Beastmaster of the Ages

“It’s also gained power in close combat. Its dragon shape, sturdy materials, and immersive operating system are perfect for that!” The greatest change in the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb’s appearance was its tail, which had turned into a large, black sword.

“The Blackdragon portion of the Ninedragon Tribulation, Abyssthrust, is quite similar in effect to this large sword, which means the change was caused by the Blackdragon Core.” Unlike the heads, the tail-sword’s divine astralship formation could also draw on large amounts of nova source to layer them on its surface and use it to power up its slashes.

“Amazing!” As Tianming circulated nova source toward the tail, it lit up. And when Ji Ji was added to the mix, the tail grew pink and even more destructive.

Tianming fired the Dragonrage Cannon and could only describe it as very explosive. If it wasn’t for the fact that top experts were agile and hard to hit with such straightforward attacks, this Ninedragon Imperial Tomb would have been an expert-slayer. Even cosmic cartographers would likely be unable to take an attack from the cannon head-on.

“Astralship are large-scale weapons, but they aren’t omnipotent. Still, they’re very effective on ordinary gods and armies! They’ll definitely be involved in the civil war on Gladeus, so I hope the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb can be put to use. There aren’t many ether-class astralships here!” Even the Grandnorth Dongshen Clan, which was a little larger than the Lin Clan’s tenth branch, only had two. According to Yin Chen, Gladeus only had three ether-class astralships, which were on par with sanctuary-class defensive formations.

Tianming was looking forward to it. “Ever since the Grand-Orient Realm, I’ve always been on the defensive in wars. It’ll be my first time taking the initiative to step on people! Still, my priority now is to cultivate.” To him, the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb was a different kind of weapon from the Grand-Orient Sword. After familiarizing himself with it, he entered a period of focused cultivation.

……

One month later, Lin Xiaodao incited the civil war. War was merciless and the various factions on Gladeus were quickly dragged in, making the war reach a fever pitch. However, he only drew on Yin Chen and Ji Ji, and didn’t use Tianming, as his priority was cultivation.

Tianming had also just gained access to Flameyellow caeli, so he focused on his studies and ignored the outside world. Gladeus plunged into chaos as all kinds of opinions flew around, but Skyhold Palace remained quiet.

Tianming would only occasionally ask Yin Chen about the war’s progress, about which he would be rest assured.

A short month wasn’t enough for a breakthrough in six orders, but he patiently kept at it.

It was Feiling, instead, whose cultivation recovery sped up after becoming an astral god. Now she was a third-astral orderan, which made Tianming green with envy. Fortunately, he was comforted by Xiaoxiao being stuck in a rut.

After becoming an astral god, she was still eating the bee-head people’s caeli, but it wasn’t as effective as before. According to her, it wasn’t the food, but her absorption efficiency.

“Wu You wants a private conversation with you.” Xiaoxiao was waiting for Tianming around a corner when he came out.

“A private conversation?” Tianming laughed. “Let it out.”

Not long after, the Archaionfiend came out. It first vigilantly checked its surroundings to make sure Lan Huang was off playing somewhere else, then sighed in relief.

“Speak,” Tianming said.

“Your main plan in Gladeus is to wipe out the underground wildbeasts so the planet loses its value to the ebons, right?”

“Yes, that’s part of the plan,” Tianming said.

“I can help you! The ability I unlocked in my latest transformation is more harmful for wildbeasts. If my cultivation goes up, I’ll be supereffective on beastia!”

“But the problem is that your cultivation speed is limited by Xiaoxiao’s stomach.”

“Exactly! That’s why I want my eye, or any Archaionfiend’s!” Wu You said. It looked like it had an eye now, but it was actually empty and useless.

“But I don’t have any,” Tianming said, curious where this was going.

“You may not, but Gladeus does! I smelled it, and even had Xiaoxiao draw a map!” the Archaionfiend agitatedly said.

“I know, Yin Chen heard.”

Xiaoxiao froze. “Seriously, you’re even surveilling me?”

“It was a coincidence, okay?”

“Fine, fine.” Xiaoxiao didn’t know what else to say. In the end, Yin Chen was simply everywhere. She also had an Omnisentient Thread linking to Tianming, so she didn’t really have any secrets before him.

She took out a map and the Archaionfiend jabbed a claw at a spot called ‘Inkwell Sea’, saying, “I smelled the eyes of my race here!”

In the past, Wu You hadn’t been able to smell the Archaionfiend Eye in the wooden house, as it was a secret area of the Flameyellow Imperial Star. However, it had been able to smell the one in the Archaion Sect.

“Inkwell Sea? That’s a major base of the ebons, where many of their experts are. They breed many water-type wildbeasts there.” Tianming recognized it at a glance. He asked Yin Chen and found out it was a recent target of Lin Xiaodao’s attack.

“You can help if you get the eye?” Tianming frowned.

“Yes! You might still not trust me, even after so long, but you can trust Xiaoxiao. I no longer dare to go against you,” the Archaionfiend said.

Tianming did indeed trust Xiaoxiao.

“Should we try?” Xiaoxiao asked. The reason she asked was because Tianming could threaten the Inkwell Sea’s guardian formation with the upgraded Ninedragon Imperial Tomb.

“We’ll try.” Tianming picked up a cockroach. “Tell my master I’ll be assisting at the Inkwell Sea.”

“When when?”

“Right away!”