Beastmaster of the Ages

As if the arrival of the Cloudmist Sword School had been discovered, the Grand-Orient Barrier shone even brighter with a faint rumble coming from within. The young man from the Earthorigin Sect folded his hands together and spoke with contempt, “They have already activated the barrier spirit hazard? They’re pretty scared of death.”

“Yuan Chen, does your Earthorigin Sect have similar opponents in the Earthorigin Realm?” Jun Niancang asked.

“We don’t. All of our opponents have already been cleaned up by our forefathers. As long as you eradicate them, they won’t dare to show their faces again. This is the reason why our clan will rule over the Earthorigin Realm for eternity,” said Yuan Chen.

“So that means the Li Saint Clan was generous enough to allow other sects to take root in the Grand-Orient Realm. After all, they ruled the Grand-Orient Realm in the past,” replied Jun Niancang.

“Brother Jun, this isn’t being generous, but stupid. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be facing extermination today. Your father is a man with courage, and he’s absolutely right to take this step. You can only gather all the resources in the territory by wiping out the other sects. So in the next tens of thousands of years, no one will be able to challenge Heaven’s Elysium’s authority.” Yuan Chen sounded pretty experienced. When he said those words, he didn’t care that the Cloudmist Sword School’s Sikong Jiansheng was around. But Sikong Jiansheng had already long considered the Cloudmist Sword School to be part of Heaven’s Elysium, so he wasn’t offended when he heard that remark.

“Yuan Chen is right. Many realms have moved toward the path of unification, holding absolute authority. The Divine Capital doesn’t care about that,” said the purple-haired woman standing beside them.

“What Zhenzhen said is right,” said Jun Niancang.

“Zhenzhen is a descendant of the Ancient Kirin Clan, and she grew up in the Divine Capital. So you can take her words seriously.” Yuan Chen smiled. The purple-haired woman clearly had the noblest status here; both Jun Niancang and Yuan Chen were more than polite to her.

“Jun Niancang, let yourself go and take revenge this time,” said Yun Zhenzhen. She couldn’t help but shake her head with pity in her eyes when she looked at Yueling Long, who lay in the ice coffin.

“I heard about Long’er from Brother Jun, and I never expected that something like this would happen.” Yuan Chen gnashed his teeth. It was a terrible regret.

“Jun Niancang, how much longer are we going to wait? I can’t wait to watch a good show,” asked Yun Zhenzhen. 

The bearing and aura of the visitors were at the same level as Jun Niancang, but their bloodline was nobler by comparison. The three of them were strong, and they represented the strongest batch of their generation. It was especially so after visiting the Theocracy of the Ancients; their horizons naturally became much higher.

“We can start as soon as we receive a message from the Onyx Sect,” said Jun Niancang. He was more impatient than everyone else, but he restrained himself. Even if he was on the verge of losing control, he still had to listen to the strategy set by his father.

Sikong Jiansheng and his sect were all prepared. The roaring of lifebound beasts was heard and every single beastmaster drew their swords. They were just waiting for the signal to attack. The Cloudmist keepers had sword ki surging in their eyes and the blood of their lifebound beasts was boiling, causing them to leave claw marks on the ground and rocks. Seeing the army ready to fight was a magnificent sight.

The Grant-Orient Sect had many bottomless holes leading to the Abyssal Battlefield in the surroundings. Roughly half a day later, an elder from the Onyx Sect traveled across the bottomless hole over to Sikong Jiansheng and reported, “Sect Master Sikong, Young Master Jun, the legion has already started the beast tide. They’ll start charging the barrier half an hour from now.”

“Everyone, we can start the countdown and attack!”

They had waited for this moment long enough.

“Roger!” Sikong Jiansheng nodded his head and raised his sword. In that split second, everyone’s gaze was focused on him.

“Cloudmist Sword School, listen up! The Elysian Emperor has ordered us to start the attack and give the Grand-Orient Sect a show of our strength! We will strike fear in them! And now, our Cloudmist Sword School will have to take this seriously. So much so that we have to perform better than the Onyx Sect in order to not let the Elysian Emperor down!

“Keepers! Trample the Grand-Orient Mountain Range with me! We will exterminate the Grand-Orient Sect! Let our swords slaughter everyone from the Grand-Orient Sect, and let those fools tremble beneath our feet! KILL!!” Sikong Jiansheng roared, soaring into the sky on a phoenix. As the sect master, he naturally had to take the lead at the Grand-Orient Sect. Under his encouragement, the Cloudmist keepers also roared out.

“KILL!!!!” Their screams instantly swallowed up Sikong Jiansheng’s voice. Shortly after, the roaring of their lifebound beasts overwhelmed their voices. The ground began trembling, and even the clouds opened up a path for this elite army.

Everyone in the Cloudmist keepers was at least in the Heavenly Will stage, and if they were placed in a small kingdom, they would be considered as masters. At the very least, they were all at Li Yanfeng’s level. And if tens of thousands of them came together, along with their lifebound beasts, anyone could imagine what a powerful force it would be.

The Grand-Orient Sect had a developed mountain and river system. There were many rivers flowing down the mountain, so that made the sky, land, and rivers the battlefield. The Cloudmist keepers and their lifebound beasts traveling through the battlefield was a majestic scene. Sikong Jiansheng held nothing back, since this was their first attack, and they had to intimidate the Grand-Orient Sect before devouring them bit by bit.

At the same time, the Grand-Orient Sect finally welcomed enemies. Tens of thousands of beastmasters charged into the heavenly pattern barrier under Sikong Jiansheng’s lead. The barrier was massive, and it looked like the army was devoured by it.

When the Cloudmist keepers charged into the barrier, they found their surroundings had changed. They weren’t young and ignorant, but they had never seen a barrier on the scale of this before, and it was their first time experiencing its power. When they stepped into the Grand-Orient Barrier, the first thing they encountered was a fog. The boundless fog had enveloped the entire Grand-Orient Barrier, obstructing the Cloudmist keepers’ vision.

With their vision blocked, they couldn’t see their enemies, nor could they see the path through the barrier to the Grand-Orient Sect. Tianming had encountered the blood fog in the Throughpath, and it was a reduced version of this white fog. The white fog wasn’t poisonous, but it looked boundless and completely covered the Cloudmist keepers. Even breathing too much of it could result in numbing and fatigue. The fog was enchanted on the Grand-Orient Barrier, becoming part of it. Then again, that was only the first layer of defense. 

“Kill!” Just the fog alone naturally couldn’t stop their footsteps. At the very least, it would just make them lose their direction. The Cloudmist keepers tore through the fog with their swords. When their lifebound beast charged forth, the entire barrier trembled.

“Come out!” the Cloudmist keepers yelled as they moved through the fog, vigilantly guarding themselves in the chaos. In fact, many of the Grand-Orient guardians had already entered the Grand-Orient Barrier, but their vision wasn't affected by the fog. This barrier had been created by their ancestor, so it followed strict rules to operate. The Grand-Orient Barrier would never be used on those standing on the Grand-Orient Sect’s side. It was just like how the Bloodbane Barrier would never attack Tianming, since he had received the Kunpeng Sacred Seal’s recognition. 

So how did the Grand-Orient Barrier identify allies and enemies? That involved the internal and external version of the barrier. The Grand-Orient Barrier was a defensive barrier, so all invaders were marked as enemies the moment they stepped into it. For those who stepped into the barrier from the inside, they would be marked as allies.

This heavenly pattern barrier was a miracle creation that was complicated, but had strict rules of operation. So once marked as an ally, it was impossible for them to be attacked by the barrier. But if they were marked as enemies on their first entry, they would still be attacked by the barrier even if they re-enter it later.

For example, everyone from the Cloudmist keepers had a colored halo on them. That was the mark that the barrier left when they entered, and it could only be removed in the Grand-Orient Sect by the one who controlled the barrier. The marking was part of the barrier’s power, to begin with. With the barrier marking, the Cloudmist keepers and Grand-Orient guardians stepped into the battlefield. While the Cloudmist keepers and their lifebound beasts had their visions obscured by fog, the Grand-Orient guardians had a clear view ahead of them, an advantage right from the start.

Aside from the mark, the other important part of the barrier was the barrier’s spirit hazard. When the Grand-Orient Barrier was created, the creator fused barrier spirit hazards into it, making it a powerful weapon of the heavenly pattern barrier. Natural spirit hazards didn’t have an owner, so they couldn’t be controlled. But barrier spirit hazards could be controlled, and they could even attack by themselves based on the markings. For example, the barrier’s spirit hazard immediately appeared when the white fog filled the battlefield.