Chapter 360: 135. Stars
“First, both parties need to flap their wings and fly down from the parasol tree, circle around the tree, and announce the marriage between both clans.”
That night, in the library of the troll race, there were quite a few books accumulated from the troll race and other races, including those from the phoenix race. Fisher discovered that the items made by the phoenix race were mostly crafted from Pure Ice. This rare material, scarce in the outside world, seemed inexhaustible near the parasol tree, further piquing Fisher’s curiosity about its appearance.
At that moment, Daliwu was holding a book, reading while lifting her head. She glanced at Fisher, who was reading a book with Emhart, and then looked over at Valentina, who was lying motionless on a nearby lounge chair. She curled her lip and then traced a line with her finger in the air.
“You guys don’t have wings, so let’s simplify it. Just circle our village instead. Then, the relatives from both sides need to exchange gifts. Where are your parents?”
Valentina and Fisher looked up at Daliwu simultaneously, not saying a word but shaking their heads, the meaning clear.
Daliwu scratched her head in silence, then traced another line in the air with her finger.
“Ah, right, you two running here by yourselves couldn’t possibly invite your families. Let’s simplify this as well and change it to just you two exchanging gifts. Then, both the male and female phoenixes need to wear crowns and jewelry made of Pure Ice for the ceremony. Do you have any Pure Ice to make these things?”
Fisher nodded, and seeing this, Daliwu finally relaxed and smiled.
“That’s good. Let me see; my craftsmanship is quite good.”
Fisher then took out the piece of Pure Ice he had obtained from the military in Miya, and Daliwu inspected it briefly, noticing it was about the size of his palm. She then looked back up at the serious Fisher and Valentina, almost unable to contain her laughter.
“You guys have nothing, yet you’re talking about a holy wedding? If we simplify it further, it would be even less than our troll weddings. I’d say just share a room, look at how well you two understand each other—why bother with a holy wedding?”
Valentina blushed and tried to sit up to explain but found herself too weak to do so, collapsing back against the lounge chair. This momentarily dimmed her aura; she didn’t get back up, only lying on the chair and whispering,
“Who could have predicted that the Moon Princess’s last will would be this? Of course, we weren’t prepared for so many things after climbing such a high mountain.”
Daliwu scratched her head in silence, shaking her head as she tried to shorten the remaining processes. She sighed, stood up, and took out another copy of the troll wedding manual.
“It seems we can only refer to our ceremony process. However, if the Moon Princess was waiting for you two, she must have known that with your conditions, it would be impossible to complete the holy wedding ceremony. Therefore, what she likely wanted were just the most basic elements of a holy wedding. I’ll make arrangements; the day after tomorrow, we’ll be ready for the transport ceremony and your holy wedding. Feel free to take whatever you need from here; I need to go check on my Kokoliah.”
Valentina waved her hand, while Fisher merely nodded, picking up a scroll of Pure Ice next to him. He noticed the title written in ancient Northern Region language at the top: “The Book of Stars.”
Curiously arching his eyebrows, he invited Valentina to use her bloodline to open the sealed Pure Ice scroll, and together with Emhart, they began to scrutinize its contents.
The scroll seemed to have been written by the phoenix race, documenting the war against the Chaos race. It was very thin, and the introduction began with,
“In the 527th year of the Tree Era, the husband of the king passed away. The king, amidst sorrow, proclaimed that within a century, a strong enemy would descend to the mortal realm, and when that time comes, the beings below would suffer terribly and cease to exist. Later, the eldest prince got married, and there was another prophecy. The king, concerned for the people and understanding the principle of ‘if the lips are gone, the teeth are cold,’ resolved to make provisions ahead of time, existing together with the beings below.”
“In the 612th year of the Tree Era, unseen beings indeed descended from the starry sky. The king said their essence was like a chaotic star from the spirit realm, hence named ‘Star.’ Five stars descended—two in the south, two on the eastern shore, and one on the northern shore. Although the king, prince, princess, and the various tribes of the snowy realm had made prior arrangements, they still suffered heavy casualties.”
“In just a moment, the southern shore tribes suffered tens of thousands of casualties. The eastern shore’s land forces fell into the sea, and the northern mountain range collapsed, making the climate and terrain unrecognizable. During the war, the eldest and second princes defended the east, while the eldest princess led the various tribes to guard the south, and the king alone defended the north. They fought tirelessly for over ten days, and the entire snowy realm, except for the shadows of the trees, almost sank to the ground. Twenty-seven tribes, including the unicorn, cold deer, dwarf, ice kite, and fog cat races perished, with half of six tribes suffering casualties. The phoenix lost one hundred twenty-eight wings, and the remaining tribes remained silent. The king mourned the losses and commanded the prince and princess to take charge.”
Fisher’s eyes trembled slightly; he had only just learned that there were only five Chaos beings invading the Northern region. Even with that, they nearly turned the Northern region upside down. He found himself speechless and continued reading, as the notations by the recorder ceased, leaving behind the accounts of the narrator, which formed the main body of the scroll.
“I am a relatively weak phoenix in my clan. Though I participated in the war, I cannot claim any achievements; rather, I have been cared for a lot by my kin, and hence I survived, feeling guilty towards the warriors of my clan, trolls, tundra birds, and humans. However, I did discover some details about the ‘Stars’ during the battle, and I want to record them here to warn future generations.”
“There are five types of stars, and their shadows in the spirit realm correspond precisely to the shapes of distant celestial bodies in the sky. It is said that they observe the world at all times from the spirit realm, hence calling themselves stars. Their ranks range from low to high—divided into five categories: ‘Northern Sky Seat,’ ‘Northern Sky Arch,’ ‘Southern Sky Seat,’ ‘Equatorial Seat,’ and ‘Zodiac,’ with a total of eighty-three ranks.”
“The five invading the snowy realm were the weaker ‘Heavenly Arrow’ and ‘Heavenly Lyre’ of the Northern Sky, the stronger ‘Celestial King’ and ‘Celestial Queen’ of the Northern Sky Arch, and the mightiest ‘Giant Brew’ of the Southern Sky. The two weaker ones are not far apart in power from the princess, the two from the Northern Sky Arch are similar to the king, stronger than the two princes, while the one from the Southern Sky outmatches all four. Had it not been for the advance preparations made by the prophecy, the complete annihilation of the snowy realm’s forces would have been inevitable.”
“The stars possess nearly limitless magical power, exaggerated physical abilities, and, even viewed through the eyes of a phoenix, only described as ‘mythical characteristics.'”
The latter part likely detailed some appearances and combat encounters with the Chaos beings that the phoenix had during that time.
Among those records was the encounter of the Moon Princess against the Heavenly Arrow, where the Heavenly Arrow absorbed the light of day, forming a rain of light that almost covered the entire Sardinia Kingdom, pinning countless terrified troops into the ground with dense light arrows that went dozens of meters deep, leaving no corpses behind. The Celestial King manipulated the frozen ocean to create a colossal tsunami that blocked out the sky, while the Celestial Queen summoned storms capable of reshaping the terrain. The two princes were helpless and could only use their swords to raise large chunks of the northern land in an attempt to block.
Undoubtedly, both the Phoenix King and her children had reached mythical ranks. Fisher speculated that the two princes and one princess were likely fifteen ranks, while the Phoenix King was probably at the sixteenth rank. Thus, it was easy to deduce the five levels of the Chaos beings, ranging from the Northern Sky to the Zodiac, covering ranks fifteen to nineteen, and notably, the Chaos beings in the real world were constructed bodies rather than their true forms. These ranks only measure their capabilities in the real world.
So, this meant that in that war, the overall combat strength of the Northern region consisted of a sixteenth rank being, three fifteenth rank beings, and hundreds of thousands of other races ranging from one to fourteenth rank countering two fifteenth rank beings, two sixteenth rank beings, and one seventeenth rank Chaos being?
Moreover, Fisher had serious doubts that, aside from the phoenix and a few beings over the tenth rank, other races could not directly participate in combat and were relegated to logistics; the main force was indeed the phoenix and the six tribes, which marked the beginning of the noble phoenix bloodline.
Even as a beginning mythical rank, Fisher found the combat process narrated by the phoenix quite alarming. Though now, there were hardly any mythical beings left, right before him was a being just one step away from the mythical rank—Erwind.
He sighed lightly and set down the scroll. Valentina, quite curious, took the scroll from his hands, wanting to see what had caused Fisher to show such a troubled expression, while Emhart glanced around and said softly,
“I reminded you earlier when we were on the Iceberg Queen in the Southern Ocean. These mythical beings are not to be trifled with. I was shocked when you asked me back then. I described the Chaos beings to you as the ‘Water Snake’ from the Southern Sky, the only one noted by Baemon. Each Chaos being looks different; I don’t know if she has seen others.”
“This was just the phoenix battling five Chaos beings; it was already a small skirmish. The subsequent mythical war was what separated the Southern Continent from the Western Continent and sank the Eastern Continent and the World Tree; even the vast ocean could hardly withstand their battles.”
Fisher’s expression turned grim, but he wasn’t panicking. At that moment, a flicker of golden light passed through his eyes, revealing lines of ethereal text:
[Troll Race]
[Number of Bindings Available: 1/1]
[Binding Object: Adult Female Troll, Daliwu]
Yes, previously, when he discussed the holy wedding ceremony with Daliwu, he had already bound this carefree troll female. It was still uncertain whether he could study or not; he could only rely on reading the troll race’s books and Emhart to increase the progress of social research. However, Fisher didn’t mind too much; the important thing was that he had gathered all the research races from the Snowy Mountain Clan.
At that moment, the ethereal golden light surged brighter in front of Fisher, as if it were about to cover his entire line of sight. However, the golden light didn’t continue to spread; instead, it outlined the words of the “Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans” in what seemed like a darkly humorous artistic text.
[Congratulations, you have gathered the brand new subhuman race tag sequence: Snowy Mountain Six Clans!]
[Contributor’s Note: Throughout the long history of the Northern region, the phoenix living in the parasol tree and the other six clans have never recognized each other. However, driven by the clever hands of fate, they forged a solid imprint named ‘Loyalty’ with mutual bonds.]
[Even though the bond of loyalty forged has accumulated countless dust and blood over the years, it has still passed down to the present and is known to you. Oh, by the way, this can also serve as a warning to you, who is about to form relations with an incomplete phoenix, lest you suffer the consequences (the ‘deadly enemy’ ray).]
[(っ`-c)]
Fisher looked at the floating ethereal text of the “Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans” with a face full of black lines. The luminous words emitted a fine beam that kept flashing in his eyes, as if it really was aiming some spurious “deadly enemy ray” at him.
Reaching this point, Fisher felt that the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans, which had been continuously enhancing his reproductive abilities, had to bear primary responsibility. He had already been sufficiently restrained until now; how much more rational could he be?
The next second, the floating golden ethereal text vanished instantaneously, only to be replaced by another line of text.
[You have unlocked the Sequence Reward: Snowy Mountain Blessed Clan (Purple)]
[Constitution +15, Reproductive Enhancement (Strong), World Tree Tear Drop]
[Reproductive Enhancement (Strong): After engaging in reproductive activities, your physical and soul recovery will receive a slight boost for up to 48 hours. This boost will vary according to your emotional state, with a minimum of 1% and a maximum of 50%. The cooldown time ranges from 15 to 90 days. (“Strong” level modified)]
[World Tree Tear Drop: Used as an additive for forging angelic sacred artifacts. It is said that a master with extremely high forging skills can imbue the sacred artifacts infused with World Tree Tear with consciousness and thought, a pinnacle skill in the art of forging.]
Fisher stared at the ethereal words appearing regarding the [Reproductive Enhancement (Strong)] for a long time, unable to produce any words. Just moments before, the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans could still scold him for being unfaithful to his partner, but in the next second, it instantly provided him with a reproductive ability boost, leaving Fisher feeling somewhat helpless and increasingly convinced that he was blameless.
However, the most important thing was that even after obtaining the constitution bonus, Fisher, who was previously close to the eleventh rank, had only managed to reach around the thirteenth rank. While this was more than sufficient compared to many other non-mythical subhuman races, it was still insufficient compared to Erwind, and the Snowy Mountain Blessed Clan was the last spot where he could gain a substantial constitution bonus.
From then on, even if he diligently studied Daliwu, he would not be able to exceed Erwind with his life rank; he needed other methods.
Although the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans had granted him what it referred to as a reproductive enhancement, Fisher currently did not want to take this darkly humorous bonus into consideration, nor would he in the future, as it did not align with his values.
Enhancing power through reproduction sounded too strange, and he could not possibly be expected to find a female for that purpose before each major battle, right?
First of all, he had something capable of killing Erwind in one blow—the [Death Rune]—which could not be considered without any chance of winning; however, from his perspective, it seemed extremely low. He still needed another weapon to assist him.
Fisher’s gaze trembled slightly as he looked at his hands, a term again flashing in his mind.
The dual-ringed magic he had failed to successfully master, that rivaled mythical lethality—the [Dragon Slayer Spear].
Please vote, tip, and support; it is very important to me!
Thank you for your support!
(The End of This Chapter)
