Beastmaster of the Ages

Moran was obviously venting her dissatisfaction at being called used goods. While the skyway masterbrush wonder was gigantic, it looked just like a normal brush in her hand. Lin Xiaopo and his lifebound beasts were her canvas. The more used to controlling the brush she became, the more trouble they found themselves in.

With a large brushstroke, the flaming eagle in the sky was slammed in the back and sent flying into the inner walls of the arena\'s formation. It weakly slithered down, bloodied all over and leaving a large trail of blood on the wall. There was nothing it could do to resist! Lin Xiaopo\'s smirk became stiffer and stiffer as his lifebound beasts were hurt one after another. It was as if he had just stepped out of the door only to be struck in the head by a brick tossed by a beauty.

"Lin Xiaopo!" his father yelled, snapping him out of it.

He could tell how dissatisfied his father was. As the heir, disappointing his father was the greatest taboo in his life! He promptly accepted the fact that Moran was a worthy and terrifying foe no matter how hard it was to believe. There weren\'t many chances left for him to turn this fight around.

At that moment, Moran burst through Lin Xiaopo\'s sword ki storm and sent a brushstroke smashing toward him! He could see the oppressive gaze she shot at him.

"Swordbeasts, return!" Lin Xiaopo ordered as he retreated. He used his trump card: uniting with his swordbeasts! The reason he hadn\'t done so at the start was that there were also disadvantages, like lowering the number of combat units he could muster at a time. But by amassing his combat potential onto himself as an individual, he would be able to unleash an explosive burst of force! He would be able to utilize sword arts and abilities and even gain the raw physical power of his lifebound beasts. All of his beasts, even the injured tiger and eagle, turned into black starfire and shot toward his sword like meteors.

"Come!" Lin Xiaopo kept backing off during the fusion process. Then his sword underwent a complete change. The faces of all six of his swordbeasts appeared on its blade and the power of their abilities spread all over it. The sword even began showing some physical characteristics of the beasts; that was the power of swordbeast unification!

Doing so would allow a killing move to be unleashed, and unity of mind and will was also crucial to the process. But after Lin Mu\'s incident, the clan members, who had lost their Ancestral Swordheart, found it hard to unify. Perhaps that was one of the reasons for their recent downturn.

"Not bad." Tianming couldn\'t help but nod at the sight of the power shown by Lin Xiaopo\'s fused form. The fusion between man, beasts, and sword seemed perfect, congregating all of their varied power in the blade. That instant, Lin Xiaopo achieved a destructive potential that didn\'t belong to his level. The abilities of his beasts and their tenacity, coupled with his sword ki and sword arts blasted toward Moran! His killing intent was plain to see. Lin Xiaopo seemed to be bearing the hopes of his clan. Far too many clan disciples were cheering for him, while Moran\'s only supporter was Tianming.

"Crush him, wifey!" Tianming yelled before everyone watching. The sudden encouragement caused her heartbeat to intensify, and the poor Lin Xiaopo became her target to vent that sudden burst of emotions. Her wrist twisted, sending the great brush swinging toward Lin Xiaopo.

"Die!" Lin Xiaopo roared, putting everything into his sword. The swordbeasts within unleashed a combination ability, something Ying Huo and the rest wouldn\'t be capable of. The ability-enhanced sword art seemed brilliant to behold; finally, Lin Xiaopo seemed to be able to fight Moran on the same level.

At the moment of the clash, Moran\'s brush tore through the abilities and sword strike like they weren\'t there at all! Lin Xiaopo\'s sword exploded and all six swordbeasts within were sent flying back out, gasping for breath and bloodied all over. Lin Xiaopo himself had taken the brunt of the brushstroke and groaned in pain as he was sent flying, pale and vomiting blood. He looked like a fly that had been struck by a flyswatter, flattened against the wall of the arena. Blood sprayed out of him like a mist as he slid downward, the force of the divine wonder\'s strike still blasting away at his body. By the time he reached the ground, he was completely out cold.

"He\'s dead!" Many children of the clan believed that Lin Xiaopo had been killed and cried out in panic. One after another, their expressions soured as they bawled, unable to utter a single word.

"She killed him!"

"Xiaopo’s dead!"

"Kill her! A life for a life! Waaaah Xiaopo!"

Abject chaos spread throughout the arena.

"He isn’t dead. Don\'t panic," Moran plainly said as she demanifested her divine wonder. Her heart was still quickly beating from what she had heard. She turned and rolled her eyes at Tianming. "Don\'t say things without thinking, alright? That really surprised me." If it weren’t for Tianming\'s encouragement, she would have been able to control her strike better and not beat Lin Xiaopo so harshly.

"Badass!" Tianming smiled and shot her a thumbs-up. While he hadn\'t fought in this battle himself, that wouldn’t stop him from feeling utterly vindicated. No matter who he ran into in the future, those that would say his wives were far more powerful than he was would only be validating the fact that he was charming enough to get with such powerful women.

Nothing felt better than that.

......

The chaos in the arena continued, but the Lin Clan\'s house rules held fast and nobody dared to mess with Moran. Many seniors could even tell that she had held back and spared Lin Xiaopo. The fact that a constellier wondermancer could crush a second-level stellaminor genius of the clan with six-six talent was enough to render all the seniors there speechless.