Beastmaster of the Ages

The sky was pitch black and filled with stars. A huge, whale-like being laid in the depths of the dark abyss. Around it were countless astral shards, densely bunched together like gravel in the ocean.

The giant beast had remained slumbering for a long time when, all of a sudden, blinding starlight radiated from its entire body from head to toe! With a rumble, the light began fading and the beast was once more shrouded in darkness.

It was the sign that someone had arrived at one of the mobile stareyes of the Myriadpath Celestial Formation. The gigantic beast turned out to be the Hellfiend.

Two people stepped out of the glowing formation within the ship. One of them was clad entirely in twilight yellow and looked rather sickly. The mask he seemed to wear was actually his actual face. It depicted a sorrowful expression, as if he was the most pitiful person in the world. He was none other than Yumo Xue.

He held the hand of a girl. She was the perfect match for him, being as pale as he was sickly yellow. In fact, her skin, irises, and hair were all a pitiful white. She looked incredibly thin and lanky, but aside from her sickly appearance, her features and figure were nothing to scoff at. She was also a specter of House Yumo, though she had a more lively face. It didn’t look like Yumo Xue’s mask of a face, but a normal humanlike one in the vein of Zi Zhen’s. Though, Zi Zhen at least looked more like a real living being compared to the wraith of a girl.

”Yumo Xue, Yumo Lingyue!” someone called out to them from the dark halls of the ship.

Yumo Xue turned to look and saw a group of people in black robes. The one who seemed to lead them wore a hood. Beneath it, he was another pale white specter, just like the girl, though his face was stiffer and more masklike.

”Uncle,” Yumo Xue greeted with a nod.

”Father,” greeted the lanky girl, Yumo Lingyue. She bowed in a manner common to House Yumo. Specters prioritized physical prowess, and that varied greatly between the sexes. Despite the fact that males far outnumbered females in Myriadpath Valley, male specters were still considered to be of higher status than their female counterparts.

”The starblood’s ready. Come,” said the hooded man as he waved to them.

”Good!” Yumo Xue’s eyes seemed to burn with passion. An aura of dread began emanating from his body as he flew through the hallway of the dark ship with Yumo Lingyue’s hand still in his. Soon, they arrived at a different, larger hall which was illuminated by a bloody light.

All of the light came from a fist-sized blood-colored crucible that was placed high up on an altar. Everyone else stood before the crucible, almost frozen.

The hooded man patted Yumo Xue on the shoulder and said, ”If you succeed in finishing the challenge of refining your tenth drop of starblood before the age of five hundred, you’ll have surpassed your father, and many more! Not bad!”

”I haven’t managed it yet,” Yumo Xue said, his gaze twisted. He licked his lips with his yellowed tongue.

”We trust you,” Yumo Lingyue said. Her voice sounded incredibly frail, but it still gave people a chill. She sounded a bit like a lone wandering spirit that appeared right in the dead of night.

”Okay!” Yumo Xue couldn’t wait any longer. He took a deep breath and made his way toward the crucible with a hunched back. His legs shook as he stood before it from sheer agitation. There was a trace of fear in him—not because of the starblood itself, but rather because of the suffering that countless lifeforms had experienced for that single drop to be refined. It was something that could drive him mad with pain and pleasure.

”Father said that starblood is a kind of toxin. As long as we get a single drop, we’ll never be able to avoid it for the rest of our lives. Even though I haven’t absorbed a drop for the last ten years, my entire body still feels terrible from the wait. I’ve been thinking about this day in and out, just for this moment....”

He didn’t need to make himself want it; his body had already been addicted to starblood from the first drop he’d consumed. His body could absorb it on its own, and what he needed to do was to fight against it. He had to push back the intoxicating rush of emotions and suffering, or he would risk completely losing himself.

”There’s been quite a lot of specters who died from starblood assimilation....” Since five years prior, Yumo Xue had yearned for starblood. Every time nobody was around, he couldn’t control his urges and had to vent them through slaughter. Otherwise it felt like ants were gnawing at his entire body.

Once I assimilate the tenth drop, I’ll reach fulfillment and will no longer have to suffer like this. I’ll be able to go an entire century without taking a drop. After that, I can hand the Yumo Blood Crucible to Yumo Yuanni and Yumo Lingyue! The blood grudge of trillions of people is far too heavy. Even an artifact like this will require two years of rest after refining a single drop of starblood.

As he thought that, his hands didn’t stop, but shakily reached out to the lid of the crucible. It wasn’t his first time, but he was nervous regardless. ”Come!” When he opened the lid, the crucible shook. A thick scent of blood wafted out of it and flowed into Yumo Xue’s body, seeping into his astrons. Shrieks, roars, howls, and sobs echoed from within the drop of blood. It was like trillions of people had been compacted into the space of a tiny droplet and their souls couldn’t even scatter into nothingness. Instead, they had been compressed into an abomination, never able to achieve any semblance of peace.

Is this cruel? Sick? No! I am a god to them. They’re mere specks of dust that hold no meaning to me whatsoever! Only with that belief could he resolve himself to pour the contents of the crucible into his mouth. Starblood instantly flooded through his entire body and trillions of souls were immediately trapped within his astrons.

”Save me!”

”I want out! Out!”

”Uwwaaahhh!”

”Die! Die! Everything, die!”

”Dad, why’d this happen? Didn’t you say you’d protect us? Where are you?”

There were now ten trillion souls in his body, one trillion for each drop of starblood, all of them imprisoned within his astrons. Their grudges and resentment would be converted into energy and power. Yumo Xue’s face contorted as resentment leaked out of him and his body shook as countless beings within him desperately roared and howled.

A god of death had descended in the hall.

”Do you see that?” The hooded man patted his daughter on the shoulder. ”This boundless resentment is the true character of House Yumo! Without it, one should be ashamed to be the bearer of the Yumo core bloodline!”

”Yes....” Yumo Lingyue’s youthful eyes shook for a moment with doubt, but eventually stilled.

”Now that he has ten drops of starblood, you’ll be getting your fifth drop from the Yumo Blood Crucible next. After that, it’ll be that Yumo Yuanni’s turn! He’s grown up... but I heard he lost to some outsider. How humiliating! Once he obtains House Yumo’s ’character’ and becomes a true man of the house, things will change.”

Yumo Lingyue didn’t answer. Her eyes were affixed on the kneeling, resentment-filled Yumo Xue.