Beastmaster of the Ages

Divine astralships had many functions. The Divine Sun Palace, for instance, had an attack that had almost eradicated the Aeonic Infinidragon Formation. But given Tianming’s current control over the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb, he could only use it as transport.

”That would be good,” Qinyu said. She thought that there was no hope at all of returning.

”Don’t worry, Qingyu. Your dad said that he’ll survive no matter what. If we go back one day, we’ll find a way to save him,” Feiling said. They were of similar age, but Feiling now looked much younger, like a porcelain doll. Even so, her consolation still soothed Qingyu.

”He’s no normal person. He’ll definitely hold on,” Tianming said. That was how confident he was in Li Wudi. He definitely intended to return to Orderia, one day. But for now, he could only count on mastering the Ninedragon Tribulation to find his way back. Some things simply couldn’t be rushed. Also, there was nothing else to do in the deep void of space. That was the next thing he had to consider.

”Thankfully, I have the heavenly locus formation.” Using it, he could let four people into Violetglory Star’s wondersky realm, where they could cultivate using the caeli there. With the amount of nova source stored within the saplings, their cultivation could proceed as usual. Otherwise, they would eventually run out of nova source in their bodies and be unable to replenish it so far away from a star.

For now, Xiaoxiao temporarily didn’t need to enter the wondersky realm. The Archaionfiend had snuck away with countless caeli during the great battle, after all. It didn’t dare to make any drastic movements now, with its belly so flush and bloated. Ying Huo mocked it for looking like it was pregnant, much to its frustration. For now, it had to bear this burden in order to get stronger. Either way, it had still been a rather huge stroke of luck.

On the other hand, even though the Archaionfiend had lost much of its memory, Tianming had no better guide than it when it came to spacefaring, so he dragged it along to answer his many questions. His most recent query was about a gigantic black shadow that appeared in front of the ship on the twentieth day of their voyage.

”Slow down!” The Archaionfiend was so spooked that it had almost vomited out the caeli within it.

Tianming gripped on the wheel and decelerated as much as he could, then swerved aside to avoid a collision. Though it had played out well in his head, reality had other ideas. The ship swayed out of control and even flipped on its vertical axis before beginning to spiral toward the dark silhouette ahead of them. Ying Huo and Shuo Yue crashed into each other with their wings spread, rolling around like a ball of feathers. Meow Meow started foaming at the mouth from bouncing awake from its sleep. Lan Huang rammed into the Archaionfiend, causing it to burp out quite a few caeli, and Yin Chen was scattered all over the place like spilled sand.

”Ling’er, hold me tight!” He wanted to grab her, only for her to be sent flying away. When he looked at the person in his embrace, it was Lingfeng.

”What’s up?” Lingfeng asked with an odd look.

”Not you! It’s not my fault!” Tianming was smashed around until he began bruising all over. He wouldn’t admit that it was his bad piloting skills. He quickly held the wheel tight to stop the ship from spinning, but the view ahead was now completely dark—the obstacle was right in front of them! Tianming noticed that it was a huge black star that could compare to a nova source world in size. He saw craters and mountains on its surface. It looked even larger than the sun itself. That was why they’d had no way of avoiding it despite changing course.

The ship passed through black fog as it crashed toward the surface with terrifying speed, shaking and rumbling so badly that everyone within couldn’t even find their bearings. Fortunately, the ship was tough enough to weather the shock, and the saplings’ power output fell until they finally stopped.

The Archaionfiend breathed a sigh of relief. ”Thankfully this is a dead star. If it’d been a fake dead star, this collision would’ve cost us our life.”

”What’s a fake dead star?”

Dead stars were stars without a nova source or moons without stellunar source; the Ninefold Hell was one such world. It could come into existence once the fundamental cosmic force of a world naturally burned out, or if it was forcefully robbed of it. Once that happened, the spiritual energy on that world would begin to thin to levels lower than the Flameyellow Continent’s, leading to the eventual extinction of life on that star. Even if there were some survivors, there would no doubt be few of them, and even fewer elites. This world was darker than even the Ninefold Hell. Due to the lack of nova source, it was completely unilluminated, which made it hard to spot from the void of space.

”Fake dead stars describe star worlds that’re powerful enough to add a layer to their astralguard formation that prevents any nova source from escaping the world, making them invisible in the cosmic aether. Those in the dark always have an advantage, whether it comes to attacking or hiding,” the Archaionfiend said.

”Is that even possible?” It was mind-boggling to contemplate. The astralscape was far more dangerous than they had formerly thought.

”In other words, the star worlds we see are rather low in rank. The really powerful ones are capable of hiding in the darkness.”

This was a matter that could start astral wars and result in the end of one’s people. The dead star they had landed on might have been the remnant of one such war. Tianming and the rest temporarily left the ship and noticed that they had caused the formation of a new supercrater.

This was a world with nothing but silence. The commotion they had caused seemed to go unnoticed by sheer virtue of the fact that most, if not all life in this world had died out. The entire place looked like nothing more than desolate lands.

”Let’s look around.”