Awakening：The Infinite Evolution of My Talent as a Low-Level Awakener - Chapter 445

Chapter 445: Chapter 445: The Underground Palace of the Starry Clan
Sterl felt a bit puzzled as he clearly saw his Authority Heart reflecting a long, winding path leading towards a distant mountain range.

After contemplating for a moment, he didn’t hesitate much; opportunities related to the Starry Clan had presented themselves so clearly, there was no reason to pass them up.

With a few quick movements, Sterl swiftly dashed toward the area illuminated by the light. However, the guiding function seemed a bit foolish; it would only change direction after he reached a dead end, causing him to waste considerable effort.

Moreover, the guiding light fluctuated in intensity, appearing as if it might flicker out at any moment.

Despite feeling impatient, Sterl had no choice but to quicken his pace and follow the light.

He suspected that this time, he had been lucky enough to trigger the guiding light, and the next time he came, the unknown entity emitting the light might have completely vanished, making it impossible to find the way using his Authority Heart.

After about half an hour, he finally arrived at his destination.

At this moment, Sterl was far from the location of the temple.

Yet, based on his Holy Spirit Bloodline perception, the sound of the Crystal Barrier Galaxy shattering was amplifying at an extremely slow frequency.

At first, Sterl was concerned, fearing some unforeseen event might occur, such as another beam of golden light descending, leading to the emergence of several bizarre individuals.

But ultimately, nothing happened.

He gradually felt at ease.

At this point, the guidance from his Authority Heart reached its conclusion.

Finally, the light led him to the interior of an incredibly majestic mountain.

This giant mountain was even more spectacular than Mount Everest, the highest peak in Sterl’s world before his transmigration.

Along the way, countless mountain ranges stretched for thousands of miles, and Sterl could see the lush greenery in the mid-section of the mountains and the snow-capped peaks above them.

The scenery was breathtaking.

Seeing this, Sterl wasted no time and activated the Mark of the Heavens.

A shower of meteors rained down upon the ground!

Before Sterl, it was a scene resembling the apocalypse, with countless stars crashing into the towering mountain.

This unknown peak was gradually weakened.

Its height rapidly diminished, and eventually, it was flattened into a basin.

A massive visual and auditory effect spread outward.

However, Sterl preferred to expend a bit more energy to conjure a spatial barrier, shielding the surrounding changes to prevent attracting unnecessary onlookers.

He wasn’t worried about someone trying to snatch the opportunity from him.

The main concern was—

Sterl had already discerned that even with a radiant-level Authority Heart, the fluctuation caused by the Starry Clan’s opportunity was significant, indicating that this race’s true depth was likely profound!

If someone came to investigate due to Sterl’s actions, he would have no choice but to eliminate them to keep them silent.

With a kind heart, Sterl chose to expend more mana.

After about an hour and a half, he had flattened the mountaintop, transforming it from a basin into a massive pit.

With the terrifying output efficiency, the collapsed and sunken interior of the mountain revealed a giant entrance to an underground palace.

“What is this?”

Sterl couldn’t help but pause.

The scale of the underground palace was still vast; with the naked eye, he could see no boundaries.

The palace’s exterior was crafted from gold and various jewels, and under the erosion of time, it presented a faint bluish-grey hue.

The reason Sterl did not act recklessly was because…

Outside the underground palace, the seemingly ordinary bluish-grey patterns were not just decorations; they contained terrifyingly lethal formation networks!

Even though these formations were operating at their lowest energy consumption due to a lack of power, with some even having stopped functioning entirely, Sterl dared not take any impulsive actions!

The foundation of these formation networks was at least demigod-level, and there were even three primary networks that were divine-level formations!

Who would dare to mess with that?

Sterl could only move forward slowly, sensing each formation and rapidly learning about them.

Fortunately, Sterl had previously experienced a rapid learning phase in hell with the Array of Seizing Heaven and Creating Fate, and after some time in the Crystal Barrier Galaxy, his understanding of formations had greatly increased.

He quickly completed the deciphering of the three divine-level formations on the wall.

The effects of the three formations were quite simple.

Star-Blocking Midnight Array:

A divine-level formation that could block all star power.

Heart-Wasting Array:

A divine-level formation that would extremely slowly wear down all living beings within the formation, stripping them of their souls and cultivation. Although the process was slow, it was irreversible and could not be resisted.

In theory, even a great Divine Power capable of creating the Hall of Valor would be worn down by this formation and unable to resist.

Of course, one could simply unleash their power to forcefully break the formation and escape.

As for the last formation, Sterl could not recognize it because it had already stagnated and become non-functional due to a lack of energy.

“Not bad,” Sterl nodded. Two new divine-level formations had appeared on his Sub-Profession Panel, although they were still incomplete versions that needed to be restored with skill points before he could use blood force to enhance their proficiency.

Although one of these formations was only applicable to the Starry Clan and the other had limited practicality—seemingly a special formation used to wear down sealed entities in the underground palace—it was still divine-level. Just these two gains made Sterl’s mood significantly better, and he was immensely looking forward to exploring further.

If the entrance alone had yielded such rewards, what treasures awaited him within?

Sterl speculated that the third divine-level formation was likely a major sealing formation, but it had completely failed, while he had quickly deciphered the other formations without much effort.

Most of them were demigod or legendary-level minor formations, which Sterl had little interest in learning about.

After searching around, he finally located the entrance to the underground palace.

At the entrance stood an enormous bronze door, intricately entwined with various dense patterns.

The scenes depicted on it seemed to illustrate a struggle between two factions.

One of the groups, radiating with the light of stars, appeared brutally savage, mercilessly hunting down other beings in an act of genocide.

“Is that the Starry Clan?”

“They don’t seem to be the good guys here,” Sterl remarked casually, adjusting the spatial nodes with a slight tremor in his palm. There was a peculiar mechanism at the center of the bronze door.

He completely ignored it, having no intention of interacting with it.

Utilizing his control over formations, Sterl quickly sensed and inserted various materials, forcibly cracking the energy fluctuations within the mechanism.

Click.

Click.

Accompanied by soft sounds, the door emitted a low hum.

Buzz~ Buzz~ Buzz~

Above the massive bronze door, a chain-like rectangular object began to rotate, then sank inward, creating a handle-like protrusion that spun around three times on its own.

At this point, a golden light surged from the handle of the bronze door, transforming into countless web-like beams that enveloped the entire door.

Sterl watched as the light successfully turned the massive door into a series of grids.

Then, the light vanished.

The bronze door shattered into numerous bronze ingots, which fell to the ground.

The location of the giant door happened to align perfectly with a pit, allowing the ingots to be swallowed one by one.

Before Sterl lay the vast interior of the palace, revealing itself to him.

He waited a few seconds and then quickly stepped forward.

Inside the palace, the space appeared empty.

No, it wouldn’t be accurate to say it was empty;

Sterl could see from the patterns formed by countless energy shocks on the inner walls that this place had once experienced an extremely fierce battle.

He decided to test the waters, executing a perfectly standard combination of the Platinum Skill Shattered Void and Fission Law.

Brilliant light erupted.

Countless sword and blade shadows sliced through everything, creating a mushroom cloud effect.

Yet in the end, all he managed to do was leave a few dents in the ground of the underground palace.

Sterl’s combo was already incredibly close to the output strength of a god-level attack, but the marks left behind were hardly distinguishable from the original scars within the palace.

This indicated that the combatants who had previously battled in the palace were at least divine-level entities.

However, this all took place countless years ago.

Everything had faded, leaving behind numerous skeletal remains, and the gear once worn by these bones was completely decayed, leaving nothing behind.

Sterl was taken aback and without hesitation began to gather all the bones into his small world. The remains left by deities could serve as valuable materials for crafting equipment.

Sterl hadn’t yet gathered enough divine-level gear, and with so many divine bones, he could likely forge a mythic piece of equipment.

He completely scavenged the underground palace, spending considerable time in the process.

“Just some skeletal remains??”

“How long has this underground palace actually existed?”

Sterl complained, thinking that since these were divine-level entities, they must have had at least one or two pieces of divine-level equipment on them. Yet ultimately, all the gear had completely decayed, leaving only a handful of bones.

If everything was merely due to the passage of time…

Then that was indeed a bit absurd!

Because, according to the various materials Sterl had consulted, divine-level items were theoretically immortal!

They should not decay with the passage of time at all.

However, having mastered the Law of Time, he realized it wasn’t that simple.

Sterl could vaguely sense that if he pushed the Law of Time to a higher realm, he could enact a plan to accelerate the passage of time, causing deities to fall in an instant and divine-level items to turn to ashes.

This operation essentially condensed countless thousands of years into a mere moment of destruction.

In other words, the Law of Time could achieve this merely through the gradual passage of time itself.

But…

The records of the lower realm couldn’t be said to be wrong…

Because even if one calculated the time from the period before the separation of the lower realm and the upper realms to the present, the accumulated years were still insufficient to decay divine-level items.

“Does this mean that the suspected war between the Starry Clan and other races occurred in a very distant past??”

“Long before the history that the upper realms and lower realm can record??”

As Sterl reached this conclusion, his expression shifted, yet he felt no great surprise.