Beastmaster of the Ages

When she said that, the wondersky fairy acted proud again.

“Oh, okay.” Tianming nodded.

“Unfortunately, you can’t have any regrets after choosing it. If you only cultivate the Starslaughter Sword Art, it’ll be even weaker than a normal fullstella battle art,” the wondersky fairy said with pity.

“Why not use both by yourself, one hand for each? If you rely on just yourself, the coordination will be even better than two people together.”

“Nonsense. Two people provide twice the astralforce, so of course it’ll be stronger. And even if one person does learn both, it doesn’t mean you can perfectly coordinate them. This is a fullstella battle art that captures the wisdom of the sword dao from countless generations of wonderians!” the wondersky fairy said with certainty.

“Alright, just wait and see,” Tianming calmly said.

“Boo, how stubborn! You just don’t understand the wonderians!” the wondersky fairy said, her tone filled with some disdain, unaware that Tianming was under no pressure at all. The Grand-Orient Sword had a dual-wielding mode and could be split into two, though he hadn’t used that ability in a while. And today, it was a pleasant surprise to find a battle art that was very suitable for him. Of the hundred thousand battle arts, at least thirty thousand were from the wonderians, and of those, over five thousand were battle arts for pairs.

The wonderians were the only ones in the astralscape with husbands and wives of one heart. Hence, they had created countless battle arts for them to make themselves stronger. What’s more, they were counted as a single unit in combat, which provided them an easy advantage in combat. They had two people and two wonders!

However, the wondersky realm was created by them, and they were the overlords of the world. Beastmasters and totemancers could only keep quiet. As for specters, they were worse off as they were always alone and counted as a single unit.

“Excellent. I’ll have an inexhaustible supply of paired battle arts with the wonderians around.” One person using paired battle arts was indeed worse than two people in terms of astralforce, but Tianming was confident in exceeding them in terms of coordination.

Time passed.

The wondersky fairy was keeping quiet and no longer bothering Tianming. However, she would sigh every once in a while, complaining that he had made a wrong choice and wasted his opportunity.

“There’s no choice. You’ll have to seize another opportunity from Saintless City for another chance to pick. Will you challenge that next? The experts there are those who displayed their talent in Darkfiend City. They’re all mighty and less than one in five are experts from the Mysterium Cluster. All the opponents from other clusters will provide wonderful experiences for your cultivation!”

“I’m not going.” Tianming was very unhappy with the darkfiend sigil on his back. This trip had also ended up taking quite a bit of time.

“I see! Then… master, are you leaving your humble servant? I’ll be missing you every single moment!” The wondersky fairy looked very reluctant to part.

“Who knows how many masters you’ve been ‘missing’ before?” Tianming couldn’t be bothered with her. Once he memorized the sword art, he took a deep breath and his caelum returned to Violetglory’s wondersky realm before returning to the real world.

From her expression to her reluctance to part, the wondersky fairy remained frozen at Natal Hall. Natal Hall fell into darkness.

……

Tianming woke from the dream. He stretched his muscles and rubbed his eyes. However, when his mind processed what had happened in the wondersky realm, he snapped awake. In the heavenly locus formation, he could see his caelum. A Li Tianming identical to himself was floating above him with its eyes closed, looking like a floating corpse.

“Darkfiend City made my caelum lose my sense of self!” He circled around his caelum before pulling down the clothes at the back of its neck to examine it. He sucked in a cold breath. “The darkfiend sigil.” It had truly accompanied him back from the wondersky realm. It was a chilling thought that the wondersky realm could influence the real world.

“Skydome Battlefield!”

Was it really just a virtual battlefield? Tianming felt something was off. He believed many would feel that, too. However, the caelum was just the caelum and many people would end up forgetting about it. He also felt no different.

“That eye’s red light turned me into a darkfiend. When I returned to human form, all of the attributes of the darkfiend entered this sigil. It looks scary, but the caelum is just an attachment to the vita as a pathway for it to communicate with the heavens. It’s for a fact it can’t affect the vita.” Thinking wouldn’t lead to a conclusion, so Tianming summoned Sovereign Brightscorch and Sovereign Starfeather!

……

A few hours later, the two sovereigns arrived at Tianmingpolis in their astralships. They knew it had to have something to do with the wondersky realm since Tianming had summoned them right after leaving the wondersky realm.

“I wanted to ask if you two have passed Darkfiend City?” Tianming asked. Although they were first-level sovereigns, the Skydome Battlefield’s rules were that those who had passed a hundred years of age could enter to experience it as long as they were a sovereign.

“How could we?” Sovereign Brightscorch muttered.

“We’re just too weak compared to you.” Sovereign Starfeather was ashamed.

Thus, they didn’t have the darkfiend sigil. The two sovereigns of Violetglory had a limited scope of knowledge.

Tianming changed tack. “Also, did a wondersky fairy in the form of a human appear in Natal Hall when you all entered Skydome Battlefield?”

“Yes,” they answered in unison.

“It’s the guide for Sovereign Brightscorch,” Sovereign Starfeather supplemented.

“Female?” Tianming asked with doubt.𝐟𝘳ℯѵ𝚎l. c𝘰𝑚

“Yes, female. I heard from seniors that if a woman enters, the wondersky fairy will be male,” Sovereign Starfeather said.

“The wonderians really are too shameless,” Tianming spat.

“How so? Although it’s a guide, it’s more comfortable to talk to the opposite sex.” Sovereign Brightscorch was confused.

“How is it not? It kept dropping hints and also wore very little clothes.…” Tianming shook his head with disdain.

The two sovereigns looked at each other.

“How long has it been since you entered?” Sovereign Starfeather asked.

“It’s been a while,” Sovereign Brightscorch said.

“I remember my wondersky fairy wore a lot of clothes and had a wooden personality. How could that be enticing?” Sovereign Starfeather said.

“An update?” Sovereign Brightscorch asked.

“Go and check!” Sovereign Starfeather said.

“I’ll check, too….”