Beastmaster of the Ages

It was well known that humans and specters couldn't interbreed. Even among human beastmasters and totemancers, having offspring was incredibly difficult, and even if they did have offspring, those offspring wouldn't possess both cultivation methods. As the most powerful totemancers and beastmasters in the known universe, the humans of Skyway Monostar and Skyway Bistar were descended from the same stock. If there was to be a hybrid, it would most likely come from their worlds.

"If he's really a hybrid, Li Tianming's value will be ten times more than it is now… well, his value as an experimental subject, at least," the cloud said.

"Great! Then dissect him for all I care!" Xiao felt incredible about it.

"What're you thinking? Dissecting is quite unlikely. However, he might be made to become breeding material for the rest of his life with women from the various clans."

"Various clans? Surely you don't mean faceless humans? Didn't we forbid interclan marriage to preserve pure faceless blood?"

"It's hard to say if that'll apply here."

"I see." Things seemed to be going out of hand with the hybrid matter.

"Xiao, it isn't certain whether he's truly a hybrid yet, so don't mention it to anyone."

"Understood, Esteemed Mother!"

"All you need to focus on these days is calming your mind and recovering. Look at your sister as an example and learn from her and your other siblings' performances."

"Got it! Big Sister just easily won the first round. She joined up with Yanwu Ming from Skyway Monostar and three other violethorn draconians and wiped out the useless enemy team in an instant! She's in the second round now and met up with a party with only three remaining members. It probably won't take long for them to win. It looks like there'll be a third round for them, too, but that won't stop them from going to the Astralium Seeking. Her party seems like they're going to be in the top ten, at least."

"That's right. Hopefully she places in the top ten. There's too many competitors and it's hard to say now who the Grand-Orient Sword will go to. The Astralium Battle is only a warmup to cull the chaff. The hundred-odd that make it to the second part of the event are the key. Perhaps everyone among them is capable of becoming a sovereign one day, and a powerful one at that."

"I see...." Not being able to participate in such a grand event was still a huge regret on his part. "Esteemed Mother, I have another question."

"Speak."

"Apart from the three mysterians in the Celestial Beings, there's a divine wonderian as well. What of the last girl? She's unheard of, and her origins are a mystery."

"That isn't something you have the right to know." The cloud face disappeared without another word.

......

Bai Feng had wasted a full day without ending the battle to avoid running into the more powerful parties. Tianming had long found the astralis' location, but he didn't reveal it and let the rest look for it themselves. They had time, after all.

"Let me break the Astralium Formation," Bai Feng said. It was a rather tough one and even she took quite a while to break it before finally crushing the astralis, cementing their victory in stone.

"Team Rou wins!" a booming voice announced. After that, they sank into the ground and were transported to the next battlefield.

It should be interesting to fight as a team with Ling'er, Feng, and the rest. I should bring them with me if there'll be other fights like these. Tianming believed that their talents were also among the best. Feiling and her mysterious age and experience; Lingfeng and his fourth imperial soul, not to mention the legacy of the Primordial Demonlord; and as for Qingyu, she also had nine totems and a lifebound beast. As for Xiaoxiao, she had at least as much talent as Ye Chen but had started late. Thanks to the Archaionfiend, though, she also improved with great speed. All they needed was more time. Fighting with Bai Feng and the rest just didn't feel as good as fighting with his own friends.

......

Soon, the second round of fighting began. After finding their own astralis, Tianming spread Yin Chens out. To be safe, they still used the same full-defense formation from their last match. The million Yin Chens spread out to the woods, rivers, mountains, and underground caverns. It was basically on every single tree in the area.

"Found it." What Tianming found laughable was how the enemy party, named Solitude of the Strong, only had one remaining member. In other words, they had lost four members in the previous match even though they eventually managed to destroy the opponent's astralis.

"Our luck is pretty good." The sole remaining member of the enemy party was slightly weaker than Kou Mingyou. Bai Feng and the rest waited near their astralis for two days, but seeing that there was no sign of attack, they launched their own. Tianming nudged them little by little toward the enemy astralis.

"What the hell? All five of you are here? Looks like you all got a good deal this match," the enemy said before giving up. He had tried to fight against all five of them, but couldn't even take care of the chalk draconian siblings.

"Our luck was amazing!" Zhong Yirou said, beaming with smiles. They had easily gone through the first two matches.

"There's eighteen hundred people in this match, so there'll probably be another match later. If all five of us can move on to the Astralium Seeking, that would be ideal," Qiao Xingzhou exclaimed.

The way the math worked for three rounds of fights to leave around a hundred remaining out of a thousand and eight hundred was rather interesting. If half of all participants, that is, an entire team, was necessarily going to be eliminated through each round, it would take about four rounds in total for every surviving team before only around a hundred were left. However, at least five or more people were eliminated, according to the current format, as defeated members of the winning team were also eliminated along with the losing side. For instance, in Solitude of the Strong's previous round, nine out of ten people were eliminated. If they were lucky enough, they probably wouldn't need to fight more than two rounds. Like before, Tianming's party waited a few days before destroying the astralis.

"There should be a third round too."

"As long as we win, we'll be able to enter the Astralium Seeking."

Tianming saw that the four of them seemed rather excited.

Bai Feng, noticing his doubts, said, "Actually, our seniors never counted on us making it into the top ten. That's why for us, even being able to move on to the second part of the event will be a glorious achievement that brings honor to our kind. My brother and I will probably be heavily rewarded."

Just like Tianming, the main goal for their participation in this event was to win recognition and rewards from the people of their home worlds. It wasn't realistic for people from fringe worlds like them to get, let alone keep, the actual rewards, anyway.