Beastmaster of the Ages

After the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb returned to the sun, Tianming began taking care of the aftermath. The group that the Blood Abyss Wargod had brought with him were greedy raiders that trusted nobody but themselves, so they carried their wealth on their person. Thus, Tianming had easily obtained large amounts of treasures in the Eye of the Blood Abyss and the remnants of the other fallen ships.

”The Blood Abyss Wargod was as rich as a nation—no, perhaps an entire star!” The wealth that specter had carried on him could fill the treasury of a skypiercer-class world. Even though the raw quantity wasn’t that high, all the items he owned were incredibly valuable. The cheapest of his possessions were eight-star universal manna—basically, manna imperius—and there were more than a hundred of them.

”Universal manna is the same thing as pure, distilled talent for beastmasters. With all this manna imperius, we’ll be able to raise tens of sovereigns on the sun....” Yet that was only one part of the haul. There were seas’ worth of divine artifacts, pills, ores, herbs, and even hazards.

Most importantly, the number of legacy caeli they had was simply staggering. A hall within the ship called the Blood God Hall contained caeli from countless generations of Voidsky Organization members, with the strongest of them comparable to the Three Sovereigns Mysterium. Caeli imperius of such caliber were much better than those of the Tranquil Hall in the wondersky realm.

Tianming smiled from ear to ear, sure that he now possessed ultimate wealth. ”Robbing from others is the fastest way to get rich, huh.” The combined wealth of the Blood Abyss Wargod’s group had helped fill out the weak parts of his dynasty’s foundation. In this new world, good cultivation resources were just as important as its nova source.

The Eye of the Blood Abyss itself was quite a haul as well. Tianming let Wudi try out the ship’s core. Not all divine astralships required the proper bloodline to pilot. While that was the case for the Starvore, they didn’t know if the Eye of the Blood Abyss was like that as well, and trying wouldn’t hurt either. If it worked out, Wudi would gain a surprising boost. In its current state, the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb couldn’t match up against the Eye of the Blood Abyss, after all.

”Ling’er even managed to move the entrance of the Kunlan Realm to the sun. There’s nothing left for us here in this region, so we can finally set out!”

Tianming felt like he was on top of the world, standing on the pink sun. Before he left, Ji Ji had managed to hatch and demonstrate its impressive abilities. After infusing itself into the sun, it could even absorb space debris from all around it. Since the sun had expanded in size, much of the fusion formation was exposed. As such, they required raw materials from space debris to form new land. Those overlooked pieces of space rock could eventually develop divine ores and herbs when nourished by nova source, benefiting everyone on the sun. When there was no more debris remaining near them, the sun could finally move on. It could continue absorbing more during its interstellar voyage, creating even more prosperous lands within it.

The newly pink sun began to move east. According to the star map generated by Ji Ji, it was already located in the far east. The reason they chose to move farther in that direction was that the north, south, and west directions of the Flameyellow Continent on the Welkin Plane were within the territory of the mysterians, so going there was ill advised. While the sun was a completely different color, it still looked similar to a skypiercer-class world, making it stand out. The east, on the other hand, was a black wasteland devoid of other astral worlds.

”Is there not a single star in the east?” Tianming asked.

”Not necessarily. We just can’t see them as there’s a celestial boundary in that direction. Once we pass through it, we’ll be able to see the astral worlds in that region,” Ji Ji said. While it knew that from its inherited memories, it probably didn’t know the details just yet.

Tianming guessed it was probably some structure that separated the astralscape of order. Perhaps there was a different star cluster on the other side of the boundary. However, according to Ji Ji’s star map, the Mysterium Cluster that had tens of thousands of astral worlds was located on the eastern border. There were still countless stars to the west of the cluster, but they were inaccessible thanks to the mysterians. In other words, the celestial boundary wasn’t a construct made by the mysterians, but something larger. The star map also proved that the Mysterium Cluster wasn’t the center of the universe!

”Can the sun make it through the celestial boundary?”

”Normal nova source worlds can’t, but I can,” Ji Ji said, its spiritform nestled in Feiling’s embrace.

”Got it. Then we’ll head east and shake off the Mysterium Cluster for good. After that, the first thing we’ll do is look for uninhabited nova source worlds!”

”Okay.” Ji Ji had the exact same goal in mind. The mysterians would be rather troublesome to deal with in their current state, after all. A fleet of two thousand divine astralships was no joke; the Eye of the Blood Abyss was merely a vanguard. If Tianming didn’t leave, the rest would soon catch up.

”Who’d be stupid enough to stay and fight you all? Just you wait. When I come back from the east, I’ll take out Skyways Monostar, Bistar, and Tristar. I have to keep growing stronger!” He would continue on his path of rulership just like the pink sun that kept heading east.

......

The days of the sun’s voyage were rather peaceful, not that it made much difference with Tianming’s lifebound beasts. Ji Ji’s participation had only made things even rowdier. It quickly managed to integrate into their huge family and was comfortable enough with Ying Huo and the rest to mess around. However, Tianming realized it had a mean streak despite its cute, gentle appearance. Oftentimes, it pulled serious pranks on its siblings, slowly revealing its true colors. It also had no resistance against anything shiny. Once Ji Ji spotted something that caught its eye, it would be gone in a blink.

Its first victim was Yu Ziqian. One day, the young lad saw Ji Ji’s spiritform and asked, ”Little Girl, do you want me to take you to see some goldfish?”

”Are they made of gold?” Ji Ji asked with a smile, forming a goldfish with its genesis ancestral nova source and making it swim near Yu Ziqian’s face. [1]

”Umm... yeah, of course.” But when the goldfish slammed into him, he yelped in pain and was sent flying. When he landed, his hair and skin were charred.

”You piece of trash!” Ji Ji stomped on his head and jumped on him nonstop. This star belonged to it, and it was free to do anything it wanted.

”Haha, that’ll teach you to not mess with Ji Ji!” Tianming said, pulling Yu Ziqian into a corner.

”Brother, why’re you always surrounded by fiends?!” Yu Ziqian complained.

”I don’t wanna hear it. I need something from you.”

”What?”

”What’s that?” came Ji Ji’s devious voice, its pink eyes widening at the sight of the thing in Tianming’s hand.

Tianming hurriedly put it away. ”It’s nothing. Go play with the rest.”

”I want that shiny!” Ji Ji cried.

”No.”

”If you don’t give that to me I’ll burn up the sun!” It raised its eyebrow as its rage built up. It didn’t look like it was joking.

With his quick wit, Tianming produced a crystal divine ore for it, just barely saving all the people that lived on the sun. He had a feeling that Ji Ji would mature into an ultimate pink devil.

1. Goldfish man is based on a real case in Hong Kong where dangerous people used goldfish to lure in little girls for nefarious purposes. ☜