Celestial Beast Taming

That Prince of Deceit’s Lifebound Deceit Beast, the Punishment Flame Griffin, was being affected by Flower Venerable’s Order Beast, the Blood Ripple Tumi.

The Life Energy and lifespan within its body were draining away at an extremely rapid pace.

The Prince of Deceit was already on the verge of frenzy.

The outer petals of the Blood Ripple Tumi in Flower Venerable’s hand withered one by one at a speed visible to the naked eye.

With every withered petal, the Prince of Deceit’s frenzy intensified.

The withering of each petal signified that both the Blood Ripple Tumi and the Punishment Flame Griffin had lost a portion of their Life Force, along with two years of their lifespan.

A Lifebound Deceit Beast is born with its Deceit Beast Master, so the loss of the Deceit Beast’s lifespan is equivalent to the loss of its master’s.

Replenishing the cost of each withered petal would require nearly twenty-five points of Divine Origin Value.

The Prince of Deceit had never intended to fight these two Peak of Ten Thousand Nations Level Order Beasts to the death here.

Instead, he deliberately ordered the Punishment Flame Griffin to desperately use its mastered Flame Burst Rule to counter the Withering Rule possessed by Flower Venerable’s Order Beast, the Blood Ripple Tumi.

To find a Power of Rules compatible with the Punishment Flame Griffin, the Prince of Deceit had searched far and wide for Rule Deceit Embryos.

But he had never managed to find a suitable Rule Deceit Embryo!

In the end, he had no choice but to set his sights on a Celestial Destiny Seeker from the Shuojin Federation, one who was a pillar of their nation.

When he made his move against this Celestial Destiny Seeker, the latter proved incredibly resolute and self-detonated their Emperor’s Tool during the great battle.

This meant that even though the Prince of Deceit had found a Power of Rules compatible with the Punishment Flame Griffin, he had no Emperor’s Tool to wield it.

Even though the Punishment Flame Griffin had directly devoured the Order Beast’s corpse—and devouring a corpse was indeed a stronger method than absorbing the Power of Rules from a Rule Deceit Embryo—the incomplete Flame Burst Rule it gained was still undoubtedly inferior to Flower Venerable’s orthodox Withering Rule.

After the Punishment Flame Griffin lost several more years of its lifespan, the Prince of Deceit immediately commanded it to fly high into the sky.

And just then, the star patterns on the Fallen Star Night Qilin flared brightly, and a cry that was part beast, part dragon rang out.

The aurora enveloping its body instantly spread to every corner of the sky.

A beam of starlight descended from the heavens, ruthlessly slamming into the Punishment Flame Griffin, which was conserving its Power of Rules to resist the effects of the Blood Ripple Tumi.

It blasted a bloody hole straight through the Punishment Flame Griffin’s back, scattering blood across the sky.

This sudden strike took the two Peak of Ten Thousand Nations-level Bizarre completely by surprise.

It also took Flower Venerable completely by surprise!

’Flower Venerable hadn’t expected the Star Emperor to go for the kill, to unleash his ultimate technique, Fallen Star Ravine, so directly.’

It drew upon the Energy contained within a real star, causing the star’s Energy to plummet toward the target.

It was as if an entire star had crashed down upon the target.

Each time Fallen Star Ravine was cast, for the next tens of thousands of years, that star, its internal Energy depleted, would likely never shine again.

’Unleashing an ultimate technique at the very start of the battle... could it be...?’

Following that Fallen Star Ravine, two more brilliant beams of starlight descended from the sky.

One hurtled toward the injured Punishment Flame Griffin, the other toward the Deceit Knight fused with the Eternal Flame Nightmare Deceit Beast.

The flowers of Frost Day’s Order Beast, the Frostfall Evening Glory, unexpectedly burst into blue-purple ice flames with a glazed, glass-like texture.

Under the burn of the ice flames, the flowers cascaded down like a flurry of butterflies, swarming toward the Punishment Flame Griffin that had been grievously wounded by the Fallen Star Night Qilin.

This was another of Frost Day’s ultimate techniques: Broken Flower, Fallen Butterfly, Shattered Ice!

Frost Day had come up with the name "Broken Flower, Fallen Butterfly, Shattered Ice" themselves.

It sounded rather poetic, maybe even a little tasty.

But upon being struck by the withered flowers of the Frostfall Evening Glory, which burned with ice flames, all matter within a body would freeze and crack.

In many cases, frostbite causes far deeper damage than burns.

Now that Frost Day had reached the Peak of Ten Thousand Nations Level, it would only take about twenty of those Flower Butterflies to completely kill their own carefully nurtured Endless Shore plant.

All the lethality of Frost Day’s Order Beast, the Frostfall Evening Glory, came from the flowers it produced.

Frost Day had the Frostfall Evening Glory unleash its full arsenal in an attack on the Punishment Flame Griffin.

It was an offensive powerful enough to half-cripple the Punishment Flame Griffin, which was also at the Peak of Ten Thousand Nations Level!

In the current situation, the Star Emperor and Frost Day had the Deceit Knight and Prince of Deceit completely suppressed.

This situation had arisen because the Fallen Star Night Qilin had caught the Prince of Deceit completely off guard.

The Deceit Knight had now fully processed the situation.

’They don’t just want to force us to retreat and give up on the assassination plan.’

’They want to kill us both, right here and now!’

Dark, viscous flames—the color of dried blood, blackish-red with a hint of purple—erupted violently from the Deceit Knight’s body.

A great-axe of a strange design, its head shaped like a pair of bull’s horns, appeared in the Deceit Knight’s hands.

He swung it viciously toward the descending Fallen Star Ravine unleashed by the Fallen Star Night Qilin.

Simultaneously, using his inherent Burning Rule, he summoned a flaming volcano in the sky.

He intended to help the Punishment Flame Griffin block this second Fallen Star Ravine assault.

The volcano, which the Deceit Knight had summoned by expending a vast amount of Energy and Power of Rules, blocked over eighty percent of the Fallen Star Ravine’s damage.

The remaining aftershock, less than twenty percent of the original impact, was not enough to cause the Punishment Flame Griffin significant harm.

But while the burning volcano blocked the Fallen Star Ravine, it failed to block Frost Day’s ultimate technique.

Even the powerful cannot help but vie for fame and fortune.

Frost Day had never taken part in the rankings of the Xin Xia Federation’s Three Emperors, Four Venerables, and Five Monarchs.