Beastmaster of the Ages

There was only one object within the secret chamber: a black-and-gold heart that seemed to be made from divine celestial patterns. It was a formation core somewhat like the ones used for divine astralships. ”Peep!” The little beastballs surrounded the heart and glanced at Tianming.

”Do you want me to take control of it?” he asked, and the beastballs nodded rapidly. ”Then, I won’t hold back. If Godfather were here, he’d probably be given this right away, though.”

In a way, Tianming had passed the trial of the little beastballs. He wouldn’t have dared to bring Wudi here, even if he had known, since the Sun was far too important to leave unattended.

He came toward the heart, being used to taking over formation cores. When he stretched his hand out, the divine celestial patterns that made up the heart flowed into his body and fused with the astrons of his infernal heart.

”The Ancestral Void Ark?” It was only then that Tianming learned the name of the heart-shaped ruins. ”So, this is something like a divine astralship, but it’s used for traveling in the Ancestral World.... It can reach many places here, but it can’t be used to travel in the astralscape of order!” It was just like how normal ships couldn’t enter the Ancestral World.

”Is there anything else?” Qingyu asked. ”Does it have a function to track people? Or maybe a weapons system that uses primeval source?”

Tianming shook his head. ”I’ve only unlocked level-one privileges and can open and close the entrance of the ark and pilot it around. I can’t do anything else with it yet.” Unlike nova source, Tianming couldn’t use primeval source for blast attacks, though that didn’t necessarily rule out that possibility in the future.

”Let’s shut the entrance first!” Tianming used the core within him to close the entrance to the ark. Then, the entire ruins stopped beating and dimmed, so no others would be attracted to it. ”We’re finally safe!”

He breathed a sigh of relief, and the little beastballs looked just as happy as he was. It was clear that they didn’t wish to be taken away. Given that Tianming was the one that had unlocked the ruins, they had no choice but to pick him to inherit the core, even if he wasn’t ideal.

”As long as they are safe now, I might be able to bring them back to the Sun in the future,” Tianming said.

”It’s fine even if they don’t go back. We can use the ark as our base in the Ancestral World. It’s pretty safe here. We can cruise around and look for Feng as well,” Qingyu said.

The Soulfiend was still with them, having transformed into a gust of soulstorm to follow Qingyu around. Now that they were safe in the ark, she let it out. ”Can you feel where Feng is?”

The Soulfiend groaned and shook its head.

”Don’t worry. Take your time.”

Tianming gave it some thought and said, ”Qingyu’s right. We are far too weak in the Ancestral World. If we really do run into trouble, there’s nothing we can do about it.” Back then, they didn’t really have any chances to make breakthroughs. But with nearly ten thousand little beastballs, it was akin to having unlimited access to galaxy-class orders, which was way beyond what many maniverse-class worlds could offer.

After experiencing the pressure from Yuan Long, Tianming’s mindset had changed. He found cosmic gods far more powerful than before. ”Even if I can’t become one yet, I have to become as strong as cosmic gods!”

He set the ark on a course deeper into the Ancient Flameyellow Ruins to look for Lingfeng and traces of the flameyellow divinities before he sank deep into cultivation. The Soulfiend and Yin Chen searched the areas near the ark.

Even with orders and overflow fragments, a safe place where he could cultivate undisturbed was vital, and the ark was just right for it. Tianming grit his teeth and focused on observing what the orders had to show nonstop. While he was in the Ancestral World, he had the feeling that he was getting closer and closer to Feiling. The golden crystal star above his head seemed to be worked up somehow.

Twenty years passed in a flash as they cultivated. Moran hadn’t made any improvements during that time, while Qingyu made rapid progress thanks to the overflower fragments, galaxy-class orders, and the Original Sin Pool. She broke through four times and reached the tenth level, growing up to a hundred meters in height. Wudi had also reached the seventh level back at the Sun.

More insane was Zi Zhen, who seemed to be recovering her former cultivation rather than having to climb anew. Even without overflow fragments, she had become a major-zenith overflower, being two steps away from becoming a cosmic god. As there was nobody around her to anger her, nobody knew if her full potential would allow her to fight cosmic gods on even footing. Jiguang and the rest were also gradually progressing toward cosmic godhood thanks to the Suishens’ innate talent and the plentiful resources in the Sun.

Finally, Tianming himself made stable progress, having broken through once to reach the sixth level and working toward the seventh.

”The astral god phase is normally split up into two parts, the first before the sixth level of the Overflow stage, and the rest after that.” Tianming was a hundred and twenty meters tall after reaching the sixth level, which gave him the size of a major-zenith or quasi cosmic god.

”Normally speaking, others around my size would start advancing toward cosmic godhood....” He wondered what it would be like for him. Taking a deep breath, he gave it a go.

”Oh?” He realized that the infernal order within his heart had begun to change rapidly. ”Ying Huo, what’s going on?”

Somewhat surprised, Ying Huo clutched its belly and laughed. ”Sorry, fellas! This chicken’s going to become a cosmic god before the rest of you!” Its order had only grown, but hadn’t changed. Yet, the same stream of infernal order that he and Ying Huo cultivated suddenly turned from its continental form into an astral ball of flames.

”Holy crap!” He noticed that Ying Huo’s astrons were indeed turning into middlekin astrons! He hurriedly handed the Bloodblaze Sword manna to Ying Huo for it to assimilate. At the same time, the astrons in his infernal heart actually began to transform into middlekin astrons.

”Quasi cosmic gods have middlekin-astron astral organs, but only my heart is in that state. That means I have a part of a cosmic god’s power at the seventh level!” Unlike other quasi cosmic gods, one of Tianming’s orders itself had reached planet class. ”It seems like my cultivation path will differ quite a bit from other people’s....”

When the blazing-red heart turned into a flaming star, Tianming could sense infernal cosmic god cosmoforce flow through his body, strengthening him significantly. ”So, I’ve reached the level of quasi cosmic gods sooner than others at the seventh level.... Am I some kind of pseudo cosmic god?”

For Tianming, only his heart had changed. But for Ying Huo, its entire body was changing. It was still in the process of reaching complete cosmic godhood. ”Don’t tell me that the remaining six of my lifebound beasts that correspond to my astral organs will reach their cosmic god forms for each level of the Overflow stage I have left....”