Beastmaster of the Ages

Li Tianming tumbled downwards after being sucked in by the black vortex. “Where am I?” He immediately scrambled to his feet to find himself inside a chamber. The chamber was surrounded on four sides by black walls, while the stone ground was also particularly sturdy. However, the ceiling had a bronze passageway — it was likely to be the well.

“I should be below the well.” Li Tianming examined his surroundings. He found a grand total of two items in the hidden chamber. One was the manna that had fallen in with him, while the other seemed to be a sphere made of flawless white jade, giving off luminescence.

It was thanks to the sphere that the chamber wasn't cast in complete darkness.

“Know what this is?” Li Tianming summoned Ying Huo out of his lifebound space. There was definitely something strange about the sphere, so he didn’t dare act too rash.

“There’s something here?” The little chick circled one round around the sphere. “Yep, a strange thing alright. Hand me the manna, I’m itching to get on with it!”

“Right here?”

“Where else? Your father’s still outside. Who knows if they’ll start coming in later.” The little chick rolled its eyes.

The process of manna refinement would primarily be executed by the lifebound beast. During the process, Li Tianming only had to stand guard. If it succeeded, the next time they cultivated, the lifebound beast’s improved bloodline energy would remould the beastmaster.

“They take me as a one-star lifebound beast, and definitely don’t believe I can refine the manna. However, they definitely don’t know that I’m not evolving, just unlocking some bloodline shackles.” The little chick said smugly.

“Alright, alright, stop bragging.” Li Tianming handed it the manna. He heard that there were many variables that cropped up in refining manna, and the help of seniors in refining it was almost always a given. There were many incidents of failure throughout history, and some even resulted in death. As a rule of thumb, the younger generation would never try to do it alone. However, Li Tianming was not worried for this Aeternal Infernal Phoenix.

The little chick was as excited as a child getting their favourite toy. “Well, examine the sphere first. I’ll start if there’s nothing else.”

Li Tianming also couldn’t wait and started to examine the sphere impatiently.

“The well uses that manna as a key. If there’s only this white jade sphere inside, its value must be several times the manna,” Li Tianming mused.

“Well, that’s going to depend on whether you’re fated with it!”

Li Tianming nodded. He mentally prepared himself as he reached out to the sphere. It was cool to the touch, but he didn’t feel any sense of rejection.

He raised the sphere to eye level. It was flawless without any markings, no matter what angle he inspected it from. It only seemed to be an ordinary jade without any oddities.

Then, an eye appeared on the sphere without warning, gazing at him. Li Tianming immediately felt the world spinning and melting away, leaving him dizzy. In the next instant, he was transported to a world filled with only white light. Innumerable people seemed to be talking around him from all directions.

“Of within the Wondersky Realm, I reign as absolute sovereign; From within the great unknown, hereward I beckon you forth!” A voice suddenly boomed out and filled the world, each word thundering in Li Tianming’s mind.

There were two pieces of info implicit in this message. First, the message itself definitely came from the owner of the sphere. He called himself the absolute sovereign of the Wondersky Realm. Unfortunately, Li Tianming had never heard of that place. The second portion was more incoherent. What did he mean he had beckoned Li Tianming forth from within the great unknown?

He had come for clear spirit grass, then had come to know of the manna through Jiang Feiling. He found out about the well through his black arm. How was he led here in any way?

“Young man, when you cultivate Godsoul Canon to the level of Skypolarity Eye, the spirit core shall truly open. The path to the Wondersky Realm shall be established, and you may seek my legacy thereward!”

And there it was, another bamboozling string of words.

However, he guessed the ‘spirit core’ referred to the sphere and the eye on it.

Suddenly, a golden mist coalesced in front of him, which reformed into golden words.

“First stage of Godsoul Canon, the Bewildering Eye.” Li Tianming read out loud. The golden script was too long and complex, but every word he recited was indelibly etched into his mind, never to be forgotten. It took him a minute to parse through it all.

“When the Bewildering Eye is mastered, the Godsoul Canon’s second stage can be learnt.”

Li Tianming was still confused, and when he shook his head to clear it, he realised that white world was gone. He was back in the hidden chamber with the white jade sphere, but the eye from before was gone.

Ying Huo stared at him.“What happened, why did you suddenly start reciting some scripture?”

Li Tianming took a while to respond. He examined the white sphere for a long while. Its glow was starting to dim, but nothing he did elicited any further reaction. The inheritance had ended, and perhaps only when Li Tianming made some accomplishments in the Godsoul Canon would there be a reaction.

“Do you know somewhere called the Wondersky Realm?”

“Nope.”

“I think I got some good fortune.”

“What kind?”

“One called the ‘Godsoul Canon’. It seems to be the technique of illusion-type beast masters.” Li Tianming said.

Illusion-type lifebound beasts were a rare breed, all of high rank. Supposedly, Liu Qing was one of those rare beastmasters who possessed one. These abilities to cast illusions were impossible to guard against, and in battle, they could be used to confuse the opponent or even take control of them.

“Well, then try it. I’ll see how you fare when I’m done with this.” The manna refining had already started, but the process still needed some time.

Since it was going to take a while, Li Tianming took a seat, planning to examine the Godsoul Canon’s first stage, Bewildering Eye. “This is a technique, not a battle art.”

Illusion-type beast masters also had their own illusion-type battle arts, but the Godsoul Canon wasn’t one of them. Illusion-type battle arts were based on the foundation of being an illusion-type beast master to use, and ordinary people couldn’t use it.

The Godsoul Canon worked by transfiguring the eye to make one become an illusionary-type beastmaster. Such outrageous techniques would be called secret techniques.

Techniques had two kinds. Apart from secret techniques, there were the more standard cultivation techniques like the Darkgold Technique and Aeternal Infernal Codex.

Cultivation techniques helped convert the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into beast ki, make breakthroughs, form the spiritsource and so on. It was the fundamentals, even more important than battle arts. Li Tianming had heard of some specially created secret techniques that could be added onto the base system of cultivation techniques. Today, Li Tianming found one, one that didn’t conflict with the Aeternal Infernal Phoenix at all, the Godsoul Canon.

He began to practice it.

“Scary, scary! The idea is to establish ‘illusion-type spirit veins’ in the eye to let beast ki flow through. They’re tiny and they need to cover the whole eye. A slight failure could very well lead to your eye being kaput!”

“The Bewildering Eye needs you to establish a whole eighty-one illusion-type spirit veins in an eye. This kind of thing that needs such delicate work is very dangerous. Those without special eyes basically have no chance of mastering it.”

“But success would lead to the eye becoming a Bewildering Eye. It can still cast illusionary effects even if you’re not an illusion-type beastmaster. It may even be stronger than one! It’s already so complicated. I wonder what stage the Skypolarity Eye that can make the spirit core open the Wondersky Realm is?”

Li Tianming had a premonition that this was a huge windfall. If he could master it well, it would lead to untold benefits. “I wonder how it compares to my Saintbeast War-Soul?”

His sixth sense told him the spirit core wasn’t worth any less.

“From within the great unknown, huh?” Li Tianming felt so many things still felt unknown and mysterious to him. His meeting with Jiang Feiling felt like one of them. He really did have some belief that he had obtained this spirit core not just through luck, but also through its owner’s beckoning.

“Let’s begin!”