Beastmaster of the Ages

Tianming looked down at the gray eye on his chest and asked, ”So, are you really a whole world?”

”I think so....” Even though it was now filled with energy, it still didn’t quite feel safe.

”What is the name of that world?” Tianming asked. What came after the Celestial Sourcepath Progenitor and First Aeonic Ancestral Star?

The gray eye blinked before shyly saying, ”Great... Great Xi Hwa... Hell Realm...”

”That’s quite a mouthful,” Tianming said. Even though he didn’t know what the name meant, it had to have some kind of etymology. Xi Hwa sounded like the name of a place. He noticed that Eighth was still nervous and gently asked, ”Should I come up with a nickname for you? What do you think about Xi Xi?”

”Xi Xi.... Okay!” The gray eye widened with surprise, then joy, satisfied with its new name.

”The ones beside us are your elder siblings. They will protect you and fight by your side, so don’t be afraid of them, alright?”

”What... what about you? Are you Xi Xi’s mom?”

Tianming cleared his throat. ”I’m not. I’m the most important person in your life, your partner. You can consider me half a dad.”

”Where is the other half? Did the ghouls eat it?” Xi Xi asked with an utter look of fright.

”Uhh....” Tianming didn’t quite know what to say and changed the subject. He felt the energy coursing through his body and asked, ”What do you call this energy?”

”Xi Hwa hell source.”

”This energy feels similar to genesis ancestral nova source in terms of destructive power. It seems to have other effects apart from conjuring storms of death, right?”

”It can... be used to... open gates to release the ghouls....” Its voice grew weaker as it spoke.

”Open gates to release ghouls? Where’s the gate? Where are the ghouls?” Since symbiotic cultivation had already finished, he stood up.

”Sister!”

”Come out! Let Chicken Bro hug you!”

”Tortoise Bro also wants a hug!” Lan Huang roared with its booming voice.

The loud chatter from outside stunned Xi Xi beyond recognition. The eye shut completely, leaving nothing but a slit of an opening.

”Shut up, you impatient fools.” Tianming chided them for being so rowdy before trying to placate Xi Xi. ”It’s fine, ignore them for now. I only need you to tell me how to release the ghouls.”

”No! I’m scared of ghouls!” Xi Xi said, hiding away.

”Let them out, I’ll protect you from them!” Tianming tapped into omnisentient power and transformed into someone completely different, allowing Xi Xi to feel his true strength.

”Whoa.... Your energy can also blend with Xi Hwa hell source and become a part of our power!” Xi Xi said excitedly.

”Oh, so you can borrow omnisentient power just like your siblings, huh? That means you can open even larger gates to release even more powerful ghouls!”

”I’m scared! Waaaah!”

Tianming didn’t know what to do about this ghoul user that was afraid of ghouls. Every Primordial Chaos Beast had a personality quirk, even the odd ones like Bai Ye and Bai Ling. All he could do was try to console Xi Xi before gently convincing it to release a tiny ghoul, which seemed to work. Xi Xi was finally willing to try.

Tianming watched as Xi Hwa hell source gathered near the cute little eye, causing it to change. ”Holy shit....”

Watching the transformation closely left him flabbergasted. The eye transformed into a gray disc similar to the hell-rings of the devas. There were eighteen folds in total, eighteen interlinked hell-rings!

Xi Xi exerted some effort to cause the central hell-ring to fade away. The gray was gone after the gate opened up. That instant, a deathly, savage aura emerged from the disc! Before Tianming could react, lots of mist flooded out of the disc.

”Damn, is your chest a geyser or something?” Ying Huo said.

Thick clouds formed in front of Tianming in an instant, before splitting into tens of thousands of distinct parts. Then, all of them took the form of tiny hell ghouls. They didn’t seem that powerful, being akin to ghouls conjured from onefold hell-rings that was half as powerful as a peak overflower deva could use. Opening a single ring was enough to conjure tens of thousands of them, however!

Tianming observed them and noticed two pressing differences. ”The devas’ ghouls are attached to their bodies and can’t move about freely outside.... Also, once I shut the hell-rings, the ghouls would be trapped within the devas’ cosmic god essences. They aren’t able to survive independently outside either.”

Yet, these ghouls before him were different. They seemed to have come to the real world and persisted in their corporeal forms. Most crucially, these ghouls didn’t seem to be nearly the limit. Had Xi Xi not closed the gate, more ghouls would have poured out, seemingly endless in number and variety. They formed quite the terrifying army.

”Aaaaaah!” Xi Xi was terrified by its own conjurations and forgot to close the gate. The ghouls that emerged hissed audibly, stunned at first before noticing Xi Xi and kneeling in absolute fright. They shivered so hard that Tianming himself was shaking from the combined vibration. They seemed deathly fearful!

”Ghouls, listen up!” Tianming tried to take their reins. Perhaps because Xi Xi was attached to his body, the ghouls looked at him with fear and respect.

”Ahem.” He pointed at Ying Huo and said, ”Go bust its balls.”

”Huh?” Ying Huo looked blankly at Tianming right as the army of ghouls leaped frantically toward it. ”Li Tianming! Mark my words! You will pay!” It scurried away in no time at all.