Beastmaster of the Ages

The divine channel in the Middlekin Star Ruin looked like a round, black mirror. Its top surface shone with a cold light while on the bottom side was an entire world. The world seemed to constantly shift. Sometimes, hundred- to thousand-meter-high faces would appear on its surface, all wearing expressions of agony or pain. The mirror’s reflections in the air also made the space above it rather hazy and hard to see through.

At the top of the divine channel was the main storage facility of the Middlekin Star Ruin, where countless middlekin stars were stashed, brightly shining like the divine channel below it. Between them was a gigantic divine astralship shaped like a human head with three faces in different directions. Each face had wide-open eyes that brightly glowed, making them somewhat resemble the Divine Sun Palace. However, the ship’s mass was much, much larger; the three faces were as large as stars themselves and their angry expressions made for quite an intimidating sight.

It was none other than the Cosmic God Palace. It was a ship that specialized in transporting and storing cosmic god caeli throughout the Upper Star Ruin. It was considered a privilege when it stopped at a certain location. Locals would always flock to the palace to cultivate and raise their bloodline talent. Thanks to the ship, geniuses from places like the Middlekin Star Ruins were able to benefit from interfacing with galaxy-class orders.

The ship rotated on the spot, causing the hair on the gigantic heads to flutter around it. Within the Middlekin Star Ruin, countless members of the Three Great Cults flew in with different astralships, slowly entering the Cosmic God Palace.

For an uneventful place like the Middlekin Star Ruin, the most significant event to ever take place was the descent of the Cosmic God Palace. Most members of the cults would definitely take part in the event. The Middlekin Star Ruin was mainly a location for the production of middlekin stars, and thus generated an incredibly pure heavenly essence that had nourished generations of members of the Three Great Cults.

There were around five million of them in total, similar to the number of slaves they kept. However, most of them were situated on various astral continents near the ruin and didn’t do any mining. Instead, the cult members were managers and transporters while the slaves did all the undesirable work.

The smaller ships around the palace stopped and their passengers stepped out. They were all from peak factions in the Upper Star Ruin. Even though many of them weren’t from the Eightpart Pantheons, their bloodlines and statuses were far from humble. More than five million of them separated into three groups and took their place in the seating areas around the Cosmic God Palace, which were made of divine celestial patterns that had solidified into astral rocks. It was a truly luxurious thing to have.

Among them were more than a hundred thousand overflower cultivators from the Three Great Cults. From that number alone, one could tell that it was incredible that the dragonoids had managed to produce more than ten thousand overflowers, despite lacking resources and being oppressed. Claims of their subpar talent were patently false, though the rest of the people in the Upper Star Ruin would scarcely be able to imagine it.

”How many galaxy-class orders are there in the Cosmic God Palace this time, do you think?” The crowd had already begun excitedly talking about the whole event, even though it hadn’t begun yet. Their excitement wasn’t limited to the galaxy-class orders, either; even the normal ones were left behind by powerful cosmic gods that were around thousands of meters tall.

”I heard there’s three streams!”

”Three streams? Sounds like a tough competition is in store. Xing Baizhan of the Wargod Cult will no doubt be taking one of them. I wonder who’ll get the other two?”

”Guess we’ll see!”

”It’s going to start soon. Are the three cult leaders here yet?” People looked around and failed to see any sign of them.

”Doesn’t look like it. Still, the Heavenly Dao Arena’s about to descend.” Right as they said that, the crowd shuddered and many of them turned their attention to the top of the Cosmic God Palace.

”The bracket list is out!” Rows of blinding names shone in the sky, listing the names of disciples that possessed the right to enter the Cosmic God Palace. The disciples from the Three Great Cults on the list were under a thousand years old and from all kinds of top bloodlines, which made them much stronger than the average Upper Star Ruin denizen.

There were three brackets in total, each with around a hundred names. The names at the very left glowed gold and silver in a really blinding fashion. They were totemancers from the Blazestar Cult, some of whom were from the honored bloodline of the Starfall Pantheon.

The bracket in the middle seemed more unique. While the names there also glowed with starlight, they were a dark, deathly gray. Every single name looked like it had been scrawled on by demonic claws. The topmost name, ’Xing Baizhan,’ looked as if it had been formed by individual bones, giving it a menacing aura.

”Wait, there’s a few names I’ve never heard of before in the brackets of the Scorchmoon and Blazestar Cults.”

”They’re sorted near the front, too...”

”Look at that! Luori Guiyang is someone from the Sundown Pantheon from Starmoon Haven!”

”Starmoon Haven’s most impressive talent to date has come to our Middlekin Star Ruin? Does the Wargod Cult know about it?”

”I don’t think they do! It’s always a bit chaotic over there.”

”Then again, as long as they join the cult, it isn’t against the rules. There’s nothing the Wargod Cult can say about it.”

”Looks like Xing Baizhan will have someone to compete with!”

The voices from the discussions of more than five million Upper-Star-Ruin foundationeers were rather bright and loud. Their discussions mainly centered around Xing Baizhan, Luori Guiyang, Xing Yue, Luori Yumo, Jiang Zhen, and other promising figures. The weakest-sounding names actually belonged to the direct descendants of the Three Great Cults. Even though they were talented by Middlekin Star Ruin standards, the standards of the Upper Star Ruin as a whole were even stricter. Even people of esteemed statuses like them had to know who they should bow down to and who they could trample!

”Wait, everyone, look!” someone cried at the height of discussion.

”A fourth bracket appeared?!” People were shocked to see a fourth list in a separate corner from the three main brackets. It seemed to have been spontaneously tacked on, given the messy brushwork; the names there didn’t seem to glow at all.

”Li Tianming, Li Qingyu, Weisheng Moran.... Who are those people?”

”No idea!”

”Wait, they have a bracket of their own, so they’re representing a different faction, right? That sounds a bit off!”

”Probably not. They must be the names of the people who’ll clean up the Cosmic God Palace after the competition. You know how the competition always causes quite a huge mess!”

”Are you daft or something?! Why would cleaners need to be listed in their own bracket?”

”Holy shit! Look at the faction name listed on the bracket!”

The three main brackets were for each of the Three Great Cults. As for the fourth one, it read ’Slave Race’.