Beastmaster of the Ages

For ease of communication, when Yin Chen found Jian Qinghe, Tianming had it arrange its bodies into words to rapidly convey what he wanted to say. First, he told her about what had happened to Viridian and waited for a response. Even if she didn’t know anything, perhaps Uncle Hei would, seeing as he was some kind of important figure.

”Did she finish reading it?” Tianming asked Yin Chen.

”She did,” Yin Chen said.

”How is it?”

”The reaction... was huge. Uncle Hei... will answer,” Yin Chen said.

Tianming didn’t have to wait long before Yin Chen arranged its bodies into Uncle Hei’s response. ”Tianming, it was done by House Yumo!”

”Uncle Hei, can you tell me more about it? Why would they do that?” Tianming asked.

”House Yumo’s specters make use of something called the Yumo Blood Crucible. They’re the fiercest fiends in the entire astralscape of order. Since ancient times, they’ve used the crucible to refine trillions of lives at a time into drops of starblood for their cultivation. Part of the reason for House Yumo’s physical strength is springwater, while the other part is the starblood they’ve been refining over countless generations! It’s one of the deepest secrets of Myriadpath Valley, and any outsider that knows it has to die!” Uncle Hei replied.

Tianming’s eyes turned bloodshot. ”Yumo Blood Crucible? Sacrificing trillions of lives for a drop of blood to cultivate the strongest specter body?” He was about to explode. The folks of Viridian had been massacred by House Yumo! ”What kind of evil is that? Not even the demonesses of Fallengrace Peak can compare to it!”

Tianming had always known that the Three Exalted Houses were like vampires that sucked the Million Mundi dry to reinforce their reign over the astralscape of order. He had witnessed that attitude himself during his mundi mission to Bluemaple, and he already thought that was going far enough overboard.

It was also why he had never felt too positively about the Three Exalted Houses. House Suishen was at least a bit better, given the presence of people like Eminent Jiguang and the Suishen siblings.

However, the shocking revelation from Uncle Hei was something that went against the core values of Tianming’s being. In fact, considering his imperial order, House Yumo was his natural enemy! They went after people who were or would be his subjects! Tianming couldn’t tolerate that in itself, but they had to do it in the Infinitum Mundus. His rage immediately boiled over.

”This is the true form of Myriadpath Valley and the Three Exalted Houses! House Yumo in particular! They’re monsters in human skin!” All that crap about Myriadpath Valley being a holy land for cultivation and talent was just bullshit. ”They pretend to be righteous, yet they’re the most heinous fiends of the entire astralscape! House Yumo is truly a house of hellfiends, just like their name suggests....”

Tianming hadn’t gone to Viridian before, but the thought of so many people dying in a single day made the living world seem like hell. What he couldn’t stand was how the people had died. No doubt, their souls would have been left behind to suffer eternal torment.

The thought of it caused blood to rush to his head. He couldn’t wait to make House Yumo pay the price right away, yet all he could do was calm down. It had happened on his home turf, and he had to be calm to come up with a plan to counteract it.

How many generations of House Yumo specters had harmed people like that? How many worlds had gone extinct because of them? He furrowed his brows as Uncle Hei kept telling him about the atrocities they had committed. What he really wanted to know was why they had shown up in the Infinitum Mundus.

”Mundicide is something that’ll cause lots of bad press, so House Yumo always looks for distant, rural worlds to prey on. As those worlds aren’t that close to stareyes, they can’t do it too much. Only a few in House Yumo can truly afford to obtain starblood.

”However, the Three Exalted Houses spared no effort over a hundred generations to construct three divine astralships that act as mobile stareyes for that express purpose. In other words, they have a base that can go anywhere in the Million Mundi! By using the Hellfiend, House Yumo is able to go to distant worlds to refine starblood.

”Since the construction of mobile stareyes, House Yumo’s starblood-refining efficiency multiplied a thousandfold. It means they have a thousand times the number of usual victims! It’s become standard for disciples of the core bloodline to undergo ten starblood baptisms, while non core disciples still get two drops of it! The Hellfiend has existed for quite some time now, and one can only imagine how many victims they’ve claimed.

”Those poor people don’t even suffer true death. Dying in an instant is a blessing in itself compared to the fate their souls suffer. They’re turned into resentful wraiths whose hatred boosts the combat capabilities of the specters that refine them. As long as the specter doesn’t die, the souls would never be free—a fate worse than death!”

Uncle Hei seemed rather agitated and told Tianming everything he knew. Tears of blood flowed out of Tianming’s eyes despite his attempts to remain calm. The deaths of all those people weren’t even the worst of it; they would be tortured to serve as fuel for thousands of years! It was surely the apex of cruelty.

”Every core disciple gets ten drops? Yumo Xue must’ve assimilated quite a few drops, considering his heavy baleful aura. Perhaps Viridian’s starblood was used on him, too!” Tianming heavily panted as the flames of rage burned within him. If he allowed something like this to pass, he wouldn’t be deserving of his omnisentient threads. The combination of his rage and evil impulses, along with his imperial order reminded him of a troubling fact.

”Uncle Hei, in other words, the Hellfiend is now located at the border of my home mundus, which doesn’t have a stareye. If nobody knows about that place, wouldn’t it give House Yumo free reign to slaughter with abandon?”

Uncle Hei’s silence was foreboding. ”They will. The Yumo Blood Crucible needs two years to purify itself of the grudges of the dead before it can refine more starblood. Based on how long it’s been, there’s only a year left. They’ll be looking for the next star. In fact, as long as nobody in Myriadpath Valley brings any attention to it, they’ll keep committing evil acts in that mundus.”

Tianming felt like he had been repeatedly struck by lightning.