Beastmaster of the Ages

Could it even be called the martial path anymore? No, it couldn’t! At the Stellaminoris, or Sovereign stage, the path of martial arts had already reached its end. Cultivation then became a path of a lifeform evolving to new heights.

Colossal giants with countless astrons were the true rulers of the universe. They were terrifying lifeforms who had transcended mortals long ago, breaking free of the shackles of a lifespan of ten thousand years and achieving true longevity and divinity.

Of course, those were just images shifting within the mist, memories from a bygone era. Even so, Tianming had been rendered speechless by the overwhelming awe they inspired.

The present him was already close to the level of comic gods, and even owned the corpses of two such entities. However, it was only when he witnessed the cosmic gods of the Flameyellow Imperial Star that he understood what it meant to be imperial-class.

Myriadpath Valley was nothing more than a fallen fortuna-class world.

“What must the true fortuna-class worlds, the even stronger maniverse-class worlds, or imperial-class worlds like the former Sun be like?” Were they located in the Upper Star Ruin?

The flameyellow divinities! Tianming hadn’t yet explicitly heard the words, but they thundered in his heart nonetheless. The astral giants formed by the shifting mist all had distinctive features—they possessed both lifebound beasts and totems!

“Wasn’t it said that the cosmic phase is the source of totems? Why do they also have them?” Overwhelmed by the spectacle, he had no time to dwell on the question as his body stiffened with tension. The mist was likely eternal illusions created by cosmic god blood that posed no real harm to him, yet he couldn’t stop himself from trembling.

It was unavoidable. He desperately yearned to reach their level.

“You’ll become like a galaxy yourself. They can probably travel through the starry void using just their physical bodies. What kind of existence would that be?” As an astral god, Tianming still didn’t feel like his life was secure yet. Neither could he rely on himself to freely navigate the starry void, as the universe was still too vast for him.

It made him feel powerless, as though no matter how much progress he made, he was still nothing more than a speck of dust in an infinite cosmos.

From a spatial perspective, he was incomparably microscopic. And from a temporal perspective, his age of just over a century was pathetically short! Thus, in his dreams, he yearned to become an astral giant. It wasn’t for the sake of power or longevity, but simply because he no longer wanted to feel insignificant.

The size of the Antiquitas Mortis specters was hollow. He craved something real! The sight of a battlefield of astral giants that destroyed stars as collateral damage stoked his longing.

“I must become a cosmic god!” Perhaps only as a cosmic god would he be qualified to uncover the past of the sky plunderers, reunite with Jiang Feiling, and uncover the true secrets of the Primordial Chaos Beasts!

His parents, the sky plunderers... all of it mattered too much to him!

“The Archaionfiend Wu You said that before the wonderians, my sky plunderers ruled the universe.... What really happened?

“Di Yi, Huang Qi, and Tian Jiu that the wonderians are obsessed with—what are they?” Tianming dreamed of solving those mysteries.

His gaze grew increasingly resolute and he looked down at the Original Sin Pool. “Perhaps this Original Sin Pool will provide me with a bridge to the Upper Star Ruin! The records in the Divine Sun Palace mention that the sky plunderers had contact with the flameyellow divinities. Perhaps I can find traces of my father starting from the Flameyellow Imperial Star....”

He descended to the layer of mist obscuring the Original Sin Pool. He peered through the mist and could see droplets of blood inside the pool. But it wasn’t ordinary blood; each drop was like a dazzling star and over a meter in diameter. It was the blood of an evolved lifeform.

“One drop of this blood would probably crush an entire heliacal-class world if it was placed there.” Tianming scanned the pool and saw dozens of drops of blood even in the outermost layer. Who knew how many more were hidden within?

He attempted to use his Plundering Arm to approach the barrier.

“Ah!” Before he even got close, dark blood flames seared his black arm, giving him excruciating pain!

It took Ying Huo’s infernal fire to extinguish the dark blood fire. Even so, that brief moment had almost blinded his Plundering Eye. The pain made him grimace.

“It seems like stealing the cosmic god blood is impossible. If I want it, the only option is to take the entire pool.” Tianming’s heart furiously pounded as he began considering how to implement his plan.

But just then, a single gold-and-black drop of cosmic god blood began drifting toward him. It floated just ten meters away, separated by the barrier of dark blood flames.

“You....” Tianming was stunned to see that a human figure had emerged.

It stared at Tianming with a gaze filled with madness and ferocity. “Heir of the Imperial Star!”

The weighty words echoed like a storm in Tianming’s ears. “You... hello there!” he quickly replied. He was astounded that a soul could persist after so many years of death. Or was it not a soul?

The figure stared at him in silence for what felt like an eternity. Finally, it spoke again, its eyes trembling as though overflowing with tears. “Prince of the sky plunderers! You’ve finally arrived!” Its words carried a deep sorrow.

“Sky plunderers....” So it was true that the sky plunderers were connected to the flameyellow divinities.

Tianming was certain that the droplet of blood belonged to the flameyellow divinities. Flameyellow. The Sun. The Flameyellow Coffin. The Ninedragon Imperial Tomb. Those were where his dreams had begun, and they were now his most important home.

“I’m here! What should I do?” Tianming grit his teeth and asked.

“Who rules the Heavenly Dao now?” the figure asked.

“I don’t know. I’ve only heard that the wonderians are the strongest in the Upper Star Ruin,” Tianming replied.

“The wonderians!” The figure’s fury violently erupted upon hearing the name. “The Eightpart Pantheons!” It gazed at Tianming and shouted the words.

“The Eightpart Pantheons?” Tianming echoed.

“The wonderians are one of the Eightpart Pantheons!” the figure explained. “They usurped the Heavenly Dao! Since then, flameyellow has fallen and the Grand Xia perished...” The figure sobbed with uncontainable grief.

It looked at Tianming with a gaze filled with sorrow and indignation, and its words were resolute. “Sky plunderers! You came too late. You’ve failed my race, failed the Upper Star Ruin, failed the astralscape, and failed all living beings!” Yet despite its harsh words, it didn’t seem to entirely blame him. Instead, it exuded a heavy melancholy.

“I’m sorry!” Tianming’s mind buzzed with turmoil. He didn’t understand why his predecessors had failed them. All he could do was commit the words to memory. Gritting his teeth, his voice hoarse, he asked, “What should I do now?”

”First, bring us home! Then open the Flameyellow Divine Path and reclaim the Upper Star Ruin! Retake the Flameyellow Firmament!” The figure’s voice thundered like a great bell, shaking Tianming to his core.

Tianming took a deep breath. “All right! I’ll take responsibility for that!”