Beastmaster of the Ages

Bodhi was the most sinister foe Tianming had ever had to face off against. Even so, the victory had brought him no happiness or elation. Instead, he felt worse off for it.

During the conflict with the divine moonrace, he had considered coexisting with Bodhi and the specters for real, but deep down he knew that Bodhi would never give up on his vendetta. As expected, things had turned out the way he predicted, culminating in the near collision of both worlds as Bodhi tried taking the stellunar source for his own home. Had he not died, the two worlds would have. Tianming had no choice if he wanted to survive. Killing Bodhi with the power of humanity was the only way out of the spot between a rock and a hard place.

Perhaps the fact that Bodhi had died thinking he'd achieved his vengeance was the best possible outcome for all parties involved. Little You was the only blemish on the way things had turned out, but it had resulted from Bodhi's own doing, or rather that of their ancestors.

There was a small box beside Bodhi's corpse containing Little You's corpse. She peacefully rested within it. Tianming pushed it into Bodhi's arms.

"I don't know if you can hear this, but I've decided to tell you my decision. I'll designate an uninhabited area at the west of the continent for the billion specters to inhabit. They'll be able to enjoy consuming normal spiritual energy, as well as bathing in the light of the moon and sun. I'll reshape our society into one where humans and specters can peacefully coexist. They'll earn the freedom and basic rights and dignity that all lifeforms deserve. I'll do my best to give them everything they had imagined when they were imprisoned inside the Ninefold Hell.

"Truth be told, two hundred millennia of imprisonment still isn't enough to even out the enslavement of humanity for a million years. But if we keep holding on to debts incurred aeons ago, how can we ever break free of the cycle of hate and resentment? You said you wanted a home, and we could've negotiated that. The Flameyellow Continent could've been your home, too. Even if there isn't a stellunar source there, you'd still gain warmth and care. The small things in life that culminate in happiness can all be gained there. It just goes to show that all you and your ancestors cared about wasn't really just a home, but a stellunar source instead."

Back then, Tianming didn't have the right to tell Bodhi these things. But now he was powerful enough, and could talk to him on equal footing. A fine balance of power between the two races could be achieved on the continent. There would be no point in destabilizing each other's lives on the continent, which would result in a halt in the conflict. Tianming was more than willing to allow the descendants of the specters to live a new life, unburdened by the sins of their forebears. Yet Bodhi had chosen to prioritize the resentment incurred aeons in the past over the peaceful lives they could gain in the present. He died blissfully, thinking he had fulfilled his vision of utter destruction. As for the specters that still remained, their fates wouldn't be too much worse.

"After bearing all of that punishment, shouldn't it be time to let go of all this resentment and go back to enjoying what life has to offer?"

Bodhi had known that his ancestors inflicted a lot of pain and suffering on the people of the continent. However, he made a willing decision to forget and ignore that fact. He did everything for the stellunar source and his personal ambitions. Surely he wasn't ignorant to the fact that all he needed to do to get a home without a stellunar source was communicate and negotiate. Even the death of his wife and children should have been resolved between him and Tianming, but he chose to drag the rest of the continent into his personal vendetta.

From the start, Tianming had been leading his people in a careful dance between two behemoths, the specters and the divine moonrace. The slightest misstep would mean the start of an unending nightmare. He hadn't had a choice when he directed the divine moonrace to exterminate the elites of the specters. Through the entire process, he had never exposed Bodhi for being a specter to the divine moonrace, thereby ensuring the survival of the remaining billion of them. That was his final act of benevolence, and he thought it was how he could achieve peace with Bodhi, but it turned out to be a pipe dream.

"Now unburdened by this debt of blood, the specters will be better off." Tianming gave Bodhi a coffin, allowing him to be with his daughter even in death. "When we return, I'll bury you in your new home."

With the elites of the specters wiped out, they were no longer a threat to the humans of the continent. Li Caiwei was about to ascend to godhood herself, so Tianming would be able to maintain control. Moving forward, the resentment that resulted from their imprisonment would vanish alongside the resentment the humans had incurred over a million years of enslavement. OId things should be left to die to make space for new possibilities to grow.

The moon finally returned to its former position. The Archaionfiend opened up the path out of the mooncore and tossed Tianming Moondream Soul. It was finally over, and the people of both worlds could start a new chapter in their lives, free from the chains of age-old resentment.

"Let's go!" There were still many things he had to deal with. The sovereign and Bodhi had both died within the mooncore; it wasn't a place worth lingering in. With the Moondream Soul in hand, he wouldn't have to worry about the situation repeating itself.

"Xiaoxiao, I'll be dealing with some matters of the Divine Moon Realm, so you should go back down and help out," Tianming said, standing on the ruins of Xi Palace.

"Do you still think Xiaoxiao's your maidservant?" the Archaionfiend snapped.

"Wu You, stay out of this." Lin Xiaoxiao's words immediately shut the beast up. She nodded to Tianming, swallowed what she was about to say, and left.

……

Tianming swept through the halls of the Grandfowl Water Palace and found a mysterious area sealed by a formation. Within it were countless treasures—universal manna, divine artifacts, divine pills, divine herbs, and many more. There was also a heap of transmission stones. A few of them were forged from divine ores, marked with the words 'celestial orderians'. They must be what the sovereign used to contact Orderia. However, she had died far too unexpectedly, and hadn't been able to use any of them.

Tianming swept the whole area clean. Now he had hundreds of universal manna, enough to make quite a few more gods on the continent. He then went to the divine moon hall of the capital. Nobody stood in his way after all this commotion. Using a divine ore called caelumite, he stored around ten thousand caeli of the divine moonrace, which he intended to bring back to the continent. The divine moonrace had millions of them, so that small number wasn't a big deal.

"These should be enough to make tens of gods on the continent in a short time. Now that they are connected to my divine will, they should be making swift progress as well. If they need access to the stellunar source, they can cultivate on the moon."

With so much power, Tianming wouldn't have to worry about the specters that survived. He wouldn't have to worry about them causing trouble, either, having access to the Omnisentient Threads. Like the divine moonrace, the specters had lost their leaders.

Tianming took all of the transmission stones he could find. "This incident will eventually be discovered by Orderia. What I need to do now is minimize the impact as much as possible."

He continued searching throughout the city. The entire Divine Moon Realm was in chaos after their sovereign's death and the near collision of the worlds. Many of them were still stricken by the incident even though it was over, but nobody knew the full truth of the matter.

As Tianming flew about the city, he suddenly spotted a familiar short-haired girl.