At This Moment, Aldebaran Is Clearly Visible

The knowledge flooding Lu Ban's mind, accompanied by the melody, was already fragmented.

He could only vaguely understand that this star seemed to belong to some Great Being, possessing power far beyond human imagination of deities. The mere ripples stirred by its might were enough to plunge people into eternal madness.

And now, at this very moment, within the ruins of the Jiangcheng Grand Theater, the deity's power had inexplicably resonated.

Reality was distorted, and fundamental cognition collapsed. In mere moments, the humans in this area would have their sanity completely destroyed, becoming servants akin to insects and vermin.

".The Jiangcheng Grand Theater is in a delicate position. This situation occurs periodically."

".Du Danping might have been here on a mission, or perhaps he just happened to encounter the moment of the deity's power surge."

".The ordinary people present have fallen into madness, on the verge of becoming servants of that Great Being."

".Du Danping used his performance to balance the two, attempting to save these people."

".However, the circuit breaker malfunctioned due to the influence, and a large fire spread, engulfing the theater."

".Du Danping's spirit, for reasons unknown, remained here and began to play whenever Aldebaran lit up."

".And today is the day its influence is strongest!"

Lu Ban's realization dawned.

If he had continued to be lost in the piano music of Du Danping's spirit, at most his consciousness would have been somewhat affected, leading to him eventually falling asleep. Witnessing his spirit should have unlocked certain secrets.

But now, after defeating Du Danping's spirit, and with no one playing, the Jiangcheng Grand Theater and its surrounding area would be completely enveloped by the radiance of Aldebaran!

"I've triggered a hidden quest and increased the difficulty."

Lu Ban could feel a violent change occurring in the air.

His hair stood on end, a reaction born from humanity's most primal, deepest fear. It was a fear understood by humans tens of millions of years ago, before society had formed as it was now.

The civilization humanity had built over millennia collapsed with a single glance at a star tens of light-years away from this planet.

Knowledge was meaningless, progress was futile, and reason was insignificant in the face of this vast, boundless cosmos.

The crowbar in Lu Ban's hand clattered to the ground.

He stared blankly at the star, which was gradually becoming more colorful, brilliant, and all-consuming of his consciousness.

That majestic, immense, cold will was irreversibly destroying Lu Ban's nerves and sanity.

In the periphery of his vision, the distorted starlight formed words that trembled, hinting at Lu Ban in a crooked manner.

[You have gazed upon an Unnamable existence]

[Sanity -4]

[Sanity -1]

[Sanity -3]

His dwindling sanity was evaporating at a visible rate. As the numbers decreased, Lu Ban saw countless bizarre and fantastical scenes before his eyes.

Some depicted enormous, ugly worms crawling in a desert of yellow sand; others showed monsters with several slippery, dark, thick tentacles lurking in the deep sea; still others featured hunched, malicious humanoid monsters with icy blue skin and bulging eyes worshipping on stone altars.

These were sights that humans were not meant to witness, record, or endure.

Lu Ban's eyes were bloodshot, his pupils dilated, veins bulging on his body. Blood flowed from his nostrils, eyes, ears, and mouth. His brain felt as if it had been repeatedly stirred with a red-hot iron rod thousands of times, making even normal functioning difficult.

He knew that before becoming a servant of that Great Being, he would likely go completely insane.

But in this fleeting moment of self-awareness, a lightning-like will allowed Lu Ban to grasp the last straw.

Amidst the dazzling, colorful radiance of Aldebaran, under the pure white shroud of the Pleiades, a ten-sided, golden die appeared before Lu Ban.

The die bore numbers from zero to nine, which then evolved into two-digit numbers, looping from 00 to 99. Within that maddening radiance, the die remained still, as if it had existed from an ancient, unknowable eternity.

It possessed no malice, no goodwill, only following its own laws to govern all things.

[All In]!

The last shred of Lu Ban's sanity compelled him to use this final trump card.

The die began to spin rapidly, as if picked up and thrown by an unseen hand. After spinning and falling, it revealed a number that felt like a final judgment.

Almost simultaneously, the starlight in Lu Ban's eyes twisted and refracted into words that would be etched into his memory for a lifetime.

[Activating All In]

[Luck Roll]

[Result: Luck: 1/20]

[Critical Success]

A number familiar to Lu Ban appeared at the top of the die. At the same time, a subtle change rippled through space. Lu Ban's hand, which had dropped the crowbar and was now empty, suddenly grasped a solid, slender object.

He raised his hand; it was a suona.

"Playing... Yes, it's playing!!!"

Fortunately, Lu Ban managed to regain a sliver of his sanity amidst the painful storm that threatened to tear apart his perception. He received an inspiration that could be called divine revelation in religious scriptures.

Through playing, one could, to a certain extent, suppress the influence of that Great Being on people.

The melody itself was not important; the act of playing was.

From ancient times to the present, within cultures of faith, performance itself evolved from a dedication to deities into entertainment.

It is a ritual to worship, pray to, and summon the gods.

At this moment, Lu Ban had already disregarded the trouble the suona had previously caused him. Now, Lu Ban even yearned to see that dim, deep yellow star.

Lu Ban's only remaining rationality told him that humanity has its limits.

No matter how magnificent a civilization develops, how it constructs rational fortresses, or explores supreme truths, humanity has its limits.

Only a Great Being can contend with a Great Being.

He picked up the suona. As his vision began to fragment and the text indicating his sanity plummeted into an eternal moment of darkness, he blew into the black instrument.

Doo—

A high-pitched sound rang out, like a proud, untamable bird that would never bow its head, flapping its wings and soaring towards the starry sky.

Countless other birds chirped around it, but none possessed its brilliance.

Lu Ban's body moved on its own, playing a melody he had only heard a few times.

One could see the blackness on the suona spreading from Lu Ban's fingertips to his wrist. His bulging veins gradually turned black. In Lu Ban's vision, the fragmented images reassembled. He saw that dark yellow planet and the silver-white star reflecting each other, creating a massive distortion between them. A conflict, which he could neither feel, nor hear, nor comprehend, was instantly resolved.

Despairing, incomprehensible babbling that assaulted his thoughts grew wildly in his ears, almost bursting Lu Ban's brain.

<strong>[Sanity has reached zero]</strong>

He only had time to commit a few phrases to memory based on instinct. The last things Lu Ban saw were the words formed by the transformed plants on the dome and a real starry sky he had never witnessed before.

Within the vast sea of stars, the sky and the universe merged into one.

He lost consciousness.

*

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