Beastmaster of the Ages

Everything seemed to recede within the vast world, including the ancestral idol. ”What’s this?”

Tianming saw a hexagonal crystal box at the center of the idol. It shone with six colors of starlight that kept changing and shifting. He saw a familiar face and hand on the surface—they were the same as the ones in the thousandface idol!

Once more, the same words flashed across the box, reading ’Midstar Myriadpath’. Tianming stretched his hand out to touch it.

”There’s a formation lock....” He immediately noticed all the layered formations on the box and smiled. ”If it’d been anybody else, they’d know better and back off. Did you think only the one you have left it for would get it? Too bad, I’m a sky plunderer!”

Tianming used his black hand right away. The Sky Plundering Eye was merciless, peering straight through the interconnecting threads of the formation locks. All the while, his ancestral order kept absorbing the energy of the ancestral idol, causing it to shrink to only two meters in height.

Suishen Zhao was within the two-meter-span of stars as well, but he was completely out cold and couldn’t see anything. He was truly being carried to the finish line, literally sleeping his way through everything.

The ancestral idol was under control, but the formation locks on the box seemed even more complex than the ones on Jian Qinghe’s veil. Tianming had to give it his full attention. Even finding the main ’knot’ took him ages.

Once he did, he began unraveling it. As that was an innate talent of his race, there wasn’t anything specific he had to do. As long as he gave it care and attention, he wouldn’t make any mistakes.

”Phew!” Finally, it was done. Tianming felt that he had used half a day to do just that. The crystal box’s formation locks finally fell apart, causing the box to open. A rainbow key appeared before his eyes, but before he could react, it shot into his body and seemed to fuse into him near his lower abdomen.

”Huh? What was that?” It felt like the key had completely vanished, but it was only temporarily hidden. ”There’s two idols left.... Maybe I’ll find a use for the key later. But seeing as how tough the combat challenge of the thousandface idol was, I probably won’t stand a chance with the eighth idol at all.”

Tianming looked down near his belly, where a picture of the key could be seen.

”It looks like it’s pointing down,” Ying Huo said.

Tianming found the positioning rather awkward. ”I’ll figure it out later!”

By then, the starlight from the ancestral idol had completely fused with his ancestral order, causing it to grow. All traces of the light then vanished. With Suishen Zhao still knocked out, Tianming had to hold him up.

The world around them disappeared and Tianming found himself back on the vast Prehistoric Path. He couldn’t see anyone else, apart from Suishen Zhao. But he had managed to clear the idol.

While Tianming was still somewhat dazed, a violent cheer erupted from the audience that almost sent him flying! The gasps of millions of astral gods at the same time could kill billions of people in Ebonia.

”Li Tianming!” The saints and reverends all chanted his name. Tianming felt a little lightheaded. At the crescendo of the chants, he turned back and looked at the Midsky Myriadpath Stele, where his name was on the very top of the Fortuna Path rank! Qitian Jian, Suishen Yao, and the rest had been eliminated. Not a single person on the Maniverse Path had cleared the ancestral idol, either.

”Was I the only one who passed? Did I break the record of the Fortuna Path?” Nobody could have imagined that a black ring disciple of less than a hundred years of age would be able to achieve something like that. The Prehistoric Path also tested combat, not just talent! Even if Tianming’s combat capabilities kept rising, he wouldn’t be able to rival Qitian Jian and the rest, yet he had managed to emerge as number one after clearing the seventh round!

”We finally have the confirmed ranking of the Prehistoric Path!”

Tianming would soon receive a terrifying reward; that alone was enough to move him.

With all that chatter, Suishen Zhao didn’t stay unconscious for long. He opened his eyes in a daze and noticed that he was in Tianming’s embrace in full public view. In a drowsy voice, he asked, ”Did you make it?”

”I did,” Tianming said with a smile.

”Number one! Ah!” Even someone of Suishen Zhao’s upbringing couldn’t hold it in when he realized the kind of reward he would receive thanks to the five times multiplier he had. The minor pathkeeper jumped around with excitement. ”Brother, that’s amazing! Unbelievable!”

He could see from the eyes of the countless cultivators that they had acknowledged Tianming for good. He was now at the very top in their eyes. Not to mention, their team had a combined age of less than two hundred years old, yet they’d managed to surpass teams on the Maniverse Path with combined ages of four thousand.

It was a miracle no matter how one put it. Everybody kept calling it that with disbelief. No amount of wild imagination could possibly conjure these results, yet they were simply facts!

”That’s absolutely divine!”

”Li Tianming’s name will be known for eons on end!”

”He’s a top figure in the astralscape now, no doubt. It’s far too amazing.”

”Who could have guessed? It’s ridiculous!”

Both black and gold ring disciples seemed to feel some measure of pride in him.

”Have you all wondered what his rewards would be like?”

”I didn’t even dare to imagine!”

”He’ll get a few million merit points at least. He can get anything he wants with that kind of wealth.”

”Heavens....”

The commotion kept going for a long while. Even Suishen Yao was absolutely stunned. Then she popped out without Tianming noticing and pushed him straight to the ground, sending her younger brother flying.

”What’s going on, Little Master?” Tianming asked, still in a daze.

”You’ve made me incredibly proud. I’ll reward you with a kiss!”