The Next Day, Outside Cro City, At Dawn
The morning mist, like a milky white veil, wound around the ancient tree trunks at the edge of Mick Forest, enveloping the entire woodland in a layer of mysterious gauze. Dewdrops condensed on spiderwebs, refracting faint rainbow hues like scattered diamonds, echoing the occasional flashes of arcane energy from deep within the forest, creating a fantastical scene of interwoven light and shadow. Fa held the silver blood vial gifted by Red close to her chest, feeling the liquid resonate with her heartbeat, as if that strange vibration was whispering some secret of bloodline connection. The elven runes etched on the vial greedily absorbed the morning dew, transforming the liquid mixed with blue blood beads into a fluorescent, flowing peculiar hue, swirling slowly inside the container like a living thing.
Arya crouched before the clustered "Weeping Face Ferns," the laurel leaf patterns on her robe sleeves resonating subtly with the teardrop-shaped spots on the fern leaves. Her fingertips lightly brushed over the fern surface, sensing the ancient magic flowing within—a kind of energy fluctuation originating from the world's roots. "Remember what Curator Inya said: the forbidden zone's entrance shifts with the moon's phases, opening in different locations each time. During the waning moon, it leans southeast; at the full moon, it shifts northwest. Today is the new moon, so it should be right here." Her voice was as gentle as wind brushing through leaves, yet carried an unquestionable certainty.
"Use Red's blood as the key." Fa poured out the vial's liquid, her star eyes focused intently on the fern's suddenly unfurling fronds. The originally ugly plant now bloomed with a bloody halo, spreading a silvery-glowing path amid the decaying leaves, the light extending forward as if alive. The moment the liquid touched the fern, a faint hissing sound emerged, as if some ancient lock was being unlocked, filling the air with a peculiar scent of rust mixed with sandalwood. "Like a mechanical key opening a lock, except this key is made of blood and magic. Red's blood contains a contract with this forest—the passage right he earned at the cost of his last expedition."
Arya suddenly raised her index finger to her lips, her pointed elven ears twitching slightly, capturing subtle sounds beyond human hearing. "Southwest, about three hundred paces away, there's faint metal scraping and hushed conversation." Vigilance flashed in her emerald eyes, like a leopard sensing danger instinctively. "Likely the accomplices of those Shattered Shadow Gang bandits from yesterday—they're indeed tracking us. At least ten, no, more..." Her fingertip traced an arc rune, several laurel leaf-shaped light arrows floating in her palm, ready to respond to an ambush, the glow illuminating her solemn face with an extra air of mystery.
The rust scent mixed with sweat odor assaulted them as over sixty bandits clad in ragged beast hides and fitted with mechanical arms surged from the tree shadows, forming a semicircular encirclement. They wielded curved blades embedded with crystal cores, the purple-red halos flowing on the edges marking "Mana Theft"—a dirty tactic specifically against mages, capable of siphoning the opponent's magic during battle. The bandits' mechanical prosthetics emitted hissing steam sounds, piercingly loud in the serene forest.
The bald-headed bandit leader swung his mechanical arm, joints emitting a screeching steam leak; the arm was clearly a shoddy assembly, rust-spotted yet powerfully effective. "You actually spotted us, so no point hiding anymore, elf girl and human woman! Hand over the info on the Star Shard, and we won't let you die clueless. If you don't behave, once we catch you, we'll sell you both at the slave market for three thousand crystal cores! Brothers, take them alive!" He grinned, revealing metal-inlaid teeth, his smile ferocious and greedy. The other bandits erupted in crude laughter, their weapons flickering with dangerous light.
Fa's star eyes suddenly brightened, blue light piercing the opponent's chest: she "saw" the mana lines flowing in the bandit's body being absorbed by the curved blade, those purple-red halos actually compressed mana forming a small energy cycle system. "Their weapons devour mana! Arya, use ranged runes—don't let them get close! These blades can absorb magical energy and convert it for their own use; the stronger the magic, the more dangerous they become!"
Arya's fingertips drew seven white light arrows in the air, precisely shattering the bandits' crystal-core curved blades. The instant the arrows collided with the blades, a series of small magical explosions erupted, knocking back the front-row bandits several steps, crystal fragments scattering like rain. But more bandits flanked from behind trees, the roaring of iron chains and mechanical claws echoing through the forest, startling a flock of sleeping nocturnal birds. These bandits were clearly trained, advancing and retreating with military-like discipline, unlike ordinary rabble.
Fa grabbed Arya and turned to sprint, the fluorescent path underfoot suddenly veering toward a steep cliff wall—that was the "Shadow Bug Nest Boundary" marked on Red's map. The two darted through the tangled tree roots, the bandits' pursuit growing closer behind, the sound of mechanical prosthetics pounding the ground like war drums. The forest terrain grew increasingly treacherous, massive tree roots coiling on the ground like pythons, slippery moss making footing precarious.
"Don't touch the bark!" Fa cried out, pulling Arya away just as she was about to collide with a giant tree. The two realized the ancient trees' bark was covered in fine cracks, each fissure hiding spiderweb-like black shadows—precisely the "Shadow Bug Tendrils" Red had mentioned. Those tendrils quivered slightly, sensing living auras, beginning to writhe slowly like snakes, emitting bone-chilling rustling sounds. The tendrils were semi-transparent, with flowing dark energy visible inside, like living shadows.
The bandit leader's steel prosthetic smashed into the ground, blasting up debris that disturbed the canopy. Countless fingernail-sized black insects took flight from the leaves, their wing veins glowing with corrosive green light—these weren't the shadow bugs Red described, but the more vicious "Mana-Eroding Flying Insects." They emitted piercing high-frequency screeches, launching indiscriminate attacks on everyone present like a swirling dark cloud. Wherever the flying insects passed, plants withered and decayed rapidly, even the bandits' mechanical prosthetics showing signs of rust.
"Use wood spells!" Arya clasped her hands, a pale green magic circle unfolding overhead, cascading vines entangling the insects' wings. The vines twisted flexibly like living snakes, precisely capturing every approaching insect. Fa seized the moment to fling her Star Trail Short Blade, the tech runes on the edge carving a blue-glowing passage through the woods, the light forming a temporary barrier blocking the insect swarm. However, the sight around the corner halted them in their tracks—
Amid a cluster of "Weeping Face Ferns" as thick as three people embracing, stood seven rotting wooden stakes, each hung with a human corpse. Their chests bore charred cavities, innards hollowed out, faces frozen in extreme agony. Swarms of flies and carrion beetles circled the bodies, emitting a nauseating stench. The forest's terror was evident.
"Damn! They're catching up!" The bandit leader's arm dug into the ground, charging forward covered in frost shards, his blade stained with Arya's fresh blood—Mana Theft had begun eroding her magic. Arya's face paled, clearly feeling her mana draining rapidly; she leaned against a tree, her breathing becoming rapid and irregular. Those purple-red halos clung to her wound like leeches, continuously siphoning the elf's magical energy.
Fa suddenly saw a premonition flash in her star eye vision: in three seconds, shadow bug tendrils would surge from the right-side roots. She decisively yanked Arya into a rotting tree hollow, the two plunging into darkness just as the bandit leader's blade grazed Arya's hair, severing a few silver strands. The tree hollow's interior was far more spacious than it appeared, as if leading to another space, filled with the scent of soil and humus, along with some indescribable ancient magical energy.
The fall lasted ten seconds, the smell of decaying leaves and damp earth growing thicker. When Fa managed to open her eyes, she found herself lying on a bed of fluorescent blue moss, dotted starlight leaking through the canopy above, yet without a trace of heat—this was the "Eternal Night Forbidden Zone" Red had mentioned. The air here was icy and heavy, laden with decay and magic, each breath feeling like inhaling an entire history's weight.
"We've passed through the shadow bugs' camouflage layer." Arya stroked the glowing moss on the ground, her fingertips feeling an icy touch. "These are 'Yin Corpse Moss,' which only grow on mana-depleted lands. They absorb all surrounding heat and mana, no wonder it's so cold here." As she spoke, her exhaled breath condensed into white mist, shimmering like silver powder under the fluorescent moss's glow.
Fa stood up, her star eyes scanning the twisted trees around. Their branches all bent in the same direction, pointing toward a blue fragment suspended in a crevice far away—exactly matching the scene in Red's memory. But what chilled her more were the semi-transparent human figures floating among the tree shadows: members of the Iron Claw Gang bandit group from years ago, their souls bound by a curse, wandering like ghosts unconsciously, muttering incomprehensible words. These spirits' attire was clearly from decades past, bearing fatal wounds, yet they seemed oblivious to their state, endlessly repeating some obsession from life.
"Don't look directly into their eyes." Arya reminded softly, her voice exceptionally clear in the silent forbidden zone. "Elven legends say a spirit's gaze steals the living's memories. These unfortunate souls are trapped between life and death, instinctively craving the living's memories to fill their emptiness." She summoned fluorescent insects, weaving a protective light net around them, the glow soft yet firm, keeping the spirits at bay. "Red said the shard is above the shadow bug nest, but the mana fluctuations here are abnormally chaotic; I need time to sense the exact location. The magic field here is like tangled yarn, hard to unravel."
A sudden tremor rose from beneath their feet, dense crawling sounds emanating from under the moss. Fa's star eyes captured countless tiny black shadows shuttling through the soil—precisely the "Shadow Bugs" Red described. These finger-joint-sized bugs possessed the ability to devour heat energy, now drawn by the two's internal mana, converging from all directions, their movements producing faint scraping sounds like countless needle tips on glass, unsettling.
"Use Red's blood!" Fa recalled the note on the map, sprinkling the remaining silver liquid at her feet. The blood beads seeped into the moss, and the black shadows emitted sharp shrieks in retreat, the sound like twisting metal, piercing. Seizing the moment, she looked up and saw the suspended shard projecting a star map, those light points perfectly matching the veins in her right eye, producing a strong resonance, as if two long-separated hearts were synchronizing beats again.
"The star eye's resonance frequency!" Arya suddenly realized, her emerald eyes widening in surprise. "The shard is recognizing the star eye's bloodline. Fa, try touching the shard's projection with your star eye! This might be the only way to obtain it! This shard isn't a mere object; it has some consciousness, seeking its other half!"
Fa closed her left eye, channeling all her mana into the star eye. The blue light solidified into an arrow shooting toward the shard, the suspended blue crystal trembling in response, the surrounding spirits suddenly letting out piercing howls, their souls being absorbed by the shard, forms growing more transparent, as if about to dissipate into the air. But just as the shard was about to fall, the ground shook violently, countless shadow bugs surging from all sides, the wind pressure from their tendrils nearly blowing off the two's cloaks, the force so great it was hard to stand.
"Grab my hand!" Arya flung a magical rope to hook a branch, swinging with Fa toward a rock cave on the crevice's side. The bandits' pained cries came from above, evidently having blundered into the forbidden zone too. But at that moment, Fa's gaze couldn't shift—the abyss below the shard revealed a massive blue pupil, identical to her star eye, as if some ancient guardian mechanism, the starlight swirling within seeming to hold the universe's secrets.
"That's... the Guardian Array of the Star Heart?" Arya's voice mixed fear and awe. "The forbidden zone's truth Red mentioned—turns out the shard absorbs spirits' mana to sustain the guardian array's operation. These shadow bugs aren't ordinary creatures but part of the guardian array! They're both guards and energy collectors, no wonder they're so powerful."
Fa stroked her chest where the star eye pulsed wildly, finally understanding why no creatures dared enter—this wasn't a dead land but the Star Heart Shard's "Alchemical Furnace," where all intruders' mana was used to repair the shard. And her star eye was the key to activate this furnace, and the only way to shut it down. This realization filled her with both fear and excitement, as if touching a cosmic secret.
"We must take the shard without triggering the guardian array." Fa eyed the approaching shadow bug swarm, the bandits' screams turning to desperate wails. "Arya, use wood-based spells to fix the shard's trajectory; I'll handle severing the guardian array's mana chains! This might be our only chance! I'll use the star eye to find the mana flow nodes—you must cast immediately when I signal!"
Arya nodded, the World Tree patterns on her robe all lighting up, emanating powerful natural mana, the glow like the fresh green of early spring, full of vitality and life. "Remember, I can only hold for thirty seconds! These shadow bugs... they're actually the shard's guardians, willing to protect it at all costs! After thirty seconds, my mana will be exhausted, and we'll have no more chances!"
As the two released their mana simultaneously, a beast-like roar erupted from the forbidden zone's abyss, the entire space shaking violently, as if some ancient entity had awakened. Fa's star eye pierced the shard's surface, "seeing" countless stellar memories sealed within, and at the deepest point, her father's parting smile emerged—turns out he hadn't gone missing back then but had offered his soul to the Star Heart's guardian array, becoming part of its sustenance. This discovery struck her heart like a hammer, nearly suffocating her.
"Father..." Fa's throat choked, but the star eye's blue light didn't dim. She swung the Star Trail Short Blade to sever the last mana chain, the shard falling in response, the guardian array's pupil slowly closing, its gaze seeming to carry a sense of relief and anticipation. At the same time, all shadow bugs halted their assault, slumping as if drained of mana, turning to black dust scattered by the wind in the eternal night air.
Arya caught the falling shard, the blue crystal emitting a gentle glow in her palm, the light neither blinding nor faint, perfectly illuminating the surroundings. "It acknowledges us... or rather, the star eye's bloodline." She said softly, feeling the powerful energy flowing within the shard—ancient yet fresh, gentle yet strong, full of contradictory harmony.
Fa turned to gaze into the abyss, her father's soul image gradually fading, leaving only a ethereal whisper: "Go find the dwarves at the blacksmith in Silver Red Village; they'll repair the broken strings of the Star Trail Short Blade..." The voice faded, but the warmth lingered in Fa's heart, comforting her lonely journey like winter sun. She now understood her father's departure wasn't abandonment but a greater sacrifice.
Distant screams from the Shattered Shadow Gang leader and members echoed, being devoured by the remaining shadow bugs, the sounds filled with despair and agony. Fa pulled Arya toward another exit deeper in the forbidden zone, where faint hammering of forging iron rang from afar—precisely the dwarf village (Silver Red Village) her father mentioned. The shard in hand still warmed, resonating with the star eye's pulse, as if guiding the next destination. This resonance was not just physical but a soul-level connection, giving her an unprecedented sense of belonging.
"Curator Inya was right; pages don't record the soul's cries." Fa stroked the cracks on the shard, their shape perfectly matching her right eye's star eye, as if they were one. "But our footsteps are writing new legends. This isn't just a quest for shards; it's a journey to reclaim self and heritage."
Arya nodded, stowing the shard in her World Tree-embossed magic pouch, the bag immediately emitting a soft blue light in resonance with the shard: "Next, we seek dwarf companions. Rumor has it in Silver Red Village's forging district, there's a dwarf who can infuse magic into machinery... he might help us craft more powerful weapons."
The morning mist gradually dissipated, the fluorescent path underfoot lighting up again, pointing deeper into the forest toward the dwarf village (Silver Red Village). Behind them, the forbidden zone's entrance was closing, the wandering spirits finally at rest. With the shard's departure, Mick Forest's leaves welcomed long-absent sunlight for the first time—though this light still shrouded the shadow of the next shard and unknown dangers. This interplay of light and darkness was the perfect portrayal of their journey.
Before leaving the forbidden zone, Fa glanced back one last time. She noticed ancient symbols etched on the walls, strikingly similar to the markings on her father's pocket watch. This reinforced her certainty that her father's disappearance was inextricably linked to the Star Heart, and this journey might not only save the world but also unveil family secrets from the past. Those symbols seemed to narrate a forgotten covenant, awaiting her interpretation.
Arya gently touched her arm. "Time to go, Fa. We have much road ahead, and Shattered Shadow Gang remnants might still lurk nearby. Though we've won this victory, danger never strays far; we must stay vigilant always."
Fa nodded, committing those symbols deeply to memory, then turned and walked shoulder-to-shoulder with Arya toward Silver Red Village. Their figures gradually vanished into the forest depths.