Beastmaster of the Ages

It would still take a bit before they reached the Infinitum Swordsea. Tianming finally had a chance to gather with his ’wives’. Given the presence of the other two, there wouldn’t be much of a chance for him to use any pleasure balls; all he could do was stare at Feiling and resist the urge.

The first thing he did was get a rough idea of how their cultivation had progressed. Much to his surprise, Feiling had already reached the twelfth-level of the Stellaminor stage and had a chance of breaking through, becoming an astral god! It wasn’t too odd, though, when he thought about it. She wasn’t actually cultivating from scratch, but recovering her former cultivation. She had already done it once in the Kunlan Realm, only for Vaporize to sap away many of her levels. Even though her memories of cultivation had to be pieced back together, that alone made her faster than normal people.

”That’s great. We’ll become astral gods around the same time. That way, we won’t have a mismatch of our seventh astral organs,” Tianming said. Those not in the know would think that he was talking about cultivation.

”Hmm....” Feiling looked down and blushed, yet she didn’t snap at him for that lewd comment like usual. Instead, she seemed rather expectant.

Tianming was so taken aback that he blanked out for a moment. ”Xiaoxiao, don’t tell me you became an astral god ahead of us.”

”No, I’m only at the tenth level. Ling’er shot past me,” she said, unhappy. That was the only thing she had that’d made her stand out, but not for long.

”Haha, that’s what you get for using shortcuts,” Tianming said, rolling his eyes. Then he seemed to recall something. ”Well, since your cultivation is already as unstable as it gets, let me give you something. Eat it.”

”You have something good?”

”Yes.” Tianming was referring to the caeli of the bee-headed people. Both he and Lin Hongchen had quite a bit of them. As they wouldn’t be too useful to Lin Hongchen, Tianming would go to him to get it back. While Xiaoxiao had caeli to consume, the quality of the ones Dongshen Yue fed to her wouldn’t be that good. The cosmic cartrographers’ caeli in the sixth level of the Caeli Vault couldn’t be consumed, either. The caeli of the bee-headed people were probably the only ones that could give her a quick boost. I won’t let myself be the biggest cheater! Unstable cultivation is her thing, not mine! That was why he decided to give the caeli to her.

Alas, she was all too oblivious as to Tianming’s motivations and happily accepted the goods. I’m an unfeeling leveling machine. I won’t hesitate to take anything you give me.

Finally, it was Moran’s turn. ”What about you, Little Fish?” Tianming looked her up and down. While he had seen many beauties in the Oldgod Domain, he still maintained that the three in front of him were the most beautiful girls he’d seen.

Moran lowered her head, covering her face with her hair. Shyly, she said, ”I’m only a third-level solarian....”

”Damn.... How are you so weak even with all these resources and support?”

”Um... it’s due to my talent. There’s no forcing it,” she said.

”Big Brother, didn’t you notice how she’s changed?” Feiling asked with a smile of anticipation.

”Change? What change? I only need one breath to... huh?” He was pulled off his high horse just as he was about to boast. His eyes widened as he stared at the girl in green with waist-long hair. ”Her body....”

”I absorbed another two divine wonders. They’re ether class,” Moran said.

”Ether class?” Tianming hadn’t even seen an ether-class nova wildbeast! He didn’t even get a chance to properly fight a mid-sanctuary-class beast, either, and now there was someone with an ether-class divine wonder before him!

”Big Brother, when you were inside the Oldgod Domain, someone paid Etherean Zhaohua to assassinate Grandpa, only to be killed in turn. Grandpa used the Sword in the Forest. That sure caused quite a bit of commotion.”

Tianming didn’t know what the sword was. ”Etherean Zhaohua tried to assassinate Grandpa? Was it the ebons?”

”They believe it’s Chi Hun.”

”What a bastard.” Tianming knew how close a shave it had to have been.

”Etherean Zhaohua threatened Grandpa with the life of Uncle Dan. When Grandpa arrived, they didn’t keep their word and killed Uncle Dan—”

Tianming stood up in shock. ”Uncle Dan’s dead?!”

”Yes.”

It was the first time he had heard of it. Dongshen Yue and Lin Xiao hadn’t told him yet, as they didn’t want to shock him. They had planned to find the right time to tell him after he got back. Tianming clenched his fist tight, recalling the sneaky yet loyal man. It was the worst news he had heard in a while.

”Tenth rex mundi... Chi Hun.... When will I be able to avenge Uncle Dan?” The grudge between him and Chi Hun had just been cemented in stone. ”So Little Fish’s new divine wonder came from Etherean Zhaohua, right?” It was the six-fingered divine wonderian he had talked to before.

”That’s right.”

”Why was he even near Ebonia?”

”He might’ve been looking for you,” Feiling said.

”So the divine wonderians know that I have divine wonders....” Tianming had tried his best to hide his abilities in the Oldgod Domain, yet there were people outside that already knew about them. He had thought he could leave the divine wonderians in the dust by escaping to Ebonia.

”Etherean Zhaohua’s dead and no other news concerning him was reported. Perhaps the divine wonderians don’t want to make you stand out even more and intend to take care of you more discreetly,” Feiling suggested.

”As long as they’re involved in things here, the truth will eventually get out,” Tianming said. The divine wonderians knew that he had the sun, and they were also really interested in him personally, though he couldn’t be sure whether they were aware that the sun used to be a world beyond deific class. ”Oh, then I’m sure they’ve heard of how Little Fish is able to use the skyway masterbrush and sacredway tome wonders. They’ll definitely want to learn more about someone that can assimilate divine wonders.”

”That’s what we thought, too. Grandma also knows the true extent of her abilities, so she’s figuring out a way to deal with things. For now, all we have to do is return to the Infinitum Swordsea and start properly cultivating. Let’s hope we’ll get to enjoy some safety,” Feiling said.

”We can only count on the protection of the Lin Clan, then.” Fortunately, his grandparents were with them.

”We have even more enemies now.” The new enemies weren’t geniuses around their age, or even those under a hundred years of age.

”When we return, let’s enter the Skydome Battlefield and see if we can get any more leads. The death of an etherean that rules a fifth-level world will definitely cause a commotion.” Before that, they would first try to help Lin Xiao get back into the council. That would surely be what the clan needed to unite and become one front again.

”Ying Huo and the rest will recover in two days. The bodies Yin Chen left in Ebonia have reawakened. It won’t be long before its number grows back to around ten billion. Ji Ji has begun rapidly absorbing nova source and should be awakening in a few days. We’ll get it to work with Little Fish to see how much power two ether-class divine wonders can unleash.” Tianming was looking forward to that quite a bit. He stood at the front of the ship and watched the clouds of Ebonia sweep past them.

”Looks like as long as Huang Qi is around, I’m the least likely person in Ebonia to die. Those that try to kill me will have to face the consequences!” Feiling and the rest were the ones that actually needed protection. They would have to find a safe harbor within the Infinitum Swordsea.

......

The black sword ship descended from the sky to the council hall below, where Tianming saw a huge crowd of people awaiting his return.