Beastmaster of the Ages

The Myriadstar Sea was just a place between the wondersky realms; the Tranquil Battlefield was a wondersky realm in its own right. As expected, it seemed to be a hundred times larger than the Violetglory Star's wondersky realm. Tianming felt his world limitlessly expand within the green shell.

After some time, his feet finally found ground. It was a world of green no matter where he looked, filled with towering trees. Even the ground was covered in moss, moss that even spanned the surfaces of lakes and seas. There was also a green mist wafting in the air. Tianming felt like he was trapped in an illusion. He couldn't see far away, nor could he hear much, either. The battlefield was wide and expansive, yet the range his senses could detect was quite small. It felt like there was a constant veil around him.

"This smell...." Tianming gave it a whiff and noticed that, while moss and trees were all around him, he couldn't detect the familiar scent of plants. Instead, there was an uncomfortable rot in the air, almost like rotting aquatic life. He recalled the shell shape of the world; perhaps the mountains and lakes he saw were parts of the shell's body, or even parts of its carcass.

"It stinks!" Ying Huo said as it emerged before quickly turning back into its tattoo form. Tianming walked on ahead. When he came to a large tree, he slashed at it with the Grand-Orient Sword. The tree fell and beat up a cloud of dust.

"There's no tree rings...." He felt the trunk. It was so soft that it was weird. This was definitely no normal tree. In fact, some kind of viscous liquid began seeping out of the trunk. He gave it a whiff and smelled the sea and blood.

"Don't tell me this whole landmass is the carcass of some kind of shell creature.... Are the trees its cilia? Or some kind of hair?"

"Ahem... I think you're wrong about that," Ying Huo said."What do you propose, then?"

"Idiot, this is the wondersky realm. Everything's determined by the parameters set by the divine wondersky race. Obviously, those idiots intentionally made everything here creepy so you'd be impressed by the mysteries of the Astraldome!"

"Fool...." And here he had thought Ying Huo was finally going to say something constructive. "Regardless, this doesn't affect my combat capabilities. Not to mention, I'm only here as a caelum." At the end of the day, this was just another wondersky realm. Even then, the creepiness of the deathly silence and the unmoving trees made everything feel dead.

"Let's go up to take a look." Beneath him, he saw mountains stretching across the landmass. Dangers seemed to be lurking within. He flew even higher up. When he reached an altitude of roughly a million meters, he stopped, not daring to go further as dense green pearls appeared in the sky above him.

While it wasn't odd for shells to make pearls, no shell could possibly make so many huge pearls, yet the sky above him was absolutely filled with them. In fact, the green mist around the world came from the pearls, so the mist was denser up here. It made the pearls look a little like little eyes, reminding him of the hundred thousand Archaionfiends in that dream he had. As he was flying upward, he also seemed to feel the pearls blink and turn toward him. Seeing the horrifying sight prompted him to quickly get back to the ground, from where the pearly eyes only looked like lights in the sky.

"What a weird place. What in the world is the Tranquil Battlefield?" he wondered aloud as he began roaming the place that the wonderians had crafted. Only the most talented youths across the entire astralscape could come here. While the place seemed like a dense forest, he was ready for sudden encounters and perhaps fights to the death.

All of a sudden, Tianming stopped when he detected a presence from behind him. He turned back, ready to strike, yet nothing could be seen apart from the eerie green forest. Then he noticed a leaf falling from the corner of his eye. Leaves didn't just fall in this dead, almost still world. They didn't even wither. Not to mention, the falling leaf was green, rather than dried yellow. Tianming picked it up with his black arm and saw words on it! He quickly put the leaf away and pretended nothing was up. After all, everything he saw was being broadcast to others on the Violetglory Star. He feigned ignorance and moved along, hoping that nobody outside noticed something was up.

However, his black arm had an eye as well, so he used it to read the words. 'Fateful person, you're finally here. Come to the Skydome Battlefield and find me. I will make you a miracle of the wondersky realm. Do you want to know who I am? Here's a clue: Flameyellow Continent, chaos skyjail, Grand-Orient Realm, Vermillion Bird Kingdom, Flamehaven, Red Twill Mountain, the well. Does that jog your memory?'

Tianming rolled his eyes. How can I not know after all those reminders? It was the person who had given Tianming the heavenly locus formation that he used to enter the wondersky realm, and eventually, the Astraldome.