Beastmaster of the Ages

"Astralium Seeking? Is there a benefit to participating?" Tianming asked. It sounded like the rules of the fourth level were different from those of the third. Perhaps it was a treasure hunt of sorts.

"The Astralium Seeking is the event that'll help you progress to the fifth level. Its venue is based on an actual astralcrypt! Winning the event not only means that you'll advance to the fifth level, but you'll also be heavily rewarded. This time around, the reward is most highly anticipated, as it's celebrating the hundredth year of the events," said the wondersky fairy.

"Alright, then I'll join," he said without thinking too much. He had wanted to go to the fourth level to fight other youths and gain more support from the Violetcloud Imperium for his bid for the other manna imperius anyway. As for how the competition would take place, he didn't really care.

"The event starts in thirteen days and will last for fifteen. Before you are 'killed' or the event ends, you won't be allowed to leave the Astraldome, or it will count as a rule violation. The penalty for that is being banned from the Astraldome for half a year. Are you certain that you'll be free during that time and that you have an environment that guarantees you won't be disrupted during the event?"

Everyone outside could also hear what Tianming was hearing. The upcoming Astralium Seeking event seemed to hype up the audience even more. Within Violetpeak, he was surrounded with a lot of protection. Nobody would disrupt him during such a crucial moment, either. He wouldn't have to spend more than a month in the Astraldome during the event, and he could leave if he lost anyway, so it wasn't a big deal.

"I'm fine with it."

He could almost feel the excitement of the Violetglorians, even though his caelum was far away in the Astraldome. At this point, everything Tianming did was creating new history for their star.

"Make sure to enter the lobby before thirteen days pass. You'll have to form a party," the wondersky fairy said before it began to vanish. The lights around Tianming turned brighter as his caelum was transported ahead.

"Violetglory Disciple Li Tianming, based on the age of your caelum, you'll be sent to the absolute lobby of the fourth level. Notice: as long as you don't reveal it yourself, the wondersky realm will not release any information about you, apart from your name and origin."

Tianming was quite surprised at what he had heard. "Absolute lobby?" It sounded like there were other lobbies as well. Perhaps the younger ones that showed more potential were sent to higher-tier lobbies. That would expose Tianming's age range to the rest of the astralscape, but he had consented to participating in the match regardless. While people wouldn't be able to figure out his exact age, at the very least, they would no longer consider him a normal person that only made it that far in the Astraldome because of his age advantage.

"Well, I guess my age reveal can't really be helped." The wondersky fairy had said as much beforehand. But since he had decided to join, he couldn't back out. Otherwise, he would be banned for half a year.

......

The absolute lobby of the fourth level was quite dark and filled with green fog, though visibility was still much better than on the first two levels. The ground beneath him was firm. Tianming saw that he was standing on a huge, green platform. Looking around, he couldn't see an end to it.

"There's quite a lot of people here." A cursory count showed him one or two thousand people. The people in this lobby were no doubt powerful and young. He saw that most of them were on the level of Xiao, though most were somewhat older than him.

"There's actually more than a thousand people on this level?" It felt quite staggering to contemplate. Even though they were mostly older than Xiao, it wasn't by much. He felt like he was standing with countless talented geniuses like Ye Chen.

"How many lobbies are there, anyway?" As he didn't know anybody there, there wasn't anyone he could really talk to. So he headed toward the edge of the platform. Eventually, he caught sight of another lobby. It was another platform in the distance that seemed tens of times larger than the one he was standing on and there were hundreds of thousands of people on it. "There's even more over there."

It was a stark difference in number. Tianming didn't see any other lobbies aside from those two.

"So there's only two, eh...." He concluded that the other lobby was for disciples between the ages of thirty to a hundred. The absolute lobby, on the other hand, was for those under thirty, hence the disparity in numbers! It wasn't hard for a ninth-level solarian to make it into the Astraldome, but it was much harder for someone under thirty to reach this level. It wasn't surprising that fewer than two thousand across the wondersky realms in the vast astralscape made the cut in that category.

Those under thirty were considered absolute geniuses and numbered less than two thousand. The others were considered normal class, and there were hundreds of thousands of them. It was also said that the two classes wouldn't be pitted against each other. Those that were assigned to the absolute class were automatically assumed to be under thirty, but that didn't count as a violation of the privacy policy of the wondersky realm.

"If I meet Xiao here, he'd be dumbfounded for sure. It's a shame he was already eliminated by me and won't be able to join this round's Astralium Seeking. No wonder he was so anxious to get to the fourth level...." Tianming, on the other hand, had joined in Xiao's stead. He turned and looked at the other young geniuses. Each of them had a different aura and physical appearance; there were people from all sorts of races.

"Only the wondersky realm can have so many miraculous folk gathered in one place. Perhaps not even the top disciples among many heliacal-class worlds can make it here...."

Tianming figured that the minimum cultivation level of those here was probably the second level of the Solar stage. For someone to achieve that under thirty, not even Princess Shen Yu or Li Haochen could match up to that. These opponents only sharpened his fighting spirit. He thought he would be facing enemies around the age of eighty, but it appeared that he had been filtered out and sent to the elite group of youths.

"Now, the only question is what the difference is between the two lobbies for the event...." He wanted to learn more, and he had thirteen days until the event started. "Didn't the wondersky fairy say that I had to form a party?"

It looked like most people had already formed their own groups. Clearly, many of them were already acquainted with each other—they probably all came from the Mysterium Cluster. That was troubling for him, as he knew nobody there.

"Most of the parties have five members... so I guess that's the required number? Guess I'll have to look around." He blended in with the crowd and searched for people to join up with.