Beastmaster of the Ages

"My Imperial Will needs to be the sole absolute controller above the five astral discs. If my Lifesbane Will tries to ascend to that position, it'll only be subdued. Given the characteristics of Lifesbane Will, it should focus on resonance instead." Tianming wondered if it was possible to break the 'Prime Tower' down into little fragments and let them assimilate into the five astralforces in his albi.

"It won't work if I don't break it down! Let's try it!" It was a daring notion indeed, but it was built on his firm understanding regarding the nature of his Lifesbane Will, so he was rather confident in it. This was the advantage of finding his own way rather than relying on caeli or divine pill consumption. Had he relied on the latter, he would have raised his Lifesbane Will to similar heights of power as his Imperial Will, raising them to the same level and encouraging conflicts to occur. The two incompatible wills might start repelling each other, and trying to cultivate both of them even further would give no benefits. It might even become a roadblock to his progress.

Everyone's circumstances were different. Tianming didn't have a Primordial Gate, nor did he have an odd lifebound beast like the Archaionfiend to help him process consumed caeli. Despite being required to work much harder, it had allowed him to find the optimal path he should take.

"Now, shatter!" Minor Lifesbane and Greater Lifesbane waned before growing stronger. This was a similar principle. Within every single albus, he used his Imperial Will to shatter his Lifesbane Will. The Grand-Orient Swords pierced through the Prime Towers before they had even taken solid form!

"Resonate!" The crushed Lifesbane Will turned into a white mist and began dissipating, causing his five astral discs to reach the point of collapse. His albi began unstably shuddering with energy that threatened to spiral out of control. It was a truly agonizing sensation. Nobody would dare to do something that could destroy their growth. It would no doubt cause many to feel a chill down their spine to hear what he had dared to do with absolute confidence and clarity. He knew where this path led!

"Come back! Morph into a new state of being!" He closed his eyes, visualizing the path he had walked to reach this point, the tales of those around him who had also struggled against destiny, and the millions of caeli he had looked into. He reached the peak of a certain emotional resonance, similar to the resonance between divine will and the energy it controlled.

The five astral discs suddenly began spinning once more. His Lifesbane Will, which had been turned into white mist, assimilated into the astral discs of each of his albi. Then the laws of the world began to resonate with the astralforces. When the Prime Towers entered the astral discs, each individual layer transformed in both capacity and structure. It was a metamorphosis from heavenly to divine will under Tianming's control, achieving a perfectly harmonious resonance between will and energy.

"These five astral discs stacked up look like a tower of energy!" Even though his Lifesbane Will seemed to have disappeared, something had changed. Had it finally turned into a divine will? Tianming knew that it had succeeded for sure, as the rampaging astralforces in his body had completely calmed even though his Lifesbane Will had disintegrated. Not to mention, he had finely-tuned control that allowed him to stabilize the forces even better than before. This greatly increased the capacity of astralforce he could handle. His heavenly will had turned into a divine will and taken the form of energy towers!

The structure of his power had completely changed. Now, in every single one of his albi was the sword-shaped Imperial Will atop the five astral discs, within which his Lifesbane Will had assimilated and achieved resonance and through which he controlled and stabilized that power. The two divine wills no longer conflicted with each other. Instead, they formed a unified whole and complemented each other's weaknesses, affording even more stability and endurance. The five astral discs were now stacked up like a tower, with the topmost infernaldisc being the smallest, and the bottommost immortaldisc of Yin Chen's being the largest. That might have something to do with an innate quality of Primordial Chaos Beasts, or perhaps the size of their bodies. While the lower discs seemed to have more prominent power, it wasn't a huge difference. The largest immortaldisc was only one and a half times larger than the topmost infernaldisc.

"This is no doubt a terrifyingly powerful energy arrangement...." Compared to the former arrangement, this seemed completely different. "I suppose I can say that I've completely paved my post-Ascension path now."

He smiled. Unlike others, he'd had to work many times harder to establish firm foundations. Fortunately, his efforts hadn't been for naught. With such a stable foundation, he began absorbing nova source once more, noting the stark difference in quality between the nova source of the Azurecloud Continent and that of the Voidsky Realm.

......

Tianming spent a full day stabilizing his power at the second level of the Constellation stage. "I've finally succeeded!"

He stood up, feeling refreshed. He had reached an important milestone in this breakthrough, which would make his future progress much smoother.

"Come to think of it, I have the pagoda's sixth level to thank for this." Thinking of that, his expression changed. "Damn, I was so busy trying to break through that I think I missed the time of my fight!"

He'd had three days to prepare for the battle, yet his breakthrough had taken that time. He hurriedly deployed the heavenly locus formation to record his progress and entered the wondersky realm.

"Take me straight to the Violetcloud Battlefield!" Tianming told the wondersky fairy.

"Understood!"

Light began enveloping him.

"Wait, you haven't changed my location yet! I'm still on top of your junk!" Ying Huo cried, though they didn't have the time.

"You have a message from Liu Wanwan," the wondersky fairy said.

"Read it to me."

"Liu Wanwan said: Hey, Mu Sha and all five billion spectators are fuming at you for missing the appointment! Fool!"

Tianming began panicking as the lights whooshed past him. Then he saw a place filled to the brim with people, so many that he couldn't even begin to imagine their quantity. There were magnitudes more people than before.

"That dastardly Lin Feng!"

"Curse him! I hope he gets his ass blasted by a rhino!"

Tianming was the target of their scorn before he could even stand up properly. Thank the heavens I didn't use my actual name. Otherwise, they would be directing all that animosity at him. What a close call.

He blended in with the crowd, squeezing through them to approach the battlefield. Fortunately, the crowd made it hard for people to spot him among them. Most people didn't know what he looked like anyway.

"What is that idiot doing? He made that challenge so enthusiastically, but now he's a no-show after Mu Sha accepted it? He's been waiting there the whole time!"

"It's been ten hours! What the hell?!"

"Is he taking a shit outside or what?! Why's he not in the wondersky realm yet?"

"Hmph, I bet he chickened out. Bit off more than he could chew."

"To think that so many people call him the second miracle nowadays.... Way to let their hopes down! How disgusting!"

Tianming grit his teeth.

"Lin Feng, you cur!"

Tianming was a whole ten hours late—almost half a day! Now, he desperately wanted to know if the skywolf royal was still waiting for him as he continued squeezing closer to the battlefield.