In actuality, Meow Meow's evolution had improved its abilities as much as its siblings. The Fiendish Venus hadn’t improved its main element of lightning, but it did make its body incredibly tough, especially its claws, teeth, and tail, which were now even stronger than Ying Huo's feathers. In fact, its bones were now Venus Fiendbone. The claws, teeth and spike on its tail were just the exposed Venus Fiendbone. Its skeleton was just as tough as the Fiendish Venus, possessing a platinum-like quality. It was worthy of being compared to the Kilofold Ring and Imperial Radiance.
That said, it didn't look like much. In fact, the shiny teeth and claws made Meow Meow look even cuter. But the moment it turned into its Regal Chaosfiend form, those parts would be far more exaggerated in size, greatly increasing its combat capabilities in close range. Even without explicitly training in battle arts, it was more well-rounded overall and stronger in terms of brute strength than Ying Huo, not to mention its lightning-fast speed.
Imperial Radiance, Venus Fiendbone, Kilofold Rings and Evernight Curse... Tianming was rather happy for his evolved lifebound beasts, as well as himself. Hidden amidst the lava, they began symbiotic cultivation. Their bloodlines connected and caused the changes to spread through Tianming's body, infusing his bones, muscles, and organs with even more power from the bloodlines of the four Primordial Chaos Beasts, changing him fundamentally once more. It was a transformation most people wouldn't be aware of simply by looking at him, as it didn’t affect his cultivation level. However, it did represent a huge increase to his latent talent.
The talent afforded by the Primordial Chaos Beasts raised all aspects of his abilities without an upper limit, seemingly making it much easier for him to ascend to godhood. As the old saying goes, 'give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him how to fish and you feed him for life’. In some ways, the talent from the Primordial Chaos Beasts was analogous to learning fishing, and the benefits reaped from cultivation was his fishing haul.
Tianming felt the changes in his body quite clearly. His new and enhanced body allowed him to sense the entire world far more clearly than before, and his senses of smell and hearing seemed to be completely different. Now, every cell in his body had taken on some quality of the Primordial Chaos Beasts.
"While their evolution should have no effect on our cultivation, the talent arising from the intermingling bloodlines can allow our heavenly will to grow. I believe I can start trying for the third death samsara ring."
If he succeeded, all of them would reach the third-level death phase. His growth rate in the Samsara stage was far faster than anyone would have expected. After all, samsarans got very limited benefits from the Old Deepstar Path. Within the Nine Divine Realms, the three Saint stages were where cultivators grew the fastest, as they could easily find the support and resources for growth. But in the Samsara stage, even the most talented geniuses would have to take things slowly step by step.
Tianming should have exponentially slowed down at that stage too, but the improved bloodline of the Primordial Chaos Beasts brought him tremendous benefit when it came to comprehending the insights of the Samsara stage. His Imperial Will, which had reached a peak, suddenly had so much more room for improvement now that he had a completely different viewpoint.
It didn't take long before his third death samsara ring formed, causing them to reach the third-level death phase. Death tribulation force filled their bodies, converting their lively vigor into a deathly dread, which seemed much more appropriate for his current circumstances.
"We're finally third-level death phase samsarans." Even without Feiling's Spiritual Attachment, he would easily be able to take on Yama as he was now. "Thanks to their evolutions, I can continue to make progress even without the Old Deepstar Path."
To live was to endlessly struggle. Once they finished the breakthrough, Meow Meow went back to sleep. While they rested, Tianming continued cultivating on the fiery star. He was quite curious how many of those from the five divine realms had entered the Kilostar Domain to seek out treasure.
......
There were around a hundred people from the Nonahall Ghost Sect that had been sent to the fiery star to scour it for Tianming. When they descended to the star, they were split into ten groups and spread out across ten sectors.
"Remember, our main priority here is to find precious treasures. Seeking out the imperial son of Archaion comes second. Anyone that notices anything is to make an immediate report back!"
"Understood!"
"Look carefully and in every corner. We'll turn the entire star inside out if we have to!"
"Sir, rumor says the Kilostar Domain is the resting place of the gods. Won't we disturb their slumber like this?"
"That's just baseless superstition! It's nonsense!"
"Understood!"
They went to their assigned sectors. All of them were middle-aged, or older. At their age, they were the main powerhouses across the divine realms, with most of them being tribulation elders. The fact that they had the right to enter the Kilostar Domain for the search meant they had a rather high standing in Nonahall. For instance, the group called Blue Ogre consisted of nine people, all of whom were sixth-level samsarans or above.
Blue Ogre was led by two people. The first was a short, frail, middle-aged man with a dark, reddish face. His eyes were sunken and his face was covered in smudges, not to mention every one of his pores seemed to be filled with black gunk, making his face look a little like a strawberry. While strawberries normally looked appealing to the eye, a face that looked like a strawberry was anything but. Even so, people with odd looks like that were all too common in Nonahall.
The Nonahall Ghost Sect had risen from a barbaric tribe, which was where many of their shady and savage practices had come from. In the pursuit of power, sacrificing their looks was the most elementary thing they could do. Some would even risk their life.
The other leader was a shriveled old crone with white hair. She was short and stout, but her mind was sharp and sound and she seemed filled with vigor. Despite her stocky build, she was really agile. While her face was wrinkled, all the other parts of her skin were silky smooth, making for a rather weird contrast.
"Yin Po, did you let your lifebound beast devour infants again? Weren't you chewed out by our leader about that? Why’d you do it again?" asked the strawberry man.
"Chou Qiong, you shouldn't pretend to be a good person yourself. You know that my ghostchild beast must do that or I'll be stuck in the death phase. I'm already three hundred, so I can't be compared to you all. Not to mention, Nonahall is so large and there's people who do all kinds of things. Sure, they might all pretend to be virtuous on the surface, but they actually commit all kinds of atrocities behind the scenes. In my three centuries of life, I've seen all kinds of people. Now that the Kilostar Domain is open and we're about to fight a war, I'll do whatever I please! Life must be lived to the fullest! We can't waste our time in the world and hold back!" Yin Po said, chuckling.
The two of them brought the other seven tribulation elders to the magma. They had been in the same group for a long time, so they got along rather well. They chatted as they continued the search.
"There aren't any spatial tears in the area here, so we can let our lifebound beasts out. We’d better keep our eyes open. They all say all kinds of treasures lie waiting in the Kilostar Domain. If we can't find any, but those from other sects can, we'll be punished! I'm sure you know what our lord is like," Chou Qiong, the strawberry man, said.
"Got it."
"In other words, coming here wasn't necessarily a good thing. We aren't as free as we can be on a normal battlefield, and we even risk getting into trouble."
"Yeah. And there's no way anyone would dare keep the treasures they find here for themselves. The battlefield is different, though—you can just kill and claim spoils."
Yin Po chuckled and said, "There's nothing we can do about it. It's all thanks to this weird sealing formation that forced eighth-level death samsarans and above to be restricted at the seventh-level death phase. I heard that our lord will even be able to fight a ghoul king on equal footing here. If word of this gets out, it’s sure to send waves across the continent. I've lived for three centuries, and not even I’ve heard about a sealing formation like this. Who knew that the legendary Kilostar Domain was actually a ruined world like this?"
"Yin Po, that's where you're wrong. Even if the ghoul king's level is suppressed at the seventh-level death phase, the same as our lord, he'll definitely have unique methods that'll easily allow him to beat our lord in a fight. The ghoul kings have too many other aspects to them that are far above their suppressed level. I'd wager that nobody below the eighth or ninth levels will be able to defeat them," Chou Qiong said.
"I know that too. I was just comparing the levels, nothing else. This is pretty refreshing, after all."
"Come to think of it, I never would've imagined that our levels would be so near to the true elites in the sect like this either."
They continued casually chatting. Some of them had dived into the lava to continue their search.
"Someone's here! That's Li Tianming!" Yin Po suddenly cried from beneath the lava.
Tianming had in fact seen her, as well. He’d thought he would be able to avoid them, but Yin Po's nose was too sensitive and she instantly found him with a few whiffs.