Chapter 567 — Fleecing the Four Holy Families
The Beast-Taming Craftsman Page 3 of 4
White King shook its head. "Nothing at all."
Apart from taking a beating, nothing had happened.
For a time it too was at a loss.
It did not know what it had come all this way for, from a foreign star beyond the Realm King Star.
Perhaps... one had to defeat the quasi-deity-level guardian sacred beast to earn a reward? White King looked toward the ranking.
At these words, countless Four Holy evolvers sank into thought and looked to the Four Holy Ranking too, feeling only that this was an outrageous pit.
"Boring. I thought there might be some new gain, but in the end it was still a failure." Zi Jian of the Cosmos Overlord Legion, draped in an archaeology coat, heard White King's account and looked thoroughly uninterested.
"Aow..." White King had meant to say, if you think you can do better, go ahead—but upon seeing the other's identity, it gave up retorting and instead said, unconvinced:
"There's no way a quasi-deity-level faith creature could clear this stage. If the guardian Azure Dragon is as strong as this guardian White Tiger, then even if that fellow Tian Yu came, he'd surely lose too. This ruin is unsolvable," White King said.
……
After the White King, the strongest quasi-god of the White Tiger clan, triggered the "guardian sacred beast breakthrough mechanism," quite a few Four Holy evolvers slipped away—if even the White King couldn't win, why should they waste their time and essence?
But while the weak fled, the strong came one after another. After the White King, the strongest quasi-god of the Vermilion Bird clan, Vermilion Bird herself—Red Ji, master of the world-annihilating flame—arrived at the Ruins of the Four Holy Beasts.
Yet despite achieving a respectable score of 4.1 against the guardian Vermilion Bird, she was still instantly slain and ejected by Red Pupil, who was possessed by Time Ember, and had her world-annihilating flame replicated away.
Time Ember estimated that through fusion, he could upgrade the Vermilion Bird avatar into a world-annihilating Vermilion Bird avatar.
"Sister Red Ji, you lost too."
"Scram." Red Ji, battered and disheveled from being hacked at by Red Pupil, saw the White King approach and her face twisted with fury.
Why was the Vermilion Bird here wielding a sword?
She never expected that she would be chased down and chopped until she lost.
Then came Ming Wu, the strongest quasi-god of the Black Tortoise clan.
"ROAR!!!" The muscular tortoise, after being knocked out, raged in impotent fury.
Though he was a Black Tortoise, his cultivation focused entirely on offensive techniques—yet after fighting for so long, not a single skill could break through the opponent's defense. The feeling was utterly suffocating.
"Tortoise, looks like you lost too." The White King and Red Ji had both watched his entire process from entering the ruins to being ejected.
"Isn't that only to be expected?" Ming Wu cursed grumpily. "If it were that easy to clear, it wouldn't be an Epoch Ruin."
The White King chuckled. "I told you, this ruin is unsolvable."
Afterward, Tian Yu, the strongest quasi-god of the Azure Dragon clan and a prodigy ranked in the top ten of the God-Sealing War, also arrived at the Ruins of the Four Holy Beasts.
If he had encountered Short-Legged Cat or Turtle Turtle, things might have been better—but unfortunately, he ran into Chong Chong, the strongest of Time Ember's Four Holy Beasts. The Azure Dragon's creation skill was completely suppressed by the creation domain, and he was crushed out of the ruins.
"You lost too." The White King, Red Ji, and Ming Wu rushed over at the first moment to offer their congratulations.
"This guardian Azure Dragon also masters the power of creation..." Tian Yu said with a face full of black lines. "I couldn't use my faith power, but it could."
"But what do you three mean by this? I lost, and you all seem pretty happy about it?"
The White King, Red Ji, and Ming Wu made no denial—needless to say, they were more than just a little happy.
"Are these guys here to make a joke of themselves?" As the Zijian Special Forces captain wearily worked on deciphering the ruins, she saw the four geniuses of the Four Holy clans being blasted out of the challenge one after another, and couldn't help but sneer.
The four geniuses of the Four Holy clans didn't seem all that bright.
At that moment, the Zijian captain happened to spot a figure—a figure wearing the same kind of smile aimed at the Four Holy clan geniuses as her own, and laughing even more gleefully than she was, hiding behind a stone pillar of the ruins and chuckling.
Zijian: ?
Zijian looked at the figure and something clicked—this guy... wasn't he...
"Time Ember." Zijian sent a telepathic message across the great distance, calling his name. Time Ember, in the midst of his bumper harvest, was startled to hear someone call him, then turned to look at Captain Zijian.
"So you never left. You're smiling so happily—could it be you've made progress on deciphering the ruins? You stayed behind, so you must be researching this Four Holy Ruin too." She looked at him from across the space, walking toward him step by step, closing the distance as if shrinking the earth itself, and in no time stood before him. Though she had the appearance of a young girl, she was taller than Time Yu, looking down at Time Ember from above.
"Uh, Captain Zijian..." Time Ember had been too delighted to notice her approach; he'd thought she had already forgotten about him. These past few days, he'd seen Zijian and Guild Master Zong Jie utterly absorbed in the ruins, oblivious to everything else.
"What gains could I have... I just found it amusing to watch the Four Holy clan geniuses eat dirt." Time Ember said with an awkward smile.
"Have you considered what I said before? Are you interested in joining the Cosmic Overlord Legion and serving under me?" she said. "Even the Archaeological Association of Jie Wang Star can't recognize your talent—you should know where you truly belong."
"Thank you for the offer, Captain Zijian. I'll think it over." Time Xiao said curtly.
"I hope you'll think it over seriously."
Seeing that Time Ember was truly uninteresting, Zijian snorted and turned to leave. Time Ember glanced at the sky and continued tallying his gains.
……
Some days after the Four Holy Ruins of the Tianling Domain had opened, in the Suspended Domain, Sky Emperor, having heard one report after another from the Tianling Domain, was utterly convinced.
Hadn't he said it? Archaeologist was definitely not a steady profession. After hearing from Lin Feng that Time Ember had deciphered the Four Holy Ruins, Sky Emperor was both shocked and delighted.
But soon, when he discovered that Time Ember was playing bigger and bigger games over there, even tormenting the younger generation of the Four Holy clans again and again, he already foresaw just how much resistance Time Ember would face when he tried to move the ruins away...
Epoch Ruins were highly unique—unlike ordinary ruins that could be turned into ruin artifacts and taken away at will, they were like small worlds. Moving one would cause more commotion than a planet drifting through the cosmos or a sun exploding. There was no way to keep it hidden; the entire Tianling Domain would be shaken.
"Old Wang, still worrying?" At the Lingxiao City Divine Hall, Lin Feng flew over with a bottle of wine. "Time Ember said that to obtain the ruin's authority, he has to keep fighting. There's no helping it."
"Aren't you impressed? We used to say Time Ember would need a few years to make a good showing in the God-Sealing War. But now, in just a few months, his Canghai Spirit has evolved into a Purifying Star Spirit, his Iron-Eating Beast defeated a junior god of the Qilin clan, his Mechanical Phantom Beast learned a disaster-class technique, and the Four Holy Beasts he nurtured have grown at lightning speed thanks to the massive faith resources gained from deciphering the Epoch Ruin..."