Free Web NovelChapter 214: Chapter 207: New World
Pain.
It was like thousands of red-hot needles were being driven into the gaps between his bones.
Or like a rusty saw, slowly grating against his spine.
When Ian "woke up," his first sensation was pain.
This was no illusion. It was real pain.
He twitched a finger. His knuckles felt rusted. Every flex was answered with a crisp CRACK and the sharp, tearing agony of muscle.
He gasped for breath. The air was thick with the smell of rust, dust, and the foul stench of something long since rotted.
His eyelids felt as if they were weighted with lead. It took all his effort to pry them open a crack.
His vision was a blur. The world was spinning.
The first thing to come into focus was the gloomy, gray sky.
It wasn’t a normal gray, but a dead, suffocating gray, as if an ashtray had been dumped out over the world, pressing down until it was hard to breathe.
A few rays of dark red light seeped through cracks in the thick cloud cover, casting the surroundings in murky shadows.
Then, the architecture.
He was lying in a field of ruins. Shattered stone slabs lay beneath him, and beside him, several pillars, broken into pieces, jutted from the ground at odd angles.
The pillars were entwined with black, vein-like vines.
In the distance, a collapsed archway stood beside a half-crumbled wall. Its plaster had peeled away, revealing scorched black brickwork beneath.
Wind whistled through the cracks in the ruins, a mournful sound, like something weeping.
Ian gasped again, a searing pain burning in his chest.
He tried to raise a hand to his chest. His fingers came back sticky and wet. It was blood.
A lot of it. It had soaked through his tattered robe, already half-congealed, cold and stiff against his skin.
’Li Xing...’ The name of this body.
It pierced his mind like a shard of broken glass, carrying with it despair, indignation, and a final, almost inaudible plea.
And with it came the final memory fragments, left behind before the original soul faded away.
Dusk Star City. The Star Trace Clan. The last scion of nobility.
Two brothers. Li Xing and Li Yao.
Last night... an internal rebellion in Maple City... a massive uprising...
The city fell... separated from his younger brother... hunted...
Grievously wounded... fled... fled to these ancient observatory ruins...
The images were intermittent, like a damaged film reel, flashing for a moment before cutting to black.
The final image froze on the blurry back of a young boy, shoved and jostled by a chaotic crowd amidst the firelight, pushed away in another direction.
He turned back, his face a mask of terror, his mouth wide open, shouting something that couldn’t be heard.
"Li Yao..." Ian murmured the name, his throat feeling as though it were filled with sand.
Then, a wave of even stronger emotions washed over him.
Indignation, fury, hatred, and... a deep-seated worry.
Restore the clan. Find his brother. Get revenge.
This was the vow Li Xing had made to the Void with his last ounce of Soul Power before he died.
It was also the "price" Ian had promised to pay when he signed that contract.
"Hah..." Ian closed his eyes, forcing himself to calm down.
The pain was real, the wounds were severe, but this body wasn’t entirely dead.
Or rather, the moment he arrived and merged with the fading Soul, it had forcefully clung to one last breath of life.
’I need to figure out my current situation first.’
Ian tried to mobilize his Spiritual Power, but a sharp, needle-like pain stabbed into his mind, and his vision went black.
’It’s no use.’
This body’s Sea of Spirit was like a shattered mirror, riddled with cracks.
The faint golden wisp of Spiritual Power that Ian had brought with him was as thin as air. The slightest stir sent a tremor through his very Soul.
’Crystal Silk Thread, Frost Ash Beam, Gravity Collapse Ball...’
’I can’t use a single one of the Witchcraft techniques I relied on to survive.’
’It’s not that I can’t use them. It’s that this body, and the "Rules" of this world, are vastly different from the Wizard World.’
’Right now, I’m pathetically weak.’
’But... I’m not completely without options.’
Gritting his teeth against the pain, Ian sank his consciousness into the depths of his Sea of Spirit.
’I knew it... You’d be here.’
In the center of that shattered Sea of Spirit, a translucent, faintly glowing interface hovered silently.
[Name: Li Xing (Ian)]
[Age: 21]
[Realm: Awakening Middle Tier (63%)]
[Bloodline: Star Attractor (Faintly Awakened)]
[Status: Grievously Wounded (Ruptured Organs, Excessive Blood Loss, Fractured Left Shoulder, Minor Contaminant Erosion)]
[Skills:
Starlight Perception (Bloodline Technique) - Skilled (72%)
Star Step (Bloodline Technique) - Beginner (41%)
Basic Swordsmanship (Rune Combat Technique) - Skilled (65%)]
The status panel.
’It’s never let me down!’
’Although the layout is simpler and its functions seem limited to this body and this world’s system, it’s still here.’
Ian stared at the list of conditions following "Grievously Wounded" and his lips twisted into a grimace.
’Starting on Hell Mode, are we...?’
He tried to move his left leg. He winced in pain, but the bone wasn’t broken.
He could move his right arm, but he couldn’t put any strength into his left shoulder. The slightest motion sent a piercing pain through him.
His insides felt like they’d been churned to a pulp. Every breath carried the taste of blood.
He looked at the writhing vines covering the pillars. They looked vaguely familiar.
’So this world really has suffered from the Abyss’s Erosion...’
’These damn things... they must be "creations" left behind in this world by the Abyss.’
As for the "Awakening Tier" on the panel, having absorbed the memories, he had a rough idea of his current level of strength.
Compared to his original body, he was a complete weakling.
Roughly on par with a Middle- to Late-Stage Apprentice from the Wizard World, perhaps even a bit weaker.
Ian pushed himself up from the ground, inch by excruciating inch, until he was sitting upright.
With every movement, his wounds threatened to split open, and fresh, warm blood seeped out, staining his robe a deeper crimson.
He leaned against a broken stone pillar, panting for a long moment until the dizzy spell finally subsided.
Then, he began to check his belongings.
A deflated leather waterskin hung from his waist. He shook it. It was less than half-full of murky water.
From inside his robe, he pulled out a small cloth pouch. Inside were a few pieces of black rations, hard as stone.
There was also a small, oilpaper-wrapped packet of powder that smelled of bitter herbs—probably some kind of wound salve from this world.
Most importantly, there was a pendant hanging around his neck.
A silver chain held a jet-black stone about the size of a pigeon’s egg.
Its surface was rough and covered in fine pores, but it was heavy in his hand and radiated a strange, gentle warmth.
’The Starfall Core.’
’The greatest treasure passed down through the Li Xing Clan.’
Ian gripped it, sensing a faint energy circulating slowly inside.
The energy was exceptionally pure, like the most tranquil star in the night sky.
This energy resonated, faintly but perceptibly, with the thin golden mist in his Sea of Spirit.
’One of the sources of the Star Attractor bloodline, perhaps...?’
He tucked the pendant back inside his robe, keeping it close to his skin.
Next, from the deepest recess of his robe, he drew out a thin, leather-bound booklet. Its corners were frayed from frequent handling.
The cover was a dark, somber blue, inscribed with several twisted characters in a silver pigment.
He didn’t recognize the script, but he could "understand" its meaning.
[Bloodline Secret Scripture: Star-Attracting Chapter].
Flipping it open, he found it densely packed with runes and diagrams, also written in silver pigment.
There were also diagrams illustrating human meditation and the circulation of energy.
Many parts were blurred and indistinct. The pages had yellowed with age, so brittle they seemed ready to crumble at the slightest touch.
’The path to bloodline advancement...’
Ian flipped through it quickly. With the comprehension of a near Level Two Wizard’s Soul Essence, he swiftly grasped the core concepts.
This world’s Extraordinary Power stemmed from bloodlines and runes.
Bloodlines were exclusive to the pre-cataclysm nobility, while runes represented the orthodox path to Extraordinary Power in this world.
The Star Attractor... A legendary ancient bloodline said to resonate with Star Gravity, faintly influence gravity, and possess an uncanny sense of direction and energy-attracting properties.
It was very special and very rare, particularly its connection to "Gravity."
A thought struck Ian. His Gravity Witchcraft...
’Perhaps this will be one of the core gains from my projection’s arrival in this realm.’
’But it’s too early to think about that.’
He closed the booklet and carefully put it away.
’The priority now is to survive, treat my injuries, and then...’
’...find my missing brother, Li Yao.’
According to Li Xing’s fragmented memories, a riot had erupted in Maple City last night, and the two brothers were separated in the chaos.
Li Xing, grievously wounded, had fought his way out of the city and hidden in these long-abandoned ancient observatory ruins, located on a barren mountain outside the city walls.
The location was relatively secluded, but being in the Wilderness, it was by no means safe.
Ian remained sitting, his ears pricked as he listened intently to the sounds of his surroundings.
The wind still moaned, and in the distance, he could hear the low, intermittent howls of some wild beast.
The sound was pained and twisted, not like that of any normal animal.
From deep within the ruins, a faint skittering sound emerged, like something crawling through the piles of rubble.
Danger was everywhere.
Ian took a deep breath. Enduring the intense pain, he began to attempt the most basic "Star-drawing Technique" for meditation, as recorded in the Star Trace Secret Manual.
’I need to recover some power as quickly as possible, even just a little.’
His consciousness sank, and he mobilized the wisp of faint golden mist in his Sea of Spirit, which began to rotate slowly in a mysterious rhythm.
The Starfall Core on his chest grew slightly warm, and a thread of cool, pure energy seeped out.
It seeped through his skin and into his body, slowly beginning to repair his ruptured wounds and nourish his parched energy channels.
It was slow, as slow as a snail’s crawl.
But it was working.
On the panel, in the [Status] field, the two words "Grievously Wounded" flickered faintly, but the progress was almost imperceptible.
At the same time, the skill level for [Starlight Perception] ticked up slightly, from 72% to 72.01%.
Ian’s heart settled. ’As long as there’s progress, that’s all that matters.’
The panel’s "Positive Feedback" talent, in this world, seemed to manifest as an ability for ultra-high-speed learning of any skill or bloodline ability, even allowing for optimization and Limit-Breaking.
’As long as I can practice, I can improve rapidly.’
This was his greatest asset in this perilous, blighted world.
「Time passed, bit by bit.」
The dark red light in the sky gradually dimmed. The dead-gray clouds pressed even lower, looking as though they were about to collapse.
The skittering sound from deep within the ruins drew closer.
It was mixed with a teeth-grinding, scraping sound, like bone rubbing against bone.
Ian’s eyes snapped open.
Deep within his pupils, a faint golden light glinted.
He used the stone pillar to support himself, struggling to his feet.
His left shoulder still throbbed with intense pain, but the internal bleeding seemed to have slowed. At least his breathing was no longer quite so agonizing.
He looked toward the source of the sound—the shadows of a mostly collapsed archway, now covered in black vines.
Two points of eerie green light ignited in the darkness.
Then a third, and a fourth...
