Chapter 816
Beastmaster of the Ages
Long Cangyuan used a third-origin samsaran battle art, the Ragesea Skytear Slash. It was one of the many arts he had mastered, and the most optimal given their magma-filled surroundings. The power of the four great seas filled his body, but he only got to utilize fourteen of his twenty-plus samsara rings. Almost half of them had been suppressed, but Long Cangyuan was still able to strike with more force than Qing Ming. His body glowed blindingly with a draconian aura, making him look like he had used a dragonform technique of the Xuanyuan house as countless seadragon souls gathered around his body.
"Get wrecked!" Long Cangyuan roared, his Roaring Dragon of the Four Seas lashing out. At that moment, the ball of astral radiance engulfed his entire vision. To him, it was as if the power of all the starlight in Kilostar Domain had gathered here and caused spatial tears to manifest even within the fiery star. Tianming burst out of the magma like a meteor.
Spatial tears scattered all over the place, swallowing quite a lot of magma around them into the formless void. Tianming had channeled all the might of the Photondragon he could, not knowing the full potential of that power. It wasn't entirely his own; most of it came from the Photondragon itself. It was so much power that it was beyond his control. Then, the rampaging starlight clashed with Long Cangyuan.
"A coward like you that does another's bidding ought to be the first killed. So what if you're the Quadform Seadragon King?" Tianming wasn't confident that his own abilities could defeat Long Cangyuan; instead, he was confident in Great Emperor Xuanyuan and his weapon!
Amidst the glow of the starlight, the Kilostar Photondragon and Roaring Dragon clashed magnificently, letting out an exceedingly ear-piercing sound. One of the crescent prongs of the Roaring Dragon actually snapped from the clash; it was a fifteen-patterned tribulation artifact! After the prong snapped, there was no longer anything that could stop the Photondragon's trajectory. Tianming completed his slash, using both hands and putting the full weight of his body into it in an attempt to horizontally bisect Long Cangyuan's head.
As the trident came striking down, countless small spatial tears appeared, looking like hair-thin strands that stretched out from the weapon. After the strike connected, a loud explosion came from the head of Long Cangyuan, someone who was said to have exceedingly strong defenses. That instant, he widened his eyes with pure terror. It wasn't you... it was Great Emperor Xuanyuan.... That was the last notion he held in his head before his skull exploded.
Just like that, the head of the famed Quadform Seadragon King, someone whose will had shaped the fate of the Quadform Divine Realm, was reduced to dust. Tianming swung his trident once more, striking his corpse and sending it coursing through the magma to Xue Yi.
Once again, they all felt like they had been struck by lightning. When Xue Yi grabbed the body, he found that it was headless and lifeless. Had the master of the Quadform Divine Realm really died just like that? It was so unbelievable that everyone felt their heads hurt just trying to comprehend it. How could someone like that die in such an insignificant fashion? The war they had been planning to fight hadn't even properly begun! Did a brat like Tianming actually manage to kill Qing Ming and Long Cangyuan within the Kilostar Domain? Anyone would feel their sense of reality crumble at hearing something like that.
"He died just like that," Tianming said without a hint of pleasure or joy as they scathingly glared at him. He hurried to help Ying Huo and the rest fend off their enemies so they could escape while their pursuers were still reeling from the shock. Long Cangyuan’s dragons were still alive, but Tianming didn't kill them as he was short on time.
"Now that I've gotten used to it, the founding ancestor’s weapon is even more powerful than I’d thought it would be." Even Tianming was shocked at the level of power he could channel. No doubt, part of it was thanks to his cultivation at the fifth-level death phase, which was already superior to Long Cangyuan's sealed level in terms of brute force. He was well aware that Long Cangyuan had fallen to his demise because he didn't have a strong enough defense. However, they were still surrounded by too many enemies all the same. Ying Huo and the rest didn't have a weapon like the Photondragon, so they would no doubt perish if they were surrounded and attacked. Still, the death of Long Cangyuan had calmed Tianming down considerably.
"I'll keep on killing them until they run on their own accord. By then, not even Xue Yi will escape! I just need to make sure I don't get surrounded!"
After his lifebound beasts returned to his lifebound space, Tianming ran off again, not the slightest bit embarrassed, leaving his pursuers empty handed once more.
"Sect Master!" Pained cries rang out from behind Xue Yi and the rest. There were about a thousand from Quadform that had seen Long Cangyuan's headless corpse and heard the mourning dragons. They all felt utter grief and pain. As far as they were concerned, the sky had completely collapsed. The death of Long Cangyuan would usher in an unprecedented era of tumult in their realm. Most humiliatingly, he had died at the hands of a brat! It wasn't just the Quadform tribulation elders; even those from Nonahall were filled with despair.
"If it weren’t for the sect master approaching Ghoul King Xue Yi of his own accord, he never would've ended up like this!""This cursed Kilostar Domain and Great Emperor Xuanyuan.... There's no way Li Tianming would've been able to kill him without their help!"
"The Quadform Divine Realm is done for.... We lost our leader...."
Death was one thing; humiliation was another thing entirely. Long Cangyuan, the de facto ruler of a divine realm, had actually submitted himself to Xue Yi's authority. It was something many tribulation elders couldn't really bear to witness.
"It's his fault he ended up like this!" someone cursed.
"Enough talk, let's disperse."
"We should tone it down a notch. Our sect master is gone, so we’d better make sure we don't die with him."
The battle had caused the elders of Quadform to completely lose their will to fight. Few even bothered planning to avenge their sect master. It was one thing if he had died in a blaze of glory; if he didn't end up a laughingstock from the circumstances of his death, it would be nothing short of a miracle.
Even though his lifebound beasts were still alive and would still command a lot of sway in the Quadform Divine Realm, their power would eventually wane. Tianming had properly inflicted a traumatic experience on tens of thousands of elders with his actions. The next time he emerged from the fiery star, few dared to really attempt to stop him. Even then, he still managed to kill hundreds with each swing of the Kilostar Photondragon.