Beastmaster of the Ages

The brand new Grand-Orient Sword had a black core surrounded by gold on the edges of its blade. One side was inscribed with the sun, moon, and stars that represented the sky, and the other side had mountains, rivers, and lakes, which represented the earth. Unlike before, the imperial stars that were embedded inside the blade made it brilliantly shine like the true sword of a ruler. The stars were black and gold, matching the color of the sword itself.

Holding the familiar hilt, Tianming felt a rush of new power surge into his body! His caelum had been sucked into the world inside the sword; he was quite familiar with the surroundings. The five great gates within looked as mysterious as ever, and they were the ones that started him on his path to rulership.

However, the internal space had considerably changed. Four of the great gates that were colored light gold, dark gold, light black, and dark black had all vanished. Each one had corresponded to one ability of the Grand-Orient Sword, namely the Grand-Orient Vortex, twin-sword configuration, Imperealm Sword Formation, and the Imperial Sword Prison. The gates had contained the power source for those abilities, so if they were now gone, did that mean that the abilities were gone as well?

That didn't seem to be the case, however, as Tianming could still feel the Grand-Orient Vortex's presence within his body. In fact, it was even stronger than before. More importantly, the gate at the center was still there. However, it was no longer colorless like before. It was a double-door configuration, and one of them was black while the other was gold. Divine celestial patterns swam all throughout its surface. It was as if the other four gates had fused together with this one.

The gate was completely shut and there was but a slim gap in it. Peeking inside still revealed the primordial star within. Naturally, it wasn't the Flameyellow Imperial Star, but they did share some similarities.

Apart from those changes, Tianming noticed that he had been illuminated by a thick, brilliant light the moment he entered. It kind of felt like a force that was bearing down on him like a waterfall. Looking up, he saw nine black and gold stars forming a ring and pouring light down like nine suns in the sky.

"What’s that?" He widened his eyes as he flew closer. He had a feeling that it was something akin to a pagoda, like the Prime Tower. So far, Tianming had unlocked one layer of the tower and gained the Prime Mountain and Prime Tower Shield abilities in the form of his divine wonder. The Purple Tower, Soul Tower, and the Greenspark Tower were still present as well. No doubt, these nine stars were more than meets the eye.

He then noticed that one of the stars looked like it had been pierced through. Out of the hole poured a dark red strand of energy that coursed into his body through the sword. "What’s this? Is it a divine hazard like the Galactic Godsin?"

He noticed that the energy was quite different from most divine hazards, which were normally twisted forms of nova source carrying divine ordered patterns. This energy also had divine ordered patterns, but it felt much heavier and more terrifying! He was almost certain that this new power had only manifested after he’d fused the sword with the grade-nine shard.

Soon, he arrived in front of the peculiar star. "Wait, that's...." The energy almost looked like magma. Through the hole, he could even see the core of the star. There was a black and gold figure within with its back facing Tianming, much like the shade he had seen within the Prime Tower long ago! Tianming tried to reach the other side of the star to no avail. The figure still had his back facing him.

"Is this some kind of trick? What could it be?" The other eight stars were completely sealed off; only the one before him now radiated that terrifying power. He backed off and closely looked at the dense patterns on the surface of the star. They didn't look like transformed and synthetic divine celestial patterns, but rather naturally occurring, more complex divine ordered patterns!

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"How could this be?!" It really came as a shock. Even though each of those nine stars was a powerful body of energy, like a miniaturized nova source, each of them were much larger in scale than in the Galactic Godsin. Only formations could possibly contain so much energy, and those were made using patterns that had been decoded and transformed—that is, divine celestial patterns. Yet this star before him was covered in divine ordered patterns, and more than one at that.

While he couldn't be certain, the patterns were at least grade seven and above, and there were more than ten thousand of them. While the Galactic Godsin was also a grade-nine divine hazard, it only had a single divine ordered pattern. Natural hazards and patterns formed a singular structure, and that should also mean that these nine stars were also naturally occurring.

"Over there!" He circled the surface of the star and saw another shocking thing. The natural, complex divine ordered patterns intersected with each other to form characters that read: "Flint Infernal". The other eight stars also had patterns that formed different words.

"What does ‘Flint Infernal’ mean?" He stretched his caelum hand out to touch the newfound power. While it looked like magma, his caelum couldn't actually feel its power. He stuck close to the surface of the star, trying to get a closer look.

All of a sudden, a voice rang out beside his ear. "Only deific-class worlds and above can produce a cosmic impulse within them. Cosmic impulses and divine hazards are both derived from nova sources, carrying divine ordered patterns. Yet cosmic impulses differ in that they’re natural formations comprised of divine ordered patterns that contain the type of force that is known as a celestial impulse. The regulation of natural formations allows people to make use of the celestial impulse within. Cosmic impulses are therefore gifts from the universe to all sentient beings...."

"Who’s that?" Tianming hurriedly turned around but saw nobody there. It could only be the person in that star. It seemed that the words had been left behind in the form of some kind of formation, much in the vein of the recordings of the Hexapath Sword God inside the Sword Insight Rock. It was a simple technique; even Tianming could leave a recording behind that lasted countless years. The fact that there was no reply from the voice proved as much.

Once more, he studied the nine stars before him. While they appeared like miniaturized nova sources, they were actually completely different. "So these star-like things are actually cosmic impulses! Basically, naturally occurring formations carrying divine ordered patterns, so stronger versions of divine hazards, right?"

A mere count of the number of divine patterns showed that it was stronger than Galactic Godsin. While only 'Flint Infernal' was releasing energy, its power had completely changed the sword. The Grand-Orient Vortex, among the first of the sword abilities Tianming had gained, infused an additional layer of energy over his astral discs. The power he had gained was similar to one a lifebound beast gave him. When ‘Flint Infernal’ came surging out, the Grand-Orient Vortex itself changed. The natural energy flooded deep into his albi, gathering at the vortices within and transforming them into a blend of magma.

Normally, when he used divine hazard sword ki strands to forge his sword body, the strands only existed between his albi, not inside them. Yet the cosmic impulse seemed able to become one with his own energy through the Grand-Orient Sword. It also had an omnipresent quality; not only was it flowing on the sword itself, it also infused into its other two abilities, the Imperealm Sword Formation and Imperial Sword Prison!

Those abilities had been great boons on the Flameyellow Continent, but they were far less instrumental now that he had left for the astralscape. Back then, the Grand-Orient Sword was basically an empty husk, having no powers except for the Grand-Orient Vortex. As such, the abilities of the sword had become far less effective on constelliers and above. But things had changed.

𝘧𝗿𝐞𝐞𝒘𝗲𝘣n𝘰𝘷ℯ𝒍. 𝒄o𝗺

The sword-shaped symbol on the surface of the sword and the sword ki formation it carried were transformed by the infusion of the Flint Infernal Impulse. The former had been dyed a crimson red and the bloody symbol circled the Grand-Orient Sword nonstop. After the impulse had seeped into the sword formation, it’d split into small strands of sword ki and blended in with the rest. The black and gold sword ki strands were dyed red and seemed more powerful. They were now flint infernal sword ki. The only aspect of the sword that the cosmic impulse didn't change was the dual-sword aspect. All in all, the cosmic impulses that only deific-class worlds and above could produce had greatly boosted the powers of the Grand-Orient Sword.

"It looks like the Flint Infernal Impulse is only a small portion of the power of those nine stars. If I can use all of them, the Grand-Orient Sword would be even more mind-numbingly powerful." He believed that this powerup was similar to the prime wonder. It would take him time to properly explore the potential gains he could obtain from it.

"It’ll take quite some time, but at least I'm still doing better than Lingfeng with his Evil Suppression Pillar. He still has no idea of what it can really do!" At least on that front, he was happy with his own progress.