Beastmaster of the Ages

Chapter 3230 - Spending Money

Tianming came to the Heavensource Starriver once more. He was treated completely differently than he was the last time he had gone there. Before the Prehistoric Path, he was nothing but a small fry. But now he caused a commotion simply by being there. People from afar swarmed to welcome him, just like the time Suishen Zhao had appeared at Battlesky Hall. Though Suishen Zhao was also with him, everyone knew that the crowd had gathered for Tianming.

"Pathkeeper Li!"

"Wow, I wonder what kind of high-grade manna he can trade for with ten million merit points...."

"I don't even want to imagine it."

"Looking at him up close, Pathkeeper Li seems even more dignified."

"As expected as our exemplar!"

Many fortuna disciples—especially the black ring ones—treated Tianming like an object of worship. He was surprised to find that he got traces of the power of faith even in Myriadpath Valley. While these may only be embers for now, one day, they might burn bright as part of the Tianming Dynasty. Even the weakest disciples here are much more talented than any genius in the Million Mundi.

There’s also a million myriadpath saints here. The Million Mundi doesn't have nearly enough foundationeers. They’re the mightiest people to derive omnisentient power from, being countless times more powerful than mortals. Wouldn't taking over Myriadpath Valley be like taking over all the omnisentient power in the Million Mundi?

Normally, there was no way everyone in the Million Mundi could be gathered in one spot for Tianming to derive omnisentient power from. But here, the most potent sources of omnisentient power were all gathered in one place. It's still pretty far off, but that's my ultimate goal!

Before that, however, he had to deal with the red dust that plagued the Sun and Ebonia. If I can solve that problem, I'll adopt a low profile and cultivate here. At the same time, I'll head to the Xenoabyss and start searching for Feng, Qingyu, and even Sixth!

Three eggs remained in his lifebound space. They should be ripe enough by now, but they didn't show any sign of hatching. Tianming believed it had to do with the fact that he hadn't undergone symbiotic cultivation with his sixth lifebound beast yet. He first had to make it his proper beast.

Alright, so I'll aim to deal with Sixth, search for Feng and Qingyu, and start looking for the Upper Star Ruins! Tianming had a clear idea of his future plans, but there was still the first step he had to take: restoring the bodies of Ying Huo, Meow Meow, Lan Huang, and Xian Xian. So far, they were technically still in an injured state. The manna he would be trading his merit for would be used for their recovery.

"Pathkeepers, welcome." The reverend currently in charge of Heavensource Starriver personally invited them in with a sleazy smile.

To think that, as a black ring disciple, I kept getting cut off when I came here the last time!

Tianming thought. On the other hand, Suishen Zhao was used to the courteous treatment.

"I have no use for ordered manna. You should go in and pick what you need while I wait for you here. Should we pick out some weapons together later?" Suishen Zhao asked.

"Sure thing." Tianming went deeper and deeper into the spiraling place until he reached the centermost part. Then he jumped into one of the rivers.

"Pick out what you need!" He would try to get Ying Huo and the rest to tap into the remnant energies from the 999-aperture manna they had consumed. They wouldn't need to pick manna of too high a quality to kickstart that process; some that had around seven hundred apertures were enough.

The higher the ordered manna’s grade, the more expensive it would be. Every single aperture marked a stark difference in price. Tianming had used three thousand merit points to exchange for quite a few 300-aperture manna before, but at seven hundred, the cheapest one cost twenty thousand points.

In other words, someone like Qitian Jian that ranked first in the Fortuna Ranking could only get a single 700-aperture manna every two years from their merit stipend. The prices were a few times higher for 800- and 900-aperture manna. There were far too few manna with that many apertures, hence the high prices.

Normally, only lifebound beasts of eminents would have star counts of around nine million, and not every single beast of theirs would be at that level. As such, it was a big deal for a fortuna disciple to get manna with even around seven hundred apertures.

Disciples that didn't have the backing of their parents couldn't even gather more than three hundred thousand merit points after ranking in the thousands of the Fortuna Ranking for five centuries. There were hundreds and thousands of fortuna disciples, yet only ten thousand of them could get on the Fortuna Ranking. The rest had to do mundi missions to obtain merit points.

Those disciples were like Li Fan. It was already decent if they managed to become foundationeers; most of them didn't even get a chance to touch manna with more than five hundred apertures.

Based on that alone, it was clear to see how much easier totemancers had it. They didn't need to spend a lot of merit points for manna, while specters only needed one manna for their own use. Beastmasters were the most expensive, as they had to get manna for multiple beasts. It was also not surprising why beastmasters were usually stronger than specters and totemancers of the same level.

However, even top-grade ordered manna was only average to Tianming. He let his beasts pick out whatever they wanted based on their instincts. After some time, they picked out four 700-aperture manna, which cost a combined 1.5 million merit points. He didn't even bat an eye when he cashed all that in and was left with a balance of 8.5 million.

"Looks like ten million merit points can still be used up rather fast. Then again, I did go for the most expensive stuff. Most reverends would only be able to get manna like this after a thousand years of gathering merit points, but I managed to get all of it up front."

Reverends usually had lifebound beasts with star counts of around seven million. Unless Tianming spent lots on top-tier fortuna-class artifacts, his 8.5 million should last him quite a while yet. As for techniques and infinitum-class battle arts, he could get as many as he pleased.

Fortuna-class battle arts were core to the legacy of Myriadpath Valley and forbidden from being taught to others. They were all recorded on myriadpath steles, so one didn't need merit to get them. As long as one could understand and pick them up, they could train whatever battle art they wanted. He could still spend some merit points on formation arts, celestial tomes, and infinitum or fortuna ores, though.

After getting four ordered manna, he didn't leave just yet. He headed to the outer part of Heavensource Starriver where the ordered manna started from around ten apertures. Those usually cost a single merit point and he got ten thousand of them at once.