Beastmaster of the Ages

Mount Grandsect was a rock formation in the Infinitum Swordsea that looked like a tree stump embedded within its dark waters. It occupied the center of the million sword peaks of the sect. While it was shaped like a tree, that was only seen from a distance. It looked like a circular island from up close.

The mountain was where the Clan Registry Formation and Grandsect Arena were located, making it the core location of the clan as a whole. It was a busy place even on normal days, to say nothing of the fight for the daisy ranking taking place today.

The daisy ranking ranked ’children’ under the age of thirty. While it sounded rather soft, gentle, and even artistic, that didn’t affect the respect the youths of the clan had for anyone on the ranking. The higher they ranked, the more potential they would show, which resulted in a higher evaluation by their families and seniors. It followed that they would also be given much better resources and treatment. All disciples of the Lin Clan had to compete for higher rankings at least once in their life!

......ѵ𝑒𝘭. 𝐜oｍ

”Is that the Clan Registry Formation?” Tianming saw that around half of the area of the tree-stump-like island had been filled by a gigantic white tome that resembled Moran’s sacredway tome wonder, but many times its size. It was a formation that served as a database system, formed from countless divine celestial patterns. Having existed throughout the clan’s history, it contained an immense amount of information that aided in the management of the billion disciples of the Lin Clan. The formation was a symbol of might and history.

While they were still rather far away, Tianming could already see countless names on the gigantic tome, all of them belonging to the clan’s disciples. Despite having lost some influence over the past century, the Lin Clan still seemed incredibly prosperous. Tianming could even see his alias, Lin Feng, listed on the book as his name was right under that of the Second Branch’s master.

It read: Second Branch legitimate heir of the branch master’s line, Lin Feng, which was slightly different from what his disciple card stated. ”Why’s it different?” he asked Dongshen Yue.

”The ’scion’ label on your card means that you’re the heir to a line, but it’s specified more clearly in the Clan Registry Formation. It highlights that you’re succeeding the second branch master’s line in particular.” In other words, ’scion’ alone didn’t mean that Tianming was the son of the current branch master. In the registry, there was a gap between Lin Feng and Lin Xiao, which no doubt belonged to Lin Mu, the true direct successor of the branch master. Lin Feng came after that, and next to his name were three others, namely Jiang Feiling, Lin Xiaoxiao, and Weisheng Moran.

The Second Branch’s tree of relations was rather simple. Tianming looked at those of other branches and found that every branch master had around seven or eight children, who already had grandsons or great grandsons. But in every branch, there was only one designated heir or heiress, though most of them were men. People who became branch mistresses, like Lin Wuyi, were few and far between. Being a branch mistress, her husband’s name was listed where other people’s wives would be. Naturally, he was also a member of the Lin Clan.

Tianming’s eyes swept across the gigantic book, feeling the weight of the clan from the many names on it. There were countless pages in it, and even those that were open now contained a billion names. The thick book detailed the history of the clan; the names of ancestors of days past were still in it, but their pages had been flipped over.

Thanks to his connection with the clan through Li Muyang, he felt a sense of belonging with this group of sword-wielding beastmasters in the sixth-level nova source world. ”Making the clan stronger is the same as atoning for my father’s regrets.”

The mini ship landed on the mountain like a sharp sword. There were countless other mini ships beside it in the parking spots, most of which were only around a few hundred meters in length and had a rather small passenger limit. The fact that they could make transport vessels that small meant they were able to compress nova source even smaller, the mark of a supreme technical achievement. The Lin Clan was an impressive economic force, and Tianming’s interest in its business empire sprouted with the mini ships they produced as the start.

......

Within the Grandsect Arena, the competition for the daisy ranking was in full tilt. The one billion people within were from many distinct age groups. While the first thirty years of one’s life was the period when people would experience the fastest growth, it was only a fraction of one’s total lifespan. As such, the people of that age within the clan were a very small minority. Even so, there were thousands of top geniuses of that age gathered there to compete for a higher rank.

The thousands of geniuses were those that remained after the chaff had been filtered out. Most of them came from core family branches within the clan, representing the clan’s future hopefuls. There were nine main branches within the clan, with each having around a hundred million members. Even the Second Branch still had eighty million members, with more than ten million of them sharing common ancestors. In terms of status, Tianming had the highest among all disciples under the age of five hundred. Each branch only had a single person designated as the heir or heiress of their generation.

It was said that only those under thirty in the clan who were at least sixth-level solarians could participate in the daisy ranking, and the strongest among them were stellaminors, or in other words, sovereigns before the age of thirty. They were the infinitum-class geniuses Etherean Zhaohua had mentioned.

The competing disciples were young and full of potential. This was their debut, so they gave it their all while their seniors and family members watched. They did look somewhat younger than expected, comparable to mortals around twelve or thirteen years of age. Given their unique constitutions, it was more or less the right appearance for anyone under thirty.

The parents and family members that watched them numbered in the tens of thousands, each seeming even more nervous than the competing youths themselves. Some even schooled their children up until the very last moment before they went up on stage! The Lin Clan was incredibly strict in raising their future generation, though children under thirty were all cherished and cared for like little emperors.

In the sky above the arena was a floating platform from where people of exalted statuses observed the competition. That day, there was only a single person there. He was a man with white brows and looked to be somewhat older than new branch masters, like Lin Xiaoyun and Lin Wuyi, but he seemed younger than Lin Xiao. His gaze was incredibly sharp, and his nose was high above his mouth like a raised sword. His white eyebrows looked like sideways blades and his eyes seemed to be pulsing with divine hazard sword ki. He only had a single arm, and his left sleeve was flat and empty.