The village of Lianzhou did not recover quickly.

  By sunset, the story had already twisted into something monstrous.

  Some said Kael had summoned the crystal beast.

  Others claimed he had made a pact with demons.

  A few whispered that he was chosen by the heavens.

  Most simply avoided him.

  Kael sat alone at the edge of the forest, staring at his trembling hands.

  Neutron Core Stability: 3%.

  The words still hovered faintly in his mind whenever he focused. Like transparent script burned into his thoughts.

  “Status,” he whispered experimentally.

  Nothing happened.

  He frowned.

  “Core?”

  A faint pulse answered him from his chest, but no words followed.

  So it wasn’t some game system. Not exactly. The messages only appeared when something important happened.

  Which meant…

  Something important had definitely happened.

  He looked toward the crater in the distance.

  The air still felt wrong over there.

  Like space itself had been bruised.

  A twig snapped behind him.

  Kael stood instantly.

  He didn’t turn slowly. He didn’t hesitate.

  He pivoted with precision that would’ve shocked the apprentices who had trained for years.

  An old man stood between the trees.

  Simple grey robes. Wooden staff. White hair tied loosely behind his back. His posture was relaxed—but his eyes were sharp. Too sharp.

  He had been watching.

  “For a boy who has never cultivated,” the old man said calmly, “your instincts are remarkable.”

  Kael’s pulse quickened.

  “You saw?”

  “I saw enough.”

  The man stepped forward.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  Kael felt it immediately.

  Pressure.

  Not the wild, unstable force in his own chest.

  This was controlled. Refined. Like a quiet ocean hiding unimaginable depth.

  “You absorbed it,” the old man continued. “A Celestial Shard Beast. Rare. Dangerous. Drawn to high-density stellar energy.”

  Kael swallowed. “It attacked first.”

  “I know.”

  The old man studied him for a long moment.

  “Tell me, boy. When did the star fall?”

  Kael stiffened.

  So he knew about that too.

  “Last night.”

  “And you touched it.”

  It wasn’t a question.

  Kael hesitated—then nodded.

  The old man exhaled slowly.

  “I feared as much.”

  “Feared what?” Kael demanded.

  “That the legends were true.”

  The air seemed to grow heavier.

  The old man tapped his staff once against the ground. A faint ripple spread outward, invisible to ordinary eyes—but Kael saw it clearly. A wave of controlled energy scanning him.

  The old man’s expression changed.

  Shock.

  Then something else.

  Interest.

  “Incredible…” he muttered.

  Kael took a step back. “What?”

  “You are not merely infused with stellar energy,” the old man said quietly. “You contain a condensed neutron fragment.”

  Kael’s chest tightened.

  “I don’t even know what that means.”

  “It means,” the man replied, meeting his eyes, “that if you remain here… you will die.”

  The words hit harder than any blow.

  “What?”

  “The shard beasts will come first,” the old man said. “They are instinctively drawn to concentrated star cores. Then cultivators. Then kingdoms. And if word spreads far enough…”

  He paused.

  “…the Cosmic Sects.”

  Kael didn’t know what those were.

  But the way the old man said it made his blood run cold.

  “I didn’t ask for this,” Kael muttered.

  “No one chosen by power ever does.”

  Silence stretched between them.

  Finally, the old man planted his staff firmly.

  “My name is Rion Valeris.”

  He did not bow.

  He did not boast.

  He simply stood there like a mountain.

  “I was once a Main Sequence cultivator of the Astral Frontier.”

  Kael had no idea what that meant.

  But the pressure radiating from him made it believable.

  “I have spent the last decade hiding in backwater regions like this,” Rion continued. “Watching the skies.”

  “For what?”

  “For something like you.”

  Kael froze.

  The forest felt very small suddenly.

  “You’re saying this was planned?” Kael demanded.

  “No.”

  Rion’s eyes hardened.

  “I am saying that if the heavens have truly birthed a Star-Devourer… then this world is about to change.”

  The word echoed in Kael’s mind.

  Star-Devourer.

  It felt wrong.

  Too big.

  “I’m not some legend,” Kael said.

  Rion stepped closer.

  “You absorbed a celestial beast without technique.”

  Another step.

  “You stabilized foreign stellar matter inside your body.”

  Another step.

  “You triggered a gravitational distortion pulse strong enough for me to detect it from ten miles away.”

  He stopped in front of Kael.

  “You are either the greatest anomaly of this era… or its greatest disaster.”

  The neutron fragment pulsed faintly in response.

  Kael clenched his fists.

  “What do you want from me?”

  Rion studied him carefully.

  “Nothing.”

  That surprised him.

  “I am offering you a choice.”

  The old man turned, pointing his staff toward the distant mountains.

  “Come with me. Learn to control what you carry. Learn the stages of true cultivation.”

  He paused.

  “Or remain here. And wait for something stronger than that shard beast to arrive.”

  As if summoned by his words—

  The sky darkened slightly.

  Far above the clouds, something moved.

  Kael felt it.

  A distant presence.

  Watching.

  The fragment in his chest pulsed faster.

  Neutron Core Stability: 3.2%

  It had increased.

  From absorbing the beast?

  From surviving?

  Or from standing near Rion?

  Kael looked back at the village.

  At the only home he had ever known.

  Then at the mountains.

  At the unknown.

  At survival.

  He exhaled slowly.

  “If I come with you,” Kael said, “you teach me everything.”

  Rion’s lips curved faintly.

  “Everything you survive.”

  A distant roar echoed across the sky.

  Not from the forest.

  From above.

  Kael’s eyes widened.

  “That,” Rion said calmly, “is your first consequence.”

  And somewhere beyond the clouds—

  Something hungry had begun its descent.