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It took Leyton more than a day to finally gather the materials needed for the ritual; buying gems was too expensive, so he had no choice but to earn some extra money from the gangs in East Borough.
After collecting the materials, Leyton immediately began the ritual, preparing to seek some Cosmos-related knowledge from Yellow Light Venithan.
He arranged the candles and materials needed for the ritual, drew symbols pointing to the Seven Lights of the Spirit World, and dripped black mandrake juice onto the lit candles.
He stepped back and began chanting the incantation:
"The never-fading Light of the Spirit World, the embodiment of endless knowledge, the Yellow of reason and adaptability."
"I pray to you, I pray for knowledge related to the Cosmos."
Yellow Light Venithan's response was quick; a stack of books was thrown from the Spirit World along the connection between the ritual and the Spirit World.
"This isn't a ritual of sacrifice and bestowal; was it directly thrown from the Spirit World after locating me through the ritual?"
Leyton subconsciously speculated on the technique Yellow Light Venithan used to send him these books.
As soon as he finished speaking, he couldn't help but slap his forehead.
"Is this really a habit brought on by the Beyonder potion? It feels like it's already become my instinct," Leyton murmured to himself.
"However, the Seven Lights of the Spirit World are so casual with me! Just like facing the child next door!"
"Uh, next door? Mr. Hughes, who stays in the Spirit World for a long time, and Them really can be considered neighbors!"
His thoughts wandered for a while, and Leyton felt his thought process was a bit off track. He shook his head, no longer thinking about the Seven Lights' attitude towards him; after all, it was a good thing.
He thanked Yellow Light Venithan when the ritual ended, not caring if he could hear him, and put away the remaining materials from the ritual. After all, they were old acquaintances, and he could continue to use them next time.
Originally, Leyton planned to proceed with the Sequence 5 advancement ritual of the Mystery Pryer pathway immediately after obtaining the knowledge given by Yellow Light Venithan.
But seeing the books Yellow Light threw at him, he felt it wasn't good to sacrifice the books directly.
"It seems I'll have to copy them myself."
Leyton picked up the books on the ground and sighed.
To speed up the copying process, Leyton even specially summoned a Spirit World creature skilled in copying to help. Later, he found that the Spirit World creature's handwriting was much better than his own, so he simply asked Bugs Bunny to also summon a similar Spirit World creature and handed all the books to them for copying.
It took a few more days to re-copy the books given by Yellow Light Venithan that recorded Cosmos knowledge.
"Cultivating a Beyonder animal of the Corpse Collector Pathway was indeed the correct choice. In the future, work like copying books can be entirely squeezed out of the undead."
Holding the finally copied Cosmos knowledge, Leyton had already thought of how to handle such matters in the future.
After preparing for the Constellations Master advancement ritual, Leyton took out the supplementary ingredients for potion preparation and quickly mixed a bottle of semi-finished potion.
As the advancement ritual began, the scattered papers recording Cosmos knowledge started to move without wind, as if invisible hands were pulling them, and then slowly began to spontaneously combust.
Seeing this, Leyton quickly drank the semi-finished potion he was holding and then began to meditate.
As the meditation pattern formed in his mind, Leyton skillfully put his consciousness into that huge eye.
Then Leyton's consciousness reappeared before the Sage's characteristic. Leyton didn't know if this was deep in his consciousness or somewhere else.
But that huge eye, glowing with a faint purple light, like an Convergence of countless pieces of information, already showed subtle signs of melting, as if it was merging with the surrounding space.
As Leyton's consciousness appeared, a small fragment, carrying many tiny fluorescent lights, peeled off from it and merged into Leyton's consciousness.
The meditative state was directly interrupted. Leyton felt as if he was in a galaxy, and every point of starlight around him was perfectly reflected in his eyes.
These starlights were no longer ordinary light in Leyton's eyes, but materialized knowledge.
Immersed in this starlight, it was like being immersed in an ocean of knowledge, and Leyton gradually lost himself without realizing it.
Under the influence of the Beyonder potion, Leyton's body also began to undergo abnormal changes, with one eyeless eyeball after another emerging from his body.
Between his flesh and blood, many brass-colored micro-lights moved, both integrating into the abnormality and suppressing it.
Just as Leyton was gradually losing himself, constellations formed from starlight appeared in the surrounding Cosmos, maintaining Leyton's gradually fading consciousness.
Until Leyton began to regain himself, allowing his spirit and body to reunify. Only then did this advancement end.
"Phew~, promotions are becoming more and more dangerous. Even after completing the ritual, it's like walking a tightrope; there can be no slack!" Leyton exclaimed.
He then began to feel the changes and new Beyonder abilities that the Constellations Master brought him.
The core ability of a Constellations Master is only one: "Starlight Power," which is more like a usage of natural forces.
At this stage, a Beyonder's spellcasting no longer involves leveraging their own spirituality or the surrounding spirituality, but rather a deeper leveraging of the surrounding natural forces to empower their spells, greatly enhancing their effects while reducing their own consumption.
Using this starlight, which represents natural power, can envelop a certain spatial area, causing the target to be dissolved, collapse, and dissipate by the starlight.
It can also be applied to objects, greatly enhancing certain effects, and the starlight itself can even be materialized, transforming into solid objects cast from starlight.
It can also act upon oneself, turning oneself into countless starlights, then re-converging to reveal one's figure.
"Roughly, it's a spellcaster who has mastered more advanced power, somewhat like a prerequisite for imbuing abstract knowledge with substantial power."
Leyton summarized the Constellations Master's abilities.
After being promoted to a Constellations Master, Leyton felt that his mind had gained much Cosmos-related knowledge, such as how to borrow power from the movement of the stars and how to make predictions from changes in celestial phenomena.
"I'm starting to like this Sequence. This ability to use starlight may not be the strongest in the same Sequence, but it's definitely the coolest!"
Leyton imagined scenes where starlight would scatter wherever he went in the future, and the corners of his mouth uncontrollably curved into an arc.
"Hmm?"
His spirituality was suddenly touched. Leyton saw a light yellow paper with golden Sun patterns fall from the Spirit World and float in front of him.
"After this messenger mutated once, why does it feel like it became cooler!"
Leyton reached out and took the paper floating down from the air.
On it were only a few scrawled words: "Help! Leonard Mitchell."
"Leonard? Help him with what? Shouldn't he be looking for his Old Man?"
Leyton was puzzled. Then he reacted:
"Pallez is asleep. No, that's not the point. How did I forget Klein again? I've already left Tingen, is the Goddess too stingy! Or was it Amon's brother who did it?"
"No, why did I suddenly decide to leave Tingen?"
"Damn it! This is troublesome, I hope it's still not too late."
Leyton got a headache thinking about what was happening in Tingen now and couldn't help but curse.
Pallez had fallen into slumber because of him, and things there might undergo some changes.
Leyton didn't hesitate and directly stepped into the Spirit World, rushing towards Tingen.
When Leyton arrived in Tingen, still in the Spirit World, he felt the power of the Sun domain erupting ahead, with scorching, dazzling light shining.
When Leyton left the Spirit World, the scene he saw was Dunn Smith lying on the ground, and Klein with a slightly pale hand piercing his left chest. Leyton could even see the shock and unwillingness in his eyes.
Leyton saw Ince Zangwill, the former Archbishop of the Church of the Evernight Goddess, standing behind Klein. He also saw Leyton, who had just emerged from the Spirit World.
The two exchanged glances, and a dazzling radiance erupted again. A "Purification Slash" targeting Wraiths appeared where Ince Zangwill was.
Klein was already a Corpse, so Leyton didn't need to worry about collateral damage. He simulated the Sun domain ability, which most effectively countered the necromancy domain. Waves of light with Purification power appeared around Ince Zangwill.
Ince Zangwill, constantly dodging, wanted to find an opportunity to counterattack, but what greeted him were golden illusory flames that instantly ignited out of thin air.
Ince Zangwill had no choice but to continue dodging, but each time he managed to perfectly avoid the flame attacks.
The next moment, the light of fire simulated by Leyton scorched a passing Spirit World creature.
A strange creature resembling a gorilla carved from stone suddenly appeared from the Spirit World, with scorched black marks from being burned.
It roared at Leyton, raised an arm as thick as Leyton's thigh, and punched him.
Leyton was astonished to find that the distance between himself and this Spirit World creature seemed nonexistent; the opponent's fist struck him the next moment.
Leyton's figure instantly became transparent, like a statue formed from countless starlights, shattered into countless starlights by a punch.
The starlight surged, and the next moment, Leyton's figure reformed within the fragments of starlight, appearing in another direction.
"Imprisonment!" As the incantation was uttered, brilliant starlight swirled around Leyton, then flew off one by one, descending upon the stone-carved gorilla, imprisoning it in place.
However, the imprisonment effect was not good; it was severely weakened and seemed about to fail at any moment.
"Expel!" Another Dragonese word.
Leyton's eyes were covered with a layer of starlight, forcibly opening a rift between the Spirit World and reality in this area. An invisible suction force pulled this strange and troublesome Spirit World creature towards the Spirit World.
This suction force landed on the strange Spirit World creature, but its effect was distorted. Instead, it pushed it closer to Leyton.
A pure, bright light shone, illuminating the Spirit World creature and dispelling most of its peculiar effects.
Whoosh!
A strong wind howled, directly sweeping the Spirit World creature and smashing it into the forcibly opened rift between reality and the Spirit World.
Then another surge of starlight moved outwards, weakening the connection between the Spirit World and reality in the surrounding area.
By the time Leyton finished all this and redirected his attention back to Ince Zangwill, the latter had already disappeared.
"I forgot my main target again!"
Leyton, who had come to his senses, knew that he had been unconsciously influenced again. However, this time it should have been 0-08's doing.
"No…"
A hoarse, almost soundless whisper echoed in the ruins.
Leyton turned his head and saw Leonard stumbling, half-crawling, half-walking, approaching the bodies of Dunn and Klein.
"Sometimes, the one who lives is the one who suffers the most."
Leyton dissipated into starlight, then reformed beside Leonard.
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