Beastmaster of the Ages

Guang Ling grit his teeth and said, ”This is really beyond me. How about this? I’ll offer a private bounty to our contacts from the New Shrine. We’ll publish information about Li Tianming to get the dregs of the Ninth District to hunt him down. However, we aren’t able to elevate the matter in an official capacity, as it’s beyond our authority as the New Shrine, understood?”

”That will do. Make sure the reward is high so that there’s more incentive,” Custodian Demonpiece said.

”Well, but where are you going to find the capital for that?” Guang Ling was famous for being stingy. Being told to pay up was the same as being told to die.

”The divine wonderians will offer up cosmic artifacts in exchange for soulstones. I trust that’ll be acceptable.”

”Very well! Let’s hurry back and discuss a figure before I spread the word through private channels. However, we here in the Xenoabyss don’t use trinkets like your transmission stones, so the news will take some time to spread. You should know that,” Guang Ling said.

Custodian Demonpiece felt a headache brewing at how the primitives in the Xenoabyss did things. The sentiment was shared by many visitors of the Xenoabyss. The locals there shared one thing in common: the lack of common sense. Perhaps they were so conservative because there were too many unknowns with the things outworlders brought with them.

Most people simply couldn’t trust technology from the astralscape of order, including transmission stones. There were instances of people spying on conversations held over them, and eventually, people stopped using them. Though those from the astralscape of order saw the rejection of convenience as absurd, it actually managed to stop those in the Xenoabyss from shamelessly being spied on.

”Sigh! You guys were just one step late. If I hadn’t given him a permanent residency, the capital would’ve sent an elite team to hunt him down with full authority,” Guang Ling said.

”I see....” The advanced divine wonderians were completely speechless at how these rural primitives ran things.

......

Deep in the purple mist, Yin Chen spied Li Fan’s location from nearby the shrine. Tianming immediately had her change direction, turning around to go in the opposite direction. The Ninth District was far too large; no matter how powerful Li Fan was, there wasn’t any way for him to catch up as long as he couldn’t see Tianming. As long as they kept heading in opposite directions, it would only get even harder.

”So, there’s a path from the Xenoabyss to Myriadpath Valley, huh....” Tianming heard what Yin Chen had relayed to him. As there were no formations within the Xenoabyss, it was all too easy for Yin Chen to surveil anything it wanted. Tianming hadn’t thought that Myriadpath Valley would have such sway within the Xenoabyss, which would no doubt prove quite troubling for him.

”I think he’s rather interested in you. Are you two of the same kind?” Tianming asked.

”You could say that. I’m sure he’d be glad to see me,” Zi Zhen said.

”I see.... Looks like we share the same enemy, then.”

”Yeah.” She nodded, her gaze slightly gloomy. Her fingers subconsciously gripped Tianming as she ran, holding him tight. While Tianming missed getting on her back, they no longer needed to be running at full speed, so he had her let him off and ran side by side with her. It wasn’t like Li Fan was even on their tail anyway.

”Come to think of it, will the permanent residency permit still work now that the New Shrine is on to me? Is it pointless now?” Tianming wondered. Surely, all that trouble had to be worth something.

”It matters. If you didn’t get it, the ones that would be hunting you down would be the sanctioners of the capital. They’re basically professionals at hunting people down. The New Shrine won’t go that far, since all they care about is making easy money. With Antiquitas Mortis backing them, they don’t really have to fear Myriadpath Valley,” Zi Zhen said.

”I see. Can Li Fan get the sanctioners to act?”

”There’s a possibility, but you’re an outworlder. You can come and go as you please. If it really doesn’t work out, all you have to do is to go back to the astralscape of order. But it won’t be as easy for Li Fan as you think. As far as I’m aware, the bureaucrats in the capital are really set in their ways and won’t do anything that goes against protocol. They might not necessarily do what Myriadpath Valley wants them to,” Zi Zhen explained.

”I see.” Even though he’d obtained permanent residency, it seemed that his stay in the capital had only grown harder. ”Well, thankfully I’m small enough that hiding will be easy in the Ninth District.”

”That’s right. I’ve heard that some people who don’t have permanent residencies managed to hide in the capital for a few decades before they were captured.” Permanent residency was, at best, a formality that allowed one to attend official events or appear in public settings. It was far from necessary in a place as chaotic as the Ninth District.

All of a sudden, Tianming recalled something. ”I can always run as a last resort, but what about you? What happens if Li Fan finds you?”

”Me?” Zi Zhen shook her head. ”I have no choice.”

”Is it possible for me to take you with me when I escape?” Tianming asked.

She looked flabbergasted. ”Don’t you have any common sense?”

”What?”

”I’m someone that was born here. Even though not everyone here gets xeno fatigue, everyone has a xenobrand. While you people are able to adapt to xeno source, we can’t adapt to nova source. In other words, we’ll die if we go to the astralscape of order. We won’t even be able to survive a few days. Otherwise you’d have had swathes of people leaving the Xenoabyss with outworlders since long ago.”

No wonder Tianming hadn’t encountered anyone from the Xenoabyss out there. Not only that, interaction between the astralscape and the Xenoabyss wasn’t that common to begin with—few had markers that could take them there. Not to mention, he wasn’t aware of any other faction whose fifth-level cosmic cartographers and above had access to the Xenoabyss, apart from Myriadpath Valley. As such, there was a limit to the extent outworlders could influence the Xenoabyss. It also didn’t help that the natives of the Xenoabyss were primitive and conservative in their ways, mostly harboring wariness towards outsiders.

”It’s alright. Death is an inevitability in life. It’s simply a matter of fate, and I’ve long looked past it. Without you, I probably wouldn’t even have been able to experience life as a normal person at all. All I want now is to appreciate the days I have left as I am now. That is enough,” Zi Zhen said with a lighthearted tone.

”You really seem like you’ve let go,” Tianming said, smiling.

”Hardship’s nothing new to me.”

Even if she could let things slide, Tianming felt that he had dragged her into his troubles with Li Fan. He wouldn’t just sit by and do nothing.