At that moment, Ghoul King Zi Xiao"s voice was heard from outside. "May I have an audience?"
"Enter," said the black-robed man.
"Have you left seclusion? Did it work?" Zi Xiao asked as he approached with a serious expression.
"Naturally. Today is the day when history will be made. It"s about time we made our contribution," said the girl in white.
"Very well. I suppose you two already know about the good news. However, there"s also some bad news to report." Zi Xiao lowered his head.
"Speak." Their expressions were stern.
"Third has pa.s.sed on. His lifesoul stone shattered. However, we aren"t sure what exactly happened yet," he mumbled.
The monochrome couple looked each other in the eye, distraught.
"Investigate it," the man said, sighing.
"Understood."
Silence fell for a time.
"How’s Jiang Wuxin developing?"
"He"s about eight-tenths of the way there. He"ll be operational soon," Zi Xiao said.
"While Third is gone, he rendered many contributions to the sect and his deeds are worth spreading. We’ll prepare more blood as tribute for our brother"s journey to the afterlife!"
The old man stood up and looked at the grey star. "Let the entire divine realm know that the war is going to begin. We’ll claim the lives of a billion enemy soldiers as a tribute to Third."
......
"Tianming!"
Underneath the grey star, Tianming heard someone calling out to him in the distance. "Palace Lord Yi?"
Just as he was about to exit the tower, he suddenly stopped when he saw how weary and worn Yi Xingyin looked. He recalled that after rescuing him, he had recovered somewhat. So why did he look worse off than before?
"It"s definitely Li Caiwei!" He had already been duped once, so he wouldn"t fall for it again. "d.a.m.n it... I didn"t think I’d be so unlucky as to meet her again right now!" The Prime Tower immediately moved further away. "If the sealing formation was still here and I encountered her alone, I’d definitely kill her. It"s a shame that opportunity slipped by."
He also noticed that now that the stars in the domain had vanished, the extra power that had supercharged the Photondragon was now gone. Right now, the trident might well be weaker than the Grand-Orient Sword.
Tianming decided he would give it to Xuanyuan Dao in hopes that it would help increase his strength. After all, he was a direct descendant of Great Emperor Xuanyuan. If he could become stronger, the Xuanyuan house would end up having more say in the sect. Right now, n.o.body was too relieved to see Fang Taiqing calling most of the shots.
However, it didn"t seem like he would be able to escape. When the figure noticed the tower moving, it immediately changed back into a seductive and beautiful woman. Tianming was right! It had been the lunar master, Li Caiwei, after all.
"Are you a thirsty stalker or something? I don"t want to be your boy toy! Stop following me!" To think that he had just survived a date with death, only for him to run into death"s beautiful a.s.sistant, who was as lethal as she was charming.
"Shut your trap! You really f.u.c.ked me over when you had the sealing formation in that domain! Now that I"ve recovered my power, I"ll teach that inexperienced little p.e.c.k.e.r of yours what being f.u.c.ked over feels like!" Li Caiwei snapped.
"No thank you, hag! I already know what it"s like by watching your example! I admit that I can"t defeat you, alright? Surely you can"t blame me for running?!" He turned back, only to see that the "pink-eyed girl" had caught up to the Prime Tower, her dress and hair fluttering from the air resistance.
"Of course not! You still have a hundred thousand tribulation artifacts and lots of other treasure on you!" She licked her lips with a sly smirk. "Oh, my little Tianming, I"ll gobble you up! Don"t think I"ll let you slip out of me... oh, I mean the palm of this ol" gal here this time!"
"Ol" gal? I didn"t think you were self-aware enough to know that! You"re an old hag! Quit pretending to be someone your great granddaughter"s age! Aren"t you embarra.s.sed, constantly having to infantilize yourself like that?!" Tianming knew that he was far from her match. Though, that didn"t ease his pent-up frustrations from letting her get the better of him twice. To think that I managed to kill Xue Yi, and got away with it too.... But now I"m running with my tail between my legs.
Li Caiwei probably wasn"t aware that he had killed Xue Yi. Using the Fatedream Shawl, she managed to stop the Prime Tower from moving. Since she had recovered her powers, she could now exert monstrous power and pulled the tower right to her. "Get. Out."
"In your dreams. Wait outside if you want, I"ll just stay in my comfy tower." Tianming wasn"t afraid of dying, though he was more than frustrated that his plans to return to the sect—and Feiling—had been ruined by her. "Li Caiwei, you pathetic excuse of a rotting mummy playing dress up as a young girl, your shamelessness knows no bounds!"
"Shut up!" Her anger flared as she drew a sword and slashed at the tower, breathing heavily.
"I won"t shut up, you animal! You want my treasures? Why don"t you stretch your beastly claws into the tower and get them?"
"Li Tianming.... Do you think I can"t trap you and stop you from ever leaving here?"
"Oh, then I"d better thank you for it. Then I can finally cultivate in peace. On the day I come out, I"ll behead you. It"s not too late to submit to me, lest you end up like Qing Ming, Long Cangyuan, and Xue Yi."
"Ghoul King Xue Yi? What happened to him?"
"I offed him. It was no big deal."
"Keep boasting. I"ll take you back to my sect." She couldn"t be bothered to humor his nonsense and started dragging the Prime Tower along behind her. The whole way, Tianming"s mouth flapped nonstop slanderously, causing her to shake from the anger.
"By the way, do you know what"s up with this grey star?" he suddenly asked.
"No!"
"Ah. I guess you were tricked by Nonahall then. To think that you were used like a tool back inside the Kilostar Domain. I guess there is some truth to the phrase "b.o.o.bs for brains"."
"Stop trying to provoke me, you dumb brat! You know nothing!"
"Well, unlike you, Feng Qingyu knew this would happen in advance. He helped Xue Yi bring it about, after all."
"What did you say?" She seemed to finally stop to think.
"I thought you were purposefully being a little airheaded because it would match your cute image. Turns out you"re just plain dumb. And they say you"re five hundred years old...."
"I"m not even a hundred, you know." Her compulsion to just up and leave without the tower grew proportionally to the time she spent next to it.
No matter how much Tianming tried to think, he couldn"t figure out a way to escape. Now that the sealing formation is gone, I should start taking things step by step instead of hoping for a lucky break.
Now, he was at the fifth-level death phase. As long as he could return to the sect, he would definitely be able to stand at the top of the echelon of power one day, given his talent. Seeing that he was being dragged further and further away from the starry skies above, he was growing ever more anxious.
All of a sudden, he saw a bright light of hope. A large group of people had appeared from their flank and surrounded Li Caiwei while she was distracted by Tianming"s nonstop droning voice and insults. By the time she noticed, it was too late!
They were Fang Taiqing, Jian Wuyi, and around thirty others, all of whom were tenth-level samsarans and above! Even Beigong Linlan and Lin Yuntian were there. They were the top elites of the four sects. Tianming also saw Yi Xingyin with them; so he had been rescued as well. Unlike before, Li Caiwei couldn"t use Tianming as a human s.h.i.+eld now.
"Release him!" Fang Taiqing ordered.
"Sect Master, don"t bother! Just kill her! I"m completely safe, trust me!" Tianming said from the absolute safety of the tower.
Fang Taiqing and the rest immediately attacked when they heard that.
"You cursed brat!" As much as she wanted to squash him dead, there were far too many people for her to handle. If she didn"t run, she would be killed without question. Before the others closed in on her from all directions, she immediately fled, but Tianming moved the tower in the opposite direction to slow her down.
"I"ll kill you one day, boy toy!" She had no choice but to release him.
"Those are my lines! Keep your neck clean! I don’t want to dirty my sword when I come to behead you!"
When she loosened the Fatedream Shawl, Tianming had finally regained his freedom. Now, he was finally protected by his rescuers, much to his relief; he had been really bored being cooped up in the tower that whole time. When they reunited, he gave Yi Xingyin a hug while Fang Taiqing and the rest continued giving chase.
"Sect Master, now that we got him back, it"s better if we don"t chase her. We won"t be able to kill her swiftly. Not to mention, Nonahall"s men are still nearby. They have tens of thousands with them," Beigong Linlan said.
While they had the advantage of numbers, it would be lots of trouble for them to hunt down Li Caiwei and kill her. Not to mention, they had noticed quite a few of Nonahall’s cultivators on their way here. While the grey star had swallowed all the other stars, it didn"t seem to have harmed the cultivators; it was almost like the surface formation of the star had purposefully kept them alive.
"Li Caiwei really has lots of tricks up her sleeve," Jian Wuyi said.
"Forget that. The imperial son is back safe and sound, and with treasure to boot," Li Yuntian said.
"Good!" Fang Taiqing returned to join them with the rest. "I heard you killed more than ten thousand tribulation elders, got the treasures, and even killed Ghoul King Qing Ming and Long Cangyuan. You truly are amazing, Li Tianming."
"Currently, the Quadform Divine Realm has fallen into chaos and temporarily stepped out from the battle at Pentaphase. Their internal power struggle for the position of sect master has begun, and it"s all thanks to you," Beigong Linlan said.
"Oh, you aren"t aware of the latest update?" Tianming said.
"What?" The others seemed rather confused. Yi Xingyin hadn"t seen the latest battle, after all.
"Third Ghoul King Xue Yi is also dead."
They all looked at one another with blank expressions. "Who killed him?"
Tianming smiled without saying a word. He didn"t even need to answer.
"How does it feel to be a junior who managed to kill a sect master and two ghoul kings, thanks to the sealing formation?" Yi Xingyin asked.
"Better than you can even imagine."
It was nothing but good news—except for the grey star above them. What in the world was it?