Beastmaster of the Ages

”That veil....” Tianming had wanted to give a casual glance, only to be shocked. The veil was emerald green and much larger than normal veils to the point that it blocked the girl’s whole face, even her eyes!

”Looks like she isn’t just trying to put up an air of mystery with her veil....” Tianming was so shocked because he could detect the same kind of formation locks as he had seen on the old man’s leg cuffs. In fact, they seemed even more obvious. The complicated patterns of the formation locks could be seen on the surface of the veil, glowing red. It looked like there was a red spider on the girl’s face, which clashed against her emerald bamboo aura.

”It’s no wonder I felt a harshness coming from her... but it’s actually from the veil itself. It must be uncomfortable to wear formation locks on your face like that. Why does she have it? Is she being forced to wear it?” Either way, he had a feeling that the girl was different from the old man. The latter was being punished and chained down, while the girl seemed to be protected and could go anywhere she pleased.

”I wonder if I’ll be able to break those formation locks, too.” Tianming lowered his head. With the girl’s eyes behind the veil, she shouldn’t be able to get a good look at him. However, the middle-aged man beside her could, and Tianming didn’t dare to exchange glances with him.

”Forget it. It’s just another unnecessary thing I shouldn’t bother with.” As long as they didn’t bother him, he would focus on learning the battle art. Soon, the two people also left.

......

”Uncle Hei.” The girl paused after walking quite some distance.

”Lady, what’s the matter?” the middle-aged man asked.

”What do you think?”

The man stroked his chin and said, ”I think it’s a coincidence. He’s far too young.”

”Yes.” The girl seemed to agree.

”What do you think, My Lady?”

”I don’t know. Let’s watch and see. I’ve heard his stories and find him rather interesting. He was able to notice the formation locks at a glance, so he should be different at the very least.”

”Let us hope for the best, then,” said the man.

The girl turned back to look in Tianming’s direction, her eyes only very barely showing through her full-face veil. ”Uncle Hei, I’m too tired.”

”Do you want to go on a leisurely trip?”

”I do. Let’s pick a mundus mission to somewhere far away and go sightseeing. Perhaps that’ll make it easier to bear.” Her voice sounded somewhat desolate.

”No problem. They don’t restrict your movements, so I’ll take you wherever you wish to go,” said the man.

”I wish to go alone,” she said all of a sudden.

”This....” The man seemed troubled.

”Uncle Hei, with this around, I’m unable to die outside Myriadpath Valley. If even they aren’t worried, why should you be?” As she spoke, she pointed at the veil on her face. ”I can’t die. I can’t run either,” she continued with a sudden melancholic smile.

The man pondered in silence for a moment before nodding. ”Very well. I’ll await your homecoming at the Myriadpath Celestial Formation.”

”Is Myriadpath Valley my home?” she asked in a mocking tone before she made her way to the front part of Battlesky Hall. The man sighed and ran after her.

......

A few days passed after Tianming entered Battlesky Hall.

”I’ve more or less memorized everything. The details aren’t that hard, so I’ll go back and practice them!” With his Trisoul Prime talent, Azure Dragon Descent was relatively easy to master despite being of a higher class than the Grandvoid Compendium and Xiaozhi Sword Art.

The key difference was the type of order! Tianming didn’t have spacetime order, so learning the sword arts was quite hard for him. But with Lan Huang’s primordial order, he easily picked up Azure Dragon Descent, though it was definitely on a lower tier than the eight-fusion move of Imperator’s Mural.

”In other words, I have to look for battle arts and techniques that match my orders, or I’ll have to do a lot of extra work. With how many streams of order I have, that should make me compatible with many different battle arts, right?”

Having remembered the move in its entirety, he decided to return. ”Even though I wasn’t discovered by Huang Daosheng this time around, his Kilopath Net is really proving to be quite a menace. As long as it’s around, it’ll be a pain to get around.”

Being on the Fortuna Ranking, Tianming received lots of challenges from others. If he didn’t accept them, his ranking would fall and he would eventually be eliminated. As such, he couldn’t spend too much time in the Grand Myriadpath Ruins. If he could, he would have liked to cultivate for a long, ten-year burst.

”That’s right! Since my orders have grown, should I go to the Xenoabyss to try my luck?” If he could break through, the benefits would be huge. As he thought that, he reached the front hall where he could take on mundus missions. There were many more people there than in the rear hall. Tianming headed toward the stone steles that displayed the mission details and tried not to draw any attention to himself.

At that moment, someone behind him said, ”We lack a person for the mission to Darkfiend Den. Is there anyone that wants to join us? The darkfiends there are really powerful and can stun caeli. They’re considered to be one of the descendants of spectral progenitors. The mission’s requirements are anybody that’s in the Fortuna Ranking. The merit rewards are also tantalizing! We only need one more, so don’t take too long to consider!”

Darkfiends, spectral progenitors, and stunning caeli? Tianming was stunned at hearing those words in a row.

”Darkfiend sounds familiar....” Ying Huo said.

”The wonderians’ Skydome Battlefield also has a place called Darkfiend City. Inside, we turn into darkfiends that go on rampages. After that, they even left a darkfiend stigma on my caelum. I heard that the city and darkfiends actually exist. Apparently they’re one of the scattered bloodline descendants of spectral progenitors.”

Tianming’s recollection came fast. The darkfiends looked pretty similar to Archaionfiends. Spectral progenitors referred to distant ancestors of specters who weren’t considered lifebound beasts or wildbeasts. Archaionfiends were close cousins to spectral progenitors, but not considered a part of them. As for whether darkfiends were truly spectral progenitors, Tianming wasn’t sure.

Spectral progenitors were similar to Primordial Chaos Beasts in that they only had beast souls. Tianming had no idea how specters, their descendants, eventually got tripartite souls like humans did. Specters were much closer to humans, in fact, while spectral progenitors were closer to wildbeasts. As such, not even Tianming could be certain whether specters had truly descended from spectral progenitors.

At any rate, he was just working off some unconfirmed speculation that he had heard from the Archaionfiend.