Beastmaster of the AgesBeastmaster of the Ages
Fan Nu didn't know much, apart from the fact that Tianming's master was Lan Yun and that he had killed Huang Daoxiong and the rest.
"And he still survives to this day?" the girl asked.
"That's right. It must be Lan Yun's protection."
"Amazing. I guess he found a nice woman to protect him. Which one is Lan Yun? Let me see...." Fen Nu scanned the crowd and pointed at a seductress in blue. The girl looked intensely and down to her chest in annoyance. "Fuck!"
"Young Miss, please still your rage."
"I’m not angry! I was the one who picked him out. Why would he simply look for a master like that? After that fight, I’ll snatch him back and get him to be my disciple! Then, he'll be at my beck and call!" she said with clenched teeth.
"That wouldn’t be appropriate, would it? He’s officially taken Lan Yun as his master. Not to mention, Young Miss, you’re only a fortuna disciple. Before reaching the age of five hundred, you have no qualification to take in a disciple," Fen Nu said, snickering.
"I don't care! I want him!" She looked back to the battlefield. Suishen Zhao and Tianming stood before one another. "If that kid manages to crush my arrogant little brother's pride, I’ll keep him by my side all the time to annoy my little brother! Let's see him behave arrogantly around me after that."
"You truly jest, Young Miss. Your younger brother has finally found a good rival of his age to spar with. Li Tianming made it to the Fortuna Ranking before the age of a hundred, a feat that even your younger brother wasn’t able to accomplish. There’s been rumors lately that compare him to your younger brother, so this fight is necessary to quash those rumors. There is no way that a tainted bumpkin from an outer mundus can possibly stand in the same arena as the young master!"
"Just shut up!" The girl glared at him and continued, "The fight’s starting. If you keep making noise I'll pull your tongue out."
Fen Nu hurriedly shut his mouth and focused on the battle.
The entire time, Tianming and Suishen Zhao didn't say a word to each other. When the fight started, loud, explosive cheers resounded around them. Many people were anticipating seeing the universe's mightiest totems with their own eyes. Those totems were symbols of talent.
The flaming lotus stigma between Suishen Zhao's brows was actually his bane-rings. The stigma burned bright and turned three dimensional. Nine bane-rings flared into view, each containing a celestial being totem! They awakened and opened their flaming eyes before manifesting in the air, covered in blazing flames. Like ancient divinities, they seemed to have halos behind them.
Tianming had learned something about those totems from Yin Chen before the fight began. They were called redlotus flaregods. They manifested from the stigma in the middle of Suishen Zhao's forehead, seemingly tethered to it. All of them sat in their own respective loti in a lotus position.
Their palms were held flush together and four pairs of arms flared out behind them, completely bathed in flames. Each totem had ten arms in total. Their eyes were like bronze bells and they wore expressions of intense rage. Their bodies were covered in flaming celestial patterns that seemed to form flaming cycles with their ten arms.
All nine totems flared out around Suishen Zhao's head, bringing his domineering aura to a whole new level. He seemed like the ruler of all totemancers! The more impressive one's totems were, the less their size reflected their capabilities. These totems were only around ten meters in height, but they seemed incredibly dense, as if they were corporeal bodies.
"The redlotus flaregods are truly impressive! I wonder where the vital origin flaregod is...."
"It's on Suishen Zhao's body, no doubt!"
Redlotus flaregods were impressive on their own, but the crowd was actually looking forward to something else. House Suishen was the only known faction in all of the universe to have decabane totemancers. The reason Tianming's ten totems hadn't been given any recognition was that he had never fought with them outside the Grand-Orient Sword. Thus, people considered them to be crude fragmented totems.
Not to mention, everything about Tianming was considered to be degenerate, thanks to his status as a tainted beastmaster. He still wasn't powerful enough. Once his true power was revealed, including his actual cultivation level, perhaps people would truly acknowledge his power.
Either way, he wasn't in that much of a rush for people to find out about it. He wanted to see what a proper decabane totemancer was like. Yi Daiyan had ten totems, but that was because she was the dark mirror spirit. Tianming had never seen any other decabane.
He only has nine bane-rings. How could he have ten totems? Right as that thought occurred to Tianming, Suishen Zhao's body underwent a huge transformation. His red hair began to burn like flames and his face shifted to look like one of the redlotus flaregods.
He was no longer handsome, but domineering and enraged instead! His aura alone caused people to shudder. The moment he put his palms together, flaming astrons gathered near his ribs and caused eight new arms to sprout from them; he had become a raging vajra of flame!
Ten cosmic artifacts appeared in his hands, ranging from blades to spears and halberds. He could attack as well as defend. Tianming had never seen a totemancer that could turn into something like a totem himself. He focused and looked past the nine bane-rings and finally understood.
"There’s only nine bane-rings, not ten! Hell! He turned the vita in his astral brain into a totem! That's why it's called the vital origin flaregod! It's a vita totem that fuses with the original body!" It was truly insane. As far as Tianming was aware, totems were converted from the terra. He had never seen someone with a vita-based totem before.
"Wouldn't directly fighting using the vita be rather risky? His vital origin flaregod might be a strength and weakness at the same time!" The things that Tianming instantly reasoned out were common knowledge in Myriadpath Valley. But despite that being true, few, if any, could actually overcome the nine totems and the powerful vital origin totem in practice!
Needless to say, the vital origin flaregod was among the strongest totems that allowed House Suishen to reach the pinnacle of the astralscape. They must have more pros than cons, or they would have been eliminated from use long ago.
"Even so, he can't really be considered a true decabane, right?" At the very least, Tianming believed that he was a true decabane totemancer, not someone who buffed the number by making his own vita into a totem. If he used Suishen Zhao's counting method, Qingyu could be said to have eighteen totems!
But the folks of Myriadpath Valley wouldn't change what they thought. It wasn't like Tianming was there to compete with Suishen Zhao on the number of totems, anyway. Given that he was four levels weaker, there was no way his totems would be able to measure up. All of the cosmic artifacts that the totems wielded, including the vital origin flaregod's, were fortuna class. Even if they were on the weaker end of the scale, they were still more than powerful enough.
"What a luxurious loadout." As expected of the one whose talent was acknowledged to be the very best.
Suishen Zhao's seven cosmic charts were shining bright and proud. Countless people cheered at the sight of his flaming brilliance. Comparatively, Tianming was fighting as a single unit with all his totems infused in his sword, so he seemed far less impressive.
"It's going to be tough, but I'll fight all the same!" In contrast to Suishen Zhao, Tianming's body crackled with chaos lightning. His Grand-Orient Sword was surrounded by the power of cosmic impulse sword ki. The roar of Lan Huang resounded from his right leg, shaking the entire arena and adding to his aura.
Without another word, he charged toward Suishen Zhao, appearing behind him in a single instant. Then he used the grand lexicon wonder, causing 999 infinitum-class divine wonder words to appear. They changed into countless tiny rules that instantly bound Suishen Zhao and his totems.
Skyscorch Redloti exploded all around Suishen Zhao! Though his flaming totems should have resisted most flaming attacks, they didn't have any advantage against Ying Huo's ability. The first wave of Tianming's attacks immediately drew the attention of the entire audience. Then, it was followed up with many fire, lightning, and plant abilities! Meow Meow's abilities came wave after wave, suppressing Suishen Zhao with breakneck speed.
"Ugh!" Suishen Zhao's ten totems all wore the same expression. They howled with rage as all ten totems' arms made a complex motion, executing the totemic calamity Divine Karmic Fire! The ten totems, Suishen Zhao included, channeled totem ki and cosmoforce and unleashed a ball of flame that enveloped the entire Fortuna Arena. Crimson hellfire flowed and formed a gigantic dragon that completely neutralized Xian Xian and Meow Meow's abilities.