Chapter 3047 - Tianming the Worker
The Myriadpath Celestial Formation wasn't just a grand formation array for teleportation, it was also a large-scale information management system. While he had zero merit for now, placing first during the Skyward Grandpath trial was still recorded within his myriadpath ring.
He went to the Heavensource Starriver with Li Fan. As its name suggested, it was a large stream of countless stars that shone brightly. Endless divine celestial patterns grouped together into many layers of formations that protected the river. There was only a single entrance.
The river of stars was said to be formed entirely of ordered manna. Myriadpath Valley's resources were truly bountiful. The Heavensource Starriver was like a large, blooming flower within Myriadpath Valley. Tianming could see how large it was before he even entered through the formations.
"I’m not allowed in. Once you reach the entrance, put your myriadpath ring into it and you'll know how it works. Your reward is 300-aperture ordered manna. You should be able to claim them from the thirtieth stream. Pick whichever you want," Li Fan said.
"That sounds simple and convenient," Tianming praised. Myriadpath Valley wasn't like the Xenoabyss. Here, formation technology was incredibly advanced. All punishment and reward systems were managed by formations, so most people had to play by the rules of the system.
The people in the valley were mostly cold, especially toward strangers. Few would bother striking up a conversation. Most people had their own cliques that were incredibly hard to get into. When the color of myriadpath rings was taken into account, it only made things even more difficult. Most of the time, gold ring holders only hung out with other gold ring holders. No matter how talented some black ring holders may be, hanging out with them would invite ridicule from others.
Myriadpath Valley was a place where bloodline and heritage reigned supreme. There was a clear separation between locals and outsiders. For instance, Li Fan, Gongsun Yan, and Gong Xuan would normally return to their respective mundi where their families and friends were. But people like Huang Daoxiong only ever had Myriadpath Valley to call home, reinforcing their sense of identity.
Tianming couldn't be bothered with all that; Myriadpath Valley would never become his home anyway.
He reached the entrance, which was at the edge of the ring-like river. There was a large, round, brightly glowing door. Other disciples were coming and going. Gold ring holders were often seen in groups with their friends, happily chatting as they navigated familiar ground. They wore their myriadpath rings proudly over their sleeves.
On the other hand, those who traveled alone and didn't visibly wear their rings were obviously from the Million Mundi. Tianming didn't care about that, since he was already considered low class by virtue of his tainted status. He proudly wore his myriadpath ring and put it through the main entrance for a ring scan.
The myriadpath ring vibrated as it went through a formation. Then it brought Tianming into the Heavensource Starriver. He saw a grand path of starlight before his eyes where many streams of stars flowed and intersected.
"The thirtieth one, then." Tianming hurried toward it. Occasionally, he saw other people stop beside him and jump off the walkways into the river of stars to pick their manna. As he went deeper, the flow of the river became stronger, making it even harder to stand still to pick out the manna he wanted. The Heavensource Starriver was large to the point that it took him three days to reach the thirtieth stream.
"The ordered manna here are marked and can't be stored in spatial rings, huh.... Guess I have to get them to remove the marks at the entrance before I can truly claim them." That was why Myriadpath Valley wasn't worried about anyone stealing from them. Everything was recorded; any attempt at theft would be punished by at least death, and that was among the lighter sentences. Li Fan had said that there were fates worse than death, no doubt another sign of their millions of years of history.
"This astral stream...." Tianming looked down from the Heavensource Bridge and saw that the stream was formed of fundamental cosmic energies of storm, fire, frost, lightning, and more. It seemed rather turbulent, but he jumped straight in! The rampaging energies clashed against his body, but he endured it with his cosmoforce and kept forging ahead. His body was stronger than the average beastmaster's, after all, so it was no issue.
He patiently waited for a suitable manna to pick. Soon, the first 300-aperture manna that was shaped like a fortress came flowing toward him, propelled even faster by the rampaging fundamental cosmic forces. His quick reaction allowed him to snag it.
"A hurricane type? It doesn't suit me." He let go of the manna and kept waiting. Soon, another came. He wasn't in a rush and asked Ying Huo and the rest for their opinions before he made the pick.
"Ying Huo and the others failed their evolutions by using 999-aperture manna... I wonder what’ll happen if they absorb 300-aperture manna?" All of them wanted to know the answer to that question. "Perhaps it'll be able to kick start their absorption of the remaining traces of the 999-aperture manna inside them...."
As far as he was aware, the destructive and beneficial powers of the manna were still present in his lifebound beasts' bodies. However, the basic structure of their bodies had been damaged, allowing him to mold them into his limbs and fuse with them. If it weren’t for his body taking on the burden of the manna's destructive forces, the beasts might have perished. Even though they were Primordial Chaos Beasts, they weren't exempt from making actual progress and growth.
"Almost there!" Tianming picked out six manna in three days' time. He was a hexabeastmaster, after all, and the rewards for first place allowed him to pick out a full set of manna for all his beasts. While Yin Chen had successfully evolved and didn't need one, Tianming claimed one all the same. Ordered manna with three hundred apertures could be sold for quite a bit.
"I have to get these to a reverend at Heavensource Hall near the entrance to process the claim."