Beastmaster of the Ages

When it came to it, it was a bit of a coincidence. The final strike, Death Imperatoris, was the one which Xiaodao managed to master as it matched his death order. However, the strikes of the other eight imperatores matched Tiannming’s own orders!

In fact, compared to Imperatores Venerabilis and Defiance’s moves, Imperatores Mansionis and Anima’s moves weren’t that difficult. The former two were the strongest imperatores of the flameyellow divinities, after all.

While the moves themselves were easy to master, it would still prove quite difficult to fuse them with all the other moves. The order of Imperator Anima was related to life and plants, and not the same as slaughter and absolute carnage. Fusing it into Imperator’s Mural would cause the nature of the move to change on a fundamental level.

As for Mansionis Imperatoris, it was a strike of pure astral and spatial power. It was perfect to be used with Ji Ji’s genesis ancestral nova source. At the end of the day, the two moves weren’t that powerful on their own, but would add quite a lot to Imperator’s Mural when properly fused.

”I wonder if Imperator’s Mural will become a fortuna-class move if I manage to fuse Death Imperatoris with the rest? Or will I only need to fuse eight of the moves and not all to bring it to that level....” Tianming looked forward to the day he could do it. He had already spent quite a bit of time working on the fusion.

One could see myriadpath steles up above in the sky no matter where one was in Myriadpath Valley. ”Tens of thousands of fortuna-class techniques and battle arts.... I only have a chance to get them if I’m a foundationeer or rank in the top ten of the Fortuna Ranking. Before that, I can only trade merit points for infinitum-class moves.”

Tianming’s main battle arts were the Grandvoid Compendium and Xiaozhi Sword Art. The two spacetime sword arts weren’t considered that high class, but he could still get a lot of use out of them thanks to their unique spacetime properties.

”I should think about how I can strengthen my combat arsenal beyond Imperator’s Mural. However, that isn’t my main priority. To properly rise in Myriadpath Valley, I need to gain even more merit by rising up the Fortuna Ranking. Perhaps I might even get my hands on the Myriadpath Sourcespring. Breaking through is the key!”

Fortunately, he dared to use order fragments for his breakthroughs. He could rely on Yin Chen, Chen Tianyong, and Zi Zhen in the Xenoabyss. Even if the only ones who had high-grade order fragments were the antiquitean imperials, Tianming still stood a way higher chance of getting his hands on them compared to the other disciples in Myriadpath Valley.

”Then again, I still have some hollowness in my cultivation since my breakthrough to two cosmic charts. I’m not stable enough yet.” Tianming prepared to leave at the thought of that. ”Well, now I can cultivate at the Grand Myriadpath Ruins, anyway. I’ll look for some guidance from the foundation caeli there to secure my foundation! Once that’s done, I’ll go back to the Xenoabyss to rinse and repeat.”

Using order fragments alone wouldn’t do. Proper cultivation and ruminating over caeli was required for the correct balance. Perhaps he could even use the Myriadpath Sourcespring for his cultivation in the future.

His cultivation regimen seemed pretty clear and was unique to him alone.

”Looks like I’ll only be training my swordsmanship in Grandblue Palace and working on my order in the Grand Myriadpath Ruins. Once I get results, I’ll challenge people ranked higher than me to advance!” With a goal in mind, his motivation soared.

”The only way to not be looked down upon is to find someone to beat up to show the rest that you mean business.” His harsh encounter with Huang Daosheng had shocked quite a lot of people, so he would no longer be harassed or mocked like before wherever he went in Myriadpath Valley. Huang Daosheng had ended up being his unfortunate scapegoat; even now, rumors about what Tianming had allegedly done were still spreading nonstop in Myriadpath Valley, and it had the intended effect of keeping annoying gold ring disciples off his back.

Using Fiveway Blitzrun, he rapidly went to the Grand Myriadpath Ruins. It seemed rather crowded all the time.

”I heard that there’s fifteen locations that store caeli here, but those in the Grand Myriadpath Ruins are of the highest caliber. Every single caelum here used to belong to at least a reverend!” To get the ’reverend’ title, one had to be a fifth-level foundationeer or stronger. Chen Tianyong would definitely qualify, being a sixth-level foundationeer, but reverends were still at the bottom of the hierarchy in Myriadpath Valley.

”The ruins are split into three levels—upper, middle, and lower ruins.” Tianming saw a mountain peak with three horns before him.

”Rumors say... this is... a fortuna... class astralship!” Yin Chen said.

”Wow, now that’s amazing.” The Fortuna and Maniverse Pillars were maniverse-class artifacts, while the Grand Myriadpath Ruins was a fortuna-class astralship. The legacy caeli stored within were a huge part of Myriadpath Valley’s wealth. Storing them in a ship seemed like a safe choice; even if their base fell, the ruins themselves would not be breached and could also leave.

Tianming looked at the pyramid-shaped peak, which also somewhat resembled a tower. Its surface was made of what looked like really large rocks, which were in fact fortuna-class divine ores. He also spotted three distinct layers with entrances to each. They were the upper, medium, and lower levels respectively. As it was a pyramid, the lower level was the widest and the upper level was the narrowest.

”At the lower level, I’ll get caeli from reverends. As for the middle level, they’ll be eminents and above. The upper level is even more insane! It houses the caeli of all the former valley lords of Myriadpath Valley!” As for cultivators who perished before becoming reverends, they didn’t have the right to have their caeli stored in the Grand Myriadpath Ruins. Instead, they were housed elsewhere.

”It’s a shame that I’ll only be able to cultivate in the lower level with my current ranking.” Of the two hundred thousand fortuna-class disciples, only the top ten thousand on the Fortuna Ranking could enter the Grand Myriadpath Ruins. However, the ones that rank from the hundredth to thousandth places could enter the middle level. As for the upper level, it was only allowed for the top hundred.

Such was how talent was favored in Myriadpath Valley. The strong would always trump the weak. Tianming had no access to the valley lords’ caeli at all, as he needed to be at least as powerful as a peak twelfth-level cosmic cartographer to be able to rank in the top hundred.