Beastmaster of the Ages

It was incredibly peaceful within the crucible. Zi Zhen and Chen Tianyong could only feel the nourishing effects radiating from it from the outside. Taking a deep breath near it was enough to make them feel the euphoria of astral projection.

”He’s probably going to completely transform this time around,” Chen Tianyong said.

”Yeah,” Zi Zhen said with a nod.

”We’ve definitely followed the right person,” Chen Tianyong gratefully said. He began dreaming of the future. ”As long as he’s powerful enough, he can save anyone he wants without anyone being able to stop him. There’s many people suffering in the Xenoabyss, and they’ll be saved soon.”

He turned to Zi Zhen and asked, ”I wonder.... Do you think he’ll save people without asking for anything? Or only save those with something to offer him?”

”Haven’t you known him for a while now? What do you think?” Zi Zhen plainly said.

”True! It’s my bad.” Chen Tianyong’s smile reached his eyes and he watched the crucible in deep anticipation.

An hour passed and Tianming had almost finished absorbing the springwater and baleflame. The crucible was almost empty, but Tianming’s radiance illuminated it from within. It looked like a galaxy full of stars inside.

”Springwater and baleflame are the same kind of thing. They each change the fundamental properties of astrons. Even if they don’t show obvious effects after being absorbed, they should still greatly benefit my cultivation and growth in the future!”

Order fragments, on the other hand, were the polar opposite. Their effects could be felt right away, but there were lasting side effects. As such, Tianming could only steadily grow by combining them with stabilizing agents like springwater and baleflame.

His streams of order had magnificently grown. He manifested all twelve of his cosmic charts. At the Foundation stage, all twelve charts would fuse into a single foundation chart, which was mainly used for order suppression. Most foundationeers would keep their cosmic charts in their foundation form unless their main bodies were destroyed and they wanted to escape by sending their cosmic charts flying in different directions.

Foundation charts could channel manifestations of order. The true sources of orders in Tianming were inscribed on his astral organs in stigma form. However, they could manifest within his foundation chart to form a foundation fortress, which was a domain that could suppress his enemy.

As he had an Order Relic Universal Body, he’d neglected looking into that technique, since he would never be affected by it. Not to mention, manifesting the foundation fortress would reveal his true level based on the number of floors it had, so he would also not be using that any time soon.

As for his foundation chart with eight streams of order, it looked no different from those he had seen in legacy caeli. All of them had beehives that’d turned into cities. Tianming’s foundation chart looked like an endless galaxy rolled up into a scroll, containing a blueprint of the universe itself.

In the very center was a fortress, a manifestation of Tianming’s eight streams of order. Each and every brick of the fortress was a part of his order. One could clearly see that the hexagonal structure was built with bricks of black, gold, white, and so on, each of which represented one of his orders.

Most crucially, the chrysalides within the hive had hatched into fledgling bees that were flying around and busily working. They were also part of Tianming’s orders, but interestingly, his fledgling bees had a few different types.

One type was black and gold in color, large bodied, and incredibly domineering, leading the other bees around. They were manifestations of his imperial order. Some were black and white, mysterious and rebellious. There were ones that burned bright and blazing and others that sparked with electricity. Some were gigantic and had draconic scales, roaring as they rammed all over the place, while another type was covered in flowers and endlessly collected pollen. Some kept dividing themselves and spread all through the fortress, either hiding in darkness or shining bright pink.

But they all looked too similar to Ying Huo and the other beasts, almost laughably so.

”I wonder if people will go mad seeing these bees once they look into my caelum after my death.” The bees seemed far too jolly. ”Forget it. I’m not dying in the Foundation stage.”

Tianming’s beasts also broke through along with him and gained their own fortress-shaped orders, each with only one type of fledgling bee, but far larger in number. Tianming’s totems also grew, but what he didn’t expect was that the grand lexicon wonder had also improved after a long period of stagnation, thanks to the baleflame and springwater! His thousandth Xia word was the gate, and when it was unlocked, he had access to the words after it!

”The limit of the fortuna class should be 9999 words, close to ten thousand! That’s almost ten times the number of words my divine wonder had unlocked at the infinitum class! I think the grand lexicon wonder’s growth won’t stall until around the nine thousandth word or so. Even then, I’d only have enough energy to use it to its fortuna-class potential in Infinitum.

”The level gap between foundationeers is too wide. I have to make sure that everything in my arsenal improves at the same rate to be sure that I can defeat people five or six levels above me.”

Yin Chen, for instance, had been the first to reach a star count of 9.99 million. By relying on it to fight, Tianming was ridiculously strong even against foes above his level.

But now the star counts of his enemies’ beasts were much higher, especially those from the Three Exalted Houses, so Yin Chen’s combined combat form was no longer as crucial. He mainly used it to spy on others. Ying Huo and the others’ star counts, however, made it so that they grew much stronger after the breakthrough.

With the unlocking of the new words of the grand lexicon wonder and simulacra of his totems, Tianming had the capacity to take on foes five or six levels superior to him. And that was at the Foundation stage, where the level gaps were much more prominent! He had the Primordial Chaos Beasts, decapath era godswords, and his imperial-class divine wonder to thank for that.

”Myriadpath Valley only lets me fight people three levels above me at most. If they find out I can even handle seventh-level foundationeers, I bet they’d be shocked.”