Beastmaster of the Ages

"We'll be laughingstocks when others find out we sealed the entire city because of a single killer... Not to mention, keeping the city sealed for the long term isn't a solution. The fact that we're being forced into a corner like this means that the killer went too far," Huiye Shi said, not answering Tianming's question but wallowing in her own despair instead. Even though the formation had been deployed, the Huiyue Clan had already suffered a lot.

"The formation won't fix everything. It's not like we can keep the city sealed forever."

That was rather troublesome. The Veneramoon Formation had to be dispelled sooner or later. Word of that soon spread and the whole of the Divine Moon Realm, not just Huiyue City, began worrying about this new menace. That night alone, nearly a thousand divine moonrace had been killed. For rulers of the Divine Moon Realm to be slaughtered like that humiliated and enraged the rest.

"I have to mourn for my parents, so you're free to do whatever you please in the next few days. Go to the divine moon hall yourself," Huiye Shi said as she stood up.

"Alright." Tianming nodded.

"I'll be going now," she said gloomily.

"My condolences."

Huiye Shi forced a smile and said, "My parents are dead and I no longer have any backing. I think it'll be hard for me to get you any treasures. At least you'll get to use the divine moon hall."

She then left, crestfallen. Her entire life had been upended within mere moments. The people around her had died one after another. Who would be next?

Tianming and Feiling turned to one another within the Shiyu Compound's courtyard.

"She seems rather pitiful," Feiling said.

"It isn't something we could've predicted. That killer was far too savage. I wonder what sort of grudge he has against the divine moonrace."

"Big Brother, did you see him?"

"I did. Twice, in fact. I felt like he might've been looking at me, but I couldn't be sure."

"Either way, we'll at least be safe as long as the formation is up."

"That's right."

"So how's your progress at the divine moon hall?"

"Not bad, how about you?" Tianming asked.

"Same for me. I might reach the second level soon enough."

"Damn, you're getting so powerful now. I surrender."

Despite the chaos, they went to the divine moon hall unobstructed. From now on their schedule was to go to the divine moon hall during the day and absorb stellunar source at night.

"I was able to just barely defeat Huiyue Yin at the tenth-level life phase by working with Ling'er. Now that I have access to the stellunar source, I might be able to defeat first-level ascendants myself." Soon, he noticed that his understanding of the Ascension stage was quite lacking. "I'd better read the books Huiye Shi brought me."

......

Among the gigantic trees outside Huiyue City, Bodhi stood at the highest point, holding his daughter's hand. Little You seemed so frail that the wind would easily topple her.

"They sealed it rather quickly. The question is how long they'll be able to keep this up? Even if all of the Eightmoon Skycities are sealed, will they be able to seal off the other tens of thousands of cities for me alone?" The thought made him chuckle. His slaughter had completely terrorized them.

"Daddy, can't we just break into the formation?"

"Of course not. Let's head to Yusheng City."

"Okay. At the very least, the three main culprits, including Mommy's killer, have been dealt with," she said.

"There's only the two young'uns that sparked it all left. Since they're both here, it'll save us the time looking for them."

"That's right. The white-haired one is the one who killed Big Brother as well."

"What do you want to do next?" Bodhi asked, gently carrying her up.

"Bite him to death," she said.

"Have you gotten used to it, my darling?"

"I have. I just need to swallow it quickly."

......

How should Ye Lingfeng even describe this world? He had no other word for it apart from chaos, endless chaos. It didn't look normal in any sense of the word. There were far too many odd phenomena, such as the twisting space. The path under his feet itself was twisted. There were many grand palaces and buildings ahead of him, but they weren't rooted to the ground. Some were even upside down. Many of the tiles that lined the roofs were scattering into ash. There were all sorts of people before him. Some didn't have heads, some had grass sprouting from their abdomens, and some only had half a body, but even weirder was the fact that they greeted him when they saw him.

"Nice to meet you. First time in the xenomemory space? Remember to come here often," said a horse with half a body as it galloped past him.

Not far ahead of him, a house that had eyes and a mouth swallowed up a passerby. There seemed to be a city of sorts in the distance where people walked along the walls, or even upside down entirely. Ye Lingfeng had been walking in this twisted world for a long time. Beside him, a gust of wind blew. The wind soon turned into the three-headed, six-armed soulfiend with three faces, representing joy, rage, and grief respectively.

"It feels like I'm dreaming. I didn't think a world as weird as my dreams could actually exist in the real world." Ye Lingfeng stretched out his hand.

A fine speck of pollen fell onto his fingers, then bloomed into a flower with a face that asked him, "Nice to meet you. Does my fragrance smell good?"

From those words, Ye Lingfeng knew that his memories were leaking into this world. The soulfiend seemed to groan a few times with some difficulty.

"Are you saying that dreamscapes really exist? So when humans sleep, the caelum no longer records any memory and enters the xenomemory space and roams within it?"

The soulfiend nodded.

"Huh. So if I continue here, I might be able to find an exit."

Thus he continued along this mess of a world for a long time. Along the way, an ant asked him, "Brother Feng, are you worried about forever becoming part of this dreamscape?"

"I am."

"Fear is futile. You won't be able to leave, hehe."

Ye Lingfeng didn't really feel like answering the ant. He closed his eyes and covered his ears as he continued onward, smashing one twisted world after another. Eventually, light pierced through his eyelids, attracting his attention.

"What's that?" When he opened his eyes, he saw a gigantic blob of seven-colored light that vaguely seemed like butterflies in the void. Each time they flapped their wings, countless specks of colored light spread all over.

"Butterflies in the dreamscape...." He continued his walk even faster with a dazed look while the soulfiend wrapped around his body. The closer they got to the butterflies, the bigger they appeared. Half a month later, they could no longer see the entirety of the butterflies; instead, he found himself fast against the butterfly-shaped world, but he wasn't able to enter it. That colored light seemed to form a sort of barrier that kept him apart from the world.

Leaning against the barrier, Ye Lingfeng looked inside. "This is...."

He saw many normal people in the world, cultivating and sparring. He could hear their cheerful conversation. They spoke of things so mundane and normal that they didn't remotely belong to a dreamscape.

"Are they real people that exist in this world?" He wasn't willing to believe it. He hadn't seen any 'real' people since he came here, and wanted to go in to give it a good look. The soulfiend began grumbling once more.

"Are you saying they're all caeli?" Ye Lingfeng turned to the soulfiend with shock as it nodded excitedly. "So you're able to send my caelum to them too?"

The soulfiend nodded again.

"Let's give it a try then!" He sat atop the butterfly world as light enveloped him and the soulfiend made him fall asleep. When he was out cold, an ethereal silhouette appeared above his head. The soulfiend held this ethereal figure with its mist-turned hands and forced it through the barrier.

All of a sudden, Ye Lingfeng woke up in another world. There were sights of nature as well as a sun and moon there. Many young disciples chatted and laughed ahead of him. It all seemed so realistic. He knew that this body of his was only his caelum, but for some reason, it felt like real flesh and blood to him.

"I wonder who made this world of caeli."

While he was still stunned, a voice said, "Hello and welcome to Violetglory Star's wondersky realm. As a disciple of this place, you may obtain legacies, battle arts, and techniques through combat."

Ye Lingfeng was completely flabbergasted. All of a sudden, a formless hand stretched out toward him and pulled him back out into the xenomemory space.

"What'd you pull me out for?" he asked the soulfiend.

The soulfiend merely motioned its gigantic finger in front of his mouth in a hush gesture. Ye Lingfeng hurriedly turned back and saw a huge, headless figure in violet about a hundred meters tall. The creature had gigantic violet eyes on its chest that scanned its surroundings.

"An abomination...." Ye Lingfeng breathed a sigh of relief.

......

Tianming continued making progress at Huiyue City. He felt that he would soon break through to reach the eleventh-level life phase.

"It's rather tough obtaining any other cultivation resources, apart from the divine moon hall, now that Huiye Shi's parents are gone."

He took out the spirit core he had obtained all the way back at Red Twill Mountain and toyed around with it. "I've now more or less mastered the Soulshaker Eye. Let's take a look at the Godsoul Canon and see what it has in store for the next level. If I can use the Skypolarity Eye, I'll be able to open a way to the wondersky realm!"

He recalled the voice from the spirit core. "Young man, if you cultivate the Godsoul Canon to the level of Skypolarity Eye, the spirit core shall truly open. You'll be able to reach the wondersky realm at that point and seek out my miraculous legacy!"