Beastmaster of the Ages

Soon, the answer would be revealed. Near the end of his vision was a gigantic nova source world. A formless stream of metal flowed past it, causing it to instantly dim before being extinguished completely. The entire time, it was accompanied by the sound of metallic grinding. Tianming blended in with the stream and looked at the things that came in and out of existence, completely flabbergasted.

“Are these… insects? He couldn’t really be sure how in the world those metallic stars became insects. They were constantly changing. The silver stars were their base form, which could morph into infinite silver cockroaches at one moment, then to locusts that consumed nova source, then to silver scorpions. Tianming got the closest look at the scorpions as a few of them flew directly past him. They had perfectly metallic bodies, sharp pincers, long stingers, and were armored all over.

Then they changed into silver spiders, gigantic ones that numbered in the billions, spinning threads of silver to tie up one nova source world after another and dragging it behind their swarm. There were even countless thousand-legged metallic centipedes with thousands of segments each. Not only that, they could also fuse into a gigantic beast from the stars that stretched on endlessly, devouring everything in its wake.

“A sea of silver stars… an invisible metal army that can turn into all sorts of insects and arachnids….” Tianming felt his scalp tingle. He had seen thousands of such transformations. This wasn’t a specific kind of metallic insect from the stars, but rather something that could morph into almost any insect or arachnid in existence and gain their abilities, such as silver spider threads, scorpion stingers, or even the ability of locusts to devour all matter in their path, leaving nothing but an empty husk behind.

Armies of ladybugs, ants, bees, mosquitos, fireflies… there were more transformations than Tianming could possibly imagine, yet they were all threatening just the same. It was an army swarm that could sweep through the entire universe. They weren’t mere lifeforms; instead, they were scourges that destroyed everything in their paths as they constantly emanated the metallic sound of their transformations, the sound of which was so loud and droning that it almost made Tianming deaf. Though this was just a dream, he felt true terror.

Right just then, a silver spider the size of Lan Huang spotted Tianming. It had a silvery body that seemed impenetrable, looking more like a dragon golem than an actual lifeform. However, Tianming could see the light of life coming from its eyes. Its eight long, spear-like legs glinted coldly as it continued to stare at Tianming, making his heart rate rise. Yet that was only one out of billions of them.

Normally, critters like that were weak to fire. But these metal beasts seemed almost immune to such weaknesses. Tianming even had a feeling that they would fuse back together even if he bisected them. This was what true immortality looked like. Having billions of other bodies, it would never truly be wiped out.

Even a single of those spiders made him feel the swarm’s terrifying destructive potential. Yet why was it looking at him? Soon, he came to understand that he wasn’t its target. Instead, it was something behind him. The metallic insects soon began turning to look behind him. The sensation of being the center of attention of an army of billions was horrifying beyond comprehension.

“What’s behind me?” Tianming felt animosity coming from this fifth Primordial Chaos Beast. “Did that hand appear?”

He turned back, and the sight he saw almost made him suffocate. “What in the?!” At the ends of the universe was a crack in space, endlessly large, out of which a boundless white cloud emerged. The cloud then turned into a vortex ten times the size of the entire metallic army, sucking in even more white cloud matter. Then it reassembled into many tentacles that stretched out throughout space. Each of the tentacles had countless eyes, all pale and empty, but staring at the silver army behind Tianming.

Inexplicably, the sound of human rapture came from the pale sea of white. It looked like a being of sorts that had the other half of its body beyond the crack in space. One look at it made Tianming’s head feel like bursting. There seemed to be countless worlds within the sea of clouds, within which countless lifeforms lived in utter bliss.

“Why does this look like a wondersky realm that’s infinitely larger than the ones I’ve seen?” Each wondersky realm was akin to a world in itself with countless caeli living within. Yet this cloud of white seemed like a far more ancient and mature form of it, containing countless worlds and an innumerable number of people within.

“Did it emerge from the xenomemory space? What in the world is it? Some kind of beast?” Right as his curiosity peaked, a storm broke out as the two forces of nature clashed. The metallic army behind him turned into a stream of silver stars, surging toward the sea of clouds and causing the eyed tentacles to turn to it. This was the first battle in the dream of a Primordial Chaos Beast that didn’t involve a fight with a gigantic black hand. What in the world was this cloud of white?

The din of battle filled the entire realm. Tianming felt like he was thrust amidst raging currents. He couldn’t even find stable footing. All he could see was a flurry of sights of the silver and white forces clashing. Not even space itself could contain a clash of this magnitude. Sharp, droning sounds echoed throughout, accompanied by blinding streams of light that eradicated all in their path.

Then that terrifying voice could be heard once more as Tianming was sent flying. In a daze, he saw a black arm descend from the skies. “You two rascals, I have been waiting for you for a long time….”

The voice completely shook his soul. By now, Tianming’s vision was filled with nothing but scenes of battle. “Henceforth and forevermore, I am the master of all chaos and reincarnation.” These exact words echoed once more.

……

Tianming drew a sharp, cold breath as he snapped into lucidity. He opened his eyes. The dream was finally over and the silver army, white clouds, and gigantic black hand were nowhere to be seen. However, his heart was beating so fast that it felt like it would pop out of his body. He felt like his throat had been clenched the whole time. He was finding it so hard to breathe he couldn’t even talk. It felt like he had been asleep, with his body a little numb from the inaction. He took a deep breath and focused on his body. Then many silver things flashed across his vision.

“Huh?” He stretched his hand out to catch one, then opened his hand. There was a metallic silver egg in it with two eyes that looked straight at Tianming. “Why haven’t you hatched?” He was feeling a little anxious now.

A metallic, crunching sound could be heard coming from the egg. “Already hatched,” said a cold, stiff voice.

“What did you say?”

“I have… already hatched… you idiot.”

“You have?” Wasn’t it still in egg form? Thinking back at the dream, the creatures’ original forms were gigantic silver stars. Looking at the egg again, it did seem like it had hatched. It resembled the gigantic stars and only slightly differed in size and shape, with these looking less spherical. At the very least, they now had two little black eyes, which made them a little more lifelike.

“What kind of creature are you?” Tianming looked around him, seeing nothing but a sea of eggs.

“Myriad world… Immorta… beast beast…” the egg mechanically replied.

“The heck? Why repeat ‘beast’ twice?”

“So what… if I… do do?” it said, seemingly proud.

So the sea of silver stars that spanned across the cosmos could morph into all sorts of insects and arachnids, all seemingly immortal. That’s why it was called the Myriadworld Immortabeast. As for why bugs like that were called beasts, Tianming didn’t know. Either way, it was no normal creature. Xian Xian had already surpassed whatever tree Tianming could conceive of.

“Let go… you dirty…” the egg struggled in his hand to escape, “…dirty dirty!”

Tianming didn’t know how to respond to that. His focus now was to cultivate and strengthen his newly hatched beast and form his fifth astral disc. “Come, let’s cultivate all the way to the Constellation stage.”

Immediately, the beast began working at it. The egg in his hand flew to join the rest as they all looked at him and engaged in symbiotic cultivation. There was a boundless amount of metallic fundamental cosmic force around them to use for it. “Communicating with you really is a chore.” Fortunately, communing telepathically with it was far more efficient.