Beastmaster of the Ages

It'd only been a few months since Tianming had left the stormy Voidsky Realm, but now he was returning as one who had control over an entire continent despite being under thirty. The Azurecloud Continent was much larger than the Flameyellow Continent, and the higher lifeforms that lived on it were completely different from the denizens of the mortal world.

The sunstorm was so heavy that it completely occluded vision, making it really difficult for normal people to move through it. Tianming was accompanied by Long Wanying alone. Yang Ce, Lingfeng, and Xiaoxiao didn't follow them there, as Yang Ce was in charge of looking after the unconscious Li Wushuang. They couldn't afford to let the Sky Palace notice her.

"Aunt Ying, here it is." About a million silver eggs emerged from Tianming's lifebound space and turned into many locusts. They landed on the ground and began digging a tunnel. The two of them immediately entered the tunnel, which was filled up behind them by the dirt that flew around thanks to the sunstorm. It was as if nobody had been there. The millions of locusts continued tunneling down.

"Wow, it's buried so deep," Long Wanying said, her dress fluttering around as she twisted her body to fit through the cave.

"We'll be there soon," Tianming said. Almost immediately, they emerged and saw the gigantic, ancient wall of the tomb before them.

"It is a divine astralship after all! The materials of the outer hull are top-grade divine ores. However, they're so old that I wonder if their divine patterns still work," Long Wanying said as she traced her fingers across the hull of the tomb.

Tianming took out a drum that depicted nine black dragons. It was the formation core of the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb, akin to the dragonsprings of the Xuanyuan Dragon Sect.

"Can I use it?" Long Wanying asked.

"Give it a try." Tianming handed her the war drum. Unexpectedly, the dragons on the drum roared the moment they touched Long Wanying's fingers and the drum vanished into a puff of black smoke, reforming in Tianming's hand.

"That means the Ninedragon Emperor has given the tomb to you alone. Nobody else can use it," she said.

Tianming nodded. That was good news, since people wouldn't be able to take it from him.

"Open it and let's go in," she said, her voice echoing throughout the underground chamber.

Tianming did as he was told and struck the drum using the basic moves of the Ninedragon Tribulation in tandem with the special drumsticks. Each drumbeat seemed to resonate with the tomb, causing it to shake. Eventually, a path opened up in front of them, causing light to shine out from within.

"There's light inside, too?" Long Wanying was taken aback.

"That's right. Apart from a power source, I might need to light up even more dragon palaces before I can pilot it. So far, I have two of them lit up. It's related to my mastery of the Ninedragon Tribulation," Tianming explained.

"I see…." She looked inside the tomb with a look of awe.

"Aunt Ying, transporting Li Wushuang to your sect is of the utmost importance. We have to act fast."

"Okay."

The moment the two of them entered, the door closed behind them. Tianming easily found his way through the confusing maze, having the entire layout of the tomb in memory already. "Not only does the tomb not keep nova source out, it even absorbs it. It just doesn't have anything to store that nova source in, which makes it a perfect fit for the saplings!" Once the saplings absorbed enough nova source, the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb could come back to life.

"While the power of the saplings can't compare to that of a miniature nova source, it should be enough for interstellar travel. The saplings will no doubt also power some of the combat systems of the ship, so either way, you'll be invulnerable inside the tomb as its controller," Long Wanying said, her eyes still glistening with the light from the interior of the tomb.

Divine astralships, fusion formations, miniature nova sources, and astralguard formations were all products of the greatest intelligences among the cultivators across the astralscape. Miraculous treasures like divine astralships were probably worth more than the sun emperor himself.

"Something like that is still quite far off. Let's just see what the saplings can do," Tianming said. To reach the point Long Wanying had described, they first had to allow the saplings to charge up and power the ship and light up more of the dragon palaces. As for how many he would need before he could control the entire tomb, he wasn't too sure. If it required all nine to be lit up, that would be quite far off. He would need to perfect his mastery of the Ninedragon Tribulation for that to happen.

After that, Tianming and Long Wanying placed the thirty-five pairs of saplings in a spread out manner across the ship.

"Once they absorb enough nova source, they'll grow larger. Eventually, they might take up two-thirds of the space inside, but that'll still leave enough space for tens of millions of people to come in here." When the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb had first shown up, tens of millions of people had entered to fight within.

Eventually, they were done placing all the saplings. They began to absorb and store the nova source that the tomb sucked in from the outside world, visibly growing from the size of normal humans to something larger. Eventually, a hint of gold appeared on their surfaces, but that was only the start. Tianming left ten thousand Yin Chens in the tomb to monitor the growth of the saplings.

"I won't… do it… there's no… bath to… take here!" Yin Chen angrily complained.

"Bathing my ass." Tianming rolled his eyes and ignored it. Then he used the dragon drumsticks to execute Blazedragon Fireblast, Blackdragon Abyssthrust and Whitedragon Exaltation to light up the three corresponding dragon palaces. Now five of them had lit up, more than half of the total. Shiny new buildings appeared at each of the sites, though they were all empty for now.

"I wonder how the tomb will change once it's been fully activated." Tianming looked at the war drum in his hand, noticing a change in it after all five dragon palaces had been illuminated. It was clear that many of the functions of the tomb were still locked away, though that was something for him to discover in his own time. Li Wushuang's matter was far more urgent for now.

"Let's go, Aunt Ying."

"Got it."

The two of them flew out of the bright tunnel.

"Tianming," she called out.

"Yes?" He saw that her gaze was incredibly deep and pensive.

"Do you know what it means to have a divine astralship?"