Beastmaster of the Ages

Tianming stood with his mind as calm as still lake water, despite the raging environment around him. Within the third level of the Violetglory Pagoda were countless caeli of forerunners, available as a guide for the future generation to learn from. Their insights might come to inspire those that tried to learn from it, allowing them to improve their divine wills. By now, Tianming's Lifesbane Will had reached the point of maturing into a divine will.

"Bane... or tribulation, is the chain of fate. It's a fundamental part of the cosmos. Pushing through and overcoming the bane will allow a life to completely transform. Cultivation is no different from overcoming banes and tribulations like these. Step by step, one will walk the path to godhood and fight the heavens for survival!"

This path was too complicated, and too burdensome to navigate. Fortunately, forty-nine days were nearly two months, so there was still plenty of time.

"Even though I'm basically trying to achieve godhood a second time, I'm still in the prime growth phase after breaking my Lifesbane curse. It should be enough time."

He progressed at a firm pace. He didn't need divine pills, but grew with his own efforts according to his plans. Yu Ziqian was incredibly grateful for his help in obtaining the cauldron and wanted to give him his last myriad dao pill, but Tianming refused it. He truly didn't need something like that. Unlike Lingfeng, consuming a divine pill would increase his resistance to the pill's effects. The more he consumed, the weaker the effect would become. Instead, he would rely on hard work and careful practice to make sure every detail was perfect.

At the same time, he had started practicing the third move after fusing the first two. It was called Blazedragon Fireblast. The strike was interesting in that, when it was executed, the blade of the sword would generate sparks that filled the sky, which was accompanied by a loud roar that had the same effect as Lan Huang's Primordial Soundwave, but with the added effects of flames, and it was infused in every strike. It could almost instantly knock an opponent out, and Tianming had only needed around three days to learn it.

After that, he executed the Blazedragon Fireblast, descending like a flaming dragon as his sword emanated the roar of tens of thousands of dragons, creating soundwaves so powerful that they seemed to cause explosions. The strike itself was about as powerful as the Silverdragon Flashkill, and it wasn't too difficult, either. As usual, the difficulty lay in fusing this move together with the previous two for a combination strike that was fast, fierce, and loud! Fortunately, Tianming had more than enough time thanks to the Sky Palace's generosity. Not only was he able to stabilize the sudden burst of power he had gotten by consuming a myriad dao pill, but he had also managed to use his Lifesbane Will to help him break through.

"Finally, I'm a twelfth-level ascendant." One more level until he was a proper constellier, and his Lifesbane Will was on the brink of turning into a divine will. That was always a bottleneck for most people for decades or even hundreds of years. Some people would only take one day to come to a miraculous realization and make the breakthrough, however.

The key to becoming a constellier was their constellation, whose manifestation relied on understanding the astral signs. Time wasn't necessarily a factor when it came to this process. Tianming had thought that perhaps Yu Ziqian's myriad dao pill would be of help to him, but it was definitely inferior in comparison with the grandpath fiend pill. He didn't hold too high hopes for it, so he didn't want to waste it.

"Converting a heavenly will into a divine will is the core foundation of the process. If I speed it up using a divine pill, my foundations won't be stable enough, making a problem that'll haunt me in future breakthroughs." Many geniuses who had relied on divine pills to grow would be built up hollow and filled with holes by the time they were a few centuries old. It was mostly better to take one's time and grow slower. Only then would they stand a chance of becoming an elite.

"Aren't you a calm one? The upcoming fight has to do with fate itself. How are you able to resist the allure of the divine pill?" Yu Ziqian said, impressed to no end. The more he came to know Tianming, the more he came to see how out of the ordinary he was.

"Umm...." Tianming had just broken through and was still in his own world, fusing Tridragon Tribulation. "Maybe that isn't its real name, but why does it matter? It isn't like the name changes the power of the move." Once he managed to fuse it, he would dramatically increase the power of the move. Perhaps then, not even fifth-level constelliers would be able to hold a candle to him.

"Once I have a constellation, strengthen my sword body, and use this move with totems, it'll be far more powerful. I'll soon get my own constellation, but I still won't be able to use totems. That aside, where should I get divine hazard sword ki?" Tianming looked toward the Voidsky Flame Pillar. Divine hazards were all around them, but none of them were top-quality sword-ki hazards.

......

Less than ten days were left until the competition. Tianming asked Lingfeng about his progress after consuming the grandpath fiend pill and myriad dao pill and was told that he was now a third-level constellier. "Won't this destabilize your growth at all?"

"Don't worry. My Primordial Gate can continuously refine the pill without resulting in any wasted effects. It also helps remove impurities that can trigger unstable thoughts," Lingfeng assured.

Tianming could only inwardly praise the Primordial Demonlord. Now, Lingfeng could consume as many pills as he wanted without any of the side effects. As for Xiaoxiao, she could only rely on consuming caeli to break through, but she was easily the fastest among the three. Not to mention, she didn't care about the consequences. How powerful she would be in the future didn't matter to her, so long as she was powerful enough right now. During the past forty or so days, she sometimes went hunting for caeli herself, allowing her to remain the highest in terms of level among the three, being a fourth-level constellier now. She was still the weakest among them, but that was somewhat offset by her growing familiarity with the Dragonblood Desecration.

"Thank goodness the Sky Palace gave us all that time. Otherwise, we wouldn't stand a chance at all in the final battle," Tianming said.

These days, the Voidsky Realm was at its most chaotic. There were few who could afford to calmly train like they could, especially right when everything was going to start soon.

......

Tianming checked the ranking once more. It read:

First Place, Li Tianming (Azuresoul Palace), 810000.

Second Place, Weisheng Moran (Divine Celestial Nation), 740000.

Third Place, Yu Ziqian (Azuresoul Palace), 480000.

Fourth Place, Kong (Voidword Shrine), 460000.

Fifth Place, Feng (Azuresoul Palace), 400000.

Sixth Place, Zhan Yuance (Wargodeans) 390000.

Seventh Place, Lin Xiaoxiao (Azuresoul Palace), 360000.

Eighth Place, Long Longlong (Xuanyuan Dragon Sect), 350000.

Ninth Place, Chu Jingchuan (Empyrean Sword Sect), 280000.

......

Many people made similar observations about the current ranking. First, Zhan Yuance's points hadn't increased, so his rank had fallen to sixth place. Long Longlong didn't raise his own points either, allowing him to fall to eighth place as planned. Third, Chu Jiangchuan had been rapidly fighting to raise his points in the forty-odd days to rise to eighth place, but things just hadn't gone his way. The Voidsky Realm was so large that nobody intentionally gathered at one place, so he would be quite lucky if he was able to get a few thousand points each day. Not to mention, the other participants cannibalized each other for points, making the available pool of points even smaller. It didn't seem like he would stand much of a chance with so little time remaining.

The Empyrean Sword Sect ranked fifth on the myriad sect ranking, being the most powerful sword sect of all—the Azuresoul Palace had actually branched out from it millions of years ago. No doubt, the members of the sect were on the edge of their seats as they watched the competition unfold.

There was another odd occurrence: Weisheng Moran shouldn't have a need to raise her points at all. After all, being first or second would likely make no difference when it came to joining the Sky Palace. Yet she was using her last bit of time to defeat more than a hundred thousand enemies at a rate as fast as Chu Jiangchuan. Though even with that, it didn't seem like she would be able to catch up to Tianming. The ranking scheme was heavily skewed toward those that had obtained treasures. As a result, the battle matchups were more or less decided to be as follows.

The first battle would be between Tianming and Long Longlong, the second was between Weisheng Moran and Xiaoxiao, and Yu Ziqian would face off against Zhan Yuance in the third. As for Lingfeng, he would be going up against Kong in the fourth battle.

The question now was: how would the eliminated Zhan Yuance be allowed to compete? He no longer stood a chance to join the Sky Palace, after all. It seemed that Yu Ziqian would easily join the top four without even having to fight. The Sky Palace had probably considered this and gave more time for someone else to catch up to Zhan Yuance and push him out, but nobody had managed to do it. Only time would tell how that would be dealt with in the upcoming final battle.

......

The first battle between Tianming and Long Longlong was one to look forward to. Tianming was from a humble background, yet he had managed to get so many treasures, which allowed him to rank first. Even so, he hadn't shown any power beyond that of a fourth-level constellier so far.

On the other hand, Long Longlong was from the second-ranked sect and was blessed with talent. Not to mention, he wielded a grade-eight divine artifact. Which one of them would triumph?

Finally, the countdown came to an end; the names and points on Skyward Stele would no longer change. For those outside the top eight, the competition was over. Some left after having obtained some benefits while others left with nothing, or with less than what they came with. There were those that had honored their ancestors with their performance in the rankings and others who were now doomed to mediocrity. Even so, people couldn't care less about those who weren't in the top eight.