Beastmaster of the Ages

The valley lord looked past the specters into the depths of the ship. ”Come to think of it, Myriadpath Valley has scoured the Yin-Yang World for tens of millions of years. Who would’ve dreamed that there’d be a fortuna-class astralship here after all this time? We haven’t even heard of something like this showing up in the Outer Yang that the divine wonderians control....”

”That’s right!”

”It’s truly unexpected.” The specters echoed the sentiment.

Qitian Muyu smiled and joined in. ”While we don’t have any external enemies, it still can’t hurt for Myriadpath Valley to own another fortuna-class astralship. Our power’s grown once again!”

The specters’ hearts chilled when they heard that. Qitian Muyu made it sound like the ship would be shared in Myriadpath Valley’s custody, instead of any individual house’s. The appearance of the valley lord had changed everything. House Yumo could have grown far above the other two houses, but they were pulled back down to even ground with House Qitian. There was nothing the specters could do about it, either, for if they contested it, it would be an open declaration of war.

”That’s right! It’d be rather troublesome if such a machine of war falls into the hands of our enemies,” the senior madame said.

”Enemies? Little Meng, surely you don’t mean....”

”The mysterious faction in the Infinitum Mundus and the mistrunners, of course. It seems like natives really do exist in the Yin-Yang World. If we take their ship, we’ll essentially be taking their whole lair away.”

”I don’t believe that the natives really exist,” the valley lord said. As they spoke, the group moved even farther into the depths.

”On what basis do you make that claim?” the senior madame asked.

”You no doubt attacked the ship pretty hard to make an opening to enter it. That would’ve caused a really loud commotion. If those natives really exist, why didn’t anyone come to stop you? If they existed, we wouldn’t have found the ship unattended in the first place,” the valley lord said.

”Then how do you explain the mistrunners and what happened in Infinitum?”

”I know you suspect me for being behind the incident in Infinitum. On the other hand, I suspect the mistrunners to be from your ranks.” Once those words left the valley lord’s mouth, the atmosphere turned weird. It was a sensitive topic to broach.

”Surely you jest, Valley Lord. House Yumo’s suffered the most at the hands of the mistrunners. How could they be one of us? As for who the culprit from Infinitum is, we have nothing but blind guesses,” the senior madame said.

”Well said!” The valley lord clapped all of a sudden. ”We of the Three Exalted Houses should stand united. From what I can see, someone’s trying to exploit the cracks between us to cause us to fracture. We can’t fall into their trap or we would only end up benefiting those who would profit at our expense.”

”That’s right....” The nine specters exchanged glances in mild confusion. It seemed that their plan to reign supreme over the other two houses had failed. Even if they chose to fight the valley lord, they weren’t confident they could win. The valley lord had implicitly signaled them that conflict would be against everyone’s best interests. Even though the Yumo specters were incredibly pained over losing their monopoly of the ship, they had to let it go.

”Valley Lord, taking control of this divine astralship should allow us to search for other legacies of the Yin-Yang World. Perhaps we’ll even be able to find a being akin to the Source Progenitor, right?” the senior madame said, breaking the silence.

”That’s right,” the valley lord agreed. The interior of the ship was still pitch black. There was nothing they could do about it unless they found the formation core.

”The existence of Yin-Yang Baleflame suggests the existence of a Source Progenitor of the Yin-Yang World.”

The eleven elite cultivators of Myriadpath Valley kept going deeper. The tiny little dragon that was wrapped around the neck of the valley lord was the most terrifying of them all. It stared all over the place with its tiny eyes, giving off the fierce, bestial aura of a tensource beast. Unquestionably, it was the ruler of all beasts in the astralscape of order. Even a growl from it would cause the nine apex specters to shudder.

”There’s a scent!” the beast suddenly said.

”Okay.” The valley lord paused, looked ahead, and disappeared in a flash.

”Hurry up!” The senior madame, Eminent Diyan, and the rest made haste. They ran faster and faster in an attempt to catch up to the valley lord. Three major-zenith foundationeers were right on his tail, while the six minor-zenith specters lagged behind.

Fortunately, their destination wasn’t that far. It didn’t take long before they saw a light at the end of the tunnel, which opened up into a grand hall.

”That’s—” All of them saw a flower in the middle of the hall! To be more precise, it was a Bingdi lotus, a lotus flower with two separate flower buds. One part of the flower was black, while the other was white. The stem was made up of black and white strands that coiled around each other like helixes, each terminating in one flower bud.

This flower, unlike the one Tianming had found in the crystal coffin, was as tall as a person. It wasn’t a real flower, of course, but rather divine celestial patterns that took the form of a flower. Every single inch of the flower was made up of those patterns.

”That’s the formation core of the ship!” Everyone, including the valley lord, felt a surge of greed.

Since becoming the valley lord, he hadn’t truly desired anything until now, with the exception of the Grand Myriadpath Ruins that was still out of his grasp. This ship, however, seemed even more precious than the Grand Myriadpath Ruins. The flower could be the key to unlocking other legacies of the Yin-Yang World, a fact that was clearly apparent to everyone there.

”The heavens smile upon Myriadpath Valley! We’re truly blessed!” the valley lord proclaimed.

”Dad!” Qitian Muyu was tearing up in joy and agitation. ”If we obtain the legacies of the Yin-Yang World, Myriadpath Valley will reign supreme for eternity! You’ll be the valley lord of the antiquities that brought us into a golden age!”

The valley lord laughed. ”Stop exaggerating. Our brothers and sisters from House Yumo also have a share in this glory. Everyone has merit for discovering this ship. It’s a good thing for the Three Exalted Houses, every one of us!”

The specters’ gaze turned cold at the mention of all three houses. They had already been sick of splitting things with House Qitian, but sharing it with House Suishen, which hadn’t been involved in the discovery at all, made them feel even worse.