Beastmaster of the Ages

”That’s it! That’s the divine astralship that Yumo Qiangming talked about!”

The specters felt their hearts pound faster and faster as they weaved through the storms to approach the gigantic spheroid.

”Who knew! Who knew that we’d be able to find it right before the calm season ends....”

As top elites, they had seen all kinds of things, but even they could barely hold themselves back when they heard of the second ever fortuna-class ship in the history of the astralscape of order turning up.

If House Yumo monopolized the ship for itself, everything in Myriadpath Valley would change. In the long history of Myriadpath Valley, the Three Exalted Houses had each waxed and waned at different times, but never had they experienced a change that would upset the balance to this degree.

That aside, having a fortuna-class astralship like that would prove really useful in controlling the other two million cultivators in Myriadpath Valley. The elite Yumo specters were wildly breathing at the thought of taking possession of such a powerful relic.

”Senior Madame....” They looked to their elder on matters as serious as this.

The old crone pointed at the spheroid and said, ”Find the entrance! Qiangming said that he’d seen one before! I don’t care where it is, find the control core!”

”Aye!” All nine of them quickly split up. Being the strongest specters in the astralscape, they moved as fast as lightning, ripping through the yin-yang essence storms and scanning the surface of the monochrome spheroid.

They weren’t able to stop a planet-sized object like it from moving. While they couldn’t see the Lumistar Formation in the Inner Yin and thus had no point of reference, they knew that the ship was heading deeper and deeper inside. As the calm season came to an end, the storms would only grow stronger, so they didn’t have much time to spare!

”This is weird.... We’ve searched the Yin-Yang World for tens of millions of years. How could not a single one of our forebears have found such a large astralship before?” Yumo Diyan wondered.

”Perhaps it turned up just recently. It was probably in a sealed state before this,” someone suggested.

”That must be the case,” Yumo Diyan said. ”The mistrunners have only recently shown up as well. It’s a clear sign and an opportunity for our house. We must use these unprecedented changes to rise and triumph!”

One of the biggest legacies of a fortuna-class world had to be its divine astralship. Obtaining it would unlock countless other benefits.

”The Yin-Yang World is a collapsed fortuna-class world, after all. Its legacies definitely rival those of Myriadpath Valley. If House Yumo monopolizes all of it, we’ll be four times as powerful as House Qitian and House Suishen combined!”

They would have the other two exalted houses under their foot, reigning as true masters. The thought of that only made them even more impatient. Facing the opportunity for triumph, they gave it their all and searched for three whole days for the entrance, basically scanning the whole surface of the spheroid.

”There’s no entrance!” They regrouped and struggled to calm down. They felt just like hungry wolves who could smell the sweet fragrance of flesh, yet were unable to taste it!

”Since there’s no entrance, let’s just make one with our maniverse-class artifacts,” the senior madame ordered.

”Yes!”

Even though maniverse-class artifacts were made of better materials than the hull of a fortuna-class ship, the sheer amount of material was in a wholly different league.

”Let’s start with a low-maniverse-class artifact and work up to a mid-maniverse-class one. If we don’t try, we won’t know if it’ll work.” As they didn’t have any true enemies in Myriadpath Valley, they didn’t have any experience attacking divine astralships of that class with maniverse-class artifacts, such as the Grand Myriadpath Ruins. That ship in particular was sacred to the cultivators, so there was no way for them to test whether or not their artifacts really worked on ships of that class.

”We don’t need to destroy this astralship, nor are we capable of doing so. All we’re doing is making a small opening to enter it. It probably won’t affect the divine astralship formation all that much,” Yumo Diyan said.

”Alright! Let’s begin!” the senior madame ordered.

Yumo Diyan took out two mid-maniverse-class artifacts from his spatial ring. In his left hand was a white chain formed of circular white bone and covered in an intense aura of darkness. The object seemed to let out ear-piercing howls. In his right was a black spiked club that seemed even more sinister. Each and every spike poked out of a single bloody eye that endlessly let out tears of blood.

The artifacts were known as Skyhook and Worldweeper and were the most elite artifacts that House Yumo possessed. Legend was that the Skyhook could easily harvest the souls of billions of people from deific-class worlds. The Worldweeper, on the other hand, could destroy a world with a single swing.

An impermanence variant specter like Yumo Diyan with both weapons in hand to complement his white and black half made him the perfect match for the black-and-white spheroid. Quite a few of the elites were shaken by the sight.

”Looks like this was a fateful encounter!”

”That’s right. Yumo Diyan was born to inherit the legacy of the Yin-Yang World.”

The senior madame was already too old, so there was no way she could personally assimilate the control core. Thus, Yumo Diyan seemed to be the perfect match for the role. The only thing about him that didn’t seem to pair well with the ship was his overabundance of starblood, filling him with a huge number of baleful souls. He had an appearance that was filled with absolute dread, which stood out compared to the stark solitude emanated by the planet of black and white.

”If only we still had the Yumo Blood Crucible.... That would’ve balanced this ship out well. Skyhook and Worldweeper alone seem a little incomplete,” Yumo Diyan said, blood glinting in his eyes.

”Once we claim this astralship, we might be able to find the true culprit in Infinitum!” the senior madame said.

”Yes.” Yumo Diyan immediately went to work without saying another word.