"All who have come to witness the ceremony are my honored guests. Please rest first within the Holy Sanctuary and wait for the Dragon Race essences to be fully assembled."
After Zosia finished speaking, she turned into a stream of light and vanished, her two followers going after her.
Jenova paused, glanced at Li Ang. It was obvious he badly wanted to learn that move "Chaos Destruction", but Esso’s request—what Zosia had mentioned—was even more important. As a messenger, he clearly didn’t dare neglect the mission of the Eternal King.
Pointing at Li Ang, he shouted, "I’ll come back for you," then likewise became a stream of light.
Freyia, however, did not leave. She and Inanna had just exchanged a few moves; both Dragons were panting heavily.
"Why aren’t you going along with your boy toy?" Inanna said irritably.
Freyia froze at her words. The term "boy toy" in Nebis Language was a condensed form of the word for "adultery"; the Fairy Dragon didn’t understand it at first hearing, but a brief moment of thought made it clear.
In the Ancient Era, when grammar was still simple, this kind of expression was novel. Li Ang felt this was something she had picked up later after observing the mortal world.
The word made Freyia give Inanna a surprised once-over.
"Hey, what an interesting term. I didn’t expect that after flowers finally bloomed on your lump of stone, everything about you would change. That just makes me even more..."
With a roar, Inanna shifted into her true form, chasing the Fairy Dragon all over the place. Realizing she was truly angry, Freyia also transformed into her true form; one pursued, one fled, nearly smashing down the tall walls of the Holy Sanctuary as they fought their way into the distance.
In an instant, only Li Ang, Diao, and those few of the Yunxiang Race remained on the platform.
Diao cast a languid look over. "Great Witch, how will you decide next? Do you require these few ancient Beast-Earkin to attend your bed?"
"What nonsense?"
Li Ang knew the young girl was teasing him; that was absolutely not something he would do.
He turned to the Yunxiang Race young girl behind him who, like Andasu, possessed the "King’s Golden Eyes", and asked, "From here, can you find your way home?"
The young girl nodded, pointing to the sky. "The stars can guide my way."
"Then you should go home. I’ll see you to the gate of the Holy Sanctuary."
Though it was an Illusion Realm, everything still needed to follow logic. If he simply let them go, he didn’t know whether Zosia’s attendants within the Holy Sanctuary might seize them, so Li Ang led the way, escorting them toward the gate from which they’d arrived.
As they walked once more down the wide avenue, Li Ang asked them about their homeland.
Later, he would have to seek out the Yunxiang Race’s ancestral land. For now, all he knew was that it lay hidden deep within the Whispering Sand Sea; Li Ang wanted more clues.
However, aside from knowing that they lived upon a vast territory of interwoven Rock Mountains, deserts, and oases, they couldn’t provide much useful information.
"Benefactor wishes to visit us in the future? If so, you can use the positioning of the stars as reference," the Golden-Eyed young girl said.
"The stars, huh?"
Li Ang looked up at the firmament. In the Illusion Realm’s Ancient sky, one could faintly see specks of starlight even in daylight, very different from Nebis as it was now.
"You might not be able to find it just by watching the stars," Inanna said.
She had driven off Freyia and now flew swiftly from the distance to Li Ang’s side, just in time to catch that line of conversation.
The Earth Dragon added, "After the world fractured, Nebis’s starry sky is no longer the same as it once was."
"That’s a pity."
Li Ang had thought he might learn the location of the Yunxiang Race homeland via the Realm of Ten Thousand Spirits.
The Golden-Eyed young girl considered for a moment, then reached into her collar and took out a metal pendant wreathed in fragrance.
The item immediately drew the gaze of all three of them, because its craftsmanship was so exquisite it seemed not to belong to this era—no, not to Nebis at all.
In the Ancient Era there were not yet so many artistic schools, though ornate adornments would exist in later ages. Yet this pendant of the young girl’s, its interplay of lines and patterns, was a style Nebis had never seen—using abstract, three-dimensional forms to depict a tableau of circling stars.
"This is a treasure granted by the Ancestral God. After it absorbs the Power of Stars, it points toward the direction where He resides."
The Yunxiang Race young girl clasped the pendant in both hands and began to pray. Magic Power formed a vortex around her, stirring up Dark Element winds, as though she were communing with some existence.
When she opened her eyes again, the golden light gathered within the pendant was still surging. Without hesitation, she extended the pendant to Li Ang.
"The Ancestral God has already agreed to entrust it to you."
Li Ang, astonished, reached out and accepted it. The ornament did not dissolve into a Phantom, but settled solidly into his palm.
"I hope there will be a day when we meet again, Benefactor."
The young girl with the King’s Golden Eyes was crisp and straightforward. She did not linger, but led her people directly out of the Holy Sanctuary, into the ancient wasteland ahead. Only, she still looked back every few steps, until this side had completely vanished from sight.
Li Ang studied the pendant in his hand. He could not decipher its internal structure, but he could sense a similarity to the Cultivation Tools used in Andasu’s cultivation—rather, that Andasu’s inherited tools were a weakened version of this same kind of artifact.
And this one in his hand was the original—an item from the Starry Beast.
[Star Navigation Beacon]
[A navigation marker used by the Starry Beast clan of "Anshu" to determine direction within the star sea. It can draw upon the Power of Stars; when it comes into contact with the Power of Bahamut, it can transform the Power of Stars into Dark Element]
[Tier: 10]
[Purpose: Points toward the location of the giant wolf]
This was a cosmic navigation marker.
Having read plenty of science fiction, Li Ang could accept this reality, yet he still found it deeply uncanny. He hadn’t expected the starry expanse beyond Nebis to be so vast, housing Starry Beasts that had never once been spoken of.
But he had long been aware of the Yunxiang Race’s peculiarity. Their bloodline bound to Dark Element truly exceeded the ordinary, powerful beyond measure; saying they were not of this world actually made perfect sense.
"Great Witch, you know this race?" Diao asked.
Li Ang nodded and briefly explained that one of his party members was of the Yunxiang Race, mentioning the Curse they had suffered, as well as the events before and after his encounter with the Demon.
"So that’s how it is." After listening, Diao glanced at the beacon in Li Ang’s hand, then looked toward the direction in which the Yunxiang Race had departed. "This truly is a wondrous Ancient-era bond."
Li Ang stowed the beacon away. For the Realm of Ten Thousand Spirits to grant it to him, it surely had a purpose. Perhaps it had nothing to do with this "trial", and was simply meant to aid him in fulfilling the Yunxiang Race’s long-cherished wish to return to their homeland.
"Let’s head back."
On the way back to the quarters Zosia had arranged, Li Ang asked Inanna again, "What’s the story behind the Extraterrestrial Exiles? Did such races already exist in the Ancient Era?"
"Yes. In fact, there were more of them in ancient times."
Inanna said that the dimension of "Beyond the Star Dome" only formed after the world shattered. Before that, beyond Nebis lay a vast expanse of space filled with chaotic Energy, difficult to explore. Thus, neither the Dragon Ancestor nor the Primordial Beings ventured outward—after all, they had yet to comprehend even their own world.
Later, even when the Eternal King Esso possessed some ability to travel into the starry sky, he found the cold and empty cosmos uninteresting.
Yet within the starry void existed powerful lives that did not belong to Nebis, occasionally passing near it.
In the Ancient Era, their Power more easily fell upon the Earth, giving rise to all manner of anomalies.
"Just as Demon beasts form when Magic Power leaks from the Magic Power Dimension, the powers from beyond the stars will occasionally, thanks to Father God’s creative Power, give birth to new races. Some of those races are weak, possessed only of special Talents, but others preserve the mighty Power of traversing the starry void, and thus stand out in particular."
Li Ang understood—the Yunxiang Race was one of the latter.
"That ’Ancestral God’ the young girl mentioned—do you know who that is?"
"I may. It’s a beast from beyond the stars, like a giant wolf, its Power surpassing that of many Transcendent Demon Beasts, because it dwells upon the Earth and can be sensed by me. However, it was struck down by Esso, and over the long ages its Power has continually drained, never recovering."
Inanna said, "I know you wish to find its location, but I’m sorry—the world has shattered, and nothing lies where it once did. The Earth is shrouded by a Curse; I can’t sense anything upon it."
"It’s fine. We already have the intel we need."
Li Ang and the two of them returned to the lodgings Zosia had prepared, waiting for the coming of the ritual.

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