Beastmaster of the Ages

”Other than Yumo Yuanni, the major and minor pathkeepers of the Three Exalted Houses wouldn’t dare to use order fragments. The first reason is that speeding up their level is rather pointless, since it doesn’t necessarily correlate with their combat capability.

”And second, the early growth of order is incredibly important. If a cultivator’s foundation isn’t stable, it’ll be immensely tough for someone at their level to reach minor or major zenith. It’d be too late to regret it at that point,” Eminent Jiguang said, plainly distrustful of order fragments.

Tianming slapped his chest and said, ”Auntie, I’ve looked into it. There’s no issue for me. Just trust my judgment.” There was no shred of hesitation at all.

”Are you sure? Really sure?”

”Yes. I understand myself best. As long as there’s enough springwater, there won’t be any issues.” Tianming was quite certain that the bottlenecks and setbacks that major and minor pathkeepers faced weren’t the same as his. In fact, he had used order fragments to speed up his cultivation a number of times already. Without them, he wouldn’t have been able to progress so fast.

Seeing him so certain, Eminent Jiguang pondered for a moment in silence. She still couldn’t bear to turn him down, however. ”Alright. I’ll let you try it. If the results are bad, please don’t force yourself to go through with it.”

Tianming smiled and nodded. ”Alright. If it doesn’t turn out well, I’ll do what you say and do it the proper way.”

Eminent Jiguang stood up and asked, ”When do you plan to head out?”

Tianming said, ”I can leave at any time, I just have to match your schedule.”

”I’ve almost familiarized myself with the mysteries of the Twinmoon Suishen Art’s third fold, so I’ll have time to leave soon. I haven’t been to the Xenoabyss very often, though. Are you familiar with the place?”

”Of course. I can be your guide.”

”Is there anything fun to see there?” she expectantly asked.

Tianming awkwardly said, ”It’s so desolate that not even birds want to leave their droppings there. There’s nothing but the wilderness, and even their buildings are completely primitive. The denizens of the Xenoabyss are stubbornly opposed to formations, so there isn’t much to see.”

”Alright....” Eminent Jiguang seemed rather disappointed. ”I recall that my second brother has a contact among the antiquitean imperials called Princess Ying. She’s one of the top figures in the Xenoabyss, so I’ll directly reach out to her.”

”Someone Eminent Ranxing knows?”

”It’s fine. She’s a contact of the entire House Suishen, so I’m able to represent our house to trade with her as I please. Have you prepared the manna?”

”I have.”

”Let me see.” She took a look and nodded. ”The quality’s rather decent. Among all the disciples here, you’re the only one with enough merit to trade for manna like these. This is a really good deal for the antiquitean imperials. Make sure to not tell anybody about it—I’m worried that when people find out about your spending and plans, they’ll use it as an excuse to halt the ten times multiplier that you now enjoy.”

”You mean to say that the Three Exalted Houses wouldn’t want manna of this quality to fall into the hands of the antiquitean imperials, right?” Tianming asked.

”Of course. Order fragments only help you speed up your cultivation. To someone at the limits of cultivation, that isn’t really useful. Manna, however, can be used to change the fundamental bloodline of lifebound beasts and specters. If you ask me, ordered manna are far more valuable. Order fragments are only priced that high because they’re rare, not because of their actual utility.”

”I see!” While others couldn’t see the value of order fragments, they were still incredibly useful to Tianming. The main reason for that was that he had to grow fast, since he wasn’t someone from the Three Exalted Houses and couldn’t count on them to protect him. Others, like Suishen Yao, could afford to take their time and not risk their cultivation because they were protected and not under great threat. Normally, descendants of the Three Exalted Houses simply didn’t die, and incidents like what happened to Yumo Xue were exceedingly rare.

”Let’s go. We have to do this without being discovered,” Eminent Jiguang said as she lazily stretched.

”Right now?”

”Yeah.”

Tianming spared her the words of gratitude, since he had already done her a favor before. He was just receiving a favor in return.

They left without taking anyone else with them and made sure they weren’t seen to prevent any rumors from spreading. Soon, they were out of Myriadpath Valley and reached the Xenoabyss in a blink of an eye.

”It’s been years and years since I’ve been here,” Eminent Jiguang said. Her beauty was so rare that not even the specters of the Xenoabyss could stop staring. But when they felt the power she exuded, they didn’t dare to approach her.

Their field of vision greatly expanded as they left the Myriadpath Celestial Formation. Even though they were within the empire’s territory, there was nothing to be seen apart from endless mountains.

”Wait for me here. I’ll look for Princess Ying in the capital,” Eminent Jiguang said.

The area around the stareye was relatively safe. If Tianming were to tag along, he would affect her speed, so he didn’t insist. He handed the 800-aperture manna to her and said, ”I heard that grade-seven order fragments are incredibly rare in Antiquitas Mortis. However, House Yumo was able to trade one manna for one fragment. Since I have four pieces of manna, I should be able to get four fragments, right?”

”That’s right.” She took the manna and smiled, then subconsciously patted his head as if he were a child. ”Be good and don’t wander, okay?”

”Okay, Auntie.” Even if he did, with so many Yin Chens scattered all over, he had eyes everywhere. Nobody could get close to him without him wanting it to be so.

”I can’t promise you that the transaction will succeed. The imperials are a weird sort, and sense is something they rarely make.”

”It’s fine. Auntie, please take care. Your safety is the most important.”

She broke into a laugh. ”Don’t worry about that. First, I’m not weak. Second, I come as a representative of Myriadpath Valley. If they dare to touch me, they’ll have the army to deal with.”

Even though quite a lot of eminents had come with Yumo Yuanni the last time, they were mostly ninth-level foundationeers. Eminent Jiguang could have easily taken all of them on alone.

”Alright.” Tianming smiled as she left and sat down to wait. Almost everyone in the Xenoabyss are specters, but they lack manna with so many apertures. I’m sure peak-level imperial specters are in urgent need of them. It might cost them much more than a few order fragments to procure them, so I’m sure there’s profit to be made. Let’s hope Princess Ying will be no fool.

Rules are dead, but people are alive. There was no way to be certain of the way things would go. At the end of the day, it depended on whether Tianming had offered the right price. Since Eminent Jiguang was reaching out to Princess Ying in a private capacity, he believed it would be no issue—at least as long as not too many people learned about it.

Having nothing better to do, he asked Yin Chen to look into the Ancient Oldgod Domain and check on Zi Zhen.

”It’s been five years since I last saw her, I think. Once I’m done here, I should pay her a visit.”