Beastmaster of the Ages

No one had expected that Ye Shaoqing would choose to ignore all the gossip.

"Tianming and Qingyu, today, you've become my disciples. Let me know what gifts you want." An enviable scene occurred. How could the gift a sect elder gave out when they accepted a new disciple be anything shabby?

"Master, you being willing to accept us is already the greatest gift possible." Qingyu said.

"That's not acceptable! If this spreads, people will call me stingy. How about this, I'll gift each of you a Saintbeast War-Soul," Ye Shaoqing said, his words immediately inciting a commotion.

All of the inner disciples looked at the siblings, flames of jealousy burning bright in their eyes.

Even Gu Yu froze, his expression conflicted. He was aware that if he chose Ye Shaoqing, he would definitely have been able to obtain this treasure too.

After coming to the Grand-Orient Sect, Li Tianming had learned that Saintbeast War-Souls actually came from demon beasts that had died at least a millenia ago.

A wildbeast could only become a demon beast when they entered sainthood, and would have abilities roughly on par with the senior generation of saints. The Saintbeast War-Soul was actually their beast soul, without the slightest relation to lifebound saint-beasts.

For beast souls obtained immediately after they died in battle, they would only submit to the expert that slew them. A member of the junior generation would have a chance to refine them only when a millenia had passed and the consciousness in the soul had vanished.

That was the exact situation Li Tianming had had with the Devil Monarch Wildsoul.

Put simply, it wasn't hard for saint stage seniors to kill a few demon beasts and obtain beast souls to refine. However, if they wanted them for their juniors, they would need to give it a thousand years, by which point the junior would likely have already passed on!

Saintbeast War-Souls could create premier spiritsource abilities, and were items of at least a millenia in age. With their scarcity, how could they not be valuable? In the Grand-Orient Sect, they were even more valuable than terrestrial manna that could help lifebound beasts evolve into saint beasts.

Yet here, Ye Shaoqing was giving out two just as welcome gifts for his new disciples. However, in the end, they were his own personal belongings, so it was no one else's business if he chose to give them away.

The disciples could only watch on with red eyes as the goods changed hands.

"These two Saintbeast War-Souls are ownerless items. As their first owners, it'll be easier to absorb them." Ye Shaoqing smiled as two mahogany boxes appeared in his hand, ancient auras seeping out from the two of them.

"Master, the pressure seems to be a little overwhelming when you give such huge gifts as soon as we meet." Tianming stared at the boxes unblinkingly.

"Is that so? Then I guess I won't be giving this gift," Ye Shaoqing said.

"That won't be right! As a man and an elder, your words are worth their weight in gold. You can't go back on them so easily." Tianming replied hurriedly.

Honestly, such War-Souls weren't of much use to saints. If they needed beast souls, directly going to kill some demon beasts would be enough. The value of War-Souls lay in their usability by juniors.

For juniors of the same level, the side with a War-Soul would have a stronger spiritsource ability, hence greater odds of winning a battle. It was for that reason alone that Lin Xiaoting had been qualified to join Heaven's Elysium.

Laughing, Ye Shaoqing finally handed the War-Souls over to the siblings!

"Thank you, Master!"

"No need to be polite. Just remember to be filial in the future. At the very least, you have to uphold Master's honor up on the Prime Tower, and attain glory for Azure Dragon Sword Mountain."

Five days would be long enough to refine their Saintbeast War-Souls, given that they were ownerless and had been dead for over a millenia. Even the Tianming of three years ago would have been able to do it, much less the current Tianming.

"Alright, it's over. Time to break this up!" Ye Shaoqing spoke to the hall prefects, exalted master and inner disciples present.

"We look forward to the direct disciples' performance in five days." Yuan Huntian had a thoughtful expression as he left.

Finally, peace and quiet had returned.

Li Tianming temporarily stowed the War-Soul away, before asking, "Master, I haven't heard of this 'Prime Tower' before."

"Don't worry, I'll explain it to you now." Now that everyone was gone, Ye Shaoqing took the highest seat and flicked open his fan, twirling it around. On one side, it read 'Confident, Elegant', and on the other, 'Handsome, Suave'.

It was utterly and completely shameless.

"The Prime Tower is a holy land of our sect, and a divine item. Usually, only sect elders and prime disciples can cultivate inside, and it's sealed off for everyone else. Only on one special occasion every three years will it open up. Each sect elder will have two slots for their direct disciples to enter the tower. If they can pass the three floors of the tower and reach the top, they can become a prime disciple! Tianming, do you know what a prime disciple is?"

"I know. It's the highest peak a disciple can reach. Only sect elders surpass them in status, while hall prefects and chiefs are their equal," Tianming said. And, they're the equal of Heaven's Elysium's 'elysian children'.

Elysian children were ridiculously overpowered, and it was unexpected that it hadn't even taken even one month for Tianming to gain a chance to compete for an equivalent status.

"Correct. Only elders have jurisdiction over prime disciples, and even then, they have to go through the council. Furthermore, prime disciples enjoy the greatest of the sect's resources, like the right to enter the Prime Tower." Ye Shaoqing nodded.

However, Tianming wasn't particularly interested in that, believing that the Li Mausoleum was probably even better. However, he definitely had a strong thirst for the status, because it would grant him a much more stable footing in the sect. Anyone who wanted to touch him would have to think twice.

People like Li Xuanyi would only be able to give a polite bow to the prime disciples when they met them!

"Is this Prime Struggle in the Prime Tower hard? Of sixty-six people, generally how many succeed?" Tianming asked.

"Hah, usually, it's considered good if even one comes out. It's normal for there to be zero successes," Ye Shaoqing chuckled.

"Is it so difficult?" Tianming asked.

"Yes. The Prime Tower is split into three floors. The first two are still alright; they were designed by elders. However, the third floor is the true holy land of the tower. Even the elders aren't sure what disciples will encounter inside!"

Ye Shaoqing's tone turned serious, and he continued,"It's a miraculous place that was designed by the ancestors of the Li Saint Clan. Danger abounds, but so does great fortune! Even stranger, the test doesn't look at strength. I wouldn't be confident of coming out uninjured if I myself were to go in."

"My ancestors?" Tianming hadn't expected that there would be other mysterious areas left behind in the Grand-Orient Sect by the clan's ancestors. Then again, it wasn't surprising, considering the whole sect had once been the clan's turf.

"Right. Maybe you'll come across something special, given that you're a pentabane. Anyway, of the sixty-six, usually not even five can enter the third floor, or sometimes not even one. The Grand-Orient Sect has pretty strict expectations for prime disciples.

"I'll be honest. I know roughly who the sixty-six are going to be. I don't think even one has any qualifications to be compared to the current four prime disciples," Ye Shaoqing said confidently.

Tianming now understood how difficult it would be to become a prime disciple.

"Still, you don't actually have to get to the third floor, nor do you have to become a prime disciple."

"Why not?"

"The Prime Struggle this time round isn't really about who can become the next prime disciple, but rather the treasures in the first and second floor," Ye Shaoqing said.

"Treasure? Treasure treasure!" Li Tianming grew excited.

"Right, the first disciples to pass the first and second floors will each get a first-rate treasure that'll be even more valuable than the War-Soul I gave you."

"The prize for the first floor was jointly decided by the thirty-three elders. I was in that meeting yesterday, so I know what it is." Ye Shaoqing waved his fan.

"Then, Master, can I ask what prize for passing the first floor is?"

"It's a high-tier terrestrial manna that can help your lifebound beast evolve into a third-order saint beast!"

Tianming froze up. He had never ever seen a terrestrial manna yet, but he knew they were divided into low-, mid-, and high-tier. Low-tier terrestrial manna could produce first-order saint beasts, mid-tier could create second-order saint beasts, and high-tier would birth third-order saint beasts!

The limit for beastmasters with third-order saint beasts was peak earth saint.

As for celestial manna, and the fourth-order saint beasts it could produce, they allowed beastmasters to become sky saints!

In the entire Grand-Orient Sect, high-tier terrestrial manna was something many hall prefects and chiefs could only dream of obtaining. Its value was countless times that of the high-tier profound manna Tianming had obtained in the Abyssal Battlefield.

Furthermore, that was just the prize for passing the first floor.

"What about the second floor, then?"

"That one was decided by the ten foremost elders. I'm not qualified to know, but it has to be at least three times the value of the first prize. All you need to know is that everyone will go green with envy if you get the second floor's prize," Ye Shaoqing said.

It sounded very enticing, even just the prizes for the first two floors.

Desire welled up in Tianming when he considered the third floor and the ties it held to the Li Saint Clan, and he was already mentally prepared to join the struggle!