Beastmaster of the Ages

Shortly after Tianming killed the Baili brothers, Yuan Long’s transmission stone lit up. Her gaze flickered as she opened the transmission stone and politely greeted, “Uncle Baili”.

“Yuan Long! Where’s my sons? Are they with you?” A black-robed cosmic god said in a rough voice from the other side, clearly agitated.

“They aren’t here,” Yuan Long said. Then her expression changed and she continued, “Uncle Baili, did something happen to them?”

“They’re dead!” the black-robed cosmic god glared at Yuan Long and growled, “Earlier, they said they’d already regrouped with you. So how did you get separated again?”

Yuan Long knew he was blaming her. She pursed her lips and calmly replied, “It’s like this: we discovered a ruin, but they were too reckless. When I admonished them, they insisted on going their own way to hunt for treasures. Uncle Baili, I truly couldn’t help it. Everyone else on the team can testify to what I said.”

“You’re certain?” The black-robed cosmic god coldly looked at her. “Yuan Long, I’m a sworn brother to your father. I watched you grow up and I trust your character. Don’t let me down!”

Yuan Long considered it for a moment, then could only say, “I’m sorry something happened to them.... I’ll do my best to investigate and find out who did it. It’s also possible the ruin itself is dangerous.”

“Either way, I expect an explanation!” the black-robed cosmic god said.

“I’ll try my best,” Yuan Long nodded.

The black-robed cosmic god gave her a long, deep look, then shut off the transmission. Elders like him couldn’t enter this lower ruin at all.

Once the transmission stone dimmed, Yuan Long and the others in her team fell into silence.

“This means that either someone else has entered, or this place really is hiding a deadly threat,” Qin Feng said.

“What’s done is done. Everyone be extra cautious,” Yuan Long said with a complex expression as she looked toward the deep cavern ahead. So far, they hadn’t discovered anything aside from the little beastballs.

With the Baili brothers’ deaths, the group huddled even closer and continued their exploration together.

“These little things....” Yuan Long picked up one of the beastballs. At first, it struggled and glared at her, able to sense the terrifying threat she posed. “Don’t be afraid.” She gently stroked it.

“Big Sis Yuan Long, these things are special unintelligent lifeforms of the ancestral world. Their heads are empty. Bonding won’t do anything,” Qin Feng laughed.

Yuan Long ignored him. After a while, she closed her eyes and seemed to enter a sleep-like state as if her caelum had left her body.

“Big Sis Yuan Long?” Qin Feng called out to her.

The young female cosmic god was briefly startled and simply stared at the beastball in her hand.

“Did you discover something?” Qin Feng asked.

“No.” Yuan Long sucked in a breath, then ordered the others, “For now, everyone bring out any binding or imprisoning artifacts. Let’s capture some of these little beastballs. If we don’t find anything else in the end, we can bring them back for the elders to study.”

“These things are dumb as rocks. What possible use could they have?” Qin Feng muttered, rolling his eyes.

“You sure do babble a lot!” Yuan Long shot him a glare.

The others nodded, agreeing that Yuan Long made a good point.

Qin Feng went off running, chasing after a beastball. After finally catching one, he pinched its little face and laughed, “Come on, little guy. Tell daddy your secret!”

The beastball glared at him and denounced him with a fierce chirp!

Another young man asked Yuan Long, “How many of these things should we collect before we leave?”

“There’s probably plenty more of these little beastballs in the relic. Don’t worry about the number for now. Be cautious. If you encounter anything you can’t handle, immediately withdraw!” she warned again.

“Yes!” Everyone nodded.

Yuan Long lowered her head and continued gently stroking the beastball in her hand, softly murmuring, “Good boy... I’ll take you all out of here and let you realize your true value. Each of you is an unbelievable treasure....”

***

Just as Yuan Long began capturing beastballs, another team discovered the pulsing heart and stepped inside. As they looked around the desolate ancient ruins, the group of young men and women from an orbiter world of the Ninefold Hellstar were visibly excited.

“Big Brother! This is definitely a good place! How could a normal relic have such rhythmic pulses and flashes?” a girl in a black dress excitedly murmured. She had a voluptuous figure, pale skin, and a solidly powerful physique. At over a hundred meters tall, she was quite imposing.

The man she addressed as Big Brother was a cosmic god specter. His divine body was pitch-black and his face was covered by a rigid mask, the two eyes containing six pupils.

The moment Yin Chen saw him, it felt a sense of déjà vu, as the man looked almost identical to a member of House Yumo in Myriadpath Valley. The only difference was that he had already reached the Cosmic God stage, so the aura of the skyghoul race on him was even more vicious, violent, and monstrous.

It wasn’t a mask, but rather his real face.

The girl beside him was, unsurprisingly, also a skyghoul. Just like Yumo Lianqing, she was quite beautiful in human form. Only after transforming would she reveal her true demonic form.

“That youth’s already a cosmic god. Clearly, House Yumo has good talent! It’s just that cultivation conditions differ between the Upper and Lower Star Ruins. Those in the Lower Star Ruins can’t even become overflowers,” Tianming concluded.

From that, he deduced that, if he wanted Jiguang and the others to progress faster, they would ultimately need to come to the Upper Star Ruin. Now that the construction of the Tianming Dynasty in the Tianming Star Ruin was stabilizing, Jiguang could visit the Sun more often.

After all, it was convenient to travel back and forth now.

He ordered Yin Chen to monitor the specters while he himself was immersed in cultivation. In the vast world, power was everything. No matter how many enemies came, solving the problem would always come down to who had the biggest fist.

Originally, there had only been one cosmic god present, Yuan Long. It was already uncertain whether Moran could handle her. Now, with two there, the situation had become even more troublesome.

Moran had come to protect Tianming before he reached cosmic god level combat power. There was an element of risk if she actually fought. After all, the wonderians could recognize Tian Jiu’s reincarnation at a glance!

That matter hadn’t spread yet. But once it did, public opinion would explode even in the Upper Star Ruin.

“So Little Fish’s combat strength should remain a last resort. Better not to use it unless it’s absolutely necessary!” Tianming had no choice but to intensify his efforts and immersed himself in studying galaxy-class orders. He ignored quality and just worked on amassing quantity, which could bring substantial short-term gains.

As expected, the cosmic god specter, named Yumo Xiaoyou, also decided to begin capturing the beastballs after encountering them. Unlike Yuan Long, however, he didn’t discover that they were tied to galaxy-class orders.

But he was more decisive.

“These people are all capturing beastballs... and I’ve gathered thousands of them here. Sooner or later, I’ll be discovered!”

It had become a race against time.