Beastmaster of the Ages

"I wonder how many more of these minorsky steles there are. Are they all shards of the Grand-Orient Sword?" Tianming felt rather passionate as he looked at the divine pattern. He had seen many of them of grade four and below, but this one was so complex it seemed completely foreign to him.

He felt like he had returned to the first days he cultivated with the patterns on the gates in the sword, using them to progress on his imperial path. However, the pattern now before him seemed even more like the origin of Imperial Will. The moment he focused on it, the pattern changed and showed him countless images in his mind. Each pattern was like a living thing in itself, intersecting with billions of others and coexisting with them as a combined will that represented the Human Emperor.

"The beginning of myriad paths, king of order."

He closed his eyes as he contemplated those words, the core of Imperial Will. Though it seemed abstract and formless, unlike heavenly or divine wills that came in the form of flames or lightning and could also be applied directly in battle arts, cultivating this divine will was far more like cultivating his actual intent and willpower. When he muttered those words, the divine pattern suddenly charged toward him from the lake and spread out among his albi. Each Grand-Orient Sword within his countless albi absorbed the golden patterns and grew more powerful. By now, his mastery of Imperial Will was incredibly high. Though his Lifesbane Will was supposed to grow even faster, he hadn't thought he would be making so much progress with Imperial Will.

"The harder path does come with surprises, huh." Though it was difficult, whenever he improved his Imperial Will, the Grand-Orient Sword divine wills in him would grow much stronger. Not to mention, he was currently at the origin of the sun's nova source. There was more than enough fundamental cosmic force to go around, allowing him a chance for a sudden breakthrough. As he was only in caelum form, all of this happened in the real world. From the outside, streak after streak of golden divine patterns shot out of the stele, knocked Lan Xingyao away, and shot into a seated youth in the crowd who was absorbing nova source. Tianming had broken through using the stele.

"This is the Voidsky Realm's legacy!" many cried all of a sudden as they watched Tianming in flabbergastment. As they were standing quite far away, they didn't get to properly look at the stele. They were just about to swarm and challenge Lan Xingyao, only for a youth behind them to obtain the hidden gifts from the stele. Their plan had ended before it began.

"Who's that white-haired youth?"

"No idea. Our intelligence has no reports on him."

"Is he another hidden dark horse of some sect?"

"No matter what the case is, he's absorbing nova source to refill his astralforce. That means his divine will has grown to the point where a breakthrough is possible."

"How in the world did he even get a close look from so far away? Even I couldn't get a good look, not to mention the folks from Blueblood Starocean who were standing right in front of the stele for quite some time without gaining anything from it."

Thousands looked at Tianming with shock. As there was no skyward eye present here, only those in the immediate vicinity knew about what just happened.

"If no skyward eye appeared, does that mean nobody predicted he would benefit from this?"

Even a genius would take a year or two to make a breakthrough in the Ascension stage, and that would already make them a target of envy. Before the others could react, the stele suddenly shook and shrank to the size of a handheld talisman. Lan Xingyao hurriedly snapped out of the shock of being struck away by the golden patterns and attempted to grab the stele. But right as he touched it, the stele suddenly rammed into his fingers. A snap sounded out and Lan Xingyao cried out in pain and let go of it. His pinky finger looked like it had been broken, given the unnatural angle it was at.

The stele appeared in front of Tianming, who kept it into his spatial ring immediately before continuing to absorb nova source, much to the shocked silence of others. They looked at Lan Xingyao and Tianming with expressions of confusion. Though they all yearned for the stele, they knew the one who had it the worst was Lan Xingyao. As expected, the blue-haired youth looked more than pissed. He coldly glared at Tianming as the other disciples of his sect immediately surrounded him from ten meters away on high.

"Isn't he a little too gutsy? Why isn't he stopping? If he continues cultivating, Lan Xingyao will kill him in a single blow."

"That's enough. Let's not cause trouble and just watch."

"Come to think of it, who is he?"

As the rest talked, Lan Xingyao stretched out his hand and glared at Tianming. "Return the minorsky stele to me. Hurry up."

Though he sounded calm, his voice contained a semblance of authority. Since he dared to occupy the stele with thousands of others around him, he wasn't afraid of Tianming either. Even though he knew there were many hidden disciples from other sects, from the intelligence gathered by his sect, he was completely certain of the number of people who were stronger than him, and Tianming definitely wasn't one of them. Not to mention, when Tianming broke through, his constellation didn't appear, which meant he was an ascendant.

Now, only Lingfeng stood beside Tianming, but neither of them reacted to Lan Xingyao's words, causing the tension to grow even thicker.

"I said. Bring. It. Out." His patience was running thin.

"Did you hear him? Don't force us to cut your fingers off!" another disciple fiercely chided."Senior Brother, I think he's just pretending to be deaf. He hasn't met anyone that's really challenged him so far, so let's show him what the real world is like."

"He dares to take what belongs to Senior Brother Lan... he'll get off lightly if all he ends up with is a broken arm."

The other disciples were more than happy to stoke the flames. There wasn't a hint of de-escalation at all.

"Then what're you waiting for? Cut it off!" Lan Xingyao, seeing Tianming ignoring them, was delighted. "This fellow looked rather capable, but he isn't even bothering to open his eyes. Looks like he has no need for them, so we'll dig them out and toss them away for him." He turned to the thousands of onlookers. "What are you all looking at?! Scram!"

Quite a few onlookers were scared away by his shout.

"Blueblood Starocean disciples are the celestial orderians' dogs. They never bother to hold back."

"That's enough, friend. Keep it to yourself."

Many others could only sympathetically look at Tianming before leaving. By now, five disciples had approached Tianming, two of whom were first-level constelliers that were even stronger than Yun Feiyang. Yet they were but mere lackeys in their sect.

Lingfeng prepared himself to fight, but not even he could face so many powerful foes alone. Tianming was a step away from breaking through, and couldn't stop right now. At that moment, someone suddenly stood out to stop Lan Xingyao. "Halt!"

The rest turned to the relaxed youth that held a fan in his hand.

Meeting Lan Xingyao's gaze, Yu Ziqian said, "You already lost to me once. And now you want someone to hand over something you yourself failed to obtain? Lan Xingyao, your shamelessness knows no bounds. It's no wonder you haven't made any progress in the past few years!" Nobody noticed his cold sweat.

"Yu Ziqian!" Lan Xingyao's blue eyes grew bloodshot as he began to laugh maniacally. "Someone sent us information that you're actually a weakling."

"And you believed it? I'm amazed. To think the despair you felt from getting pummeled by me back then made you choose escapism instead. Do you want me to make you cry again? These two are my junior brothers. If you weren't even able to take it from my juniors, you don't have the right to fight me. It's better if you go back and get your senior sister to hang out with me, if you get my drift."

The others listened with shock.

"Yu Ziqian's savage...."

"A disciple of the Azuresoul Palace was able to force Lan Xingyao to such a point.... He really is a role model for us."

"Not to mention, his background is relatively inferior, yet the Azuresoul Palace still managed to produce such a genius this generation. Impressive indeed."

They didn't know that Yu Ziqian was just trying to buy time, seeing that he didn't know what else he could do to spare Tianming from the danger. He couldn't just watch Tianming's hand be cut off.

Lan Xingyao furrowed his brow. Yu Ziqian's acting was so convincing that he began doubting the veracity of the information he received. After all, he had been defeated by him once before; it wasn't just hearsay, but personal experience.

"Now, screw off!" Yu Ziqian commanded. Little did he know that this would spur Lan Xingyao into action.

"Yu Ziqian won't dare to kill me—he's just acting tough! I'll know for sure when I fight him!" The minorsky stele was far too important for him to leave without even trying to fight for it. "Go!"

All of his allies acted at the same moment, much to Yu Ziqian's shock. "Damn, shit's getting real."