Beastmaster of the Ages

His caelum flew toward the nine-colored dragon of life like a speck of dust that smashed into a fortuna-class world. The contrast in their sizes was incredibly stark. Tianming felt as if he had entered an ocean of flora filled with vibrant life. There were countless pixie-like creatures that seemed to have emerged from the path of souls. It was a brilliantly beautiful world.

”It seems like the lifedragon isn’t just limited to a single move.” He still had no idea how many moves in total it would comprise. All he did was swim around in this sea of flowers and spirits. The countless petals, leaves, and pixies before him gathered and formed into a sword of heaven and earth, as if they were aware of what kind of weapon he used.

”Even though the Lifedragon Sword doesn’t focus on killing, it still contains destructive power. Unsurprisingly, it has other effects as well....” Tianming felt rather excited after learning a bit about the move. ”The Grand-Orient Sword became able to split into two again. Even though the Life-Death-Crush Dragons have three types of sword strikes, they can be used with only two swords!”

Swords weren’t always used for the killing blow. When used in tandem, their power would only increase. Tianming figured that the Life-Death-Crush Dragons were supposed to be learned by three separate people and used as a team to strengthen each other. Naturally, Tianming could do this all alone.

Once he learned the key aspects of the Lifedragon Sword, his caelum entered the deathdragon. Unlike the celestial-hall-like lifedragon, the internal environment of the deathdragon looked like a hellish landscape filled with dangerous elemental storms. Crackling lightning, booming thunder, and searing flames were all over the place, taking forms of unparalleled sword strikes. Though the deathdragon resided between life and crush, it contained a steady, gravitational power. Every sword strike seemed as firm as a mountain, making them suitable to be used with a heavy greatsword.

”This is perfect! It’s even more suitable for me!” Tianming’s Grand-Orient Sword could be used in its twin-sword or greatsword configurations all the same, which gave his arsenal of moves a large variety.

”Let’s master this move first before I get to my errands.” He was pumped after seeing the potential of the Life-Death-Crush Dragons. He couldn’t exactly do much if he left, if he didn’t have enough power to exert his will anyway, so he focused on cultivating and improving himself while having Yin Chen keep an eye out for news on Lingfeng. He also split some of his attention to deal with the chaos swordmaidens.

The days of cultivation passed peacefully and swiftly. Life-Death-Crush Dragons were among the hardest sword arts that Tianming had tried to master. Every single move within the set had a component for totems. Even with a compatible order, it took lots of time to master the myriad forms that the moves could be used in.

Ten years passed, during which Tianming left to kill the members of the Eightpart Pantheons twice every year, drawing their hatred. After every excursion, he would vanish without a trace. He did this to keep them on his tail rather than have them leave and roam around freely.

”Time seems to pass much faster after I became a cosmic god.” Tianming was rather surprised to find that what felt like a single moment of cultivation actually spanned a few months. Thankfully, the time spent wasn’t fruitless; he had mastered a part of the Life-Death-Crush Dragons. Not to mention, he had unlocked ten million chaos swordmaidens, which was a tenth of the total! It wasn’t that he was slow; he realized that the further along he went, the more complicated the ’clear conditions’ were.

”Don’t tell me that I’d have to do the chaos swordmaidens at the very end....” It was truly troubling. As such, the power of the Grand-Orient Sword was only unleashed to a tenth of its full power, but Tianming felt that it was good enough. It was already stronger than normal godshaker-class cosmic relics.

”The grand lexicon wonder also has twenty thousand words now.” It was only two-tenths of the way to a hundred thousand, but it was still a marked improvement. Coupled with his 60-simulacrum totems, his power had risen greatly despite his level remaining the same.

”It’s about time. The Eightpart Pantheons have suffered quite a bit of losses lately in the lower ruins. I should show myself to make them sink even more costs here!” He confidently rose.

Yin Chen had found him the perfect target. As he headed out, he had Yin Chen inform Zi Zhen and Moran about it.

”You reached the sixth level,” Tianming said to Qingyu, who arrived before the other two.

”Yeah. Only one level in ten years. That’s slow,” she said, troubled.

”Hell....” Tianming hadn’t even made a single level breakthrough. He had nine streams of greater orders in his body, making his growth extremely difficult. ”We’re going out to run an errand for a bit. Stay here for now since we don’t have enough masks.”

”Okay.” Qingyu hadn’t been planning on leaving to begin with. ”Feng....”

”He hasn’t shown up for ten years,” Tianming said. The two looked at each other helplessly. The Xenoworld was inaccessible to both of them, so they had no choice but to wait. It simply wasn’t their turf.

”How’s your Eighth doing?” she asked.

”I’m about to find some devas to give it another try,” Tianming said. ”There’s a world next to the Ten Desolate Starforges known as Blackscatter that belongs exclusively to devas.”

”Huh, so there are worlds that belong to just one race,” Qingyu said, surprised.

”That’s how it normally is in the Upper Star Ruin. Mixed worlds like the Ten Desolate Starforges actually house the scattered factions that have been driven out and outcompeted. They might have large populations, but they’re nowhere near as elite as the other starforges,” Tianming said.

”I see....” Qingyu nodded.

Then, ZI Zhen and Moran came over. The specter had made the largest improvement and reached the eighth level of cosmic godhood. However, her body was still petite, standing only seven hundred meters tall. People could mistake her for being a seventh-level cosmic goddess. Moran had also reached the eighth level after absorbing the spoils from before, reaching parity in height with Tianming.

”Masks on and roll out!” Tianming said before touching his chest. ”Come, Eighth. Let’s go on a feast.”