Holy Beast Battle Spirit

Legend had it that whenever the Way of Heaven fell into ruin and Reincarnation reached its end, ten "Primordial Chaos Giant Beasts" would be born within the boundless realms.

Their bodies were as vast as immortal domains. Wherever they went, heaven and earth collapsed, space and time turned upside down, stars perished, and all living beings suffered calamity.

After destroying the old world, they vanished without a trace. Thereafter, heaven and earth were reborn, order was rebuilt, life revived, and a new world came into being.

Late at night, a drifting torrential rain began to fall from the sky. Dense black clouds piled together like hundreds of millions of vicious ghosts, glaring ferociously down at this dark mortal world.

Countless blinding lightning serpents darted through the clouds, erupting with deafening thunder that made heaven and earth tremble.

"Tianning, save me!"

Li Tianming's head felt as though it were splitting apart. Under the lashing rain, he struggled to open his eyes.

Before him lay a roc with two pairs of golden wings. This once majestic bird was now covered in wounds, blood pouring from its body and mixing with the rain to dye a vast stretch of land red.

"Jin Yu!" The sight tore Li Tianming's heart apart! This was his lifebound beast, the "Four-Winged Golden-Winged Roc," his brother-in-arms who had shared life and death with him for sixteen years!

Boom!

A thunderclap exploded, and lightning tore across the sky. In that instant of blazing radiance, a purple three-eyed eagle descended from above!

Dense lightning serpents coiled around the three-eyed eagle's body. It let out a savage screech, pinned Jin Yu beneath its sharp talons, then opened its beak and began tearing away Jin Yu's golden feathers one by one.

Every feather it pulled out left behind a bloody hole!

Jin Yu's cries were like barbed thorns stabbing into Li Tianming's chest, making even breathing ache with pain!

"Li Tianming, you actually intended to drug and violate Mu Qingqing. In view of your conduct, worse than that of a beast, as a Heavenly Court disciple of Yanhuang Academy, I must punish you!"

A youth sat atop the three-eyed eagle. Between his eyes seemed to lie a pool of thunder. Amid the flashes of lightning and crashing thunder, he commanded the three-eyed eagle like a son of thunder itself.

"Since you have performed well in the past, I shall spare your life. Your lifebound beast, the Four-Winged Golden-Winged Roc, is sentenced to death!" the youth proclaimed in a deep voice.

He intended to execute Jin Yu by a thousand cuts!

"Brother Ting, the Holy Beast Battle Spirit is yours now. A lowly scum like Li Tianming simply does not deserve such a divine treasure."

Nestled against the youth was a peerlessly beautiful girl. Amid the raging downpour, she was soaked through, yet her figure curled in his embrace was exceptionally alluring.

She was Mu Qingqing. Even if Li Tianming turned to ashes, he would recognize her!

The Brother Ting she spoke of was the thunder-wielding youth atop the three-eyed eagle, Lin Xiaoting!

Li Tianming finally remembered—

Their purpose in killing Jin Yu was to seize the Holy Beast Battle Spirit!

Everyone in this kingdom knew how precious a Holy Beast Battle Spirit was. Its value was beyond measure. It was left behind after the death of a legendary "holy beast," and it was said that its effects could forge an expert who stood above all living beings!

The Holy Beast Battle Spirit Li Tianming had obtained had already been refined by Jin Yu into his own feathers.

The fury in Li Tianming's chest erupted like a volcano, churning clouds and smoke!

Yet for some reason, Li Tianming could not move at all. He could only watch helplessly as the lightning divine eagle plucked Jin Yu's feathers one by one, watch as Jin Yu became drenched in blood and wailed pitifully toward him.

The pleading and pain in Jin Yu's eyes tore Li Tianming's heart to pieces.

Was there anything in this world more agonizing than watching one's own brother be butchered before one's eyes while being utterly powerless to help?

"Lin Xiaoting, Mu Qingqing! So long as I, Li Tianming, do not die in this life, I will send you both to hell!" Li Tianming would never forget those two names, even in death. He struggled with all his strength, wanting to tear apart their hateful faces!

Yet strangely, they drifted farther and farther away from him, before dense fog and lightning swallowed them. Everything before his eyes vanished like smoke.

Li Tianming stood in the dim, gray world, looking around in bewilderment.

Where was Mu Qingqing?

Where was Lin Xiaoting?

Where had they gone?

Creak!

The sound of a door opening suddenly rang out beside his ear.

"Tianning, you had another nightmare." A voice full of tenderness and pity reached him through the haze.

Li Tianming's head felt as though it were splitting apart. Supported by a pair of frail arms, he struggled upright and finally opened his eyes. Before him was a dim bedroom. Candlelight flickered in the corner, stretching the shadows of the tables and chairs long across the room.

"So everything just now was a nightmare. No wonder I couldn't move."

Yet it could not really be called a dream, because everything in it had truly happened!

Every scene, every word they had said, was exactly the same as it had been back then!

He, Li Tianming, had once been the genius of Lihuo City, a remote city in the Vermilion Bird Kingdom, and the son of Lihuo City's lord!

Three years ago, Li Tianming had won the recognition of Yanhuang Academy, the supreme sacred ground of the Vermilion Bird Kingdom. Bearing the hopes of Lihuo City's people, he had gone to cultivate at Yanhuang Academy.

On the way to Yanhuang Academy, he met and traveled alongside Mu Qingqing, another genius from the remote Divine Wind City. After he saved her in a heroic rescue of beauty, they fell in love. From then on, they supported each other and grew together, dating for a year.

During that year, Mu Qingqing had used "cultivation is important" as an excuse to keep their relationship secret.

Li Tianming had once believed that she was the woman destined for him. He had willingly resolved to spend his life protecting her.

But he had never imagined that he did not understand her at all, nor had he guarded against her ambitions in the slightest!

That year, Li Tianming obtained a Holy Beast Battle Spirit in Yanhuang Academy's secret realm, the Abyssal Battlefield. It was an ancient feather covered in patterns from the primordial age. He knew how precious it was, so he kept it strictly secret and first had his lifebound beast Jin Yu refine it into his feathers.

From beginning to end, he had told only Mu Qingqing!

Yet he had never imagined that the person he trusted most would tell Lin Xiaoting of Yanhuang Academy's Heavenly Court about the Holy Beast Battle Spirit!

Because of that, she transformed herself in a single leap, kicked Li Tianming aside, and became Lin Xiaoting's girlfriend.

Yanhuang Academy's Heavenly Court was the academy's most secret and highest place. Only the most dazzling geniuses in the entire kingdom could enter it, and every one of them was a legendary figure.

The forces behind them were mostly prominent clans, noble houses, princes, and aristocrats of the kingdom. Lin Xiaoting, for instance, was the most brilliant young genius of Thunder Lord Manor, a regional hegemon.

Such a background was something Li Tianming could only gaze upon from afar.

That night marked the first anniversary of their relationship. Li Tianming had carefully prepared a gift and presented it to her. She had been overjoyed, then tricked Li Tianming into drinking a cup of wine. Unaware that anything was amiss, he became muddle-headed and had barely made a few advances when Lin Xiaoting appeared.

What happened afterward was exactly the same as in the dream. They cruelly killed Jin Yu and took the Holy Beast Battle Spirit, worth as much as half a kingdom's wealth.

The only difference was that, back then, he and Jin Yu had fought side by side in a desperate battle. Yet in the end, they were no match for Lin Xiaoting, the super genius from Yanhuang Academy's Heavenly Court.

Rumors outside said that Li Tianming had failed to win Mu Qingqing's love and drugged her in an attempt to commit a beastly act, only for Mu Qingqing's boyfriend Lin Xiaoting to catch him on the spot and cripple Li Tianming's lifebound beast!

From then on, Li Tianming not only lost his lifebound beast but also became infamous, turning into Yanhuang Academy's laughingstock. In the end, he had no choice but to leave Yanhuang Academy.

Afterward, with Lin Xiaoting's help, Mu Qingqing entered Yanhuang Academy's Heavenly Court to cultivate. Her cultivation advanced by leaps and bounds, while Lin Xiaoting soared into the sky with the Holy Beast Battle Spirit and became the number one genius of the Heavenly Court!

The two were an immortal couple, their story praised far and wide. Meanwhile, Li Tianming, once a laughingstock, had become dust after losing his lifebound beast. Apart from mockery, no one paid him any attention!

Who else knew that he and Mu Qingqing had once dated for a year?

Three years had already passed since he returned to Lihuo City.

For those three years, he had been a walking corpse, living like an ant. If not for his conviction to avenge his hatred, if not for his responsibility to care for his mother, he would have long since died in some forgotten corner.

Over the past three years, whenever it rained at night, he would almost always dream of everything that had happened that night: their disgusted, disdainful eyes, and Jin Yu having his feathers plucked out one by one as though he were being sliced by a thousand cuts.

Now that he was awake, everything that had happened that year still replayed in his mind. Li Tianming remembered every single one of their expressions with perfect clarity.

Even in the dark night, the youth's eyes were as red as blood.

Three years had passed, yet this dream had made him remember everything so clearly once more.

Three years of drinking ice could not cool the fire of vengeance!

"Tianning, don't be afraid. Sleep peacefully. Mother is here." At the height of his rage, the gentle woman beside him softly stroked his forehead, gradually calming him down.

Under the candlelight, his mother, Wei Jing, looked even frailer. She appeared somewhat aged, yet even so, the eyes she turned toward her son remained filled with deep maternal love.

"Sorry, Mother. I woke you." Li Tianming took a deep breath and pulled himself free from the agony carved into his bones. He understood that caring for this woman who had given him life was the most real thing he needed to do in the future.

"It's all right." Wei Jing shakily rose to her feet and said, "I saw that you were sleeping restlessly. I feared the rainy night had kept you awake, so I brewed Qingling Grass into medicine. I'll bring it to you."

"Qingling Grass is your medicine. Why are you being foolish again? Without it, how much longer can you live?" Li Tianming became anxious and hurriedly rose to support her.

Looking at her haggard face, bitterness filled Li Tianming's heart. The physician had already said that, in her current condition, she would not be able to hold on much longer. Yet even so, she had risen in the middle of the night to brew medicine for him.

"Tianning, Mother has lived enough in this life. Good things like this should be given to you young people. Using them on me would only be a waste." Even now, she spoke to him with a beaming smile.

"Nonsense. Drink it, quickly." Li Tianming was used to this. If he was not stern enough, she would not take her medicine on time.

"All right, all right, I'll drink it. So long as my son is happy, I can drink as much as he wants. When Mother was young, I could drink an ocean of wine." She blinked, like a clever and mischievous child.

Li Tianming watched her finish the medicinal soup brewed from Qingling Grass. It could prolong her life, but after she used up this month's supply, he had no idea where he would find more Qingling Grass next month.

She had given too much for him in this life.

What virtue or ability did he possess to deserve a family member like her?

He had once wanted to rise high and prosper, to give her a better life, yet he had never expected to become a cripple and depend on each other with her here.

"Tianning, you must remember this. Fate may indeed make good people suffer sometimes, but every hardship is tempering, all for forging a stronger you. So you still have a better life ahead of you. Never give up. You must keep striving," she told Li Tianming in a voice brimming with passion after finishing her medicine.

"I know. Go sleep." Li Tianming helped her back to her room. Speaking softly to her as though coaxing a child, it took nearly half an hour before she finally fell asleep.

The night deepened.

Li Tianming stared blankly at the strands of white in his mother's hair.

Suddenly—

A disturbance came from a mysterious space within his body.

This space was called the "Companion Space." On the Yanhuang Continent, every person was born with a Companion Space within their body.

Seven days after a person's birth, a lifebound beast would hatch within the Companion Space. Nearly everyone on the Yanhuang Continent possessed their own lifebound beast.

Lifebound beasts were mysterious and colorful, with countless varieties. The powerful ones could soar through the skies and burrow into the earth. The ancient ancestors had created the Symbiotic Cultivation System and established a cultivation channel between humans and lifebound beasts, giving rise to beast tamers.

Beast tamers and their lifebound beasts cultivated symbiotically. The two shared bloodline and wisdom, fought side by side, and formed a powerful combat combination of one human and one beast.

Li Tianming had once been a beast tamer, and Jin Yu had been his lifebound beast.

After Jin Yu died, his Companion Space had remained silent for three years.

Until today, there was finally movement within his Companion Space!

Joy appeared on Li Tianming's face.

His Companion Space had always held a great secret unknown to anyone else!

That was, apart from Jin Yu, who had hatched alongside him at birth, there had always been another ten mysterious eggs within his Companion Space!

Only after Jin Yu hatched did those ten eggs emerge. They felt completely different from Jin Yu.

For more than ten years, they had made no sound at all. In theory, they should all have been Li Tianming's lifebound beasts, but such a thing had never occurred in the entire history of the continent.

And today, he had a powerful premonition—

Those ten most mysterious eggs were finally about to hatch!