Beastmaster of the Ages

Above Ji Ji’s spiritform was a pink nova source world. It hadn’t manifested during the battle moments ago, so its sudden appearance caused quite a few people to back off in surprise.

”Is that a lifebound beast?”

”Isn’t it a miniature nova source? It could fit inside a deific-class divine astralship.”

”Yeah!”

”Heavens. How could a miniature nova source exist outside a divine astralship formation?”

Tianming appeared even more and more mysterious in their eyes.

If Ji Ji enters Gladeus for the long term, my combat capabilities will take a hit. Not to mention, Little Fish won’t have any help regulating the nova source from the ship for her divine wonders. Right as he thought that, something surprising happened. The pink star above suddenly split into three, complete with three identical glowing pink girls.

”What the fuck?” Xian Xian’s spiritform’s mouth was agape with shock. Even its spiritform hadn’t split up into many copies before. ”Why can it split but not me?!” Xian Xian was quite envious of how cool Ji Ji looked.

Tianming was just as taken aback. The three Ji Jis were completely identical. Apart from the glow that surrounded them, they looked like cute triplets that all had a hidden mean streak, except one of them was larger than the other two. Then, each one of them entered their own pink sphere. The largest of them fell straight into the opening toward the fusion formation while the other two stayed behind.

Everything clicked in Tianming’s head. Oh, it’s able to split up into three at the same time and operate independently? That was incredible news. He could use one for Spiritual Attachment, one for helping Moran with her divine wonders, and a third to alter the nova source of Gladeus. The largest one had gone on to the core of the planet. As for the other two, they didn’t have a need to remain separate for now, so they fused back together, and so did their spiritforms. Then the pink star returned to his lifebound space while the spiritform sat on his shoulder, shooting a smug glance at Xian Xian.

”Since when have you been able to split?” Xian Xian asked.

”After evolving, perhaps,” Ji Ji said, shaking its tiny legs.

”Why didn’t you say so earlier?”

”I’m not you. I don’t need to brag after getting every tiny ability. How lame.”

”Hmph! I bet three’s your limit. You’re not as impressive as Bug Bro, who has billions of copies,” Xian Xian proudly said.

”So what? I’m still stronger than you! It’ll be three-on-one the next time we fight!” Ji Ji scoffed.

”Three times zero is still zero. So what if you’ve got two more?”

”Do you want to test it out right now?”

”Alright, I’ll let you have it!”

Tianming’s ears rang from the two spiritforms on his shoulder. Feiling had to come over and coddle the two darlings for him to finally have some peace. Meanwhile, the onlookers were completely flabbergasted at what they had seen.

”What’re they going to do?”

”Did the etherean just let one of Lin Feng’s lifebound beast’s clones enter the star?”

The abyss finally closed up and the way to the fusion formation was gone. Lin Xiaodao returned to Tianming in an instant.

”Come on, I was just joking, and you bought it!” Tianming said.

”What?! You dare mess with me?!” Lin Xiaodao was going to lose it. ”Haha!”

”I’ll turn you into meat paste!”

”No, wait and see!”

The crowd was even more at a loss of words now.

”What’d you just do?” Lin Zhongtian asked.

”My disciple said that he would dye Gladeus pink,” Lin Xiaodao said.

”Pink?” Lin Xiaodao and the others laughed after a short pause.

”Wait, you believed him?” Lin Zhonghai facepalmed, but couldn’t stop himself from chortling.

”Of course I didn’t! How could I? Did you?” Lin Xiaodao said, clearing his throat.

”I don’t. Who in their right mind would?”

Everyone else joined in on the laughter.

”If you didn’t believe it, why’d you do all that?” Lin Zhongtian asked out of nowhere, causing everyone to quiet down.

”I... umm... haha, look! What’s that up in the sky?” Lin Xiaodao awkwardly tried to divert their attention.

”Don’t panic, everyone. Master said that he’d call me ’dad’ if I succeed,” Tianming said.

Everyone turned to look at the two of them, speechless. ”One’s a fool, the other’s fooled. Who’d believe that they’re actually ranked eighth and first among their peers?”

Either way, everyone seemed to take it all in a rather jolly manner.

”So? How’s it going?” Tianming asked Ji Ji as they continued laughing.

”It’ll take an hour. What’s the rush?” Ji Ji said.

”Lives are at stake here.”

”Hmph, who’d care about the life of an oathbreaker?” Ji Ji would never let herself forget the pleasure balls she had been promised.

......

An hour wasn’t that long, so Tianming kept waiting. During that time, Lin Xiaodao grew more and more flustered. People now knew that he was actually waiting for the pink to appear. Even if he was the etherean, that wouldn’t stop others from laughing at his expense. Little did the others know, the color wasn’t actually what Lin Xiaodao pined for. Tianming had said that it would also raise the power of the Hellstar Formation by thirty percent, which was what he really wanted. It was so important that it would be worth the humiliation of calling Tianming ’dad’.

”Etherean, this was worth it for the lightened mood,” Lin Zhongtian consoled.

”That’s right. The Skycross Lin Clan just formed, so there’s a lot to deal with. You should be on your way to handle such matters,” Lin Zhonghai said.

”Shut up, all of you.” Lin Xiaodao paced around with his hands behind his back, shooting Tianming a desperate look from time to time. An hour later, he came up to him and pulled on his collar. ”How dare you embarrass me? I’ve lost all credibility before my people! They now see me as a fool!”

”Shh.” Tianming’s smile didn’t waver in the slightest. He leaned in close to Lin Xiaodao’s ear and whispered, ”Prepare to call me ’dad’.”

”Huh?” Lin Xiaodao took three steps back, surprised. Tianming pointed at his feet, causing him to look down. Beneath him was the lakewater of Bladebath Palace. It used to look rather murky, due to the gray nova source. However, the muddy lake had turned completely clear and pink! It was a really faint pink, but it spread across the entire lake of Skycross Bladegrave.