Beastmaster of the Ages

There was no conflict between Tianming’s two paths. As long as he didn’t forget the foundation of his strength and didn’t place too much trust in the Galactic Emperor’s power, he would be fine. He still cared about making real breakthroughs.

Still, his desire to grow stronger was definitely related to the pure difference in size that he kept noticing. The Upper Star Ruin was a place filled with giants and it hurt to constantly have to look up to meet their gazes! The sensation of being dwarfed was far from pleasant. Even if he could defeat overflowers, that sensation of discomfort didn’t change.

”I have to find a different way of strengthening myself that isn’t related to the flameyellow descendants. The Ancient Oldgod Domain is the way!” Bai Ye’s terra and vita were still there, with twenty-seven and forty-five infant souls. That was a lot more than the caelum had. Taking them over would give him a total of eighty-one infant souls, including the nine he already had!

”The terra and vita have reached their limit as they haven’t engaged in symbiotic cultivation. It’s a shame that I won’t be able to bring these five million flameyellow descendants with me to the Ancient Oldgod Domain all at once, or I’d be able to fight Sixth’s terra with my current level of power.”

The Myriadpath Celestial Formation and Order Formation’s transfer speed might be fast, but they both had a hard limit on how many people they could transport. They served a completely different purpose than divine astralships. The Ancient Oldgod Domain was located in the depths of the Xenoworld, which couldn’t be reached by divine astralships, either. Tianming would have to grow his personal power to take down the terra.

”I can fight fourth-level overflowers right now, but cosmic gods exist from God Domain Nine onward. If Bai Ye’s terra’s territory doesn’t have any cosmic gods, its combat capabilities have an upper limit, probably at the peak of the Overflower stage. Bai Ye’s caelum and I will have to grow quite a bit stronger.” For now, the only thing he could do was have Zi Zhen guard God Domain One.

”That location is incredibly important. If it’s revealed, word that the Original Sin Pool vanished will also spread across the Upper Star Ruin, which wouldn’t just make it hard for me to get more overflower fragments. They might even go all the way to my dynasty for it!”

At the very least, Yanri Shuang and the Cosmic God Palace had been taken care of. ”Long Qian said that ships in the Upper Star Ruin are marked down to their divine astralship formations, so even if I take the control cores, their locations will still be broadcast. I can’t use the Cosmic God Palace for my own ends, then.” Even though he couldn’t really use it, he still took the formation core to check out the star map of the ship.

”Wow! It can even use the wormhole expressway!” The only reason it hadn’t done so during the return trip to Starmoon Haven was the relatively short distance to begin with. Opening the wormhole expressway was a waste of nova source for such a short trip, since it wouldn’t even save that much time.

”Starmoon Haven is supposed to be a large fortuna-class world that isn’t too far away, yet I’m unable to see even a blink of light from it! The Upper Star Ruin is too dark.” That kind of darkness made it feel like there were traps in its midst. Fortunately, he had Yin Chen for scouting purposes.

Tianming looked around the star map and felt rather disappointed that Saturatia-49 wasn’t on it. If it was, he would probably use the Cosmic God Palace to seek out Lingfeng. ”It sounds like the Upper Star Ruin is separated into regions ruled by different factions. Even though the wormhole expressway exists, not every single ship is allowed to travel as they please, just like how the Cosmic God Palace doesn’t have authorization to travel to Saturatia-49....”

Annoyed, he continued studying the star map. He came to realize that it spanned the current region they were in and had around a hundred star worlds labeled, most of them fortuna class. The Midsky Tristars were situated near the central area and in their midst was a black star. ”A maniverse-class world! Ninefold Hellstar....”

It was a familiar name. Back at the Flameyellow Continent, Ninefold Hell was home to Bodhi and his specters.... But those two worlds couldn’t be related. Ninefold Hell was merely a fallen stellunar source world, whereas the real Ninefold Hellstar was probably the real deal. Thinking about Zhantian Feng, Tianming had a rough idea.

”The maniverse-class world probably belongs to specters. That means the ruling power in this region is the divine devan race, specters with top devan bloodlines like Zhantian Feng. The maniverse-class world is probably where cosmic gods reside. I wonder if Eighth will be excited to go there. Maybe it’ll even hatch there.”

Tianming looked forward to his eventual journey there. ”Zhantian Feng probably dreams of becoming a cosmic god and going to Ninefold Hellstar....” Though it was reserved for cosmic gods, Tianming wanted to go there sooner as well as visit Saturatia-49. Since rescuing people was his top priority, he had to give up on the Cosmic God Palace. He used the ship’s core to detach the cultivation rooms containing the planet- and galaxy-class orders from the ship.

”Send these to the tomb,” Tianming instructed.

Long Qian brought a few dragonoids with her to carry the cultivation rooms away. It was quite the joyous occasion to obtain cosmic god caeli. It was something that the dragonoids could only dream of, yet they were actually carrying them away with them. ”After suffering our entire lives, we’ll finally be able to enjoy access to good resources!”

They would get more and more things, especially with the ordered manna, cosmic artifacts, and battle techniques that Tianming had pilfered from the Three Great Cults.

Yanri Shuang, however, felt like her heart was bleeding at the sight of all the treasures being taken away. ”The Cosmic God Palace’s caeli are precious even in Starmoon Haven, those three galaxy-class ones in particular.... They’re peak cosmic god caeli that Ninefold Hellstar gifted to us!”

They were all gone! Normally, the Cosmic God Palace was always near Starmoon Haven and it’d never been ransacked, yet that very thing had just happened. What was worse was that Tianming even pocketed everything else that was valuable in her spatial ring like a miser.

Fortunately, he hadn’t taken her Solunar Divine Wheel, so she had managed to retain some combat capability. However, it didn’t take long before she realized what that meant. He’s going to use me against my own people.... Her entire life was going to be ruined! Then again, if she chose death, she would be a goner as well! Who in the world are they?!

”They’re those who are destined to overthrow the Heavenly Dao!” Bai Ye said in her mind.

”Can you spy on my thoughts?!”

”Spying? I do it openly!”

Yanri Shuang gave up.

In the end, Tianming left her in the husk of the ship. ”Is anyone going to come to pick you up?”

”Zhantian Feng and Luori Xuanlie are headed here,” she obediently answered.

”Alright. Get them to take you to the Middlekin Star Ruin. Stay there. I’ll need you to help me mess with them!” Tianming said with a chuckle.