Beastmaster of the Ages

”88.888 million stars!” That was Ying Huo’s current star count. The gigantic phoenix of black and crimson descended in front of Tianming and turned back into a small yellow chick, landing on his head and grasping his hair with its claws as a matter of habit.

”What?!” Tianming pulled it down and looked at its retarded appearance. ”Why didn’t your appearance change at all?! You almost have a hundred million stars now—why do you still look like such a lame bird?!”

”I’ve always been a bird! That’s why I look like one!” Ying Huo grumbled. ”Shallow human, you’re practically blinder than a dog. Can’t you see all the changes that happened to my bloodline?” it continued with contempt.

Tianming did indeed feel the huge changes. Even though Ying Huo still looked like a chick, undoing the bloodline chains this time around had multiplied its astron count by ten. As a result, it was able to hold even more cosmoforce than before. Tianming had thought that its body was already dense enough, only to find that it could even get ten times denser! Though a chick it might appear to be, its astron count was close to a hundred times his.

When it fused back into Tianming’s arm, it was as if his body was a frame for more powerful parts to plug in. Ying Huo’s power greatly enhanced his physical capabilities, and even powered up his infernal cosmoforce. Being at eighty-plus million stars, it was definitely even stronger than 20-crest beasts! Shuo Yue was a 20-crest beast and it certainly wouldn’t be Ying Huo’s match in a real fight, even before its recent transformation.

”Who cares about the strength of your bloodline? I’m talking about your appearance! Can’t you look more intimidating?” Tianming said.

”Nope. I’ve chosen to evolve in the cuteness department.” Ying Huo pushed its wings against its waist as it styled its ’hair’ in a narcissistic manner, like usual.

”Fine! Is that it? Anything else?”

”Of course! Why do you keep asking stupid questions?”

”Eh?”

”This manna was pretty decent. I can feel some world power in it. Manna itself is like a miniature world, and it allowed me to unlock a world-class ability!”

”World class? What kind of class is that?”

”Well, it just sounds cool. Basically means it’s stronger than before. I came up with it myself. Sounds badass, right?”

Tianming was speechless and waited for it to demonstrate.

”Alright, make space everyone!” Ying Huo said. Clearing its throat, it turned into a beam of black and crimson and appeared before the crowd. Not far away, Shuo Yue had consumed twenty ordered manna and had reached fifty million stars. Its bloodline seemed altered and it had even gained some mass.

”Yue Yue, look at your Big Brother!” Ying Huo said. Shuo Yue immediately turned away.

”Oh? Someone isn’t being honest with themselves! I like it that way, too! Alright, I’ll show you something that’ll steal the breath out of your heart!”

”It’s ’steal the breath out of your lungs’ you dolt!” Tianming said, facepalming.

”Eh?” Ying Huo noticed its error and cleared its throat to dispel the awkwardness. ”Alright, look close!”

”Just hurry up, will you!”

As Tianming said that, he wasn’t expecting anything too amazing. But when the cosmoforce in Ying Huo’s body circulated, the ground of the Sun seemed to rumble. A large number of dragonoids instantly had their attention drawn to the chick.

”This little chicken’s no average bird,” Long Qian said.

”It isn’t a cosmic crest beast, but there’s something terrifying about its bloodline!” said her nine-headed dragon. It turned to Lan Huang and seemed even more terrified. ”These fellows have also undergone serious transformations!”

How much had they truly changed? The little chick turned into a phoenix with blazing flames that seemed like they would devour everything. With a flap of its wings, it seemed to turn into a world, complete with flaming rivers, lands, and fiery lifeforms. It spat out a stream of crimson-and-black flame that turned into a flaming bird that scattered countless feathers around. Every feather gave rise to a flaming lotus, each one shining bright and projecting a light show as it landed on the ground! It was a brilliant display of light and fire. When the flaming bird exploded, it seemed to wreak a storm of blaze and destruction ten million meters around itself, turning almost half of the land and stone near the Sky Palace Formation to ashes and embers!

”How powerful!” Long Qian and her beast were shocked at the sight, looking at Ying Huo then turning back to Tianming. Who in the world was this youth? How could someone from the Lower Star Ruins have talent like that?! What kinds of secrets did this infinitum-class world that appeared out of nowhere near the Middlekin Star Ruin contain? Why did it feel so familiar to their kind? Long Qian didn’t dare to ask those questions outright; she knew that Tianming would definitely tell them the answers once the time was right.

”How could a non cosmic crest beast at the Foundation stage unleash power similar to an overflower cosmic crest beast? Those beastmasters of the Scorchmoon Cult who think so highly of themselves might have their eyes pop out after they see this.” Long Qian could already imagine the sight. They were no mere lifebound beasts from the Lower Star Ruins!

”It isn’t just that bird. Tianming’s other lifebound beasts are impressive. A single one of his lifebound beasts would be stronger than we were during our Foundation stage,” said her dragon.

”I wonder if he’s already at the super zenith....” If Tianming was, at least it wouldn’t be too ridiculous. ”If he’s only a minor or major zenith, that’d be insane. Wouldn’t that put him a level or two above geniuses from the Upper Star Ruin with cosmic crest beasts?” Long Qian didn’t dare to even let herself imagine that to be the case.

In the Upper Star Ruin, cosmic crest beasts and simulacra from the Eightpart Pantheons allowed them to slaughter people three or four levels above them in the Lower Star Ruins. Geniuses from Myriadpath Valley, for example, would easily be humiliated, so how could Tianming possibly be the opposite of that? Unless he had a bloodline from maniverse- or imperial-class worlds with a 30-crest beast at least, it was impossible! But Long Qian had truly seen such potential in him.

Tianming himself wanted to be able to fight above his own level, so he breathed a sigh of relief. Ying Huo and the rest experienced huge changes in their bloodlines. They have more tricks now, so they should be able to hold a six-level advantage against geniuses from the Upper Star Ruin! If he couldn’t keep up like he used to, he would be incredibly demotivated. Last time, the overflower that was pursuing Long Chen had easily been killed because he was more of an average cultivator. Tianming would probably only be able to fight four or five levels above his own against more talented ones at best.

Thankfully, we got some neat bloodline upgrades when we needed it! If the members of the Three Great Cults knew that this was the level Tianming was thinking at, they would shake in their boots. It was one thing for him to be better than them, but he was even complaining about only fighting five levels above his own being low!

Either way, he was quite happy with Ying Huo’s increase in astrons, as well as its powerful ’world-class’ ability. Unleashing that while it was fused with his arm would no doubt be quite effective.

”What’s that ability called?” Tianming asked as Ying Huo was going into heat in front of Shuo Yue.

”Infernal Blaze!” Ying Huo said, rolling its eyes.

”Wasn’t that the name of your very first ability?”

”It got a huge upgrade! After becoming world class, its proper name is now ’Monorigin Infernal Blaze!’”

”Monorigin Infernal Blaze? It doesn’t sound all that impressive.”

”Shut up! Don’t get in the way of my courtship!” Ying Huo glared at him and was just about to fly off when Tianming grabbed its chicken feet and pulled it back.

”Come to think of it, I need you to give me a timeline. When will you change and stop looking like a retarded little chick?” Tianming said. Ying Huo had looked so impressive in the primordial dreamscape before it’d hatched, yet in reality it still looked incredibly lame even after reaching such a high star count! Nothing about it had changed apart from it gaining more astrons! Other cosmic crest beasts, on the other hand, had cool sigils all over their bodies that glowed like stars.

”At the Overflow stage, perhaps! When my astrons enter their overflowing phase, they’ll grow in number and make me bigger. You’ll also grow bigger. I’ll grow bigger along with your little member.”

”You little shit!” Tianming harshly pinched its face before letting it go. ”Overflow stage? You’d better keep breaking through then! If we’re to become cosmic gods, we have to become overflowers first!”

He wanted so much to reach that level. The Overflow stage majorly changed the body, even for humans. Their lifeforce would grow by leaps and bounds. As for cosmic gods, their astrons seemed able to become real stars. Their entire bodies were universes in their own right! The thought of the Source Progenitor and monochrome giant leaving behind corpses that hadn’t disintegrated, and even benefited their successors, made Tianming yearn for that day even more.

Maybe Ying Huo and the rest will change into different lifeforms and finally look as badass as they did in the dreamscapes! Maybe that’s what they need to unlock their core traits as Primordial Chaos Beasts! It felt like their growth up to now had just been baby steps. Tianming could only imagine how much more effort they would have to put in for them to reach that point. Guess I’ll find out once they become cosmic gods.

He went on to learn what changes his beasts had undergone after their breakthroughs. Just like Ying Huo, they had obtained the strongest abilities in their arsenal to date. Meow Meow had Biritual Chaos Thunder, an offensive ability like Monorigin Infernal Blaze. Lan Huang’s was Triflair Primordial World, an ability that could apply great pressure, be used defensively, and even explode like the Eightruin Dragonshields.

Xian Xian’s was called Quadform Radixbreath, a unique ability that didn’t involve the blooming of a new flower. Instead, it was the combination of four existing flowers, namely, the Evernight Rose, Scarlet Lily, Demise Greenlotus, and Astral Sunflower. Those four flowers combined in four forms, hence the name, though it was anything but the breath of life. The ability produced a deathly poison that could seep into the enemy’s body, targeting their astrons like the Astral Sunflower did and melting away their heptastar astral organs.

Yin Chen, however, had experienced the biggest change out of all of them.