The Wizard of Truth: Starting with Analyzing All Things

Like a silent, metallic droplet, the small landing capsule slid unnoticed from the belly of the "Stargazer," plummeting towards the vast, desolate wasteland. Inside, Rowe, Barton, Lilith, Lina, and Annie, secured by their safety harnesses, gazed through the narrow porthole at the boundless graveyard outside, a landscape of twisted metal, shattered crystals, and frozen energy. The shock from the Stardust Whale had not yet subsided; this tombstone of civilization before them sent a chill down their spines.

"Maintain communication silence, using only the lowest power short-range psychic sensing. Lina, focus all your attention on life signs and energy anomalies. Barton, prepare for any sudden contact. Lilith, monitor environmental radiation and toxin levels. Annie, assist Lilith in monitoring vital signs." Lowe issued the commands through his psychic in a calm voice. His leadership skills had naturally improved since his promotion to a formal Star Speaker.

The landing module trembled slightly, deftly maneuvering around several slowly rotating, massive pieces of wreckage using fine-tuning thrusters, finally coming to rest on a relatively flat metal platform that appeared to be the broken deck of some large ship. Once the air pressure equalized, the hatch slid open, releasing a mixture of metallic rust, ozone, and some indescribable odor resembling dust from old parchment. Gravity seemed somewhat abnormal, with a slight pulling sensation. The temperature was extremely low; breath frosted over.

The five filed out and immediately deployed in the predetermined formation: Barton, holding a greatsword, led the way, his fighting spirit slightly ablaze, alert to his surroundings; Lowe was in the center, his stellar perception fully activated, the fragment in his palm providing clear guidance; Lilith and Annie were on the flanks, holding detectors and potions; Lina brought up the rear, her eyes slightly closed, her natural spiritual senses spreading outwards like ripples.

"The signal source is in the southeast direction, about 1.5 kilometers away, at a depth of... about 30 meters underground." Based on the resonance of the fragments, Luo Wei quickly determined the location. "The structure of this ruin is extremely unstable. Watch your step and your head."

They began their ascent. Beneath their feet lay twisted metal corridors and shattered decks, requiring them to climb or zigzag through them. An eerie silence reigned, broken only by the faint clatter of boots on metal scraps and the pounding of their own hearts. The abandoned compartments, like gaping maws, were pitch black inside, occasionally revealing congealed, eerie patches of bacteria shimmering with a faint phosphorescence, or the traces of torn, carbonized remains—silent testaments to the devastation that had struck.

Lina's face grew paler and paler. She clutched a seed-shaped amulet (a carrier of Lilith's specially made tranquilizing potion) that emitted a soft green light around her neck, and whispered, "The 'sounds' here... are painful, chaotic... there are many... remnants of resentful thoughts... but they are weak, harmless. But deeper... there's a... cold, observing feeling..."

"Observe?" A chill ran down his spine, and he focused his star perception even more intently, but aside from the deathly silence of the ruins and the chaotic remnants of energy, he detected nothing unusual. He trusted Lina's intuition. "Stay alert."

As they ventured deeper, the environment grew increasingly eerie. They passed a massive power bay, as if torn apart by an invisible giant hand, with occasional wisps of dangerous, eerie blue electricity emanating from the broken energy conduits. The level of ionized radiation in the air was also slowly increasing, forcing Lilith to distribute anti-radiation medication to everyone ahead of time.

An hour later, they arrived at the core area indicated by the debris—the edge of a massive impact crater hundreds of meters in diameter. A dense, seemingly living cloud of gray dust filled the crater's bottom, and the signal was emanating from below its center.

"The signal is weak, but stable." Lilith looked at the readings on the detector. "The energy characteristics... are indeed from the same source as Rowe's fragments, but even more... ancient and dormant."

"How do we get down?" Barton frowned as he looked at the bottomless, unknown pit.

Luo Wei sensed the energy flow within the crater: "There's a faint gravitational anomaly, possibly a remnant artificial gravity field. The dust cloud has a shielding effect, but the fragment resonance is very clear. I can create a temporary descent field using 'Star Traction,' but it won't last long. We must hurry."

He pressed his hands together, and stellar energy surged, creating a pale silver, slowly rotating force field vortex at the edge of the pit. "Follow me!" He leaped into the force field first, his body slowly sinking under the influence of stellar energy. Barton followed without hesitation, followed closely by Lilith, Annie, and Lina.

Passing through the thick cloud of dust felt like entering another world. The light became extremely dim, and countless faint, whispering noises filled the air, disturbing the mind. Lina's amulet shone brightly with green light, helping her resist this mental erosion. Lowe's star power also spontaneously formed a barrier, protecting everyone.

After sinking about twenty meters, their feet touched solid ground. As the dust settled, the sight before them made everyone gasp in shock.

The bottom of the pit wasn't the expected pile of rubble, but rather a relatively intact circular plaza constructed of some kind of dark silver metal. In the center of the plaza stood a severely damaged, yet still discernible, trapezoidal obelisk. Its surface was covered with densely packed ancient script, of the same origin as astronomical runes but far more complex, emanating a faint, pulsating blue light from its base—the very source of the signal!

Even more shockingly, dozens of corpses were scattered around the obelisk and on the ground of the square.

These corpses were neither human nor any known monster. They had a near-humanoid silhouette, but were more slender and tall, with pale gray skin and wore simple, silver-white uniforms inlaid with tiny crystals. Their facial features were soft, their ears were pointed, and even in lifeless form, their eyes possessed a deep, starry blue. Most peculiarly, each of them had a naturally formed, luminous crystalline prism on its forehead.

"What race is this...?" Annie's eyes widened, filled with curiosity.

"The Protoss...or rather, a close relative of the ancient stargazers, members of the 'Observer' sequence." Verna's voice came intermittently through Rowe's insignia, clearly indicating poor signal reception deep within the crater. "They are natural astrophysicists, and the 'star crystals' on their foreheads are their organs for exchanging souls and information. It seems the personnel stationed at 'Echo Station'...all perished here."

The atmosphere was heavy. These observers seemed to have held out at the station until the very last moment.

Luo Wei approached the obelisk, the light from the fragment in his palm resonating strongly with the light of the obelisk itself. He attempted to infuse the obelisk with stellar energy. *Whoosh!* The obelisk trembled, the runes on its surface lighting up one by one, and a beam of light shot from the top, forming a fragmented star map and several lines of scrolling ancient text in the air.

The text was also in a celestial language, which Lo Wei translated using the key:

[Last entry in the monitoring log: Astrological 74, 339]

[The activity of the Abyssal Rift 'Throat of Annihilation' has surged abnormally... Confirming signs of the 'Corrupted Fleet's' jump...]

[The Echo Station has been attacked... Defense systems overloaded... Core database damaged...]

[Execute final command: Activate 'Silent Beacon', encapsulate core logs (encryption level: Observer's Eye), enter lowest power latency mode...]

[Expectation: Those who come after... will reveal the truth... Warning... The 'Starfall Pact'... has been... altered...]

The information abruptly stopped. The star map was also blurry, only vaguely pointing towards the depths of the star field.

"The Starfall Pact has been tampered with?" Luo Wei was utterly shocked! This matched the fragmented information he had obtained from the Discipline Tower! The Observer Sequence had discovered this earth-shattering secret at the last moment!

"Where is the core log?" Lilith asked anxiously.

Lovi sensed the fragment, his gaze falling on the base of the obelisk. There, he noticed a barely perceptible groove that matched the shape of the fragment. He took a deep breath and pressed his palm against it.

Click.

The runes around the groove lit up, and the base silently slid open, revealing a hidden compartment. Within the compartment, a fist-sized, crystal-clear blue crystal, its interior seemingly containing flowing galaxies, floated silently. Engraved on the crystal's surface was a more intricate eye emblem, similar to that on the fragment.

Just as Luo Wei was about to remove the crystal, a sudden change occurred!

"Ugh—!"

A deep, drawn-out whale song, seemingly from the ancient starry sea, pierced through the thick dust cloud and metal barriers without warning, clearly entering everyone's mind! This sound did not travel through the air, but acted directly on the soul! At the same time, the entire ruins began to shake violently, and the dust cloud overhead surged like boiling water!

"It's that Stardust Whale! It's back! And... it's getting closer!" Lina cried out in terror, her intuition sensing the indescribably enormous presence rapidly approaching!

"Not good! The commotion here may have alerted it! Grab the crystal and retreat!" Barton roared, holding his greatsword across his chest as if facing a formidable enemy.

Without hesitation, Luo Wei grabbed the blue crystal. The crystal felt cool to the touch, and a massive flow of information instantly flooded his mind, but it was blocked by the power of the Star Language Key and the fragments, preventing him from deciphering it immediately.

Just then, Verna's urgent voice came through the psychic emblem, laced with strong interference: "Love! The Stardust Whale's reaction... is wrong! Its energy fluctuations... are similar to the psionic frequencies of the 'Observer' sequence! It might not be a wild creature! It... it might be a... guardian of the 'Echo Station'! Or... some kind of alarm mechanism!"

As if to confirm Verna's guess, the enormous phantom of the Stardust Whale pierced through the thick layers of rock and ruins, appearing above the pit like a ghost! Its galaxy-like giant eyes coldly "stared" at the people at the bottom of the pit, especially the blue crystal in Rowe's hand!

There was no attack, no roar, only boundless pressure and... scrutiny.

Time seemed to freeze. Luo Wei, crystal in hand, looked up to meet the colossal, cosmic eye, his heart pounding. To fight? To flee? Or… to try and communicate?

The Stardust Whale's enormous eyes shifted slightly, its gaze falling on the fragments and the Key of Star Language in Luo Wei's palm, as if trying to discern something. After a moment of silence, the long whale song rang out again, this time with less warning and more... compassion and remoteness.

Then, to everyone's astonishment, the Stardust Whale's enormous body, made of stardust, began to slowly dissipate, as if merging into the starry sky itself. In just a few breaths, it vanished without a trace, leaving only the lingering whale song echoing in the soul.

The tremors stopped, and the dust slowly settled.

The crisis... is over just like that?

The group looked at each other, still shaken.

"It...recognizes this key and fragments?" Lilith asked incredulously.

"It seems... to have accepted us?" Anne whispered.

Looking at the warm blue crystal in his hand and the fragment in his palm, Luo Wei felt a surge of emotions. The appearance and departure of the Stardust Whale suggested that behind the "Observer" sequence lay secrets far deeper than he had imagined. This ancient astral creature might be an ally, or perhaps an emissary from a higher realm.

"We can't stay here any longer." Lowe carefully put the crystal away. "We've got the log; let's return to the starship immediately!"

The five quickly retraced their steps, boarded the landing craft, and escaped the eerie ruins.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when the landing module docked with the Stargazer. Although the expedition failed to find an intact outpost, it obtained the crucial core log and had an unforgettable encounter with the mysterious Stardust Whale.

Next, we must decipher the log, uncover the truth behind the alteration of the "Starfall Pact," and... figure out what role the Stardust Whale plays in the vast cosmic game.

The secrets deep within the starry sea are being unveiled to them layer by layer.