Beastmaster of the Ages

Tianming and the other two exchanged a thoughtful glance.

Xiaodao said, ”Yi Daiyan no doubt wants to kill the bloodline wisteria and taixi fiendbeast. If we reveal the location of the taixi fiendbeast to her, it might decrease the number of innocent deaths.”

Wudi shook his head. ”That won’t do. The ebons would only fall faster if that’s the case, then we’d be next. Tianming still has potential for growth, so buying time will be to our benefit.”

”That’s true. Yi Daiyan is currently in her prime and has everyone else as her allies, after all,” Xiaodao agreed. There was no such thing as an act of benevolence in war. They didn’t have the luxury to sacrifice the futures of the people of the Sun to save the people of Ebonia.

”Then we’ll continue waiting for a chance!”

”Increase the number of Granddaddy Yin Chens. Even if we don’t reveal the location of the taixi fiendbeast right now, we still have to find the location of the other infinitum-class nova wildbeasts.”

”Alright.” The countless Yin Chens continued multiplying on Ebonia.

......

The astralscape of order was boundlessly vast. Stars were everywhere in the void of space. Their sheer number and diminutive size relative to the universe seemed to reduce the significance of the people that lived on them to nothing.

The tripartite soul was, paradoxically, precious and abundant at the same time. Humans saw their own lives as everything, yet the universe simply didn’t care about them. The extermination of lives in the universe progressed like the flowing sands of time, as if it was the natural state of existence itself.

Nothing but the light of nova source had the slightest bit of significance against the backdrop of the universe, yet the universe itself didn’t seem to pay them much heed. They were but some nondescript specks of dust that ran on love, hate, life, death, and partings that didn’t matter squat to the universe.

Deep within the astralscape of order was an odd vortex that seemed to absorb everything, including the light of the stars. Light from distant worlds flowed like streams into formless rivers that intersected at the vortex, forming a sharp ring of light that contorted everything around it. The only thing in the vortex’s vicinity that didn’t seem affected by its sucking force were dark, gigantic, mottled stone steles. Like astral giants or floating swords, they formed neat lines above the vortex without moving in the slightest.

The stele at the very front was the largest of them all and was much more magnificent than the Infinitum Stele, as well as even more ancient. Every blade stroke on its surface contained the essence of times long gone. Large, bloody words were inscribed with flamboyant strokes on its surface, penned with what seemed to be the blood of ancient wildbeasts. They read: Midsky Myriadpath.

Most of the people within the astralscape of order wouldn’t know what the words referred to, but there would surely be a rare few from various mundi who would understand in their hearts that they had found the holy land of cultivation of the astralscape of order, Myriadpath Valley. It was a world without nova source, yet it was far more terrifying than nova source worlds.

There were many legends about Myriadpath Valley, the Myriadpath Celestial Formation being one of them.

At the edge of the astral horizon of Myriadpath Valley were ten thousand skypiercer-class nova source worlds, each of them easily ten times the size of Violetglory. They were all unpopulated and arranged in a dense, orderly formation. From what could only be described as ’above’ for the lack of a better word, the stars were arranged to look like an eight trigrams formation. Every single star within spun and moved according to a set path, making the formation rather hypnotic to look at.

Each fusion formation that secured those nova source worlds was tailor-made to be a part of the larger eight trigrams formation, connecting the discrete skypiercer-class stars together and causing their nova sources to circulate near the center of the entire cluster. Trillions of divine patterns flowed like dragons in a stream through the spatial void between the stars.

A standard star cluster, such as the Mysterium Cluster, had around ten thousand heliacal-class worlds. Here, on the other hand, the ten thousand skypiercer-class worlds were in a formation of unthinkable proportions. Were Tianming to see it, he would no doubt be stunned.

That was the kind of might that a superpower like Myriadpath Valley possessed. It was the very same Myriadpath Celestial Formation! Every single divine celestial pattern in it contained ancient legacies of wisdom. Only such a grand formation would be capable of transporting people across the endless stretches of the astralscape through the use of stareye relays.

Two figures that looked like specks of dust compared to the formation had gathered there. One of them was a youth with orange hair, orange eyes, and a golden body. Li Fan of Myriadpath Valley wore a look of unshakeable resolution.

In front of him was a white-robed scholar with a horribly pale face, bad posture, and sickly appearance. His gray eyes and white robes made him look like a hungry ghost.

”Esteemed Master,” Li Fan said, bowing in greeting.

”How are things going in the Xenoabyss?” the scholar asked.

”The antiquiteans sealed off the Ninth District for unknown reasons and began a wide-scale search, interrupting our progress. Li Tianming also stopped showing up there,” Li Fan said, his head lowered.

”What of the skyghoul sacredfiend?”

”She’s likely undergone her second awakening and grown stronger. She’s still hidden within the Xenoabyss, and it’ll be difficult for me to find her alone,” Li Fan said with visible regret.

”Very well. You don’t have to go to the Xenoabyss any longer. I’ll go straight to the Infinitum Mundus and impart within him a wug, which will get him to seek out the skyghoul sacredfiend. All you have to do is to bring her to me after that.” [1]

Hearing that, Li Fan’s eyes brightened and he clasped his hands in a salute. ”Master, can you leave Li Tianming for me to deal with once it’s all done?”

”What is your reason?” ”He killed my brother, Lin Ke.”

”You aren’t the first in line to avenge him. There’ll be some from Intrepidus as well. On our end, only the two of us know about this so as not to leak anything about this.”

”Understood. Master, what’re you going to do next?”

”I’ll head to the Intrepidus Mundus to bring a group of people here. Then we’ll go to the Skydome Mundus.”

”Around a hundred?”

”More or less.”

”That’ll take quite some time.”

”It’s best to have more people with us to take down a mundus.”

”Understood.” Li Fan nodded, but hesitated for a moment. ”Master, may I go as well?”

”You may go in advance. Gather intelligence, especially anything concerning Li Tianming and the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb. The information I have right now was given to me by Intrepidus, and no doubt they’ve held something back. The divine wonderians held back even more.”

”It’s no surprise. The divine wonderians are fractured. They actually sought our help instead of the rest of their own kind. Something must be going on.”

”It’s good that you’re aware.” The scholar patted him on the shoulder and gave him a deep look. ”Li Fan, we’re the only people in Myriadpath Valley to participate in this excursion, but as its representatives, we must claim the lion’s share.”

”Yes, Master!” Li Fan’s eyes were filled with pride and excitement.

1. A wug is also known as gu or jincan, a special kind of curse or poison that involves insects. See more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gu_(poison) ☜