Beastmaster of the Ages

Meow Meow’s entire body was covered in lightning bolts as Ninefold Chaos Thunderscape was constantly surrounding its body. At that moment, countless lightning bolts gathered in its eyes and seemed to explode before forming two long spears that blasted toward the sky. The blood-colored lightning spears moved at a speed three times faster than Meow Meow could—it was a ferocious strike indeed. In the blink of an eye, they pierced straight through the clouds. That ability was sure to be useful against most enemies, unless they were too many levels above Tianming’s. Otherwise, there was no way they would be able to react to that strike, much less avoid it.

“This is my new ability, Cosmic Lance. One spear represents the light yang, and the other represents the dark yin. Both of them pierce the enemy at the same time. If I layer Blitzbane’s power on top of it, it’ll be powerful enough to be my finishing move. It’s my strongest ability so far,” Meow Meow bragged.

Tianming and Ying Huo looked at each other and gave Meow Meow a thumbs-up, or as close as Ying Huo could manage anyways.

“Cool. Now for the next one,” Ying Huo said.

“Yeah!” Meow Meow reverted back into a black cat and leapt into Tianming’s embrace. Then, it coquettishly meowed and said, “You made me so tired! It’s horrible!”

Despite its words, it was already sleeping comfortably. By then, the other two were done as well. Lan Huang’s appearance had changed quite a lot. It looked just as fiendish as the other two after absorbing the manna, having gained many ghastly red scales and sword-shaped spikes all over its body. Even its fangs looked like many Starfiend’s Swords. A simple roll from it would be enough to tear its enemies apart. Its tail was also a gigantic Starfiend’s Sword.

It gained a new ability called Daybreak Worldslash, which actually resembled a battle art more than an ability. It used the gigantic tail and the nine kui mountains on its back like ten blades and slashed in the fashion of Primordial Wheel. Coupled with its Kilofold Rings, Lan Huang was now a machine of war. It also had around forty-five hundred stars.

As for Xian Xian, its fourth flower bloomed. The new flowers bloomed in groups and had a unique purple shade. Tianming recognized them as grape hyacinths, which looked like purple grapes and bells at the same time. The grape hyacinth on Xian Xian was called Fiendsong Mare.

Just like Radiant Lily was no normal lily, Fiendsong Mare was no normal grape hyacinth. It bloomed in a huge bunch of a hundred thousand, each one looking just like a purple bell. With a shake of Xian Xian’s body, it caused the bells to ring and resonate with the power of Fiendsong Mare.

“Basically, I’ve learned to sing!” it said using its spiritform, which now had a head full of grape hyacinths.

“Not bad! You can sing along with me!” Lan Huang said in its booming voice.

“No, not you! Let Xian Xian do it alone!” Tianming and Ying Huo said in unison. Letting Lan Huang sing could be fatal to everything within earshot.

Xian Xian’s spiritform flew up to the group of Fiendsong Mares and blended into them. Then, all hundred thousand of them began ringing; Tianming could hardly describe the sound he heard. It was a mare that infested the dreams indeed, sounding like many people crying at the same time. It was as if countless souls were climbing toward his ears. The more he listened, the sleepier he felt, but right that instant, the sound suddenly turned ear piercing in a way that hurt his soul. Tianming let out his totems and noticed that they had also been affected by the Fiendsong Mares. The compounding effects of pain and sleepiness were hard to deal with.

“The flowers specialize in using sound to entrance the soul!” Tianming had seen methods like that before, but it was completely different when Xian Xian put its own spin on it. It was effective against both the vita and totems.

“To think that it can even affect totems… what an impressive ability.” Coupled with Xian Xian’s ‘singing’, the ability was called Trisoul Fiendsong. Now, Xian Xian excelled even more at crowd control thanks to its combination of Radiant Vines, Evernight Rose, and this new ability. Only her Scarlet Lily was used purely for attack, but even that was able to cause widespread destruction. Xian Xian was now an even more integral part of the team.

Tianming was all too happy with the new fiendish evolutions. More importantly, their pure hearts hadn’t been distorted like their looks had.

“Sis! I like that ability!” Meow Meow was ecstatic. An ability that caused sleep was practically made for it.

“Forget it!” Tianming stuffed it back into his lifebound space. “Well, after all that effort in making you stronger, it’s time you return the favor!”

Every time it came time to synchronize their bloodlines, Tianming appreciated symbiotic cultivation even more, thinking it to be the ultimate form of cultivation.

……

“The third level… Trisource Sky.” Their bloodline evolutions caused his Primordial Chaos Beast body to grow at the same time, which in turn triggered a change in his wills and caused him to break through again. That showed just how much power had been gained by going from around a thousand stars to forty-five hundred and above. All the way back in Vermillion Bird, stars only increased one by one in comparison.

Through a night of cultivation, he strengthened the albi in his body with the power of boundless stellunar source. His infernaldiscs, primordialdiscs, genesisdiscs, and radixdiscs grew even stronger through Tianming’s Lifesbane Will. However, he didn’t give up on his Imperial Will, either; he was just making slower progress with it. With his current level of power, he was among the most powerful of the rootbeast race in the Divine Moon Realm.

“To think that Sovereign Xi dared to give me four-star universal manna. With so many stars, Ying Huo and the rest might be the most powerful lifebound beasts in the Divine Moon Realm.”

Perhaps the reason for that was that totems reigned supreme in the Divine Moon Realm, as the divine moonrace were the dominant group. Tianming spent another half a day recharging, finally extending his godswords to forty meters in length. That way, it wouldn’t be an issue if an enemy could run thirty-nine meters away in an instant.

“It’s only been a short time since I came to the Divine Moon Realm. Right now, even if I only use the four cardinal godswords, even Shishi’s father, an elite at the Heptaglory Sky level, wouldn’t be my match. I’ve really improved by leaps and bounds!”

Saving Ye Lingfeng would still be difficult, but Tianming had been growing at a startling rate since breaking his Lifesbane curse. He finally ended his cultivation session and stood up.

“There’s many battle arts in the Moonnight Patio that I can obtain without having to challenge anyone. Let’s see if there’s any that will be suitable for me, Ying Huo, and Xian Xian.”

While he could continue taking challenges in the wondersky realm, there was a cooldown of ten days. Here, on the other hand, Sovereign Xi had decreed that he would be allowed to take anything he wanted.

With how powerful Hexapath Samsara Sword’s sword intent was, it was far better than many other divine-grade battle arts. For a move like that to have originated from the Flameyellow Continent showed that the world below also had impressive talent that was only limited by the lack of good spiritual energy and legacies. The Hexapath Sword God was said to have spent centuries perfecting the sword art. If it weren’t for Tianming’s short cultivation time, he would have been trying to discover his own sword art. However, it was better for him to keep learning from others’ wisdom for now.

“The divine moonrace has a history of millions of years and they’ve birthed many elites. There’s definitely a battle art out there that’s much stronger than the Hexapath Samsara Sword.”

Not wanting to stay in the quiet and lonely Xi Palace, he headed to the Moonnight Patio. He didn’t think that right after entering, he would see two people talking. The first was the alluring sovereign, while the other was also a woman. However, she was dressed like a scholar and had her hair tied up in a knot. She held herself with great poise and authority. Despite dressing like a man, her feminine beauty was impossible to hide. While she was probably as old as the sovereign, her power made her look just as young. In other words, they must have ascended at a young age.

“Greetings, Your Majesty, Imperial Guide,” Tianming said. He had never seen the imperial guide before, but a simple guess was enough for him to know that she was the second most authoritative person in the Divine Moon Realm. Only she could talk to the sovereign without bowing or kneeling, literally on equal standing.

“Come here,” Sovereign Xi said with a wave. When he came over, she put her hand on his shoulder in a friendly manner. “How is it? We just got Ourselves a young new man. He smells good, doesn’t he?”

Tianming’s expression immediately contorted. What did he smell like?

“He smells decent,” said the imperial guide as she expressionlessly gazed at him, like this was something she was already used to.

“We told him that he’s allowed to train at your Moonnight Patio with the highest of privileges.”

“Understood,” the imperial guide said with a nod.

“Your Majesty, I was just about to head there,” Tianming said.

“What a coincidence, she’s about to head back too. Lead the way, then.”

“We shall take our leave.” The imperial guide lowered her head and looked at Tianming, signaling him to follow her.

As they left, Sovereign Xi squinted and studied Tianming’s back. “Isn’t he a little fast?”

……

Tianming left Xi Palace with the imperial guide and flew toward their destination. Soon, they reached an elysian location; it was none other than Moonnight Patio. Though its name sounded really elegant, it was actually the top cultivation location of the divine moonrace, their sacred legacy. Many royals cultivated there before reaching a hundred years old. This place had produced generations of royal elites, and only the best could attend it.

The imperial guide stopped before entering. “You may cultivate here, but don’t cause any trouble.”

“Understood. I won’t offend anyone of my own accord.”

“There will be many who are curious about you.”

“In what sense?”

“Many believe that those of the rootbeast race that use blood pacts have low potential, no matter how great their talent,” she said.

“Then they’re wrong.”

“Wrong how?”

“My current abilities far supersede most of the people within,” Tianming proclaimed.