Beastmaster of the Ages

"Forget it. Since I can\'t figure it out, I’ll just focus on cultivating," Tianming decided.

"Brother, did you find anything out about it?!" Lin Lele\'s loud voice shook Tianming awake, drawing his caelum out of the bones.

He shook his head and saw the green glow around the cavern before he snapped out of it. "Sis, do you have anything planned for a while?"

"No. There\'s no rush! My abilities are around the upper-intermediate level, so I won\'t be competing with the best—but I\'ll be able to deal with many others. That\'s why I don\'t intend to do anything more than secure a spot in the rankings," she said.

"Good." That was perfect for him. Since they were both wearing Oldgod Rings, he didn\'t reveal all the shocking things he had seen and only mentioned that there were caeli inside the bones that could be used to cultivate.

"After all that trouble and unlocking, all you get are caeli for cultivation?" She suddenly lost interest in it, as she had brought some caeli with her as well. "Do you want to focus on cultivating?"

"Yeah."

She gave him a knock on the back of his head. "Why’d you suddenly get hardworking after coming here? Isn\'t it a bit too late for a last-minute effort? Well, since I pity you, I\'ll help you out. It isn’t like people are actively fighting during the beginning anyway. Everyone\'s still slowly adapting to the competition and staying hidden."

"Thanks, Sis!" Being able to cultivate without worry was ideal. It also made sense that people were keeping a low profile. However, it had been tens of days since the start of the competition and four billion Yin Chens had spread to most areas. All ten thousand participants, and even the enforcers were being monitored. There was nothing that could escape the bugs’ prying eyes, which afforded Tianming a huge advantage.

......

Cultivating without regard for the fights in the Oldgod Domain made time pass very quickly. With his caelum focused on the order of legacy caeli, it felt like he was asleep. Time seemed to pass at ten times the normal rate. A month soon flew by as Tianming immersed himself in the mysteries.

He didn\'t plan on stopping just yet, but Yin Chen had found another giant green skeleton as it burrowed around for more ore to consume. "A second skeleton!" He was smarter about the whole thing this time around, and had Yin Chen make him a path first. When he arrived, he easily claimed the skeleton without trouble and returned to his former base.

"How is it? Caeli again?" Lin Lele asked.

"Yeah."

"How boring!" She rolled her eyes and continued meandering about.

The second skeleton was mostly the same after Tianming unlocked it with his Sky Plundering Hand. It had fifteen hundred caeli instead of the thousand from before, however, with all sorts of orders that could help his Imperial and Lifesbane Wills grow. He had many choices to pick from among the caeli of both skeletons, and he focused his mind entirely on that, other than when Yin Chen discovered something interesting. There was no need for him to go anywhere with such a convenient lifebound beast.

The fact that he had acquired two skeletons had drawn quite a bit of attention from the spectators, but his silent cultivation soon bored them, not that he cared. While he was already over thirty, his growth was still rather quick, thanks to the good resources of Ebonia. His divine wills grew considerably more powerful over the passage of four months.

"I\'m finally at the third level!" It had taken him six months to go from first to second level, but only four months from second to third thanks to the skeletons. His disciple card now marked him as a ninth-level stellaminor.

"It\'s still fine now, but once the number reaches twelve, it\'ll be awkward again." They would soon see how his power kept rising even though he wasn\'t able to become an astral god. "Even though it\'ll be hard to fight those on higher levels that’re astral gods, thanks to their orders, I should be able to manage somewhat as long as I have enough astralforce." So far, he should be about as powerful as a tenth-level stellaminor.

"Phew! It\'s been around a year since I came to Ebonia, but Lin Jianxing hasn\'t made any progress at all. I\'m already getting close to him, hehe...." The boost Tianming got from obtaining high-quality resources was nothing to be scoffed at.

......

The Oldgod Domain had been quite peaceful lately. Many participants still had the patience to wait in ambush, so no huge clashes took place. After Tianming had made his breakthrough, he’d planned to continue cultivating. He had already earned a ranking anyway, and while it wasn\'t particularly high, it fulfilled his main objective of coming here. But before a few days passed, Yin Chen excitedly reported, "Found manna!"

"What? Manna?" Having manna naturally manifest in a unique place like the Oldgod Domain was noteworthy, to say the least.

"That\'s right!"

"What grade is it?"

"It has... four holes!"

"Holes? Just call them by the proper term, apertures. Is using childish words your idea of acting cute?" Tianming shot it an odd look and got up to see Lin Lele. She was so bored that she was taking a nap with Meow Meow, so he directly picked her up.

"Molester!" she shrieked, then sent Tianming flying with a slap.

Tianming got up with gritted teeth. "Sis! I\'m going to take you to pick up some manna! Why’d you hit me?"

Her astralforce-infused slap had been too fierce! He felt like he wouldn\'t be able to fully endure it and it felt like he was asphyxiating when he had been slapped.

"Ah, sorry. I was dreaming about being molested just now," she said, blushing.

"You? Shouldn\'t you be the one doing the molesting?"

"Hey, you don\'t need to spell it out like that. It\'s embarrassing, you know," she coyly said.

Tianming was speechless.

"So, you mentioned manna?" she said, eyes widening.

"Let\'s go, or it\'ll be gone in no time." Tianming quickly zipped away. The manifestation of manna often caused a commotion that would be large enough to attract people who were nearby. Yin Chen had already detected quite a few people approaching the manna.

"How’d you find out about it?" she asked. Though she was huge, she was really fast and could easily keep up with Tianming\'s running speed.

"I know everything!"

"Stop spouting nonsense." She felt like giving him another smack. "What grade of manna is it? Don\'t tell me it\'s normal universal manna. My lifebound beasts already have around twenty thousand stars."