Beastmaster of the Ages

What did it mean for the Skywolf Star and a few other worlds to show up in the star map of the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb? Did it contain that information all along? If so, why didn't the Ninedragon Emperor pass it down to his descendants of the Xuanyuan Dragon Sect?

Then again, the Ninedragon Emperor clearly didn't invent the Ninedragon Tribulation. It was likely that the move had come from another world; perhaps even one that was shown on this star map. As long as they had it, they would be able to roam the astralscape.

The old gods' blood of the sun emperor was probably obtained somewhere in the uncharted astralscape, so it was clear that he had some kind of star map in the Divine Sun Palace as well. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to find his way back. Thankfully, for now, the Divine Sun Palace couldn't cruise.

The star map came as quite a shock to Tianming. Seeing Skywolf, Violetglory, and the sun together made it seem not that simple. Perhaps even the Sky Palace in Orderia had no idea about the mystery.

"Big Brother, are we going back right away now that we can?" Qingyu said, looking expectantly at him. Her moon-white eyes slightly shook and there was a tinge of red deep within. They had left Orderia right after the battle at the Myriaddragon Mountains. They didn't know the aftermath of that bloody war, how the Myriad Solar Sects were doing, how many Dragon Imperials died, or whether Li Wudi's life was in danger. There was no way they could feel relieved when their father was in peril.

"As long as I summon it, the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb can reach us. Given my current strength with aid from the Omnisentient Threads, nobody here should be able to stop us from leaving. Still, it's best that we communicate this properly with the Violetcloud Imperium."

"It should be fine. It's not like we're leaving and never coming back. Not to mention, our caeli can always access the wondersky realm. We can still represent them in the Astraldome. With the star map, it should only take us two or three months for a round trip, right?" Feiling asked.

"That's right." Tianming was also feeling quite anxious about Li Wudi's affair. Not to mention, he had many friends, like Long Wanying, the Saintdragon Emperor, Jiang Qingliu, Yu Ziqian, and so on. He was quite worried for them. There was also his dynasty and those in the chaos skyjail, like Li Caiwei, Ye Shaoqing, and the rest. Feiling was right. Now that they had a divine astralship and knew that Orderia and the Violetglory Star were quite close, he could easily return. His caelum would also remain in the wondersky realm, so it wasn't like he was just taking the Violetcloud Imperium's resources and running; he could return at any time.

Everyone waited for him to make his decision. He gave it some thought and said, "After going back, we'll have to face off against the sun emperor if we're to save my godfather. If we can't protect ourselves, it'll be a fool's errand. While we're quite strong now, I intend to take down the Celestial Beings first and see how the Violetglorians react before going back."

Everything depended on the reactions from the people on the Violetglory Star. He had benefited too much from the Violetcloud Imperium and felt indebted to them in some way. It would be ideal if he could establish a good and communicative relationship with them. Leaving for the short term wasn't really running away, after all. He would still be fighting for them in the Astraldome.

"Alright."

At the very least, they had great caeli imperius. Cultivating here would be better than doing so at the Myriad Solar Sects, though the Astraldome could change things. It was said that the sixth level and beyond had incredible cultivation resources.

"Alright, we'll aim for the sixth level before returning to Orderia!" Tianming decided.

"Okay." The others nodded in agreement.

"Let's drag on a little bit. If we can continue making progress, let's go to Bloodbath Arena," Tianming said. That would allow them to make use of the group battles offered there. Not everyone would be able to get a winning streak of ten alone. Anyone in the party would be able to make it to the sixth level, as long as their party had a winning streak of ten. Too bad Qingyu wouldn't be able to join them, however.

It was really hard for those under thirty to make it to the sixth level. With someone like Crimsonjade Cang stopping them at the fifth level to ensure non-mysterians didn't get access to those resources, it wasn't surprising at all. The mysterians were a large faction with just and crooked people all mixed together; Crimsonjade Cang definitely belonged to the latter category. There was a common saying that crooks are lesser than ghosts, and Cang just happened to be a specter.

The appearance of the star map was important to every one of them. Now that they had a clear picture of the upcoming fight in mind, all of them, Qingyu included, focused on making more cultivation progress. The stronger they grew, the better their chances would be.

It had been four months since Tianming had been defeated by Crimsonjade Cang and his fans were about to cry. The ones in the Mysterium Cluster also had their eyes peeled for Tianming, even though he didn't show up. Eventually, people began mocking him for being so audacious only to end up hiding himself away. The faceless specters declared that Tianming had been traumatized after his defeat by Crimsonjade Cang and no longer dared to even step in the Astraldome.

It was also said that all five members of Celestial Beings had gone to the Bloodbath Arena to wait for Tianming, but he was a no-show. Eventually, the audience began losing steam again. The Omnisentient Threads in Violetglory also began declining in number, losing more than ten million in four months, once more proving that faith gained from bringing glory paled in comparison to that of bringing salvation. The Violetglory Star was a calculative place like that, even when it came to the reward system there.

......

Two months had passed since the appearance of the star map, making it six months since Tianming had shown up at the Bloodbath Arena and over a year since he'd come to the Violetglory Star. The mysterians' ships should have set sail eight months ago, and would be nearing half of their whole journey. Tianming could feel the danger mounting despite the amount of time he had left.

Cultivating at the Solar stage was much harder. His breakthrough wasn't that hard, and he did it without consuming caeli or pills, but making progress was a different story. It wasn't that out of the ordinary, however. Even those in the Celestial Beings, with all their talent, took years to make a single breakthrough, especially after the fifth level. As one inched closer to the capabilities of a sovereign, the difficulty would multiply. That was why even if those in the Celestial Beings were able to reach the fifth level and above by thirty, they might not become precentennial paragons.

Once past the age of thirty, one would be past the greatest growth spurt. Progress would start slowing and gradually worsening with age. With a slowing rate of improvement and rising difficulty, leveling up became exponentially harder. Cultivating was like climbing up a slope that got steeper and steeper the higher one went. And the older one grew, the less stamina they would have. It would already be pretty decent if an old person could stop and stay at that point of the slope instead of falling off or rolling backward.

Tianming was still in his prime, not to mention, as long as his talent continued to rise, he would always be young. Even then, he felt the burn of climbing the Solar stage. Lingfeng and Xiaoxiao also felt it, despite having the advantage of cultivating by consuming. Lingfeng's Primordial Gate seemed a little unable to process all those waste pills. Xiaoxiao kept stubbornly forcing growth as well, despite Tianming asking her to slow down.

Since Tianming had obtained his third regal soul, he kept training at the Imperius Ruins. He kept it up for around half a year even after he mastered the Saintdragon Annihilation. He had seen so many caeli during his time there, helping his Lifesbane Will catch up to his Imperial Will. His cyclic constellation eventually became a cyclic sacrosun. Unlike the imperial star above the Grand-Orient Sword, the cyclic sacrosun was actually a black-and-white vortex formed from many smaller black-and-white stars. They spun around in a vortex shaped like a yin-yang diagram. When manifested, a sea of monochrome stars appeared around him, representing the profundity of the cycle. Coupled with his pandemonium sacrosun, they made for quite a perfect combination, with the sea of stars cycling around the imperial star in the middle.

"I'm finally at the second level." Fresh astralforce surged within his albi, bringing his strength to a whole new level. The formation of both sacrosuns made his will even more firm and he glowed like an ancient deity. The five types of astralforce within his body blended together with the seven types of grade-eight sword ki, bringing his radiance to a whole new level. The seventh strand he assimilated was similar to the Frozen Glasstree, also being a treelike sword ki cluster.

It was called the Kilodragon Tree, and Tianming had been shocked by its majesty upon seeing it. Its branches and twigs looked like dragons, making the whole thing look like a gigantic draconic hydra. Every leaf was a white dragon scale, and its vines looked like the whiskers of dragons. The flowers of the tree looked like dragon eyes as well. It was a miracle of the universe for something like this to be able to naturally form. Out of all of his sword ki strands, this one seemed the strongest and was really close to a grade-nine sword ki strand. It was also suited to the Saintdragon Annihilation. Now he had a matching strand of sword ki for each move in his arsenal. Coupled with his totems, the Ninedragon Tribulation moveset rose to a whole new level.

"If the two sacrosuns can properly manifest in the wondersky realm, it'd be impressive." He was filled with confidence in his upcoming fights. Having been absent from the Astraldome for so long, he couldn't wait to start challenging people again.