Beastmaster of the Ages

After making sure Fengqing Youmeng was securely in her cell, Tianming rejoined the rest.

”The part about the Starembryo Fiendart might be true,” Xiaodao said.

”Will she really help us though?” Tianming asked.

Everyone shook their heads in uncertainty.

”No worries. Let’s just do our best to gather information and we’ll have more cards in hand when the time comes,” Tianming said.

”That’s true. The Dreamchild already returned to the Skydome Mundus anyway. The wonderians aren’t that much of a threat to us in this war, at least for now,” Wudi said.

”Well, we can’t say that for sure. They’re capable of crossing the Xenoworld to reach us. Even though their ships might not be able to, their army can still support Shenxi Xingtian,” Lin Xiao corrected.

”Haha, I almost forgot about that,” Wudi said, awkwardly scratching his head. The entire conflict so far had managed to considerably strengthen the Sun, so everyone was looking forward to their arrival near Ebonia.

If I expand my sphere of influence across the entire Infinitum Mundus, countless nova source worlds will have believers of mine. How strong would I be then? Can the net of Omnisentient Threads expand from the Sun to cover the entire mundus? That was something Tianming looked forward to, so his main goal now was to become the first rex mundi, not just the ruler of the Sun. It was definitely part of a selfish ambition, but also a wider aspiration that he had. I must grow stronger to protect my family, friends, and subjects on the Sun before I can follow in my parents’ footsteps!

......

The burning fifth-class nova source world traveled toward Ebonia at full speed, shining bright in the astralscape. Occasionally, astralships passed it, witnessing the miracle in awe. The Sun was fast and as agile as an astralship, thanks to Ji Ji’s fine control. The denizens of the Sun could feel that their entire world was moving from the vibrations in the ground.

Though the journey was uneventful, such was the nature of journeys. The only thing Tianming could do to prepare for future challenges was stabilize his eight streams of order by eliminating the ’bubbles’ that had formed in them as a result of his too-rapid growth. As the Sun moved for two whole years, Tianming entered the Xenoabyss often to check on Zi Zhen while he had Yin Chen gather information about the Ancient Oldgod Domain. He also tried procuring more order fragments.

Since the day Zi Zhen had left, she only ever sporadically appeared. Oftentimes, not even Yin Chen was able to find her. During the occasional times it managed to spot her, it reported that she had become stronger. Even though she still didn’t want to meet Tianming, he was at least relieved that he would no longer have to worry about her.

As for the Ancient Oldgod Domain, he still hadn’t gotten any solid information about it. Yin Chen had spread out to cover an area ten times that of the Ninth District, but no crucial information had surfaced so far.

That aside, Tianming faced some trouble in his quest to obtain order fragments. The Ninth District had been locked down, and everyone within it was gathered around the New Shrine as if they’d been taken prisoner. Nobody was allowed to leave the district, so how was he to obtain more order fragments? All he could do was cultivate on his own while keeping an eye out for opportunities.

”When the antiquitean imperials realize that they won’t be able to find me this way, they’ll change tactics. That’ll be my chance.”

Apart from stabilizing his orders, he practiced his swordsmanship and nourished his divine wonder. As his orders were still lacking, he hit a bottleneck when it came to the spacetime sword arts of the Lin Clan reges mundi. So, he focused on what he was better at: the far more devastating Imperator’s Mural.

The fifth sword art had been left behind by a flameyellow divinity imperator, Imperator Venerabilis. He was someone who had cultivated the imperial way! Someone like him who had managed to obtain a tier-zero order was no doubt capable. Tianming saw his glorious depiction within the mural; in some vague way, his aura even seemed to resemble the Primordial God-Emperor’s somewhat.

Tianming had a feeling that this imperator’s move would be more unique and fierce compared to those of the previous four. Since he had imperial order, he would probably have a rather easy time mastering it. The only tough part would be combining it with the others, but he had time enough to figure that out.

That aside, his grand lexicon wonder slowly matured. By now, he had unlocked around six hundred of the most used Xia words, allowing him to form sentences and paragraphs. Once it had grown to a thousand words, his divine wonder would be superior to infinitum-class divine wonders!

His current cultivation level, however, wasn’t quite sufficient to support the wonder. He could only utilize it to its full potential by tapping into an external power source, much like Moran did. In his case, it would be Omnisentient Will. He was confident that his divine wonder could become much stronger in the future.

The Sun was growing quite close to Ebonia by then, but they weren’t going to launch a proactive attack. Instead, they would observe the moves of others first. Tianming saw a black dot at the very edge of his vision through the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb, gradually increasing in size. It was none other than Ebonia, an infinitum-class world.

He recalled when he had first gone there; he had been so awed that he was completely stupefied. Staring at Ebonia felt like staring into an endless abyss. It was a lonely, dark world, darker than the void it existed within. The star itself felt like Yi Daiyan in a sense, mysterious and alone. With the slightest move, it felt like she could shake the foundation of the world.

”Look at those chains!” The chains surrounding Ebonia looked even more domineering than before. ”They must be directly connected to the Infinitum Stele. Maybe they’re a part of it.”

The Infinitum Stele itself was a part of the Grand-Orient Sword. Both it and the Oldgod Domain seemed to have originated from outside the Infinitum Mundus. During this trip back, Tianming felt that the Grand-Orient Sword was gradually awakening as his own abilities grew. It almost seemed glad to be so close to the Infinitum Stele once more.

”Ji Ji, get a little closer, but not too close.” Tianming didn’t want to go all the way to Ebonia, and instead chose to stop near the center of the Infinitum Mundus.