Beastmaster of the Ages

Giving thirty million essences just like that was generous indeed. Tianming knew better than anyone what Tian Jiu’s affair was about, but Mushan Feng didn’t even bat an eye and offered him his full, precious trust. Tianming owed him a huge favor based on that alone.

Most people were narrow minded and far too cautious, so Tianming was used to being cautious. The likes of Mushan Feng was stronger than Tianming even in his Galactic Emperor form, after all. Yet, it seemed that all that caution was unnecessary. The flameyellow voidkin helped load the essences into the ship without needing him to lift a single finger.

”Do you want to go in for a tour?” Tianming extended the invitation.

”Sure thing.” Mushan Feng nodded. In his feral form, his size was more or less the same as Tianming and Mushan Xue’s. Tianming led the two into the ship as they chatted.

”By the way, why did you bring the imperial star all the way to the Primordial Sands? Is it because it’s not safe near the Ten Desolate Starforges?” Mushan Feng asked.

”To be honest, I wish to take over the Primordial Sands and use it as a base of expansion.”

”Take over?!” Mushan Feng seemed rather taken aback. ”Do you have cosmic-god forces on standby in the imperial star?”

”No, we only have a few peak fighters for now,” Tianming admitted.

”So it’s just you and Weisheng Moran?”

”More or less...”

”Wouldn’t that be tough, then? Unless, you’re confident you’ll be able to convince the one in charge here to get them to do your bidding.”

”There’s no way we’d turn them to our side if we use brute force, so we have to go with diplomacy rather than invasion,” Tianming earnestly said.

”Come to think of it, I still don’t understand how you even got that kind of power boost,” Mushan Feng said.

”Don’t you have two forms yourself?” Tianming didn’t want to talk about omnisentient power yet since he wanted to keep the cards close to his sleeves from the flameyellow voidkin for now. It was not really sporting, but Mushan Feng had been studying him the whole time without him being able to do the same. The information imbalance was still there, so he had to even the odds somewhat. It wasn’t that keeping something withheld would affect the relationship in any real capacity.

”That makes sense.” Mushan Feng didn’t linger on the issue either. ”What you want to do is rather difficult. If you really achieve it, I believe the elders’ opinions about you will change.”

Tianming smiled. ”I hope that you’ll get a good word in for me when the time comes.”

”Naturally.” Mushan Feng thought for a moment before asking, ”Do you need my help with this? Matters in the Upper Star Ruin are more or less settled, so I’ll be able to send an army here once I’m done.”

Tianming pondered it for a moment. ”It’s best that you don’t come yet.”

”Why?”

”There is a running theory in the Primordial Sands that the flameyellow voidkin aren’t really the rivals of the Eightpart Pantheons because of the massive power disparity. Instead, they’ll be fearful of your armies once you send them through, thinking that you’re trying to escape the Ancestral Void Realm and conquer their homes instead. They thought that I’m the representative of the flameyellow voidkin and immediately harbored disfavorable opinions towards me.”

”Is that so...” Mushan Feng’s expression was odd, but it turned around soon enough. ”Well, their worries aren’t unfounded.”

”What do you mean?” Tianming asked, somewhat surprised at the frankness.

”They’re not wrong that once we mastered the ability to open and close the gateway to the Ancestral Void Realm, our main goal is to eventually leave it and return to the Upper Star Ruin. However, we are still arguing about where we should go,” Mushan Feng admitted.

”Are you really looking at the Primordial Sands, after all?” Tianming was stunned. It turned out that Granny Pu was no mere fool!

Mushan Feng shook his head in resignation. ”There are some elders of the traditional faction that believe we should first make the Primordial Sands our homes, proliferate for generations, before fighting the Eightpart Pantheons.”

Tianming was silent. Mushan Feng smiled even brighter at the look of that. ”However, many others believe that this isn’t fair to the Primordial Sands, especially when we have no bone to pick with them. What right do we have to take their homes? While you don’t have that many people under you that you would risk driving the natives here out, there’s quite a lot of the flameyellow voidkin, and they need a substantial amount of resources and territory. That would mean that we’d encroach upon the Primordial Sands’ territories and eventually result in war.

”For the record, I’m part of the radical faction that wants to fight the Eightpart Pantheons as we are now. Even if we fail to secure territory in the Upper Star Ruin, we do not want to do anything that would be unfair to the Primordial Ruins.” He had wanted to tell Tianming about the internal conflict of the flameyellow voidkin, and this was the perfect time to do so.

”The reason my brother decided to fight is largely related to you. Even though there are many of us, we’d be able to find a home to settle if the imperial star reaches the imperial class once more,” Mushan Xue said.

”Indeed. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to convince the elders to trust you, considering how different you look from typical flameyellow divinities,” Mushan Xue said.

”What is the faction split among you like?” Tianming asked.

”There are about half of us who want to fight the Eightpart Pantheons as we are now. I’m one of their leaders. As for the Primordial Sands, none of the other maniverse-class worlds owe the Flameyellow anything apart from the Grand Xia Voidback Nation, whose home world is nothing but a disintegrating hole at this point,” Mushan Feng said.

”Half, huh...” Tianming turned to Mushan Feng with an earnest look. ”Once I deal with the issue here at the Primordial Sands, I will work as quickly as I can to expedite your return.”

”You would dare to let us into the imperial star? It’s only five times the size of a standard maniverse-class world right now, so we’d probably cause some overcrowding. Not to mention, you’re too young and lack foundation, so not everyone among us would listen to you and let you call the shots,” Mushan Feng said.

”Li Tianming, you are indeed rather ill informed about the discussions that are happening in the Ancestral Void Realm, which mainly center around your impure bloodline that makes you unfit to be the heir of the imperial star. Inviting all of us into your world is a risky move,” Mushan Xue said.

”With the two of you speaking on my behalf, what do I have to fear?” Tianming said, smirking. ”That’s right, I’m not your traditional flameyellow descendant, but don’t worry. I will not disappoint a single one of you when it comes to the imperial star.”