Beastmaster of the Ages

Lin Xiaodao’s mind was going places. He hugged the green drinking gourd tight, stroking it nonstop as his eyes widened while he looked at the Sun’s Flameyellow Divine Pillars pierce one ownerless nova source after another, absorbing them into its own fusion formation. The Flameyellow Fusion Formation didn’t increase in size as much as one would imagine after every single successful absorption. The reason for that was the compression of the nova source that was going on within the fusion formation, causing different blends of them to mix and fuse with each other to produce an even higher quality nova source.

According to universal laws, divine ordered patterns within nova source that were constantly compressed and added to would form divine celestial formations used within formations. After that, cosmic impulses would form, which, when added to ores and divine herbs, would create materials suited for crafting ever stronger weapons and pills. It would take quite a while for the Sun to be able to undergo such a process, however; a world would only produce its first cosmic impulse when it became a deific class.

”The big fish consumes the little fish and grows stronger nonstop.... If the Myriadstar Zone is like a pond, the last fish within it would be a monster of giant proportions!” Given that the Flameyellow Divine Pillars were part of the fusion formation, which would expand in size as the power of the Flameyellow Imperial Star was restored, their suction power also grew stronger the more worlds they consumed. The rate of absorption would exponentially grow. As such, Lin Xiaodao was finally confident in Tianming’s claim that he would only need three days to deal with the entire Myriadstar Zone. They had already waited seven years, so three more days were nothing. Even if Yin Chen informed Lin Xiaodao that the Star Hunters were going to mount an attack, he could definitely hold them off for that amount of time. ”The Ebonfiend is still on Ebonia, so nothing can possibly stop the rise of this star!”

One day quickly passed, during which the Sun had absorbed two thousand heliacal-class worlds. One would expect that it would grow to a size two thousand times larger than other heliacal-class worlds by now, making it about the size of two sanctuary-class worlds. In actuality, it was only three times the size of a deific-class world as a result of compression.

”I recall that Skyway Bistar and Skyway Tristar were about the size of standard deific-class worlds, while Skyway Monostar was double their size. The Sun is currently three times the size of Skyway Tristar.”

Deific-class worlds were usually the hubs of entire star clusters. Tianming was within the sun, so he wasn’t able to see what it looked like from the outside. Ji Ji had only rested a short time before going back into the core to direct the collision and mixing of different nova sources, thereby keeping the color of the sun pink. After only a single day, the sun had grown to one-thirtieth the size of Gladeus without overinflating, remaining a tightly packed deific-class world.

Ji Ji told Tianming that the Sun would be capable of making cosmic impulses in due time as long as the compression of nova source kept going. In time, the fusion formation would also gain new capabilities that would have to be studied by Tianming and Wudi as well. However, Tianming barely had any time to spare, being constantly occupied with absorbing the next nova source. Two thousand heliacal-class worlds were barely enough. Even then, Lin Xiaodao was already impressed by the size of the Flameyellow Divine Pillars when the Sun reached deific class.

It was even more obvious how much quicker the Sun was absorbing nova source on the second day. Heliacal-class worlds were barely enough for one ’mouthful’. The Sky Palace Formation had been stable for quite a while now, allowing Tianming to relax and let things take their course. In terms of value, deific-class worlds were worth so much more. Merely making the transport formations to bring them to the Myriadstar Zone would take the Infinitum Bodhimanda centuries, and worlds like those already had cosmic impulses.

While deific-class worlds had hundreds of times the energy capacity of heliacal-class worlds, that didn’t take into account the compression phenomenon. If the size of the world was directly proportional to its energy content, deific-class worlds would be two to four hundred times the size of heliacal-class worlds. Now that the Sun had the volume of a deific-class world, Tianming decided to start absorbing other deific-class worlds.

”I’ll swallow these dozen deific-class worlds first. They’re each as valuable as hundreds of heliacal-class worlds. Then I’ll absorb the hundred-plus skypiercer-class worlds before taking care of the rest.” He would finish the main course before devouring the scraps.

With the Star Hunters refraining from taking action after one day, the ebons wouldn’t act either. Thus, the absorption continued without obstruction. When the second day came to an end, Tianming had finished absorbing all of the deific and skypiercer-class worlds, allowing the Sun to grow to the sanctuary class. Its fusion and astralguard formations were greatly enhanced, and it was a tenth the size of Gladeus. With Gladeus being a humongous ether-class world, the Sun was also unbelievably large. Passengers of divine astralships heading toward the Sun would feel like they were falling head-first into a vast continent.

The third day finally came and Tianming licked up the remaining scraps. The Sun’s absorption had sped up by thousands of times and it required less than ten breaths to fully absorb a heliacal-class world. Most of the time was spent moving from one world to another, since, as the number of worlds declined, the Sun would have to travel a longer distance to reach the next. It looked like the huge world was joyfully running along a large plain to catch its next prey. That joy was shared by Tianming, Lin Xiaodao, and all those living on the Sun. Even normal cultivators who hadn’t yet ascended could feel the benefits of the Sun’s growth, and that was only the beginning. When Tianming excitedly had the Sun absorb the final heliacal-class world, it had become a pink star that was up to one-third the size of Gladeus.

”I’ll go out and take a look!” Tianming couldn’t resist any longer and soared into the heavens with the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb. Then he turned the ship around and felt a storm of emotions. He couldn’t stop himself from tearing up at the magnificent sight. Even with primordial lungs, he felt short of breath. ”From today onward, you shall no longer suffer through times of instability and hardship!”