Beastmaster of the Ages

Tianming didn’t just sit around after that. He had brought eight million Yin Chens to the Astraldome. All the while, there were still some outside, increasing their number by feasting on the divine ores in the Violetglory Star. By now, there were around twenty million in total. Having brought close to half of them into the Astralium Seeking with him, he would be damned if he couldn’t find a way to use them!

He settled on ’seeding’ Yin Chens wherever he went. Yin Chen had lost its ability to move around on Astralium thanks to the supergravity, but it could still survive and surveil. Thus, Tianming scattered them wherever he went. As they all looked like pieces of metal, they perfectly blended in with this metallic star. Even if others noticed it, it wouldn’t matter. The most they could do was crush a few silver eggs.

”Yes... lay more eggs, Tianming.... Lay metal eggs!” Ying Huo said, flapping its wings in laughter.

”Keep rolling! Roll further!”

The pitiful silver eggs were being tossed around. The moment they landed, they weren’t able to move and simply turned into little cockroaches, very slowly dragging themselves along the ground. While this wasn’t as effective as Yin Chen spreading itself out, it was close enough. As such, Tianming didn’t dare to move too far away. Instead, he would focus on setting up a zone where he had eyes. While it would be limited, it would still be effective, being something like a trap. Not to mention, Tianming could control the expansion of the area as he moved, slowly enlarging it. Eventually, a day passed and he had managed to widen it to ten thousand meters around him, but it was just a small area relative to Astralium’s surface.

”My power should be above average here, but with an increased detection range, it should be possible for me to live till the end.” He had found the perfect strategy. While the rate of expansion of his domain was less than a thousandth of what it would normally be, he still persisted in scattering the eggs.

Within one day, another contestant wandered into his zone, but he left him alone as he still had time after having defeated Shenwu Yin. Eventually, the first wave of rednames would appear, but he decided that he would lay low.

”Alright, I’ll sit and watch the battle unfold to conserve my energy.” There was no need for him to be too careful, as long as he was within range. Sitting atop a tall peak, he looked around as he counted down. ”The first three days are finally over!”

The last person that was eliminated was ranked eighty-first. In other words, more than thirty people had been eliminated within the first three days, so that would probably put the number of rednames around fifty. Their locations would be given away as a penalty for not having killed at least one contestant. Tianming saw countless crimson pillars rise into the sky some hundred thousand meters away from him.

”How piercingly bright.... I doubt it’ll be possible to escape this.”

Back in the first two levels of the Tranquil Battlefield, there was a green fog that limited the range of the light. However, Astralium was almost entirely pitch black, making it possible to see the light from leagues away. Even the sky above was stained red by the light. The time of slaughter was nigh!

”It’s just like how nova source worlds that reveal their locations in the astralscape of order are much easier targets for pillaging and conquest while those that manage to conquer other worlds can remain hidden and grow strong in peace.” It was almost like the law of nature of the astralscape had been applied to humans here.

Seven pillars of light were in his range of vision. Farther away, all he could see was the dark red sky beyond the horizon. That was because Astralium was a sphere. Had it been a flat plane, he would probably see more than fifty of them. Soon, the lights moved, a sign that the rednamed contestants were rapidly moving. They could be running away from others or chasing people down themselves. According to the rules, one could only remove their red name if they killed a contestant.

Though the chaos had started, Tianming was in no rush. He merely continued expanding his surveillance zone while sounds of battle rang out around him. Eventually, more and more people got rednamed, and the number of eliminated contestants continued rising. In around two hours, about the same number of people were eliminated as in the past three days, leaving around fifty people. Even now, some rednames were still escaping.

”Looks like this battle won’t last more than a few days, then.” He had thought it’d be a lengthy affair, yet more than half of the contestants had been eliminated in the first three days alone. He still had one and a half days of time to spare, so he kept expanding his zone to see if he would eventually happen across an opportunity.

”There’ll be no more waves of red names from now on, since the remaining contestants killed people at different times. They’ll just sporadically pop up.” This made the battlefield even more dangerous and chaotic. As there was still a day and a half left before Tianming joined them, he didn’t rush himself. The rednames that remained were surrounded by hunters by now.

What he didn’t expect, however, was that two contestants would enter his zone a day later. Neither of them had red names, but they encountered each other by pure chance and fought. Yin Chen turned into little eggs and rolled aside.

”Let’s go!” There was only half a day left, so Tianming hurried toward the battle while having Yin Chen pay attention to his surroundings. When he arrived, the victor was soon to be decided. Tianming watched from the sidelines; neither of them was a mysterian and both were around third-level solarians in power, though they were both octabanes.

”They must be the children of sovereigns, scions of some skypiercer-class world.” They were fighting each other to last another three days on the battlefield.