Beastmaster of the Ages

Yu Ziqian took a deep breath and began explaining. “The Divine Sun Palace uses two compressed stellunar sources as its power source. Its foundation is supported by a fusion formation for a stellunar source world. In other words, the Divine Sun Palace itself can be said to be equivalent to two stellunar source worlds! However, it’s far smaller than actual stellunar source worlds, which means that the fusion formation is also different. A fusion formation for something on a scale as small as the Divine Sun Palace must be incredibly mysterious and complicated. Like a fusion formation of a stellunar source world, it can be used to reinforce and control a stellunar source for consumption. It can also do things that normal fusion formations can’t: hyperspeed astral voyages!”

“Stellunar source can be compressed too?” Tianming had no idea what was being said here. For something the size of the moon to be able to be shrunk to this degree was something that was completely out of his world. He had gone to the mooncore and seen a stellunar source’s power before, and he knew how terrifying it could be.

“That’s right. As long as the fusion formation is complex enough, it can compress a stellunar source. Not only that, it can raise it to the level of a nova source through compression. It’s basically a portable nova source. Imagine something that billions of people on the sun use shrunk to a size that can fit in your pocket! It’s enough for hundreds of thousands of people to use for many millennia.”

Tianming knew that for the strongest person of Orderia, their strength would seem far beyond the likes of a stellunar or nova source. People could only slowly absorb the various sources of fundamental cosmic forces they had, yet that was enough for countless years of prosperity. Throughout the aeons, elites rose and fell because of these cosmic forces. Being able to directly control the source of one would allow someone to wield untold amounts of power.

“So the Divine Sun Palace is based on a unique fusion formation that has its own compressed stellunar sources, which are akin to nova source. Not to mention, it can even rapidly orbit the skies of Orderia while still exuding energy for those underneath to cultivate. It’s basically a moving fortress, right?” Tianming asked.

“Not just that. With a miniaturized nova source, it can even field defensive or offensive formations! Such is the home base of the divine celestials, as well as the place the Myriad Solar Sects fear the most. The Divine Sun Palace can just deploy those offensive formations right at the sects’ doorsteps, making it as powerful as the strongest armies, or better.

“That’s the ultimate weapon of the celestial orderians. Relying on the Divine Sun Palace alone, they’ve reigned over the sun for millions of years. It’s also been used to invade other nova source worlds. The sun often sends the palace out to the astralscape of order to explore the uncharted regions in search for other nova source worlds.”

Only after spending some time in Orderia had Tianming come to understand that the astralscape of order was far vaster than he’d imagined. Beyond the fiery sky above were countless other stars—a wealth of other worlds! He had thought that Orderia was more or less the same as the astralscape of order, only to find out now that Orderia was to the astralscape what the Welkin plane was to Orderia.

While it wouldn’t be hard for Tianming to leave his plane and come to Orderia, it was almost impossible to fly from Orderia to other nova source worlds using one’s own body. Most cultivators in Orderia followed a custom of roaming the stars. Many of them used their divine artifacts as their vehicles, but without a nova source to power them, the cultivator’s own energy would be depleted. In the void of space, one could only use divine pills to refill their reserves. That was why traveling vast distances was so incredibly difficult. But if what Yu Ziqian said was true, the Divine Sun Palace’s fusion formation could generate its own power and speed past the vast astralspace in a short time with practically infinite fuel, moving much faster than the sun and moon themselves!

“Normally, we call vessels like the Divine Sun Palace divine astralships, and they all share the commonality of having a compressed stellunar source.” Naturally, the astralship that Yu Ziqian spared no effort in telling them about had something to do with their current predicament as well.

“Did the Ninedragon Emperor have his own divine astralship?” Tianming asked in a hoarse voice.

“There are many chronicles with varying details. Most of them aren’t taken as the truth. However, there are a few that state that he had found a legacy deep in the astralscape that had a shipwrecked astralship. He then used most of the rest of his life to repair its fusion formation,” Yu Ziqian said. However, his tone was far more measured and calm than before. “I might be overthinking this… the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb can’t possibly be a divine astralship. Even if it were, it’s useless in its ruined state.”

“No.” Tianming gripped the war drum and the eight dragon drumsticks circled around his hand. Then the light of the Silverdragon Palace illuminated his body. “This is a divine astralship. It’s even functional. More importantly, the eight drumsticks in my hand and this drum is the key to activating it. Once I illuminate all nine dragon palaces, I’ll be able to move it!”

“Are you joking? Who told you that?” Yu Ziqian merely shook his head and laughed.

“This told me that.” Tianming looked at the black drum and felt a vibe similar to Sovereign Xi’s Moondream Soul. The nine dragon palaces were like mooncores in their own right, the cornerstones of the fusion formation. No doubt the Imperialdragon Palace was the main core. Now, only two of the nine palaces had lit up, and the rest were still dormant. The war drum already belonged to Tianming, so verifying his theory would be an easy matter. Something truly insane had happened to them.

“I can be sure that this is a divine astralship. Naturally, it doesn’t have a compact nova source yet.” This fusion formation was akin to something like the Ninefold Hell, though the home of the specters was empty inside. Unlike other stellunar source worlds, however, these ships were incredibly dense and compressed and could move at unimaginable speeds with far more stability.

“Heavens! Is what you said true?” Yu Ziqian’s eyes were wide open and his prominent purple lips parted with shock.

“Yes.” Tianming nodded.

“What does this even imply? Did the Sky Palace just give a divine astralship away to the winner here? Why don’t they use it for themselves?!”

“Who knows? I’m not even sure why they brought out so many treasures. Does the Sky Palace have any compact nova source we can use to power the astralship?”

“I have no idea.” It wasn’t just him, not even the Myriad Solar Sects themselves knew the Sky Palace’s intentions.

“We might find out if we’re lucky enough to join them.” Nobody could accurately gauge how much more precious a divine astralship was compared to the Divine Worldeater Cauldron. This was something on par with the ultimate weapon of the celestial orderians.

“Friend, I feel like we can’t even tell my master about it. It’s best if we keep this among the four of us,” Yu Ziqian said.

“Agreed.” After all, he wasn’t able to control it yet, and he didn’t have any fuel for it. Even if all nine of the palaces were illuminated, it would probably be dormant like the Ninefold Hell. Things would get out of hand if others found out.

“So, has the divine astralship been destined to be yours since you obtained the nine-colored scale of the emperor?” Lingfeng said.

“That makes sense….” Tianming figured that if he had lost to Zhan Yuance or Weisheng Moran, the cauldron would fall into their hands. But that wouldn’t change how the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb itself would become his! After all, nobody else had the Ninedragon Tribulation. He shot Yu Ziqian a look. “Let’s say nothing. Perhaps not even the Sky Palace knows about this.”

“My mouth is sealed.” The divine pill and cauldron had already triggered a lot of inconvenient complications.

“Actually, there isn’t much to reveal in the first place. I’m just a nobody, not a lord. I wouldn’t have any use for it. The most that’ll happen is I’ll lose the scale and this war drum to someone else,” Tianming said. Just like the Divine Worldeater Cauldron, if they really weren’t able to keep it, they had better abandon it if the situation required them to. At the very least, Tianming wasn’t sure how the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb could benefit him for now. He would only ever consider conquering the astralscape once he reached the level of the sun emperor. Though, he did know that using the tomb to its full potential could completely change his life.

If we get strong enough one day, we’ll roam through the astralscape in this divine astralship. Ling’er, Ying Huo, and the rest, as well as Feng, Qingyu and Xiaoxiao…. What pleasant days those would be! he thought. Currently, the tomb had sunk into the Voidsky Realm. It was visible, but there was no movement at all. Tianming wouldn’t be able to shrink it and take it along with him.

“For now, its existence is a secret. As long as the Sky Palace doesn’t reveal anything, nobody will know. We’ll let it slumber here for now until the day we really need it. Then again… I still had to find out why in the world the Sky Palace would allow it to fall into my hands. Anyway, let’s go!” Whether or not Tianming could join the Sky Palace would be the key.