Beastmaster of the Ages

Staring at the words, ’worry not’, Tianming found that he couldn’t calm down at all. He knew how powerful Antiquitas Mortis was. The lord of the New Shrine was rumored to be a foundationeer. Five or six people of that caliber could cause the Sun to fall, and who knew how many of them Zi Zhen was faced with now? Yin Chen estimated there to be around eight hundred at least! How could she possibly survive?

She had only fallen to these depths because of Tianming. By now, their relationship wasn’t one of favors and debts. It wasn’t simply transactional. There was no way that Tianming wouldn’t be moved by her actions.

”How is she doing?!” Tianming nervously asked.

”I’m not... sure. So... far nobody... has found... her yet,” Yin Chen said.

Tianming breathed a sigh of relief.

”However, the... enemy has... set up... a large... net to... trap her... it’s said... that other... nations in... the Xenoabyss... also got... the news... and will... soon invade... Antiquitas Mortis!”

Healing xeno fatigue was nothing short of a miracle to everyone in the Xenoabyss. Tianming had predicted that the world would be shaken if word of that got out, but he hadn’t expected something of this scale to happen. It was as if the entire Xenoabyss had gone mad at the same time! ”It doesn’t look like I can help... Aaaagh!” The worst part was that he could barely save himself.

”Since she dared to do this, let’s hope she did it without the intention of getting herself killed. If she traded her life in exchange for order fragments for me, everything would be pointless.” Tianming dug out the white jade box and tightly hugged it. Her scent still lingered on the box, a sign that she hadn’t left the area for long.

”You must be safe! Stay alive until I return for you!” Tianming said to the words on the box. ”The only thing I can do now is to not let you down. I’ll use the order fragments you have so painstakingly got me to save my world. I trust that you’ll understand my decision.”

He took a deep breath and spread Yin Chen far and wide. He made sure to be exceedingly careful, as his true level was at the twelfth astral phase of the Order stage. The strongest people he could fight in the Xenoabyss were sixth-level cosmic cartographers, and people of that level were at the lowest rung of the ladder, unlike what they would be on the Sun. When he found a much quieter place, he opened the small white jade box.

”Holy...” Tianming’s eyes shook when he saw what was inside. ”All of them are grade-five order fragments—there’s ten of them!”

Last time, it had taken Zi Zhen quite a lot of effort to procure only a single grade-five order fragment. The time before that, it was even harder for Tianming to obtain a grade-four order fragment that could be purchased with soulstones. Yet Zi Zhen had managed to get him ten grade-five ones in one go.

”With this amount, I should be able to turn my order into a proper hive and convert my dark stellar charts into cosmic charts that can manifest outside me! Zi Zhen’s amazing.” He recalled her cold expression and waist-long purple hair, as well as the feral, yet fit physique unique to specterkind. ”I won’t let her down.”

Having so many order fragments was both a blessing and a curse. ”Last time, I took quite a risk to break through to the twelfth astral phase. Even now, my streams of order are rather unstable. If I use ten more order fragments right now, even if I succeed, my power will be incredibly hollow!” Being in that state meant that his orders wouldn’t be able to match his cultivation level, which could lead to being weaker in general. His cultivation could regress, or even collapse from other issues.

”I seem to be taking quite a huge risk this time.” His head was beginning to hurt at the thought. He inspected the state of his eight streams of order and concluded that they had grown too chaotically and rapidly. They were like tall buildings that had been built without proper struts and supports at the bottom. No doubt, consuming all ten grade-five order fragments would come with ruinous risk, even if the rewards were substantial.

”I want to defend the Sun and my people. All I lack now is the ability to join the actual fighting myself, yet the heavens seem to be joking at my expense. I needed manna, yet they provided manna with nine hundred and ninety-nine apertures. I needed a higher cultivation level, but the gambit they’ve offered me is just as risky as it is necessary.” Tianming glared at the order fragments that were mysteriously rotating, thinking about the trillions of subjects within the Sky Palace Formation whose fate depended on him.

”I have no choice but to pick one risky path or the other.” Using manna that was inappropriate was far too risky, so Tianming chose the order fragments!

”Dammit! Who cares if I’m hollow? As long as I can break through and be of use in the upcoming battle, any torment will have been worth it! It’s better than waiting for my death at the hands of the Starshatter Formation!” Tianming sat down where the sea of order was visible and faced the sky. In his hand was a box of order fragments. ”I’m digging in!”

He stopped hesitating and wolfed the fragments like they were free. Eating them all at once or one by one made no difference; the fragments themselves didn’t hurt the body. In fact, the instability that resulted came from the body itself.

All ten order fragments liquefied and entered his body, wherein occurred a fundamental change.

”The Cosmic Cartography stage is the second step of astral gods. It’s akin to changing one’s level of being. I hope this transformation won’t disappoint me.”

The torrent of the order fragment liquid was far too much, instantly sweeping through Tianming’s body and bathing him in the power of order itself. The streams of order inside his seven astral organs rapidly absorbed the concentrated essence of order like sponges. Even the genesis order that spread out across his body, instead of residing within a particular organ, got its fill. His astral organs glowed with blinding light, able to be seen from outside his body.

”It’s begun....” Every single stream of order was growing. Once they reached their limits, they would change from briquettes to hives! ”At that point, my dark stellar charts will morph into cosmic charts and trigger a fundamental change in my body!”