Wang Lin, his gaze fixed upon the desolate field of shattered rock, gestured forth with an ancient hand. A sudden gust of wind swept across the debris, silently crumbling it to dust. From within the ruins, motes of spiritual energy swirled, drawn forth by Wang Lin’s outstretched hand. The ethereal strands coalesced around his palm, gradually forming a vibrant vortex.

“By spirit, I guide!” Wang Lin intoned, his left hand forming a mystic seal, which he pressed upon the vortex.

Instantly, the gathered energy transformed into a wisp of smoke, ethereal and shimmering. It circled Wang Lin once before darting away, a beacon leading towards the fog-shrouded reaches to the right. With a flash of insight, Wang Lin followed, his form a blur as he plunged into the swirling mists.

The spirit extracted from the stone lacked the vibrant life force of a living being, bearing instead the weight of ages. Yet, it was born from the carcass of a Netherbeast, carrying a faint echo of its essence.

By this echo, Wang Lin would find his quarry!

His eyes gleamed with anticipation, his figure a lightning strike as he pursued the guiding wisp deeper into the foggy starfield. As he pressed onward, a thrill of anticipation ran through him. He could sense a palpable aura of power emanating from afar, a weight that quelled the savage beasts of the region.

This aura washed over Wang Lin, a crushing pressure that threatened to overwhelm his senses. He reacted swiftly, cautiously drawing back his expansive divine sense, once encompassing tens of thousands of feet, until it barely grazed the land surrounding his form.

Then, with renewed purpose, he surged forward, the guiding wisp cleaving a path through the swirling mists.

The closer he drew, the more potent the aura became, a suffocating weight upon his shoulders. Yet, instead of retreat, a fierce excitement bloomed within Wang Lin, a burning desire for the hunt.

With a flick of his wrist, Wang Lin summoned the guiding wisp back, storing it within his dimensional pouch. He licked his lips, a fire igniting within him.

“A weak Netherbeast would offer no challenge,” he murmured, a smile playing on his lips. “The stronger it is, the more worthy it becomes as my ancestral god-beast!” With deliberate steps, he continued his advance.

The aura intensified, the air thick with the presence of a being of unimaginable scale, slumbering in the depths. Waves of power emanated from its form, rippling outward through the mists, forming concentric circles visible from the highest celestial vantage point.

And within those circles, Wang Lin, his heart ablaze with the hunter’s thrill, moved inexorably closer to his prey!

He would hunt the Netherbeast!

With his divine sense constricted to a mere hundred feet, Wang Lin no longer needed guidance or ethereal wisps. The oppressive aura alone was enough to lead him to his quarry.

The mists surged and eddied, and through their swirling embrace, Wang Lin moved like a phantom, each stride carrying him deeper into the heart of the beast’s domain. As the pressure and the turbulent mists reached their apex, a chilling glint ignited in Wang Lin’s eyes. His pace quickened, a culmination of all the planning and preparation that had led him to this moment. His speed, now fueled by the full power of his seven-star ancestral god bloodline, surpassed all comprehension. Even the esteemed Lu Fuzi could not hope to match it.

He moved with such blinding speed that sound itself could not keep pace, leaving a vacuum of silence in his wake. The sonic boom of his passage was left far behind as Wang Lin surged ahead.

The mists before him shattered and recoiled, the oppressive aura dissolved into nothingness.

In the blink of an eye, Wang Lin burst through the remaining fog and beheld his prey, a colossal beast looming a mere hundred feet away.

The creature resembled a whale, its vastness dwarfing even the most seasoned cultivators.

It was a Netherbeast!

Two massive whiskers, each spanning ten thousand feet, drooped from its jaws, swaying gently. Its mouth was sealed, its eyes closed in slumber.

Its skin was the color of the deepest ocean, an endless expanse of blue that floated amidst the mists. From its immense form, waves of power rolled outward, driving the mists before them.

From the moment he appeared until he beheld the beast, all transpired in a heartbeat. Wang Lin’s pupils contracted, his focus unwavering as he surged forward.

A hundred feet, eighty feet, fifty feet, thirty feet… until, finally, three feet!

As he closed within three feet of the slumbering behemoth, Wang Lin raised his right hand and brought it down upon the Netherbeast in a devastating strike!

The impact reverberated through the starfield, shattering the silence with an earth-shattering roar. The delayed sonic boom, unleashed by Wang Lin’s earlier burst of speed, followed close behind, unleashing a cataclysm of sound and energy that threatened to tear the starfield apart. The echoes alone were enough to shatter minds and rend flesh.

“By the might of my ancestral god blood, the legacy of the Daogu, I claim your outer form as my destined beast!” Wang Lin roared as his palm slammed into the Netherbeast, leaving behind a rune infused with the power of the Daogu.

“The outer seal is set! Now for the inner seal, though I dare not enter the realm within its body! And then, the most challenging, the binding of its very soul! Only when all three seals are complete will this beast become truly mine!”

The Netherbeast convulsed, and from deep within its being, a furious roar erupted, eclipsing even the cataclysmic impact. It was a sound of such power that it rivaled the magic of the third step, and it collided with its surroundings to create an unimaginable impact.

The shockwave tore through the mists, causing them to roil and spread with furious speed. From an outside perspective, the starfield appeared to explode as a disaster on a cosmic scale had struck! Every cultivator in the Luotian Starfield felt the violent shaking of the heavens.

Caught in the blast, Wang Lin was blasted backward hundreds of feet. With each step, explosions of energy shattered the ground beneath him, revealing a shadowy web of energy, the Great Sealing Array!

The Netherbeast’s eyes snapped open, and it glared at Wang Lin. Its whiskers twitched, and low growls escaped its jaws, but instead of retreating, a bestial rage filled its features, and it lunged forward, intent on crushing Wang Lin under its massive bulk!

Wang Lin smirked as he wiped the blood from the corners of his mouth, and then with a defiant roar, he stood his ground.

“They say this creature is timid, quick to flee, and that was certainly true when I first encountered it, but for some reason, it seems unwilling to run this time! All the better!” As Wang Lin took his next step, his bones creaked and cracked under the strain of his inner power. The seven stars in his brow spun as he transformed to a towering giant!

With a bellowing cry, Wang Lin opened his arms wide to receive the charging beast, wrapping them around its massive body. The moment he made contact, he felt a surge of power slam into him, nearly forcing the breath from his body, but he planted his feet. Though he was driven backward, he was not broken. His eyes blazed with battle-lust. He shouted to the heavens as his powerful arms locked around the monster’s head.

“So, you want to match strength with Wang Lin? Come on, then!” Wang Lin’s muscles screamed as he fought against the raging giant. The seven stars in his brow spun as he called on the ancestral gods to lend him their power. Slowly but surely, his backward slide halted. He roared as he pushed back against the raging behemoth.

The heavens quaked as he fought his beast. With his battle cry upon his lips, he stepped forward, bringing the full power of his immortal body to bear.

Ten feet, fifty feet, one hundred feet. No matter how the monster struggled, it could not break free of his grasp, and was forced backward by the power of his immortal form. Faster and faster he moved, bellowing his war cry with each mighty step. The earth trembled, shaking the heavens as he fought. Now past one thousand feet, Wang Lin’s body was a single cord of muscle and fury. With an animalistic cry, he lifted the behemoth overhead and threw it like a child’s toy!

The roar of the beast filled the heavens as it was hurled through the sky, causing a vacuum that encompassed all the lands around it. The beast let out a cry of terror. Its whale-like tail thrashed as it sought escape from this unstoppable foe.

“You will serve me, beast, and together we will shake the heavens!” The power of Wang Lin’s essence ran through the creature’s body, claiming it even against its will. As the beast fled, Wang Lin moved forward to meet it, but as he drew near, a strange light shone in the creature’s eyes. The fear was gone, replaced by cunning.