Beastmaster of the Ages

”Sure!” Tianming nodded and headed toward the entrance of the ark, which was on its way to the entrance of Miracle Mountain. Fortunately for them, nothing had happened at the peak so far.

However, Lingfeng still hadn’t shown himself.

”Did it work?” Zi Zhen and Moran had been waiting for him outside his cultivation room. They had made breakthroughs as well. Zi Zhen managed to rapidly recover the power of her order using the little beastballs. Moran, on the other hand, hadn’t finished consuming all the orders of the wonderians that were killed in the Ancient Oldgod Domain. Zi Zhen was at the fifth level and Moran was at the sixth, almost catching up to Shiming Shengshi’s level.

”There’s a huge gap between sixth- and seventh-level cosmic gods. I heard the latter are much stronger, despite only a one level difference, as they’ve reached the latter half of cosmic godhood. I wonder if the three of us together would be able to defeat the strongest and most talented seventh-level cosmic god from the Ten Desolate Starforges...” Tianming said with anticipation.

”Are we going in?” Moran asked.

”Let’s see what these two can do first.” Tianming opened the door and scattered countless white soul seeds toward the entrance of Miracle Mountain. Then the three of them disembarked.

”Qingyu, wait for my news. I think we’re close to finding him,” Tianming said. He had brought the Soulfiend with him this time around.

”Just stay safe,” Qingyu said, knowing that rushing was pointless. The ark drove off and cloaked itself. Even though she couldn’t figure out what Lingfeng’s status was, there was nothing she could do about it.

After bidding Qingyu goodbye, the others followed the soul seeds to a spot near the entrance. There were at least a hundred thousand people there.

”Their seniors must’ve given them the order to prevent me from going in,” Tianming chuckled. A hundred thousand people were no joke at all. Ninety thousand of them were overflowers, but major-zenith ones, and most of the rest were quasi cosmic gods. The remaining cosmic gods were mostly first or second level. The stronger ones had continued onward to the mountain peak.

”The Eightpart Pantheons seem to have sent most of their young talents to Miracle Mountain,” Moran remarked. She watched as Bai Ye and Bai Ling’s soul seeds flowed toward the entrance and asked, ”Are they going to use the soul seeds to control them?”

”Yes,” Tianming said.

”Didn’t they need infant souls to control the pair of fifth-level overflower wonderian sisters?” Zi Zhen asked. The ones at the entrance were top geniuses near the end of the Overflow stage!

”The fact that they’re so confident means that something’s changed,” Tianming said.

”But how? Are they going to be able to control all the overflowers using soul seeds alone?” Moran asked.

”Perhaps. When they were at the eighth overflow soul stage, they were able to use soul seeds to control a million people with seventh foundation souls. Now that they’ve reached the ninth dao soul, they should be able to control people with eighth overflow souls, right?”

”That’s terrifying!” Zi Zhen and Moran chorused in slight disbelief, though their questions would be answered soon enough. The soul seeds had just arrived at their destination, scattering all over the young cosmic gods.

”All of them are talented young seeds of the Ten Desolate Starforges. Usually, it’s incredibly hard for so many people like that to be gathered in one place. If this works, we’ll hit the jackpot!” Tianming said with anticipation. Their hearts pounded as they waited to see the results.

”Are they still trying to take over?” Zi Zhen asked.

”Maybe their ninth dao soul still isn’t that stable yet, so it won’t work that fast. A few more breakthroughs might be what it takes.” At least, that was what they had telepathically relayed to Tianming. Still, they were making progress either way.

Tianming waited, and eventually, eight days passed. ”Haha! It’s almost time.”

Zi Zhen and Moran noted that the young cosmic gods seemed to be acting like usual, still chatting with normal expressions on their faces.

”Nothing’s changed,” Moran said.

”Well, they have to act natural so their seniors don’t find out. Ninety thousand of them are already our puppets,” Tianming said.

The two girls still found it inconceivable. Speaking in unison again, they said, ”What do we do next?” They awkwardly looked at each other.

”Let’s watch them put up a show. We’ll stage something that isn’t out of the ordinary and blend our way in,” Tianming said.

”Is that going to work?” Right as they said that, a commotion broke out near the entrance. A group of people had begun fighting. As time passed, more and more of them joined the fray, each one launching area attacks that instigated more and more to join.

”Is one single person role playing as more than ninety thousand characters?” Moran watched their reactions, all genuine, with awe.

”Nope, there’s two of them,” Tianming said.

An hour later, the area near the entrance had fallen into complete chaos. Tianming and the two girls openly entered Miracle Mountain. Even if there were some around them who had tracing rings, Bai Ye and Bai Ling had expertly positioned them at angles where the three wouldn’t be captured.

The two soulbeasts owned all the young cosmic gods now.

***

The rocks near the tallest point of Miracle Mountain had fallen off to reveal the tip of a black-and-gold sword. In the middle of that tip was a hole, around which many cosmic gods orbited. Apart from the glowing tip, the other locations were dark and shadowed, filled with people waiting in ambush. And among them were many invisible cockroaches that went completely unnoticed.

In the deepest and darkest corner, a shadowy figure with a black vortex in the middle of his chest appeared. The vortex seemed to lead to the deepest of abysses. One of his eyes was crimson, while the other was a ghostly purple. His crimson eye looked straight at the ground, while the purple one seemed fixed in position like a false eye. Both eyes were looking at different things. The crimson eye shook when it spotted a tiny cockroach on the ground that didn’t notice his presence at all. He was like a shadow that didn’t exist in this world at all.

All of a sudden, his purple eye shook as if it had come alive, spinning a few times before stabilizing. Then it looked at the crimson left eye as if it was being controlled by someone else. A voice came from that eye and said, ”Did you find him?”

”Not yet,” said the figure as he closed his crimson eye.

”Then keep looking,” said the purple eye.

The figure took a deep breath and nodded. ”Understood, Di Yi.”