Beastmaster of the Ages

Pink light shone down from the sky above, seeping through the gaps in the leaves of the Radix World Tree to reach Tianming’s eyes. A formless power within the dreamscape lured him up through the tree. At the center of the tree, he saw the eternal city of Perpetia, but unlike before, it was covered in a veil of pink light, making it look like something out of a dream. He continued rising and finally emerged at the top of the tree.

”That is?!” His body stiffened up from the shock. On the very horizon, he could see a gigantic pink nova source world! It was a world without a ruler, given how there didn’t seem to be a fusion formation on its surface. He couldn’t even begin to imagine how truly huge it was, but he saw something familiar. Huge concentrations of nova source flowed around, creating many waves that rose high up toward the void of space in all directions. The droplets from the splashing waves themselves looked like gigantic pink stars. One of them near him looked almost as large as Violetglory itself, and it was but one of countless pink specks in space!

”Is this Seventh? Why does it look so similar to the black-and-gold imperial star inside the colorless gate within the Grand-Orient Sword?” It even felt like this pink, pure star was larger, more ancient, and livelier than the imperial star. Normally, the color pink was associated with gentle femininity, but Tianming had a feeling that the star only wore that color as camouflage. Perhaps it wasn’t a star, but a Primordial Chaos Beast camouflaging itself as one!

”Are you a living thing or a nova source world?” Tianming was rather confused. As he was pondering, he saw three figures coming from the ancient world, quickly passing through his body.

”Ling’er!” He could clearly see it this time. The girl in the center was none other than Feiling, but she looked incredibly cold like an inviolable deity. The only time she showed any warmth was when she looked at the two little girls whose hands she held on each side. The girl on the left seemed covered in hundreds of blooming flowers and clearly resembled Xian Xian’s spiritform. Tianming could even see a few flowers of the Radix World Tree on her. The girl on the right also looked like some kind of spiritform. She looked like a doll made of crystals, complete with pink hair and eyes. Every part of her was as beautiful as jewels, and the waves of power that wafted off her were just like those of the pink star.

”Is that Seventh’s spiritform? Looks like it has some kind of relationship with the ruler of Perpetia as well!” Tianming was still rather confused. The pink crystal girl was a stark contrast to the cheerful Xian Xian. She kept her head low and held a doll in her hand, behaving quietly, almost coldly. More shockingly, she suddenly looked up and smirked as if she had noticed him watching. The pink was definitely some kind of camouflage, just like how her appearance didn’t fit the smile she wore. Tianming felt a chill down his spine as if he had seen some kind of ghostly goblin.

”Ji Ji, keep up,” said ’Feiling’.

”Okay,” the girl answered in a soft voice. She turned around and vanished with the other two deep into the top of the Radix World Tree.

”What in the....” Tianming was still stumped. He looked up again and saw three gigantic spots on the pink star above. They looked like a pair of eyes and a mouth. ”A star is looking at me?”

He really didn’t know what to do about his overactive imagination. ”Well, Primordial Chaos Beasts are anything but predictable, after all. While Ying Huo and Meow Meow reinforced to me that they were ’beasts’ in the animal sense of the word, Xian Xian broke the rule by being a tree. And Yin Chen isn’t really an insect, but some kind of limitless metallic lifeform. If metal can be considered to be alive, why not a whole star as well?”

Nova source was cosmic fundamental energy with which life thrived. Others might think it was a bit of a stretch to call nova source worlds lifeforms in their own right. Lifebound beasts like Yin Chen and astralbeasts slightly resembled stars, but they were more like lifeforms made of metal or other minerals. None of them resembled Seventh, a being made of the cosmic fundamental force that star worlds were made of! There was a clear difference between the two categories.

”I wonder what Seventh’s real name is, and what kind of relationship it has with Xian Xian and Perpetia.... What binds the three of them together?” Eventually, he felt that the dream was coming to an end. ”Hmm, will the gigantic black arm not appear in this one? Where’s that line about being in control of the cycle of reincarnation?”

More and more things were happening that were beyond his expectations. His consciousness eventually returned to his body. At that moment, he felt a terrifying power he had never touched before flow within him. His entire body was covered in pink light, even down to his brain and internal organs! The energy was wild and rampant, unlike its gentle color might suggest; it was even more violent than the energy from Ying Huo’s infernaldiscs. His eyes now looked pink instead of their usual colors, making him even eerier.

”What’s your full name, little one?” he asked.

A soft, gentle, and tender voice rang out by his ear. ”I’m the First Aeonic Ancestral Star, also known as the Genesis Ancestral Star. I’m the only living nova source world throughout the decapath aeons.”

The soft voice was completely unlike the surging and violent energy within his body, but he couldn’t be happier. He hadn’t had a proper offensive Primordial Chaos Beast since the Aeternal Infernal Phoenix and Genesis Chaos Thunderfiend. The First Aeonic Ancestral Star, belonging to the first aeon, or era... the earliest time in the history of the universe.

Interestingly, it even seemed to correspond to Tianming’s decapath era godswords. Each sword represented an aeon, or era, rather than different elements. As for its other name, the Genesis Ancestral Star, it probably described its true nature better. Seventh said it was the only nova source world lifeform in the decapath aeons, which implied that the familiar black-and-gold imperial star probably wasn’t a living being. Perhaps that was what qualified the First Aeonic Ancestral Star to be a Primordial Chaos Beast.

”If there’s a first, there should be a second, third, and so on. Seventh is the only one among them to have a consciousness and soul! The only living one! I wonder if the imperial star inside the Grand-Orient Sword is also one of them, and if so, which one is it?” Those were all just his guesses for now. What he really wanted to know was what benefits this living star could bring him.