Beastmaster of the Ages

Tianming quietly examined what was going on.

“What’s that?” He suddenly noticed that the stellunar source outside the barrier seemed to have some circles of light marked with what seemed like heavenly patterns. In fact, they looked like countless tribulation patterns. They looked like naturally-occurring patterns in spirit ores, herbs, and hazards and were different from man-made ones in formations or tomes.

“If they have heavenly patterns, does that mean the stellunar source is actually more like a kind of spirit hazard?”

Spirit hazards were formed from natural elements like water, fire, lightning, wind, and so on. They had heavenly, saintly, and tribulation patterns that denoted their power. Even a little spirit hazard flame could exterminate an entire city.

“Are you asking Us?” Sovereign Xi said. Tianming had mumbled his thoughts without noticing it. He hadn’t been trying to mentally converse with Ying Huo and the rest.

“Yes.” He wanted to learn how stellunar sources even came to be. If she was willing to explain it, he wouldn’t mind giving it a listen. It would be some time before they reached the mooncore anyway.

“Those circles of light are actually divine ordered patterns.”

“There’s divine ordered patterns in stellunar source?” Tianming had heard a little about those. They were said to be of the highest order among heavenly patterns, much higher than tribulation patterns.

“Of course. Divine ordered patterns are actually manifestations of the laws of order, and govern the behavior of cosmic forces. On a small scale, they allow us to use our divine will to control astralforce. On a large scale, divine ordered patterns control nova and stellunar sources. It’s the same principle.”

Tianming now had a rough understanding. Before this, he had heard that nova sources were a kind of fundamental cosmic force that could change and flow. The reason for that was the laws that governed them, which manifested as divine ordered patterns that the eye could see. In contrast, fusion formations were only used to contain them. If the laws didn’t exist to control and regulate those forces, even fusion formations would be useless.

“The heavenly and divine will of cultivators result from study of the universal laws of order.”

Tianming could see the laws themselves in action, regulating the stellunar source. “May I ask how the stellunar source that has divine ordered patterns is related to spirit hazards with heavenly patterns?”

“Spirit hazards are variations of fundamental cosmic forces. They’re more volatile than stellunar sources, and aren’t suitable to be used for cultivating the body. However, they’re a good fit for making pills and artifacts.”

Tianming nodded. So it appeared that spirit hazards were also derivatives of the fundamental forces, just worse. In essence, they were similar.

So I just need to find a star with an element that fits the fifth egg to hatch it. Now, the last hole he had in his understanding of star worlds had been filled.

“In other words, divine ordered patterns are the most powerful patterns in the astralscape of order, manifestations of the laws that govern fundamental cosmic forces. They’re also part of nova sources. As nova source dissipates into surrounding ores and herbs, the divine ordered patterns also scatter to form tribulation, saintly, and heavenly patterns. Once they absorb enough patterns, they become spirit ores, herbs, and hazards, and those with a single complete divine ordered pattern become divine ores and herbs. Spirit hazards are variations of nova sources with divine ordered patterns and only those with complete divine ordered patterns can be considered divine grade. The many races of the astralscape call those divine hazards.”

Meow Meow and the rest had hatched after absorbing low-quality spirit hazards. If he could get enough divine hazards, he might not need a stellunar or nova source to hatch the fifth egg.

“Divine hazards, ores, and herbs, no matter what level they are, only have a single divine ordered pattern, never two or more. The patterns themselves have nine grades, each recorded with a unique name. They determine the quality of the divine treasures,” she continued.

Now Tianming’s understanding of the world was complete. Divine ordered patterns that represented the universe’s laws were the main reason for the naturally occurring treasures of the world. Nova sources, a fundamental force of the universe, nourished normal objects to make them treasures. Based on that, even a normal divine ore was a universe in itself, just like the human body.

“Spirit ores, herbs, and hazards thus make up fundamental cultivation resources.” For instance, weapons like the Sungod Cycle and Kilostar Photondragon were forged with divine ores and hazards by layering the divine ordered patterns of each ingredient together, compounding their power. Those forged using this method were called divine ordered artifacts, or divine artifacts for short.

When it came to determining the grade of divine artifacts, the higher-grade pattern took priority. For instance, an artifact forged using a divine ore with a grade-two pattern and a divine hazard with a grade-one pattern would be considered a grade-two divine artifact. That allowed divine artifacts to have the power of divine ordered patterns, toughness of divine ores, and explosive damage potential of divine hazards.

“So the grades of divine ores, hazards, and herbs are determined by the grade of the divine ordered pattern. Those are naturally occurring with only a single pattern. As for divine arms, they’re forged, so they have two or more divine ordered patterns.”

Apart from divine arms, the astralscape of order also had alchemy for refining pills, something that was absent on the Flameyellow Continent, whose residents wastefully consumed spirit herbs. Pills could be made by processing divine herbs and divine hazards, and they could also have multiple divine ordered patterns. Consuming pills allowed cultivators to grow in power and will. On that front, while divine ores had divine ordered patterns as well, they weren’t consumable. Alchemy was a much rarer art than forging, not to mention more complicated.

So combining divine ores and hazards creates divine arms. Combining divine hazards with divine herbs creates divine pills. The key to alchemy and forging lie in the divine ordered patterns. So how many patterns do my Grand-Orient Sword and Prime Tower have? What grade are their divine patterns?

Usually, the number of patterns didn’t matter too much, as they only determined the functions of artifacts. The grade of the patterns was more important. Tianming had always been curious as to what class of divine artifacts those were. Thinking back, he trained using the odd patterns he found within the Grand-Orient Sword and Prime Tower to grow his heavenly will. The only reason that worked was probably because they were parts of divine patterns and contained the essence of the laws of the universe. In other words, studying them was akin to studying universal laws. He had been doing that since he was at the Grand-Orient Realm.

Do the five gates in the sword mean it has five divine patterns? I recall they looked a little incomplete, though. The Prime Tower has three floors, each with patterns. So, perhaps it has three kinds of divine patterns. They also look somewhat incomplete.

Given how incomplete they were, he wouldn’t be able to tell what grade the sword and tower were. Even so, he felt that they were much more powerful than he actually thought. He hazarded a guess that divine artifacts like the Amnestic River Voidbanner were only grade one, while the Kilostar Photondragon and Godbane were grade two. So far, he hadn’t seen any stronger ones.

So all of these are classified under the same umbrella of having divine ordered patterns.

Some time back, Feiling was studying a tome on divine ordered patterns that recorded tens of thousands of types. It had almost all the patterns under grade five. It was too bad that Tianming hadn’t given it a detailed look.

He looked at the divine ordered patterns present within the stellunar source once more. The one he was looking at looked like a circle of light, much like the glow of a star. Upon closer inspection, they were formed of little gold dots, each of which looked like an individual tribulation or saintly heavenly pattern. They grouped together to form a mysterious heavenly union.

“This divine ordered pattern is called Aurum Star. It’s a grade-three divine pattern.”