Beastmaster of the Ages

The Kunlan Realm was similar to the Primodragon Cave in that it had existed back when Primary was a normal nova source world and that the primalwingers had a relationship with it that was similar to the Xuanyuan Dragon Sect's relationship with the Primodragon Cave. The Kunlan Realm was said to be the origin of the thing that had given them their primalwings. In fact, compared to the ethereal myth of the Primodragon Cave, the origin tale of these primalwingers was even more tangible. Even today, the Kunlan Realm was still producing primalwings, enhancing the cultivation of the lifeforms of this world.

There was another point of similarity: once one went past the entrance of the Kunlan Realm, there was no returning, much like the plane of origin in the Primodragon Cave. According to Yin Chen, nobody that had entered the realm ever returned. It was as good as entirely vanishing from this world. It just so happened that the signal the Prime Tower had detected could be traced to the bottom of Primary.

"Something must have caused the Prime Tower to change. It must be near the Kunlan Realm, or even inside the realm itself." His interest in it grew. He wasn't intent on telling the girl too much, so he parted ways with her after some more casual conversation.

Now that he had Yin Chen, Tianming didn't need to directly fish out information through conversation. Letting it spread its copies wide was enough. Yin Chen had no other downside, apart from its stunted speech.

But just as Tianming and Feiling were about to leave, Xu Xuxu held them back. She looked at Feiling and said, "Which branch of the primalwingers are you from? Why do you look a little weird?"

She indeed saw Feiling as one of her own. Xu Xuxu wasn't actually weak; though she looked like a young girl, given her stature, she was actually more than two centuries old and a peak-level constellier. She also had a rather high status, given how the other primalwingers didn't dare to approach her.

"Why's that any of your business?" Tianming said.

"Fine, I was just asking. You folks that hang around with non-natives are always trouble," Xu Xuxu said. It seemed that they had a low opinion of xenoraces in general. Tianming had already felt some hostility the moment he entered the city. The only reason Xu Xuxu had wanted to talk to him was to find out more about his background. She stopped him from leaving because she didn't really get any information from him.

"Goodbye." If it had been the Tianming from back then, he would have slapped her for that rudeness. But now, he was in a foreign land, so keeping his head down was a good idea.

"Hey, don't go yet!" As Xu Xuxu spoke, orange light gathered behind her and suddenly burst into a pair of orange wings. When they flapped, orange flames appeared. Those were primalwings, wings of light formed from energy rather than actual physical wings. That was possible due to the wing bones primalwingers had that let out that energy. Each set of primalwings had a pair of wing bones that contained special albi with the ability to store energy. Awakening the wing bones was a way of becoming stronger.

However, the wing bones could only store astralforce, not totem ki. Xu Xuxu looked like a fairy with flaming orange wings. Her speed and agility were greatly boosted by her wings, allowing her to instantly overtake them and block their way again.

Seeing the wings of a primalwinger for the first time was truly a wonder for Tianming. However, it was far from a friendly way to start things off. "Are you looking for trouble?" he said with a serious glare that signaled that he wasn't one to be messed with.

"I... just thought that the two of you were a little suspicious... I was worried you'd try something funny," Xu Xuxu stubbornly said.

"Leave us." Tianming instantly passed her and left the city.

Xu Xuxu was left frozen by his glare and unable to react. By the time she snapped out of it, Tianming and Feiling were long gone. "What a weird person...." She flapped her wings and flew higher, looking at the direction they left in. However, she no longer dared to give chase due to the fright from before.

Not long after that, Tianming and Feiling left that asteroid and continued deeper into the eye of the storm. The Yin Chens continued scouring the other asteroids for more information; everything after that was relatively simple. As Tianming descended through the beautiful astral hole, he collected the information Yin Chen passed him in his mind, including things about the local geography, factions, organizations, and notable people. He could learn about almost anything through Yin Chen.

"It might take another ten or so days for us to reach the bottom." That went to show how large the astral hole was. Tianming was descending at a rate so fast that even gods would struggle to clearly see him. "It's said that they were normal humans like the Xuanyuan Dragon Sect's forebears, but primalwings came flying out of the Kunlan Realm and attached themselves to the bodies of their ancestors. Eventually, that got spread to the next generation and they became the primalwingers.... Unlike the dragon of origin, primalwings seem to resemble a kind of universal manna. It seems that, even now, the Kunlan Realm is still producing new wings for them."

They would have turned back into normal humans if the supply of wings had been cut off. After all, inheriting primalwings through birth wasn't always a certainty. Some descendants of peak elites might end up normal and untalented, being born without wings like their parents. And in most cases, the children of wingless primalwingers wouldn't have wings either.