Beastmaster of the Ages

Tianming informed Zi Zhen about the success of the mobile stareye through Bai Ye. It was what he had promised her before. ”Did she seem happy after hearing about it?”

”I don’t know. She ran off after hearing it, and even tripped, crushing a whole wing of the palace!” Bai Ye said.

”That girl....” Tianming knew that she must have been overjoyed. The fact that she had chosen to stay behind was a huge gamble. She was betting on him managing to figure out a way for them to easily travel. The bet had paid off, so it was no wonder she felt like she did.

”So if I travel to the Myriadpath Celestial Formation, then to Antiquitas Mortis, then use the Order Formation to go to the Ancient Oldgod Domain, the whole trip won’t even take three months!” That was merely a blink of an eye. It was much shorter than he had imagined.

”It wasn’t easy to make Auntie, Yaoyao, and Zi Zhen all happy!” Tianming told Bai Ye, ”Have Zi Zhen check if God Domain One is doing fine. If she isn’t needed there for now, tell her she can come over to help me.”

”Got it, sheesh!” Bai Ye, unlike Yin Chen, could talk normally, but it didn’t like to pass word around as much. ”She said that things aren’t too stable yet. Someone from God Domain Two came down, but the wonderian sisters managed to trick them into returning. She can’t promise nobody else will come. It’ll be hard to keep things under wraps.”

”Alright.”

Either way, Tianming had told her that she could just give up on God Domain One if they couldn’t keep up the charade. Another piece of good news was that Zi Zhen had become a sixth-level overflower. Coupled with her ninehall eyes, her combat capability was incredibly high. The only ones who could threaten her there were peak overflowers.

”With the Ancient Oldgod Domain and my dynasty taken care of, it’s time I start working here.” In that time, Tianming had learned everything the wonderian sisters knew about the Middlekin Star Ruin. ”Even though they haven’t heard of the star ruin before, they know about the middlekin star. It’s the compressed form of an unclaimed nova source world that’s deific class or higher. It’s compressed so much that it becomes a radiant starform. A deific-class world compressed to that extent is only a hundred meters wide without any change in mass!”

Only a few tens-of-meters-tall overflowers would be needed to hoist a deific-class world of that size on their shoulders! Such was a middlekin star, compressed to the limits of mass and space with an unbelievable density. Most nova source worlds formed cosmic impulses when compressed to their limits. In fact, even things like midsky and yin-yang essences were forms of incredibly compressed nova source, yet they were far from comparable to middlekin stars.

”What’s even stranger is that middlekin stars naturally form! They’re the highest-quality form of unclaimed nova source!”

Deific-class middlekin stars were a hundred meters in diameter, sanctuary-class ones were up to a thousand, and ether-class ones went up to ten thousand meters. Infinitum-class middlekin stars could go up to a hundred thousand! While that seemed wide, it wasn’t anything compared to the likes of astral giants and divine astralships. An infinitum-class middlekin star could easily be transported using the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb.

”Infinitum-class middlekin stars are the largest kind. They’re the foundation of the creation of fortuna-, maniverse-, and imperial-class worlds!” After nova source worlds consumed middlekin stars, the energy and mass within would no doubt expand. It wouldn’t be that tightly compressed any longer and would expand into forms like midsky and yin-yang essences.

”In other words, I can transport an infinitum-class middlekin star by dragging it with the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb to hypercharge the Sun!” That was the reason the Sun needed middlekin stars. No matter their size, they were useful enough. The only difference was their mass.

”Middlekin stars also have formations that can’t be undone except by throwing them into nova-source worlds. They’re high-quality batteries made by the universe itself, and much easier to transport compared to unclaimed nova sources in the Lower Star Ruins.”

One would have to spend a long time constructing transport formations in the Lower Star Ruins to move unclaimed nova sources around, while middlekin stars could easily be dragged back using an astralship.

The smallest middlekin stars—deific-class ones—were only a hundred meters across. But even a single one of them would contain enough energy to sustain an entire deific-class world, like Skyway Tristar. Tianming really wanted to see what nova source would look like when compressed to such a degree.

He turned and looked in the direction of the radiant universal flower ahead of him.

”So the Middlekin Star Ruins are basically mines for middlekin stars. The black mirror at the center of them is apparently called a divine channel, and is said to lead to the ancestral world where all middlekin stars originate. Like bubbles, they float through the divine channel to the Upper Star Ruin, only to be harvested as a key cultivation and world resource by many great powers that reside in huge, powerful stars!”

The most sought after things in the Upper Star Ruin were indeed middlekin stars. As long as they existed, achieving aeons of prosperity was possible! As such, Middlekin Star Ruins were also really important to them. ”There might be many Middlekin Star Ruins within the Upper Star Ruin! This one is where Myriadpath Valley used to be before it collapsed. It also seems to be the final place that the Flameyellow Imperial Star fell to!”

It was no wonder that a new number had appeared on the Middlekin Star Ruin’s name on the Flameyellow Atlas when they’d arrived: number 39872.

”The Flameyellow Imperial Star can only return to its former glory after absorbing enough middlekin stars. Only then can it support opening the Flameyellow Divine Path to many other places. However, there must be many powerful factions above this Middlekin Star Ruin. I wonder if they have some kind of formation or something that’ll let me quickly travel to Saturatia-49, or maybe even some kind of divine astralship with a wormhole expressway....”

The Blissful Union wouldn’t work, as its star map didn’t cover the Upper Star Ruin. The Ninedragon Imperial Tomb wasn’t capable of it, either, since it only had the Flameyellow Atlas.

”The strongest person on the Sun now is Godfather armed with his Flameyellow Coffin, followed by Little Fish with her divine wonders at full blast, then me and Qingyu.” Tianming decided that he would take Moran and Qingyu with him to the Middlekin Star Ruin. Since the Sun couldn’t afford to closely approach the ruin, they decided to travel the final stretch using the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb. At the fortuna class, it was incredibly powerful.

”Dad, I’ll leave this place to you,” Qingyu said, somewhat nervous.

”Go ahead! I’m already used to watching the home. While you’re busy, I’ll focus on cultivating and surpassing all of you!” Wudi muttered. After bathing almost daily in the Flameyellow Bloodsoul in his coffin, he had leveled up rather fast.

The black nine-headed mechanical dragon emerged from the Sun into the void of space. Thanks to its color, it didn’t draw much attention, especially against the dark backdrop of space. Soon, Tianming saw many divine astralships near the Middlekin Star Ruin, dragging middlekin stars away.

”The fact that they’re transporting them from such a near distance with ships means there’s nearby nova source worlds of fortuna class and above!” He wondered how many powerful beasts laid in ambush under the backdrop of the dark forest of stars.