Beneath a sky of splintered starlight, the Shattered Star Plains' dust trickled between Chen Yuan's crystalline fingertips. He gazed at the tri‑hued orb floating in his palm—jade‑green magic‑path qi, silver astral radiance, and fine black filaments of chaos, each winding through the others in a strange cadence. The gears of his mech‑arm no longer grated harshly; instead they resonated with the orb's vibrations, as if performing a silent war‑hymn.
"Patriarch, this body‑upgrade bundle never warned me about a break‑in period," Chen Yuan grumbled. Suddenly the crystal arm lashed out, three ethereal blades gouging deep ruts in the earth. "Great—now I risk cleaving my own caravan. If Old Mo makes me replace parts, you're paying."
The pendant at his chest shivered gently—its own version of consoling words.
Lilith's shadow‑cloak swept across his pauldrons; her silver gaze danced with the orb's glow:
"Your astral‑core is converging upon you. Selene says you are rewriting the star‑trail itself."
She traced a fingertip across the crystal surface; her shadow‑energy transmuted into an impromptu barrier. "But your mech‑arm still repels the astral light—the last blade deviated seventeen degrees."
"Seventeen degrees is enough to lop off two tentacles on Barû," Chen Yuan laughed, briefly testing his gear‑joints. "Besides, Earth gamers know: high‑level builds need some skill checks—like using bone‑scales for a mouse, astral qi for a keyboard. Shame there's no skill menu."
Old Mo's caravan lurched as a new astral rift opened beneath its wheels; tendrils of chaos rose up from below.
"The Herald of Star‑Devourers arrives!" Old Mo shouted. "The Maw spawn that slipped through are back—with Starborn abominations!"
Selene's mask reunited into shards; the Astral Core at her brow flared:
"They're the Star‑Trail Devourers—anyone resonating with the pendant they feast upon!"
Chen Yuan's Bone‑Vein Resonance exploded—he "saw" scores of aberrations emerging from the ruined observatories: star‑dust tentacle hybrids whose every eye reflected the pendant's storm‑rune. His crystal arm transformed into a giant rune‑saw; storm‑runes verged on every tooth:
"Perfect—time to test the Third Rite of Reverse‑Entropy."
He charged a cluster of beasts, the saw's blade severing them and turning their tentacles back into harmless astral particles. The rifts closed under the quake‑freeze of Blood‑Death Qi:
"Old Mo, point the Starborn Prism at their cores! Lilith, seal the rifts with shadow‑energy—no stray star‑dust!"
The combat twisted unnaturally: shattered forms reassembled into smaller, more numerous foes—until Chen Yuan realized their cores were forged counterfeit jade‑slips. With precise crystal‑joints, he crushed the seventh false token:
The tri‑hued orb expanded, cleansing every ounce of star‑dust within a hundred‑meter radius, revealing the polluted corpses of the Starborn beneath.
"So these devils were mass‑produced knock‑offs of my pendant!" Chen Yuan kicked a remains‑heap. "Pendant—are we violating intellectual property?"
A tremor shook the ground; from the rift's heart emerged a lone figure in a cloak of star‑dust. Its face was sheer star‑trail, and its chest housed a collapsing chaos‑core—the Star‑Eater Priest of the Old Ones.
"Key‑bearer…" the Priest's voice screeched like grinding constellations. "You think mending the Prime Core halts entropy? Look at your companions—"
He gestured, and Selene's Astral Core cracked. "The Starborn relic itself unravels in your presence."
Lilith's shadow‑sword flashed, but in striking the Priest, it was swallowed by star‑dust:
"Chen Yuan—he attacks the astral‑primal at its source!"
Chen Yuan's crystal arm snapped into bone‑cannon mode. Rather than fire, he invoked the Reverse‑Entropy Codex, synchronizing his field with Selene's Astral Core. Miraculously, cracks began to fuse; the Priest's star‑trail visage wavered.
"Here's your repair potion for the relic!" he proclaimed, training the cannon on the chaos‑core. "Pendant—Warn me before buffing allies next time—I almost thought Selene was toast!"
The pendant flared hot—its own scolding.
Twelve spectral copies of the Priest burst forth, each wielding a unique chaos‑core. Chen Yuan's Astral‑Trail Perception failed—these cores mimicked his pendant's every move, proof the Old Ones had studied his tactics.
"Your old tricks won't work here." He triggered mech‑arm overdrive; gears whirred as the Azure Bone mechanist avatar shimmered into being. "If you can mimic my energies, then I'll use the most primal magic‑path art: Corpse‑Refinement!"
He recalled his mechanist corpses from Iron Fortress—clockwork‑bodies forged with bone and gear. Now they, too, were immune to the star‑trail's sway, cleaving through the spectral Priests.
Selene's Astral Core burst with light, projecting the real core's hiding‑place: the twelfth star‑trail fissure. In that moment, when Chen Yuan fired a crystal arrow, it shattered the chaos‑core into pure magic‑path spirit‑qi—and the rifts began absorbing the aberrations.
"See? That's legit versus knock‑off!" he cheered, catching the Priest's drifting remains—a rune‑etched tablet within.
"Old Mo—how many Star‑Herbs is this one worth? I'm done drawing blood‑glyphs; golden ichor stains my cloak beyond washing."
As battle subsided, the Shattered Star Plains' star‑map cleared—new constellations bloomed:
A sword‑shaped pattern of storm‑runes and star‑trail. Selene said it was the astral realm's salute to the Reverse‑Entropy Master.
"Time to return to Mist‑Hidden City," Lilith said, dabbing her silver eyes. "We've found the Abyssal Temple's last stronghold—deep under the Rifted Plain."
"Perfect," Chen Yuan grinned, flexing his steaming crystal fingers. "My mech‑arm could use a bit of geothermic forging anyway."
Old Mo's caravan rolled forward, carriage wheels inscribing star‑trail glyphs into the dust:
"Step lively," Old Mo chuckled. "For you, the path's been paved at every legacy site. Now you are both key and heart. But be warned: the Maw's forces will not rest. And I saw… another pendant‑bearer lies sleeping in the Core!"
Selene's mask and Chen Yuan's pendant resonated with a tremor:
"A woman—her eyes hold Earth's night skies."
Chen Yuan's chest tightened as his father's remnant quaked within the pendant. He recalled that museum exhibit—the blur of a middle‑aged woman touching the jade. Could that have been his mother?
"Pendant, how many relatives do you hide?" he murmured. The pendant trembled as if affirming. "No matter—infesting my family tree is one thing. Next, after we conquer the Abyssal Maw, we'll dig up the ancestral plot—assuming my mech‑arm doesn't melt in magma."
As the caravan's bells and gear‑clicks faded across the clearing plains, Chen Yuan felt the storm‑runes creeping over his neck under the two moons' glow. He knew dangers lay ahead—revenge from Old Ones, new Cthulhu horrors—but fear had no place in his heart. Instead, there was cunning bred of Earth, and the unbreakable will of a magic‑path cultivator.
"Next chapter: 'Pyroclast in the Core,'" he whispered to the night. The pendant shivered, the faintest sigh—its own reluctance at his cheeky title. "Remember to stock fire‑retardant plating. I'd rather not arrive molten—though that might unlock a new achievement—still, doesn't suit my survival style."
Behind them, the purified radiance of the Astral Core spread across once‑tainted lands, transforming corruption's tentacles into gleaming gears and star‑trails—the dawn of a new era under a cultivator's forged legacy.