Li Tianming turned back, having just evaded death and wanting to give it all a good look. A black-haired man was standing upon the ruins in the distance. He stood ramrod straight, and his hair hung elegantly along his back, much like his refined expression. Even then, that didnât dampen the domineering aura that man gave off one bit. His eyes even resembled two mirrors that seemed to reflect whatever he saw. Tianming was dazed with the sight.
"Uncle Yang?" Wasnât the one that suddenly appeared to save him Mu Yang? Apart from his eyes, everything about him was the same as before. However, he realized a huge change in his aura. Mu Yang now felt like an empyrean saint.
How could the Heavenly Will Mu Yang become an empyrean saint after traveling with his mother for a year? It was already far beyond his common sense. He continued to stare blankly before Mu Yang turned to meet his gaze. It was hard to discern his expression from his reflective eyes, but that didnât make him seem cold at all. His lips curved into what seemed to resemble a smile.
"Long time no see, Tianming."
"Uncle Yang? Your power..."
Right at that moment, the autarch shrieked. "Li Muyang?!" He had stopped attacking and was looking at Mu Yang like a fool.
"You have decent eyesight. I didnât think youâd recognize me," Mu Yang said.
"Impossible! Youâre dead! I killed you myself! You died with Jingâer!" He rolled his eyes in disbelief.
"Iâve managed to reincarnate."
Tianming didnât know what was going on at all. He was just as shocked as the autarch was.
"What kind of joke is this? Itâs impossible! Even gods canât reincarnate. What kind of bullshit is a mere mortal like you trying to make up?!" Xuanyuan Xu said, fuming at his loss of a finger. He didnât know who Li Muyang was, but that didnât matter. This man was getting in his way of claiming his three divine artifacts.
He didnât believe the claims at all, yet Autarch Qianâs gaze was still fixed on Li Muyang. He was so stunned that he didnât even help his lifebound beast as Li Wudi and the Primordial Bloodbane Kunpeng ganged up upon it. "Impossible! Impossible!"
Back then, he had personally killed Li Muyang and sealed him in the ice cavern for four decades. Just recently, he had personally turned his corpse into ash. How could he still be alive?
Tianming, however, knew that Li Muyang was alive all this time, but how did it turn out to be Mu Yang? "Are you really my dadâs reincarnation?"
"It would be more accurate to say that youâre the son of my current incarnation. Iâll explain it to you when we get back, Tianming," Li Muyang said before turning to Xuanyuan Xu. "How dare you try to kill my son? Now that Iâm here, youâre as good as dead."
"Nonsense! No matter who you are, youâll be nothing once youâre dead!" Xuanyuan Xu snapped.
With a loud boom, Li Muyang pushed Tianming a whole kilometer away. He didnât say anything else to him and began fighting Xuanyuan Xu with a normal weapon that only had some ten saintly heavenly patterns. His lifebound beast was the same Ink Qilin from back then. Even though it now had around forty stars, it still couldnât be compared to the Infernal Viledragon. Yet, he and his qilin were able to hold their ground against Xuanyuan Xu. They seemed to be fighting on even ground.
Not to mention, he used nothing but the Demise of Man-Earth-Heaven the whole time, but each strike of his was infused with a hint of the supramortal. His abilities almost seemed to equal Li Wudiâs, who was a first-level empyrean saint, but his weapon and lifebound beast grade were both inferior. Even then, his sword strikes were so arcane and ethereal that even Xuanyuan Xu couldnât quite grasp it. With the simplest of sword arts, he had managed to unleash sword intent on the level of masters. Even his lifebound beastâs attacks were far more intricate and technical than the dragonâs. It seemed to be using every ounce of its abilities without any wastage.
"Uncle Yang is my dad?!" Tianming finally accepted that fact as they fought. "So Mom was serious when she said Iâd have to call him dad the next time we meet?"
He recalled the first time he met Mu Yang. Back then, he wouldâve never imagined him to be the person who had abandoned Wei Jing for twenty or so years.
"That canât be. Heâs Momâs childhood friend. If that person in Easton Domain was him, why would he abandon Mom for two decades?"
His mind was a mess, but all he could do was wait for things to pass until he got an explanation.
"I sure hope he can deal with Xuanyuan Xu." Only then would Tianming stand a chance of survival. "Alright, letâs not overthink this. Godfather is hurt, and we donât have much time left."
With his biological father coming to protect him, he used this chance to charge towards the autarch and Li Wudi. "Autarch Qianâs far easier to deal with than Xuanyuan Xu, and Godfather is hurt, so heâll need the help."
But by the time Tianming came to his aid, it was a little too late. Li Wudiâs chest had been pierced through. It was already frightening that he managed to hold until now. Thankfully, Autarch Qian was still flabbergasted from the revelation. That sliver of hope fueled Li Wudi as he unleashed another barrage of attacks. "Die!"
While he couldnât kill Autarch Qian because of his Cyclic Mirror, he could at least kill the autarch beast.
The Primordial Bloodbane Kunpeng and the autarch beast were entangled in a web of exploding abilities. Li Wudi was completely stained in blood like a god of death as he swung the Firstbane Saber towards the beastâs chest where Tianmingâs Myriad-Sword Demise had struck before with the full force of an empyrean saint.
The autarch beast shrieked as its organs were torn apart. The eyes on all its nine heads darkened that instant as it struggled and fell to the ground. While it wasnât dead yet, its injuries were ten times worse than Li Wudiâs. It was already on its last breaths, and if it died, the autarch would no longer have any future potential. This was the fullest extent of what Li Wudi could accomplish after being wounded by Xuanyuan Xu.
"Just die for me, would you?" Li Wudi swung his blade a few more times, hacking into the autarch beastâs flesh. It shrieked as it suffered from pain a few times worse than Li Wudiâs, but it soldiered on. It was still able to resist and cry to its master for help.
"Youâre asking to be killed!" Though Autarch Qian was still preoccupied with Li Muyang, he couldnât help but snap out of it to help his beast. But when he turned around, it was already on the brink of death. "Li Wudi, you will die today!"
The tables had turned with Li Muyang showing up. Now, the autarch was once again in grave danger. However, it wasnât time to panic. His first priority was to kill Li Wudi. As Li Wudi was slashing away at the autarch beast, he slammed the Cyclic Mirror on his head.
The sheer pressure coming from the mirror caused Li Wudi to spout another fountain of blood. He had been holding on with nothing but sheer willpower and focused all his efforts on killing the autarch beast without trying to defend against the strike in the slightest.
"Die! Die! Die! Be wiped clean! To hell with your reincarnation bullshit!" Autarch Qian was crying tears of blood as his rage boiled over.
"Youâre afraid..." Li Wudi said with a smile as he held onto dear life.
"What am I afraid of?""Youâre afraid of him... Li Muyang... Hahahahaha..."
"What a joke!"
"So what if you kill me, old fool? As long as Tianming lives, heâll wipe out the Nineshades Clan for good, including the scars your clan left on the world. Once Xuanyuan Xu dies, youâre next. So what if you found a crook to help you? Youâre gonna end up dead either way."
"Shut up!" He continued bashing Li Wudiâs head with the mirror, applying the Cyclic Stigma on his forehead and causing him to faint. It was only then that he finally collapsed. As he did, he saw Tianming attacking the autarch from behind.
Live on... That was his final thought.
The autarch turned around in the nick of time to stop Tianmingâs blow, backing away tens of meters as he did so. He even grabbed the unconscious Li Wudi while he was at it.
"So what if Li Muyang came back? He died by my hand forty years ago, and he will die again today. The two of you will accompany him!" He tossed Li Wudi away into the muddy swamp nearby where three million citizens of Richwater City were.
"Godfather!" Tianmingâs eyes were bloodshot. He glared at the old man with seething rage. It was too bad that Li Wudi wasnât able to hold on any longer. He had used up all he had in an attempt to kill the autarch beast. He was so stubborn that he would do anything to piss the autarch off, even if it meant his death. Now, the autarch beast was as good as dead.
"Iâm sure Li Wudiâs empyrean saint soul tastes super delicious. Since he dared touch my lifebound beast, Iâll use his soul and the other three million fishes to heal it!" Autarch Qian laughed as he forced the Primordial Bloodbane Kunpeng away with his black sword and tossed the Cyclic Mirror into the swamp.
"Time to cook the soup!" Now, he was trying to drag his lifebound beast from the brink of death. As he fought to push the kunpeng back, the autarch beast slowly crawled into the heavenly pattern formation.
Meanwhile, the mirror had sunk to the depths of the swamp, with Li Wudi floating right above it alongside three million other panicked folks.
"What is His Majesty going to do?"
"Heâs trying to kill us to extend the autarch beastâs life!"
"Oh heavens, no! Thatâs three million people! His Majestyâs gone insane!"
"Let me out! Waaaaah!"
Cries and wails could be heard as all of them despaired in their final moments.