I want to tread the heavens

The fall didn't last long, only about two or three breaths.

Thump! Ling Xiao crashed heavily onto the hard, cold ground, his bones aching as if they had been shattered. Fa Cai slammed into his chest with a "whoosh," almost knocking him unconscious.

It was pitch black, so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. The air was even colder than in the alchemy room above, carrying a heavy earthy smell and an indescribable, desolate aura that seemed to have settled from the ages.

The jade pendant around her neck suddenly became scalding hot the moment it hit the ground! It was much hotter than it had been in the first checkpoint chamber! Moreover, it began to emit a soft, steady silvery-white light, illuminating a small area around it.

Ling Xiao endured the pain, struggled to his feet, and held the whimpering Fa Cai in his arms to check on it. Fortunately, the little guy seemed to be just frightened and not injured. Only then did he have time to look around.

This appears to be a small underground chamber, no more than two zhang in circumference and about one zhang high. The walls are rough rock, without any trace of human excavation, resembling a naturally formed cave. However, the floor in the center of the chamber is unusually smooth, paved with a shimmering, silvery-white stone.

Right in the very center of this silvery-white ground stood a miniature "Star Altar," only three feet tall!

The shape of this small altar is almost identical to the huge star altar they found in the cave before! It is also a three-tiered circular platform, and is also engraved with intricate star orbits, only it is much smaller in scale and much better preserved, with a spotless surface and a dreamlike silver halo.

The jade pendant around Ling Xiao's neck shone brightly, its light reflecting off the silver glow of the altar, creating a strong resonance that emitted a soft buzzing sound. He could feel a gentle and familiar warmth flowing from the direction of the altar, passing through the jade pendant into his body, quickly relieving the soreness from his fall and the energy he had previously expended.

"There are Starfall Clan items here too?" Ling Xiao was shocked. Holding Fa Cai, who was still trembling but seemed to have been soothed by the altar's light, he cautiously approached.

The top of the miniature altar wasn't a crystal ball, but a shallow depression filled with a thin layer of shimmering, silvery liquid, like mercury or molten starlight. The surface of the liquid reflected the rock wall above, and also Ling Xiao's approaching face.

As he approached the altar and curiously looked down at the pool of silvery liquid—

hum!

The liquid suddenly rippled! Ripples spread outwards from his reflection! Then, from the bottom of the depression, countless tiny points of light rose up, coalescing into a blurry, slowly rotating three-dimensional star map about a foot above the liquid!

The star map was small, focusing only on an unfamiliar expanse of starry sky. Dozens of stars were specially marked, arranged and moving along mysterious trajectories. At the edge of the star map, several ancient runes that Ling Xiao didn't recognize flickered, one of which bore a striking resemblance to a pattern on his jade pendant!

"This is... a star map?" Ling Xiao held his breath. Although he couldn't understand it, he instinctively felt that this star map was extremely important.

Just as he was trying to memorize the details of the star map, a faint, almost ethereal, yet incredibly clear thought suddenly and directly entered his mind!

That wasn't sound, nor image, but a pure emotion, feeling, or fragment of information—

sad.

An endless, star-like, vast yet deathly silence of sorrow.

It was a mixture of deep longing, helpless waiting, and... a faint, almost pleading call.

This wisp of thought is of the same origin and essence as the maternal phantom he had felt in his dream and glimpsed briefly in the crystal ball of the Star Altar! It is only weaker and more fragmented, like an eternal, lingering obsession echoing here.

"Mother...?" Ling Xiao blurted out, his heart feeling as if it had been gripped tightly by an invisible hand, aching and bitter, tears welling up uncontrollably. He involuntarily reached out, trembling, wanting to touch the star map, to touch the source of that sorrowful thought.

Just as his fingertips were about to touch the star map-like light and shadow floating above the silver liquid—

Mutation and regeneration!

The entire miniature altar trembled violently! All the silver light instantly receded, disappearing into the center of the altar. The star map's light and shadow abruptly contracted, transforming into a condensed silver stream that "whooshed" directly into Ling Xiao's brow!

"Ah!" Ling Xiao felt a burning sensation between his brows, as if something had exploded in his mind! A flood of unfamiliar, fragmented information rushed in—unfamiliar galactic coordinates, intricate fragments of rune meanings, and the intermittent, almost unrecognizable whispers left behind by that sorrowful thought:

"...Purple...Jade...Observation...Forward...Outpost..."

"...Energy...is...about...to...be...exhausted..."

"...The...watch...has...failed..."

"...Child...run away..."

The information deluge came quickly and went just as fast. In just two or three breaths, all the strange phenomena vanished.

The secret room returned to darkness, with only the faint light emanating from Ling Xiao's jade pendant providing a meager illumination.

The miniature altar seemed to have exhausted its last bit of energy; its silvery-white surface quickly dimmed and peeled away, revealing a gray, rock-like interior beneath. The pool of silver liquid in the depression at the top had also completely dried up, leaving no trace.

Only in Ling Xiao's mind did a blurry, yet remarkably clear, partial star map appear, along with a few ancient rune markings. And in his heart, there remained the deeply ingrained, indelible sorrow forcibly imprinted upon him.

He collapsed to the ground, panting heavily, his forehead covered in cold sweat. The sudden surge of information he had just received had almost made him faint.

Fa Cai anxiously licked his face with his tongue, whimpering.

"I'm fine... Fa Cai, I'm fine..." Ling Xiao buried his face in Fa Cai's warm fur, calming his violent heartbeat and turbulent emotions.

Ziqiong... Observation outpost... Energy running out... Watch failed... The child escaped...

Those fragmented pieces of information echoed repeatedly in his mind. Combining the state of the altar and the reaction of the jade pendant, a startling guess gradually became clear:

This small secret chamber, hidden deep beneath the abandoned alchemy room of the Guo family, this miniature star altar, is not an alchemy site at all. Instead, it is an extremely secretive, small "observation outpost" established here by the Starfall Clan a long, long time ago!

Its purpose might be to monitor this area of ​​the Old Land, or to protect that spiritual vein? And that sorrowful maternal thought might be a mark left by the Starfall Clan powerhouse who set up the outpost, or it might be a distant longing and warning transmitted to this place in some way.

The outpost's energy was already nearly exhausted ("energy running out"), and it may have been "watching" for ten thousand years before finally "failing". The last bit of energy left on the altar was fully activated when it sensed the approach of Ling Xiao, a "clan member" who possessed the Starfall bloodline and wore the core token (jade pendant). This completed the final information transmission before being completely annihilated.

"The child escaped..." Ling Xiao murmured, repeating the last word, a sharp pain shooting through his heart. Was it a warning to escape? Escape from what? This familiar land? Or the impending danger?

He suddenly remembered Yue Rong's injuries, and Uncle Rong still waiting in the dangerous passage. There was no time to waste!

He struggled to his feet, took one last look at the miniature altar that had turned to ordinary stone and was no longer any kind of divine power, and buried it and that lingering sorrow deep in his heart.

"Let's get rich! Let's go find Uncle Rong!"

He had to go back immediately. Uncle Rong needed the Crimson Sun Moss, and in his mind, there was a new star map that might concern his origins and future, as well as a heavy responsibility that he had to figure out.

The only exit from the secret chamber was the hole above his head from which he had fallen, about two zhang high. Ling Xiao tried, but the rock wall was slippery and offered no foothold. He remembered the "groundhog" Yue Rong had given him, aimed it at the edge of the hole, and pressed the trigger.

"Whoosh—Plop!" The thin rope, with its barbs, shot out and firmly embedded itself in the crack in the rock at the edge of the cave entrance.

Ling Xiao stuffed the money into his front pocket, gripped the thin rope tightly, and climbed upwards with difficulty, using both his hands and feet.

When he finally climbed back up to the first floor of the alchemy room and stood on the cold ground again, he heard the faint crowing of a rooster in the distance.

It's almost bright.

Ling Xiao took one last look at the now smooth and normal ground, tightened his grip on the small cloth bag containing the Crimson Sun Moss, picked up Fa Cai, and, just as he had come, silently disappeared into the deepest darkness before dawn, stealthily heading towards the secret entrance he had come from.

Unbeknownst to him, shortly after he left, the tightly closed, dusty, dilapidated wooden door of the alchemy room silently opened a crack. Behind the crack, a cloudy, aged eye quietly and for a long time watched the direction he had disappeared in, and the last trace of the faded star pattern on the ground.

In his eyes, the emotions were complex and difficult to discern.