Beastmaster of the Ages

Mu Ziyan later explained that soul dual cultivation was a continuation of the nourishment process. During that time, he would start practicing the Violetfog Rushcloud Mantra by himself with her guiding him along the way.

"You aren't from my archclan, so there's many things about the technique that you won't get. Without my guidance, your first steps will be really difficult. Training at the second general soul level will be really slow, but if you dual cultivate with me, you'll progress at least ten times the rate. If you don't believe me, you can check it when you come back five days from now. Hmph, I'm nurturing you so hard because I want to make sure you become a flawless talent. That way, it'll count toward my contribution to the imperium. Otherwise, Big Sis wouldn't bother with all this effort," she said, lazily lying down with her arms as a pillow.

"Well, I'm new to this. Don't pick that bone with me," Tianming said.

"That's more like it. At least you look sorry to see me so worn out. When you become the sovereign, don't forget all I've done for you."

"How would I? I've always been someone who repaid my favors."

"How do you plan to do it, then?" Mu Ziyan bit her lip and smiled, giving him an enchanting look. Though she looked petite and fresh, she could instantly imbue herself with dangerous, seductive wiles.

Ugh.... Tianming could barely stand it. He cleared his throat and said, "Well, I'm planning to go to the third level of the Tranquil Battlefield, so I can't be sure I'll come back in exactly five days."

"Oh, so you're going to show off what you've learned, right?"

"Yeah."

"Why're you trying so hard? If you keep advancing, the other cultivators here will be completely terrified of you." What she meant was that Tianming was already at the peak of their expectations for him.

"I have no choice. I thought that I already measured up to Ye Chen, only for him to get five sovereign beasts out of nowhere. I've already done so much to make my comrades of the imperium happy, so I should continue keeping it up. That's where my worth lies," he said with sincerity.

"Huh... then why does it sound weird when you say it?"

"It isn't, though. I'm totally sincere."

"Is that so? It sounds like you have other thoughts. To be honest, you've set your sights on the other manna imperius, right?" She instantly saw through him.

"There is no such thing. There's only two manna imperius in the imperium. How could both be given to me? I barely merited getting one already."

"Enough. Leave that to me and focus on the Tranquil Battlefield. I'll get it for you," she confidently said.

"Huh?" Tianming thought he had misheard. "Big Sister, you're one of the Pentarchy, and an influential figure at that. Why would you help me get the manna imperius?"

"Can't I? I'm even personally nourishing your soul."

"What about your father and friends?"

"Why should I care? I'm my own person." She didn't seem happy to hear them brought up. "The Violetcloud Imperium has existed for ages, and my father has already lived to an old age. If they can't see the bigger picture despite all that, it's actually quite embarrassing."

Tianming was quite surprised that she would go so far for him. He hurriedly thanked her and did whatever she asked, only leaving when she was satisfied. As he left, he turned back in her direction when the Starchasers rejoined him. "Everything's going well. Let's hope she's really doing all this for the reasons she says she is." While he wouldn't show any of his concerns in front of her, he did have his own thoughts on the matter.

He had talked to Sovereign Starfeather about soul cultivation with Mu Ziyan, and the sovereign hadn't seen any issue with it. He had said, "Even my own soul cultivation technique comes from the Violetcloud Archclan, and it isn't as good as the Violetfog Rushcloud Mantra. Since she sees you as a talent to be sculpted, and even offered to help nourish your soul, you'll progress at ten times the speed of most others, saving you a lot of precious time. As for your safety, you don't have to worry. Mu Ziyan wouldn't dare to mess around with you right now, at the very least. You've shown your value to us and the stakes have been raised much higher."

Tianming didn't bring up the violet veins on his vita, as he didn't want the sovereign to know about his Soul Tower. Not to mention, the veins weren't something he needed to worry about, anyway. However, Mu Ziyan didn't seem to notice their absence, leaving him curious to see what would happen in the future.

Next, he went to the Imperius Ruins. These coming days would determine whether he could bring his cultivation to a whole new level past his current bottleneck before he went back to the Tranquil Battlefield.

"Yin Chen already finished the five ore veins and has ten million copies now. I'll bring eight million with me into combat so it's at its most effective." When he went to ask for another five more ore veins, Astralking Xuanluan quickly agreed to the request. Tianming left a million Yin Chens to devour the ore veins on their own.

"These five are even larger than the previous veins. If Yin Chen doesn't have an upper limit, it can probably reach twenty million copies this time." An insect army of twenty million would be ridiculously powerful, but Tianming had other ideas.

"In Yin Chen's dream, every single insect looked as large as Lan Huang. That means that each of its bodies can also grow, but that hasn't happened yet. It might be a sign that even if there's an upper limit to the number, it can still grow in volume."

That could mean that there would never be enough divine ores for Yin Chen to consume. Once more, it showed that staying in the Violetcloud Imperium was the optimal choice compared to roaming the astralscape.

Apart from Yin Chen's growth, Tianming had also completely absorbed the Frozen Glasstree and enhanced his sword body. The pitch-black divine hazard tree was now contained within his albi. All five strands of the divine hazard sword ki he had absorbed so far combined was just barely able to be on par with the Frozen Glasstree in power. In other words, Blood Transience should be the core move when he executed the Sixdragon Tribulation. Now, all he lacked was a breakthrough in his cultivation.