Beastmaster of the Ages

”If I have an ether-class divine wonder simply by unlocking the third layer, I wonder what it’ll be like once I unlock all nine layers.... Will it be superior to the imperial-class divine wonder that Old Man Voidback in the wondersky realm promised me?” That old man had boasted that his divine wonder was the strongest in the universe. ”Either way, let’s see what this new divine wonder can do.”

Ahead of Tianming were the many mountains of the Xenoabyss. He stood up on Meow Meow’s back as it ran, feeling the wind rush through his hair. Then he took a deep breath and felt for the raging storm, controlling the shifts in divine patterns on his astrons. White divine patterns congregated together, absorbing his cosmoforce and the xeno source brought in by his heaven-unity resonance as they unleashed their power like a formation! A prime wonder shaped like a tower manifested from his body, complete with all nine layers.

”Transform!”

The Prime Tower, tens of thousands of meters in height, rapidly spun and turned into nine spinning Prime Cosmic Rings.

”Transform again!” Each of the rings broke apart and linked together, forming a chain of white metal tens of thousands of meters in length, and that wasn’t the end. The surface of the snake was covered in harrowing spikes! When he looked closer, the spikes were actually the tips of the Prime Tower. In fact, the true form of the snake was somewhat like a tower whip! There were countless tower spikes that were easily more than nine layers each! Each spike even duplicated the bell that hung at the top of the tower.

”Come!” The new form of his divine wonder was a whip that he could shape as he willed. He could make the handle small enough to fit in his hand, but leave the other end as large as a mountain. Not to mention, he could move it as he pleased.

”The Prime Starchain!” This was the name of the divine wonder’s new form. As he waved it around, he found that it was more powerful than the Prime Cosmic Rings. Coupled with the strength of his black arm, he could unleash even more power with it than the rings could display.

”I’m good at using whip-like weapons in the first place. Looks like my arsenal has grown much larger, now that I can use my divine wonder as one too.” As he waved the Prime Starchain around, it extended until it hit the peak of a tall mountain hundreds of thousands of meters away, piercing through it and causing an earthquake! The longest it could stretch was a million or so meters, making it far more flexible than any cosmic artifact.

”I’ve been using the Grand-Orient Sword as my main weapon for so long, even after obtaining the Prime Tower. I’ve never really used it as a weapon in battle before. But this new form will be the perfect complement to my sword!” He had never thought it would be possible. After waving the whip around for a while, his excitement began building. Still, he knew that the Prime Starchain was fundamentally different from the Grand-Orient Sword, a cosmic artifact.

Cosmic artifacts had cosmic impulses and could channel cosmoforce and nova source, a crucial force multiplier in fights. The Prime Starchain, on the other hand, was a divine wonder that couldn’t directly channel all those energies. Instead, it channeled the divine patterns from Tianming’s astrons, so that sort of made up for it. The only thing it really couldn’t match was cosmic impulses. Even then, while it lacked a cosmic impulse, it was a divine wonder that could be manipulated with much more finesse, giving it the potential to deal even more damage than a normal cosmic artifact. Divine wonders were formations with myriad applications, after all.

Tianming struck out with the Prime Starchain while riding on Meow Meow’s back, wreaking havoc in the surrounding natural landscape and felling many ancient trees. After much testing, he was quite satisfied with its power. He demanifested it and focused on his journey, letting peace return to the wilderness.

......

After half a month, Tianming checked the map. It still felt like the capital was really far away. ”Sitting here and waiting to arrive at the destination feels like a waste of time.”

As he was traveling, he didn’t have any caeli to cultivate with. The only thing he could do was practice his swordsmanship. Then again, doing so atop Meow Meow’s head while admiring the surrounding view was a pretty decent way to go about it.

”I more or less have Carillon Imperatoris down, not to mention the two reges mundi’s basic moves. Grandpa and Grandma just so happened to bring the guidance steles of the reges mundi to the Sun. I should go back and unlock them first, then come back here to practice them on the way.”

He brought Meow Meow back to the Sun. Lin Xiao and the others had been ready for him, having already brought the remaining steles to the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb. Tianming returned to the ship from the solar core with Feiling; its entrance was basically connected to the entrance of the Sun’s fusion formation. Moran and Xiaoxiao were both cultivating in the ship as well. As the steles were huge, they were placed in the central hall. There were six in total.

”I wouldn’t expect any less from infinitum-class sword arts.” The power of those sword arts had long been proven. Unsurprisingly, the bigger the stele, the more complicated the sword art that was recorded on it. The two black and white steles Tianming stood before were much larger than the previous ones he had seen.

”Who are you starting from? The haggard geezer or the beautiful lady?” Ying Huo asked, addressing the Grandvoid Swordfiend and the Unisword Goddess.

”Don’t mess around.” Tianming approached the black stele.

”Looks like you chose your own kind.” Ying Huo began uncontrollably laughing.

”Once I master this move, you’ll be the first one I’ll test it on,” Tianming said, smirking.

”Huh?” Ying Huo quickly hid its bottom with a start. ”Wait, I want to practice it too!”

”Go away!” Tianming didn’t need it to master that move, but rather Feiling and Perpetia. Without her, Tianming wouldn’t even be able to take the first step in learning any of the moves.

”This stele....” The mere sight of the legacy formation left behind by the Grandvoid Swordfiend gave him chills.