Beastmaster of the Ages

The babies fell straight from their cradles to the ground, but they didn’t seem to mind. The two infants crawled toward the speaker and pulled on his sleeves. ”Say that again!” they demanded in unison.

”There’s a divine wonderian called Weisheng Moran.... She seems to be the reincarnation of Tian Jiu!”

”On what basis was that determination made?!” the male infant asked.

”Etherean Zhaohua died too quick. All he said was that she was just a constellier, yet she managed to use the divine wonders of the Wonderhaze Suzerain, who had been sent to kill them! He even said that if she isn’t Tian Jiu’s reincarnation, he wouldn’t mind if his entire clan got eliminated! If she really is, however, he humbly requests his clan be treated well.” Those were the last words he had said, which convinced the messenger of the truth of the claim.

”The reincarnation of Tian Jiu....” Both infants were dumbfounded as they looked at each other.

”Rex Mundi, if he’s betting his entire clan’s future on this, he must’ve felt incredibly certain about it,” the messenger said.

”That’s right.” The infants breathed a long sigh and the color of their light blue eyes shifted across a wide spectrum.

”For Etherean Zhaohua to not report such an important fact to the rex mundi sooner must mean that he’d tried to take it for himself! He deserved to die,” the messenger said.

”Fortunately, he didn’t blunder before he perished,” the male infant said.

”That’s true.” The messenger breathed a relieved sigh. ”Rex Mundi, do we report it to the firmament first? It’s said that they’ve been looking for Tian Jiu’s successor for a long time.”

”A report must be made,” the male infant agreed. He looked the messenger in the eye. ”By the way, does anyone else apart from you know about this? We must keep it under wraps before I report it to the firmament so as to not make unnecessary waves.”

”Rest assured, Rex Mundi, I knew how important this news was when I received it, so I came directly here to report it.”

”Very well.” The infants exchanged glances before stretching their chubby little arms out to each other. Then they smiled at the messenger. All of a sudden, the whole hall was engulfed in a divine wonder storm.

The messenger’s smile froze as terror set in. ”Rex Mundi, mercy!”

But it was too late. An invisible force swept past his body, bisecting him into his male and female forms before wiping the two of them out, starting from their noses and progressing to the back of their heads. The two people turned into white powder that scattered in the wind.

”He died so quickly that his caelum won’t be able to make it into the wondersky realm.” The infants smiled as if they had done nothing significant.

”Right now, we’re the only ones who know about this,” the female infant said.

”The reincarnation of Tian Jiu.... It’s no wonder Zhaohua wanted to keep it a secret—we do too. Just in case, you know....”

”Yes, just in case....”

The two could telepathically communicate with each other and didn’t need to voice anything.

”Let’s go, old partner.” The male infant put his arm around the female infant’s waist with a heroic expression.

”Oh, you little!” she shyly chuckled and nestled against his chest. The two of them crawled back into their cribs.

......

A month had passed since then.

”The walnuts didn’t change in the slightest....” Tianming had been cultivating the entire time since he’d reached the new area, constantly paying attention to the walnuts inside his head. They were arranged in a hexagon within him and seemed to be connected. Perhaps it was a stable arrangement for the walnuts, for he didn’t feel any emotional instability, unlike Lin Jianxing and the ebons.

The more time passed, the stabler the walnuts became. They didn’t interfere with his cultivation or daily activities at all, but it seemed impossible to remove them from his head. He wasn’t an astral god yet, so he would die if he pulled his head apart to reach in. Before he knew what the walnuts were really capable of, he decided that he wouldn’t mess with them.

”I wonder if Cousin Xiaoli is still alive....” He felt rather weighed down by the uncertainty. There were far too many unknowns. He was inside a sealed hexagonal room of decent size, making it possible to fight in, kind of like a cage. The walls around him were pitch black and made of some kind of metal. It was a material without any divine celestial patterns or formations, so he wasn’t able to break it with his sword or Sky Plundering Arm at all. Yet again, he was reminded of the countless secrets the universe still held.

He had been kept inside there for a whole month. Based on his previous experience, it was probably some kind of waiting area. ”I guess the next round won’t start until the walnuts are properly assigned. I wonder how many people will die from this.”

He didn’t waste any time and focused on stabilizing his divine wills using the caeli found in the green skeletons. ”Without the giant finger, I wouldn’t have been able to reach the eighth level before three to four years had passed.”

He looked at his disciple card; he was ranked around thirty millionth in the main ranking and one hundred and forty-ninth in the minor ranking, a little higher than Yi Zhuojun. ”I should rank in the top three among the Lin Clan disciples. It isn’t an amazing result, but it’s much better than before.”

He was quite satisfied now that he had finally dealt with Lin Jianxing. ”I wonder if Lin Xiaoyun will give me any trouble when I leave?” He continued waiting, thinking that it would take quite a bit more time. But it was three days later that the room began changing as one of the metal walls collapsed, revealing a dark, foggy path ahead.

”Am I still inside the bees’ nest?” He had Yin Chen scout ahead. The fact that a new path had opened up meant that the next phase had begun. A sea of silver bugs quickly spread out.

Tianming took his time. Based on his previous experiences, the last one standing in these events were usually those that didn’t recklessly charge ahead. The path seemed to stretch on endlessly into the darkness. ”This place reminds me of the Tomb of the Ancients.”

”Oh? I see that your mind’s wandered to the thought of a fair-skinned female ghost,” Ying Huo said.

Tianming rolled his eyes and continued on without much care, since Yin Chen had already scouted those areas. But before he went far, Yin Chen urgently asked him to stop.