Beastmaster of the Ages

"The opposite?" It was eliminating weakness all the same. How was it any different? He looked at Little You and pondered at the terrifying nature of weaknesses.

"Daddy, will we continue to work with them?"

"Impossible."

"Why?"

"Because we're creatures that bear the combined hate of two hundred millennia. We live for vengeance. Those that inflicted that nightmarish imprisonment on us have to pay ten thousand times over! Our bodies were given to us by the painstaking efforts of our forebears. They don't belong to us. We represent the entire specter race. The hate and grudges we bear don't just go away, understood?" His voice got more emotional as he spoke.

"I know. I can't eat grass. I have to eat human flesh because of hate," she said obediently.

"That's right." Bodhi nodded with satisfaction. "Little You, I gained quite a lot from the fight today. I think the time has come."

......

After leaving the compound, Tianming and Feiling immediately headed toward the continent.

"Big Brother, specter royals have two hearts," Feiling said as she hugged him from behind.

"I know."

"Will we have to use the other curse?"

"Let's hope not. Who likes to use a child as a threat? I won't use it if it can be avoided. Well... unless Bodhi goes on a sadistic streak. However, he doesn't look like someone like that."

"That's because you only see his face, but not his heart."

People were complicated. Some were self-interested and would do anything to achieve their goals, even at the cost of others. Some held on to grudges without ever breaking free from the cycle of hate, living solely to pay back blood debts.

For now, Bodhi and Sovereign Xi weren't things he had to overcome. Instead, it was the divine moonrace army that had caused his divine will to almost completely crumble. He had almost died during his trip back to the moon, but he hadn't gotten anything from it. Instead, he caused another three hundred thousand troops to be sent by incurring the sovereign's wrath.

Anyone would think that he was merely putting up a futile struggle. Feiling really wanted to ask him what he could do about it. She placed her face flat against his back, listening to his heartbeat. He should be panicking and blaming himself, yet his heartbeat was stable. He was as reliable as a mountain.

......

Meow Meow was descending to the continent at the fastest speed possible. They could already see it right in front of them. The human-shaped continent grew larger and larger in their eyes as they approached. Feiling noticed that Tianming was looking at it intensely like he was in a manic state. He seemed to be completely immersed in it.

"Why don't you cop a feel of my abs?" he teased all of a sudden.

"I wasn't doing that! You have nothing but fat there!" she snapped.

Was he really not in a panic despite all that was happening? She could feel his killing intent toward the divine moonrace, but really didn't see how they could turn this around at all. Instead, he seemed to have returned to exact revenge.

"Ling'er, did you really think I went back to the Divine Moon Realm only to return empty handed?" he asked with his eyes shining bright.

"I... I really couldn't tell." She didn't get it. Hadn't they suffered a complete loss?

"Sovereign Xi forced me onto the path of desolation. My Imperial Will's about to crumble and I'm about to lose everything. However, I began noticing the true path of the legacy the Primordial God-Emperor left me as a result. A path to come back to life." The human-shaped continent seemed to look like himself in his eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"In some sense, a person will start getting really lucky after gaining the faith of many others. The ruler and his subjects are one and the same. The concept of one of them being the weakness of the other doesn't apply. If the subjects are the ruler's weakness, then what benefit would there be in being anchored to them? What's the point of the most righteous path? There'd be no point in forming a dynasty that would only become a weakness my enemies can use to control me with."

Tianming had questioned that line of thinking countless times. He believed that definitely wasn't how things were supposed to be.

"Do you know what the descent of the divine moonrace reminded me of?"

"No. What is it?"

"The battle at Tianming City. During that battle, the ten million citizens gathered their powers together and relied on the spiritual formation spirit threads to unleash the power of the formation to defeat the Hexapath Swordfiend." Tianming had witnessed it himself.

"What does that have to do with this?"

"During that day, I awakened part of the Primordial God-Emperor's legacy in the form of Omnisentient Threads. I'm now connected to all life on the continent. However, I didn't understand the true essence of the threads. I thought they were just things that I could use to siphon Omnisentient Will to use in improving my divine will. The true legacy still remains to be discovered!"

Before he had gone back to the moon, it didn't make full sense to him. But after the sovereign's provocation and mockery when she tried crushing his hopes and the cracking of his Imperial Will, he had managed to find an answer by pondering about the Omnisentient Threads. He believed he had found it.

"The Omnisentient Threads and Imperial Will are the same, in essence. They're almost analogous to symbiotic cultivation, but with some differences. The legacy I inherited isn't a battle art, but rather a technique, an ultimate cultivation technique! The hardest role to play in this world is no doubt that of a ruler. Naturally, the ruler and his sentient subjects fulfill each other. There can't be one without the other, and I'm not their weakness, nor are they mine. Only by being together will we be at our strongest!"

None of that made sense to Feiling. "Big Brother, are your Omnisentient Threads like formation spirit threads, while you're the formation? Does that mean you can utilize their power?"

"Bingo! You sure are smart."

Soon, they finally reached their destination. He felt the countless Omnisentient Threads returning to him and started hearing the cries of anger and despair once more. It was just like the time when they had united against the Hexapath Swordfiend. This would be the first real battle the Tianming Dynasty would have to overcome.

"Omnisentient Threads aren't just used for absorbing Omnisentient Will so that I can benefit with my talent. Their true nature should allow me to use the people's combined power to a certain degree! In other words, the true legacy of the Primordial God-Emperor is thus: as a ruler, I shall fight with the billions of subjects standing by my side!"

He finally understood the true might of the Primordial God-Emperor. This entire time, he'd had the most ridiculously powerful cultivation technique. The burden of a ruler was far too heavy, and even with the threads, Tianming had only regained a strong connection with the rest of them once he returned to the continent. If his dynasty expanded across the stars, he could effectively be unrivaled.

He landed on top of a tall mountain and yelled, "Come!"

The entire continent was filled with anger and resentment. When he first connected using the Omnisentient Threads, the connection was rather janky. Only after he had pondered deeply about this matter did his Imperial Will show signs of cracking. However, the cracking was the sign of a rebirth! His powers were running wild, his body was about to explode, and his will was on the brink of exploding. But the connections of the Omnisentient Threads were resonating with and stabilizing him.

"All sentient beings! Lend me your power!"

A formation made from his human body began to form. Tianming still didn't feel the power for now, but he scanned through the countless lives and experiences of the people connected to him. He could see everything they saw, and even tell who was being hunted by the divine moonrace! All eighty thousand remaining troops could clearly be seen by Tianming.

"The ultimate cultivation technique, even an incomplete one, should be able to create miracles. This is the true power of my dynasty! I'll show them if they're really my weakness!"

Everyone on the Flameyellow Continent resonated together. During the time of crisis, the heavenly will of all of them had formed threads that connected to their emperor vast distances away. Everyone from Taiji Peak Lake, Tianming City, and places far beyond, ranging from Xuanyuan Dao, Li Caiwei, Ouyang Jianwang, Yi Xingyin, the rest of the Xuanyuan Clan, the Fang and Jian houses, and even those from the Yinyang Demon Sect connected to him.

They all felt the summons of a higher power as the Omnisentient Threads took form and became formation spirit threads that spanned the entire continent. It was a majestic sight indeed. The divine moonrace had committed too many atrocities on this land, causing a transformation among the denizens of the land like never before.

"I will kill all three hundred and eighty thousand of you divine moonrace cowards!"