Beastmaster of the Ages

At that moment, the princess was looking deep into his eyes, waiting for his answer.

"How about this, princess? I have some difficulties I'm unable to share, so please give me a bit more time. I can, however, assure you that I will never join the Violetcloud Imperium no matter what. If I have to make a choice to join one side or the other, I'll definitely choose the Divineglory Dynasty."

He had expected that the princess would try recruiting him again, and it turned out to be the case. He had a feeling that she was a little annoyed, but he couldn't be sure.

"How long will you need?" she asked, seemingly not displeased in any way.

"Maybe wait until I get first place in the ranking! After that, we'll negotiate the conditions with more clarity. After all, two seven-star universal manna wouldn't quite be enough for the first ranker, right?" Tianming said stubbornly.

The princess looked stunned. "You want to take first place?"

"Yes."

"Hmm, that's ambitious." There was an undetectable hint of contempt in her look. However, it wasn't that she looked down on Tianming. Rather, it had spawned due to her trust in someone else.

"I might have to challenge Your Highness. I hope Your Highness wouldn't mind dropping down to fourth place since the dynasty surely has more than enough caeli."

"I won't mind." She couldn't help but smile, though it looked a little off. She felt that Tianming was surprisingly cute at times. Logically, top talent like him wouldn't behave like that. So he's quite different from Ye Chen, after all. "Alright, once you take first place, come to us. Never go to the Violetcloud Imperium no matter what, or you'll have hell to pay. Haha!" Her threat was made in a teasing, almost cute manner.

"Of course, Your Highness! So, if there isn't anything else, may I excuse myself?"

"Are you so unwilling to spend time with me?" she asked, hand on her chin.

"Your Highness is overthinking it." Tianming was in too much of a rush and didn't want to waste any more time with her. The conflict between the factions of the Violetglory Star didn't concern him in the slightest. If he wasn't worried that the princess's authority would be able to affect his access privileges, he wouldn't have bothered. He would only have to care about her status if he ever went there.

"Fine. You're dismissed," the princess said.

"Goodbye!" To him, people he could see but couldn't touch were a waste of time.

……

The lake was silent again after Tianming left. Then a person appeared next to the princess.

"I'd wanted to use seven-star universal manna as bait to trick him to reveal his location. I don't know if he's just daft or if he really figured out my intentions. He actually refused me."

"I think he's just daft," said the middle-aged man.

"So what do you intend to do, Uncle?"

"Didn't he say he wanted to take first place? We'll keep watching. Eventually, he'll expose something. There are currently two possibilities. The first is that he's actually being raised by the Violetcloud Imperium, which would mean he was just playing the fool and knew what was going on. The second is that he's just a fool that managed to get lucky."

"What if the latter is the case?"

"We'll keep doing what we're doing and use even more bait. He's just a brat, so there must be something that can sway him. If he's easy to control, there's no need to eliminate him either. Letting him serve as Ye Chen's rival isn't a bad idea."

"Alright."

For now, they still didn't have a definitive answer as to how they should deal with Tianming. Right as the princess was about to say something else, her face flushed red and she disappeared. That was the sign of her leaving the wondersky realm and returning to the real world. There was only one person on the entire star that could do something like that to her.

"This child… Isn't she hedging everything into her bet a little too soon? Is this Ye Chen truly that miraculous! He came from a small town wielding a top-tier weapon and stormed through the entire star with his five odd lifebound beasts. He even defeated Shen Yu and won her heart, crushing many Violetcloud Imperium disciples in the process and taking first place, then eventually receiving the summons of the emperor. He rocketed to the peak of power and survived countless deathly ordeals, emerging with benefits every single time. Someone like that is… interesting, to say the least."

……

Having spent some time in the wondersky realm, Tianming now had a rough idea about the state of the Violetglory Star. He temporarily stopped making challenges after defeating Mu Sha. Making progress at the Violetglory Pagoda wasn't something that would happen overnight, though he wasn't in too much of a hurry now that he was a Sky Palace disciple.

"Now that I've started cultivating at the seventh level of the tower, I'm making much faster progress than training at the Azuresky Bridge. It's more or less equal to the caeli of the Xuanyuan Dragon Sect, so I can keep doing what I'm doing here. The third ranker is Princess Shen Yu, an eighth-level constellier and top beastmaster with a grade-nine divinespring. She's someone who could become the divineglory emperor in the future. I should take some time and grow before challenging her next."

Haste makes waste, so he decided to take it step by step. His recent days were simple and peaceful. Day after day, he alternated between the Violetglory Pagoda's seventh floor and training his sword moves at the Azuresoul Palace. Lingfeng had also made it to the top-ten bracket in the Violetglory ranking, causing quite a bit of a commotion. Xiaoxiao had made it to the top hundred. She was now a fifth-level constellier with the Dragonblood Desecration, but she was still some way from making it to the top ten.

Tianming had also been paying attention to the matter of the divine tree. One day when he was at the Violetglory Pagoda, he heard Yu Ziqian calling out to him and left the heavenly locus formation. "What'd the chief instructor say?"

"He refused. That fellow is super stingy ever since Soulbreak Mountain was emptied out. He said he'd no longer let you go to other mines to protect the future of Azuresoul Palace," Yu Ziqian said.

Back then, Tianming had asked Yu Ziqian to ask for access to more mines on his behalf so he could make more bodies for Yin Chen. That way he would be able to expand his surveillance to the Azurecloud Divine Tree. It would be of huge benefit to the Azuresoul Palace.

"Forget it. It's his right to refuse. These ores are supposed to be used to make divine artifacts for the sect, after all." Divine artifacts could be damaged over time. In some sense, they were consumables, yet they heavily contributed to the power of a cultivator. Tianming didn't have a choice on the matter since, at the end of the day, the Azuresoul Palace wasn't going to nurture someone that would eventually leave their sect. Yin Chen needs far too much divine ore. In the short term, it's a huge problem. The Azuresoul Palace has quite a lot of them, though. If I can grow stronger that way, I'll be a huge help to them too. It's a win-win situation.

Back then, Tianming had felt like he'd belonged to the Grand-Orient Sect. After Li Wudi's triumphant return, Tianming could get anything he wanted. But Gujian Qingshuang wasn't prepared to be that generous to a Sky Palace disciple, though he had already been made to give Tianming the six-star universal manna and many grade-six divine hazard sword ki strands. Even if Jiang Qingliu went to ask for more resources for him now, it wouldn't do anything.

Long Wanying was quite displeased about it and wanted to help as well. However, it was beyond her capability now. The treasury of the Xuanyuan Dragon Sect was now in the hands of the Veildragon Palace. Even their mines were controlled by them, and were also far away. If it weren't for the Veildragon Palace, Tianming would have been having a much easier time.

"Boss, I went to see the chief instructor with my master. We're all from the same sect, so it's much easier discussing matters like these. However, those from the Dongye house were also there, and they've never been the friendly sort. To be honest, sword ki strands and divine ores are the wealth of the sect as a whole, not a single person's. But still, we're Sky Palace disciples and deserve to be rewarded for contributing to our sect. It's one thing for Gujian Qingshuang to refuse us, but he also brought up that matter again." Yu Ziqian sat on the floor unhappily.

"What is it?"

"He said that some of the 'fruits' of the divine tree are starting to ripen, so he wants to start preparing our defenses to pick the fruits. He had my master join the first group of people being sent to the tree, and even said that those from the Supracloud Sanctuary won't fight us for the normal divine herbs that ripen near the start, calling it an easy mission."

Gujian Qingshuang cultivated at the very top of the Azuresoul Sword Mountain and there were many defensive formations there. For now, Yin Chen's bodies weren't able to sneak in. It wouldn't be easy for Tianming to gain access and bring Yin Chen in, either. Though, even if Yin Chen could hear what they said, it still couldn't hear the dark thoughts in their hearts. Based on the arrangements, it seemed like Gujian Qingshuang was dead set on getting rid of Jiang Qingliu, though it would seem like a normal thing they would do whether or not the Empyrean Sword Sect was there. After all, it wasn't like Jiang Qingliu could remain cooped up for life, not to mention they wouldn't be the ones to pull the trigger. Even if matters soured with the Empyrean Sword Sect and caused their agreement to be exposed, Gujian Qingshuang still had plausible deniability.

"And to think I'd considered telling Gujian Qingshuang everything. It seems like it's completely pointless now." There was little chance that Gujian Qingshuang would side with them now, after hearing their secret.

"Even my master was shocked. He's always been someone who didn't struggle for authority and kept a low profile, apart from the short decades of his prime. Why would these people look down on him and treat him like trash?" Yu Ziqian said.

Tianming didn't understand either. Was the threat of the Empyrean Sword Sect too much, or were the promised benefits far too tempting to refuse? "So your master's supposed to head out soon, right? What's he going to do about it?"

"He excused himself by saying he's at a crucial point in his cultivation, so he had my senior sister Yin Qing take his place."