Beastmaster of the Ages

The Grandvoid Compendium spanned five guidance steles in total. The one Tianming got on was the third one. The spacetime sword arts of the two reges mundi of the Swordgod Lin Clan were ancient creations to the people of the Infinitum Mundus. Nobody but them had possessed orders of time and space across the countless years of history in Ebonia. Even though many future disciples of the clan aspired to be like them, none had managed to do so. Some spent their entire lives studying those sword arts, but the sheer difficulty meant that few, if any, had managed to actually learn them. Merely removing the sword barriers to unlock the moves themselves was something few were capable of.

”It’s said that barely a handful of people in the clan were able to obtain the third strike of these moves.” Tianming relied on his usual cheat to break the sword barriers. After that, he would train with the help of Feiling. If Feiling herself was interested in the strike, she would be able to master it even faster than he could.

”This is....” He stepped upon the black stele and looked at it closely. Countless divine celestial patterns flowed around the surface. The previous move, Flowerfall Flow, had divine patterns that formed images of flowers and rivers on top of the stele. The one he was currently on was much larger, but the flow of water wasn’t much faster. However, it was no mere river, but an ocean. But it only took up half of the area, with the other covered in mountains, hills, paths, and mulberry fields.

Tianming noticed that the changes on both land and sea occurred fast. The sea flowed on and on, diverging countless times as the ground rumbled and shifted. The two systems seemingly fed into one another, each triggering change in the other that, in turn, affected themselves. The rocks in the ocean and the trees on land seemed to only exist for the slightest instant.

Tianming only had a single word to describe what he saw: fast. Time flowed quickly, changes occurred before he could process them, and the great universal flow never ceased or slowed. It was so fast that gigantic boulders from ancient times were weathered down into flat fields in the blink of an eye.

”The name of this strike must be From Seas to Fields.” Tianming noted that the crucial difference between this move and Delayed Capture was that Delayed Capture changed his own sword stance, while From Seas to Fields focused on changing an external target. In a sense, it twisted the flow of time of the outside world. After more observation and an explanation from Feiling, Tianming got a rough understanding of it.

”Alright, let’s start steal—I mean, studying the move!” Within the sealed space, Tianming stretched his Sky Plundering Hand toward the ancient sword barrier. No doubt, the one who had set the barrier up would never have imagined that such a young lad would ignore the barrier and directly study his third move. Sword barriers were actually there as teaching tools for the real deal itself. Its function was less obstacle and more teaching aid that only allowed progress once the previous part was well understood. But Tianming didn’t need any of that. After observing the barrier with his Sky Plundering Eye, he had a rough guess of the essence of the move after including his understanding of the previous two moves into the mix.

”By leveraging the order of time with my sword, I can create a localized area where time flows faster, creating an explosive move that not only takes the opponent off guard, but also increases the speed of my sword strike. I can also accelerate the leakage of energy from the opponent’s body after the attack. I’ll be prepared for the flow changes while my opponent won’t, giving me a decisive advantage.”

But that was just theorizing, for now. He still had to actually put that understanding to practice with Feiling’s help. He made sure to be careful as he unlocked the sword barriers. Eventually, he finally obtained the sword art’s quintessence.

”It’s more or less the way I imagined it!” His eyes flashed with excitement as he turned toward the bored Feiling. ”Ling’er, let’s dual cultivate!”

”Okay.” Every time they cultivated using Perpetia, she would be the one dominating him. She had been looking forward to seeing him in that haggard state once more.

”Today, I’ll show you how my Grand-Orient Sword will be able to strike faster than your Cicada Blast!” Tianming said with a naughty snicker.

She almost wanted to ask if he meant the other kind of dual cultivation from the way he put it.

......

Thus, the process of mastering the third move of Grandvoid Compendium began. The principles of space and time didn’t conflict with one another, so Tianming also unlocked the third move of the Xiaozhi Sword Art while he was at it. Surprisingly, that move was cruder and easier to understand. It was called Tristrike Worldshatter. Going with the naming scheme of the previous two moves, Unistrike Singularity and Duostrike Sandglass, one could say that the Unisword Goddess didn’t take herself too seriously. Ironically, that made him admire her even more.

Tristrike Worldshatter tapped into the order of space to shatter space using the sword, revealing a true void that sucked in the opponent. Even astral gods would feel the pull on their bodies. Coupled with the power of the strike itself, it would be a hard move to counter. Cosmic charts were supposed to be hard to destroy, given that they were the foundations of cosmic cartographers, yet Tristrike Worldshatter could even shatter space itself. It was extremely fatal to cosmic cartographers.

”It almost feels like these two seniors were writing love letters to each other with these moves. They alternate between focusing on control and explosiveness.” Delayed Capture was about control, while Unistrike Singularity was an explosion of power. However, Flowerfall Flow was explosive, while Duostrike Sandglass was more finely attuned. The third moves from both sword arts flipped that dynamic again. From Seas to Fields changed the flow of time to control the enemy’s reactions, while Tristrike Worldshatter’s sole purpose was the taking of lives.

”The Grandvoid Swordfiend created his sword art first, while the Unisword Goddess followed later. Maybe she’s the one that intentionally matched the Grandvoid Swordfiend. They were both unmatched in their era and didn’t need to synergize their sword arts together at all. Perhaps they had hoped that they would be reborn as lovers again in their next lives and dominate the universe after relearning the sword arts they created!”

Researching a new sword art was incredibly time consuming, taking thousands of years at a time. Not to mention, most sword arts that were created seldom surpassed those that already existed. As such, there was little point in doing so. The core duty of the cultivator was to study the innovations of their forebears, after all! The same principle also applied to formations, astralships, and legacy caeli. On the part of those that came before, perhaps that was their way of ensuring that their names were forever remembered in the annals of history. Holding respect in his heart, Tianming cultivated like a madman in Perpetia.

”I’m faster! You’re slower! Hahaha!”

”Big Brother, let’s stop using this to practice your swordsmanship in the future, alright?”

”No! Keep the Cicada Blasts coming!”

Should the Grandvoid Swordfiend emerge from the mausoleum to see how Tianming was practicing his magnum opus, he would die from rage, or perhaps incredible envy for those two being able to do what he didn’t dare to in his lifetime.