Chapter 504 - 358: Worldwide Anomaly, Level Four Morning Star (3)

On the twentieth day, the phenomenon began to change.

The five-colored aurora that spanned the globe began to recede like a low tide, shrinking from its coverage of the entire Profound Yellow Star until it hovered only over the Great Yan Territory.

From there, it contracted from the entirety of Great Yan to the confines of Jiangnan Province.

Finally, all the light converged above Jiangzhou City, coalescing into a gigantic cocoon of light one hundred kilometers in diameter.

Five colors flowed across the cocoon’s surface, and a blazing white sphere of light could be faintly seen rotating slowly within.

Jiangzhou City was completely enveloped.

From the outside, all that remained was a soft glow of light. The buildings and streets were obscured, and even the contours of the terrain were blurred.

All methods of detection—satellite scans, Energy probes, and even the Spiritual Perception of Legendary Powerhouses—failed upon approaching the cocoon of light.

It was as if some kind of Rule existed there, forbidding all attempts at observation.

Beijing Headquarters, top-floor office.

Li Yan stood before the floor-to-ceiling window, a newly delivered report in his hand.

The report’s contents were simple: the phenomenon in Jiangzhou City had contracted to form a sealed Force Field, rendering all external observation useless.

He stared at it for a long time before finally placing the report on his desk. He walked over to the liquor cabinet, poured a glass of hard liquor, and downed it in one go.

His throat burned, but his heart was ice-cold.

"Just who... are you?" he muttered to himself, his expression complex.

Outside the door to the secret chamber.

Wei Song remained seated cross-legged. The Miniature Star on his chest had already expanded to the size of a fist, its rotation stirring up faint ripples in space.

The dissipated Energy he had absorbed through the crack in the door over these twenty-five days was more than he had gained in the past five years of arduous training.

His Gravity Rule had risen to 68% and his Thermal Energy Rule to 66%. This was the effect of just the aftershocks.

Gaga perched on his shoulder, its eyes fixed on the sealed door. "Wei Song, how much longer is Ian going to be?"

It had asked the same question no less than a hundred times this past month.

Wei Song showed no impatience, simply replying softly, "Soon."

"He... he should have succeeded, right?" The little creature’s voice held a rare note of apprehension.

Wei Song fell silent for a moment before the corner of his mouth curled into a smile.

"Don’t worry. The original never attempts anything he isn’t certain of."

The words had barely left his lips when the door to the secret chamber suddenly vibrated faintly, like a heartbeat.

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP...

The rhythm was slow and powerful, and with every beat, the surrounding air trembled in response.

Wei Song’s eyes snapped open, and he drew all his Energy inward.

All of Gaga’s feathers bristled as a joyous silver light erupted in its eyes. "Is Ian coming out?!"

"No." Wei Song shook his head, his expression grave. "It’s the final stage."

He got up and retreated to the end of the corridor. His hands moved rapidly through a Sealing Technique, laying down three layers of protective Barriers.

This was to prevent the impending burst of Energy from tearing the entire Management Bureau building apart.

「The twenty-eighth day, 10:00 PM.」

The cocoon of light enveloping Jiangzhou City suddenly began to contract.

From one hundred kilometers in diameter, it shrank to ten, then to one. Finally, it condensed above the Superpower Management Bureau, forming a blazing white sphere of light.

The sphere was only the size of a house, but the light it emitted made the entirety of Jiangzhou City as bright as day.

No, it was not just Jiangzhou.

At that moment, across every time zone of the Profound Yellow Star, the sky suddenly brightened, regardless of whether it was day or night.

It wasn’t sunlight, but a purer, more fundamental source of light.

The sphere of light continued to contract, from the size of a house to a car, then to a washbasin...

Finally, it condensed into a fist-sized, blazing white sphere... a true Fixed Star made manifest.

Though miniature, only the size of a fist, it was truly burning. It released light and heat, obeying all the physical rules that a Fixed Star should.

The instruments in every observatory across the globe instantly went off the charts.

Every Legendary Powerhouse on the planet looked up at the same instant. Even from half a world away, they could "feel" the presence of that Miniature Star.

It wasn’t that they perceived it; its presence was simply too immense, so immense that it seared itself directly into everyone’s consciousness.

In East Japan, the Elder Grandmaster, who had been in seclusion, suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood, his face turning deathly pale.

"One cannot gaze directly upon a true god..."

He muttered to himself and hurriedly shut his eyes, but he could still see the afterimage of the Fixed Star behind his eyelids.

In the White-headed Eagle nation, Alex was jolted from his Meditation, cold sweat beading on his forehead.

"A Fixed Star... made manifest..."

He had lived for over two hundred years and witnessed countless miracles, yet the scene before him completely shattered his understanding of reality.

The fist-sized Fixed Star hung above Jiangzhou City, burning quietly.

Ten seconds. Twenty. Thirty.

Then it began to contract, its mass climbing at a frantic rate.

The surrounding space began to distort. Light stretched and bent, forming an extremely distinct Gravitational Lens effect.

The buildings of Jiangzhou City trembled faintly as the spatial structure of the entire city began to fluctuate.

Wei Song stood at the end of the corridor, his hands desperately holding up the Barrier as veins bulged on his forehead.

"Gaga, get in!" he roared.

Gaga dissolved into a black shadow and dove into his collar, leaving only its small head peeking out.

The next second, the Fixed Star contracted to its absolute limit.

It turned from blazing white to a dark red, and then to pure, pitch black.

The surrounding light was trapped by its own Gravity, unable to escape.

A black hole? No, not even close.

This was merely the critical point before the breakthrough—a fleeting moment between a Fixed Star and a black hole.

The pitch-black sphere flashed violently.

In that instant, everyone on the Profound Yellow Star, whether their eyes were open or closed, regardless of where they were looking, saw their vision consumed by pure white.

The pure white lasted for 0.3 seconds before the sky returned to normal.

The night sky was dotted with stars, the moonlight was pristine, and it was as if everything that had just happened had been an illusion.

But everyone knew it was no illusion.

The Fixed Star above Jiangzhou City was gone, the five-colored aurora had vanished, and all the strange phenomena had completely dissipated.

「The thirtieth day, early morning.」

The sun rose as usual. The sky was a brilliant, clear blue, and clouds drifted lazily by.

The citizens of Jiangzhou stepped out of their homes. Looking at the familiar streets and buildings, they felt as if a lifetime had passed.

Over the past month, they had experienced too many incredible things.

The aurora, a second sun, the global Purification, and finally, that Miniature Star...

Now, the calm that followed was, in its own way, unsettling.

"Is it over?" someone asked softly.

"I don’t know... It should be."

...

No one knew the answer, but everyone had a vague feeling that the world... was about to change.

Not a change in the environment, but something much deeper.

The Rules? Order? Or perhaps the very attitude of the world itself had undergone a subtle shift.

It was like a boulder had been thrown into a stagnant pond; the ripples had already spread out, and things could never go back to the way they were.

Superpower Management Bureau, third basement level. Inside the secret chamber, the room was unrecognizable.

The alloy walls had completely melted and resolidified, their surfaces now a glazed, crystalline texture that shimmered with a faint, five-colored light.

In the center of the chamber, Ian slowly opened his eyes. Deep within his pupils, the five-colored light was gone.

In its place was a single point of supremely brilliant starlight.

Deep within that starlight, a microscopic Fixed Star could be faintly seen, rotating slowly.

It was no longer a phantom image, but a tangible Star Core. Less than a centimeter in diameter, it nonetheless contained enough Energy to tear a continent apart.

A panel appeared in his field of view.

[Name: Ian Marcus]

[Realm: Level Four Morning Star Initial Stage]

[Seed of Rules: Blazing Star Core (Prototype of the Celestial Path)]

[Lifespan: 10,000 Years]

[Rule Domain: Blazing Gravity Domain (Radius: 10,000 km)]

[Gravity Rule: 100%]

[Thermal Energy Rule: 100%]

[Purification Rule: 85%]

[Time Rule: 42%]

[Earth Rule: 51%]

[Order Divine Body → Star Core Body (Transformation Complete)]

Ian looked down at his hands. A faint glimmer flowed across his skin; his body itself was now emitting light.

He gently clenched his fist. The space around it instantly collapsed, forming a thumb-sized, pitch-black hole that lasted for a tenth of a second before being repaired by the world’s Rules.

With a mere thought, he vanished from the center of the chamber and reappeared by the wall in the next instant.

This was a Void jump—tearing open a fissure in space and stepping directly across.

The entire process was silent, devoid of light or shadow, as if he had simply always been there.

Ian closed his eyes and spread his Perception.

A radius of ten thousand kilometers. The entire territory of Great Yan was within the range of his Perception.

He could "see" three hundred meters beneath the Capital City, where two elders sat facing each other, their expressions grave.

He could "see" into the White-headed Eagle Federation, where Alex, the Late Stage of Legend powerhouse, stood by a window, communicator in hand, hesitating to make a call.

He could "see" the East Japan Imperial Palace, where the eighty-year-old Elder Grandmaster was kneeling before a shrine in devout prayer.

And he also saw... the Rift deep in the Void, the corrupted world on the other side, and the densely packed sea of eyes.

A smile touched Ian’s lips.

’Great Eye, I’ll be coming for you very soon!’