Beastmaster of the Ages

Even though Xiao had no eyes, Tianming felt like he was being stared at. The smooth, jade-faced man claimed to be a specter, so the faceless specters must be some kind of divergent branch of their race, and a pretty small one at that. The Skyway Tristar appeared to be a deific-class nova source world—did that mean that the faceless specters reigned supreme on that powerful world?

Xiao had given him two choices: kill himself or be killed by him. Tianming wasn't in a rush to decide, however. He smiled and kept his questions going. "Before I answer that, I want to ask another question. Are faceless specters strong? How do you compare to the mysterians?" Based on what Ranran Zi had said, the Mysterium Cluster was controlled by the wonderians and mysterians, so the latter was sure to be a powerful faction as well.

"Hmph." Xiao mockingly shook his head with a smile of disappointment. "Have there been no Violetglorians who've come to the Mysterium Cluster before? Faceless specters are also mysterians. In fact, all who live on the three Skyway stars are mysterians."

Despite the tone, Xiao was being more than patient in answering Tianming's rather clueless questions. He knew that the people of the Skyway Tristar were watching him, after all, so he had to act with decorum. He was still young and didn't want others to see him as arrogant.

"I see...." Tianming nodded. Apparently there were three Skyway stars in the Mysterium Cluster, all of them deific-class worlds. The third star of the series was ruled by the faceless specters, who were also mysterians like the denizens of other stars.

"Are you saying that mysterians are rather highly regarded in the Mysterium Cluster?" Tianming asked.

The specter chuckled, "You're an interesting one. No matter how remote the worlds they come from are, everyone in the third level knows of me."

"Is that so? I guess I rose up the levels a little too quickly for the news to reach me." Normally, people took some time familiarizing themselves with the battlefield once they rose to a new level. Those around the age of a hundred had spent quite a lot of time in the nine levels of the Tranquil Battlefield and had eventually gotten to know the familiar figures that competed there. After all, the only ones who could fight in the Astraldome were peak geniuses of their respective worlds. The standards within it were extremely high, and anyone that made it in would be quite famous across the universe. Xiao was one such person, the kind that Tianming was seeking! He figured that many people spectating him would be quite surprised to learn of Xiao's status. This was a peak genius from a deific-class world.

"One last question. How old are you?" Tianming asked.

Xiao quieted down, staring at Tianming with annoyance. Tianming's earlier comment about rising too quickly rubbed him the wrong way. It was egregious that anyone would dare to be arrogant before him. Most people who started off in the Tranquil Battlefield were around twenty years old. Some rose quickly, while others had tougher luck, often remaining on the first few levels by the time they reached a century old. Those that quickly rose were always absolute geniuses without exceptions, geniuses among geniuses.

The top three geniuses from heliacal-class worlds were only average in the Astraldome. Those that could be considered absolute geniuses almost always came from skypiercer-class worlds or above. To Xiao, Tianming's claim of quickly rising was quite laughable, though it wasn't surprising since it wasn't the first time he'd seen a genius from a heliacal-class world that had conquered their own world and thought themselves above everything.

"I'm nineteen, and a third-level solarian," Xiao coldly said.

As expected, Tianming seemed rather shocked. Using the children of the sun emperor as a standard, they should at most be seventh-level constelliers at the age of nineteen. Even though it only seemed like an eight-level difference on paper, it was actually much more than that. Li Haochen, for instance, would probably be a hundred years old before he reached the third level of the Solar stage. Even Li Shenjian was still a constellier at more than fifty years of age. And Qingyu was already older than nineteen to boot!

Though he was surprised, Tianming figured it would make sense for the mysterians to have a higher standard, being from deific-class worlds. He shot Xiao a thumbs-up. "That's impressive!"

"Sure." Xiao was already losing patience. His achievements at his age only merited a 'rather impressive'? Not to mention, Tianming spoke in the tone of a senior. It was utterly infuriating.

"That fellow is really lacking a good upbringing. Bless Xiao for being so tolerant of him."

"What kind of backwater is he from, anyway? It's starting to feel like a lot of these elites from across the astralscape are mentally handicapped."

"It's normal. He's a seventh-level constellier in his twenties, so he's probably among the top three geniuses from heliacal-class worlds. It isn't surprising that someone like him was put on a pedestal on his world."

"Let's watch Xiao teach him a lesson he'll never forget."

"Yeah. The geniuses from heliacal-class worlds in the Mysterium Cluster have all been put in their place, so they aren't as arrogant as this infuriating bumpkin."

The spectators from the Skyway Tristar had a lot to say about Tianming.

"Xiao, educate him for good!"

As they expected, Xiao couldn't be bothered with Tianming anymore and drew his sword with his white jade fingers. It was a meter long and only two centimeters wide, making for a rather razor thin sword. Black divine patterns spanned across the blade, making it look rather sinister. The patterns seeped into Xiao's fingers, almost fusing with them.

"Wow, your sword looks impressive! It must be a grade-six divine artifact, right?!" Tianming said, feigning a look of surprise.

"Heh." Xiao shook his head with a chuckle. No doubt, the spectators from his world were breaking out in laughter. Any educated person would see that this was a grade-eight divine artifact, and a top one at that! Even though he seemed to hate Tianming at first, his foolishness almost made him seem adorable.