Midnight cloaked the city in silence, broken only by the occasional hoot of a night-beast in the distance. Within the abandoned training hall on the outskirts of Qingyuan City, Jiang Chen sat cross-legged in perfect stillness. His robes clung to his body, damp with sweat from hours of continuous cultivation.
The stars above aligned with unnatural precision, forming a glowing pattern that pulsed with the rhythm of his breathing.
Initializing Sutra Awakening…
A flash of silver light exploded within his mindscape.
Suddenly, he was no longer in the training hall.
Jiang Chen found himself floating in an endless cosmos, surrounded by shimmering constellations. Before him hovered a great tome forged of crystal and nebulae, its pages turning without wind.
Endless Star Sutra: Core Awakening Initiated.
The voice was neither male nor female—cosmic and eternal.
The tome opened to its first page, and radiant script burned itself into his spiritual sea. Jiang Chen gritted his teeth as the runes etched into his very soul, igniting it.
First Star Path Unlocked: Northern Star Channeling.
A map of meridian lines formed over his body in light, tracing a new path of energy circulation unlike anything known in the orthodox schools. Each node linked to a distant star, drawing energy directly from constellations.
Knowledge rushed in—techniques, stances, ancient incantations.
His consciousness trembled under the weight of it.
Then darkness.
When Jiang Chen opened his eyes again, the first light of dawn had touched the sky. The constellation from the night before had vanished—but the afterglow remained within him.
He exhaled slowly.
Qi Condensation, Third Layer.
He stood up, feeling the difference immediately. His body no longer felt like a borrowed shell. His limbs surged with quiet strength. His spiritual sea had expanded, and the starseed within it pulsed with vibrant life.
More than that—his vision had sharpened. He could see the individual threads of Qi flowing through the air.
He stepped outside.
The sun rose over Qingyuan's distant walls, and with it came resolve.
Today, he would test the first of the Star Sutra's techniques.
He leapt to the top of a nearby stone pillar and focused. The air around him thickened as he formed his first stance: "Stellar Pulse Strike."
With a breath, he extended his palm forward—and a burst of concentrated astral energy exploded from his hand, splitting the pillar before him in two.
The sound echoed through the forest.
Jiang Chen stood still, awestruck.
"I've barely scratched the surface…"
Then he smiled.
"Let's see what happens when I dig deeper."
Far away, atop a star-gazing tower in the Celestial Moon Pavilion, a white-robed elder stirred. His long beard trembled as his eyes opened from meditation.
"The Sutra has awakened," he whispered.
He turned to a star chart that now pulsed with golden light.
"After a thousand years… a Starpiercer walks the earth once more."