Beastmaster of the Ages

Six hours later, Meow Meow had sped through countless regions. The Divine Moon Realm had never been that big to begin with. Given the time they had spent on the run, Tianming had circled at least half of the place. While he had shaken off Huiyue Hai long ago, Tianming still kept moving further away from the Eightmoon Skycities until he reached the side of the Divine Moon Realm facing the Flameyellow Continent. The people in the area were far fewer than before.

Naturally, the stellunar source density there was also not as strong. Still, it was hundreds of times better than the Flameyellow Continent. When Tianming said stop, Meow Meow immediately reverted into a small cat from its Regal Chaosfiend form and slid on the grassy ground, forcing the two on its back to jump off. They weren't afraid of crushing it underneath them; in fact, its bones were so tough it hurt them to sit on it. As expected of the sleeping champion, Meow Meow took only a breath's time to fall asleep with its limbs raised skyward.

Tianming picked it up by the hind leg and tossed it in his lifebound space in a practiced motion. He already knew what he had to do next. "Ling'er, I have six more totems that haven't absorbed enough stellunar source. I'll spend some time making up for it. After that, we can go back to the Flameyellow Continent. We've been away for quite some time, so it's a good time to go back and wait for this to blow over."

"What happens after that?"

"I think I'm in the same situation as you. I don't think I need the divine moon hall to find my own way through the Ascension stage. After all, I'm in a rapid growth spurt right after breaking my Lifesbane, so I'm not facing too much pressure. However, there isn't any stellunar source on the Flameyellow Continent to supply enough astralforce. If we want to break through, we'll have to come back here to absorb some. But we're already ascendants, so coming and going shouldn't be too difficult, as long as we don't get caught. After that, if the situation allows and we're powerful enough, we'll stay back to save Feng."

With his totems and ascension out of the way, saving Ye Lingfeng was now his main goal. To do that, he would somehow have to deal with Sovereign Xi. Not to mention, as long as Bodhi still existed, the conflict with the specters on the Flameyellow Continent wasn't over yet. Tianming needed far more power to struggle for the right to survive on humanity's behalf between the two peak elites. They had been away for too long, so returning to check on the dynasty wasn't a bad idea either.

"Alright, I'll go with what you say."

Right now, they needed a place to hide. Before going back, Tianming planned to get the six remaining godswords to absorb enough stellunar source until they reached the capacity of the first level of the Ascension stage, and that would take about four hours. When night fell, all ten of Tianming's godswords within his bane-rings were twenty meters long.

"If the four cardinal godwords let me defeat Huiyue Jie even without Meow Meow, I wonder how powerful I'll be with all ten." Though he was curious, he couldn't exactly use them all if he wanted to keep them a secret. At the very least, he felt that he would be able to fight alone against all of his lifebound beasts combined. With crude math, that meant that he would have eight lifebound beasts' worth of fighting capability. He shouldn't have any problem facing off against opponents with six or seven totems then, not to mention the benefit of being an all-rounder as a humanoid fighter working in tandem with sword totems and a variety of beasts.

"Apart from that, Ordinem Imperius, Welkin Imperius, Sentient Karma, Postmortem Cycle, Grandvoid Universum, and Infinitum Spatium each have different and unique characteristics. They should provide much more variety to my moves." He couldn't wait to return to the Flameyellow Continent now. Over there, he could train with all ten of the decapath era godswords without worrying about being seen. "Let's go, Ling'er. I'll take you home. Last time you brought me here, and now I'll let you piggyback all the way back."

"Hmph, I can go back myself!" She poked her tongue out mischievously, not wanting to grant Tianming an excuse to feel her up again. She seemed much more energetic after spending some time with Huiye Shi.

"Why would you doubt my pure intentions?" Tianming said with a pained look.

"Shameless!" Xian Xian's spiritform came out, its tiny floral wings flapping. Even it couldn't take it anymore. Incidentally, Tianming had shown it and Feiling the Northapex Perpetuity, as it seemed to have something to do with Perpetia, but neither of them seemed to have any idea what it was.

"Alright, let's depart!" Tianming said. But all of a sudden, he felt an approaching threat. They were currently on flat plains, so they were easily able to see into the distance, giving them enough time to react if they sensed danger. That was why Tianming had picked this place to charge up one final time. At the far reaches of the horizon, he spotted a man surrounded by purple lightning speeding their way. It was none other than Huiyue Hai!

"Big Brother, let's go, quick!" Feiling urged.

"It's too late," Tianming said.

"Can't we shake him off and leave the Divine Moon Realm?"

"No. The fact that he found us after we lost him last time means he has some way to track us. He might even follow us all the way to the Flameyellow Continent."

That would be even more troubling. He had to ascertain whether that method of tracking was limited to only Huiyue Hai. If it wasn't, it would be horrible; they would be chased to the ends of the world. As they spoke, Huiyue Hai crossed the tens of thousands of meters and reached Tianming.

"Why did you stop running? Keep on going!" Huiyue Hai said, purple lightning crackling from his eyes.

"Since you could pinpoint my location, running is pointless. I didn't think you had such a method. It's my loss."

"It's just a little parlor trick. Only a little child like you would fall for it."

"Mind if you tell me how you pulled it off? At least I'll be able to accept my loss more gracefully."

"Trying to get me to talk, eh? Well, it can't hurt. I'm merely tracing lightning with my totem. I infused a marking of my primalblitz fiend inside your lifebound beast's lightning." He wasn't the least bit hesitant about revealing his trick.

"That means, unless I kill you, there's no way I'll be able to lose you."

"Of course." Huiyue Hai smirked. "Why else would I bother telling you this? Now that you know it's over for you, stop making more trouble. If you come back to Huiyue City with me, you might be let off lightly."