Beastmaster of the Ages

Previously, the two times his head had turned into a bee’s had scared Tianming a lot. But this time he was much calmer, though the same couldn’t be said for the others near him. Lin Xiong, Lin Chongjing, and the others were so shocked that they came forward to look.

”Do we have to hold him down? Is he still conscious?” Lin Xiong anxiously asked Feiling. He was worried that Tianming would lose control and attack the girls.

”Uncle Xiong, I’m fine. Give me some time and I’ll deal with it myself,” Tianming said with a hoarse voice as he sat up.

”Give him space,” Lin Xiong told the others as she backed off. Only Feiling remained by Tianming’s side; for now, they were safe within the Fishguts.

”I’ll leave for now to watch Lin Chongjing and the rest. When the second patriarch and Lin Xiaodao return, we’ll take care of them,” Lin Chongyao said.

”Alright. Leave this to me,” Lin Xiong said.

”Defend the kids!” Lin Chongyao looked at the bee head and grit his teeth before he left. While most members of the clan were celebrating their victory, there were still followers of the reformists that were unhappy about how things had turned out causing trouble here and there.

......

Tianming telepathically told his lifebound beasts about what had happened within the Order Relic. ”This time around, my transformation was initiated by Huang Qi. I have no way of controlling when I transform or unleashing the kind of power required to kill Lin Ziqing and Lin Yun on my own. Not to mention, I think the black star in its strongest form just now is the complete form of the Order Relic.”

While Lin Yun had been torturing Tianming, Huang Qi had activated the Complete Order Relic to trigger the transformation, but that was different from the prior transformations. Tianming had gone berserk in that state, and hearing word of Chi Hun’s death had made him fall into a frenzy, allowing Huang Qi the opportunity to trigger the full transformation.

She currently existed within the six walnuts in Tianming’s head that had split into countless green particles that blended with Tianming’s brain to control it. The particles had even seeped into his sea of consciousness to attack his vita! The process had begun since he transformed into the Complete Order Relic. Huang Qi’s goal was unlike before; she was no longer trying to lure Tianming into the mysterious ring to help restore herself.

”She’s trying to crush my vita by using the six walnuts inside my head! Once my vita perishes, my body will turn back into the Order Relic. Then she’ll be able to control it through the six walnuts like a part of herself!”

Initially, Huang Qi had wanted to use the Order Relic for a perfect revival. If it weren’t for that, there would be no need for her to trick Tianming at all. The moment the six walnuts had activated, Tianming was in grave danger; their power was nothing to be scoffed at. As Tianming expanded to become the Order Relic, he would quickly lose consciousness and risk dying.

However, despite Huang Qi knowing that Tianming’s soul was weak, not even she had thought that the Soul Tower would be able to endure her attacks! Lin Yun and Lin Ziqing had only died from the crossfire between the Soul Tower and walnuts. During the entire confrontation, Tianming’s weak vita had been flopping around like tofu from the shock of the clashes.

Fortunately, his will was strong enough that Huang Qi couldn’t scare him. As his vita was holding on for dear life, he had managed to grasp some control from the Order Relic in order to completely eradicate Lin Ziqing and Lin Yun. When he was eventually worn out, the relic had shrunk from its complete form. Throughout the struggle, the collision between the Soul Tower and the walnuts was like Tianming and Huang Qi’s wills battling it out. As a result, he had witnessed quite a lot of sights in Huang Qi’s mind, and heard quite a lot of fanatic things. His understanding of the Order Relic had deepened and he came to the conclusion that Huang Qi was actually afraid that he would become an astral god after obtaining the Order Relic!

Thanks to the Soul Tower, Huang Qi’s attempt to usurp control had failed, and instead told Tianming some crucial information. Not to mention, he had managed to defeat two great enemies and send Lin Jie and the monster posing as Lin Jianxing running off. The fact that he’d returned to his human form meant that Huang Qi had failed. However, those walnuts would keep causing trouble within his head with the goal of trying to stop him from becoming an astral god.

”Thank you so much! If it weren’t for your mind clashing into mine, I wouldn’t even know that I would only be able to use the Order Relic’s true abilities with a heptastar cosmic physique. I’ll be able to turn its complete form into my nascent form.” Tianming smirked. Huang Qi was only able to activate the Order Relic because he hadn’t completely assimilated it yet. But once he became an astral god and properly assimilated it, Huang Qi would lose her chance for good.

”The others outside think the crisis is over with Lin Ziqing and Lin Yun killed. But little do they know that the real danger lies within these six walnuts....” They were odd objects that seemed to be some sort of crystallized soul. They belonged to the owner of the Order Relic, which probably was the same kind of lifeform as Huang Qi, hence her ability to control them.

”Perhaps once I become an astral god, I’ll be able to completely destroy those six walnuts! I’ll be truly free then.” Tianming could finally let his hand grow back without worry. He knew that Huang Qi would be doing her best to stop him from advancing. And with him in his weakened state, she was able to turn his head into a bee’s.

”I’m injured, mentally disoriented, and running low on energy. It’s really hard for me to take the leap to become an astral god. Yet this is the best chance I have! I saw the sea of order just now! I can’t miss it!”

Ying Huo and the rest knew that they had to help him push through the breakthrough no matter what.

”Don’t worry! We have orders already, so you’re the only one left!”

”We have some astralforce we can give you.”

That was one of the biggest advantages of symbiotic cultivation. Their cultivation codices played a huge role at times like these. All six of them could transfer their astralforce to nourish his body, restoring him to vigor.

”Don’t even think about it. As long as I’m around, you’ll never become an astral god,” Huang Qi said, her voice coming from the mysterious ring around Tianming’s neck. She hadn’t been slumbering at all, just waiting for a chance. Using the walnuts, she turned them into a stream of green that flooded Tianming’s mind and sea of consciousness, fighting the Soul Tower once more. However, Tianming’s body and mind were stable enough that Huang Qi wasn’t able to initiate another transformation into the Order Relic.

Tianming ignored it and focused on cultivating. ”The minor stellar charts inside my albi are full, and my Imperial and Lifesbane Wills are as well. It’s said that once the caelum is able to see the sea of consciousness, it’ll be able to enter it to find an order that fits it! That’s the first step to becoming an astral god!”

By bringing order into one’s body for astral breathing, they would be able to turn their albi into astrons. Their astral discs would start transforming the body into the heptastar cosmic physique, causing the formation of astral organs. The only thing Huang Qi could possibly interfere with was Tianming obtaining his order. Once that was complete, his body would absorb the Order Relic, leaving her completely powerless. Her relentless attacks using the walnuts only made him even more aware of her weakness!

”I’ll become an advanced cosmic lifeform by changing my albi into astrons!” If the end of cultivation could be said to be the universe itself, the end at the path of an albus was a nova source world. The next step would be the most important one in his thirty-odd years of cultivation. Astral gods were incredibly hard to kill!

”That old pervert is trying to stop me from becoming an astral god... Is she trying to stop me from touching Ling’er for the rest of my life? There’s no way I can endure that!” The thought of that motivated him even further. ”Astral god! Astral god!”

Once more, the walnuts shook his mind. Tianming forcefully calmed down and stabilized his vita within the Soul Tower, trying his best to make it enter a slumbering state. He left the control of his will to his caelum, causing his body to sleep and allowing the vita to rest. It was the same process he undertook when entering the heavenly locus formation, so it wasn’t hard for him, even though having someone constantly interrupting his vita made things a little unpredictable.

Eventually, his will entered his caelum, causing his viewpoint to change. He could see himself down below. His head had turned into a bee’s! The entire world looked different when seen through his caelum. The astralscape of order was a world of matter that the naked eye could see, but the caelum saw it as twisted, distant, and hazy.

”Caeli are things that exist beyond the material world, which allows them to enter special places, like the Xenoworld. Dreams are basically what the caeli experience within the Xenoworld. It’s said that the sea of order is somewhere there, so my caelum will have to pass through the Xenoworld to reach it!”

He looked up and saw a black rift in the sky above, out of which poured chaotic colors. All kinds of odd sights were blending together to create a confusing sight.

The Xenoworld awaited beyond that rift.