Beastmaster of the Ages

With Tianming's divine will and divine body fully formed, his soul began morphing into a divine soul. The misty soul began concentrating within his sea of consciousness after his heavenly will dissipated. Eventually, the mist turned into a pure-white mini person. The same happened with Ying Huo and the rest, their souls seemingly gaining solid form that matched the shapes of their bodies.

Naturally, the visible part of the soul was the vita. Their caelum was always slightly above them in the air and their terra was right next to the body, but they were both invisible. As for whether those two parts also changed, records stated that totems awakened before the Ascension stage would morph to the next stage during the ascension itself. As totems were formed from the caelum, it was a sign that all three parts of the soul could change.

"With the vita gaining solid form, its resistance increased manifold. It's now a divine soul. It's said that at the Ascension stage, one's vita can be cultivated. Having a stronger vita would positively affect cultivation, insight comprehension, and other disciplines like patternscribing and crafting. Not to mention, one's totems or other parts of the soul would grow more resistant as well."

While Tianming hadn't had much time to look into cultivating his vita, he did know a few simple facts. The caelum was mainly in charge of cultivation, while the terra supported one in combat alongside the vita. Vita itself was the core and essence of the being. Once it perished, the caelum and terra would scatter, resulting in death. The stronger the vita, the stronger one would be, and the stronger one's caelum and terra would grow. Within the vita were true memories, unlike the third person memories recorded by the caelum. Tianming personally witnessed the formation of his divine body and soul.

When the little person successfully formed in his sea of consciousness, he suddenly recalled the thing he was most concerned about during his ascension: his Aeonic Grandbane! Had he finally broken the curse? He couldn't wait to find out. First, he saw countless bane words on the little person that was his vita. The original ten words had multiplied all over his vita, still in text form.

"Does this mean my bane-rings are now on my vita? What does that imply?" All of a sudden, his mind shook. The first thing he noticed was that his thoughts and senses were much clearer than before. When he opened his eyes and sensed the world through them, as well as his ears, nose, and mouth, he found that everything seemed so simple. The caeli of the divine moonrace and their tales of cultivation swept past his mind rapidly. The dust near him, the voices far away from him, the conversations of other disciples, the light tremor of their fingers, and the stellunar force around them were all incredibly clear to him. He was cognizant of all of it.

"Is this due to my Aeonic Grandbane? Have my comprehension abilities and senses greatly improved? Will this allow me to perceive reality in its true form much better than ever before and allow me to seek out answers to my cultivation?"

He had a feeling that wasn't all. Looking down, he saw the ten word-like bane-rings manifested on his arms. Unlike the countless words that covered his vita, these ten symbols were the actual core of his Lifesbane. When he set sights on the ancient text, he suddenly found that he could understand all of them. On his left arm were symbols representing east, south, life, heaven, and time, while on his right were west, north, death, earth, and space. The symbols on his left and right arms were complementary opposites to each other!

"So, they're north and south, east and west, heaven and earth, and space and time! They're almost like the ten halls of Decimo Dao Palace!" Tianming was utterly shocked. Who had named the halls of Decimo Dao Palace? How could such a coincidence exist?

"Does this mean I've overcome this bane?" He had no idea at all, but there were two things he could at least be sure of. The first was that the rapid aging he had suffered thanks to Lifesbane and the Samsara stage was gone. It was as if he had obtained a lifespan of a thousand years at the age of seventeen. The second thing was that his mind was incredibly clear. He was filled with the desire to grasp the nature of order of the world. If his guess was right, he was in his growth prime, just like Li Wudi. He should be improving rapidly in the time to come.

"How do you all feel?" Tianming asked Ying Huo and the rest. Thanks to symbiotic cultivation, his Aeonic Grandbane had also spread to them. Only they and the lifebound beasts of the Li Saint Clan had Lifesbane; the divine moonrace, who also had Lifesbane, didn't have lifebound beasts.

"I feel the power!" Ying Huo said.

"What do you mean by that?"

"I'll come out and show you." Ying Huo exited the lifebound space and landed on Tianming's palm. After its saint springs had turned into astral discs spread throughout its body, Ying Huo looked not too different from before. The reason for that was that the change in divine bodies mostly occurred within. However, it was easy to sense that it was much different than before. Now its eyes had a full thousand stars, instead of being half a star short like before. It had truly become a divine beast.

Ying Huo showed Tianming its feathers. Like the infernaldiscs, the feathers were shining bright red like metal. More importantly, the ten symbols on Tianming's arms were flowing through the feathers all across its body, radiating a sense of mind-numbing power. It was just like the vita in Tianming's sea of consciousness. Not only did it look like he had broken the curse, he'd also seemed to have greatly benefited from it.

"This is a power that doesn't belong to the Primordial Chaos Beasts. I gave you Lifesbane!" Up until now, all of Ying Huo's tricks had been from its bloodline, apart from battle arts.

"That's right. That's why I suspect that once I reach peak maturity, I'll be much stronger than the me of the past with this power," Ying Huo said.

Tianming couldn't even begin to comprehend what that would be like. "What do the symbols do when they're on your feathers?"

"The effect has a name. It's called Blazebane, Cosmic Blade."

"Who gave it that name?"

"It just arose naturally."

"What use does it have?""Give it a try." Ying Huo used Skyscorch Featherblast, but only shot out a single feather. Tianming saw the symbols on that feather as it shot toward his thigh.

Then it pierced straight through his body, which had been further fortified by the Purple Tower. It seemed that even his newly-strengthened defenses couldn't stop the feather that carried Cosmic Blade at all. This was a new effect obtained after the breakthrough. Before, Ying Huo's feathers had already been incredibly powerful thanks to its Skypiercer Ki. However, Cosmic Blade was on a whole different level.

"Like the name suggests, it's a flaming blade that can cut apart even the cosmos itself." It seemed that Ying Huo's ability had grown magnitudes stronger. Once it returned to its prime state, not only would it be able to consume suns, it would also be able to cut apart spacetime.

"Looks like my Aeonic Grandbane can produce wonders when mixed with the bloodline of Primordial Chaos Beasts. I think you might even surpass me!"

Tianming had Meow Meow and the rest test out their new abilities as well.

"If they have new abilities, I should too!" Tianming suddenly recalled Li Wudi. "That's right, isn't this identical to my godfather's Bloodfiend Transformation? Qingyu also seemed to be much stronger in moonlight after she achieved her Pentamoon Skybane."

In other words, there were powers unlocked after breaking the Lifesbane curse. Both Li Wudi and his beast had obtained Bloodfiend Transformation. However, Tianming believed that his lifebound beasts' new powers would be different from his, and they each had a unique one indeed.

Meow Meow appeared in front of Tianming, now with the bane text in its fur. "I think it's called Blitzbane, Worldbolt Blast," it said excitedly.

"What can it do?"

"My abilities and speed are enhanced. I'm now faster and more ferocious. I can use my abilities without limit, and speed up forever without ever reaching top speed. Basically I'll get ridiculously strong!" it proudly said. The benefits afforded by Tianming's Aeonic Grandbane had strengthened them to ridiculous degrees.

Unsurprisingly, Lan Huang had even more bane text on its body. The power it gained was called Montseabane, Starocean Flicker. The texts weren't plain black, but rather in all kinds of colors. They shone brightly, like a sea of stars on Lan Huang's body. While Tianming didn't know back then, he now knew that each star in the sky was a world with mountains and seas of its own. In other words, Lan Huang was an astral dragon. Montseabane was unlike the Purple Tower. Not only did it enhance Lan Huang's defense, it also improved its strength, making it much more of a threat than before.

"Impressive."Xian Xian was next. Its branches, petals, vines, and roots all had bane text on them, the most of all of them. It was called Vitalbane, Life Curse and it was more unique than the rest. Life Curse was like the severe draining of lifespan during the Samsara stage, but far more potent. It could use the bane text to siphon life force away at a staggering rate.

With all four of those powers, if they weren't powerful enough in their current state, they would still no doubt shock the world, as these powers compounded with their natural abilities as Primordial Chaos Beasts. The bane text always surprised them with new secrets.

Tianming, unlike the rest, had manifested bane text on his vita. So he wasn't really sure what his special power was. All of a sudden, a few blurry words appeared in his mind: Destinybane, Trisoul Prime. The destiny was the same destiny with the literal meaning of his name: Tianming, the fate of heavens. However, he was still stumped by how obscure it sounded. He couldn't see his caelum or terra, so he could only be sure that his vita had bane text. As for what use it had, he didn't know; he couldn't test it out like Ying Huo and the rest could.

All he could do was continue absorbing the stellunar source to properly reach Brightmoon Sky, the first level of the Ascension stage. Six hours later, he finally succeeded. His astral discs were pulsing with power, making him feel invulnerable.

"Let's head back!"

Right as he was about to return and tell Feiling the good news, the divine moon hall exploded and collapsed. Following the loud explosion, panicked cries rang out as countless caeli began rising into the sky and dissipating. Tianming was utterly shocked; this represented the complete destruction of the million-year legacy of the Huiyue Clan.