Beastmaster of the Ages

Within the black ship, Tianming stood before Lin Xiao, Dongshen Yue, Lin Xiong, and other powerful clan members. The seniors had far too many questions that he needed to answer. But there were three for now: the skeletons, fingers, and the Order Relic.

Tianming turned to Lin Xiao when they finished asking their questions. "Grandpa, do you know anything about order apians? What about anyone called Huang Qi?"

Lin Xiao and the other three shook their heads. If they didn\'t know about order apians, there was no way they would know about the Order Relic. The things that happened within the Oldgod Domain were completely beyond their realm of understanding.

Grandpa, Grandma, and the others are among the ones who know the most about Ebonia. If people like them have no idea what the Order Relic is, I won\'t be able to get any useful information from them about my situation.

"So you\'re saying that the one who dragged all of you into the ancestral world is someone called Huang Qi, who wanted all of you to fight it out to pick a successor? After that, the black star fused into your body?" Lin Xiong asked with a loud, booming voice.

"Keep it down!" Dongshen Yue said, glaring at him.

"Yes, Ma\'am!" Lin Xiong let out an embarrassed smile.

Tianming nodded. "That\'s more or less what happened." In fact, he wasn\'t sure whether Huang Qi was the one that left the legacy behind. To prevent them from worrying, he didn\'t bother clearing up the misunderstanding.

"How do you feel right now?" Lin Xiao asked while he closely inspected Tianming\'s body.

"I feel fine. My hand should also recover once I become an astral god," Tianming said. He could also rely on the Greenspark Tower to grow it back, if he wanted. The problem would come when he became an astral god and was unable to control the growth of his hand.

"Are you able to control when you turn into a star?" Lin Xiao asked.

"Nope." It was something Huang Qi had done; he felt completely normal now.

"Then, what is that thing good for?" Dongshen Yue asked.

"Well, I felt that Chi Hun\'s order didn\'t have a good grasp on me, for one. As for the rest, I guess we\'ll find out later." The Order Relic was sure to be some kind of mysterious treasure.

"Are you saying the order of a cosmic cartographer didn’t have much effect on you?" Lin Xiong didn\'t seem to believe it. He gave it a try and found it to be the case, however, much to his shock. "Order is a huge component in fights between astral gods. This will give you a huge edge against anyone you fight!"

"That\'s right, Grandpa Xiong."

"Then again, what’s the deal with your cultivation level? You\'re clearly just a normal god, but your lifebound beasts have order. Your astralforce is also incredibly strong, and you were even able to defeat a fourth-phase orderan like Shenxi Shang.... How in the world did you do it?" That question was shared by billions of others in Ebonia.

"Hey, my grandson just got back. He needs to rest, so don\'t ask too many questions!" Dongshen Yue said, pulling Tianming away. Lin Xiong could only smile in resignation.

"It isn’t just you. Not even we know what\'s going on with him. Let it run its course! I wonder what kind of gains he received in there. He\'s always full of surprises," Lin Xiao said. He considered Lin Xiong a brother, hence his candor.

"I didn\'t believe it back then, but I believe it now. It\'s no wonder. If he wasn’t capable, there’d be no way he\'d be able to woo those three girl geniuses!"

"I\'m sure many others will want to ask about Feng\'er. Let\'s keep the things we know to ourselves."

"Don\'t worry, Brother Tiger. How can we tell them things that even we don\'t know? Well, well, that child got first place in the ranking event. That’s no doubt shaken the entire clan. He\'s brought much glory to us. He\'ll have to be officially instated as a swordgod disciple of the clan at Myriadsword Mausoleum soon. I look forward to the looks on those fellows\' faces," Lin Xiong said.

"At the very least, we know how Lin Yun and Lin Ziqing will react," Lin Xiao said with a smirk.

"Haha!" Laughter filled the room.

"Let’s drink and celebrate! A great show is about to unfold!"

......

"Feng\'er, we\'ll look into Huang Qi and the order apians in the ancient records once we get back. We\'ll tell you if we find anything. Make sure to keep us informed about any odd changes to your body," Dongshen Yue said. Initially, she’d given up on nurturing Tianming and had focused on the girls, but now there was no way she could ignore him any longer.

"Alright, Grandma." He obediently nodded. What he needed was to be able to discreetly research the mysteries. After that, Dongshen Yue put her worries away and told him some good news.

"What? I\'m a swordgod disciple? I get to go to the reges mundi level now? I also got more merit points?"

"That\'s right."

The rex mundi level was the eighth level of the Caeli Vault. The caelum of the clan\'s first rex mundi was there, among others like the Grandvoid Swordfiend and Unisword Goddess. Not even grade-seven disciples were allowed to enter that level. Only swordgod disciples deserved such a privilege. Normally, only branch leaders and their spouses were allowed to enter that level, making the number of people allowed inside really low. Tianming was all too elated to hear that he was one of their number. He had worried that he wouldn\'t be able to catch up after breaking through the past few levels too rashly.

"I can probably become an astral god with access to the caeli of reges mundi! Oh... how many merit points will I be awarded?" He turned to look at Dongshen Yue excitedly.

"Two point five," she said.

"Huh? Are you messing with me?"

"I\'m not. You\'re getting two point five million merit points."

"Two and a half million?!" His heart felt faint. That was far too much wealth! Five hundred points could get him grade-nine divine artifacts on par with the Godsin. "I wonder how many Godsins I can buy...."

"Why do you make it sound like you\'re counting the meat buns you can afford?" She continued glaring at him.

Turning back, Tianming saw that Feiling and the rest were also relishing in joy. It turned out that they would be able to spend some of those points as well. It was truly amazing how wives got to spend the money of their husbands like their own.

"You\'ll find out how many artifacts you can get with that. But I have to remind you not to recklessly spend it. You have to allocate some for Ling\'er and the others. You\'ll have more than enough left over after switching out for the best weapons and manna," Dongshen Yue said.

"That\'s the jackpot!" The wealth felt like it had come out of nowhere! The mere thought of having so much to spend made him rethink his career choices. He would be a slave to merit points. Not to mention, he had the spatial rings of Guchi Xiaoyin and Shenxi Shang. One of them contained around a hundred pieces of manna, which would no doubt amount to quite a bit of money as well, if they were sold.

"It\'s about time for Ying Huo and the rest to become true astral gods. I’ll have to lay low from now on and stay alive for long enough to reach the next stage!" He was firmly resolute on seeing what being an advanced cosmic deity had to offer.