Beastmaster of the Ages

Everyone had come to try their luck and be picked by the wings. Most of them were primalwingers who already had wings of their own, but they could still receive primalwings that would fuse with their existing ones to make them more talented and powerful. As such, most primalwingers would also join in to test their luck. If they got a pair of impressive ones, they would instantly shoot up in prominence. It didn't require any competition, after all, so there was nothing to lose. As such, more and more people gathered.

Tianming and Feiling had arrived relatively early; countless more wings could be seen descending from above in a constant stream. Fortunately, primalwingers were generally polite and civilized. As long as they were within range of being picked by the primalwings, they didn't mind being further away from the Kunlan Realm. It wasn't that they would have a better chance if they were closer, after all. Without squeezing into each other, they simply found a place and got in line.

Now that so many people had gathered, Tianming wondered where the Kunlan Realm was exactly. He used his third eye to sweep around—below them was a completely dark void where nothing could be seen. To prevent being sucked in by the Kunlan Realm, nobody dared to approach it. After looking for a long time, he finally noticed a change. A lake that was seemingly identical to the plane of origin appeared at the bottom of the astral hole. It looked like a colorless mirror that reflected all of the colorful lights coming from the primalwingers' wings.

"It almost looks like the same plane of origin...." It was far too wondrous. Why would two distinct worlds have places that were so similar in form and function? The two places created two different kinds of people. When the lake appeared, the primalwingers all politely bowed as if some kind of divinity had descended.

"Kunlan!" they cried. The word meant ancestor in their language. In other words, the Kunlan Realm was the realm of their ancestors. The voice from their unified cry was quite loud, given their sheer number. Countless wings flapped at the same time. Even the wings they'd inherited from their parents had come from the Kunlan Realm.

"So the primalwings are supposed to come out like the dragons of origin to replenish the lost wings of the primalwingers. There should be around hundreds of thousands of arcanewings and yellowwings, followed by a few thousand earthwings and, if they were lucky, some celestial wings as well. Once the wings are able to be passed down, they'll be able to form powerful families."

That was all the news he had heard from Yin Chen. Nobody noticed the metal cockroaches as they collected information.

"Oh, can't forget the Prime Tower." It had begun reacting even more strongly since they'd arrived; Tianming had found the location the signal was coming from. "I wonder if I can find these lost divine patterns here...." He took out the artifact from his spatial ring only to see the thick fog around it. Then it suddenly began shaking with power and burst out of Tianming's hand.

Stunned, he noticed that the tower had immediately left him. Before he could react, it had already gone flying down into the abyss.

"What in the world?" The tower became a beam of white light and crashed into the lake below, much to the shock of the primalwingers. Water splashed all over the place before the ripples entirely disappeared. Tianming clenched his empty hand and looked at the entrance of the Kunlan Realm, completely flabbergasted. He hadn't lost the Prime Tower since he'd obtained it from the Grand-Orient Sect, but now it had vanished before he was even aware that it was gone. Not to mention, it hadn't been taken from him. Rather, it went into the Kunlan Realm, a place of no return, of its own accord. Was it gone for good?

"Uhh...." He was still blanking out.

"Big Brother, it'll come back to you, right?" Feiling asked.

"Maybe? The Soul Tower, Greenspark Tower, and Violet Tower are still with me." That was the only thing he could say to console himself for now, though there was no expectation that something that had entered the Kunlan Realm would be retrievable. He began worrying quite a bit; both the Grand-Orient Sword and Prime Tower were absolutely crucial artifacts for him. "Dammit... before I even got anything from this crummy place, I already lost something crucial...."

"Don't worry, your beloved is still here," Feiling said, tugging on his hand in consolation.

"You're right!" Apart from complaining, there seemed to be nothing else he could do. It wasn't like he could leap into the Kunlan Realm in fear of not being able to return.

The Prime Tower had flown in so fast that nobody had seen it come from Tianming's hand.

"What fell in?"

"It didn't look like it was falling. It was like something was sucked in."

"Huh?"

Quite a lot of discussion surrounded the incident. Everyone watched the ripples on the lake as they drew careful breaths. Based on previous experience, any changes to the lake's surface meant the appearance of wings, so they all stared hard. Tianming gently held Feiling's waist and looked as well. The two of them weren't primalwingers to begin with, so they were only there to watch the event. Little did he know that he would lose the Prime Tower, so he was now invested in what would come to pass. If the Prime Tower didn't return, his loss would be substantial.

"Pray the heavens have mercy...." After he said that, colorful lights were seen beneath the lake's tranquil surface.