Beastmaster of the Ages

Amidst the essence sludge of the lower ruins were many large bubble-like grottoes. The maniverse assembly of the Eightpart Pantheons had been within one of those grottoes. In recent years, more and more geniuses from the Eightpart Pantheons had begun to occupy territories within these grottoes, gradually developing them into fortified areas and living there long term.

In the past ten years, Tianming visited the lower ruins from time to time and found that the three hundred thousand plus members of the Eightpart Pantheons hadn’t stopped occupying territory at all. They brought many formation embryos with them to deploy within the lower ruins and used the flameyellow void essence to power them. Many of these formations were erected near the entrance of the lower ruins situated near the Primordial Sands, effectively making it the Eightpart Pantheons’ territory.

The countless formations nearby housed more than a hundred thousand powerful geniuses who were ready to stop anyone from coming through. Once anyone came in from the Primordial Sands, even for scouting, they would be killed right away. In essence, there was no longer any way to contact those from the Primordial Sands. The Eightpart Pantheons wouldn’t let even a single fly pass through.

The geniuses worked in shifts to watch the entrance at all times. The ones who were on duty that year were devas from Blackscatter, a world situated near the Ten Desolate Starforges. It was an incredibly dark world filled with devas who were united under one banner. Around ten thousand devas from royal lineages were at their guard posts, cultivating and socializing as they did so. The youths had all sorts of activities to occupy themselves with, ranging from duels to courtship. With so many young men and women together, there were many opportunities to meet new people and partner up. As such, the black fortress was always busy.

A society had formed within the lower ruins, with those at the top of the food chain being those from imperial lineages from imperial-class worlds. After that were the top geniuses from the various starforges who could be considered to have risen to the level of those from imperial lineages, being allowed to cultivate in imperial-class worlds. Within the fortress were multiple devas from imperial lineages.

There was a large event in the fortress, for which they had constructed an arena. They dueled for the crowd and were in a merry mood. To them, this wasn’t a war, but rather a fun vacation. Having been constantly under pressure from their parents to cultivate, they were finally free from their stern upbringing and allowed to do whatever they wanted. While their parents would observe them through the Heavenly Dao Arena from time to time, there was nothing they could do to correct their behavior, so they had no choice but to let them be.

The devas fought each other in exciting duels. Those from the imperial lineages either cheered from the sidelines or were served with many luxuries if they had a higher status. The most elite among them were three members of the Blackscatter imperial lineage. They sat together on a long bench with the person in the center hugging the other two, who were around him. On the surface, their relationship seemed rather amicable, but on a closer look, the one in the center was a female specter. She was hugging two men by her side!

The female deva seemed to be blessed with an incredibly powerful cosmic god body with incredibly thick arms. If not for her taller chest, Tianming wouldn’t even be certain that she was female. She had intense eyebrows and prominent fangs on her green face, which would send people shivering in terror. Tianming had never seen such a savage-looking woman before.

One of the two men in her embrace was a bald youth, while the other was even younger and had long hair. The two devas didn’t seem to be that different in size, but they seemed much softer compared to the female specter. It wasn’t just her; Tianming looked around and noticed that all the female specters from Blackscatter were short-tempered and accompanied by a few male specters who seemed to follow them like obedient spouses. Ying Huo described it as the opposite kind of relationship arrangement that Tianming had, since he was always flanked by Zi Zhen and Moran.

”Yin Chen, are you saying that Blackscatter is a maternal society? The more talented their women, the more husbands they’ll be able to have? Do the women make all the decisions?” Tianming asked with some shock.

”That’s right... are you... excited now?” Yin Chen teased.

”Nonsense.” Tianming looked at the female specters and felt thin compared to them. To him, they didn’t seem beautiful at all.

”Ugliness aside, she’s the real deal, a shiva variant. She’s much fiercer than the bodhisattva variants like Qin Wangchuan and You You.” Tianming turned his attention elsewhere. ”There’s around ten thousand devas here. I wonder if I’ll be able to feed Eighth enough if I’m able to take them all on...?”

He itched to make a move after seeing them in their festive mood, completely unaware of the nightmare that was upon them. ”Keep watching the surroundings. Let me know if powerful reinforcements are on the way.” He exclusively employed hit-and-run tactics.

”Alright alright! Don’t nag... me anymore!” Yin Chen ran off, not being able to stand him.

”The fact that you even have to remind Boss Chen about this shows how you look down on him. We should overthrow you for a better beastmaster,” Bai Ye said, stoking the flames of conflict.

”Shut up, you.” Tianming turned to Zi Zhen and Moran. ”I need the two of you to fight as a group. Store the corpses in the Empyrean Yin-Yang Mirror. We’ll bleed this fortress for a bit.”

”Okay.” They seemed rather excited to fight. Even in times like these, they still couldn’t stand to be in a group with each other.

”Alright, let’s go!” Tianming whispered before rushing off.

***

Within the fortress, the bald specter that nestled in the embrace of the shiva variant complained, ”Princess, when can we finally go back? It’s too boring here.”

”Boring? Have I not been getting them to fight for your entertainment every day?” she said, patting his buttocks as she laughed.