Star Mark Awakens

The decision to leave was like a stone thrown into Falling Star Lake, stirring silent ripples through Uncle Po's little courtyard.

A Ning grew even quieter. She often sat on the threshold with her knees hugged to her chest, watching the Wolf King limp awkwardly around the yard on its injured leg. Lake light reflected in her eyes, but no emotion could be read there.

The Wolf King seemed to sense something. It often let out low, drawn-out whines toward the Black Pine Forest to the north, setting the village into a frenzy of flapping chickens and barking dogs, while drawing even more veiled complaints and fearful looks.

Chen Qing began making preparations. He braided sturdier, more durable ropes, reinforced Uncle Po's old donkey cart, and used the remaining beast hides to sew a simple canopy against wind and rain.

Most importantly, they needed food and medicine, as well as some money saved up.

He went into the mountains more frequently, venturing deeper into the Black Pine Forest each time.

The perception granted by the Star Mark in his palm became increasingly sharp and precise through actual combat and repeated use.

He could easily avoid areas thick with poisonous insects and miasma, and accurately locate patches of wild yams or medicinal herbs.

When he encountered fierce beasts several times, he used battle as training and dispatched them with ease through increasingly skillful use of Starforce.

Sometimes, he flicked condensed arrows of energy from his fingertips, piercing a prey's vital points from afar;

sometimes, he coated sharpened wooden stakes with Starforce, making them harder than refined steel and easily driving them through a wild boar's thick hide;

and sometimes, he employed the mysterious Treading Waves Flying Swallow movement technique, flitting through the dense forest like a ghost until even fierce beasts could not touch the hem of his clothes.

His understanding and control of his own strength were improving at a pace that covered a thousand miles in a day.

The villagers' awe of him grew by the day, but so did their distance.

Only when he returned with large amounts of food and distributed it to households that had lost their able-bodied workers in the wolf disaster did he receive sincere thanks tinged with complicated emotions.

Uncle Po still fished as usual. Yet every time Chen Qing entered the mountains, he packed up the more effective wound medicine and insect-repelling powder he had treasured for years and normally could not bear to use, then stuffed them into Chen Qing's pack.

At night, the oil lamp in his room always remained lit until late.

The atmosphere of parting was like autumn mist gradually rising over the lake, spreading into every corner of the courtyard.

That night, moonlight flowed like water over the silent Falling Star Lake.

Chen Qing sat cross-legged on the familiar reef by the lake, casting aside stray thoughts as his mind sank into his body. He tried to guide the steadily growing Starforce through a mysterious path in a complete cycle.

Ever since Uncle Po had saved him, he had mostly relied on instinct and blurry fragments of memory to wield this power, knowing that it worked but not why.

Tonight, he decided to actively communicate with the Star Mark in his palm and explore its deeper mysteries.

His consciousness flowed like a trickling stream, slowly converging in his left palm.

The star-shaped burn mark glowed with a gentle light beneath the moon. As his focus deepened, it began to tremble in response. Threads of warmth spread from it, flowing along the meridians of his arm and into every limb and bone.

Holding his breath, Chen Qing concentrated all his focus on that point of warmth and cautiously "touched" it.

At first, there was only a vague sensation of energy flowing, like touching warm running water. But as he continuously poured in and guided his spiritual power, a dazzling point of blue starlight suddenly lit up within the darkness of his sea of consciousness!

The starlight swiftly expanded and spread, sketching countless crisscrossing, incomparably complex lines. In the end, they formed the phantom of a miniature, slowly rotating star map! At the heart of the map was the shape of the Star Mark in his palm!

At the same time, a massive yet orderly torrent of information surged into his mind like floodwaters released from a seal!

"Ancient Star Ruins Scripture"!

It was not written text, but a legacy of intent branded directly into the depths of his soul. It contained methods for drawing in the power of the stars throughout the heavens, tempering one's body, condensing a "Star Vortex," forming a "Star Core," and ultimately stepping onto a supreme Great Dao founded upon the stars!

This was no mortal martial art, but a cultivation technique that pointed straight toward the Great Dao!

Chen Qing's mind shook violently, and he nearly awoke from meditation. Yet he forcibly steadied himself and greedily absorbed and digested the vast inheritance that had descended upon him without warning.

He "saw" that the first realm of the technique was called "Starlight Body Tempering." It required one to draw upon the Starforce of the heavens—at its most basic, the essence of moonlight—to wash over the fleshly body, cleanse impurities, strengthen sinews, bones, skin, and flesh, and gradually allow the body to adapt to and contain greater stellar power.

And the Star Mark in his palm was the core hub for drawing in Starforce and circulating the technique, as well as the key to inheriting this supreme Dao scripture!

So that was it! This was the true source of his power! The real starting point of the immortal path!

Powerful realization and joy crashed through Chen Qing's mind. He hesitated no longer and immediately followed the first-stage method of the Ancient Star Ruins Scripture, attempting to guide in the moonlit starlight.

His consciousness extended outward through the Star Mark in his palm, as though opening an invisible net to capture and draw in the thin moonlight permeating heaven and earth.

Gradually, a faint halo invisible to the naked eye enveloped his body. The Star Mark in his palm glimmered in particular, like a tiny vortex that slowly yet steadfastly absorbed the cold energy of the moonlight.

The energy flooded into his body and circulated along the specific route prescribed by the Ancient Star Ruins Scripture. Wherever it passed, his meridians felt faint stinging and itching, accompanied by the comfort of being tempered.

The fatigue accumulated from daytime hunting and the blockages left behind by hidden injuries within his body quietly dissipated beneath the circulation of starlight.

At that moment, his five senses became sharper than ever before.

He could hear the faint sound of fish deep beneath the lake flicking their tails through the water. He could smell the cool fragrance of a Night Orchid blooming ten meters away. He could sense the slow process of night dew gathering on blades of grass.

He could even vaguely sense A Ning's steady breathing in the courtyard behind him, the Wolf King's surging blood and qi and the faint heat emitted as its wounds healed, as well as every flicker of the oil lamp's flame in Uncle Po's room.

The feeling of forming a subtle connection with all things between heaven and earth was profoundly mysterious.

Who knew how long had passed? Only when the eastern sky turned the pale white of a fish's belly and the moonlight began to fade did Chen Qing slowly finish his cultivation and open his eyes.

A streak of clear divine light flashed through his gaze, like the brightest star before dawn.

He slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air. In the freezing air, it condensed into a white ribbon over a foot long that lingered for a long while before dispersing.

He felt refreshed and clear-minded, his ears sharper and his eyes brighter. Not only had the Starforce within him fully recovered, but it had become several degrees purer and more condensed, while its total amount had also increased ever so slightly.

When he spread open his palm, the Star Mark seemed a little clearer and deeper than before.

The first brickstone of the path of cultivation had been laid beneath his feet.

He leaped down from the reef and returned to the courtyard with light steps.

The moment he pushed open the wicker gate, he saw that A Ning was already awake. Sitting beneath the eaves with that old cloth bundle in her arms, she watched him quietly.

The Wolf King lay at her feet, its massive head resting on its paws. Its dark green eyes were narrowed in the morning light. When it saw him return, one ear twitched almost imperceptibly.

Chen Qing walked over and rubbed A Ning's soft hair. Feeling the power surging within him and the clear Ancient Star Ruins Scripture in his mind, the faint melancholy born of parting in his heart was replaced by steadfast ambition.

This world was vast and wondrous. Taking this little burden and that proud wolf to see the sights at the end of the martial path... did not seem so bad after all.

"Get ready," he said to A Ning, and perhaps to himself as well. "It's time for us to set out."

The rising sun leaped above the lake, scattering ten thousand rays of golden light across the world and illuminating the figures in the small courtyard: one man, one wolf, and one girl about to journey far away.

A new journey was about to begin.