Beastmaster of the Ages

Tianming had heard many people in Huiyue City say that the upper limit for his potential was low and that he would stop being able to progress one day. In actuality, that was just a product of their own superiority complex. The divine moonrace had a prejudice against the rootbeast race, those who used blood pacts especially, so they refused to believe what they saw before their eyes and made up an explanation to console themselves.

The fact that Sovereign Xi paid him so much heed was a testament to his actual talent. The imperial guide and many other elders were also aware of that fact. So what Tianming had just said wasn't borne of arrogance, but honest fact.

"Even though you're breathtaking indeed, you're underestimating my disciples at the Moonnight Patio if you make such a daring claim right now," the imperial guide said calmly. Unlike Sovereign Xi, she spoke without a hint of emotion from beginning to end.

"Understood." Tianming nodded without bothering to split hairs.

"Let's enter."

The Moonnight Patio was unlike many other academies and sects Tianming had seen before. It was an elegant, beautiful place filled with a rich ambience. It was a highly refined place no matter what he set his eyes on. The divine moonrace really valued quality of life and paid great attention to minor details. They were the superior race in the Divine Moon Realm, at least as far as they saw themselves, and considered themselves to be the only civilized people. So they indulged in rich culture and refined customs, often preferring subtlety over crude bombastic displays of excess.

For instance, the name Moonnight Patio, along with the modest, yet elegant architecture of the buildings there, the decor, and the man-made landscapes and ponds radiated a simple elegance that belied the arrogance hidden underneath it. It wasn't until recently that two people had completely shattered the divine moonrace's arrogant delusion.

The first was the mysterious killer that had taken at least a hundred thousand lives of the divine moonrace. As for geniuses, the seventeen-year-old Tianming had crushed their top genius, Huiyue Jie, and even caused the sovereign to desire him, which made the youths of the Divine Moon Realm feel really awkward. And now, Tianming had been admitted into the most prestigious place of study of the divine moonrace.

The place was rather large overall with few people within. Even so, the imperial guide wasn't just the administrator-in-name of the Moonnight Patio. Many youths that passed by respectfully greeted her. Tianming saw true reverence in their eyes; naturally, he was all too aware of her strength.

"Greetings, Imperial Guide."

The young divine moonrace greeted her one after another. They considered those under the age of fifty to be young. However, given the lifespan of ascendants, even those around the age of a hundred would look like a Vermillion Bird citizen of around twenty. That was the benefit of being born as the descendant of an ascendant.

As a result of this law of nature, children of ascendants had an easier time becoming ascendants themselves, something that clearly showed even at the Samsara stage. The tens of girls that greeted the imperial guide were more beautiful and talented than both Huiye Shi and Huiye Yin. All of them had six bane-rings and were royals. Though they moved about in big flocks, their refined behavior prevented them from being noisy. They looked like a group of elegant ladies heading to a grand tea ceremony.

"Yueshen Qi," the imperial guide called out. Yueshen was the surname of the royal clan. Anyone who bore that name was someone to be reckoned with.

A gentle-looking girl in a yellow dress emerged from the group. She looked like a typical beauty of the divine moonrace, with a shapely figure, fair skin, demure demeanor, and elegance that oozed out of every corner of her body. Given how she had been standing amidst the whole group, she seemed to hold an important position in Moonnight Patio.

"Yes, Imperial Guide?" Yueshen Qi said in a gentle voice.

"Do you know this one?"

"Yes. He's Her Majesty's new pet."

Yueshen Qi smiled at Tianming. It seemed like she didn't think calling him a pet was in any way offensive. In fact, the divine moonrace almost saw it as an honor.

"Very well. He'll be coming here to train from now on. You're in charge of guiding him and attending to his needs. If they aren't something you can satisfy, you may come to me," the imperial guide said. The other royals there were a little shocked to hear that. For Yueshen Qi to be personally tasked to answer Tianming's demands meant the rest of them would have to assent to his whims as well.

"Yes, Imperial Guide." Yueshen Qi was a scion from an illustrious family, so she was well aware of what she needed to do in this situation.

"He wants to look up some battle arts today. Take him to the Bamboo Forest."

"Understood." Yueshen Qi bowed and smiled at Tianming, her dimples prominently showing. "Please come with me."

"Thank you in advance," Tianming said.

"Being able to serve Her Majesty's new pet is my honor."

Those words really unnerved him. The imperial guide was gone by now; she was probably really busy. After she was gone, the other royals left as well, but they secretly gathered further away to look at Tianming as they talked about him with weird looks.

"This way, please." Yueshen Qi humbled herself, smiling the whole time. Tianming followed her through the Moonnight Patio. Along the way, there were quite a lot of male disciples. It seemed that the gender balance there wasn't skewed.

"Sister Qi, who's this?" someone asked.

"Shush!" Yueshen Qi put up a finger against her lips as she warned them with her gaze, causing them to shut up. It would only take a look or two for them to figure out who Tianming was.

"Why's he here? Damn..." they chattered as they left.

......

Soon, they reached the Bamboo Forest. For a place that stored legacies that countless people yearned for, it was given a really simple and humble name. Tianming could see tens of thousands of bamboo trees ahead of him, each of them hundreds of meters tall. They were colorful and bundled together and made the whole forest look like paradise itself. However, Tianming knew that they weren't real bamboo.

They were all made using a similar material as the Hexapath Sword Insight Rock, which was formed with multiple layers of sword barriers. The legacy and speech of the Hexapath Sword God were encoded within those barrier formations, allowing Tianming to systematically go through the levels of the battle art. While that was advanced technology by the Flameyellow Continent's standards, it was all too commonplace in the Divine Moon Realm. These were called legacy formations.

They weren't complicated things. It's just that legacy formations weren't commonplace on the Flameyellow Continent. For instance, there were legacy formations in the Li Saint Clan's mausoleum in the form of the tombstones, albeit simplified ones. Each of the bamboo trees in front of Tianming was a legacy formation in itself. They contained the records of the originator of the techniques demonstrating their self-created technique, which was much better than learning about a battle art from a manual. It also helped limit the easy spread of battle arts.

"Disciples of the Moonnight Patio have to contribute to be allowed access to the legacy formations, or gain approval of the seniors. They're also only allowed to pick one or two. But you're different. Her Majesty has decreed that you can choose as many as you want," Yueshen Qi said enviously. It was no wonder that Tianming had detected jealousy in the other disciples' expressions.

"Will you follow me inside?" he asked.

"I can't enter, based on the regulations," she politely said.

"It's fine. I'll need you to give me a brief explanation."

"Understood!" She knew full well that the right course of action for her was based on the conversation she had with the imperial guide. The rules applied to the disciples, but not Tianming.

He didn't say much more, but immediately stepped inside and noticed that each bamboo tree was about a kilometer away from the rest, barely interfering with the others around it. Some disciples could be seen cultivating in front of some of the bamboo trees.

"I assume the deeper we go, the better the techniques?"

"That's the case. In the same vein, they'll get harder too. What kind of battle art do you need? First, second, or third-realm ones?"

"Third-realm battle arts."

There was a stricter categorization with regard to battle arts across the astralscape of order, unlike the Flameyellow Continent, where any battle art created by ascendants were considered divine grade. Instead, the astralscape of order's view of battle arts was far more holistic.

Aspects like cultivation type and capabilities were considered in the creation and use of battle arts. For instance, Tianming's power was based on astral discs within his albi. Once he reached the Ascension stage, he noticed that the final strikes of Hexapath Samsara Sword were different from the former four. Only divine-grade battle arts could properly utilize the power of one's albi, which was why divine-grade battle arts were also called divine astral arts, or divine arts for short.

They were split into the first, second, and third realms for ascendants. It was said that the fourth realm and above required power beyond that of the Ascension stage, and training to use them before that wouldn't make any difference to using a first, second, or third realm divine art.

If I had to guess, the Hexapath Samsara Sword can probably be considered a second-realm divine art. Its sword intent might be better than many third-realm arts, too. However, there's a lack of support when it comes to the power base. That's why it's a bad match for the astral discs in my albi, which is a huge weakness. I need a divine art that doesn't have to have a complicated sword intent. Instead, it just needs to fit my astral discs and be able to be used throughout the Ascension stage.

Apart from battle arts, other special techniques were also classified with the realm system. However, Tianming already used the Primordial Chaos Beasts' respective codices as his cultivation technique, so he wouldn't have to worry about that.