Provoking the enemy and their leader was only a tactic; Tianming didn't care if he could take it or not. All he wanted was for the eighty thousand remaining gods to focus their attention on him, rather than the continent. He had no other choice. To the enemy, the people of the continent were his weakness. It was a disaster he couldn't hope to contain.
If they weren't trying to massacre his folk, he would be willing to surrender and follow them back, but they weren’t even giving him the choice. Though many already knew his intentions, they couldn't really accept it out of their bone-deep pride.
"Sovereign Xi ordered you to bring me back for her to deal with herself. She didn't mention anything about my lifebound beasts at all, yet that bastard Fengyue wanted to kill my lifebound beasts, only to be slaughtered by me."
As Tianming spoke, his beasts appeared on the top of the cauldron, glaring fiercely at everyone else.
"Now, all my lifebound beasts are here. I'm asking again. Does your pathetic lot dare to come kill them again?"
Ying Huo and the rest joined in on the mocking. "Tortoise Bro, ready your uric hydro cannon and fire at them!"
A jet of dragon piss fired straight at many of the stunned divine moonrace, enraging them even further. Though they knew Tianming was powerful, they still had the advantage of numbers. They only needed to summon their totems to completely overwhelm him.
They immediately began acting. Without leaders, they didn't dare to directly touch Tianming, but his lifebound beasts were free game. Things broke down into chaos right away, many of the divine moonrace not even caring about bringing Tianming back anymore. Anything could happen now, but as long as Tianming didn't stray too far from the cauldron, he could still benefit from its powers.
"Let's kill as many as we can!" They were going to challenge their limits once more. Tianming wasn't worried that they would attack him at all. In fact, he was worried that they wouldn't. So far, it seemed like the divine moonrace couldn't accept being mocked at all and were easily provoked. However, Tianming still noticed a few of them sneaking their way toward the continent. Even without Prince Fengyue, they knew what they should be doing.
"Kill!" How many lives would he save by each divine moonrace he killed? He couldn't even be bothered to count. Relying on Xian Xian and the cauldron, he would defend the surrounding area. He only used seven of his ten godswords, since it didn't seem possible to kill all of them anyway.
The denizens of the continent could all see the fight breaking out above. They didn't have words to describe something like this. It was the most tiring battle Tianming had ever had to fight; there was a sea of enemies that he couldn't hope to deal with. Even with Xian Xian's abilities, it struggled to defend itself when the totems began latching on to it. Tianming and the rest also had to divert their attention to protect it, so they mainly fought at the top of the tree.
As the godswords swept past, crushing many totems at once, corpses began falling. But they were swiftly replaced by more and more people. Even now, the sheer number of enemies still cast a wide net across the sky.
"We simply can't kill them all off!"
He activated the Imperealm Sword Formation, causing many strands of sword ki to surround the tree. Though he was only a sixth-level ascendant, he managed to slay countless first or second-level ascendants. When their bodies fell to the ground, they turned to dust. It was a meteor shower of dead gods, something most people on the continent had never imagined could happen.
"Are these gods?"
"Is our Human Emperor that powerful?"
"Amazing!"
They began worshipping the godslayer, Tianming, more and more as the gods continued falling like rain. However, they couldn't see how much pressure Tianming was under. He and his beasts were constantly pierced with holes. Even Ying Huo couldn't take that much punishment, though its Skyscorch Featherblasts managed to cause corpses to rain down as well. In the chaos of battle, the divine moonrace couldn't tell how many people had died.
"He's almost dead now!"
"Don't kill him! Just get rid of his lifebound beasts first!"
"Since he dares to challenge us, we'll show him!"
"Burn down that tree! That two-headed dragon is almost dead, too! Give it more gas!"
Lan Huang was completely surrounded by nearly a thousand totems slashing at it and unleashing their totemic calamities nonstop. Flashing lights and explosive booms could be seen and heard all over, though the god corpses didn't stop raining down. With every strike of Tianming's godswords, at least hundreds of people were killed. But he was also being attacked by hundreds of totemic calamities at the same time. No matter how weak they were, the attacks could have eradicated him a few times over, had he not had the Greenspark Tower. It wouldn't be wrong to say that Tianming was unmatched among ascendants in the astralscape of order.
"Die, die, die!" His face was covered in blood, both his and his enemies'; even his eyes were rolling in it. He continued his charge, chasing them down instead of the other way around. Many others discovered how truly terrifying he was, but they were blinded by hate and pride. They wouldn't stop until Tianming's lifebound beasts had been killed. Even so, there were many that were still level-headed.
"Everyone, don't you understand? He's fighting desperately here because he's afraid we'll kill his people!"
"That's right! We don't have to fight him. We came here for a massacre."
"We just have to go down and start killing. He'll immediately go back to the Divine Moon Realm and beg Her Majesty for forgiveness right away."
"Killing his lifebound beasts is pointless! Leave his punishment to Her Majesty!"
From the very beginning, killing Tianming's lifebound beasts was for Prince Fengyue's personal vendetta. All they needed to do to complete their objective was wreak havoc across the continent. With Prince Fengyue dead, there was no point in fighting Tianming head-on anymore. However, during that short outbreak of a fight, Tianming had killed many of their friends and family on top of insulting their pride. Given that they still stood a chance of killing off his lifebound beasts, thanks to their numerical advantage, many weren't willing to give up yet.
"We can't afford to just let this go!"
There’s ten thousand of our comrades trapped within the orderian cauldron! Saving them comes first."
"That's right. I think it won't hold any longer. They're attacking the cauldron from within and will soon break out."
"You all better not leave until they're out!"
The eighty thousand of them all had different things in mind. Tianming kept the ten thousand of them confined as another reason to bind down the remaining ones on the outside. However, they still numbered too many. The divine moonrace had countless ascendants to spare, as was evident from how the sovereign had managed to summon an army of a hundred thousand just like that, so ten thousand of them being trapped was no big deal. Tianming didn't know how long he could keep fighting, anyway. There was no way he could wipe them all out, but he had probably killed around ten thousand of them during the past hour, at least.
Thirty to forty thousand deities in front of him tried encircling him to save the trapped ones. He was already too overwhelmed to defend himself, let alone threaten them with the lives of those trapped. Ascendants weren't pushovers, especially in the thousands. By now, at least twenty or thirty thousand ascendants had descended to the continent.
"People are already dying." Tianming closed his eyes and felt their death and despair through the Omnisentient Threads. As expected, those fiends were slaughtering the weak and innocent without holding back. That was their aim from the very beginning, though Tianming had managed to slightly disrupt their pacing. He even managed to get forty plus thousand of them to stay to fight him, then killed around ten thousand with Xian Xian's abilities and the cauldron's boost. Even so, there was no changing their objective.
Thirty thousand gods had spread out across the continent. This was the worst-case scenario he hadn’t wanted to happen. But with him surrounded and the cauldron shaking from internal attacks, what else could he do? He could barely escape even if he wanted to. All he could do was continue gambling his life. Once his lifebound beasts were at their limits, he would have them return to his lifebound space to heal up.
By now, the divine moonrace that were fighting him were doing so with caution as he continued bathing in their blood. He fought like a savage madman, his kill count nearing twenty thousand. The death of so many of their comrades started psychologically weighing on them.
"What kind of monster is he?"
Many of them stopped and merely stared wide-eyed at the sight. Just then, the ten thousand trapped ascendants broke out of the cauldron, only to see even more blood and gore on the outside. They were all flabbergasted. How could someone like this even come to exist? He was struggling to his last breath just to protect the world beneath them.
"Is it worth doing all of this for a mere mortal world?" somebody asked.
"It is."
That was Tianming's answer. Blood dripped from his eyes as the battle came to a pause with everyone staring blankly at him. Many people started descending and there was no stopping them.
Provoking the enemy and their leader was only a tactic; Tianming didn't care if he could take it or not. All he wanted was for the eighty thousand remaining gods to focus their attention on him, rather than the continent. He had no other choice. To the enemy, the people of the continent were his weakness. It was a disaster he couldn't hope to contain.
If they weren't trying to massacre his folk, he would be willing to surrender and follow them back, but they weren’t even giving him the choice. Though many already knew his intentions, they couldn't really accept it out of their bone-deep pride.
"Sovereign Xi ordered you to bring me back for her to deal with herself. She didn't mention anything about my lifebound beasts at all, yet that bastard Fengyue wanted to kill my lifebound beasts, only to be slaughtered by me."
As Tianming spoke, his beasts appeared on the top of the cauldron, glaring fiercely at everyone else.
"Now, all my lifebound beasts are here. I'm asking again. Does your pathetic lot dare to come kill them again?"
Ying Huo and the rest joined in on the mocking. "Tortoise Bro, ready your uric hydro cannon and fire at them!"
A jet of dragon piss fired straight at many of the stunned divine moonrace, enraging them even further. Though they knew Tianming was powerful, they still had the advantage of numbers. They only needed to summon their totems to completely overwhelm him.
They immediately began acting. Without leaders, they didn't dare to directly touch Tianming, but his lifebound beasts were free game. Things broke down into chaos right away, many of the divine moonrace not even caring about bringing Tianming back anymore. Anything could happen now, but as long as Tianming didn't stray too far from the cauldron, he could still benefit from its powers.
"Let's kill as many as we can!" They were going to challenge their limits once more. Tianming wasn't worried that they would attack him at all. In fact, he was worried that they wouldn't. So far, it seemed like the divine moonrace couldn't accept being mocked at all and were easily provoked. However, Tianming still noticed a few of them sneaking their way toward the continent. Even without Prince Fengyue, they knew what they should be doing.
"Kill!" How many lives would he save by each divine moonrace he killed? He couldn't even be bothered to count. Relying on Xian Xian and the cauldron, he would defend the surrounding area. He only used seven of his ten godswords, since it didn't seem possible to kill all of them anyway.
The denizens of the continent could all see the fight breaking out above. They didn't have words to describe something like this. It was the most tiring battle Tianming had ever had to fight; there was a sea of enemies that he couldn't hope to deal with. Even with Xian Xian's abilities, it struggled to defend itself when the totems began latching on to it. Tianming and the rest also had to divert their attention to protect it, so they mainly fought at the top of the tree.
As the godswords swept past, crushing many totems at once, corpses began falling. But they were swiftly replaced by more and more people. Even now, the sheer number of enemies still cast a wide net across the sky.
"We simply can't kill them all off!"
He activated the Imperealm Sword Formation, causing many strands of sword ki to surround the tree. Though he was only a sixth-level ascendant, he managed to slay countless first or second-level ascendants. When their bodies fell to the ground, they turned to dust. It was a meteor shower of dead gods, something most people on the continent had never imagined could happen.
"Are these gods?"
"Is our Human Emperor that powerful?"
"Amazing!"
They began worshipping the godslayer, Tianming, more and more as the gods continued falling like rain. However, they couldn't see how much pressure Tianming was under. He and his beasts were constantly pierced with holes. Even Ying Huo couldn't take that much punishment, though its Skyscorch Featherblasts managed to cause corpses to rain down as well. In the chaos of battle, the divine moonrace couldn't tell how many people had died.
"He's almost dead now!"
"Don't kill him! Just get rid of his lifebound beasts first!"
"Since he dares to challenge us, we'll show him!"
"Burn down that tree! That two-headed dragon is almost dead, too! Give it more gas!"
Lan Huang was completely surrounded by nearly a thousand totems slashing at it and unleashing their totemic calamities nonstop. Flashing lights and explosive booms could be seen and heard all over, though the god corpses didn't stop raining down. With every strike of Tianming's godswords, at least hundreds of people were killed. But he was also being attacked by hundreds of totemic calamities at the same time. No matter how weak they were, the attacks could have eradicated him a few times over, had he not had the Greenspark Tower. It wouldn't be wrong to say that Tianming was unmatched among ascendants in the astralscape of order.
"Die, die, die!" His face was covered in blood, both his and his enemies'; even his eyes were rolling in it. He continued his charge, chasing them down instead of the other way around. Many others discovered how truly terrifying he was, but they were blinded by hate and pride. They wouldn't stop until Tianming's lifebound beasts had been killed. Even so, there were many that were still level-headed.
"Everyone, don't you understand? He's fighting desperately here because he's afraid we'll kill his people!"
"That's right! We don't have to fight him. We came here for a massacre."
"We just have to go down and start killing. He'll immediately go back to the Divine Moon Realm and beg Her Majesty for forgiveness right away."
"Killing his lifebound beasts is pointless! Leave his punishment to Her Majesty!"
From the very beginning, killing Tianming's lifebound beasts was for Prince Fengyue's personal vendetta. All they needed to do to complete their objective was wreak havoc across the continent. With Prince Fengyue dead, there was no point in fighting Tianming head-on anymore. However, during that short outbreak of a fight, Tianming had killed many of their friends and family on top of insulting their pride. Given that they still stood a chance of killing off his lifebound beasts, thanks to their numerical advantage, many weren't willing to give up yet.
"We can't afford to just let this go!"
There’s ten thousand of our comrades trapped within the orderian cauldron! Saving them comes first."
"That's right. I think it won't hold any longer. They're attacking the cauldron from within and will soon break out."
"You all better not leave until they're out!"
The eighty thousand of them all had different things in mind. Tianming kept the ten thousand of them confined as another reason to bind down the remaining ones on the outside. However, they still numbered too many. The divine moonrace had countless ascendants to spare, as was evident from how the sovereign had managed to summon an army of a hundred thousand just like that, so ten thousand of them being trapped was no big deal. Tianming didn't know how long he could keep fighting, anyway. There was no way he could wipe them all out, but he had probably killed around ten thousand of them during the past hour, at least.
Thirty to forty thousand deities in front of him tried encircling him to save the trapped ones. He was already too overwhelmed to defend himself, let alone threaten them with the lives of those trapped. Ascendants weren't pushovers, especially in the thousands. By now, at least twenty or thirty thousand ascendants had descended to the continent.
"People are already dying." Tianming closed his eyes and felt their death and despair through the Omnisentient Threads. As expected, those fiends were slaughtering the weak and innocent without holding back. That was their aim from the very beginning, though Tianming had managed to slightly disrupt their pacing. He even managed to get forty plus thousand of them to stay to fight him, then killed around ten thousand with Xian Xian's abilities and the cauldron's boost. Even so, there was no changing their objective.
Thirty thousand gods had spread out across the continent. This was the worst-case scenario he hadn’t wanted to happen. But with him surrounded and the cauldron shaking from internal attacks, what else could he do? He could barely escape even if he wanted to. All he could do was continue gambling his life. Once his lifebound beasts were at their limits, he would have them return to his lifebound space to heal up.
By now, the divine moonrace that were fighting him were doing so with caution as he continued bathing in their blood. He fought like a savage madman, his kill count nearing twenty thousand. The death of so many of their comrades started psychologically weighing on them.
"What kind of monster is he?"
Many of them stopped and merely stared wide-eyed at the sight. Just then, the ten thousand trapped ascendants broke out of the cauldron, only to see even more blood and gore on the outside. They were all flabbergasted. How could someone like this even come to exist? He was struggling to his last breath just to protect the world beneath them.
"Is it worth doing all of this for a mere mortal world?" somebody asked.
"It is."
That was Tianming's answer. Blood dripped from his eyes as the battle came to a pause with everyone staring blankly at him. Many people started descending and there was no stopping them.
