Beastmaster of the Ages

Soon after, they went to the Fienddragon Palace. Tianming took out the drum when he was inside the quiet and dead compound and gathered astralforce near his palm that held the dragon drumstick. To use Blood Transience, he also needed to smear the stick with his fresh blood.

Black blood began flowing. The fiendish aura of the move surprised Long Xiqian somewhat as Tianming used the drumstick as his sword and executed the move, causing the transient fienddragon to slam into the wardrum formation.

The drum resounded with great force, causing the lights of the palace to turn on. Even the name of the palace at the entrance was brightly glowing. The palace that had laid dormant for hundreds of millennia finally woke up to new life in a brilliant light show for the two of them to enjoy. So far, Tianming had lit up six of the nine dragon palaces.

"I wonder if there'll be any change." He was quite curious, especially after the wardrum in his hand changed to look more complicated than before.

"This thing actually resembles our dragonsprings somewhat," Long Xiqian said. Dragonsprings were keys to the formations all across the Myriaddragon Mountains.

"Yeah." Tianming held the formation in both hands and tried feeling it out with the fingers on his black left arm. The little drum was actually formed from countless divine celestial patterns, which were recombined from divine ordered patterns that occurred naturally in the world. Surprisingly, he noticed quite a change in the arrangement of patterns. They seemed to have twisted into a new form altogether, becoming a wheel of sorts.

"What's this?" Long Xiqian asked, looking at the round object. There was a nine-headed dragon on its surface that almost looked alive.

"I think it might be a ship's wheel," Tianming excitedly said. With it, he could change the direction of the cruise!

"Does that mean you'll be able to activate the divine astralship now?" she asked.

"I'll give it a try!" Tianming was as excited as a child that had gotten a new toy. As only six of the nine dragon palaces had been lit up, the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb's full functionality had yet to be restored. That might include defensive formations, or even the conversion of nova source into offensive formations. Additionally, the saplings couldn't provide as much nova source as a proper miniaturized stellunar source to utilize those other functions. Even so, as long as Tianming's ship could cruise, it could be used as a last resort for retreat! They could escape the sun emperor's grasp!

At the thought of that, he looked at the new formation in his hand, familiarizing himself with the patterns by feeling out their flow. Then he slowly turned it around. He saw two vortices of divine celestial patterns that seemed to have some special function.

At first, nothing happened when he turned the wheel, but it was only a slight delay. Then the entire tomb seemed to rumble after a bit. As it was buried underground, any slight movement could cause an earthquake in the Voidsky Realm above.

"It's really a divine astralship!" Tianming felt himself going wild. He looked around and noticed that the tomb was absorbing power from the saplings. The walls began glowing, as if a dormant beast was waking up.

"Don't cause too much commotion or we'll be discovered," Long Xiqian said, her eyes shining with pride. After all, she was a descendant of the Ninedragon Emperor.

"Alright." Tianming regained his calm and looked at the two vortices on the wheel. He stopped spinning the left and instead stretched his black arm to the right vortex. The instant he put it in, the tomb wildly shook once more, rapidly absorbing power from the saplings and lightning up even brighter than before. It was trying to move forward!

"Oh my, that's for accelerating!" Tianming hurriedly pulled out his hand and the tomb immediately calmed down; the rumbling outside also stopped. His eyes widened, the light from the wheel illuminating his face.

"The other vortex must be for braking," Long Xiqian said.

"I see…." Now, they had all the basic functions required to steer the ship. Tianming recalled the sea ships that he had seen back in the Vermillion Bird Kingdom. The divine astralship was similar, but countless times larger. With the new wheel formation, he could steer it, but functions like defensive and offensive formations were still unavailable. He didn't know if it could do anything else, either, but this was enough of a pleasant surprise already.

"I thought I'd need to learn all the moves of the Ninedragon Tribulation to be able to use this." With a divine astralship, they could do far more than just escape. They could also roam the astralscape of order and leave the sphere of influence of the sun in search of new worlds. The possibilities were only limited by their imagination, especially now that Tianming had seen what a world like the Violetglory Star could offer.

Roaming the astralscape with a divine body alone was far too slow. One might not reach other astral worlds even if they continued roaming until the end of their natural lifespan. Not to mention, without access to a nova source, astralforce and the like would eventually run out. It was the same principle as drowning in the ocean. The saplings and the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb, however, had given Tianming new hope.

"Let's not get too excited for now and learn more about what it can do," he reminded himself. Divine astralships were still far too mysterious. Tianming was just a fellow who hadn't even driven a horse carriage before, let alone a divine astralship. If he crashed it, it would all be over. Moreover, there was no way he could test drive it as it had to be kept hidden.