Beastmaster of the Ages

”A thousand times...” Mu Qingqing looked at Tianming’s glowing form blankly. ”A hundred thousand years ago, there was one thing you weren’t happy about yourself, and that was being stuck one step before reaching a thousand. You finally made it...”

All of a sudden, her tears began to flow nonstop. Finally achieving fullness was incredibly crucial in one’s life. Mu Qingqing could clearly feel the changes in him in the both times she’d spent with him during his cosmotizations. This time around, Tianming was completely unlike before. It was as if his life had started anew. His heavencosmic body was filled to the brim with potential. Those thousand times weren’t the end, but rather, the beginning of so much more.

Tianming stretched his body comfortably. ”It feels rather decent.” His new body was filled with even more vigor than before. All the injuries that had piled up in his old one had been wiped anew, but his Order Relic Universal Body trait was there like before.

”A thousand times! You’ve surpassed your old self!” she said emotionally.

”It can’t be, right?” Tianming laughed. ”Think about it. First, I fused into a single huge astron before splitting a thousand times into my new body. The number of middlekin astrons in my body wouldn’t be able to compare with someone who split 999 times from the get go. I took countless steps back before taking a thousand more ahead.”

Mu Qingqing shook her head firmly. ”The number of astrons isn’t everything. Perhaps returning to the origin is the proper way to surpass a thousand splits. All of the middlekin astrons in your body now are new, and they have multiplied from the single most perfectly charged one, so it’s not the same.”

”Is that so?” Tianming didn’t really care about the details and just wanted to know how much stronger he had gotten. He began to charge up no nova source from the Sun, filling his body with it. ”Indeed, the middlekin astrons might not number much, but they hold much more energy more easily. Perhaps that’ll be able to make up for the gap I have with others in terms of level.”

Tianming felt incredibly filled to the brim with potential. With his orders reaching galaxy class, they were able to hold in far more ordered power. When he was done, he glowed even brighter than before. Though his body still seemed warm and fleshlike, it had changed from the most fundamental of levels. It was more like a microcosm in the form of a human body. Every single middlekin astron behaved like an actual star would. It seemed that the path of cultivation was getting clearer and clearer.

He didn’t stop after filling up on nova source. Immediately, he began to convert the ordered power in his body to chaotic power. His new middlekin astrons were able to stock up on much of that as well. He also checked in on his lifebound beasts as he did the conversion. Each of their orders had also reached galaxy class and the bodies of Ying Huo, Meow Meow, Lan Huang, Xian Xian and Yin Chen began to change. Bai Ling and Bai Ye were also changing, albeit not physically given their spiritual forms. As for Ji Ji, it was far less complicated of a beast and merely grew in size and capacity as its order grew. Xi Xi, on the other hand, was more world than beast. Its outward appearance didn’t change at all, but it could definitely summon even more ghouls than before.

”Wait...” Tianming soon realized that Ying Huo and the rest’s bodies were changing like his did. They started fusing back to a single middlekin astron, as if they had returned to their unhatched forms. Then, they split a thousand times just like him. Being Primordial Chaos Beasts, their middlekin astrons had unique characteristics. Lan Huang’s head ended up ten times Tianming’s size despite the same number of splits. Yin Chen, on the other hand, split rather normally, but that process repeated itself across all the bodies it had, adding up to an insane volume.

”It seems like they’re going to change massively as well...” Ying Huo was the first to finish. Its coat of black-red feathers made it look like a flaming meteor as it flew around in the dark pathway. ”More and more, it’s starting to resemble the phoenix in the dreamscape.”

Tianming’s dreams were coming through one after another. Ying Huo had experienced just as impressive a breakthrough as he had.

”Not bad.” Ying Huo perched on his head habitually. ”I unlocked more bloodline chains and got some new abilities with it.”

”Show me,” Tianming said.

”No, they’re a secret,” Ying Huo said.

”You and your attempts at appearing mysterious...” Tianming didn’t quite know how to react. At this point, the beasts were so superior that many ordered manna no longer worked on them. Star counts became meaningless and manna could no longer help them unlock bloodline chains. Fortunately, cultivating and becoming a more advanced lifeform still did something.

Meow Meow and the rest also unlocked some bloodline chains when they were done. At this point, Tianming could even open up an eightfold hell-ring to summon ghoul emperors without relying on omnisentient power.

”It’s a great boost indeed.” Something that Tianming was happy with. ”Come, let’s go back to the Dongshen Arena.”

”Aren’t you going to go back home to rest for a bit?” Mu Qingqing asked, surprised.

”You don’t get it.” Tianming smiled. ”The first thing to do after getting stronger is to show it off, right?”

”How pointless...”

The two of them said nothing else and returned to Nullity before going to the Dongshen Arena. Tianming didn’t want to waste any time. He relied on Yin Chen for most things there, and its bodies over there woke up when he was near enough. Soon, they would be receiving lots of new updates and information.

”Bad news,” it said.

”What happened?” Tianming asked.

”Yueling Momo... is going... to run,” Yin Chen said.

”Let’s give chase!” Tianming didn’t go to the arena and immediately gave chase. In actuality, it wasn’t that Yueling Momo wanted to run, but Tianming had already taken over everything at the Dongshen Arena. He had been forced away by Tianming since there was no longer any point in staying. ”Thankfully, we came back just in time. It’d be really hard to catch him once he returns to Yueling Starcage.”