Beastmaster of the Ages

"Minorsky stele? What's that?" Yu Ziqian asked. Anytime somebody else was around, he kept up the act of a serious chief disciple.

"It's a stele like the Skyward Stele, around a thousand meters tall. It might be a divine artifact of some sort, and it contains a lot of divine patterns within that can suck in people's caeli. The others said that it's part of the test of the Voidsky Realm and we'll be able to get on the imperial star rank if we deal with it," said the disciple.

"Lead the way!" Yu Ziqian instructed.

"Will do, Senior Brother." The disciples of the sect were all really worshipful of Yu Ziqian. With him around, they didn't even bat an eye at Tianming and the others.

"Juniors, it's time to go!" Yu Ziqian said, full of bravado. The location of the minorsky stele wasn't too far away. After a few moments, Tianming and the rest saw a huge stele surrounded by flaming winds. It did look like a smaller version of the Skyward Stele. When it appeared, Tianming noticed the Grand-Orient Sword shaking whenever it was pointed in the minorsky stele's direction.

"What's going on?" Tianming curiously approached the stele, careful not to let it show on his face. When they were nearby, he noticed that there were a few thousand others from the Myriad Solar Sects. They were all under the age of thirty, with most of them being samsarans, but there were quite a number of ascendants as well.

They had been cultivating with access to a nova source and precious legacies from the very beginning. Only a handful of people from the world below could possibly fend them off to climb to the very top. Nine out of ten disciples in the Voidsky Realm were samsarans, and most of them were only there to make up the numbers. They were more interested in gaining treasures from the ordeal than actually trying to rank high, so they were all excited when objects like the minorsky stele appeared. Too bad, they didn't actually dare to approach it, as disciples from the top sects had occupied the area.

Tianming's sight fell on the black stele. It looked rather rough on the surface, filled with peaks and pits as if it was a piece of divine ore that hadn't been properly refined yet. However, it looked like a divine artifact to him, given the many patterns inscribed on the surface. Light and shadow seemed to move about the stele, giving it a rather mystical appearance that almost seemed hypnotic and dazzling. As he approached, someone stretched out their hand and said, "Don't get close!"

"Why not?" Tianming asked.

"The disciples of Blueblood Starocean said that they've occupied this place. Anyone who gets within a thousand meters of the stele will have their legs cut off. A few disobedient ones already had their legs broken and were tossed out," said the guy who stopped him.

"My, they're arrogant, aren't they?"

"The Blueblood Starcean treats anyone outside the top ten of the myriad sect ranking like this. It's standard practice for them. Their sect occupies the entire Blueblood Continent, and even a huge part of the sea. They don't give a damn about the hundreds and thousands of smaller sects like ours."

The thought of the cruelty they had shown just now made the other disciples look rather downtrodden. Alas, this was the fact of the matter. Rank was absolute among the Myriad Solar Sects, and new sects always rose to replace the old. Only the truly strong would persist and survive.

"Thank you for the kind reminder, friend." Tianming stopped and turned to Yu Ziqian, only to find that he was gone.

Xiaoxiao shrugged helplessly and said, "When he saw the fellow in front of the stele, he immediately turned and ran."

"Where is he now?" Tianming asked, exasperated.

"Over there."

Walking back, they saw Yu Ziqian nervously sweating behind a boulder.

"What's up with you?" Tianming asked.

"Hush, quiet!"

"Are you chickening out?"

"Haha, how could I? I'm just not in the best condition. Forget it, I'll give it to you straight. Among the disciples from the Blueblood Starocean is Lan Xingyao. He came to the Azurecloud Continent to challenge me back then after hearing about my genius and I defeated him. Ever since that defeat, he felt humiliated and had never stopped wanting a rematch. My reputation is too strong. If I appear, he'll definitely come after me. Even though there's no skyward eye around, their cruelty has no boundary and I worry I'll be crippled." That was why he had immediately lost the fellow disciple who was guiding them; the disciple was still looking around for him even now.

"Lan Xingyao?" Tianming recalled the information he read about him. The Blueblood Starocean was a first-rate sect, ranked at tenth place. They had a history of eight million years of dominating their entire continent with cruelty and an iron fist. The 'bluebloods' of the Blueblood Continent were naturally fierce and cruel, and their sect was a manifestation of their people's will. They easily offended people, yet were able to reign supreme for millions of years as they were the only sect among the top ten that mainly had totem users.

It was said that the Blueblood Starocean was a branch of the celestial orderians. In other words, they used to be one of the branch families, so it wasn't a stretch to think that they had some support from the celestial orderians. Needless to say, they pledged their fealty to the celestial orderians, being the only faction in the top ten to do so. While that earned them scorn and isolation from the other sects, their place in the hierarchy was unshaken. In fact, they even rose little by little, making it so that most others didn't dare challenge them.

Lan Xingyao was a top disciple of their sect and a member of the blueblood royals. Based on the reports, he was a heptabane and around twenty years of age. He was someone who could shake the entire continent; easily a level above the likes of Yun Feiyang. It was said that he had grown up among the celestial orderians before the age of fifteen as well.

"A totem user?"

Tianming hadn't met a single one since coming to Orderia. The only totem users he had seen were those of the divine moonrace. Had Lan Xingyao not shown up, he would have forgotten that totem users actually dominated Orderia.

Currently, Yu Ziqian was in his pill recession phase, so he was incredibly fearful of Lan Xingyao. Being humiliated by Yun Feiyang was one thing, but being half-killed by Lan Xingyao was a whole other story. While the imperial star formation could prevent one from being killed, it didn't stop someone from torturing or crippling others.

"Alright, just wait here. I'll go to take a look," Tianming said.

"Don't offend him if you don't have to. Blueblood Ocean disciples always pay people back for any slight a few times over. The slightest provocation will cause them to go on an uncontrolled rampage. Not to mention, the elder sister of Lan Xingyao is a complete monster that's securely in the top ten of the imperial star ranking. If you keep going, you'll have to face off against her as well."

"Her? Ah, okay." Tianming didn't really care too much. Competition was the only rule in Orderia. Anyone that wanted to triumph wouldn't be able to avoid offending people. Since there was no way of avoiding it, he wouldn't shirk away from it.

Tianming had Xiaoxiao stay there to protect Yu Ziqian while he and Lingfeng returned to the stele, stopping when they were almost in range. Not a single one of the thousands there recognized the two of them. There were only six people within the specified range around the stele, all of them young men and women with blue hair and eyes. Their skin even had a slight hint of ocean blue thanks to the color of the blood that flowed within them. Though they appeared calm and subdued, their gazes were fierce and savage.

As the people gathered, more and more tried to defy them and approach, which only intensified their scowls. The one standing at the very front was none other than Lan Xingyao, a man of slender build clad in dark blue full-body armor. His dark blue hair was bound in a ponytail and his eyes were like the stars and he sported a sharp, masculine nose. Those blue eyes of his looked like oceans of endless depth, or perhaps bright blue stars in the sky. He looked like a dragon among men, born to lord over the other billion disciples. Perhaps such prideful appearances were a signature of totem users. Did it come from the cultivation technique they considered to be superior to others?

......

The thousands of people were growing rather antsy. Maybe they believed that they would be able to overwhelm Lan Xingyao with numbers. Some of them were already privately discussing whether they should rush over to the stele; there was no way the disciples of the Blueblood Starocean could break every one of their legs.

"On what grounds are they keeping it for themselves?"

"Everyone, the Voidsky Realm is filled with all kinds of boons. Everyone deserves a chance to gain something from the steles. Yet Lan Xingyao doesn't even let us take a closer look at it."

"It isn't fair!"

"Let's charge toward them all together!"

"I agree."

They spoke in low voices. Someone even asked Tianming. Naturally, he agreed. However, he had no issue with looking at the stele from a thousand meters away with his Plundering Eye. He had never planned on getting close to it to begin with. Lan Xingyao, on the other hand, was within arm's reach of the stele.