Beastmaster of the Ages

The unique property of a fifth holy soul was that the soul homunculus would be even tougher and better defined, attaining a physical manifestation instead of a purely abstract one. The homunculus would also turn more detailed and have hair, eyelashes, and even fingerprints. With those details, the homunculus resembled Tianming exactly. Additionally, the defense of his soul was far better than before. Coupled with the Soul Tower, even the taixi soul powers of the ebons wouldn’t be able to do much to him.

”Teacher Gongyang...” Tianming stood up and shook his head dizzily, only to notice that the pavilion was completely empty. Gongyang Yan had left long ago.

”What are you looking at?” Ying Huo asked, sitting on the stone table with its legs and wings crossed.

”Where is she?” Tianming asked.

”You sucked her dry, turning her into a dry husk, thereby killing her,” Ying Huo said with a sigh.

”Shut the fuck up.” While the truth wasn’t that exaggerated, nourishing one’s soul for three long months definitely took quite a lot out of Gongyang Yan. It was no wonder she had hurried home to recuperate. ”Oh well, I’ll have many opportunities to thank her later.”

Tianming took a deep breath and stood at the edge of the pavilion that overlooked Gladeus’s landscape. He shut his eyes and used his soul to sense, spreading its power across the surroundings. Thanks to dreamwalking, his vita and caelum were incredibly stable. Then, he turned his attention to his terra, which was now his totems.

”I wonder if I can go through simulacrum now...” Fortunately for him, Gongyang Yan and Lin Xiaodao weren’t there with him. Since his soul became a fifth holy soul, he felt that his totems had slightly changed. The power of the totems mainly sprung from the strength of the terra. ”My terra has inherited the nine great soul servants of the Primordial God-Emperor, so it’s stronger than most other people’s to begin with. But at my current level….”

He flew out of the pavilion and levitated in mid air. Then, the ten bane-rings on his arms began to surge, manifesting the decapath era godswords. They were individually unique and had distinct elemental properties. Compared to before, they seemed heftier, tougher, and even more intricate. The vines and petals that surrounded Northapex Perpetuity, for example, seemed better defined.

”My totems are my terra, so they’re essentially me. I should easily understand how they have changed.” Through the connection between his vita and terra, he comprehended the nature of the changes. It didn’t take long before he felt something. ”There! Maybe that’s simulacrum!”

To understand simulacra, one had to first be able to differentiate them from totemic calamities, which were essentially offensive moves. Simulacra, on the other hand, were innate to totems and were something like switching states in combat. Most simulacra happened after the transformation to an astral god, but there were also exceptions.

Tianming suspected that the sun emperor’s totems being able to turn into the three-legged golden crows was also due to a simulacrum, but perhaps the sun emperor himself hadn’t been aware of it. He had also been a man with terrifying talent despite hailing from a deific-class world.

While Tianming’s Myriadsword Providence also seemed like a transformation, that was part of the attack itself, so it was still considered a totemic calamity. His second totemic calamity was an even more destructive form of that. But this time around, he felt that his totems had changed forms in a more distinct manner.

He focused his mind on them while he drew the Grand-Orient Sword with both hands, pointing the tip downwards. ”Primary simulacrum, go!”

Even though it was only the first level with many more to go, the changes were nothing to scoff at. The ten totems rotated around him quicker and quicker, seemingly blending the energy of all the swords together. It looked as if they were crashing together and self-destructing like when he used his second totemic calamity, but instead of breaking down, it was a fusion process. The ten totems that should’ve been incompatible with each other actually resonated together with the power of flames, frost, space, time, heaven, earth, life, and death, becoming a cyclone around Tianming that caused his white hair and black robes to flutter wildly. The Grand-Orient Sword in his hand also vibrated heavily.

”Here it comes!” Tianming’s eyes snapped open, causing the storm around him to shrink rapidly, turning into a tiny rainbow-colored twister that surrounded the Grand-Orient Sword. The twister extended outwards from his bane-rings and approached the sword gradually.

”Go in!” As expected, the totems were able to enter the Grand-Orient Sword after changing form! The Grand-Orient Sword rumbled and let out an ear-piercing howl, glowing brightly like a star. Power surged within and without, giving off waves of different elements from the totem swords. From the point of view of others, it looked like a tornado with ten tails stemming from his bane-rings had entered his sword, fusing perfectly with the two cosmic impulses within. The power of the decapath era godswords themselves were no doubt even more powerful than the cosmic impulses, so they had higher priority, leaving ten sigils on both sides of the Grand-Orient Sword’s blade.

”This power!” When Tianming tried to raise the sword, he found that it was incredibly heavy. The combined power of the totems and the cosmic impulses made it wild and erratic in the hand! When he split the sword into two parts, the twister split into two as well, with five tails entering one sword and the other five entering the other. On one hand, he had the power of east, south, life, heaven, and space. On the other, he wielded west, north, death, earth, and space.

”I knew it. If the Swordgod Lin Clan’s swordbeasts can enter swords in their spiritforms to increase their power, how could totems, which are spiritual entities in themselves, not do the same?”

That was the nature of Tianming’s first simulacrum. He felt a terrifying power from his enhanced swords. The better he could focus the power of his ten totems together at one point, the more powerful a strike he would be able to unleash. ”From now on, I’m even more like a member of the Swordgod LIn Clan than the others! My totems are literal swords, after all!”