Beastmaster of the Ages

Tianming waved goodbye and left the Ancestral Void Ark together with Moran, then trudged through the flameyellow void essence with difficulty.

”The flameyellow void essence’s too viscous around here. No wonder no one discovered this entrance,” said Moran with some effort.

”Have you fully absorbed the orders of those wonderians?” Tianming held her hand as they walked.

”Still a bit left. I should be able to make it to the eighth level,” Moran replied.

”Oh?” Tianming now had a cosmic god body that stood 800 meters tall. It was quite freakish indeed for a first-level cosmic god. Moran was now 700 meters tall and appeared slightly petite in comparison.

”You should break through as soon as possible,” he casually said.

”You... what do you mean by that...?” Moran said in a daze.

Tianming just smiled. Then he spotted the entrance that Yin Chen had mentioned. ”A diameter of only about a thousand meters? It’s quite small.” It was far smaller than the entrance at the Upper Star Ruin.

”That’s why no one’s noticed it,” Moran muttered softly, her heart in turmoil.

In the blink of an eye, the pair arrived at the entrance.

”I remember the time I went to the Darkfiend Den. The deeper I went, the more disoriented I became. Back then, there were rumors that the den held other secrets....” Unexpectedly, now he was approaching it from another direction and had resolved the original mystery.

”Something isn’t right!” Tianming looked toward the lower ruins behind him and muttered, “Back then, the eye of that centuroptic beast couldn’t have appeared out of nowhere. Could there be something related to the Archaionfiends hidden in the lower ruins?”

”Otherwise, how could it be the “Darkfiend” Den?” Moran nervously asked.

”Exactly.” Tianming didn’t overthink it and simply said to Yin Chen, ”Next time we come in, search for any traces of Archaionfiends.”

”Got it,” Yin Chen replied.

”Let’s go.” Tianming held Moran’s hand and the two of them stepped into the black mirror-like entrance.

A curtain of light shimmered and they passed through, emerging inside a blood-red, deep cavern. The dense flameyellow void essence instantly vanished and Tianming immediately felt light all over. He scanned the surroundings and exclaimed in mild surprise, ”It really is the Darkfiend Den beside Bluemaple Star!”

What a coincidence. Before, he had only been a lowly astral god. But now that he had become a cosmic god, the vast Darkfiend Den from memory looked entirely different. It was now like a narrow, sealed chamber. If he encountered the eye of that centuroptic beast now, it probably wouldn’t be able to bewilder his ninth dao soul.

”Hmm?” The entire den was shaking, and Tianming noticed a spiderweb of fractures spreading across the surrounding space. The fractures continuously propagated, affecting the hive-like Darkfiend Den. In an instant, the surrounding rocky walls completely shattered!

In the starry sky, the ancient Darkfiend Den disintegrated into dust, scattering across the Lower Star Ruins! A dark cloud of dust appeared beside Bluemaple, alarming countless cultivators on the surface.

“The emperor returned!” However, they quickly felt the connection of the omnisentient threads. The hundred trillion cultivators of Bluemaple erupted in ecstasy.

Inside the dark cloud of stardust, many people saw two blazing humanoid stars. As they streaked across the sky, Bluemaple trembled in their wake. Space shattered wherever they passed, unable to endure their terrifying presence.

”The emperor is almighty!” the people of Bluemaple cheered. To them, it was a true divine miracle. Even a brief, passing moment was worthy of being written into the annals of history.

***

”My cosmic god body actually crushed the Darkfiend Den just like that.... Looks like I have to be more careful in the future. I probably can’t even enter Tianmingopolis anymore.” Only after returning to the Lower Star Ruins did Tianming truly realize how terrifying a cosmic god was to the Lower Star Ruins.

”No wonder cosmic gods don’t come down to dominate the Lower Star Ruins. To them, a world that they can casually destroy is meaningless.”

“Maybe to a cosmic god, the astralscape only includes the Upper Star Ruin. Everything else is just debris clinging to the edges,” Moran said with emotion.

”Let’s see if the stareye can still bear our presence,” said Tianming. If it couldn’t, that would be a real problem. ”Suppress your cosmoforce and keep it stable.”

The two of them arrived near the stareye. Fortunately, it was still functional. Once the starlight flashed, Tianming arrived within the Myriadpath Celestial Formation.

“Next, the mobile stareye in the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb to return to the Sun.” Jiguang, Suishen Yao, and the others were already on the Sun. Many of his family members had also gone there to cultivate, so Tianming didn’t linger and immediately left!

However, even that brief transfer caused a stir in Tianming Imperial City.

“What the hell??” Suishen Xiyue, still presiding over affairs there, suddenly saw a several-hundred-meters-tall giant clad in black-and-gold dragon robes appear atop the Myriadpath Celestial Formation. She was dumbfounded.

”What the—? My son-in-law?”

”Emperor!” Millions of voices shouted in a tsunami of noise behind her.

”Goddammit” Suishen Xiyue hurriedly stood up. “No way, I’m heading to the Sun to cultivate too! I’m going to become a cosmic god!”

***

In the Ancestral Void Ark in the lower ruins, Zi Zhen and Qingyu sat side by side, softly chatting. Zi Zhen asked many things about Tianming’s time on the Flameyellow Continent.

“So he met Jiang Feiling that early? Earlier than you, even.” Zi Zhen pursed her lips, her expression tinged with regret.

“Yes,” Qingyu looked up and smiled. “I remember the first time I met them, my brother was still super cringy. He was so weak then, like a speck of dust.”

“Hm....” Zi Zhen sighed slightly and said with a hint of resentment, “Looks like I’ve got no chance.”

“No chance with what?” Qingyu asked.

“Nothing.” Zi Zhen shook her head.

Qingyu had wanted to say something more, but the Soulfiend suddenly awakened from its slumber and roared, extremely agitated.

“What is it?” Zi Zhen abruptly stood up.

The space before them suddenly rippled as if a door to another world had opened. A young man with violet eyes stepped out. Behind him, billions of one-eyed xenofiends swarmed the xenomemory space.

“Little Feng....” Qingyu’s body trembled, her eyes welling up with tears.