Beastmaster of the Ages

Tianming was only there to hitch a ride, but he had inadvertently attracted some people's attention. He was currently sitting with Xiaoxiao and Lingfeng as a youth with black and white eyebrows coincidentally passed by where he was with a group of ten or so people. They stopped before Tianming and glared at them. The group's leader was none other than the disciple of the head instructor, Bai Junce, recognized to be the vice chief disciple of the group second only to Yu Ziqian.

"A specter?" Bai Junce raised his eyebrow as he inspected Lingfeng. In his eyes was a look of derision. Though specters were also humanoid, and stemmed from the same ancestor as normal humans, the branching had happened so long ago that they weren't considered to be the same anymore. Orderia was also a place where humans dominated, so specters were the minority. Though they had factions that had risen in the star's long history, they had basically been entirely eliminated by now. The ones that remained were those that survived in the periphery like sewer rats.

Tianming and the rest weren't aware that this kind of prejudice existed in Orderia. The celestial orderians looked down on their branch clans, the branch clans looked down on the rootbeast race, who in turn looked down on normal humans that also happen to detest specters. Though specters were strong fighters and usually superior to others on the same level, they were seen as the lowest in the hierarchy due to the present state of affairs. Many sects and empires didn't take them in as disciples, so they were only able to rely on legacies of their own kind to make do. As such, the group smiled mockingly at Tianming and the rest, though the reason was unknown to them. Lingfeng merely gave Bai Junce a look and ignored him.

Unsurprisingly, Bai Junce coldly said, "Don't you think specters are dirty? Why are you hanging out with him? They are willing to eat anything to strengthen their bodies."

Hearing that, Tianming said, "Oh, I get it now. You're here to incite trouble to see if you can force Yu Ziqian's hand by humiliating us, right?"

Bai Junce and the rest were surprised. "You're a sharp one. Didn't think you'd see through the reasoning so quickly." He dropped the pretense completely.

"It's hardly a sophisticated plot," Tianming said.

"Then, friend, you understand that Yu Ziqian is only a paper tiger too, right?" His arrogance was infuriating to say the least.

"Flies like you should go elsewhere. Stop bothering us," Tianming straightforwardly said.

"Flies? You're done for." Bai Junce's expression immediately soured. Qing Zi had said that Tianming and the rest weren't even at the Constellation stage. Not to mention, the Azuresoul Palace's information didn't contain anything about them, so they were likely too inconsequential to be ranked. Bai Junce didn't fear them at all. After all, someone that needed to hitch a ride from them couldn't be that powerful themselves. A true genius would have been escorted by the seniors of their factions to the Voidsky Realm long ago, though Yu Ziqian was an exception since Jiang Qingliu was a rather easy going person and had initially let his disciples travel by themselves.

"It's over for me?" Tianming feigned suppressed laughter, trying to emulate Yu Ziqian's acting. He tapped Lingfeng on the shoulder and said, "Feng, this guy is asking for trouble. Go teach him a lesson." He hadn't seen Ye Lingfeng fight in quite a while, after all, so he would use this chance to see what he could do. It could help his future planning.

"Alright!" Bai Junce didn't expect the black-haired youth would attack before he did. A black staff immediately appeared in Lingfeng's hand and came snapping with substantial force toward Bai Junce like a venomous dragon.

"Senior Brother, careful!" many disciples warned.

Bai Junce was both startled and angered. He manifested a longsword in his hand and lightly parried the staff. After a resounding boom, he was sent flying and fell off the moving qilin, much to the shock of the thousand others.

"Bai Junce should be at the twelfth Orderian Sky level, but he's a young rootbeast human. Despite his age, he's almost as powerful as Sovereign Xi was," Tianming said.

"Do you think Feng can win?" Xiaoxiao asked.

"Let's watch." Tianming was confident in Ye Lingfeng. He was the successor of the Primordial Demonlord's legacy. Not to mention, eighty thousand vitae lived on in his sea of consciousness and he had also consumed a lot of xenofiends in his previous predicament. There was no way he would be weak after going through all those ordeals.

It was nothing short of a miracle that Tianming and Ye Lingfeng were as powerful as they were in their twenties. The growth of Tianming's Imperial Will was something nobody could ever replicate. However, since coming to Orderia, he found that he wasn't that much different from others of the same age. The people here were impressive in their own right. In Orderia were elites about a thousand or two thousand years old who were no doubt at heights Tianming could only dream of after millennia of cultivation. Tianming wasn't even all that impressive among those under thirty in Orderia, and people up to fifty were considered young here.

Tianming's recent improvements were due to his growth spurt after finally breaking his lifesbane curse and his Omnisentient Threads. When cultivating as a god, it wasn't uncommon for some to seclude themselves for decades at a time. He would have to slowly learn how to control the laws of the world himself at this point.

As Tianming and Xiaoxiao were speaking, Ye Lingfeng caught up to Bai Junce and fought on the ground.

"What are they doing?" Jiang Qingliu shouted from the head of the qilin. The qilin descended from the sky and caused quite a lot of dust clouds to form.

Just as Yu Ziqian was about to shout for them to stop, he noticed that Tianming was calm. He hurriedly came over after making sure nobody was looking at him and asked, "Boss, what's going on?"

"Don't you get it? They want to force you to reveal your abilities by provoking us," Tianming said.

"That fellow is the disciple of the head instructor. He envies me for having access to much better resources than he does," Yu Ziqian said troubledly.

"Don't worry. We just need to school him a little."

Yu Ziqian blanked out for a moment, then shot Tianming a thumbs-up. Then, he went over to his master and said, "Old man, let them be. Just watch. My new friends are more than they appear!" That was something he was certain about. His 'portable grandpa' had said as much, for the first time ever, in fact.

"More than they appear? Who are they?" Jiang Qingliu asked.

"I don't know?" Yu Ziqian answered awkwardly.

"What're their names?"

"Haha, it's bound to be a good show! Look! The flaming clouds are bright today!" Yu Ziqian tried changing the subject.

"Buzz off!" Jiang Qingliu turned his attention to Ye Lingfeng. He didn't think that the battle would shock him. "This specter youth's body is about as strong as a normal human. He probably hasn't consumed any lifebound beasts. As for the power of his soul… it's at least at the third regal soul level!"

The soul could be cultivated. At a certain point of power, it would then transform. The levels were first divine soul, second general soul, third regal soul, and the legendary fourth imperial soul. Without explicitly cultivating the vita, even a constellier might not achieve the second general soul level, let alone the third. Many elders above five centuries old in Orderia might not have a high soul level at all. Yet here was a youth under thirty with a third regal soul.

In the eyes of the other disciples, Bai Junce was a legend in his own right, second only to Yu Ziqian. The only reason his level wasn't that high yet was that he was only nineteen, six years younger than their chief disciple. Given his talent, he would become a second- or third-level constellier at the age of twenty-five. And compared to Yu Ziqian, he had a huge advantage: he was a quad beastmaster.

They watched as the two youths crashed to the ground. A battle between a specter and a rootbeast human was entertaining, to say the least. Bai Junce had been suppressed since the beginning, though his pride and rage wouldn't allow him to relent. He summoned all four of his lifebound beasts, each with more than four thousand stars.

Since Liu Qinghuan's death, Tianming had never seen another beastmaster as powerful as Bai Junce, though Jiang Qingliu didn't count since he was a senior. The four beasts of Bai Junce were all huge, two black ones and two white ones. Their bodies looked like lions, covered in thick fur. They also had wings that spanned nearly a kilometer. However, their heads weren't lion heads, but goat heads instead. It was a combination of a gentle animal and a ferocious predator. Like qilins, they were surrounded by clouds. Their eyes were so deep they seemed to be able to see through all illusions.

They stood side by side with Bai Junce in the center. His clothes and hair fluttered in the wind, making him look quite impactful. Many young women marveled at his charm. Tianming could smell the genius on him. His beasts were empyrean baizes, beasts with a peak bloodline. The talent of beastmasters was usually determined by the number and species of beasts they had. Bai Junce had four beasts of an impressive species, so he was equivalent to a celestial orderian with seven bane-rings; the real deal, unlike Sovereign Xi.