Beastmaster of the Ages

The third idol was the omnisentient idol. Countless people gathered beneath the Prehistoric Path to watch. There were quite a lot of people this time around in particular, given the participants.

The struggles on the Fortuna and Maniverse Paths involved the two major pathkeepers of House Suishen and the youngest minor pathkeepers of House Suishen and House Yumo. It was a historic battle on two parallel paths.

Tianming and Suishen Zhao stood amidst the crowd. This time around, Tianming had drawn even more attention than his partner.

”Don’t hide your skills. Perform as much as you can,” Suishen Zhao reminded. He had been quite quiet during the meeting with the house elders, but Tianming knew what he was thinking. For now, Tianming’s performance still wasn’t good enough to the point that the seniors of House Suishen would clash with House Yumo over him. The adults only had limited interest and influence over children’s spats, but once they stepped in, things were different.

”Got it.” When Tianming agreed, he felt piercing gazes behind him. He turned and saw Huang Daosheng and Yumo Yuanni. The latter’s eyes almost seemed to breathe fire at him.

He should’ve broken through twice after using a keg of springwater and a grade-seven order fragment in the Xenoabyss, but only managed to break through once. Looks like he plans to break through on the Prehistoric Path as well.

Breakthroughs for specters were slower than those of totemancers to begin with. As such, even if Yumo Yuanni was only three levels stronger than Suishen Zhao, it would still be an impressive achievement despite their age gap. However, it was all thanks to the order fragment and springwater.

If he breaks through, he’ll definitely come after me for payback. The only reason House Yumo’s seniors didn’t react to that is that they’re giving him a chance to break through and win his own dignity back. Tianming knew what was going on. He looked ahead as the omnisentient idol descended.

”Huh?” Starlight appeared ahead of them, each spark being a glowing humanoid figure. There were about a million of them, shrouded by mist. In a few short moments, they assembled together into an astral giant. It was the omnisentient idol!

The idol seemed much larger than the previous two. Like the vitality idol, it tested one’s talent, so Tianming was quite confident about it. It looked like a fusion of deities that chanted in a low, orderly voice that shook everyone down to the soul. Every component humanoid seemed to be chanting something that caused many disciples to start feeling faint.

”Go!” Tianming and Suishen Zhao were stable enough and the fastest ones to jump into the omnisentient idol. It felt like they had fallen into a sea of people, squeezing through many limbs and shoulders.

”Li Tianming!” Suishen Zhao yelled as he was swallowed up by a swarm of humanoids.

”Huh?” Tianming noticed that he hadn’t been transported to a different world, unlike the previous two idols. He was still on the Prehistoric Path, but he couldn’t see anyone else as his vision was filled with countless humanoids.

”Li Tianming! Li Tianming!” The people around him were like an ocean of stars that swept toward Tianming, reaching out with their hands to tap on his shoulders and torso, chanting his name nonstop.

The omnisentient idol seemed to contain the wills of all sentient life. All of it drowned Tianming out. There was no end, no future. Suishen Zhao had said that one shouldn’t be afraid of the omnisentient idol, nor should they attack it. Instead, they were required to comprehend the idol and resonate with the people. That was the conclusion the seniors of Myriadpath Valley had come to. Everyone had a different way of resonating, but using brute force to bust out of the idol was grounds for immediate disqualification.

In fact, Tianming didn’t even need that preparation. He immediately found everything familiar the moment the figures surrounded him and called his name. It’s as if the omnisentient idol is made for me.

Who could possibly compete with him when it came to resonating with omnisentient life? Being a ruler like the Primordial God-Emperor was core to his cultivation. When others were drowning in panic, he calmed down and broadcast the power of his imperial order! The black-and-gold stream of energy felt warm and familiar to the sentient humanoids. It didn’t take long before their starlight was colored by it.

”Everyone!” Tianming could instantly see their individual faces. Thanks to his order, they looked just like the countless people of Ebonia and the Sun. Their red-dust-induced euphoria slightly faded away, allowing them to regain clarity.

”Ruler!”

”Tianming, our lord!”

The millions of faces called out to him with different, but agitated voices. They saw Tianming’s efforts to save them. At that moment, a hundred trillion of them resonated with his imperial order!

Tianming’s soul shook as his tears flowed. Even though it was only for a single instant, he had experienced their stories, their lives, and their thoughts. He didn’t know whether all of it was real, or just a projection from his inner mind. His subjects were far away in the Infinitum Mundus, after all.

However, it didn’t matter if it was real; the omnisentient idol had only reinforced Tianming’s belief that he was on the right path. The resonance caused omnisentient power to flood into his imperial order, causing it to grow! The black-and-gold stigma of his order brightly glowed on his seventh astral organ that was densely filled with astrons.

Once more, he had experienced incredible growth on the Prehistoric Path. The stability he’d attained was something that most people had to spend years observing and contemplating their orders to achieve.

Unlike observing caeli, his growth this time was focused on his imperial order. The other orders grew, but only slightly, making him a little unstable, but it wasn’t a big deal. As long as his imperial order was powerful enough, it could support the formation of a new cosmic chart!