Beastmaster of the Ages

Within the empty Swordsoul Chamber, a green-crowned man sat against his throne with his eyes closed, cultivating. The dense nova source in the area congregated around him like a vortex. His eyes were closed and his mouth was open. With a huge huff, his chest swelled like a toad’s inflated vocal sac as he sucked the nova source of Ebonia straight into his mouth. When he closed his mouth, his inflated chest slowly returned to normal as black gas flowed out of his nostrils and turned into two green dragon-like beasts that flew into the distance.

He was none other than the master of the third branch, Lin Xiaoyun. Not far away from him was a black platform on which many golden transmission stones were placed. One of them shone all of a sudden while he continued to cultivate. After that, a projection of a figure appeared.

”Chamber Lord, something happened in the Swordsoul Purgatory.”

”What happened?”

”A mid-deific-class wildbeast called the bloodline hairfiend entered the Swordsoul Purgatory through unknown means and killed two clan disciples, a male and a female. They were a young couple from the second branch. One of them was grade two, while the other was grade four. It happened all too quickly and the bloodline hairfiend’s stealth abilities made it impossible for help to arrive on time.”

”Bloodline hairfiend? Normally, natural nova wildbeasts shouldn’t be able to pierce our formations. Perhaps it snuck inside when the formation wavered. Has it been caught and killed yet?”

”No. Lin Qinglin’s team is trying hard to track it down. Chamber Lord, should we notify all the disciples about it through the Swordsoul Bracelets?”

”It’s only mid-deific class, so there’s no need. The stronger disciples should be able to deal with that beast themselves.”

”What about the two that just lost their lives?”

”It’s nothing out of the ordinary. There’s always casualties in the Swordsoul Purgatory. How could our disciples properly hone their skills without any real danger?” Lin Xiaoyun said with slight dissatisfaction.

”Understood!”

The figure disappeared, but right as Lin Xiaoyun was about to continue cultivating, a new one appeared.

”Chamber Lord, I’m Lin Qinglin!” Based on the silhouette and the voice, Lin Qinglin was a woman.

”Speak.” Lin Xiaoyun felt a little annoyed at having been interrupted mid-cultivation twice. There was no reason to bother him for minor matters.

”The bloodline hairfiend is incredibly sneaky and went in the opposite direction of our search. Reports say that Lin Huan, scion of the sixth branch, and five others have run into the beast. They are engaged in combat now and two disciples’ Swordsoul Bracelets have shattered. The situation’s urgent! We’re on our way there and will arrive soon,” she reported as she traveled.

”Alright. Deal with it how you see fit. It’s only a mid-deific-class beast. Don’t make that big of a fuss over it,” Lin Xiaoyun said.

”Understood! I just thought it worth mentioning that the sixth branch’s scion is being attacked.” She definitely wouldn’t bother making a report had it not been for that. Lin Xiaoyun himself used to be a scion, too.

”Got it.” When he heard Lin Huan’s name, his lips curved into a smile. ”Lin Qinglin, are the ones by your side all part of our faction?”

After a pause, she nodded. ”Yes....”

”Very well. Slow down your response.”

”Branch Master? ...Understood.” She was also a member of the third branch, and to emphasize her loyalties, she referred to Lin Xiaoyun as branch master rather than Lord of Swordsoul Chamber. As a core member of their branch, she knew what to do.

......

”This place really is chaotic....”

Feiling had been following Tianming around the Cinasthana Section in the Swordsoul Purgatory for a few days. It was indeed a much more chaotic place than the Caeli Vault. Not only would one normally have to wait for ancestral guidance steles, all kinds of hazardous terrain, like vortices, magma or frost pools, storms or lightning blasts, and quakes were all over the place. One had to constantly be on alert or risk injury.

Feiling wasn’t even thirty, so she wouldn’t normally come there to train. Tianming had gone to the corporation to buy her a set of grade-eight protective divine armor, spending three months of his salary and all of the merit points he’d obtained in an instant. She wanted it to look good, after all, and all that extra work cost money.

The two of them had quite a merry time in the Swordsoul Purgatory. Many people from the Swordsoul Chamber constantly monitored them through their bracelets, and based on their intimacy, it showed that there were no cracks in their relationship into which others could seep. In fact, Tianming had even intentionally intensified his public displays of affection to gross out the voyeurs. Still, his actual goal was to practice his swordsmanship. Though, without Yin Chen to guide him, he hadn’t even run into a single nova wildbeast after a few days.

I hope the ancestors grant me one. If I don’t get to hunt, how can I keep myself fed? He was completely broke at zero merit points. Just as he thought that, he heard a loud commotion coming from somewhere nearby. It sounded like a world-shaking battle was taking place.

”Ling’er, our money’s here! Quick!” Tianming held on to her waist and charged toward the commotion with a greedy look. ”That beast looks pretty fearsome.” He felt it even before he encountered it. Shrieks and roars could be clearly heard before he even traveled very far from where he was. All of a sudden, he saw countless dense blood vessels on a rock in the mud ahead of him.

”What’s that?” He was shocked to find himself looking at something that could only be described as the blood vessels of a human that had been extracted from the body, ceaselessly branching out. The thickest vessels were meters in diameter, while the thinnest were almost invisible. The entire underground area seemed covered in those vessels! What Tianming could see was probably just the tip of the iceberg.

The battle was taking place further ahead, but before he could approach, the vessels around the area looked like they had sensed him and came swirling at him! All of them had needle-sharp points at the ends. No doubt, they would suck anything dry if they managed to pierce into it! In a way, they resembled Xian Xian’s black roots, though the red color made them even more sinister.

”Out of my way!” Tianming drew the Grand-Orient Sword and deployed the Imperealm Sword Formation right away, filling the surroundings with flint infernal sword ki that formed a protective sphere around him and Feiling. Whenever a blood vessel approached, it would be eviscerated and turned into a bloody mist in an instant.

”What a huge and troublesome fellow....” Nova wildbeasts were precursor forms of cosmic wildbeasts. Tianming knew how powerful something like the voidheart worm could be, so he didn’t underestimate this one, either.

He kept charging through and arrived at the real battlefield soon enough, where he saw the beast’s true form. Its main body looked like a beating heart that was surrounded by many hair-like blood vessels, which in turn stretched out to cast a net in the surroundings to trap anything in the vicinity. The cage of blood vessels was its hunting ground.

”What a terrifying thing....” Feiling felt her scalp tingle at the sight of it. While it was a ’wildbeast’, it was completely unlike what a terrestrial beast would look like.

”Someone died!” Tianming had come, thinking it was a great chance to make a buck, but he saw two human corpses and many lifebound beast carcasses wrapped up by blood vessels. It was a serious matter now. ”The Swordsoul Purgatory guidebook said that no wildbeasts are able to enter it, especially not the Cinasthana Section. Just what’s going on here?”

This wildbeast was giving off incredibly threatening vibes. It engaged in slaughter, its blood vessels forming a cage-like cocoon around it. Some people were trying to break out of it.

”Big Brother, if they’re unable to leave the cocoon, they might die! Why aren’t the seniors from the Swordsoul Chamber here yet?” Feiling asked. As she said that, a voice came from their Swordsoul Bracelets.

”Second Branch Disciples Lin Feng and Jiang Feiling, leave the bloodline hairfiend right away. It’s a mid-deific-class wildbeast. Seniors are coming to their rescue right this moment.” It was an order!

”Will they reach right away?” Tianming looked around and saw nobody else. Not to mention, the situation was urgent and time was a luxury they didn’t have! There was no way he could just sit back while he was on the scene!

Having read many books on Ebonia, he knew how powerful a mid-deific-class wildbeast was. Nova and cosmic wildbeasts greatly varied in strength and didn’t have any cultivation formations in their body. Their powers mainly came from the amount of nova source they had absorbed and the qualities they’d inherited from their bloodline.

Beasts like them converted nova source into their own energy through biological mechanisms rather than any cultivation method, so the conversion rate was usually rather inefficient and the energy they obtained in exchange was volatile and easily led to self-destruction. Though, despite their low intelligence, they reproduced quickly, like pests, and achieved large numbers. Even without cultivation techniques, they could still form large packs.

As they didn’t cultivate, they were usually categorized according to the classification system used for nova source worlds. For instance, a heliacal-class nova wildbeast had about the power of an ascendant or constellier, skypiercer-class nova wildbeasts were comparable to solarians, and deific-class nova wildbeasts were the equivalent of stellaminors, or in other words, sovereigns. Wildbeasts of sanctuary and ether classes or above were as powerful as orderans or higher. Every class had subcategories of low, mid, and high, corresponding to the groups of levels for each stage. Low-deific-class beasts were equivalent to constelliers of the first to fourth levels, and so on. Ranges were used, as it was difficult to determine exactly how powerful nova wildbeasts were relative to cultivators of specific levels due to variations such as the wildbeast’s growth environment and maturity.