Beastmaster of the Ages

”Wonderians?!” A wave of confusion swept through the messy crowd. Everyone had heard about their race, more or less, but they were usually so far from them that they never really thought much about them. The only ones they even had contact with were the wonderians that settled within the Million Mundi. There was a rule in Myriadpath Valley about not disturbing any mundus that was wonderian territory, so even contact with them was rare.

Even so, the elites of Myriadpath Valley definitely remained in contact with them to some degree. Leaders of houses, like the old patriarch, definitely knew more about them, unlike Suishen Xiyue and Jiguang. The old patriarch, Yumo Diyan, and Qitian Muyu immediately exchanged glances when they noted that the wonderians had shown up right as Suishen Ranxing was about to try breaking out of the pentaphase heaven formation.

”Retreat!” All two hundred eminents of the Three Exalted Houses suddenly left the formations like the reverends before them.

There was no way for Moran to chase them down, as the threat was already approaching her from behind the Blissful Union. Even though she was still protected by the divine wonders, she had a bad feeling about them. She hurriedly warned Tianming through the divine wonder. ”Little Brother, danger approaches!”

”What a time for them to make an appearance!” Tianming had wanted to rely on Moran’s power to suppress the Three Exalted Houses, only to be haunted by the cursed wonderians once more.

They had definitely come through another stareye near a different sixth-class world they rented in the Million Mundi. It also meant that they also had myriadpath rings to activate the stareyes with! They had always made adequate preparations in the mundi they rented. It went without question that they would side with Suishen Ranxing.

Tianming had spared no time to attack Myriadpath Valley after his close brush with the superior wonderians, and could only have held them back if he had gotten control of the Myriadpath Celestial Formation sooner. Now, he had no choice but to struggle against them.

I’m sure they must’ve seen Little Fish’s pentaphase heaven wonder already.... If Moran was able to impress someone like Meng Ying with her unique abilities, what would these wonderians think?

Tianming turned back and watched as the battered forces of the Three Exalted Houses welcomed eighteen white-robed wonderians. Each of them was two people in one, so there might as well be thirty-six of them! Tianming furrowed his brow and felt danger approaching like never before.

”Give me the Myriadpath Celestial Formation’s core for now!” the former valley lord yelled, reacting quickly. The core had been taken from him by Qitian Xiao long ago, so he would have a much easier time taking control of it than Tianming would.

A mere few seconds passed before he succeeded. The first thing he did was shut down the Myriadpath Celestial Formation. Not only did that prevent more wonderian reinforcements from spreading throughout the astralscape of order, it also stopped them from coming to affect the final battle at Myriadpath Valley. ”It’s been deactivated!”

”How powerful are they?” Jiguang asked.

”Of the eighteen wonderian couples, seven pairs are super zenith. Ten of them are major zenith. And the last one....” Tianming looked at their leader. He wasn’t too worried about the major- and super-zenith foundationeers, but the leader gave him a really bad feeling.

”He’s more than ten meters tall....” Normally, only specters would have a physical body that large. That supremely tall divine wonderian looked like a giant, clad in white robes and sporting a nicely spherical head. His eyes were completely round, while his lips formed a thin line. His face approximated human features, yet seemed too perfectly symmetrical to be one, making his entire head look like a ball of white jade growing out of a humanoid body.

What put Tianming even more on edge was the eerie energy that came from him, which made him seem to glow with more radiance than an entire sea of stars. The reason for his height was that he had so many astrons making up his physical body. Unlike specters, whose individual astrons were much larger than normal humans, this wonderian’s size seemed to be derived from the sheer number of them! Spacetime seemed to bend around him.

”What level could he possibly be at?” Tianming asked.

”He might’ve exceeded the limits that we here at Myriadpath Valley can only dream of. He’s someone beyond the Foundation stage!” the former valley lord said with a worried look.

”Beyond the Foundation stage?” An old saying in Myriadpath Valley stated that advancing beyond the Foundation stage would allow one to become an astral giant, like the Source Progenitor. However, Tianming didn’t think that was correct, based on his experiences cultivating. After all, there was a huge difference between the Source Progenitor and a super-zenith foundationeer.

The planet-class order also seemed incredibly different from a foundationeer’s foundation-fortress order, with a planet having seas and continents that were magnitudes greater than a fortress. As such, Tianming’s guess was that there was another stage of cultivation that separated foundationeers and astral giants. That stage was probably the true end point of astral-god cultivation.

It was a much more intuitive way to understand things, as well. Normal gods had four great stages, namely the Ascension, Constellation, Solar, and Stellaminoris stages. If astral gods had four stages as well, they would go from the Order, Cosmic Cartography, and Foundation stages to the final unnamed one before transforming into astral giants. It was the same kind of transformative stage that changed a stellaminor into an astral god, shifting one into an even higher lifeform.

”This wonderian’s probably at that final stage, and that’s something even valley lords from the Three Exalted Houses across countless generations could only aspire to! Historically, no wonderian that we’ve had contact with was from a stage like that. I didn’t think that the core wonderians would be this mighty!” the former valley lord said.

If Tianming’s group had a good guess about who they were, there was no way that Suishen Ranxing and his compatriots wouldn’t figure it out. Suishen Ranxing’s gaze immediately shifted. He no longer seemed to weakly shift around as he led his people. Instead, he saluted the wonderians and said in a polite tone, ”Divine wonderian friends, I’m the valley lord of Myriadpath Valley, Suishen Ranxing. How may I address you all?”

Some people immediately called him shameless for proclaiming to be the valley lord without even having control of the cores of the Grand Myriadpath Ruins or the Myriadpath Celestial Formation. The former valley lord was still around! Even so, nobodies like them had no input into a conversation between elites.

One doll-faced wonderian pointed at their bald leader with pride and said, ”The one you see before you is from the revered Zhoutian Clan of the divine wonderians, Lord Zhoutian Shenhai!