"Flame of Civilization?" Ian’s gaze flickered.
"The final crystallization of the Star Spirit Race’s inheritance. It’s said to contain their complete cultivation system."
Liam spoke quickly, as if he wanted to get his words out as fast as possible.
"But that’s all just legend. We’ve never been inside. At the end of this tunnel, there’s a side hall that might have more detailed clues."
He paused, pulled a palm-sized silver metal plate from his robes, and tossed it to Ian.
"This is a partial map of the labyrinth, only marking this area. Take it and get out of here!"
Ian caught the metal plate.
It was cool to the touch, its surface engraved with intricate, three-dimensional runes.
He cautiously extended his Spiritual Power into it and "saw" a complex network of tunnels.
One of the routes, marked in red, was the very one he was on now.
"Thanks."
Ian put away the metal plate and turned to continue forward.
This time, he didn’t stop again.
His footsteps slowly faded, disappearing into the darkness of the deep passage.
They continued until he could no longer hear them.
Only then did Liam let out a shaky breath, his back already drenched in cold sweat.
"Captain, we’re just letting him go like that?" the young Witch asked, unwilling to accept it.
"What else could we do?" Liam gave a bitter smile.
"Didn’t you see that beam of light just now? That was definitely Level Two Witchcraft! Instant-cast Level Two Witchcraft!"
He looked at the huge crater in the rock wall, his expression complex.
"And... that probably wasn’t even his full strength."
"What do you mean?"
"He was making a show of force," Liam said in a low voice.
"If he really wanted to kill us, that beam wouldn’t have hit the rock wall. It would have hit us. He was telling us something.
That he has the power to kill us, but couldn’t be bothered."
He paused, his voice dropping even lower.
"A person like that... is truly terrifying."
The brawny man touched the runes on his arm, his voice muffled.
"Is he really from the Shadow Moon Tower? How could a second-rate organization produce a monster like him?"
"Who knows."
Liam shook his head and turned to walk deeper into the tunnel.
"Report the situation to the main team. Just say... we encountered a dangerous individual, suspected to be a Crystalized Wizard hiding his true strength. Advise caution and tell them not to initiate conflict."
"Yes, sir."
The other two answered.
The young Witch gave one last look in the direction Ian had left, and the silver threads between her fingers slowly retracted.
She knew perfectly well.
’If a real fight had broken out just now, I probably wouldn’t have lasted five seconds.’
’That bone-chillingly cold gaze...’
’It was like he was looking at a corpse.’
On the other side of the passage, around a corner fifty meters away.
Three unaffiliated Wizards in tattered long robes held their breath, their faces pale as sheets.
They had originally planned to follow the team from the Silver Ring to see if they could pick up any scraps.
But instead, they had witnessed the scene just now.
"B-Boss..." a scrawny Wizard stammered.
"That guy... do you think he saw us?"
Their leader, a middle-aged man with a scarred face, was leaning against the wall, panting heavily.
"It doesn’t matter if he did or not."
He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
"A monster like that... we can’t afford to mess with him."
He recalled the pale purple beam of light and the massive crater it had instantly formed in the rock wall.
Level Two Witchcraft.
And it was instant-cast.
What was even more terrifying was that the young man’s expression hadn’t changed at all from start to finish.
It was like he had casually crushed an ant.
"Let’s go. We’ll head in a different direction," the scarred man said through gritted teeth.
"We can’t stay in this area. The Silver Ring, that monster just now... we can’t touch any of them."
The three of them quietly retreated, vanishing into another tunnel like frightened rats.
「Deep within the tunnel.」
Ian stopped and looked at the silver metal plate in his hand.
He sent his Spiritual Power into it again.
The map was very detailed, marking all the tunnels, forks, trap zones, and three key locations within a five-kilometer radius.
One was an "Echo Mirage Spirit Dense Area," marked with a red skull.
Another was the "Living Corpse Guard Patrol Route," marked with a dark gray line.
The last one was the side hall he was heading to now.
It was labeled: "Star Core Storage Room (Suspected)."
"Fallen Star Marrow..." Ian repeated in a low voice.
’If it’s really a remnant of a Star Core used by the Star Spirit Race for cultivation, it could be a huge help to my Starry Sky Festival Meditation Method.’
’It might even accelerate my Crystalization process.’
He put away the metal plate and continued forward.
His footsteps echoed in the tunnel.
The faint, dark blue glow on the surrounding walls grew brighter, as if guiding the way.
Gaga crouched on his shoulder, its small eyes scanning the surroundings warily.
"Ian, there’s something ahead."
"Mm."
Ian had already sensed it.
Three hundred meters away, in an open space, there was a fluctuation of energy.
It was very faint, but very stable.
Like some kind of slumbering, twisted star core.
He quickened his pace.
At the end of the tunnel, a massive stone door came into view.
The stone door was ten meters high and six meters wide, constructed from a patchwork of dark blue crystals and pale bones.
Its surface was covered in complex Star Runes, but most were now broken and dim.
Only the circular symbol in the very center still emitted a faint silver light.
’The people from the Silver Ring didn’t go in.’
’Or rather... they couldn’t get in.’
Ian’s gaze fell to the base of the stone door.
Three bodies lay there.
Their chests had been pierced through, and a sinister, cold aura clung to the edges of the wounds.
The cause of death was identical to that of the two Liquidation Wizards from the tunnel earlier.
"They were silenced," Ian said calmly.
He crouched down to examine the bodies.
Time of death was no more than two hours ago. The fatal wound was the hole through the chest, but the bodies were also covered in numerous fine cuts.
It was as if they had been sliced by a thousand tiny blades.
"Shadow fragments..." Gaga said softly.
"Mm."
Ian stood up and looked at the stone door.
The door was shut tight, but a dark red liquid seeped from the crack, reeking of blood.
’There was a fight behind the door.’
’And it just ended.’
He reached out his right hand and pressed it against the door’s surface.
A cold sensation spread through his palm, mixed with the residual energy of death and stars.
His Spirit Devourer trait fluctuated slightly, devouring and purifying the chaotic information trying to invade his consciousness.
"Are you ready?" Ian asked softly.
"I’ve been waiting for this, gaga!" Gaga spread its wings, its feathers shimmering with a deep shadow-like luster.
Ian nodded.
He pushed with his five fingers.
BOOM!
The stone door slowly swung inward.
Behind the door was a huge, circular hall.
It was over a hundred meters in diameter and thirty meters high, with a domed ceiling embedded with thousands of dark blue crystal stones.
Like a frozen starry sky.
But at this moment, this "starry sky" was dripping blood.
In the center of the hall lay more than a dozen bodies.
There were some from the Silver Ring, some from the Deep Red Royal Court, and a few unfamiliar Outer Island Wizards in gray long robes.
Blood pooled on the floor into dark red streams, flowing slowly toward the drainage channels around the hall.
The air was thick with the stench of blood, mixed with the putrid smell of Death Energy.
And the source of all this...
...was the pale, eight-meter-tall colossus deep within the hall.
It was pieced together from bone and dark blue crystal. Its form was roughly humanoid, but its head was a twisted, polyhedral structure.
Embedded in its chest was a fist-sized, dark red crystal, its surface covered in cracks. Inside, a viscous, dark red liquid flowed slowly.
A Living Corpse Guard!
A war construct refined by the Star Spirit Race from the corpses of their dead and a twisted Star Core.
The colossus was currently half-kneeling, its left arm severed at the shoulder, dark blue energy plasma dripping from the stump.
But it was still "alive."
The dark red crystal in its chest pulsed violently, emitting a brutal, heart-pounding fluctuation.
"Hiss... ROAR..."
An inhuman growl emanated from within the colossus, like countless souls wailing at once.
At the edge of the hall, three people were still standing.
’The Deep Red Royal Court... two Body Refining Wizards!’
Fortunately, both were currently covered in blood and panting for breath.
Beside them was an old man in the long robes of the Silver Ring, his hair and beard completely white.
He held a silver-white magic staff in his left hand, while his right arm was twisted at an unnatural angle, clearly broken.
The three of them were in a standoff.
But no one dared to make the first move.
Because although the Living Corpse Guard was heavily wounded, the Fallen Star Core in its chest was still active.
If it detonated, the entire hall would collapse.
"Tch, what a pain."
The brawny man from the Deep Red Royal Court spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva, his gaze sweeping maliciously over the elder from the Silver Ring.
"Old bastard, if you hadn’t sneak-attacked us, we would’ve already taken this thing down!"
"Sneak attack?" the elder sneered.
"You were clearly the ones who tried to monopolize the Star Core and attacked us first!"
"Bullshit!"
the other Wizard from the Deep Red Royal Court shouted sharply.
"We discovered this side hall first! You lot from the Silver Ring show up out of nowhere and think you can just snatch the prize?!"
"Relics in a ruin are treasures without masters. They belong to whoever can claim them!"
"Then don’t even think about getting out of here alive!"
The animosity between the three of them grew ever thicker.
But just then.
The Living Corpse Guard suddenly moved!
It snapped its head up, and dozens of holes on its polyhedral skull lit up simultaneously with a dark red glow.
BZZZZ!
A dark red wave of energy exploded outward from its center!
Wherever the wave passed, the ground cracked, bodies were blasted into minced meat, and the Death Energy permeating the air instantly went berserk!
"Not good!"
"Fall back!"
The three of them simultaneously shot backward.
But it was too late.
The Fallen Star Core in the Living Corpse Guard’s chest suddenly erupted with a blinding, dark red light!
Countless dark red energy tentacles burst from the crystal’s surface, shooting out like living blood vessels.
And the target...
...was not the three of them.
It was Ian, who had just pushed open the stone door and was standing in the entrance!
"Ian, look out!"
Gaga let out a sharp cry, its wingspan instantly expanding to three meters as its pitch-black feathers began to shimmer with a deep shadow-like luster.
Prototype Shadow Storm!
The Shadow Energy within a twenty-meter radius of it instantly began to boil.
It transformed into countless pitch-black tentacles that furiously collided with the incoming dark red energy tentacles.
TSSSSSST!
Shadow and crimson intertwined, annihilated, and regenerated...
Each collision produced a piercing shriek of energy.
But the Living Corpse Guard was, after all, a war construct of the Star Spirit Race. Even heavily injured, its energy level was far beyond Tier One.
The dark red tentacles gradually suppressed the shadow tentacles, closing in on Ian inch by inch!
’So it senses me as a threat?’
Ian’s gaze turned cold.