Beastmaster of the Ages

"Senior...." At this point, submitting was the only choice. Meeting such an elite in a place where he had no backing at all was no joke. A single thought from the enemy could end his life!

Little did he know that merely addressing the owner would see his whole body locked up by a force he couldn\'t grasp. Not a single spot of his body could move, as if time itself had stopped flowing. Terrifying didn\'t even begin to describe how it felt; it was like every single albus in his body had been sealed off, down to the divine wonder patterns engraved on them and his astral discs. As a result, he couldn\'t even move his fingers or eyelids either.

It wasn\'t just Tianming, for the other three girls also looked completely frozen. This wasn\'t an ability related to time manipulation, but rather some kind of super-stage suppression. Gongshu Ding was simply far more well versed in the laws of the world than Tianming. If astral physiques differentiated gods from mortals, people on the level of Gongshu Ding were gods among gods!

This was the first time Tianming had been at the mercy of a higher power like this. It was beyond power, more like some kind of fundamental law that seeped deep into his albi. The figure that appeared before him was a middle-aged man in loose, white robes with a beard and loose hair. His eyes were as dark as the abyss and his face was slightly red, a sign of mild inebriation. The smile on his face seemed a little capricious. He still held a black beer bottle in hand, out of which slithered a few small black snakes that stared at Tianming.

"Interesting.... I didn\'t think a little thief like you would have such an uncommon aura. The fact that you have three girls with you means that you\'re probably not an average joe, either. I wonder if you\'re some young one from a large clan that came out to cause trouble and have fun?"

Tianming was even more bothered by what came next. The ferocious snakes inside the bottle were actually his straws! But as mind boggling as that may be, he wasn\'t shocked enough to lose reason. If he was frank, facing a powerful figure like that while completely helpless was horrifying, to say the least. A single will was all it would take to extinguish the lives of Tianming, his lifebound beasts and Feiling and the others. Everything would be over before they had even begun exploring Ebonia.

Tianming was aware of how truly terrifying this was, but he knew he had a chance based on their looks and aura. Had they looked like bottom-feeding thieves, Gongshu Ding would have killed them without a second thought and handed their corpses to his servant. While Tianming\'s youth and the fact that he was a ruler of a skypiercer-class world didn\'t matter much to the man, his talent and aura weren\'t things that people of his age usually possessed. It was clear that even elites ranking that high were afraid of accidentally killing someone\'s disciple.

Gongshu Ding finished sipping on the snake straws and wore a stern look. "Young friend, I\'ll give you a chance to speak. Don\'t use more than ten words. Whether you\'ll live or die depends on those ten words."

He loosened the \'grip\' he had on them, allowing Tianming to regain control of his mouth and throat. But he only had ten words, so he had to carefully consider what he should say. Obviously, the right move there was to report his identity without hiding or sugarcoating anything. Nobody would joke around with their lives like that.

Gongshu Ding sucked on the snakes and kept looking at Tianming, then turned to the three girls. His gaze eventually settled on Feiling. "A girl of this caliber...."

He had some guesses, but he believed that Tianming would be honest about his identity anyway, or he would have nobody else to blame for his death. The problem was that Tianming had no backing or status to speak of! He had just arrived and couldn\'t even make things up since he knew nothing of the world—not that it would work anyway, given that Gongshu Ding would see through any deception or simply verify it through the connections he had built up over thousands of years.

He smiled at Tianming and stretched his hand out, pulling Feiling toward him. Then he placed a palm on her head and sighed, "What a pretty lass... I wonder what her brain juice tastes like...." As he spoke, one of the black snakes slithered on his harm towards Feiling\'s head. The thought of what would happen next almost made Tianming lose his breath. He couldn\'t afford to mess up in the slightest! With all he could, he shouted, "My father is Lin Mu of the Lin Clan!"

That was the only identity he knew that would make any sense at all in this part of the universe. It wasn\'t a guarantee that he would survive, since he knew basically nothing about that status though Li Muyang had made it sound like quite a lot of people knew Lin Mu. Did it have something to do with the Swordgod Lin Clan he had seen? It was a desperate gamble, at the end of the day. He had underestimated Ebonia, and he would have waited a year before landing on the star had he known this was how it would turn out.

Those words immediately froze Gongshu Ding\'s smile. The snake also stopped and blankly stared at Tianming.

"Wait a second...." Gongshu Ding scratched at his ear and dug out some black stuff before flicking it away. He squinted and asked, "Repeat it again. Who is your father?"

"Lin Mu of the Lin Clan. Don\'t I resemble him? Look at this arm of mine and my looks." Tianming tried his best to calm down. The only thing he got from Gongshu Ding\'s reaction was that he would either survive, or die an even worse death than before. He had to calm down or die!

"I need to hear it again. Who’s your father?" Gongshu Ding stretched his neck, put Feiling down, and stepped close to Tianming, so close that his beard almost touched his face.

"Lin Mu." If not for his predicament, Tianming wouldn\'t have leaked his identity. Even if he survived, there was no saying what consequences the revelation would have. It was a gamble like no other.