Beastmaster of the Ages

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Long Renshe stood at the courtyard of the Dragonfang Springs and was just about to knock on the door, only to hear all that had transpired. He closed his eyes and slowly drew back his hand, tightly clenching it into a fist. His expression began to contort. "Dad... does she mean she'd rather die than accept me?"

"What are you talking about? Marriage is one thing, romance is another. It's enough that she's the daughter of the sun emperor," the Torchdragon Emperor said. "Let's forget about meeting her and head back first."

"Haha... she's been here for quite some time, right? Today's the day before our wedding and I managed to enter for the very first time, only to hear that she already has someone she likes...." Long Renshe was both amused and angered.

The Torchdragon Emperor lightly smacked his head. "This isn't important, got it?"

"Then what is?"

"Power and authority."

"Where is it, then? Even if you rule the Myriad Solar Sects and wipe out the humiliation we've suffered, we'll still be subordinate to our in-laws."

"It's much better than before. We must know when to be satisfied with what we have."

Long Renshe closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Even after serving them for hundreds of thousands of years, I only have a feeling that we're still just...."

"Just?"

"Cannon fodder? Dogs?"

"Shut it!"

Long Renshe no longer said a word. But the question in his heart still persisted: they served a group that didn't share blood ties with them. Would the stronger side really treat the weaker side as their friends?

Right as the Torchdragon Emperor left the Dragonfang Springs, a celestial orderian cultivator came out. "Torchdragon Emperor, there's important news!"

"How important?"

"Really! The informant we planted among the Xuanyuan Dragon Sect has information about the hundreds of thousands of young disciples of their sect!"

"State it." The Torchdragon Emperor immediately sterned up.

"They're no longer inside the Redlotus Worlddragon Formation. The Whitedragon Empress personally evacuated them to the Dragonbound Valley. It's said that the Saintdragon Emperor built that place to protect the young blood of the sect. It's protected by a grade-seven defense formation! This has been verified by an informant among the disciples within!"

"I see...." The Torchdragon Emperor's lips gradually curved into a smile. "So they're moving the young generation away to protect their legacy for the future.... Isn't the Saintdragon Emperor considerate? Why'd you bother to report this? Surely we can't completely exterminate them, right? They're just children. It'll be a shame if they all die."

Everyone present broke out laughing, knowing how devastating that would be to the sect. The Saintdragon Emperor and the rest might just barf out blood when they heard the news.

"To be fair, they didn't have a choice either. We're going to fight at the Myriaddragon Mountains, and the formations here are controlled by the dragonsprings. Not even the Redlotus Worlddragon Formation would be able to protect them, so they had no choice but to evacuate them."

"It's a shame that there's also those among them who'd sell out on their own for personal benefit!"

"What do you mean 'also'? We don't have anyone like that," the Torchdragon Emperor said. The informants had only betrayed the sect, not their kind. Race traitors were the worst in their eyes, after all, but political differences were a wholly different issue. It seemed that parasites existed within every group, no matter how prestigious.

"Send a small group to deal with them. I want the fighters on their side to hear the news that all of their children have been slaughtered before the battle starts tomorrow," the Torchdragon Emperor said.

"Yes!"

"Resistance... how laughable." Fighting the celestial orderians was suicidal.

"Torchdragon Emperor, is the fight going to happen tomorrow for sure?" someone asked.

"It depends on whether they stop us from going to the Primodragon Cave." Going there required the cooperation of the Dragon Imperials and the four dragonsprings they still had. If they didn't cooperate, that meant they were going to stop them.

"I see. The battle is unavoidable, then." There was no way the Xuanyuan Dragon Sect would just relent. They suddenly felt a chill at the mention of that. At the entrance of the Dragonfang Springs was a wraith in red.

"Lady Wushuang!" Everyone immediately knelt on the ground.

"The Dragonbound Valley?" There was a bloody light in Li Wushuang's eyes.

"That's right," the Torchdragon Emperor said.

"I'll go," she said, licking her lips with her ghastly tongue.

"Yes!" The Torchdragon Emperor hurriedly nodded.

"Tell this to Long Wanying two hours after my departure: she can trade her life for the lives of those hundreds of thousands of youths," she said with a wry smile.

"Understood. However, whether Long Wanying chooses to die, the young disciples will die either way, right?"

"What do you think?" Li Wushuang shrugged.

This was the perfect chance. The marriage would start tomorrow and the Seven Dragon Imperials would have to defend the Primodragon Cave. Their armies were already in position, and nobody would be able to go to Long Wanying's aid at a time like that, given their already low numbers.

Li Wushuang dragged her blade along the ground as she headed north, her mind filled with nothing but thoughts of wild slaughter. "Long Wanying, once people like you all die off, there'll no longer be someone as disgusting as you! I'll mark your grave with the heads of the hundreds of thousands of disciples!"

She began maniacally laughing, though it ended up sounding like the ghostly wail of a banshee. Even after she left, the Torchdragon Emperor and the rest still shuddered.

......

As the seven thousand Earthdragon peaks' formations couldn't be activated, they were incredibly hard to defend. As such, the thirty-million-strong Ninedragon Army headed toward the Primodragon Cave. They planned to use the terrain in front of the cave to defend it from attackers coming from the Myriaddragon Mountains, with their backs to the cave. That would prevent them from being encircled. That meant having to give up on the Redlotus Worlddragon Formation, but it was too small to cover a side of their huge army in the first place.

The cave would be where they made their final stand, so they had no choice but to send their descendants and disciples away. However, the thing Long Wanying was worried about happened. Even when their survival was at stake, someone had sold them out. She had done everything she could to maintain secrecy along the way, even sealing off the formation at the Dragonbound Valley to prevent transmission stones from going out. She didn't know how word of that got out at all. As such, she felt crushed when she heard the news from Tianming.

"Why... why can't we all just survive? Why sell us out at a time like this?" she helplessly said, tears flowing.

"They're all sick!" Tianming didn't understand their motivations either. They were all in the same boat, after all. Now there was no way to tell who the informant was. The leak had put the sect in a completely passive situation. They were facing far too many difficulties, with the disciples unable to be moved to another place. They would only be cannon fodder. There was no way the sect could protect them, either, now that the army was already in place to defend Primodragon Cave. It only took one person for hundreds of thousands of lives to be at risk!

Long Wanying had already done her best, as it was difficult to manage every single transmission stone while moving so many people. Other groups might have even more people who caved to such pressures to betray their own kind. Yang Ce and the Dragon Imperials were all enraged. The only thing they could count on would be the formation the Saintdragon Emperor had set up there. It would still be salvageable if it was peacetime, but they couldn't afford to leave their stations now. Li Wushuang wanted Long Wanying to die no matter what.

She stood up and said, "Since it leaked from my end, I'll deal with the consequences. Li Wushuang wants to kill me, so I'll head out immediately to stop her!"

The others cast a pained look at her, the youngest among them and the most hopeful. She should have been kept the safest, yet if she were to leave now, she would be at huge risk.

"Yang Ce, go with her," the Saintdragon Emperor said.

"Understood."

"No, I'll go myself. They need you here," Long Wanying said.

"Heed my orders! Don't waste time. I order you two to leave now," the Saintdragon Emperor said.

"What about you—"

"We'll hold the fort," the Azuredragon Emperor said.

They couldn't afford to waste any more time. Thanks to Tianming finding out about this in advance, they still had a chance. If they arrived sooner than her, Long Wanying could possibly hold the formation and stop Li Wushuang long enough for Yang Ce to return to help.

"Alright!" Long Wanying nodded.

"Aunt Ying," Tianming called to her, "relax. Li Wushuang has my bonegnaw ants in her. They've been dormant this entire time, but we can finally put them to use. However, you must be careful. She's recently grown much stronger!"

"Noted." She squeezed out a smile at him. "Goodbye."

"Goodbye, Aunt Ying. Live on!"

"You too." She immediately left with Yang Ce for the final showdown with Li Wushuang. Perhaps this had been her destiny all along.

......

The groans and cries at the waste pill pile grew louder and louder as the wedding date approached. It was heartrending, yet the Primordial Gate was akin to Lingfeng's heart. His heart seemed to beat more and more faintly as time went on while the gate spun faster and faster. In the darkness, the youth crawled out of his seemingly possessed state step by state, oozing a black miasma all around him.