"Yin Po, shut up!" Chou Qiong said.

"Why should I shut up? The lord asked us to report to him immediately after discovery."

"Report my ass! If we’re the ones to catch him, the credit will be ours!"

Yin Po's eyes brightened with the realization. Even though she hadn’t been present for the Number One Summit, she had a rather good understanding of Tianming. He was a super genius in his twenties who had even managed to kill Yama—a shock to be sure, but there were nine of them against him. All of them were at least at the sixth-level life phase, a level higher than Yama had been. She and Chou Qiong in particular were in the sixth-level death phase and had terrifying death tribulation force.

"An old crone like me has lived for three centuries and never been a genius since joining our sect. However, I've killed countless geniuses myself. Hehehe...." She had seen too many so-called geniuses fall, so Tianming was no different from a naive baby doll in her eyes.

"Go!"

In almost an instant, all nine of them charged toward Tianming from all directions. He looked around, having planned to escape with Meow Meow's speed. However, his pursuers weren't that slow either. If they trailed behind him for a time and caused a commotion, the number of pursuers would only increase and he would definitely die. So, he dropped the notion of running and chose to fight. His opponents were greedy for credit and wouldn't want to notify the others; he could use that to his advantage. Their greed was an opportunity for him to exploit.

"Let's end this quickly!" Tianming immediately entered his strongest state, summoning all four of his beasts. It would be the first fight for them since their evolution!

As they were still within shallow lava, they could charge out at any time. Lan Huang and the rest were also fine with the temperature at this depth. In fact, to Lan Huang, the fluid lava was akin to the sea for him.

Even so, he still relied on Xian Xian to seal off the battlefield. While it was indeed fearful of fire, the shallow lava didn't affect it too much. Its leaves, roots, and flowers managed to unveil themselves without issue. The Evernight Rose in particular glowed with astral light as Xian Xian's roots stretched for kilometers.

Meanwhile, the Kilofold Rings on Lan Huang began rapidly spinning. The rampaging twinhead dragon with nine kui mountains on its back and nine kui seas on his abdomen was prepared to mess this lava bath up.

Nearby, a gigantic beast emerged from the darkness, letting out a terrifying aura. Now, Meow Meow was about a third of Lan Huang's size. Even more troubling was its cold white eyes and razor-sharp claws and teeth, as well as its whip-like tail that kept swishing threateningly behind it. It had gotten all of that thanks to the Venus Fiendbone. Ying Huo merely perched on Tianming's shoulder, looking the most nondescript of all the beasts.

"Kill them all!" Tianming said, then launched into action. He glanced at the enemies and instantly knew that only two of them would be a little troublesome for him to deal with, namely the old crone and the strawberry man.

The man held a fiery-red net in his hand made from sharp, spiked ropes. It seemed to have eight tribulation patterns and was a special net known as a Fire Larva. Beside him were two huge lifebound beasts that looked like flaming crustaceans. Their bodies were a little mushroom-shaped and they had tens of thousands of fine feelers or appendages sprouting beneath their bodies. Even more terrifying were the faces on the mushroom bodies that contorted with an expression of pain and agony as they let out harrowing shrieks. There were more than five hundred and eighty stars in their eyes. They were ghostface flaretoxin crabs.

The two of them were more or less on the level of Hei An and Bai Rao, which was only to be expected. While Hei An and Bai Rao's level was close to theirs, they were valued far more due to their talents.

However, Yin Po's lifebound beasts seemed even more terrifying. The three of them had different-colored skin: green, purple, and blue, respectively. They were really small and floated around the crone like three ugly babies with large mouths. They rolled around in the lava and loudly cried, apparently using some kind of ability. The instant Tianming heard the cries, he felt like his head was about to explode. However, they definitely weren’t infants, but lifebound beasts that had lived for more than three centuries. They were ghostchild beasts and were actually akin to ghostly spirits. One of them had more than six hundred stars, while the other two had around five hundred and ninety.

Apart from Chou Qiong and Yin Po, there were another seven people on the chase, all of whom were in the sixth-level life phase. Even with Xian Xian covering the entire battlefield, they still quickly managed to surround Tianming and the rest. Fueled by greed, they attacked, though Yin Po and Chou Qiong made sure to emphasize that they could kill Tianming's lifebound beasts but had to take him alive since they would earn much more credit by taking him captive.

A chaotic melee began.

"Xian Xian!" Tianming needed its help to take on so many people at once.

"They're ugly and smelly!" Xian Xian said as its spiritform came to him. Meanwhile, the Evernight Rose began shaking as it used the Evernight Curse. Despite the name, it wasn't actually a curse; instead, the rose was scattering astral pollen. Almost instantly, the countless sparkles on the black rose scattered all over the place; Xian Xian was able to finely control where and how they moved, allowing them to spread through all corners of the battlefield before sticking on the enemies' skin and sinking inside. They were so small they were barely detectable, so the enemies weren't even aware they were being hit by it. Without even noticing, they slowly lost their reason.

That move was a nightmare for many lifebound beasts, who didn't really have any countermeasures against such attacks. Even so, the pollen was just the figurative seed for what was to come later. Xian Xian continued bombarding the battlefield with Radiant Vines, Bloodrain Swords, and black roots.

Beside it, Lan Huang's Kilofold Rings were spinning so fast that it was now in meat grinder mode. It leaped straight into the sea of lava as the nine kui seas on it began spinning, causing it to move forward at a staggering speed and collide with three other tough lifebound beasts. In an instant, the spinning rings tore them into pieces and killed them.