Beastmaster of the Ages

Nine days passed in the blink of an eye. Tianming wasn’t very old, and for him, ordinary days indeed flew by. However, having a girl running wild for nine days with him on her back, enduring storms and chaos while his white hair fluttered still felt a bit long.

In a world of giants, the two of them were like ants. They weren’t fast, but their movements were extremely subtle.

The New Shrine was finally close! Looking up, he saw a purple mist with extremely rich xeno source, and the air was filled with a heavy smell of blood. In the valley within the purple mist, tens of thousands of meters tall palaces with rough and exotic styles were faintly visible.

”This is the New Shrine.” Zi Zhen’s eyes flickered and her light purple eyelashes slightly trembled.

”It looks quite imposing.” Tianming nodded in approval.

”The people inside are high-level figures of the antiquiteans. Although the blackout period allows killing, you aren’t allowed to be chaotic inside the New Shrine,” Zi Zhen said. The entire Antiquitas Mortis belonged to the antiquiteans!

”All privileged officials.” Tianming smirked. There were societal rules here, somewhat similar to back in Vermilion Bird. It gave Tianming a feeling of returning to simplicity.

In contrast, due to factors like astralships, formations, nova sources, etc, the social system in the Skydome and Infinitum Mundi was extremely complex and had even led to the emergence of the reges mundi ranking.

Although Antiquitas Mortis was strong, it was at least simpler. Officials were officials, common people were common people, and lowly people were lowly people.

And in Antiquitas Mortis, Tianming, who didn’t even have the qualification to stay in the capital was considered a lowly person. In the Ninth District, everybody was poor and considered worse than dogs. However, in such places, there were often profits to be made. That meant being in the New Shrine would be a lucrative post.

”Who ends up with the fifty million soulstones from selling the permanent residencies?” Tianming sneered.

”I hear that the privileged officials in the New Shrine are all very rich,” Zi Zhen said.

”Those bastards!” Tianming said.

”Curse them all you want. Now that we’re here, why are you still on my back...?” Zi Zhen lowered her head.

”Huh? Sorry.” Tianming released his hold on her, a bit embarrassed. No wonder Ying Huo and Meow Meow liked high-quality mounts so much.

They didn’t dare to approach the strict and majestic New Shrine for the time being.

”There’s only a little over five days left, it’s too tight.” Tianming frowned. To be honest, an astral god could nap and that much time would have long passed.

”Don’t talk about establishing internal connections, even fifty million soulstones are enough to leave me to be stumped.” Tianming had snatched the lifelong gains of the three brothers, and altogether, they’d had only fifteen million soulstones. For them, that amount of wealth was already quite high.

”If I take out some manna to sell, I can quickly gather fifty million soulstones. But... I don’t have the strength and background. If I take out so many manna, others won’t be willing to pay during a blackout period!” They could just kill him, who would want to trade? That path really couldn’t be taken, and it was the same reason that Tianming couldn’t directly set up a stall to treat xeno fatigue.

Although it was difficult, he still let hundreds of millions of Yin Chens out of the lifebound space, turning them into invisible cockroaches that infiltrated the New Shrine. ”The New Shrine is so big—it’ll take at least two days for Yin Chen to be in place. As for obtaining useful information or finding a breakthrough, it depends on luck.”

Except for Zi Zhen, Tianming temporarily dared not help other people resolve xeno fatigue. The fundamental reason was that he couldn’t control stronger astral gods.

”What do we do next?” Zi Zhen asked.

”We wait.”

The efficiency of Yin Chen was already high. Even so, two days passed and it still had no harvest. According to it, the people in the New Shrine basically wouldn’t go out during the blackout period. They drank and enjoyed themselves inside, and when it was over, they would go out and count the population.

The more intense the killing outside was, the better their performance would be considered. The officials didn’t come out, just gathered together to brag all day long. Tianming really couldn’t find a breakthrough and was getting worried.

Seeing his furrowed brows, Zi Zhen said, ”I happen to know someone.”

”Someone from the New Shrine?” he quickly asked.

”No, it’s someone I know. He boasted that he had friends in the New Shrine. I don’t know if it’s true or false, so I didn’t mention it earlier,” Zi Zhen said.

”Who does he know in the shrine?” Tianming had figured out the people inside the New Shrine, but unfortunately he lacked a middleman to build a bridge.

Zi Zhen shook her head and said, ”I don’t know.”

”There aren’t any other clues. Let’s find your friend first,” Tianming said.

Zi Zhen bitterly smiled and said, ”That person isn’t really my friend, just an acquaintance. And....”

”And what?” Tianming asked.

”And he isn’t a good person. He’s even a bit cunning and insidious.” She frowned.

”It doesn’t matter. The key is, what is his strength?” Tianming asked in a deep voice.

”He’s activated his third cosmic chart. He’s a specter of the demonhogs named Gu Chunhan,” Zi Zhen said.

The third cosmic chart! That was the same realm as Lin Lingxiao. Tianming could defeat him on the Sun, but in the Xenoabyss, he should still be a bit worse than that level. He estimated that, after his latest breakthrough, there should be no problem fighting against second-level cosmic cartographers.

He nodded and said, ”The third cosmic chart, that’s still okay.”

Zi Zhen was now stable, with the power of a fourth-level cosmic cartographer. There was nothing to fear from Gu Chunhan.

”Lead the way.”

”Mhm.”

The two temporarily left the New Shrine and entered the purple mist. They soon entered the underground abyss, then traversed in the dark. After about half a day, they arrived in front of a deep canyon.

”Someone’s fighting?” Tianming hadn’t approached yet, but he felt that the valley in front of him was shaking, and the ground was even cracking. There were faint roars of giant beasts and specters.

”Is someone attacking his lair?” Zi Zhen and Tianming looked at each other. The two quickly passed through the purple mist and rushed toward the depths of the valley. In the mist at the end of the canyon was a dark cave, which was Gu Chunhan’s lair.

As they approached, the vibrations became stronger and the roaring became more violent.

”Wait!” Tianming pulled Zi Zhen and quickly stopped.

”Aren’t we saving him?” she asked in confusion.

”No need to save him.” Tianming rolled his eyes.

As a person with experience, he could already hear that there was no battle in the cave at all.

”Oh! Again!”

Boom! Boom! Boom!

”More effort, it’s almost there!”

”Stinky lady, don’t scratch my seventh heptastar organ!”

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Tianming was extremely speechless, and no matter how dumb she was, Zi Zhen also figured it out at that moment and stiffened in place.