Beastmaster of the Ages

Tianming knew that Lin Zhongtian and Lin Zhonghai’s wariness was merely a reflection of what many others in the tenth branch felt. While Lin Xiaodao mainly called the shots in Gladeus and others would only dare to discuss his decisions with him, those people were his family, friends, and subordinates. He wasn’t just their supreme leader.

Since I’m here, I have to convince them that I deserve to stay by myself to decrease the burdens of my master. That was why he had decided to challenge a seventh-astral phaser, and the strongest one at that. The difference between people in the same phase could be quite huge, depending on their age and background. Lin Weiyan, for instance, wouldn’t have an issue facing off against any normal fourth-astral orderan, or even some fifth-astral ones.

”Fine!” Lin Xiaodao liked Tianming’s tendency to push his limits.

”The strongest seventh-astral phaser?”

”He’s only a first-astral phaser! It’s already ridiculous that he managed to defeat Shenxi Shang. Is he really going to shake our worldview again?”

The astral gods there could scarcely believe it after hearing Lin Xiaodao’s assent.

”Impossible! Even the taixi soul geniuses of the ebons, like Shenxi Shang, can only fight up to four levels above them against normal cultivators, and even that’s pushing it. Anyone more experienced that can resist their taixi souls can use the sheer power gap to push back against them!”

”Not to mention, Lin Feng isn’t just going up against a normal opponent. He chose the strongest seventh-astral phaser!”

”Oh, I know that one.”

”Yeah! It’s him!”

”You guys can’t be talking about Lin Yixuan, can you? Isn’t he that kid that tasted blood from a very young age during his time as an astral pirate?”

”That’s right! Old Man Zhongtian’s illegitimate son!”

”Hey! Shush!”

”He’s quite powerful at three hundred years old. He also has six-six talent. While he was a little weak, at first, he made up for it as he matured! Most importantly, he has a lot of combat experience and has killed countless people. It’d be all too easy for him to fight someone like Shenxi Shang. The Lin Clan’s always been more adept at taking out the elite leaders of armies, after all. How could Lin Feng possibly match up to someone like that with a six-level gap?”

”Imagine if he loses after all that boasting. That’d be awkward.”

”Wouldn’t the etherean end up taking Lin Yixuan as his disciple in that case? According to his family tree, that’s his younger cousin.”

The crowd parted to let the challenger approach as they chattered. He was the one that was thought to be the strongest seventh-astral orderan. The duel would be an interesting one, no doubt. It had felt like fun and games at first, but with stakes that high, all the astral gods there were feeling the hype.

”You, Lin Yixuan! My disciple here looks down on you and wants to fight you even though you’re six levels above him. Looks like he doesn’t think much of the Skycross Lin Clan! You know what to do, right? Time to show him what we’re made of!” Lin Xiaodao said, adding fuel to the fire.

”That’s right!”

”Beat him up!”

The members of the clan that were watching from a distance started their recording formations.

”Dammit....” Tianming felt like crying. His master had once more built up hate toward him. The flames of anger were starting to burn bright, and many people were yelling in an attempt to discourage him. ”Looks like they’re somewhat unhappy with me being here even though they seem polite on the surface. There’s no way someone from the Infinitum Swordsea would so easily be accepted as the disciple of their etherean and use their cultivation resources.”

”So?” Ying Huo said.

”I’ll convince them first!” After escaping the grasp of Shenxi Tianxi and the ancestral world’s monster, and becoming an astral god, Tianming’s confidence had soared.

The crowd parted, creating a space for them to fight. Tianming and Lin Yixuan had the complete spotlight. Tianming looked ahead and saw a youth with graying hair, dressed in plain clothes. He had a dark look in his gaze and there were a few bone-deep scars on his face, giving him an aura of intimidation and death. It would be all too easy for an astral god to remove scars like that, but the fellow with the elegant-sounding name preferred his rough appearance, as if the scars were marks of honor.

Tianming knew that he was different from the other geniuses on Ebonia. The ones he had gone up against before were younger than a hundred years old and didn’t have a need to roam far away from home. Lin Yixuan, however, looked to be someone who had tasted blood for years far away from homely comforts. Experience could greatly change how someone presented themselves, and the same was the case with Tianming. That was also what differentiated him from other Ebonian geniuses, so he respected Lin Yixuan to some degree, though he would still have to defeat him to prove himself before those of the tenth branch. It would also serve as a stress test for his new astral god capabilities.

The growth in one’s combat capability from the sixth to seventh level is much larger than that of the previous levels. The difference between an orderan in the first six levels and the latter six was incredibly vast. The reason for that was that the order in one’s body would change at the seventh astral phase as a result of heaven-unity resonance. The heaven in that phrase referred to the heavenly laws, while unity referred to one’s order. Those two factors would resonate, allowing the cultivator to borrow the power of order from heaven and earth to control even more nova source and cosmoforce, thereby boosting their overall capabilities.

Once heaven-unity resonance had been achieved, a cultivator’s destructive capabilities, as well as the pressure of the order fields they exerted, would rise, hence why there was such a great divide between seventh- and sixth-astral phasers. It wasn’t as big of a suppression as that of an astral god against a normal god, but it was still powerful nonetheless. Many super geniuses who could casually fight above their level still wouldn’t be able to cross that divide between the sixth and seventh astral phases.

Low-tier cultivators were considered those with average talent and bad access to cultivation resources. Their lifebound beasts, artifacts, and battle arts were subpar, and they would only be able to reach the seventh astral phase through natural progression of age. Even then, people still found it hard to believe that Tianming would succeed in his challenge. Not even the most talented monsters would be able to break common sense that thoroughly. Yet as far as Tianming was concerned, breaking common sense was his life’s purpose. He didn’t feel any fear; he only felt even more pumped! Power began surging within his astrons, circling his body and fueling his six streams of order. His lifebound beasts’ cosmoforce sparked in the space between the stars.

As everyone cheered and roared, Lin Yixuan didn’t say much. He was a simple and direct person. He drew his cosmic artifact sword and summoned his lifebound beasts before charging straight for Tianming! His sword looked like it was made of flowing liquid, unleashing a stream of gray cosmic impulse as he attacked.

”That artifact’s at least at the mid-sanctuary class! The cosmic impulse within it must only be able to form in fourth-class nova source worlds.” Tianming saw what he was going up against and steadied himself. He could feel the power of death emanating from Lin Yixuan’s cosmic impulse.

With a single move, Lin Yixuan put his full power on display using heaven-unity resonance. Through the galaxy mist order in his sword, he resonated with the traces of order in his surroundings, using his cosmoforce to leverage the nova source power of the dead spirits on Gladeus to reinforce his order and energy! Gladeus used to be called Hellstar, a portmanteau of Star of Hell, and its storms were filled with the power of death. Apart from oases like the Skycross Bladegrave, life had failed to triumph in most places. While it was rich with ore veins, it was rather lacking when it came to divine herbs.

Fighting on such a nova source world gave Lin Yixuan’s order and cosmoforce a great boost. Were he fighting on Ebonia instead, he would be twenty percent weaker. By the same reasoning, Lin Xiaodao was at his most powerful on Gladeus.

As Lin Yixuan integrated the dark and foreboding nova source into his own cosmoforce within his sword, Tianming felt the pressure mounting. A storm of swords began to unfold!

My cosmoforce mostly comes from my Primordial Chaos Beasts, as well as genesis ancestral nova source and the Grand-Orient Vortex. It should have a similar capacity to a third- or fourth-astral phaser, but it’s still a far cry from matching a seventh-astral phaser’s. Thanks to the cultivation codices of the Primordial Chaos Beasts, Tianming could be considered equivalent to a fourth-astral phaser and fight above his level from there. Not to mention, his heptastar cosmic physique with six streams of order was yet another key point.

Even though Lin Yixuan’s heaven-unity resonance gives him an advantage when it comes to raw energy, his galactic mist order doesn’t have any edge at all! Lin Yixuan had deployed a gigantic order field, filling the battlefield with gray mist and trapping Tianming within a spherical field. The power of death surged toward him. Normally, his astrons would start to rot and be consumed, but things were turning out to be the opposite of what was expected! Every single astron of his had nine hundred and ninety-nine bottomless holes that absorbed the misty stream of order and completely neutralized it!

Chapter marked as read!

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