Beastmaster of the Ages

Tianming needed to continue advancing if he were to truly protect his home from the threat of the specters, as well as the potential aggression of the Divine Moon Realm. After the battle of the Kilostar Domain, Tianming City, and Taiji Peak Lake, he had become like a god in the hearts of those on the Flameyellow Continent, and in order to truly ascend to godhood, he needed their help. That was the true essence of the path of Imperial Will.

"The power of the heart is the most mystical, being able to ignore the restrictions of space and time. It allows me to feel your presence...."

Tianming opened his arms wide and closed his eyes amidst the countless caeli, waiting. Feiling's predicament was the key event that had allowed him to think it through. He would give up on the caeli of the divine moonrace, understanding that what he needed wasn't to learn, but to dominate. With the change in his train of thought and the foundation he had built on the Flameyellow Continent, when he yelled, the power of the heart he'd been waiting for finally came out of nowhere.

Perhaps everyone on the Flameyellow Continent had just looked at the moon or thought about their emperor. Eventually, billions of these intents flowed toward Tianming as divine power. The true foundation of his Imperial Will was his subjects. A sovereign without Omnisentient Will was merely a powerless, empty husk. That was the reason Tianming couldn't find his answer in the divine moon hall no matter how many ascension experiences he had accumulated. What he truly needed were the subjects of his dynasty giving him the final push through the clouds to change the fate of all humanity. When the boundless heavenly will gathered upon his Imperial Will, his will exploded in growth along with his rising rage and passion.

"Go! Let them see the power of my Tianming dynasty!" The formation of the dynasty was only the start. He would bring them all with him on his journey to grow stronger. His sea of consciousness began howling as the Grand-Orient Sword-shaped heavenly will absorbed the power of the billions of strands of Omnisentient Will and reached an apex, after which it began transforming from heavenly will to divine will. That event was the key to the changes that were to come.

The change in the 'Grand-Orient Sword' felt like a supernova that ushered in a chain reaction of explosions. Tianming felt every fiber of his being transforming. When his heavenly will finally finished converting into divine will, he felt a clear change in his sense of being relative to the universe. Back then, he had merely been an infant who had just learned to speak, but now he was a full adult. The universe, on the other hand, was akin to a giant that held boundless knowledge and power. With the knowledge Tianming had now, he would trade with the giant for even more power.

The sword within his sea of consciousness rapidly grew stronger. The figurative 'Moonsoul Blooddragon' that had been binding it had long since shattered. When his divine will grew to a certain extent, he clearly felt the millions of caeli around him seemingly coming to life, shuddering and moaning in submission. That was why it had been so hard for him to ascend.

"After I overcome this bottleneck, everything else will be smooth sailing! Nothing can stop me!"

The first step was converting heavenly will to divine will. Next, the divine will would split up into countless fragments and fuse into the countless albi in his body, but he didn't have to worry about it. The moment the transformation was complete, the gigantic sword in his sea of consciousness automatically split up and began the infusion process. Finally, his will had left his sea of consciousness, leaving only his vita behind within it and marking the beginning of a new phase in his life.

When the billions of divine will fragments entered his albi, Tianming noticed that his control over his power had increased to a terrifying degree. Divine will was like a new organ, similar to an internal mind's eye. He could clearly see each and every albus in his body, and there was a Grand-Orient Sword within each of them as the core of their power. They were far smaller than a saint palace, but they were as boundless as a universe.

"The third step!" To truly reach the Ascension stage, his saint palace would have to be destroyed, unleashing the samsara rings and allowing them to be converted into astral discs within the albi, providing the initial reserves of power within. Tianming was prepared for that step. When his heavenly will turned into divine will, the same happened for Ying Huo and the rest. Right after their divine will infused into their albi, they activated their respective codex techniques.

That aside, Tianming was curious about whether the Purple Tower would stop him from making changes to his saint palace. Based on his previous experience, it protected his saint palace from being destroyed. However, it didn't make sense that the Prime Tower would stop him from making progress.

Surprisingly, as the four codex techniques channeled the power to his saint palace, the Purple Tower suddenly vanished, allowing Tianming to easily make changes. Within his saint palace were four pairs of saint springs corresponding to each of his lifebound beasts, a life and a death for each, each of which had twelve samsara rings. Tianming only had to circulate those four techniques in reverse to shatter the saint springs and rupture his saint palace. The process wasn't dangerous at all, for the divine will within his body afforded him precise control over the chaotic energies. He siphoned them into his albi, which seemed parched for energy. Step by step, the samsara rings shattered. It was a slow, gradual process rather than an instantaneous one.

"The saint springs have reached their limit. The Samsara stage is considered by the divine moonrace to be the last Saint stage, after all. With no destruction, there can be no creation. Only by bringing down the old can the new rise up."

This was a brand new paradigm of cultivation, one that relied on divine will and albi. Each albus had a fragment of divine will at its center, causing the vortex-like astral discs to form. Once that happened, Tianming's body glowed with astral brilliance. Through his divine will, he could clearly see each astral disc; they resembled spiraling galaxies filled with clouds of stars. It was all too similar to the power of the universe.

Ying Huo's infernaldisc was a beautiful orange. Meow Meow's genesisdisc looked like black lightning, much like its Misty Hellthunder. Lan Huang's primordialdisc resembled Taiji Peak Lake with its clear separation of mountain and sea, like a taiji diagram with a brown and blue fish. Xian Xian's radixdisc had three colors: red, white, and black, and was shaped like a flower.

As for Tianming, there were four layers of astral discs under each of his divine will fragments. Even though each layer was smaller than that of his beasts, the combined power of all four made him much stronger than them.

By the time the power of his saint springs had finished scattering, the albi in his entire body all had astral discs. They now had astral physiques, or in other words, divine bodies. However, that didn't mean that Tianming was an ascendant now, for his power was still the tribulation force of the Samsara stage.

"Now we need to absorb the stellunar source!" He did that in the divine moon hall itself. The five of them seemed like vortices that sucked in all the stellunar source in the vicinity, infusing its power into their astral discs and rapidly growing in power. It wouldn't end even after they reached full saturation, for there were still other changes occurring within Tianming's body.

The Purple Tower used to defend his saint palace, which was the core of his power. However, Tianming no longer had a single core where all his power was concentrated after the change, so he was curious how the Purple Tower would adapt. As the power of the saint springs spread throughout his body into the astral discs, the solid Purple Tower actually divided into countless fragments much like his Imperial Will, turning into purple beams of light that infused into his albi. The light formed a purple barrier around each albus. Unquestionably, it was defensive in nature. When all of his albi were defended by the purple barrier, even his skin glowed slightly purple. He also felt his physical defense rise.

"While the Purple Tower is no longer as powerful as before it scattered, it can now protect my whole body. In other words, not only do I have astralforce now, I also have the double protection of the Purple and Greenspark Towers. One for defense and the other for recovery."

The defense provided by the Purple Tower wasn't like strengthening the physical body, so it couldn't boost his physical attacks. However, his body was now as tough as a lifebound beast's. With his divine body formed, he shone brightly with starlight within the divine moon hall. His aura was much more elevated than before. He clenched his fists tight and continued strengthening his astral discs. All of the four-layered astral discs circulated and grew broader, making Tianming a microcosmic universe in his own right. After the formation of his divine body, another change began; one that concerned his soul.