A perpetual night like coagulated ink blanketed the Shattered Star Plains. Chen Yuan drew the cog‑studded cloak from Iron Fortress tighter around his shoulders as biting wind and star‑dust gusted past his face‑plate. Old Jin's mechanical joints creaked in the cold; its newly installed steam core hissed a plume of white vapor every ten seconds, briefly tracing cloud‑and‑thunder runes in the darkness.
[Detection: Astral energy field]
[System advises: avoid direct gaze at the sky—Starborn prophecy runes spread by sight]
"Noted—your warnings always come too late." He swapped in a filter lens etched with Nika's improved mechanist sigils, turning starlight into a harmless gray‑blue glow. "Should've had her carve more anti‑prophecy glyphs. Every step feels like groping in the dark."
In the distance rose a pyramid of skulls—the Astral Observatories—each human cranium topped with a fragment of fallen star. Starlight pulsed through the holes, casting shifting celestial tracks on the ground. Counting the seventh such tower, Old Jin suddenly halted, its mechanical arm pointing into the gloom.
Three bone‑hat figures drifted among the star‑dust—Starborn Seers, their faces mottled with cosmic freckles beneath tall skull caps.
"Outsider… you bear an aura not of the heavens." The lead Seer's throat exhaled stardust. His left eye socket lay shattered, the freckles crawling down his cheek to his neck. "The Plains spurn abominations of gears and bones."
Chen Yuan stilled Old Jin's blade‑arm. The jade token at his chest flared hot—its runes projected phantom star‑charts inside his mask, resonating with the Seers' own observatory. He acted on instinct, flinging the Astral‑Eye toward them.
When the middle Seer caught it, its lens reflected Chen Yuan's disguise—grafted prosthetic arm, cog‑amulets at his waist—but his jade token was hidden. The system promptly updated:
[Disguise successful—Starborn hostility −30%]
"A Mechanist?" the second Seer hissed as his right eye crumbled, freckles dripping like blood. "Iron Fortress devours too many star‑children. But… if you restore the Thirteenth Observatory, we may parley."
They led him to the central skull pyramid. Everywhere he stepped, the skulls turned to watch—each jawbone inscribed with Cthulhu‑script prophecy. Repeatedly, one phrase appeared:
"When cloud‑thunder crushes the star‑trail, the Abyssal Maw will devour its own tongue."
"The Thirteenth Observatory collapsed three days past." The chief Seer pointed to ruins at the plain's center—seven massive star‑fragments impaled in the earth, broken skulls strewn around. "The oracles have grown confused, as though the sky itself bleeds."
Bone‑Vein Resonance flared—he "saw" beneath the rubble a complete Starborn skeleton, its chest harboring a jade slip carved with the star‑trail. The system glowed violet:
[Detection: Astral Primal Core—unlock "Astral‑Trail Soul‑Refinement"]
"About time you gave me meat to work with," he thought, hiding his excitement. "But their star‑fragment layout… it's an ancient magic‑path star map. We'll need mechanist runes to recalibrate it."
The Seers' cosmic freckles suddenly burgeoned, the youngest grabbing his skull and howling as his right eye erupted stardust, tracing a warning star‑trail on the earth:
"He lies! In his shadow lurks a monster of gears and bones!"
Chen Yuan instantly activated the Bone‑Banner Fragment. Thanks to Old Jin's new mechanist frame, the corpse‑puppets crawled out 30% faster—three half‑machine puppets emerging from the observatory shadows, their joints glowing with combined storm‑runes and star‑fragments. The chief Seer's freckles surged across his chest—he collapsed, gasping:
"You… bear the storm runes!"
A battle for the star‑core erupted among drifting star‑dust. The Seers fought with uncanny magic: crushing their own freckles into astral chain‑runes that bound foes, each link whispering memories rewritten. Chen Yuan had to spam his Silence Talismans, but he discovered these Starborn could sense magic‑path qi more keenly than any Cthulhu beast.
"Old Jin—slice their star‑trails!" he shouted, taking cover behind a toppled skull. Old Jin's Bone‑Pivot Arm split into a serrated gear‑blade, storm‑runes sparking blue‑gold against astral energy. "System—pump all energy into 'Astral‑Trail Evasion!'"
[Warning: insufficient energy points—cannot exchange]
"Figures I'll fight this one bare‑knuckled." He hurled the Bone‑Fang Blade; its Rending Wounds effect severed astral chains, each cut absorbing small bursts of astral energy—yet corruption stayed flat. "Oh? Astral energy isn't chaos qi? System, could your categories be any more arbitrary?"
When Old Jin tore the Astral Core from a star‑skeleton, every observatory instantly pivoted. The star‑fragments buzzed and projected a massive trail onto Chen Yuan's face‑plate—his reflected form, crowned with mech‑tendrils and bone‑wings, stomping on shattered Cthulhu skulls.
"This is… my future?" His hand trembled as he held the core. As astral energy flooded him, the system flashed:
[Unlocked hidden art: Star‑Trail Soul‑Refinement (refine Astral Cores)]
[Corruption −5% (astral energy purifies)]
"Should've mentioned astral cleanses corruption!" he laughed, seizing the chief Seer's core. He also gained Astral‑Trail Perception (predict incoming attacks by 3 seconds). "Cthulhu World's energy taxonomy must be Schrödinger's cat—rules change on a whim."
A crack like ice splitting echoed from the ruins. Beneath the Thirteenth Observatory lay a buried star‑map carved in storm runes—each fragment matched a token sigil. He recalled Azure Bone's remnant saying "chaos primal is tainted magic‑path qi," and that pure astral energy might be the key to banish Cthulhu corruption.
"Outsider!" A girl's voice rang from behind shattered observatories. He turned to see a masked youth bearing twelve star‑fragments at her waist—one of the Starborn's Sacred Seer candidates. "You've stolen the sky's heart!"
Her mask was etched in pristine storm runes—identical to his jade token. The system alerted:
[Detection: Astral relic—Star‑Shard Mask (blocks prophecy runes)]
"I mean no theft—we come to restore these Observatories." Chen Yuan held up the Astral Core; the mask and core resonated. The freckles on her mask glowed softly. "Your prophecies are tainted by chaos. I… can help cleanse them."
Her fingers traced the storm runes; freckles vanished from her wrist. "My grandfather said when storm‑runes descend, the sky shall gain a new Weaver of Stars." She removed her mask, revealing untainted eyes. "I am Selene, last pure‑blood seer of the Starborn."
Distant wagon bells rang—Old Mo's arrival meant word of the Astral Core had spread, and Abyssal Temple cultists could strike at any hour. He looked at Selene's mask with a new plan:
"Selene—can you glimpse beyond the Plains? Into Mist‑Hidden City's Shadow Circle… or the Abyssal Temple's Blood Pool?" He assembled his complete jade token; the Astral Core's light lifted a 3D star‑chart.
Her eyes shone with starlight, each mask fragment lighting in sequence. "I see… Mist‑Hidden City's silver‑eyed envoy tearing shadows, Iron Fortress's gears reversing, and in the Abyssal Temple's Blood Pool, another storm‑rune…" She suddenly coughed, freckles bursting from the mask slit. "No—chaos pollution blocks me!"
Chen Yuan steadied the swaying Seer. The Astral Core's glow auto‑restored her freckles. "Leave it to me—I will use this core to clarify your prophecies." He glanced at the Starborn jade slip in Old Jin's grasp: its star‑trail pointed northeast—to the Abyssal Temple entrance noted in the compendium.
By nightfall, Chen Yuan slotted the Astral Core into Old Jin's steam chamber; its frame bloomed a translucent astral‑trail shield. Selene donned her Star‑Shard Mask—her freckles gone. She gestured to an encroaching black mist. "The Abyssal cult arrives—they bear the Blood Pool's corruption."
[Detection: Abyssal Temple rites force (Strength 0.8 × 5)]
The system's red alert twisted his lips into a grim smile. He flexed his astral perception. The Bone‑Fang Blade spun, stars and gears weaving a lethal edge:
"Just the materials I need for astral‑sigil crafting. System—if you don't pull through this time, I'll feed your mechanist noise to the astral beasts."
As the first wave of blood‑mist swept the Shattered Star Plains, Chen Yuan and Selene slipped into the ruined observatories. Old Jin's mechanical arm transformed into triple bone‑cannons, charging spirals of star‑gear projectiles. This—his magic‑path and mechanist alliance—would shatter the Cthulhu World's deepest corruption barriers. And his shadow, cast by these ancient star‑fragments, would be etched across their contaminated sky—an outlier destined to become the uncalculable variable at the heart of every prophecy.