Beastmaster of the Ages

“What?” Tianming raised his head to look at the starry sky. He sensed a link with the Imperial Will in his sea of consciousness. It felt like he was being worshipped.

“Xiaoxiao, is this how the ancestors’ Astral Will greets newcomers? Isn’t that a little too enthusiastic?” Tianming asked.

“No.” Lin Xiaoxiao lowered her head. There was a trace of helplessness in her eyes.

“What’s the situation now?” Tianming looked at the stars trembling in the sky. It was as if the Archaion Sect’s ancestors were still alive, and they were all looking at him.

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen something like this before,” said Lin Xiaoxiao.

Tianming stopped asking more questions.

“The Astral Will descended by itself?”

“Yeah.” Tianming looked at the stars descending from the sky and gathering in his direction. He could sense that it was the Grand-Orient Sword in his sea of consciousness drawing the stars over.

Looking at the hundreds of Astral Wills coming over to Tianming, Lin Xiaoxiao was dumbfounded. She said, “It was already good if anyone could draw one Astral Will over within half an hour.” 

Lin Xiaoxiao wasn’t the only witness to the commotion created by Tianming, but also everyone from the Human Branch following behind.

“Who is he?”

“No idea.”

“What the hell is this? Astral encirclement? Is this an ancestor’s gift?”

“Hundreds of stars gathering together. It’s never happened in the past, but can he even comprehend all of them?”

It was useless for ordinary people to have too many Astral Wills, and it was already good if they could comprehend and observe an ancestor’s heavenly will. Even so, many people surrounded Tianming and inquired about his identity.

Many people were surprised that no one here knew about Tianming, but there were some who recognized Lin Xiaoxiao. When they saw that she seemed to be acquainted with Tianming, they came up and asked her.

“His name is Li Tianming, and he just came to the Archaion Sect,” said Lin Xiaoxiao.

“Just came? A newcomer?”

“That’s right.”

“He should maintain a low profile since he’s a newcomer,” someone commented.

“He didn’t do this on purpose,” said Lin Xiaoxiao.

Tianming was already immersed in comprehending the heavenly will. Time was precious, and ordinary disciples only had half an hour to comprehend before they had to move on. On this Old Deepstar Path, the Astral Will would be stronger the further you go, which reflected the ancestor’s cultivation when he or she was alive.

There were three entrances to the Old Deepstar Path, two of which were from the Heaven and Earth Branches. Then again, the Astral Wills the Heaven and Earth Branches’ disciples had were naturally better. It was rumored that there was even a special place known as the Deepstar Pool.

……

Tianming eventually picked one out of the stars around him. These stars had chosen him, and no one else could take them away. He walked into a corner so that he wouldn’t block anyone’s path and began to comprehend.

The star in his hand dazzled, which swiftly drew Tianming’s attention and spirit into it. When the star came into contact with his forehead, Tianming saw scenes starting to flicker before his eyes, along with voices sounding by his ears. He felt as though he was watching another person’s story.

“Jian Fengchi, the Galesword Will. I used the power of wind to create the sharpest blade in the world.” The Astral Will displayed Jian Fengchi’s heavenly will’s entire evolution process, from his birth to the Samsara stage. Tianming was exposed to the entire process of how this person comprehended his heavenly will.

“Brilliant! This is simply brilliant!” Tianming could feel his blood boiling. “The Old Deepstar Path and the inheritances left within are why the Archaion Sect could produce geniuses over the generations.”

It didn’t matter if this ancestor’s cultivation method was suitable to Tianming, because he had gained something just by observing the process of someone comprehending the Heavenly will. “Xiaoxiao said that if I manage to encounter an ancestor who cultivated the same heavenly will as me, it’d be equivalent to having a mentor guiding me in my path.”

Tianming cultivated Imperial Will, and had never heard of anyone cultivating it before. He guessed that he wouldn’t find someone who cultivated the same heavenly will as him in the Old Deepstar Path, but when his Imperial Will came in contact with the Astral Wills, he suddenly discovered something.

The Astral Wills represented the heavenly wills of many people. The stars worshipped me the moment I appeared, so does that mean that these Astral Wills are part of those people, and the heavenly will of these people forms part of the Imperial Will? So if I use the ocean as an analogy, the Imperial Will is the ocean, while the Astral Wills here are streams flowing into the ocean. That means that all of the Astral Wills here are useful to me, and I don’t have to pick one. I just have to observe them. 

Upon having that insight, Tianming began patiently observing Jian Fengchi’s cultivating process. He looked at how Jian Fengchi persevered in his cultivation until he became a powerhouse in the Samsara stage. His heavenly will’s growth didn’t contain any of his life experiences, but Tianming could sense the changes in Jian Fengchi’s emotions through the Astral Will.

Dao is boundless, and everyone has their own comprehension of it. Tianming was deeply moved after observing Jian Fengchi’s heavenly will. So if I want to stand above everyone else, I have to learn from others and accept them with humility.

His experience back in the Theocracy of the Ancients made Tianming think more about the relationship between people. Respecting lives and valuing others; that was how a genuine powerhouse rose from the grassroots. If the help of an Astral Will was limited, then what about thousands of them?

I wonder how quickly others can observe the Astral Wills… Tianming noticed something odd. It felt like an eternity had passed while he observed Jian Fengchi’s life, but only roughly sixty breaths had passed in reality. He seemed to achieve a fusion effect with the Astral Wills, and he wasn’t just observing like others.

But when he let go of Jian Fengchi’s Astral Will, he noticed that the star slowly turned into a bubble and disappeared. It was like Tianming had inherited everything.

It was a pity, but the ancestors left behind too many Astral Wills, and there were at least a hundred thousand of them. Tianming noticed that when others were finished observing, their Astral Wills would return into the sky.

Does that mean I can achieve a fusion effect and absorb them? Is this the reason why I can observe the Astral Will so quickly? He could sense his heavenly will’s growth. Although it wasn’t as quick as having the genuine heavenly will of everyone flowing to him, it was still better than using the Grand-Orient Sword and Prime Tower. Furthermore, there wouldn’t be any conflict; they would fill each other’s gap.

“Let’s continue!” Tianming couldn’t be bothered so much; he still had hundreds of Astral Wills around him waiting to be absorbed. Without him knowing, the Astral Wills around him disappeared, and half an hour had also passed. Tianming had no choice but to leave the Old Deepstar Path.

My time was too short, and I still have room for improvements. I have to find a way to increase my time training in the Old Deepstar Path. Tianming pondered, and he first thought of Feiling.

Let’s not ask Ling’er for now and wait a little longer. I’ll have to participate in faction battles anyway to compete for an opportunity to enter the Heaven Cauldron. Let’s head to the faction's management for now. Tianming heard that only the faction lord on the first rank could enter the Heaven Cauldron.

Not only was the Archaionfiend Eye suppressed in the Heaven Cauldron, tribulation patterns and spiritual hazards could also be found there. So Tianming had to fight for it, if only for those two reasons alone.

He believed he could do it, so Tianming wasn’t going to let Feiling use her ‘Eminent’ identity. He wanted to wait and see how things go. It would be somewhat inappropriate for her to handle something so trifling, so Tianming wanted to leave it for more important matters.

The effects are great even if I only have half an hour here. I have to digest them after going back anyway. Tianming was practically in a secluded state when he came back from the Old Deepstar Path. 

He repeated this routine for five days, and in these five days, he absorbed over five hundred Astral Wills, allowing his heavenly will to grow to the seventh level of the Sky Saint stage.

Then Tianming just focused on increasing his saint ki to make a genuine breakthrough into the seventh level of the Sky Saint stage. To remain low profile, Tianming would head to remote places so that it wouldn’t be too eye-catching to have hundreds of stars around him, and the Human Branch’s disciples had already stopped talking about him.

“It’ll be great if I can stay in the Old Deepstar Path for two hours a day. Any longer would be useless, since I still need time to digest my gains.” The spiritual energy in the Archaion Sect was terrifying, even without using the fountain. And on the sixth day, Tianming finally stepped into the seventh level of the Sky Saint stage.

“I’ll have a lifespan of five hundred years if I can reach the Empyrean Saint stage, and it will be equivalent to having two or three more decades to cultivate. I don’t have to worry about the Aeonic Grandbane for the time being then.” His first goal was to reach the Empyrean Saint stage. Feiling’s status here was only illusory, and cultivation was still fundamental.

“I still lack several battle arts, like a Samsara stage’s battle art.” Tianming had the Ninesilver Astral Art and Invincible Sword Body for empyrean saint battle arts, and it wouldn’t be difficult for him to master a stronger one with his Aeonic Grandbane talent. So he wanted to give it a try with Samsara battle arts.

“I’ll have to complete missions and accumulate contribution to the sect to exchange for battle arts here. It’s a little waste of time, but it’d be great if I could buy them with money. No matter what, I’m still the husband of their ‘Eminent.’ It’s fine that I have to stay in the Human Branch for safety, but I can’t possibly waste my time on missions, right? Let’s see if Ling’er has any money when I visit her in a few days and I’ll see if I can get some.”

Tianming was a realistic person, and he could swiftly increase his cultivation in the Old Deepstar Path. He had decided to spend most of his time there, and missions were just a hassle for him right now. As he was absorbed in deep thoughts, the sect master of the Human Branch, Jian Wuyi, suddenly appeared in his courtyard.