Beastmaster of the Ages

”I don’t care! I’m a tyrant cat! All peak-tier mounts in this world are mine to enjoy!” Meow Meow proclaimed.

”How naive. All you get to do is sit on those pretty peak-tier mounts, while Tianming gets to ride them! He’s the one getting the most out of it,” Ying Huo said.

”May the heavens smite you, you corrupt chicken!” Tianming snapped. He was wearing a cloak that helped hide his identity as he snuck past the front part of Battlesky Hall to reach the rear.

The disciples in the front hall were busy picking mundus missions and didn’t notice him. Most of them were young disciples that were just starting to make a name for themselves and were all oddly dressed, as if to stand out. There were also many specters of all kinds. Thus, Tianming didn’t stand out by wearing the purple scarf that Zi Zhen had given him.

”That scarf seems a bit girly on you,” Xian Xian enviously said.

”Okay,” Tianming simply agreed.

”Can you tie it on me? On your leg?” it said coquettishly, eyes widening. Xian Xian seemed to have taken a liking to the scarf.

”I’d look like even more of a pervert if I tied it on my leg,” Tianming said, ignoring it. From Yin Chen, he knew that Huang Daosheng and the others weren’t aware that he was at Battlesky Hall. He still had to hurry to pick a suitable battle art, however.

”Not giving it to me, eh?!” All of a sudden, Tianming felt piercing pain on his left leg. Needless to say, Xian Xian was inscribing his latest transgressions on his leg.

The rear part of Battlesky Hall was near the end of the divine astralship and was three times the size of the front hall. Tianming had to go quite deep to pick out a high-infinitum-class battle art. Thanks to the dim lighting in the hall, it wasn’t too hard for him to remain undetected.

The deeper he went, the fewer disciples there were. Soon, he reached the final zone, which was split into a part for cultivation techniques and another for battle arts. The battle arts were sorted based on the weapon types they had been developed for, with sword arts being sorted first.

There was even a section for leg arts, which was normally reserved for specters that didn’t use artifacts or weapons. Only beastmasters and totemancers that were asking for trouble would use them. The bodies of humans couldn’t possibly compare to specters in terms of toughness, after all.

However, some lifebound beasts could indeed try learning those battle arts. Tianming noticed that the beasts of some beastmasters of Myriadpath Valley could compress their bodies like specters while retaining their astron count. Some of them were as big as divine astralships or infinitum-class wildbeasts in their true, expanded state, but they could compress to be as small as ten meters tall, not that much bigger than humans.

There were pros and cons to using different sizes for different combat situations. Lan Huang, for instance, would no doubt be among the largest lifebound beasts if it was able to separate itself from Tianming’s body. While it wasn’t the strongest fighter in arena duels, its size gave it a lot of crowd control power. For instance, it could ram through an army of millions and cause grave casualties.

However, that size wasn’t that useful in a fight against singular, elite targets. So being able to compress its body while strengthening every square inch of it was an advantage, especially against specters. The specters of the Xenoabyss also switched forms in combat depending on the foe they were going up against.

”While compression increases astron density, that doesn’t change the fact that the default large state of the Xenoabyss specters is still the one they’re most comfortable with.”

Specters in Myriadpath Valley were closer to humans than specters from the Xenoabyss, so their normal states were closer to humans in size and build. Perhaps that came about as a result of their predecessors keeping their bodies compressed for long periods of time. After all, Myriadpath Valley, large as it was, couldn’t accommodate that many giants.

”Speaking of which, wouldn’t that make astral giants like Huang Qi even more terrifying?” Tianming couldn’t forget the terrifying sight of Huang Qi’s huge body. Not only that, its astron density was incredibly high even in an uncompressed state!

The lifebound beasts of astral gods in Ebonia had large bodies with low astron density, while lifebound beasts in Myriadpath Valley had small bodies with high astron densities. It wasn’t easy for Tianming to get used to. ”The size of lifebound beasts is just for dramatic effect at the end of the day, and not useful for much else. Only lower-tier enemies would be affected by it.”

Since fusing with Ying Huo and the rest, Tianming’s body had remained the same size, but his astron density had greatly risen. Like specters, he had become the perfect single combat unit. So it now made sense for him to learn leg and fist arts—even the sky plunderers’ Skypierce Finger. Thanks to Meow Meow, his Fiendsky Arm had also been strengthened.

”Beastmasters and totemancers can’t train their bodies.... It seems that specters are stronger the higher one progresses in cultivation. Ironically I managed to benefit from that difference by being a tainted beastmaster.” Tianming had thought that specters were the lowest on the rung of the cultivation ladder, but seeing Zi Zhen and those of House Huang gave him the opposite impression.

He started looking for leg arts. There were barely any others there with him; nobody would be willing to spend around two thousand merit points for something they might not ever use, after all. Other fortuna disciples that were ranked close to him would only be able to gather enough merit for a technique in around ten years, as they didn’t have his multiplier.

Thankfully, Huang Daosheng still didn’t know where he was, so he could take his time to make a pick. He saw many shells before him, within which were legacy formations that contained the battle arts. The shells themselves couldn’t be taken away; instead, one had to spend merit points to be allowed to learn the techniques from the legacy formations.

”I’ll choose you, then.” Tianming managed to make his decision three days later. It was a high-infinitum-class battle art called Azure Dragon Descent. While other arts, like the Xiaozhi Sword Art and Grandvoid Compendium, had a few different moves that made up the whole, Azure Dragon Descent only had one.

”The Azure Dragon Eminent created this leg art, eh.... It’s suitable for earth- and ocean-based orders too! It took him a few hundred years to develop this move that can unleash the biggest force one can muster....” Its qualities were perfect for Lan Huang. Despite only having one move, Azure Dragon Descent was a top-tier battle art and was nothing to scoff at.

”Hmm, coupled with the explosion of Eightruin Dragonshield and Lan Huang’s physical strength, Azure Dragon Descent’s going to be too powerful!” Considering how much stronger Tianming would become after learning that move, it was worth the two thousand merit points.