Beastmaster of the Ages

In the dark and lonely void of space, a nine-headed mechanical dragon circled around a Middlekin Star Ruin and scattered small silver objects. They were Yin Chen’s bodies that had recently taken on a new form unlocked during the evolution: starcloud bugs.

It was an insect form that looked like space debris, able to vary in size, gathering together to form asteroids or splitting up and shrinking to the size of invisible stardust. No ship would notice the tiny fragments as they flew past.

Starcloud bugs had two advantages, the first being the expansion of surveillance range. After they were scattered, they floated in the void and absorbed small amounts of nova source that radiated in the surroundings to adjust their positions using attractive or repulsive forces. They were also incredibly hardy and could survive for a really long time. Yin Chen’s bodies could be spread far and wide, unlike Bai Ye’s soul seeds, which would inevitably be lost in the abyss of space.

The second advantage was that it had incredible powers of surveillance up to the level of energy perturbations, which allowed them to sense any kind of ship or cultivator in their presence. Tianming wanted to expand his surveillance completely over the Middlekin Star Ruin, which would be a huge advantage for him when it came to astral wars. His enemies would never be able to grasp his plans.

”During the Cosmic God Trial, I had Yin Chen infiltrate the various astral continents around to grow their numbers by consuming the fortuna-class ores there to reach its full capacity of ten trillion bodies, and it actually reached that number!”

Yin Chen was terrifying when it came to its full volume. Most of that volume didn’t reside within Tianming’s lifebound space, especially considering that Eighth had recently taken it over. The many Yin Chens were gathered around the astral continents in which they had feasted and multiplied, so Tianming had to collect them before he could scatter them around the Middlekin Star Ruin.

”In a few short days, I’ve already covered up to ten times the surveillance volume of the Middlekin Star Ruin. It should be enough, right?” He was never not impressed by the abilities that his beasts’ bloodline chains unlocked. The latest of their transformations had greatly boosted their combined might, to the point that his totems and battle arts seemed like they were falling behind. Sometimes, he would be too lazy to use them and relied on his beasts’ abilities for bombardment.

”I wonder how they’ll change once they completely transform into cosmic gods.... Maybe they’ll change even more once we become overflowers. My totems, wonders, and battle techniques really have to catch up!” If they didn’t, he wouldn’t be able to fight well with them anymore. At the end of the day, of all his boons, his Primordial Chaos Beasts were still the toughest of all of them.

”I still have time, so I should keep expanding this territory.” Tianming continued letting the ship cruise along as he scattered more and more silver insects. He would have eyes in the sky that could see everything and would be able to avoid the powerful and target the weak with surgical precision. ”This will continue until I get enough middlekin stars.”

If he could deal with the three eighth-level overflowers that were guarding the Middlekin Star Ruin before the arrival of Fentian He, that would be ideal. ”With Zhantian Le and nine million flameyellow descendants, I’ll be able to take down everything!”

He continued expanding Yin Chen’s range. Perhaps he would even be able to widen it to reach Starmoon Haven.

”Qingyu!” Tianming turned around and saw the silver-haired moon maiden standing behind him, pensively looking into the dark void of space.

”What is it?” she asked.

”Do you have a hell-ring, too?” He hadn’t had time to ask about it when he’d been rushing to intercept the Cosmic God Palace.

”I do,” she said, feeling rather awkward.

”I don’t see it.” Tianming recalled that Zhantian Feng’s hell-ring was located on his chest and clothes couldn’t really properly cover it up.

”Male devas have hell-rings at the front of their bodies, but female devas have them on their backs,” Qingyu said, winking.

”Oh! That way, it wouldn’t affect the raising of their children. What an ingenious design!”

”Yeah. Since I’ve inherited the eight types of cosmic god blood, they’ve been counteracting each other, so my hell-ring’s still dormant. I haven’t dared to open it,” she said, feeling rather troubled. What’d happened with Li Wushuang way back had left a mental scar in her mind. Putting the hell-ring aside, she hadn’t even tried transforming into the three-headed, six-armed form of the devas.

”How in the world did the Original Sin Pool even choose? It should’ve just made Godfather inherit those bloodlines! He’s so mad I don’t think he’d even care!”

”Yeah! It’s so annoying!” Qingyu vented. ”But I do know a bit about the twofold hell-ring even though I haven’t used one before.”

”Tell me about it.”

”Everyone with the devan cosmic god bloodline is able to activate twofold hell-rings and above. They’re pathways to a different world. The devas use their bodies to form a natural symbiotic relationship with unique beings called ghouls. The ghouls all willingly come because they like to feast on humans!”

”How mystical! So it isn’t the same as symbiotic cultivation and doesn’t rely on blood pacts. It’s actual symbiosis in the form of aligned interests. So every deva has a ghoul of their own that they keep like a pet, right?”

Long Qian heard their conversation and came over. ”Some say that the term ’specter’ comes from their association with those ghouls. They’re basically astral gods who can call on ghouls, hence they are called specters.”

That was only one of the possible etymological explanations. The Archaionfiend had claimed that the term came from ’spectral progenitors’, a lifeform that predated specters. It also seemed likely that the spectral progenitors also had relationships with ghouls. Then again, Wu You was hardly a reliable source, thanks to its scrambled memories. It didn’t even know much about its own memories, only having a marginally better recollection than Ying Huo and the rest about its past life.

”Speaking of which, I know something that might be useful to you,” Qingyu said.

”Oh?”

”Didn’t the spinwheel ghoul run away when it saw you the last time? That won’t happen again once Zhantian Feng lifelinks with it, which would give him more control over the ghoul’s will. It probably won’t run away then,” Qingyu said.

”Lifelink? Is it like my fusion with my lifebound beasts?”

”Kind of, but the fusion of ghouls and devas is even more thorough. The devas will let the ghouls possess them and transform a second time, entering a berserk state. They won’t be able to tell friend from foe. It’s a little like Big Sis Zi Zhen when many of her ninehall eyes are open,” Qingyu said.

Long Qian didn’t quite understand it, but Tianming knew that the key to his fights was whether or not the spinwheel ghouls would run. He wanted to capture one and see what Eighth would do with it. ”Qingyu, can you open the hell-ring and lifelink with a ghoul? I want to see if I can scare it away.”