Mage Manual

The slightly relaxed atmosphere again tightened due to the opposing conversation. The two continued to stride across the star sea side by side, but as strangers on the same path, beneath they were turbulent.

Along the way, Ash saw many magic vortices in the star sea. Often a star system, a group of star clusters, were within the magic vortex, their size beyond imagination, only calculable in light years. It was only due to Dazzling Star’s mastery of the seventh layer of the Void Realm that she could possibly use the universe’s star sea as a research ground.

He quietly observed, saying nothing.

Instead, Dazzling Star took the initiative to speak: "That is the nebula nurturing the Teardrop gems."

"Teardrop gems?"

"Theoretically, only the Seven-winged Divine Being can exist. If successfully summoned, it would be enough to drive Star Magic to derive even more powerful Secondary Techniques, called Teardrop Star Magic," Dazzling Star calmly explained. "Although my main focus is Star Magic, Star Magic is indeed a very weak magic faction. It can play a role in every aspect, so in every aspect, it falls short compared to specialized factions. Most of the time it can only be used as auxiliary magic. To reverse the disadvantage of Star Magic, it is necessary to make Star Magic gain overwhelming advantages in a few directions."

"According to my idea, Teardrop Star Magic could be strong from One-winged to Six-winged, with huge advantages in attack, movement, and healing, and could change the environment from the start of One-winged." Her tone slightly raised:

"Teardrop Star Magic will rule the countless coming eras."

Ash glanced at her and suddenly recalled Harvey’s often repeated sentence: "Come join me as Hagen Dazs’s lackey."

"That is the Tears of All Beings star cluster."

"That is a star system still in the evolutionary stage, most likely nurturing a Dark Star or supernova."

This was likely Dazzling Star’s achievement for the year, Ash thought.

The best place for nurturing a Divine Being is naturally the Void Realm, but the Void Realm is not your long-lost father, it won’t nurture Divine Beings according to your wishes. The seventh layer of the Void Realm is the only exception, here they become the Void Realm’s father, and can dictate how the Void Realm gives birth.

But this only skips all the preliminary rituals, the Void Realm still requires a long time to nurture Divine Beings, let alone Dazzling Star wanting to directly nurture a Seven-winged Divine Being. But if Dazzling Star continues to focus on cultivation, the time for nurturing a Divine Being could be cut so much that it’s almost within reach.

"Why tell me?" Ash couldn’t help but ask: "Aren’t you afraid I’ll destroy them?"

"Would you not destroy them if I didn’t tell you?" Dazzling Star replied with a question: "I might as well tell you how important they are; that way, you might let greed prevent you from killing them."

"In case I fall," she said calmly, "you could smoothly inherit this legacy."

After a moment of silence, Ash responded: "I won’t destroy your arrangements, and correspondingly, you can’t destroy mine."

Dazzling Star shook her head: "It depends on the situation. If the Divine Being you want to nurture poses a great threat to me, for instance, Shattered Star, Extinct Star, those Divine Beings, then I may still destroy them."

Ash’s eyes brightened as he hastily memorized those names—

Then Dazzling Star added, "Both Shattered Star Divine Being and Extinct Star Divine Being are in my hands. I hope they won’t disappoint you."

Ash looked frustrated and pouted, while Dazzling Star glanced at him, her lips slightly curling upwards.

During the conversation, they had already stepped into a Constant Star System, where nine major planets revolved around a blazing sun. Unlike other star systems, each planet extended a Star Orbital Chain, reaching into the sun, forming a huge Confinement Orbital.

Ash instantly recognized this as a Heavenly Position Wonder, centered around star orbital Divine Beings, locking star Divine Beings, and a cage, supplemented by countless Technique Spirits and an entire star system, transforming quantity into quality. In terms of power, it even surpassed the Wonders of the Secret Realm; it would be considered quite explosive even in the Seven Heavens.

Despite the world’s threat from Uroboros this year, Dazzling Star still spent a lot of time and resources to lay a star system cage in the seventh layer of the Void Realm. Just what kind of existence compelled her to treat it with such caution?

Perhaps it’s—

With an eager heart, Ash arrived before the blazing sun, immediately seeing the familiar figure imprisoned in the solar core, and couldn’t help but issue a warm greeting—

"Hahaha, now it’s your turn!"

The Drama Poet, hands and feet bound, raised his head. Even within the sun’s core, he still wore the wandering illusionist’s garb, with a top hat that seemed stuffed with pigeons, but his face glistened with sweat as though he were overheated.

"Good day, handsome, devoted Mr. Ash." As soon as he saw Ash, the Drama Poet became very excited, like he was seeing an idol: "You actually succeeded in slaying Uroboros, saving the world from peril. I, the humble poet, sincerely thank you here. You are an unparalleled hero of ancient times and all times, transcending everything, a god—"

"Sorry, you’re giving me goosebumps."

"Alright." The Drama Poet shrugged, "Great men are always so modest, but don’t you think your lovers need more fame? Miss Sword Maiden hopes for her mother’s pride, Miss Witch yearns for the Gospel’s cheers, Miss Silver Lamp and Miss Maid don’t care about outside opinion, but will the world change its impression due to their shining performances? I hear that even the most generous woman can’t accept a wedding with curses instead of blessings..."

"Hmm..." Ash fell into contemplation.

"Let me help spread your story!" The Drama Poet seized the moment, "I’ll let the world know of your adventures, let countless poets compose poems for you, let countless youths admire your love, let every mage know of your merits, as long as you let me go—"

"But I don’t want to let you go." Ash replied.

The Drama Poet was dumbfounded: "Why?"

"Because I can’t find you otherwise, I have to wait for you to find me." Ash replied earnestly, "Keeping you here makes it much easier."

"Kind and benevolent Mr. Ash, haven’t our interactions been pleasant before? I even helped you solve the Six-winged Trial—"

"But you didn’t lower the difficulty at all; in fact, you actually increased it."

"What did I do wrong that even you, Mr. Ash, would treat me like this?" The Drama Poet looked aggrieved: "I thought we were friends."

"We are indeed friends," Ash replied.

"Then how can you bear to leave a friend here? Look, I’m sweating from the heat!"

"Honestly, I always regretted taking my two friends out of prison; perhaps letting them spend their lives in prison was the choice that would make everyone happy."

"However," Ash looked at Dazzling Star, who had been watching the drama from the side, "Dazzling Star, why did you imprison him? If there’s no justified reason, considering he did interfere with my Six-winged Trial, I would—"

"He told me he would only reveal the truth about the World Devouring Snake if you were present," Dazzling Star said.

"—I’ve long found you unpleasant to look at!" Ash said harshly: "Confess honestly, or don’t blame us for treating you harshly!"

The Drama Poet looked bitter, sighed: "Actually, even without me saying it, you would have known..."

"Are you a riddler? Dazzling Star, increase the heat!"

Dazzling Star rolled her eyes at him and said calmly: "It’s already as hot as it gets; the Drama Poet cannot be harmed."

"Wait," Ash thought of a possibility, "Drama Poet, you are the eighth, the World Devouring Snake only appeared after the seventh layer of the Void Realm, with just you remaining among the eight... Could you be the World Devouring Snake? Or are you nurturing the World Devouring Snake?"

Ash felt he was very close to the truth: such a being as the World Devouring Snake, after much thought, could only have emerged from those eight; now the previous seven are dead, isn’t the eighth the criminal?

"No."

The one who answered was Dazzling Star: "I have slain the World Devouring Snake six times, even after imprisoning the Drama Poet, the World Devouring Snake still appeared, so at the very least they are not one and the same."

"Drama Poet, you said you would reveal the truth when Ash arrived," Dazzling Star’s eyes showed a hint of coldness: "Do I have to prove I’m not joking before you’ll reveal the secret?"

"Wait!" The Drama Poet quickly said: "The time is almost here... it’s coming!"

Just then, Ash felt an icy killing intent behind him that made his scalp tingle; given that this was the seventh layer of the Void Realm, with Dazzling Star by his side, Ash unhesitatingly deployed his most adept lethal means—

Heart Hunting Sovereignty · Blood Moon Shattered Lake!

The two blood-red sword lights he wielded intertwined like scissors, dazzling across the vast starry sky; insignificant forces like time and space, fate, and entropy were all obliterated before the Blood Scissors. The Red-Scaled Giant Snake at the center of the Blood Scissors had no ability to escape, disintegrating into powder within a single breath, melting into the afterglow of the Blood Scissors.

"Is this the World Devouring Snake of our world?" Ash regarded it seriously: "Though it’s still a bit weak... it can resurrect endlessly and grow stronger; we must find a way to seal it..."

While speaking, Ash noticed Dazzling Star staring blankly at him, he frowned and asked: "At this point, are you afraid of my power? If we let the World Devouring Snake grow, this world will be doomed—"

"It’s not the World Devouring Snake I know," Dazzling Star suddenly said.

"What?" Ash was startled, but quickly understood the subtext: "You know another snake? There are two snakes?"

Dazzling Star nodded: "The snake I battled in the past had blue scales; a snake with red scales like this one... only appeared after you arrived at the seventh layer of the Void Realm."

At this point, Dazzling Star felt there was no need to say more, and Ash fell into silence. In the silent starry sky, it seemed only the heartbeats of three remained, thump, thump, thump.

Besides that, there were no other living beings.

"I don’t like revealing truths," the Drama Poet said slowly: "Because only by personally obtaining the truth can drama be filled with tension."

"When you entered the seventh layer of the Void Realm, were you not all drawn by the heartbeat of the Void Realm?"

"Were you not all focused on how to acquire that heartbeat, mastering all truths, controlling every destiny?"

"Did you not all feel that ruling the world, controlling the laws, was naturally your mission?"

"I do not blame you, after all, it’s normal for you to have such thoughts," The Drama Poet shrugged helplessly: "A mage is such a person, fate is such an unchangeable thing."

"Therefore," he said: "The World Devouring Snake is you."

PS: Out here, update times are irregular these days, sorry.

These days I’ve traveled with fellow authors, Xiao Long is great at playing Werewolf games, Yan ZK has long hair, Beichuan always draws the Werewolf card, Andlao came empty-handed after writing days worth of drafts, Cloudy loves spicy food... Haha, I even discussed Gu Zhenren with Gu Zhenren!