Chapter 2558 - Strongest Wildbeast of Gladeus
The Skysteep Gladean Battlefield was comparable to the Taiji Peak Lake in size. If it weren’t for the acute sense of sight of astral gods, they wouldn't be able to see their opponents from those distances. Between the two opponents were countless mountains, rivers, and lakes, yet Tianming could still see individual threads of Xiaque Ming's hair that fluttered in the air and the silver glow from the soul eyes peeking through his fingers.
While Xiaque Ming was the successor of the Gladean ebons, he had actually been raised in Ebonia. He had only been repatriated to Gladeus when he was two hundred and eighty years old. When he participated in the minor reges mundi ranking event before his hundredth year, he had obtained a decent rank: seventh. Once he returned to Gladeus, his father, Xiaque Wang, gave him the best resources to ensure he was properly nurtured, especially when it came to the strongest warbeasts in Gladeus.
He was no opponent to underestimate, especially in an Infinitum Duel. Outside the battlefield were countless Gladean spectators, all of them filled with excitement for the fight. The moment Tianming entered the battlefield, they broke into endless waves of cheers that shook the trees and mountains within it by sheer volume alone. Tianming and Xiaque Ming's heptastar organs also felt the pressure.
The boundless cheers hammered against Tianming's eardrums, causing his blood to boil. On the other side, Xiaque Ming was so enraged that ink seemed to be dripping from his eyes. He rose to his feet and held a weapon in his hand that looked like a sword-brush hybrid, which he pointed at Tianming. His face contorted from the sheer killing intent he radiated. As far as he was concerned, Tianming was a foreign invader who had destroyed the Gladean ebons, causing a genius like him to fall from grace.
There was no point in debating the details, however. No matter the moral high ground Xiaque Ming claimed to stand on, Tianming didn't care about any of it. They could only settle things with a duel! He flew through the towering, ancient trees toward Xiaque Ming, closing the distance more and more.
Xiaque Ming smirked, a wave of ink flashing across his eyes as he put the brush-sword against his shoulder. "Lin Feng, you’ve been constantly underestimated this whole time. Didn't you learn anything about underestimating others?"
"Are you trying to say that your determination to make your last stand will make me arrogant enough to look down on you? I'm sorry, but you aren’t even worth that." Tianming gave him nothing but a calm smile.
Xiaque Ming did indeed think that. Hearing that he wasn't worth it immediately caused his killing intent to surge. His pride and dignity as an ebon roared, setting a fire within his heptastar organs that exploded forth from his chest to the astrons of his entire body. "In the history of the Infinitum Mundus, the ebons have ruled for more than eighty percent of all of it! That’s proof that we are the ultimate race! Regardless of the minor setbacks we’ve suffered throughout history, we ebons will never be destroyed! Just you wait. Whether it's your foolish Swordgod Lin Clan or Yi Daiyan, who doesn't have any backing, we'll rise up from the ashes of history to prevail another day!" Xiaque Ming's veins visibly pulsed as he roared, but the only reply he got was Tianming's attack! Shouting slogans was pointless in the face of actual results!
The hate between the ebons and Lin Clan had festered after the reign of two Lin reges mundi and the invasion of ebon lands in Gladeus, rising to a point far beyond reconciliation. One side had to perish! There were no more foolishly naive people in the Lin Clan after the purge of people like Lin Yun and Lin Jie. And it had all culminated in the momentous occasion that was now taking place in the Skysteep Gladean Battlefield.
Four beasts and the Prime Cosmic Rings emerged from Tianming. Ying Huo rose into the sky, bathed in infernal flames, while Meow Meow zipped into the forest, leaving a trail of monochrome lightning. Lan Huang appeared underneath Tianming with its Myriad Swordrings and Primordial Swords extended, breathing in large amounts of nova source. And finally, Xian Xian danced around in its dryad form before planting itself in the battlefield, spreading its roots far and wide as its magnificent branches rose into the sky, illuminating the area with a divine radiance.
Xian Xian was having the time of its life in Gladeus, finally able to eat its fill. Even its spiritform had considerably bloated up as well. It was simply far stronger than nova wildbeasts. Most times, when the wildbeasts appeared, its Evernight Curse, Trisoul Fiendsong, and Ghoulface Fiendblossom abilities made quick work of them, allowing it to quickly and easily devour them.
While people were quite impressed by Tianming's lifebound beasts, there were still quite a lot who worried about him. He wasn't just going up against a single opponent, but an entire army of warbeasts! Xiaque Ming raised his cosmic artifact, Inkfall Snow, up high. It was capable of soul attacks, making it quite a precious weapon. He glared at Tianming and opened his arms wide, blinding light pouring out of his soul eyes to cover the battlefield. After that, booming roars of warbeasts came blasting out from under him. His warbeasts had been summoned from his fauna worldstone quite a while ago and had been hiding underground.
Over eighty warbeasts burst out of the ground, and sixty-plus of them were low sanctuary class. They seemed to be completely different species of beasts. Tianming had seen some of them before, like starvore frogs. Back then, he and his lifebound beasts had had a hard time against starvore frogs, but now they were mere pawns in the enemy's army of beasts! The lineup would be a world-ending disaster for deific-class worlds. Not even the Three Sovereigns Mysterium combined would be able to defeat them.
Should wildbeasts like them absorb low-quality nova source, their size could grow immensely large. While that wasn't optimal for their combat capabilities, they would look far more menacing. Yet, compared to the fifteen mid-sanctuary-class warbeasts in the army, the starvore frogs were completely negligible. Each of those were even more horrifying than Shenxi Shang's world clam, which hadn't even reached full maturity. One of Xiaque Ming's mid-sanctuary-class warbeasts was a mutated dragonscale superfiend that was even more mature than Shenxi Shang's. The troupe of fifteen mid-sanctuary-class beasts had surrounded Ying Huo and Xian Xian and bombarded them with a flurry of abilities that shook the entire battlefield.
"Ebons are truly impressive in group fights like this. They’re truly a race with advantages and disadvantages." Tianming didn't look down on his enemy at all. The three high-sanctuary-class warbeasts made him extra wary. Two among them were sunmoon ringsnakes, gigantic reptilian beasts that glowed as bright as stars. They were surrounded by many astral rings and didn't have tails; instead, both ends of the snakes had heads. One head burned bright like the sun while the other radiated nothing but frost, embodying the polar natures of the sun and moon in one single body. They were each larger than Lan Huang, too. The two beasts immediately wrapped around Tianming and began spewing ice and fire at him.
As for the last high-sanctuary-class warbeast, Tianming almost missed it entirely! It was no doubt Xiaque Ming's strongest beast. It was incredibly tiny and it stood perched on the ebon’s shoulder. Thanks to its pitch-black appearance, Tianming almost didn't notice it. It looked even smaller than Ying Huo's chick form and took the form of an inky-black sparrow. While sparrows were small, they were complete and full-featured beings in their own right. For something so tiny that it looked like it could be crushed by one hand to be a high-sanctuary-class nova wildbeast meant that it had an exceedingly unique ability. Tianming definitely felt it when he looked into its eyes.
The beast was referred to as an ink sparrow, and the Xiaque Clan's history was inextricably linked to them. They were almost an object of worship, as well as the spirit animal of their clan. The ink sparrow Xiaque Ming had was still a young chick, but eventually, it would grow into a high-ether-class warbeast. It was undoubtedly the strongest nova wildbeast known to Gladeus.
"That tiny thing's able to shapeshift too. It's really troublesome and incredibly hard to kill!" It was similar to Ying Huo and Meow Meow in that regard, boasting incredible speed and agility. No doubt, its bloodline was the most noble of all the nova wildbeasts in Gladeus. It proudly looked down at Tianming and his beasts from the shadow of Xiaque Ming.
As wildbeasts didn't have cultivation codices, they relied purely on absorbing nova source to advance. As such, they couldn't easily be classified according to cultivation levels, though the ink sparrow would be approximately around the ninth or tenth astral phase. Needless to say, it boasted a power reserve far more impressive than Ying Huo's, who was only at the fourth astral phase.
Xiaque Ming and his ink sparrow held back, letting the rest of the army bombard Tianming with their abilities. The sheer force began tearing away at the landscape between them.
"Meow Meow, go!" Tianming tossed the cat in front of him to take the barrage. Before it could curse at him, it morphed into its Regal Chaosfiend form.
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