Ning Xiaochuan had been about to watch Ning Xiner and Murong Wushuang's battle when three martial artists approached him head-on—two men and one woman.
They wore the student robes of Heavenly Emperor Academy, and each had a mystic beast following behind them. All three were Fourth Grade Mystic Beasts. The aura emitted by those three beasts alone was enough to make one shudder in fear.
The mystic beasts' fist-sized eyes stared at Ning Xiaochuan, their gazes brimming with intense bloodlust. Yet before their masters, they were as docile as frail little pets.
The combat strength of a Fourth Grade Mystic Beast was comparable to that of a Divine Body Seventh Level martial artist, perhaps even stronger.
For these three students to subdue Fourth Grade Mystic Beasts as Battle Pets and mounts, their own cultivation had to be far from simple.
Ning Xiaochuan cautiously raised his guard. Competition within the Emperor Ruins was exceptionally brutal; it was better to be careful in all things.
Yue Mingsong adjusted his white student robe, stroked his two wisps of mustache, and hurried over. Cupping his hands, he smiled. "Brother Ning, what a coincidence! I am Yue Mingsong, the World's Number One Artifact Refinement Master."
Though Yue Mingsong was only twenty-one, wrinkles had already grown across his forehead, and the creases beside his nose were deep. His skin was somewhat dark and sallow, making him look exceptionally old—like a middle-aged man in his forties.
For martial cultivators, as long as their cultivation was high enough, they could indeed delay aging. Even someone eighty or ninety years old might look only thirty or forty.
Could the man before him be such an expert? Otherwise, how could he be the World's Number One Artifact Refinement Master? Doubt filled Ning Xiaochuan's eyes as he said, "Are you really