Beastmaster of the Ages

“Her?” Tianming paused to consider, then said to Muguang Lie, “Wait for me a moment.”

Tianming returned through the cavern-like passages to Moran. She was in the process of melting the cosmic-god essences of the two Saturatia Dreamlords. These two cosmic-god essences were even stronger than Dreammaster Siming. She first absorbed the wonders, and then slowly digested the orders.

“Is something the matter?” After finishing the absorption of the Saturatia Dreamlord’s cosmic-god essences, she opened her eyes and looked at Tianming.

“It’s like this, Ling’er ran into a bit of trouble over there. I have to rush over quickly...”

Before Tianming finished speaking, Moran softly cut in, “Then you should hurry and go. I’ll be fine.”

“Are you really fine?” Tianming looked into her eyes and asked seriously.

“After I swallow this Saturatia Dreamlord and the thousands of cosmic-god essences around here, I’ll probably be close to your omnisentient threads-level combat strength. What could happen? I think the people of the flameyellow voidkin are all quite good. Since they share the same goal as you, they naturally wouldn’t make things hard for me.” Moran paused, then fixed her resolute gaze on Tianming and said, “Ling’er is undergoing nirvana. The last few times were far too dangerous. At a time like this, don’t worry about me and go quickly.”

“I can also take you with me first to the Primordial Sands while the flameyellow voidkin collect the cosmic-god essences. Then you can use them all at once. That would be safer.” Tianming glanced several times in the direction of the golden crystal star above, the tension and worry on his face clear to see.

“But... I want to be able to truly help you as soon as possible. If I stay here, my efficiency will be higher. Perhaps, if you run into trouble in the Primordial Sands, I can come later and still be of use.” Moran spoke in a low voice.

Seeing her firm attitude, and since there really was no danger here while time was pressing, Tianming nodded. “Then be careful.”

In truth, within this upper ruin, Tianming’s combat power was not even equal to Moran’s. Who protected whom wasn’t clear.

“Go on!” Moran let out a soft sigh. “You two haven’t seen each other in so long. Ling’er has been waiting for you too long.”

“Mm!” Tianming was not the type to dither. He turned and left, and Muguang Lie personally escorted him on another Ancestral Void Ark which headed toward the entrance to the Primordial Sands.

While the vessel sailed, Tianming took the opportunity to ask Muguang Lie some questions about the Grand Xia Voidback Hole.

“The Grand Xia Voidback Hole is an astral hole world. Its fusion formation’s structure became distorted, and it continues to leak nova source to this day. Its situation isn’t very good. It’s said that after a few more years, it will fall to a level even inferior to maniverse class,” Muguang Lie stroked his long beard and said with heavy emotion.

“How long has it been collapsing?” Tianming asked.

The Myriadpath Valley and Yin-Yang World were both astral hole worlds. But while the former could still sustain life, the latter was completely destroyed... This showed that the degree of collapse varied.

“For a very, very long time! As long ago as the history of the Eightpart Pantheons devouring the flameyellow divinities!” Muguang Lie looked at Tianming.

“And it can still be comparable to maniverse class? Could it once have been an imperial-class world?” Tianming asked in shock.

“The former Grand Xia Voidback was more than just imperial class, it was five times the size of a baseline imperial-class world! That makes it bigger than the imperial-class worlds of the five pantheons combined!” Muguang Lie shook his head and sighed.

“Grand Xia Voidback, Grand Xia Voidback Nation...” Tianming knew this should have been the world of Old Man Voidback, from whom he inherited the grand lexicon wonder. He could not help but ask, “So before the Eightpart Pantheons, the strongest in the Upper Star Ruin were the flameyellow divinities and Grand Xia Voidback?”

“That’s right. The Grand Xia controlled areas such as the Primordial Sands. Its territory once encompassed quite a few starforges that are gone today. At its peak, it occupied about one-fifth of the Upper Star Ruin.” Muguang Lie said.

The flameyellow voidkin, unlike the flameyellow descendants outside, still preserved a relatively complete history of the Upper Star Ruin. As for the flameyellow descendants in fortuna-class worlds, most of them never had any chance to come into contact with such history.

“One-fifth? Then the other four-fifths belonged to?” Tianming asked.

“The flameyellow divinities of course! We ruled Upper Star Ruin for an era ten times longer than the Eightpart Pantheons’s. Both the Heavenly Dao and Flameyellow Divine Path were constructed across an unimaginably long period. We have always been the number one divine race of the starry sky since ancient times. Once, the Imperial Star itself...” Muguang Lie gave Tianming a meaningful look. “It was more than nine times the size of a baseline imperial-class world, almost double that of the Grand Xia Voidback.”

“More than nine times? Then could it be that the imperial-class worlds of the Eightpart Pantheons today were all siphoned off from the Imperial Star?” Tianming asked coldly.

“More or less!” Muguang Lie nodded, his eyes full of hatred. This was the blood-deep hatred of a fallen nation and ruined race. Descendants had no right to forget it.

“If the flameyellow divinities were so much stronger than the Grand Xia Voidback, why didn’t they swallow them up?” Tianming asked curiously.

“Well... historical records say that the flameyellow divinities and the Grand Xia imperials enjoyed good relations. The two also traced back to the same ancestry. The flameyellow divinities cultivated both totems and beasts, while the Grand Xia imperials were the creators of wonders. They made enormous contributions in the creation of both the Flameyellow Divine Path and the Heavenly Dao, and were even said to have constructed half of the Heavenly Dao through wonders. The two races coexisted in harmony across generations, and the flameyellow imperators even kept the wonder lineage in mind, wanting to leave an alternate cultivation path for ordinary humans without the dualgod bloodline. So yes, it was indeed very harmonious.” Muguang Lie nodded.

“I see.” Tianming nodded.

At that time, Upper Star Ruin was still dominated by the human race. Either they had the dualgod bloodline, or they cultivated the Grand Xia’s wonders. Under the oversight of the Heavenly Dao, they thrived in peace and prosperity, with very little war.

“Later, when the flameyellow divinities fell, what about the Grand Xia Voidback? Did they also suffer an attack from the Eightpart Pantheons?” Tianming asked.

“That part isn’t clear. When the war began, our ancestors had already been exiled into the Ancestral World...” Muguang Lie looked at Tianming, and his tone suddenly grew much more heavy. “But here we have a saying. The Grand Xia Voidback was precisely the place where ‘Tian Jiu’ was born. It was the Grand Xia imperials who raised Tian Jiu, and Tian Jiu gave rise to the wonderians. In the end, this led to the collapse of flameyellow... We believe that the Grand Xia imperials committed betrayal. In fact, they might even have been the ones who organised this from the very start! Otherwise, what could some former slave races do alone? The so-called devas used to just be our beast-herding slaves!”