Beastmaster of the Ages

”Yes.” Lin Xiaodao had seen Tianming fight and knew how powerful his orders were, though he thought his infernal order was like any ordinary fire-type order. It didn’t matter. With his infernal order, Tianming could defeat any battle art related to fire-type orders.

”There’s about four that are barely suitable, but that isn’t important right now. Make sure not to bite off more than you can chew. Choose one and forget about the others for now. If you can gain even ten percent of what I learned from a mural, you’ll be able to crush any orderan!” he added.

The man was bragging again. Ten percent? Tianming understood. Taking a deep breath, he asked, ”Master, which mural did you use?” If it was also suitable for him, he might as well choose the one that Lin Xiaodao had already mastered. After all, having someone to guide him would shorten the process.

”Don’t even think about it. What I have is reaper order. You don’t possess my kind of deadly power,” Lin Xiaodao laughed.

”Oh, so you mean to say that the mural depicts a world of death?” Tianming had just glanced at a mural of a gray world from the corner of his eye when a terrifying force seemed to pull him toward it. It resembled a hell of death and torment, with mountains of corpses and seas of blood, and deathly faces swarming every corner staring at him in mournful despair. In that split second, fear washed over him.

”Yes. The murals will suck your caelum into what feels like a real world. I cultivated in that world called ’Death’, and searched for the meaning of the sword art through the trajectory of the world. When I was deep in cultivation, I saw a gray giant a thousand meters tall. He wore a gray dragon robe and was extremely terrifying. He told me that he was Imperator Death and called his sword art the Death Imperatoris.” Lin Xiaodao’s voice slightly trembled. It was obvious that recalling the scene still affected him.

Tianming nodded.

”I think there’s a keyword to each of these murals. For example, in this mural, the keyword is ‘death’. Looking back now, I realize that all the lines within the mural make up the word,” said Lin Xiaodao.

”Is that so?” No particular word had left an impression on Tianming yet. ”Master, do you know what the other words are?” he asked.

Lin Xiaodao awkwardly laughed. ”That’s rather difficult. Of course, I’ve studied them all, but I recognize only one word aside from ‘death’.”

”What is it?” Tianming asked with his eyes closed.

”Carnage.”

It took a long time before Tianming learned how to write the character.

”The word ‘Carnage’ on this mural is formed by lightning, which is why I think its sword art might be suitable for you. I suggest you practice it. After all, you have a lightning-type lifebound beast and an order that contains the suppressive power of lightning. Lightning sword arts are usually violent and lethal. The two reges mundi’s spacetime sword arts are more elegant and profound, but lack brutality and aggression. With this sword art, your technique will be perfect.” As an expert, Lin Xiaodao certainly made sense.

Lightning? In fact, Tianming’s order was called the genesis order. Genesis, or primal chaos, far surpassed lightning. However, it could definitely control lightning. ”Alright then. I’ll begin with this one. I must entirely concentrate on it and forget about the other eight murals for now?” he asked.

”Yes, if you don’t forget the other eight murals, you won’t be able to enter it,” Lin Xiaodao replied.

”Got it.” Tianming knew what to do. He took a deep breath. ”Master, will I meet Imperator Carnage in the mural after I master this sword art? So it’s called Carnage Imperatoris?”

”Most likely!” said Lin Xiaodao.

”Imperator? Is that a title? One superior to the rex mundi?” Tianming asked. Imperial-class, imperator? Are they related?

”I don’t know. There might be seventh-level nova source worlds out there, but the astralscape of order is just too vast. There’s barren, uninhabited space between mundi that would take a hundred years to cross on an infinitum-class astralship. We only have a lifespan of a few thousand years, so who can make it out?” Lin Xiaodao said, powerless. After all, the cosmos was boundless.

In fact, the Skydome and Infinitum Mundi were very close, so Tianming left it at that. Right now, his goal was to cultivate the Carnage Imperatoris and forget about the other eight murals.

”Start with this mural. I’ll study the others and try to figure out what the words are and what kind of order they represent,” Lin Xiaodao added.

”Alright!” Tianming nodded. ”Master, do you know the name of this collection of sword arts?”

”No, I just picked one myself,” Lin Xiaodao laughed, patting him on the shoulder. ”I call them the Imperator’s Mural.”

”It sounds domineering, but a little tacky,” Tianming admitted.

”It’s still better than our ancestor, who named a sword art after herself.” Lin Xiaodao retorted. He obviously meant Lin Xiaozhi’s Xiaozhi Sword Art. ”Alright, forget about everything else and go get struck by lightning!”

……

Gladeus, the pink star, was bright and brilliant. It had transformed from a gray hell to a dreamland, and was now even stronger and more terrifying. Perhaps anyone passing by would stop to appreciate such a beautiful star, only to be overwhelmed by the magnificence and splendor of its nova source. Gladeus truly deserved to be the main star in its cluster.

At that moment, a fleet of astralships was zipping through space not too far from Gladeus. There was something unique about them—a large number of them were shaped like sharp gears. Once the gear-shaped ships rotated, they would cause unimaginable destruction. Most importantly, there were ten thousand of them, all at least skypiercer class. An army of ten thousand skypiercer-class astralships, led by several ether-class ships, was a force to be reckoned with. If anyone were to approach them, they would immediately notice two large words written in blood and bone: “Star Hunters.”

They were strange, indifferent, and elusive. They frightened everyone as they swept across different mundi. In the vast astralscape of order, they were the most vile and unreasonable group of people, and destroying a world to extract its nova source was nothing out of the ordinary for them. They were demons of the cosmos in peaceful times. However, it wasn’t typical for them to convene on such a large scale.

Their astralships briefly stopped just as they passed Gladeus. After admiring its beauty, the fleet whizzed away once more, heading for the star-studded region ahead known as the Myriadstar Zone.