Beastmaster of the Ages

Eminent Jiguang asked, ”Are you a foundationeer yet?”

Awkwardly, Tianming said, ”Not yet, but my totem breakthroughs and other new techniques in my arsenal make me feel confident in my chances of making it into the top three.”

”I’m confident you can defeat normal foundationeers or myriadpath saints. However, the foundationeers at the top of the ranking are from the Three Exalted Houses, with the top six being minor pathkeepers. The other four in the top ten are also prospective minor pathkeepers near the age of five hundred. They aren’t far off from Yaoyao in terms of prowess. They aren’t just a little bit stronger than normal foundationeers, you know.”

Eminent Jiguang found it hard to believe. It wasn’t that long ago that Tianming was only Suishen Zhao’s match. Suishen Zhao hadn’t made any significant breakthroughs in that time, so who could honestly believe that Tianming had grown stronger than his elder sister in such a short time? Nobody in the Three Exalted Houses would believe it.

Still, Tianming seemed confident. ”Please believe me, Eminent!”

Eminent Jiguang figured that the challenges wouldn’t take too much time. Tianming seemed confident enough, and she couldn’t stand to deny her precious little treasure. ”What level are you at now?”

Tianming was an eighth-level cosmic cartographer, but he still said, ”The twelfth!”

”If you can defeat disciples from the Three Exalted Houses in the top ten as a cosmic cartographer, you’ll break yet another record in Myriadpath Valley.”

”I’ll do my best.”

”Very well, go challenge them. Victory and loss don’t matter. It’s always good to have an attitude to keep challenging yourself. I look forward to you shattering even more precedents. It’ll no doubt make things easier for you in the future as well. Precedents and records are meant to be broken, after all.”

”Huh?” Tianming didn’t quite understand what she meant.

”Just go! Make sure to go to Little Zhao and have Fen Nu tag along everywhere you go. You must come back on time. This is far too important for Yaoyao. She’s done so much for you, so you can’t afford to let her down.”

”Yes!” Though he said that, he thought, Suishen Yao did ’so much’ for me? How can she compare to Eminent Jiguang? He was much more grateful to the gentle, thoughtful, and elegant eminent. Who wouldn’t want a senior like that?

Eminent Jiguang personally escorted him out of the Jiguang Sea, all the while reminding him again and again to come back on time. No doubt, she would make sure Fen Nu was briefed on it as well.

After leaving the sea, Tianming didn’t wait for Suishen Zhao or Fen Nu to pick him up. Instead, he had Yin Chen go to Jian Qinghe. He hadn’t had a chance to converse with her for the past five months, so now was his chance.

Yin Chen knew where she was, so Tianming went looking for her right away. Yin Chen had already contacted her to tell her about his visit.

But just as he left Jiguang Sea, he noticed a group of people ahead of him. They were a dozen disciples of House Suishen, all of them young and talented. One of them was even the fortuna disciple that Tianming had defeated to get into the top twenty, Suishen Yong.

The leader of the group seemed to be the eldest of them, Suishen Yue. His jovial mood immediately tanked when he saw Tianming leave the Jiguang Sea.

”You were in the Jiguang Sea?” he asked with an unfriendly expression. He knew that his wife-to-be had also been there. He didn’t expect that seeing Tianming would make him feel even more disgusted than when he saw his former rival, Suishen Yuan. It wasn’t that he was worried that Tianming would dare to try something; he simply felt disgust that he had spent time close to his fiancee.

”I was. Eminent Jiguang brought me there and escorted me out. Do you have a problem with that?” Tianming asked. He was a minor pathkeeper and had an equivalent status to Suishen Yue, so he didn’t need to show him any respect, unlike Suishen Yao.

He merely behaved neutrally toward Suishen Yue. It was pointless acting humble to someone who had made up their mind about not wanting to be friends. In fact, it would only encourage them to bully him even more. He had been hated by Suishen Yue from the get-go, so pissing him off wasn’t a big deal.

”Eminent Jiguang truly favors you,” Suishen Yue said, squinting. The other youths beside him stood closer, showing that they took a firm side against Tianming, an outsider minor pathkeeper. Most of them dreamed of becoming minor pathkeepers like Suishen Yong, only for someone with a different surname to use up the spot originally reserved for the Suishens. Hate him as they may, however, they couldn’t actually do anything against Tianming. Even Suishen Yue could only stoop to insulting implications.

Tianming couldn’t be bothered wasting time on them and was about to leave, only for Suishen Yue to grab him. ”Yaoyao’s also in there, right?”

”Yes.”

”Go in and tell her that Eminent Ranxing says it’s time for her to pick out wedding ornaments with me. We only have five months left, so it’s time we start preparing,” Suishen Yue sternly said.

Tianming smiled. ”Can’t you tell her that yourself? Why would you need me to pass on the message?”

”How dare you?!”

”Taint, you can’t address Brother Yue in that tone!”

”It’s the peak of arrogance! Do you think you can just do whatever you want now?”

The young men and women immediately barked at Tianming nonstop, though Suishen Yue didn’t seem angry. At least, that was how it looked on the surface. He didn’t need to rush at all, since he could get everything he wanted five months later. The people he wanted to kill would end up dead all the same.

He smiled and said, ”I have no choice. Yaoyao isn’t picking up her transmission stone, so I have to count on you.”

Tianming was a bit taken aback by the surprising display of self-control from Suishen Yue. Since he bothered to smile and deescalate, Tianming didn’t see the need to needlessly antagonize him. ”Very well. I’ll make sure to tell her that.”

”Thanks for the trouble. Wedding ornaments are really important. I’ll make Yaoyao the most beautiful bride ever.”

”Congratulations and felicitations.” Tianming smiled and flew past them.

It was only a small interlude for him; he couldn’t do anything else apart from helping Suishen Yao before her wedding. He hadn’t even considered trying to get the girl for himself. Putting aside the fact that his heart already belonged to another, he knew that the women of House Suishen were dangerous for him.

He simply didn’t see himself as Suishen Yue’s rival and was far more concerned with the Viridian incident. He still had many doubts about the truth of what had happened there.