"So youâre the son of that bastard Li Muyang? You think you can challenge us Ancient Theocrats just because youâre a little talented? Since you have a deathwish, weâll grant it!" Dongyang Liu said.
"Have I challenged you before?" Tianming chuckled. "Oh, youâre talking about the Nineshades Clan? I wasnât wrong, you know. You canât accept it because youâre weak. Whatâs the point in calling yourselves Theocrats and forgetting your origins? The Nineshades Clan will forever remain the Nineshades Clan. Your dirty origins will never change, and youâll never be true rulers even after tens of thousands of years!"
Tianming charged in with Grand-Orient Sword in hand. He would fight the two princes himself. The moment their weapons clashed, sparks flew.
"Insolence!" Dongyang Liu angrily slashed downward, leaving a trail of golden light in the wake of his blade.
"The only thing Iâm âinâ is your mother!" Tianmingâs body surged with power as he gathered three thousand strands of Invincible Sword Ki and activated the Imperealm Sword Formation. His surroundings were filled with both Imperial and Realm Sword Ki, which his foes had to deflect before they could get to him.
His formation continued expanding and soon reached twenty meters; this was the fruit of his labor after breaking through. He managed to get even more sword ki from the Grand-Orient Sword to further reinforce the formation. It was definitely a nightmare for his enemies.
"Die!" Tianming gathered all of his strands of Invincible Sword Ki, as well as the ones from the Imperealm Sword Formation, then used the explosive fourth strike of the Shenxiao Sword Art. Coupled with the boost Feiling afforded him, he was so powerful he could destroy the heavens and the earth.
The Grand-Orient Sword came sweeping past, immediately crushing Dongyang Liuâs weapon. When the sword ki followed, something terrifying happened. Dongyang Liu widened his eyes as he remained still in mid-air. He looked down and found that every part beneath his neck had been engulfed by Tianmingâs sword ki and instantly vaporized. It was as if he had been decapitatedâno, it was more accurate to say that his head was all that remained of his body.
"Ugh..." Dongyang Liu saw his life flashing past.
"Still dare to be so arrogant? What kind of Theocrat are you? Why do you think youâre inherently better than others? We are all the same in the face of death. Youâll die one day as well. Donât shoot me that look of disbelief, Iâm already sick of it. So what if I kill you?"
Tianming gave him a slap on the face, causing him to widen his eyes before he stopped breathing. Tianming then grabbed his hair and yelled, "The traitorous fourth son of Dongyang Yun, Dongyang Liu, is dead! Whoâs next?!"
"Our boss is truly badass!" the warriors of his battalion cheered as their morale soared.
Tianming turned back and saw that the fifth prince had been frightened away by the utter slaughter of his elder brother. He even abandoned his lifebound beast to its fate.
"You think Iâll let you escape?!" Tianming put his sword away and gave the Three-Thousand Starfield a swing. The whip rapidly extended three hundred meters and landed on Dongyang Fengâs head.
"Agh!" Feeling the threat coming, he immediately turned back and took out his spear. He thought that once Tianming caught up to him, he could deliver a counterattack. But the moment he took out his spear, he knew it was over for him.
Tianming was still three hundred meters away. With a loud clang, the whip sent his spear flying. Tianming then lashed out with the Ninesilver Astral ArtâBrilliant Stars. The whip sparkled in the dark once more, becoming a shining night sky as it rapidly wrapped around Dongyang Fengâs neck a few times.
"Go away!" Dongyang Feng attempted to tear the whip apart, but to no avail. The blue rings of the whip were as sharp as blades and could even cut other weapons apart, let alone his neck.
When Tianming gave the whip a pull, Dongyang Fengâs head came with it and his body landed on the ground, kicking up quite a lot of dust. Just like that, Tianming had gotten another head. The head stared at him with terrified, bloodshot eyes.
"You truly are a coward. I thought your lot committed suicide after you lost, yet you tried to run. Are you really a Theocrat? Hahaha..." Tianming mocked him mercilessly, filling Dongyang Fengâs last moments with unbearable suffering and humiliation.
This time around, everyone had clearly seen what happened. The fourth and fifth princes had perished by Tianmingâs hand in the most horrible way possible. His merciless and brutish way of fighting was exciting to watch. The two he had just killed were core members of the Theocrats and executors of the Primeval Autarchâs will, yet Tianming had not only killed them, but also made sure to utterly crush their spirits, something the Theocrats would never tolerate. They were an unyielding clan. Even if they lost, their firm wills wouldnât perish. They would even kill themselves to be rid of the humiliation of their mistakes, yet Dongyang Feng had run away because of fear. There was nothing more embarrassing than that.
"An unyielding clan? No, youâre just as fearful of death as everyone!"
The Theocratsâ millennia of oppression came at the price of countless mountains of corpses. They had long earned the ire of many. If it werenât for their hate of the Theocrats, many beastmasters wouldnât have joined the Decimo Dao Palace to avoid serving them. When they saw Tianmingâs awesome performance, they were filled with righteous fervor.
"Li Tianming, frankly speaking, youâre nothing but a brat to me. Iâm old enough to be your grandfather. However, youâve earned this old oneâs respect! Look, brothers, these so-called Theocrats are afraid of dying too! Letâs make sure to give them a good fright before killing them!"
Every one of them was instantly pumped to the max. They were filled with motivation to cull every last Theocrat from the battlefield and scare them into retreating. The ten or so sky saints were all dealt with by Tianmingâs subordinates, Ye Lingfeng, and the soulfiend. They then joined up with Ying Huo and Lan Huang to kill the four hydras.
"Lan Huang, take this," Tianming said as he tossed Dongyang Liu and Dongyang Fengâs heads to his back. He would be taking them back with him as proof. Now that he had killed two princes, he was quite deep into the enemy camp. He decided to retreat a little with his battalion.
"I wonder how the others are doing. At least my battalion didnât suffer many casualties and got good results. Our mission is mostly accomplished."n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om
That was the reason Tianming toned it down a bit. The Decimo Dao Palace had only come as reinforcements. Since Jiang Lingâs men hadnât broken through the defense line yet, those from the dao palace wouldnât jump into the fray and get themselves killed.
At that moment, something really abrupt occurred. Tianming received Bai Zijunâs urgent order for all of them to retreat from the formation.
"Itâs gonna end right now? Are we not going to continue the attack?" Though Tianming was really doubtful about it, he didnât hesitate and ordered, "Dark Astral Battalion, fall back!"
"Understood!"
Discipline was paramount in the military, and orders were to be obeyed no matter what doubts one had. All of them rapidly retreated, even though they had spared no effort to get where they were.
Even as they retreated, they had to weather the spirit hazards, as well as the pursuit of the enemies, which ended in some casualties. Tianming had done his best to protect his men, finding the safest route for them to travel and immediately saving those who were heavily injured.
"Fall back! Fall back!"
As they retreated, Tianming also noticed the Ancient Qilin Clan retreating. "Looks like something mustâve happened to break the rhythm of the two attacking armies."
Not long after the retreat, he ran into Bai Zijun, who was getting the entire Skycore Legion to retreat. "Whatâs going on, Astral King?" Tianming and a few other generals asked.
"Dongyang Yun has activated the defensive formation in the Abyssal Battlefield. They lured a lot of wildbeasts and are planning to send them into the Divine Capital through the abyss in the Imperial City right ahead of us. They were really secretive, this time around, and we were completely unaware of their plans. Fortunately, the beasts were quite loud and impossible to hide. When the palace lord received word of it, she immediately had us retreat from the battlefield to prevent us from clashing with the wildbeasts."
"Has Dongyang Yun gone mad? The wildbeasts are mindless creatures that kill all! Even though the Divine Capital has fallen, many are still standing guard there. If Dongyang Yun opens up the path through ot the Abyssal Battlefield to lead the wildbeasts in, wouldnât the whole Divine Capital be overrun by those monsters?"
"The spiritual energy in the Divine Capital is really attractive to the wildbeasts. Leaving the pathway open will cause more and more wildbeasts to gather. It wonât just cause trouble for us, Dongyang Yun will have to deal with a huge mess too!"
"The Divine Capital will truly have no hope of being rebuilt if the beasts are allowed in."
The generals all sounded rather angry.
Bai Zijun said, "He no longer cares. By letting the beasts through, heâll be able to give us a crippling blow. Fortunately, we received word of it early and managed to retreat in time."
"Then what happens next? Whatâs his fallback plan? Heâll be attacked by the wildbeasts himself!"
"Heâll probably wait until daytime, when the Sun-Moon Imperial Formationâs power will be charged by the sun. The wildbeasts will be marked by the formation. As long as they block off the pathway to the Abyssal Battlefield, theyâll be able to stop the wildbeasts from coming through."
"Wouldnât the wildbeasts leave the range of the formation to avoid its attacks and cause havoc in the Divine Capital?!"
"He doesnât care about the capital at all. All he values is his position on the throne. This is a desperate move from him. At the very least, heâs forced us to retreat. He knows that we want to preserve our forces as best as we can."
"Then what do we do next?" the rest asked.
"Rest up for now. We might need to send someone to attack the Abyssal Battlefield to cut off the flow of wildbeasts. Once we gain control of the passage there, weâll be able to attack the Imperial City from within the formation. However, we might lose our opportunity tonight. The next window for us to act will be next month," Bai Zijun said.
"Understood!"
"Donât worry, time is on our side. Now, letâs head back with our comrades."
"Yes!"
This was supposed to be a reconnaissance mission to begin with. Not killing Autarch Yun didnât disappoint Tianming at all. The Decimo Dao Palace had to take care of their own men; there was no need for them to die in the fight between Dongyang Ling and Dongyang Yun.
"By the time we return next month, Iâll only have grown stronger. By then, even fewer will be able to stop me," Tianming said. He could already hear the sound of the wildbeasts coming through.
"Looks like information is indeed important in warfare. The wildbeasts attacked as part of Dongyang Yunâs plan, and itâs likely that not even Dongyang Ling received word of it. Thankfully, we heard them coming and managed to retreat in time and escaped the fate of being overrun by them. Dongyang Yun is ruthless. With this, the Divine Capital will be ruined for good."
Tianming had believed that it would be really hard to defeat the two Theocrat brothers to begin with, and this was all within expectations. He looked up and saw the edge of the Sun-Moon Imperial Formation. Once he sent them out, he wouldâve succeeded in his mission. However...
"Dammit! Where the heck is Meow Meow?!" He felt like his head was about to explode.