Wizard: My skills can be upgraded indefinitely.

The surroundings gradually quieted down, and snores began to rise and fall.

Li Yao suddenly leaned closer and took something out from the closest part of his body.

It was a metal plate about the size of a palm, with its edges badly rusted.

The surface is pitted and uneven, but some textures can still be seen.

Unlike Ian's, this piece doesn't have star trails engraved on it.

Instead, they were some crooked, childlike doodles, and a few lines of blurry ancient characters.

"These were given to me by my parents before they passed away."

Li Yao's voice was very low, almost swallowed by the wind.

"They say... if one day the stars can no longer be seen, take this and go to the place sung about in the family song."

He handed the metal plate to Ian.

Ian took it and ran his fingers over the rusted lines.

It feels rough and cold to the touch, but in some of the dents, there is still a very faint energy resonance.

It shares the same origin as the core of a fallen star, but is older and more... desolate.

"Folk songs?" he asked.

Li Yao nodded, cleared his throat, and hummed a tune in an almost inaudible whisper.

The melody is strange, with little variation, but each note is drawn out for a long time, like the sobbing of the wind blowing through ruins.

He hummed a few lines intermittently, then stopped and whispered the words he could remember.

"...The City of Fallen Stars, the Sleeping Eyes..."

The Watcher rests here in eternal sleep…

When the stars return...

The key will open... the final door...

After humming, the boy took a breath, his eyes shining brightly in the firelight.

"My parents said that our family... is not an ordinary noble family."

The song mentions "City of Falling Stars," which seems to refer to a place from a long, long time ago, where a group of people observed the stars and guarded something.

Later, a cataclysmic event occurred, and the city sank underground, but the descendants of the guardians remained…

He pointed to the metal plate: "What's drawn on this might be the road to there, but it's too dilapidated for me to understand."

Ian stared at the board, his mind racing.

He has the core of a fallen star, and his younger brother has a strange metal plate.

"It seems this identity is quite extraordinary."

He temporarily set aside his distracting thoughts and continued studying the metal plate.

Those seemingly chaotic lines gradually revealed their patterns under the enhancement of [Starlight Perception].

They are not maps, but more like... schematic diagrams of energy flow.

At the intersection of the lines, there are several tiny holes engraved with extremely fine needle tips.

Ian tried to inject a wisp of starlight energy into one of the holes.

hum...

The board vibrates slightly.

Those lines, one after another, lit up with an extremely faint silver light, like blood vessels being awakened.

The light flowed and eventually converged at the center of the board.

There is a recessed pentagram-shaped mark there.

At the center of the mark is a line of small characters.

The writing was mostly worn away, but Ian could still make out a few syllables.

"...Observatory...bottom layer...anchor to the star veins..."

Just then, the Starfall Core in his chest suddenly felt slightly warm.

A clearer resonance than before emanated from the depths of the pendant.

The blood flowed into my fingertips, creating an extremely subtle resonance with the markings on the metal plate.

Ian looked up and followed his senses to the southeast.

That's the direction of Maple Leaf City, and also the direction of the ruins of the ancient observatory.

"Brother?" Li Yao called out softly.

Ian looked away and shoved the metal plate back into the boy's hand.

"Keep it safe, and don't let anyone see it."

"Yes!" Li Yao nodded vigorously and hid the board close to his body.

"So what do we do now?"

Ian looked toward the largest bonfire that Scarface Chen had built in the distance.

The scarred leader was whispering something to a few of his confidants, glancing over here every now and then, his eyes flickering uncertainly in the firelight.

"Let's go to Blue Cave Mountain with the group first."

Ian said, "Find a chance along the way to get some supplies to treat your wounds."

He paused, then added.

"Then, once it's safe... let's go see the place mentioned in the song."

Li Yao's eyes lit up immediately: "Really?"

"Really." Ian patted him on the shoulder. "Go to sleep, we have to travel tomorrow."

The boy huddled under the tattered blanket, and soon his even breathing could be heard.

After a day and a night of tension, I can finally relax for a moment.

Ian, however, kept his eyes open, staring at the gray cloud overhead, which was tinged with a dark red glow.

City of Fallen Stars...Descendants of the Watchers...Anchor of the Star Veins...

There's also the phrase on the metal plate: "The key will open the final door."

Does the key refer to the core of a meteorite?

What lies behind the door...?

He touched the pendant on his chest, feeling its warm and ancient resonance.

The secret of his origins was deeper than he had imagined.

But it's okay.

He has plenty of time to explore.

Late at night.

Most people were already asleep, with only a few guards on night watch yawning by the fire.

Ian closed his eyes, his consciousness sinking into the sea of ​​his mind.

A faint connection, spanning the endless void, pulsed slightly with his breath.

Like a spider silk, so thin it's almost invisible.

But it does exist.

It connects this place to another world.

……

Fifty meters underground in the Wizarding World, at the Shadowmoon Tower.

The Abyss Altar stood silently in the center of the void, its twenty-eight Void Anchor Stones emitting a silvery-gray glow.

The dark vortex in the center rotated slowly, like an eye that never closes.

Ian's true form sat cross-legged three meters in front of the altar, his eyes closed and his breathing long and even.

Suddenly, his eyelashes trembled.

His eyelids slowly opened, and a faint golden light flashed deep in his pupils, so fast it was like an illusion.

"I'm back..."

Ian muttered to himself, his voice echoing softly in the empty cavern.

As consciousness sank into the depths of the mental sea, a faint "line" was gently trembling beside the silver crystal.

That was a soul connection established by the [Phase Weaving Soul Technique], passing through the passage of the Abyss Altar, connecting to the distant otherworldly "Dawn Star".

At this moment, fragments of information are flowing along this line.

It's very blurry, like looking at something through frosted glass.

But Ian can "read" it.

…starlight…spotlight…

…corrupted…dark red…viscous…

…City of Fallen Stars…The Watchers…Ballads…

...key...door...

There are also some more fragmented images.

A desolate wasteland under a blanket of gray clouds, distorted and deformed creatures, ancient patterns on metal plates, and the dirty yet shining eyes of young Li Yao…

Ian processed this information, his brow furrowing slightly.

"The starlight energy... and the star power induced by the [Starry Sky Festival] meditation method are more than 70% similar."

He recalled the feelings he had experienced during his meditation, emanating from the Starry Night Festival.

Consciousness sank into the void, sensing the radiant energy cast by those distant stars, cold and pure.

The "starlight" in the projected world is gentler in nature.

It is more easily absorbed by the flesh and blood, but in essence... it seems to be of the same origin.

"The Star Vein system... could it be related to a lost school of astrology in the Wizarding World?"

This speculation made Ian's heart skip a beat.

If that's the case, then the continent of Alan is more than just an "incubator".

It may contain ancient knowledge about the stars and the application of gravity that he cannot access for the time being.

And this knowledge is precisely what will complete the final piece of his [Gravity Collapse Sphere] sorcery.

Just as he was thinking this, a subtle fluctuation suddenly came from another part of his mental sea.

It is the mark of the [Abyss Soul Pact].

The mark hidden deep within the soul, composed of chaotic runes, was now slightly warm.

And I felt a certain resonance with the descriptions of "corruption" in the fragments of information.

It's weak, but it does exist.

Like a wild beast that has smelled its own kind, it raised its head in the darkness.

"The abyss..." Ian's eyelids drooped slightly.

The "corruption" and "contamination of the abyss" in both worlds originate from the same thing.

The only difference is that the Abyss Will in the Wizarding World is a complete, terrifying, and indescribably great being.

As for the continent of Aran, it might just be the residual poison leaked from a "tentacle" that the Abyss inadvertently pierced into that world in some distant past.

Even so, it was enough to destroy a civilization.

"Gah..."

In the silence, a drawn-out yawn came from above.

Ian looked up and saw Gaga slumped on the edge of the altar, on a protruding rock.

Belly up, wings spread, it slept like a puddle of black mud.

As if sensing his gaze, Gaga twitched its ears and opened its eyes a crack.

"Hmm... Ian, you're awake?"

It rolled over, rubbed its eyes with its little paws, and asked, "Finished meditating?"

"Hmm." Ian stood up and stretched his stiff neck.

Is there any movement up there?

"There's been a lot of noise!"

Gaga suddenly perked up and fluttered its wings to fly onto his shoulder.

"While you were down there, several groups of people came to the tower to inquire about you."

An old man in a black robe claimed to be a liaison officer for the Withering Council and wanted to "invite" you to visit them.

It mimicked that affected way of speaking, rolling its small eyes.

"Sister Alyvia turned him away, saying that you were in seclusion."

But when that old guy left, his eyes were sinister; he clearly had no good intentions!

Ian's eyes turned cold.

Almost three months have passed since the incident at the underground palace. Although the bounties for Crimson and Withering have not been made public, their secret covetousness has never stopped.

"Anything else?"

"And at the potion shop, Kenna said that the profits have increased by 50% this month. The Rock Bear Potion is selling like hotcakes, and even caravans from the Silver Tower are coming to place orders."

Gaga counted them by counting with his paws.

"However, the materials are a bit lacking. Robert has already made three trips to the materials market, saying that the prices of some auxiliary materials have been inflated."

"That's normal," Ian said calmly. "Someone's jealous."

"So what if they're jealous? They can't beat you anyway!"

Gaga puffed out her little chest, then remembered something and lowered her voice.

"Oh, by the way, I also overheard Sister Alyvia chatting with another black-robed wizard, saying that things haven't been peaceful 'outside' lately."

"Outside?"

"It's over there in the Endless Sea." Gaga tilted her head.

"It seems like some kind of historical site is about to open. Several large organizations are mobilizing manpower, and even our Shadowmoon is preparing."

The tower master seems to be... sending a group of wizards of level one or higher over there.

Ian paused, was he going to the ruins again?

He's a little sensitive to those two words now: Crimson and Withered Council, have they healed?

"The Ruins of the Endless Sea..."

He remembered seeing a related record in a travelogue in the Star Library.

That is located deep in the endless sea east of the continent.

The ruins appear periodically; they are said to be an ancient site, a remnant of a long-lost civilization.

"The great war between the wizarding world and the Abyss back then spanned many worlds, and countless civilizations perished as a result."