Beastmaster of the Ages

Tianming estimated that Kou Mingyou should be about as powerful as Bai Feng. In terms of totemancers, he would be about equivalent to an octabane. The main reason he was able to be up to six levels higher than geniuses from heliacal-class worlds was his access to resources and legacies from his skypiercer-class world. Even a normal skypiercer-class world's nova source could reach up to ten times that of the Violetglory Star's, and Darkfiend Heptus' was tens of times beyond that. Putting environmental factors aside, Kou Mingyou would probably still be three levels above the likes of Princess Shen Yu and Li Haochen, a marked gap in their talent. In other words, the gap in talent wasn't as easy to detect as a gap caused by other factors.

Based on totems, Tianming figured that few, if any people here had nine of them. Most of them here would be roughly octabanes while heptabanes were the minority. The only reasons they could get here with seven totems were that they came from a top-class world with the best resources or legacies, or if they had totems of really good quality.

That said, using totems as a measure of talent wasn't absolute. Some totems were inherently more terrifying. There had been quite a few instances of heptabanes exceeding octabanes in talent throughout history, and the type of totems was a deciding factor. Even among beastmasters, penta-beastmasters might not have as much talent as a quad-beastmaster. There were even some mono-beastmasters who were able to devote all of their resources into one beast, making them quite terrifying as well.

However, one thing was for sure: when Tianming asked about decabanes, even Bai Feng and the rest were speechless. As far as they were aware, nine totems was the absolute upper limit across the astralscape. Those who had nine totems included the first founder of the celestial orderians, the current sun emperor, and many other elites across the astralscape. Even among nonabanes, there was quite a bit of variance thanks to totem types.

While the Astralium Seeking was a fight among juniors, many of them showed impressive talent and potential, sporting sovereign beasts or nine totems, and some specters having progenitor bloodlines. It was one shocking revelation after another. There had never been a time when people could see so many of them assembled in the same place. Every super genius here was the best of the best, inheriting the most impressive legacies in the astralscape. Tianming's battle, for instance, didn't get too much attention in the beginning, but drew a lot of attention from other worlds the moment sovereign beasts appeared—Ye Chen's in particular! He had five of them, and even Kou Mingyou was shocked to see them.

"A penta-beastmaster who only has sovereign beasts... What a huge spend. Perhaps only the Skyway Monostar would invest so much resources into a youth, right?"

Everyone turned their attention from Tianming and Kou Mingyou to Ye Chen.

"Dammit, our luck is horrible!" Zhong Yirou couldn't cry even if she wanted to from the sheer shock.

"Now, I know why Li Tianming doesn't dare to face his acquaintance! He knew that Kou Mingyou wasn't as powerful and pushed Sister Feng to take on Ye Chen instead!" Qiao Xingzhou said, teeth chattering with rage.

"Shut up and defend the astralis according to the plan!" Bai Feng snapped. Facing Ye Chen and his five Desolate Chaos Progenibeasts, she entered battle mode and stood at the vanguard with her younger brother. The siblings' bodies grew in size and were covered in dragon scales. Both of them were from skypiercer-class worlds, so they were far from weak. Bai Feng, especially, looked larger than her brother and was a complete wild beast.

"Die!" she cried.

"Rou, use your huewing spirits to help us!" Bai Huai cried.

"Alright!" Zhong Yirou and Qiao Xingzhou hid behind them, the latter of whom manifested his eight totems with a pale look. While he looked soft, he was still quite talented. Otherwise, he wouldn't even be here. His celestial bows were rather interesting in that they were weapon-type totems like Tianming's. Each of the bows had a different design as well, and they all fired piercing totem arrows that were effective against totems and lifebound beasts alike.

He used his own bow and joined his totems in unleashing suppression fire on the enemy. Not even Ye Chen's beasts would dare to take those shots with their own bodies, which gave Qiao Xingzhou some confidence. When it really counts, they still need to rely on me. It seemed to not occur to him that had it not been for the fact that the vanguards were holding Ye Chen back, he would be defeated in one shot.

Zhong Yirou's performance was also quite decent. Her lifebound beasts, the huewing spirits, were five colorful butterflies that somewhat resembled Yun Tianque's cloud lifebound beasts. They seemed a little ethereal and without proper form. The butterflies flew toward Bai Huai and Bai Feng, assimilating into their bodies as if they were possessing them. Tianming would have watched to see what that did if he hadn't been busy dealing with Kou Mingyou.

"Looks like the four of them will be able to defend the astralis for the time being." That allowed Tianming to focus his full attention on Kou Mingyou. Their teamwork made it much easier than him having to fight while defending the astralis alone.

"You really don't know regret until you've experienced death," Kou Mingyou spat, clearly enraged by Tianming.

"Stop bullshitting. Nobody really dies in the Astraldome, so what's there to fear?" Here, even cowards would dare to fight with their lives on the line. People like Qiao Xingzhou were able to unleash their full potential, as there was no risk of actual death. Tianming and Kou Mingyou clashed with their lifebound beasts, causing the most commotion in the battle.

"Is this the level of a genius from a skypiercer-class world?" The enemy was a third-level solarian in his twenties with a sovereign beast. Even though it was just one sovereign beast, he should be much stronger than people from heliacal-class worlds like Tianming and Ye Chen, who usually wouldn't be given manna imperius. Kou Mingyou had five lifebound beasts, one of which was an eight-star divine beast, and four seven-star divine beasts, the same as Tianming's. It was a pack of wolves led by a mythological feral beast. The feral beast was the eight-star divine beast with more than eight thousand and one hundred stars, and it was a moonscourge abomination. It was the smallest among all the beasts and had snow-white fur and large eyes. Its limbs seemed rather short and not fully developed. However, it was filled with terrifying astralforce, a sign that it had powerful abilities.

The other four were desolate nightsky direwolves, all of them pitch black and well built. Their fur stood sharp and stiff and their fangs constantly dripped with a viscous liquid. With the feral beast surrounded by these wolves, Kou Mingyou shook off the Lifesteal Silverdragon and waved his grade-seven divine artifact. The spiked club shone and started dripping with blood. Then he charged at Tianming with his beasts with as much bravado as Ye Chen had. The spectators from his world were filled with praise as they watched his magnificent assault. However, many of them also noticed Tianming's five beasts—his sovereign beast, in particular—as well as the fact that they all had different elemental attributes.

It was a clash of geniuses! Tianming could finally fight someone else of his age that wasn't Ye Chen. He was already getting sick of defeating his so-called 'rival' over and over.

"Beat him up!" Tianming ordered. His five beasts didn't hold back at all. Ying Huo and the eight million Yin Chens beneath it gained the most attention. It was hard to see their numbers in the fog; all that could be seen was an army of metal insects of all kinds, ranging from locusts, spiders, scorpions, centipedes, and even butterflies! Yin Chen swarmed ahead toward the five enemy beasts, instantly enveloping them.

"I'm coming through!" Lan Huang shone brightly and roared, a spectacle for the eyes and ears both. The task Tianming gave it was to take on the moonscourge abomination, as it seemed to be the only sovereign beast, but it wasn't adept in close combat. As long as Lan Huang could hold it back, things would go smoothly.