Master of the Stars

An Weng maintained the special triangular hand seal and dark flames ignited from the triangular cavity. The flames spread to the palms, to the arms. They gradually covered the chest, reaching all the way to the head.

These flames burned not like coal but in a more economical fashion. Essence energy was extracted bit by bit and was ignited to display 120% of its original energy.

An Weng burned and it was no different with Zheng Xiao. With An Chengli taking the brunt of it, Zheng Xiao was able to keep calm for now. But the calmer he was, the less he understood. Therefore, he asked An Weng via the Evolution Field.

"Why are we going this far? Aren’t we just paving the way for the push of massive forces into Xia City for the Order? It can’t be? Are we going to these extremes to be credible? Do we need to sacrifice the lives of several First Oblatums?"

An Weng’s answer, however, was elusive and vague, "The child Cheng Li... Only when one hides behind him does one’s mind become clear."

"..."

"He spoke of the Gate of Truth and asked the when and the where. That was the correct thing to do. Clarifying concrete information is an intrinsic thing to do. But what the Order lacks right now is concrete information."

"So An Weng, you want to verify it? Everything you’re doing right now is, in fact, to seek out this thing that might not exist as of yet? Ultimately speaking, this means that the Order hasn’t gotten confirmation at all, right?"

It was practically impossible for Zheng Xiao to keep his emotions under control. Regardless of who had discovered it, he had found out that his own life would likely be wasted on a meaningless guess. It was very hard for him to keep his cool. This, this was wrong. No matter how things were turning out, he still treasured his own life. It was just that their actions were aimless; a miracle would not occur. He was not willing to have his last bit of hope destroyed!

It was as if An Weng had read his thoughts. "We aren’t doing these things aimlessly. Do you remember the Human-Faced Arachnid? Its origin... That company, which uses money to mask their sketchy behavior, wanted to use the Human-Faced Arachnid to make drugs? What are they thinking!"

"Quantum Corporation and the Gate of Truth?" Zheng Xiao was speechless for a time. He found it difficult to link these two elements together, they were as incongruous as an ox’s head and a horse’s mouth.

However, An Weng believed it with conviction. His will was incomparably firm. "The first opportunity was seized away from us, so now we must seize the opportunity back without the slightest hesitation. The Gate of Truth can only be accessed by us, the qualified. The authority of the Truth is destined to be wielded by our hands!"

"..."

Zheng Xiao suddenly understood why he was never able to rise to the next rank. Perhaps the hundred who stood at the peak of the entire Order were all paranoid madmen like An Weng!

He was about to give up on the conversation but then a thought throbbed unwillingly from the bottom of his heart.

"An Weng!"

And at this time, the centenarian he faced use the most First Oblatum way to speak to him, "Pray then, child. Pray that the Gate of Truth is in Xia City. Or pray as the scriptures say. Beneath thick clouds lies islands covered with boiling magma, while Demons bound in chains fly within clouds... Order binds disorder. Disorder consumes order... Perhaps, we will search to the ends of the clouds and find powerful demons and as described in the holy scriptures, the demons will traverse space. For they come to replace us, to replace our positions..."

"Screw your demons! Screw your scriptures!"

Each of the three First Oblatums could hear any conversation within the Evolution Field. Perhaps it was due to being stimulated by certain information but An Chengli miraculously had a bit of sanity restored to him. He had used his thoughts to let loose this roar.

But in the blink of an eye, a storm of crazed emotions came blowing. An Chengli’s little bit of thought was like a thin thread that could break at any time. It moaned within the storm.

"He’s more persistent than I expected. How excellent!"

An Weng was extremely satisfied with his grandnephew’s reaction. As for Zheng Xiao, his heart went completely cold. He reacted as well by throwing his consciousness into the core of the Evolution Field.

Unbeknown to him, the two ends of the Scales of Truth had formed a straight horizontal line parallel to the three corners of the Evolution Field. The life force of the three First Oblatums, eight Oblatum Knights, several dozens of priests and knights were all seeped with hearts of terror and craze. These emotions fused together to form elements of chaos. The quantity was notable under An Chengli’s massive output, causing a rarely seen equilibrium to form with Fairchild at this very moment.

Zheng Xiao opened his mouth but no words came out. His thoughts cast his last message, "We’re still in the spatial rift..."

An Weng’s response was like a placebo; comforting but meaningless. "Child, you need to understand one more thing. This is an opportunity, a wonderful opportunity."

As the old man’s thoughts clarified things, Zheng Xiao suddenly felt a shudder run through his body and soul. The three-dimensional structure erected within the Evolution Field, the projection of the Scales of Truth and its fulcrums the three First Oblatums, began to tremble and warp.

The entwining effect of energy was far too complicated and it was hard to observe. But it ultimately formed outward wave motions that instantly swept across the material plane of the Logic World.

Zheng Xiao could ‘see’ Ouyang Chen at this time. This man, who was the number one expert in theory within Xia City, was frowning. His gaze was cast toward the manifested projection of the Scales of Truth.

An Weng did not need to have the Evolution Field switch images to be able to view this scene. All Zheng Xiao needed to do was to send information back via the spreading and scanning waves.

Zheng Xiao had collected even more information than just images pertaining to Ouyang Chen. For instance, he had an approximate understanding of the ‘boundary’ of the Logic World. It was the area of the building complex consisting of the three connected buildings. It was approximately just over a kilometer in radius.

And so he arrived at a question: What sort of experimental testing was Ouyang Chen conducting if they were sealed inside from start to finish?

Before he could come up with an answer, something happened with the frequency of the waves that were being directed by the Scales of Truth... It could basically be described as a subtle change that occurred with them and the waves accordingly cut into the mental plane.

According to the ancient writings of the Order, the mental plane was like an unbounded ocean. It was incomparably vast and incomparably deep. Man’s mental consciousness was like a fishling. Some people could only slosh about within the shallow regions of the sea. Some people could swim ten thousand meters deep.

Of course, this was merely an analogy. It was exceedingly different to reality. Regardless, entering the deep sea was an extremely difficult task. The Order’s ancient writings pertaining to cultivation approximately divides the mental plane into different regions, shallow, middle, deep, abyssal, and absolute. Five regions. As a Clearsworn First Oblatum, Zheng Xiao could only slosh about at the border to the middle region even in his peak state.

However, now his body and soul shook with stimulation due to the rapidly changing frequency of the waves. It was as if he was warped and distorted into an ugly devilish fish. He suddenly penetrated downward, entering deeper into regions of the deep sea that he had never tasted. Here, he was under the pressure of a terrifying amount of information.

Zheng Xiao moaned. All he could feel was an intense morphing of the flesh and bones of his entire body. His soul was soon deformed beyond recognition. The extreme pressure brought him extreme pain for within it came an abundance of information. However, he lacked the energy to even receive this information, let alone comprehend it.

Perhaps An Weng could do it. Could he really do it though?

Zheng Xiao could vaguely sense the others through the Evolution Field. An Weng was absolutely not having an easy time right now. Every change in frequency to the waves as led by the holy entity was an absolute torment to the centenarian old man’s body. Irreversible damage was being caused to An Weng.

This was a verification. A verification where life was the price... Oh?

Zheng Xiao was not too sure; he thought he had heard something. Regardless, he could clearly feel something seep into the Evolution Field at this very moment. A slender and faint shadow flitted across the surroundings of the Scales of Truth. It moved in a winding and turning orbit, its insect-like limbs caused one to feel not only puzzlement but extreme palpitation.