give everyone a preview for some of the things that are coming up in the coming few months for Wuxiaworld.

Front-End Site Redesign - This one has been a long time coming!  Historically, we've focused more on incremental changes and feature build-out rather than overhauling the site itself, but for quite a few months now...

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Li Tianming finally conquered his inner demon when he erased Lin Xiaoting. His gaze and disposition all changed, something inevitable after such a moment. Some people had something terrifying lurking within their eyes despite their young age. Now, Li Tianming was just such a person.

He walked toward the little chick and the black cat; those two critters had worked hard today.

“Li Tianming!” The little chick looked at him.

“Mhm.”

“I enjoyed myself a lot today!” The little chick’s eyes were inflamed with passion. It had always been a battle junkie.

“Nutjob. Sleeping is much better!” The black cat’s eyelids were already fluttering as it drowsily swayed from side to side. Its cute appearance and attitude were a far cry from how it had just dominated the Blizzard Spirit Dragon.

“Which of you wants the Saintbeast War-Soul?” Li Tianming placed it in front of them.

“Give it to the lazy bum. If I get any stronger, it’ll get an inferiority complex.” The little chick bopped the black cat on the head. It wasn’t wrong; the current black cat was absolutely no match for the little chick.

Firstly, the little chick had abundant battle experience. Secondly, it was a cultivation maniac and had mastered many beastial arts, such as Demise of Man-Earth-Heaven. Thirdly, it had refined a beast soul before and gained its ‘Infernal Armor’, giving it one ability over the black cat.

If the little chick got the War-Soul, the gap would be even larger. The black cat hadn’t even learned one beastial art, and relied purely on aggression to fight. This trend would likely continue, based on their personalities.

Since the chick insisted on taking care of its little brother, Li Tianming made the decision. He said to the black cat, “Alright, refine this.”

“Meow?” The black cat moved closer and gave a sniff. “Eew, no! It stinks meow!”

“You’ll get stronger.”

“Will I not have to cultivate if I get stronger?”

“Yep.” Li Tianming and the little chick exchanged a grin.

“I have a bad feeling.” The black cat shivered.

“You shouldn’t!” Li Tianming and Ying Huo chorused.

For the sake of reducing its cultivation time, the black cat mustered up its courage and popped the Devil-Monarch Wildsoul into its mouth. Its lightningsource was in its stomach, so that was where it would refine it. As a Primordial Chaos Beast, it wouldn’t be too difficult.

Li Tianming let the black cat back into the lifebound space.

He just had to give it some time and it would be even more terrifying.

“Ying Huo, aren’t you scared Meow Meow will bully you if you’re so generous?” Li Tianming was much more relaxed now that Lin Xiaoting had died. The rock weighing on his heart had finally shattered.

“Meow Meow? Bully me? Good joke!” Ying Huo laughed without a care.

“Yes, Meow Meow is a bit lazy. However, that suanni beast became so physically strong with the surging devilish ki after using the wildsoul. As the Genesis Chaos Thunderfiend, Meow Meow’s bloodline is the natural-born ruler of such devils. Hopefully, the wildsoul can stimulate its bloodline and let it create its own, stronger ability. Meow Meow is poorer in the technical aspects of combat, so we’ll let it tread the path of physical power and use its abilities to steamroll the opponent.” Li Tianming laughed.

“If the Devil-Monarch Wildsoul can let its body transform the same way the suanni beast did, that’ll fulfill your fantasy of a fierce tiger.”

“Yes!” Li Tianming was sick of people laughing every time he summoned his lifebound beasts. “In the future, when Meow Meow transforms, we’ll see who gets the last laugh!” Li Tianming began fantasizing.

There was no baleful aura around him, despite having just killed his hated foe. After overcoming his inner demons, the only thing left was a long road ahead of him. This route was overcast, and filled with countless experts and geniuses.

However, Li Tianming was already mentally prepared for all this.

At the same time, in the lifebound space within his body, an egg shook in a corner.

“Eh?” Li Tianming noticed it. The egg had two colors: its left side was brown like a mountain, and had an aura as boundless as the great earth, while its right side was blue like water, with an aura as turbulent as the vast sea.

A small crack appeared on the two-colored egg. It was so tiny that it couldn’t be seen without close inspection, but it was irrefutable proof this third brother was making its preparations to hatch!

Li Tianming examined the crack. It drew a graceful, stylish and thin arc, with a shape like… a dragon’s. However, this was a dragon that was very much more stylish than the Blizzard Spirit Dragon.

Still, a crack was just a crack in the end.

“It looks like we can look forward to the birth of the third Primordial Chaos Beast soon. It’ll be a fierce beast this time… right? I wonder what its personality will be like. A cultivation maniac like Ying Huo, or a lazy bum like Meow Meow?” Li Tianming was full of expectation toward the beast itself. Naturally, he was also very interested in its bloodline, and the changes it would bring.

The Aeternal Infernal Phoenix and Genesis Chaos Thunderfiend were both terrifying existences! How exactly would the third fare in comparison? Only time would tell.

……

“Li Tianming.” When Vice-Inspector Jin Yixuan stood up, silence fell.

Li Tianming had just given the War-Soul to his lifebound beast to refine, and the torrential rain had just started letting up, but the soil below still had a river of blood flowing through it.

“Please instruct me, Inspector.” Li Tianming wasn’t stupid. He was aware of who he could annoy and kill with his current strength. He was also aware of who, when he wasn’t strong enough nor did he have a deep enough enmity with, he shouldn’t come into conflict with because of impulsiveness.

The two inspectors were the latter.

Actually, they had already sent a message with how they hadn’t stopped Li Tianming, nor opened the barrier for a whole two hours. They wouldn’t feel displeasure over what was done to Lightning Manor; at most, they would feel annoyance over their plans being disrupted.

Jin Yixuan actually began to clap. “Your grasp of heavenly-ranked battle arts is shocking. It’s enough to make even me sigh in admiration. That was the foundation of how you defeated someone in Unity, despite being in Spiritsource yourself!”

Only now did many Unity stage experts realise that Li Tianming’s sword art before was actually a heavenly-ranked battle art, which made them understand exactly why they had been so profound.

“You and Mu Yang are the heroes of the Wei Clan!” Jin Yixuan smiled. It was obvious to everyone that the inspectors had given up on Lightning Manor.

“Thank you for the praise, Inspector. However, the road ahead is still long for me, and junior needs to continue working hard.” Li Tianming replied. His attitude was neither overly humble nor arrogant.

“You have a good attitude.” Jin Yixuan smiled.

“Li Tianming, your left hand has undergone the ‘beastial metamorphosis’. It’s a common sight in the Grand-Orient Realm, and you don’t need to cover it up. To a certain extent, it’s caused by the interaction of bloodlines between beastmaster and lifebound beast. However, it won’t be of any detriment to your cultivation, but will instead help it. For example, your left hand is now not only stronger than many wildbeasts, but also covered by many strong scales,” Song Yixue explained.

Beastial metamorphosis? Grand-Orient Realm? Li Tianming had kept his left arm covered up because he was worried it would cause a commotion, but it turned out it was a common sight elsewhere. After all, when beastmasters absorbed the bloodline power of their lifebound beast, a part of their body changing when they absorbed too much wouldn’t be surprising.

A partial metamorphosis wasn’t a problem, but if it was their full body, they would turn into a complete animal. That wasn’t a good outcome, but fortunately, it was rare.

As for the Grand-Orient Realm, Li Tianming hazarded a guess that it was where Heaven’s Elysium resided.

“Thank you for the information, Inspectors. I was under the impression something had gone wrong with my body, so I hid it.” Li Tianming smiled.

From now on, there was no need to hide it under such thick cloth anymore. In fact, his left arm wasn’t ugly at all. Instead, it was quite aesthetically pleasing, owing to its pure black color and regular hexagonal scales.

Without gloves, it would be more convenient to use his claw to fight, as well. As for the eye in his palm, it could use the Godsoul Canon and give him more vision.

The inspectors smiled when they heard Li Tianming. “I didn’t expect you to be the true owner of the War-Soul. Li Tianming, since you killed Lin Xiaoting and are the real genius with the Saintbeast War-Soul, follow us to Heaven’s Elysium in three days. Everything Lin Xiaoting had belongs to you, now.”

“You’ve successfully made us choose to place importance on you and give up on Lin Xiaoting! Your talent is wasted here in Vermilion Bird. The optimal choice for you is Heaven’s Elysium, the overlord of Grand-Orient Realm. Let me break it down for you: with your talent, you might still not have entered Heavenly Will within ten years in such an area with poor resources. Here, manna, spirit ores, herbs, and hazards... they’re all lacking! Worse still, the people here have too small a world view and are narrow-minded.”

“However, Heaven’s Elysium is where all the resources of Grand-Orient Realm are gathered. Countless high-quality manna, even terrestrial and celestial manna, are there! There’s also droves of geniuses competing there. And most important of all, there are powerhouses stronger than even Mu Yang and us to guide you there. They’re omnipotent, and even destroying mountains and eradicating rivers are no obstacle to them.

“Even we Inspectors aren’t the actual experts of Heaven’s Elysium, and are only in charge of managing countries outside of it. I know some of our arrangements this time might have made you uncomfortable, but you’ve proven your worth through your actions. If you can cultivate your way to success and we two gain a new genius friend, wouldn’t that be a win-win?

“Geniuses shouldn’t be buried here. We see you have the desire to compete, so Heaven’s Elysium is the best place for you. As someone with ambition, we ask you, are you willing to replace Lin Xiaoting and go to Heaven’s Elysium? We just need to change a name. Of course, if you don’t want to bother us, you can just use the name ‘Lin Xiaoting’.”

Both inspectors chuckled at the joke. Who would be willing to use their enemy’s name?

“Li Tianming, we’ve said so much simply because we appreciate talent. In the end, it’s up to you if you have the boldness to seize your future. Of course, to us, only ignorant fools would be fearful of challenge and turtle up in a small place like Vermilion Bird.”

When the inspectors had said so much, everyone cast interested looks at Li Tianming. Would he go to Heaven’s Elysium and represent the hopes of all the citizens of Vermilion Bird, and all the beastmasters of the peninsula?

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