Beastmaster of the Ages

The Violetglory Star was quite different from Orderia. In the latter, the celestial orderians reigned supreme with the Myriad Solar Sects only just barely able to put up some resistance. But in the Violetglory Star, two main factions fought countless battles through the ages with only a few smaller overt or covert factions. Of the two main factions, the first was the Violetcloud Imperium, which the battlefield was named after. Han Xingluan, being one of five Violetcloud Disciples, was really famous and honored by many disciples across the star. Seeing someone backed by his faction and clan defeated by a nameless youth that popped out of nowhere was utterly shocking.

"What kind of background does that youth have? Surely it can't compare to the Violetcloud Imperium or Divineglory Dynasty!"

The Divineglory Dynasty was the top-ranking faction on the Violetglory Star. The name of the star came from the two main factions.

"Who in the world nurtured him? They can't possibly have more resources than the two main factions. Don't tell me he's a secret disciple that one of these two factions is nurturing...."

"It looks like Han Xingluan doesn't recognize him. He's likely to be someone from the Divineglory Dynasty then. But he doesn't look like a divineglory imperial. Maybe his apparent factionlessness is only just a ruse."

"The key thing is that his records state that he's a beastmaster with four lifebound beasts too."

"It can't be a blood pact, can it?"

"Totems can't just spontaneously manifest in those not born with them, after all. Not to mention, totemancers and beastmasters can't interbreed. The only logical conclusion is that he uses blood pacts. What kind of fool would bother with something like that?"

"But no, it can't be. Lin Feng is the twenty-fifth ranker now. Wouldn't he be far more powerful if he wasn't burdened with symbiotic cultivation?"

The discussions about Tianming grew more and more esoteric.

"It's far too weird."

Curiosity, suspicion, and doubts surfaced as the disciples recalled the battle from before. They had no idea what the truth actually was.

"I'm sure even more people will start looking for Lin Feng's true body outside."

"Let's just wait for the news. I'm sure the ones backing him will be dragged out at least."

"True. There are no secrets on the Violetglory Star, after all."

......

The crowd around the battlefield continued going wild. Tianming had left the battlefield and was finally out of the limelight, much to his relief. Liu Wanwan immediately came over and rammed into him and said, "It can't be... can it? The genius before me is ranked twenty-fifth? How can a lazy bug like me get to know some monster that isn't bound by common sense at all?" She no longer cared about how she was perceived owing to how ecstatic she felt, though her wide-eyed stare was cute to say the least.

"Twenty-fifth? You're still underestimating me. I'm going to challenge the top ten now." He was ranked first in Orderia, after all, so he had to live up to that expectation. Defeating the twenty-fifth ranker was so easy that it bore no mention.

"Heavens, chill out, bro!" Liu Wanwan was flabbergasted. Never could she have dreamed that someone who could rank in the top ten would be speaking to her like that. Normally, they would be someone she would have to look up to in worship.

"You!" Liu Xuanxuan pushed Liu Wanwan aside and stared at Tianming with her mouth wide open, but no words came out.

"What's wrong?" Tianming asked.

"Are you the Divineglory Dynasty's secret disciple? Why pretend to be weak like that?" she asked, full of suspicion.

"You're overthinking this. Just treat Wanwan nicer from now on or I'll beat you up, got it?"

"Fine!" Liu Xuanxuan pulled her head back, knowing better than to offend someone like him.

"You heard the man! Now scram," Liu Wanwan said.

"Nnngh!" Liu Xuanxuan grit her teeth to no avail, though she completely accepted the situation. Weakly, she asked, "Are you someone from the Divineglory Dynasty or not? Or could you be from the Violetcloud Imperium? Then again, you didn't know Han Xingluan at all."

Tianming didn't bother answering her. His greatest advantage now was that no matter how eye-catching his actions were, he was completely safe in the real world. They wouldn't find him anywhere on the Violetglory Star. What he cared more about were the access privileges to higher levels of the Violetglory Pagoda, so he prepared to issue the next batch of challenges.

The wondersky fairy said, "Those in the top ten have a special right. As there's far too many people constantly trying to challenge them, challenges issued to them have to be evaluated by a duel committee first to ensure the top ten disciples have time to cultivate. Only after the duel committee acknowledges the challenge will it be forwarded to the disciples themselves to accept or reject."

"What's the duel committee?"

"They're administrators of the Violetcloud Battlefield picked from various sects across the Violetglory Star."

They were probably seniors who would evaluate the challenges based on the circumstances they were issued under. Tianming had defeated Han Xingluan with a single move and risen up to the twenty-fifth place. Obviously, he would have a good chance of passing the evaluation.

He could only pick from the fourth to tenth rankers to challenge. After reading the information about all seven of them, he noted that they were all seventh-level constelliers, two levels higher than Han Xingluan. Even the one in tenth place was higher level than Weisheng Moran. Though, totemancers seemed to have an advantage when it came to level, so their true power probably wasn't too far apart.

"Let's pick this specter called Mu Sha then. He's rank five." The reason he chose that out of the others was he wanted someone to quickly accept the challenge. Most people that wanted to go to the top ten would pick the ninth or tenth ranker to fight for a better winning chance, but he didn't care about losing since he was trying to test his limits.

"Mu Sha is a skywolf royal from the Skyword Shrine and a seventh-level constellier." Another reason Tianming had picked him was that he was a skywolf royal. Lingfeng had once fought Kong, a skywolf royal from the Voidword Shrine. "Are the two sects related somehow?"

Even though the names weren't that close, they shared the similarity of having skywolf royals, which were specters. Kong and Bodhi could both turn into werewolves, a sign that they were skywolf royals. Tianming didn't think that he would encounter them even on the Violetglory Star, which was sure to be quite far away. Not to mention, there was a counterpart of the Voidword Shrine here, the Skyword Shrine. Tianming's Sky Palace stigma also looked more like the character for void than sky, unlike Yu Ziqian's. He suspected there was some kind of relation there.

The Skyword Shrine was ranked third among all the sects of the Violetglory Star and was one of the few factions that could stand up on their own without relying on the top two factions. More than half of the sect's members were specters, a much higher proportion than the Voidword Shrine's. There were little to no specters in Voidword Shrine. Tianming wanted to see for himself what Mu Sha was made of.

"Wanwan, does the Skyword Shrine have anything to do with skywolf royals?" Tianming asked.

"They're the remnants from the Skywolf Star. You don't even know that? Are you some kind of outsider alien?" She rolled her eyes.

"Remnants?" It clicked in Tianming's head. Apparently, the Violetglory Star had something to do with the Skywolf Star as well.

"That's right. It should be common knowledge. The Violetglory Star was once conquered by the Skywolf Star, and our nova source was completely controlled by them. We became their colony. It's a painful and humiliating history of oppression. But then the divine wondersky race came and helped us defeat the Skywolf Star and reclaim our homes." Liu Wanwan seemed a little melancholic. The way she looked at Tianming was growing weirder and weirder.

"Since it's such a deep grudge, why weren't they completely exterminated?"

"The colonizers from the Skywolf Star go as far back as a hundred thousand years. They have billions of descendants here, most of them specters, and it's almost impossible to kill them all off. Not to mention, all of that is history for them too. As far as they're concerned, they weren't the ones that perpetrated all that oppression."