Beastmaster of the Ages

"The proof is indisputable! May the Hall of Discipline mete out justice and punish Lin Xiaoyun and his daughter, Lin Jianjia!"

"Lin Jianjia herself should be punished extra harshly according to the house rules, as she\'s a supervisor in the Hall of Discipline!"

"According to the house rules, contracting a kill on one of our own is punishable by death if the contract is carried out! Even if it didn\'t succeed, imprisonment of a minimum of three centuries without any cultivation resources is the absolute minimum."

"She\'s also a supervisor, so she deserves five centuries at least!"

For an heiress with six-six talent to be deprived of cultivation resources and imprisoned for centuries was the same thing as crippling her for the rest of her life. The best time for her to cultivate would already be long past.

The house rules applied to everyone, though, regardless of status or seniority. The younger one was, however, the more careful they had to be of breaking them. For people who had lived thousands of years, five hundred years of imprisonment wasn\'t as bad as the same term for someone that was only decades old.

Lin Jianjia was the heiress of her branch and bore their future hopes. If she really was dealt with according to the house rules, it would be a huge blow to the third branch. If Lin Xiao and Dongshen Yue struck back, the entire branch would be in for a terrible time, especially since they were the ones at fault this time around. If a proper response wasn\'t mustered to teach them a lesson, who knew whether they would eventually turn their vile sights on Tianming?

The Swordgod Lin Clan was among the strictest in Ebonia when it came to their house rules, and the Hall of Discipline had played an important role in enforcing them throughout the history of the clan. One could only walk the path of the sword with incredible discipline. This time around, it wasn\'t just a few enraged people—the entire membership of the second branch had been there to witness the evidence being presented, and quite a few people from the first branch had also stood up for Lin Xiaogui. They were united on the same front; even Lin Jie would feel huge pressure from the masses.

"Big Brother, save Jianjia! Please!" Lin Lingzhi knew how serious the matter was and wanted so badly to tear Lin Xiaoyun apart, but that wouldn\'t help things at all.

"Uncle... Daddy... Mommy...." Lin Jianjia was panicking and started crying, not that it stripped her of any fault at all. Lin Xiaoyun was completely stupefied.

"Crimes must be punished!"

"May the Hall of Discipline mete out justice!"

Dongshen Yue was correct. The situation was a complete reversal that threatened to harm the trust in Lin Jie and the Hall of Discipline. Before all this proof, there was no way Lin Jie would go against popular will, lest he end up a laughingstock bereft of all credibility. Should that come to pass, the council would have to step in.

"Big Brother"! Lin Lingzhi\'s eyes were bloodshot and desperate.

"Shut up!" Lin Jie\'s expression had soured three times within a single day, and this was the most embarrassing time. Lin Lingzhi, Lin Xiaoyun, and Lin Jianjia were shocked by the rebuke. "I can at least cover for Xiaoyun. Jianjia, you go to prison and reflect."

There was no way Lin Jie would accept that, but there wasn\'t any choice. Lin Jianjia slumped to the ground and began bawling at having to pay for the consequences of her own actions. As she despaired, Lin Jie announced "The supervisor of the Hall of Discipline, Lin Jianjia, has been charged with contracting someone to assassinate one of our own. There’s concrete proof, so she’s been convicted of the crime. As a supervisor, her punishment shall be increased, and she’ll remain imprisoned in juvenile purgatory for five centuries!"

As for Lin Xiaoyun, Lin Jie conveniently skipped over him. Lin Xiao didn\'t have any concrete proof that he was complicit in Lin Jianjia\'s crimes, after all. Framing the issue as the reckless decision of a youth was beneficial to Lin Xiaoyun, not to mention, he was the master of the third branch and still had his uses. Even so, everyone else knew what was going on."Lin Jianjia only turned out like this because they spoiled her."

"Lin Xiaoyun\'s reputation will take a huge hit."

"Even though he isn’t being punished, he\'ll be the talk of the clan for quite a while."

This was payback from Tianming\'s side. When he had first arrived at Myriadsword Mausoleum, Lin Xiaoyun and Lin Wuyi were talking about doing all sorts of heinous things to him, like castrating him and forcing him to kneel to his death, but they were the ones being driven to tears this time around.

"Hmph, pay for your own sins. Grandson, girls, let\'s go!" Dongshen Yue smiled and left with the rest.

"Second Branch, adjourn!" Lin Xiao ordered.

"Yes!"

......

They returned to Brokensword Peak. Tianming\'s lifebound beasts\' use of order had shocked a lot of seniors. Once they were back, Lin Xiao and Dongshen Yue showed great curiosity at the curious phenomenon, though it seemed like they were unable to be certain whether it was actually order.

To make everything appear more reasonable, Ying Huo and the rest would never demonstrate their use of order. Even if Lin Xiuzhu had experienced it for himself, there was no way his seniors would believe him. As such, Tianming had managed to muddy the waters about his capabilities yet again.

After that, his grandparents were quite curious about Yin Chen\'s main body. When Tianming told them about its true nature it came as quite a shock to Dongshen Yue, as that was normally impossible. But the truth was there for her to see.

"How is it? I told you long ago that I was an underappreciated super genius! Do you believe me now? Every single one of my lifebound beasts are miraculous!" Tianming bragged.

"Hey, don\'t drown in your own pride!" Dongshen Yue said, almost speechless. Either way, they were quite happy for Tianming\'s sake, regardless of how unconventional his capabilities were. Lin Xiao was in such a good mood that he sang.

"By the way, you said that your fifth lifebound beast consumes divine ores to make more bodies, which allows it to monitor a large area, right?" Dongshen Yue asked. She had seen Yin Chen transform into invisible cockroaches—stronger ones, this time—which would still be just as hard for her to detect if she wasn’t paying attention. The key reason for that was that no child spawn of any broodmother-type beast had its own intelligence, which was why people tended to ignore small bugs without a second thought.

"That\'s right."

"Your grandmother has an estate outside with a large ore mountain that spans an incredibly large area. There’s grade-one to grade-nine ores there. Do you want it?"

"Of course!" That would be an incredible boon. While he had to sneak around in the Swordsoul Purgatory like a thief, he could enjoy this without holding back as it was private property. With that, it wouldn\'t take much time for Yin Chen to increase to a total of ten billion bodies.

"Now that you\'ve had your fill beating them up, you should turn your attention back to cultivating. Spread your bugs far and wide so that you can thwart your enemies\' schemes before they even start, got it? You must reinforce yourself if you\'re to go against them," she instructed.

"Got it!" In other words, he should know when to stop pushing against those that opposed him. Strengthening himself was still more important than pulling others down.