Before the giant gate, the tense standoff was frozen in place.
The black dot on Ian’s fingertip spun without a sound, while killing intent roiled in the eyes of Bazaar and Selas.
The Wizards from the other factions watched on with cold detachment, like a flock of vultures waiting for their prey to bleed.
Suddenly...
HUMMM!
On the surface of the giant gate, the intricate Star Runes lit up simultaneously and without warning.
They didn’t light up one by one, but instantly erupted in a blinding, silver-white radiance, as if thousands of stars were exploding at once.
The light swallowed everyone’s vision, making their eyes sting with a searing pain.
"What’s going on?!" Liam’s heart leaped. He instinctively raised his Silver Staff, a Holy Light Shield instantly materializing around him.
But it was useless.
The light ignored all defenses, sweeping over everyone like a tidal wave.
Ian felt a vast, ancient Will—one filled with boundless pity—gently brush across everyone’s Sea of Spirit like an invisible, giant hand.
It wasn’t an attack. It was... a ’calibration.’
CRACK!
Ian could clearly hear it: the faint, golden specks of Crystalization within his Sea of Spirit seemed to be making subtle cracking sounds.
They were being forcibly compressed and reorganized, finally solidifying into a more ’low-level’ form.
His Crystalization fluctuations, which had been approaching Level Two, were shoved back down to the level of Level One Liquidation Peak, as if by an invisible, giant hand.
"My Spiritual Power... has been suppressed?!"
Bazaar’s shocked and furious voice roared.
The boiling, blood-red light around him dimmed instantly. His Crimson Fury state was forcibly dispelled, and his muscles shrank back to their normal size.
Even his Blood Boiling Blade faded from dark red to light red, its power plummeting.
The ghostly fire beneath Selas’s hood swayed violently, his gray-green long robe fluttering in the still air.
His Death Energy fluctuations were also suppressed back to Level One Peak.
And it wasn’t just them.
The leading Elder from the Silver Ring, Gunnar from Immortal Heart, the Sea Race Elder from the Tide Association...
The faces of every Level Two Wizard present changed drastically.
"This is... the Rule suppression of a Level Four Wizard..."
The Elder from the Silver Ring gritted his teeth, his withered fingers gripping his Magic Staff tightly.
"We... we’ve triggered the Rule Restriction left by the Star Spirit Race!"
This had never happened before.
"A civilization extinguished, but its embers remain."
A majestic, hollow voice that seemed to echo from a distant time and space resounded directly in everyone’s minds.
The voice held no emotion, only the tranquil sorrow of a civilization at its end.
"To glimpse the fire’s seed, you must first bear its weight."
"The Star Spirit trial... begins."
The moment the voice fell silent.
BOOM!!!
The giant gate thundered open, swinging inward.
Behind the gate was not a hall or a corridor, but a spinning vortex—a Star Sea so brilliant it was dizzying.
Suddenly, the gate became like a great, all-devouring maw, erupting with a terrifying suction.
"No!"
Bazaar roared, slashing his Battle Saber viciously at the doorframe, trying to resist the suction.
But the light from his blade vanished into the Star Sea without causing so much as a ripple.
Dozens of gray-green Bone Spikes shot from Selas’s sleeves and embedded themselves in the ground. But under the light of the Star Sea, the spikes rapidly dissolved into ash.
The suction ignored all resistance.
Ian felt as if he’d been thrown into a spinning drum, his vision whirling.
His ears were filled with sharp, grating ’Gaga’ cries and the terrified screams of the surrounding Wizards.
He gritted his teeth, circulating his Furnace Body Tempering Skill at full power. A Jade-like Radiance flowed across his skin, helping him resist the excruciating pain of the spatial tearing.
The suction vanished abruptly.
Ian crashed heavily onto a surface that was soft, cold, and smooth to the touch.
"Cough... cough..."
He pushed himself up, a searing pain tearing at the wound on his chest.
But he paid it no mind, his first instinct to scan his surroundings.
’This... doesn’t seem to be a physical space.’
Above him was an endless, brilliant starry sky. The Milky Way stretched across the heavens like a bolt of white silk, and countless stars twinkled, so close it seemed he could reach out and pluck one from the sky.
The "ground" beneath his feet was a translucent silver, reflecting a scene of ruins.
In the distance floated dozens of shattered platforms of various sizes.
There were remnants of Star Spirit Race architecture, fractured pillars, and collapsed towers, all emitting a faint, dark-blue luster.
’An Illusion Realm?’
Ian murmured, immediately looking inward at his Sea of Spirit.
Just as he’d thought.
The faint golden specks of Crystalization were still forcibly compressed back into their Liquefaction state.
Their rotation had slowed considerably, and his total Spiritual Power was locked at Level One Peak.
This was about fifty percent of his full strength.
But...
’Gravity Collapse Ball.’
He raised his right hand, making a grasping motion with his fingers.
A black dot the size of a rice grain appeared without a sound, and the surrounding space began to warp slightly. The intensity of the Gravity fluctuations...
...was exactly the same as before!
’Frost Ash Beam.’
He pointed his left index finger. A slender, pale purple beam tore through the air and shot toward a piece of floating debris a hundred meters away.
HISS!
The debris was pierced through. Half of it froze into ice crystals, while the other half melted into slag.
Its power was unchanged!
’Entropy Change Domain...’
A faint purple halo spread from Ian’s body, and the temperature within a five-meter radius began to fluctuate erratically.
’It’s all still here.’
’The Rule suppression here seems to only target one’s Realm.’
’But it hasn’t weakened the actual power of my core abilities.’
’My abilities were never purely reliant on my Realm to begin with.’
’My Gravity Witchcraft relies on my understanding of the Gravity Rule and panel optimization.’
’Frost Ash Beam is a Compound Witchcraft with a Limit-Breaking Effect.’
’And my Entropy Change Domain operates on a level close to that of a Rule itself.’
’But what about the others?’
’Bazaar’s Blood Boiling Domain, Selas’s Death Curses, the Light Witchcraft from the Silver Ring...’
’All those Level Two abilities—which rely heavily on one’s Realm and require immense Spiritual Power to maintain—are now suppressed to the power of Level One.’
"Ha..."
Ian’s lips curled into a cold, bloodthirsty grin.
He slowly got to his feet, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth. Under the light of the Star Sea, his dark eyes shone with a frightening intensity.