Beastmaster of the Ages

Lin Xiaodao was the etherean of Gladeus, but he couldn’t call all the shots. While he could ask his clan to defend their homeland, asking them to abandon it was a different thing. Few, if any, would follow through with what he wanted to do. Not to mention, moving was always the most troublesome thing one could do. The difficulty of moving a single household to another world was hard enough already, let alone millions and billions of them.

Moving an entire ether-class world to another was something that was unprecedented. As such, the complexities that may arise from such an undertaking were impossible to predict. That aside, there were still many ebons on Gladeus. They were still considered enemies to be wary of.

Tianming, having had the experience of moving Violetglory, knew that they wouldn’t have nearly enough time to do the same for Gladeus, even with the Sun’s powerful formations. The ebons and their alliance might arrive long before he was even partway to completion. Being interrupted at that juncture would doom both Gladeus and the Sun.

”Gladeus is an ether-class world, something that is already a treasure in the Infinitum Mundus to begin with. Abandoning it is a huge shame and waste. How many generations of work went into developing its fusion and astralguard formations?” While Tianming did want the Sun to grow stronger more quickly, he would only achieve that through ownerless nova source worlds. It would be far too horrendous to prey on developed, thriving worlds to fuel the Sun’s growth, not to mention completely disregarding the feelings of the worlds’ inhabitants.

Tianming also knew that such a decision was like asking Lin Xiaodao to give up a huge part of his control. All the hard work and investment he had put into Gladeus would go to waste. Surely, that would hurt more than cutting a chunk of flesh off his body. Lin Xiaodao and the Gladeans would have to sacrifice far too much for that plan to work.

The ebons were coming for Tianming and Lin Xiaodao alone, so why should the people have to pay for their actions? Tianming and Wudi were firmly in agreement about their stance on the matter.

”No, no, no!” Lin Xiaodao suddenly broke into a laugh. ”The two of you misunderstand me. I also know that I’d be a disgrace for life if I let Gladeus be consumed for nothing. Apart from the tenth branch, the other Gladeans wouldn’t agree with something like that.

”Then what’re your actual intentions?” Wudi and Tianming seemed intrigued. They had a feeling that Lin Xiaodao had a plan of his own.

”Listen up—” Before he could finish, Tianming pressed his hand on their shoulders.

”The Sun doesn’t have to suck all of Gladeus dry. That way, the Gladeans won’t have to move to the Sun, either! Think about it. What’re the ebons expecting to find here? Me? The Gladean Ruins? The tenth branch of the Swordgod Lin Clan that they want to eliminate so much? That’s all they want to eliminate, right? They won’t be going after other Gladeans.”

”That’s right.”

”In other words, the moment the tenth branch, the Gladean Ruins, and my closest pals move to the Sun, we can turn off the Hellstar Formation and let the ebons enter. So what if they take control of the entire star? As long as we aren’t around, Gladeus would legally belong to the Infinitum Bodhimanda. The people that remain there would be under their jurisdiction as well. After we, the so-called ‘traitors’, leave, they wouldn’t be able to act against the common folk, right? After all, they’re using ’punishing traitors’ as a pretense for the war. They can’t do what they want, like the Star Hunters.” The ebons had indeed chosen an upstanding pretense for their crusade this time around. Not to mention, once the Lin Clan left Gladeus, the most numerous group would be the ebons.

”We’ll only have the tenth branch, our allies, and their scattered branches retreat. That’d only add up to around ten billion people, most of whom are ascendants or above. They’ll even be much easier to move, since most of them already have astralships. Not to mention, the tenth branch is arguably just a distant branch family with less history than the Infinitum Swordsea in the first place. That allows us to be more flexible. A migration of that scale would only take around half a day once the Sun is near enough,” Lin Xiaodao said.

Tianming and Wudi nodded their agreement. That was the most practicable plan yet; migrating would be so much easier than before, now that they had access to divine astralships.

”So what’ll happen to Gladeus?” Tianming asked. Opening up the Hellstar Formation and giving Gladeus to the ebons could indeed avoid the war. While Gladeus would fall under ebon occupation, Lin Xiaodao was still the administrator of its astralguard and fusion formations. As long as he was alive, the world would still be his and he would still have full control of the formations regardless of what the ebons have to say about it, making it a symbolic target with no strategic use at all. Gladeus would be nothing but an unappetizing meal.

”What do we do about its nova source, too?” Since they were only leaving with the tenth branch and other affiliated people, most of the population would be left behind. They would still be able to continue the long legacy of Gladeus.

”We’ll take away two-thirds of the nova source and make the Sun an ether-class world! I studied the intricacies of Gladeus’ fusion formation. Losing two-thirds of its nova source won’t have a huge effect on its volume, and the lands and seas won’t be shaken, either. Only the density of nova source would be decreased, which will result in fewer cosmic impulses manifesting. In fact, Gladeus would still be able to maintain its status as an ether-class world for the next ten thousand years. Only after that would it fall to the standard of a world three times the size of a standard sanctuary-class world, basically what the Sun is now. Gladeus in its current form has a rather poor environment, too, thanks to the nova source storms. The nova source simply is far too dense. Taking some away would considerably calm them down.”

That was the case for many high-class nova source worlds. Losing two-thirds of their nova source would cause the worlds to eventually shrink. Like the Flameyellow Imperial Star, they would lose land and sea until they stopped when they fell all the way down to the heliacal class. Since Lin Xiaodao was the administrator and had full control over the fusion formation, his words could be trusted.

Initially, Tianming and Wudi had thought that method wasn’t worth exploring at all. But little did they know that Lin Xiaodao actually had that in mind.

Lin Xiaodao slapped his thighs and said, ”Alright, it’s settled. It’ll annoy me to be demoted from administrator of an ether-class world to that of a sanctuary-class world, but it’s the only way we can minimize our losses and retain whatever resources we can muster. I’ll sacrifice myself so that all of us can thrive! Even if the Sun will only become an ether-class world for now, I look forward to its endless potential as an infinitum-class world in the future.”