Sorcerer’s Handbook

Chapter 322: Starsfall

Harvest Orchard.

Today, the one welcoming Sonya was, of course, the Advanced member of the Stretch Paw Club, Mifa.

After selling off her recent Virtual Realm harvests, Sonya suddenly fell silent.

Mifa wasn’t in a hurry, quietly enjoying the time they spent alone together.

After a long while, Sonya let out a soft sigh and said, “I want to purchase the ‘Heart Pen’ Miracle… Are there any promotions or discounts right now?”

Although Mifa really wanted to give the sword Princess a freebie, she didn’t have the authority: “No, you can only buy it for the original price of 15 gold coins. Maybe you could wait until the College League starts; the school usually offers promotions then…”

“Then I’ll buy it at the original price,” Sonya sighed, looking reluctant.

Just as Mifa was preparing the Artifact Spirit, they suddenly heard a series of continuous ‘pop’ sounds.

It was as if something was cracking open.

Sonya turned her head and saw a fruit falling from a tree behind them, its transparent crystal shell shattering with a pop. The spell spirit inside, drowsily opening its eyes, suddenly turned into a mist and dissipated.

It wasn’t the first, nor the last.

Pop, pop, pop.

One spell spirit fruit after another fell, one after another shattered and dissipated.

Although the number of fallen fruits was not large, this situation clearly exceeded the young woman’s tolerance – this was, after all, the Harvest Orchard of Swordflower College, one of the top Spirit Trading Centers in Galaxia. The fruit trees were even a Miracle of a legendary sorcerer. How could such a spell spirit exodus suddenly occur?

But soon, they wouldn’t care about this little matter.

Because they found themselves covered by a giant shadow.

As mentioned earlier, Harvest Orchard had all-glass outer walls, allowing one hundred percent of external light to pass through. So, the girls looked up and faced the sky.

The stars were falling.

Thousands upon thousands of stars were falling, including the three luminous stars everyone recognized, the brightest Lunar Star of the night, and the seventy-two constellations that the young women adored.

But they didn’t completely fall.

Because the “Sky” stopped them.

They were like trapped balls, pockmarking the sky above with craters. The sky seemed like an extremely elastic membrane, blocking all the falling stars; it was as if a giant bubble enveloped the entire world.

Countless questions floated up in the spectator’s mind like bubbles, so dense it felt like his brain might boil over.

There was no commotion, no chaos, no screams.

Galaxia, Abacuray, Magi, Mate, Mis, Aifeng… the entire Stars Kingdom came to a halt. Countless people looked up at the sky, experiencing a paradigm shift.

Then—

Pop.

Perhaps there was this sound, perhaps there wasn’t, but everyone later believed there was.

Because there is always a sound when the lights go out.

And when the sky turns off, how could there not be?

At that moment, all the stars extinguished, taking away all light, plunging the world into darkness, and stifling the screams of all beings in their throats.

But this darkness didn’t last even a second before the people of Galaxia saw a glimmer of blue light in the darkness.

It was a female sorcerer in a hooded robe, deep blue runes swirling around her, each step she took causing ripples in the air.

Any knowledgeable member of the nobility would recognize her as a clergy member who appeared during festivals.

She walked on a dark staircase, guiding the gaze of millions, step by step, towards the sky.

When she reached a certain platform, she knelt down, hands clasped in prayer. The deep blue of her robes ignited like flames, spreading across the darkness, engulfing all of Galaxia, and eventually the entire Stars Kingdom.

Sonya didn’t escape it either. The blue flame adhered to her, forming an armor-like shape. Looking around, she noticed that most people’s blue flames were chaotic, not yet forming describable shapes; only a few had distinct shapes, which looked familiar… like the Star Swordsman and Star Archer she had seen before.

Sonya’s blue flame armor resembled both a Star Swordsman and the Starburst Warrior worn by the Observer.

Before she could continue observing, the world underwent another dramatic change. As if responding to the burning earth, the sky began to dance. A falling star suddenly burst with a crackling deep blue light, and then the sky’s elastic potential energy fully exploded, bouncing the star back into the heavens!

Then the second, third, fourth… the stars were like curious schoolchildren peeking through the window, now caught by the teacher, quickly returning to their seats, not daring to cause any more trouble.

Once the luminous stars returned to their leader’s throne, the sky finally brightened.

The morning’s luminous stars, the bright sunlight, the lazy clouds, the clear blue sky… the brief blackout and the falling stars seemed like a grand illusion.

But when Sonya turned to look east, she saw a massive White Great Tower, hundreds of meters high, that wasn’t there before but suddenly appeared. The top of the tower corresponded with the spot where the female sorcerer had knelt in the darkness.

Undoubtedly, the female sorcerer was still praying for all beings, and the White Great Tower was a celestial staircase prepared by legendary sorcerers within seconds for her ascent.

For some reason, a term suddenly popped into Sonya’s mind:

“Star Prayer.”

“Mifa.”

“Ah?” The working student was still in the process of reconstructing her worldview.

“Do you know what that fallen spirit was?” Sonya pointed to the shattered crystal fruit behind her.

Although a bit puzzled, Mifa naturally wouldn’t refuse Sonya’s inquiry. She quickly checked and said, “That was the two-wings spirit ‘Meteor’.”

“Meteor? Which sect does it belong to?”

“The Light Sect, but…”

“But what?”

“The way Meteor manifests isn’t as light but as a physical entity,” Mifa said, looking at the description. “But because Meteors look similar to starlight, and ‘starlight’ belongs to the Light Sect, Meteor is also classified under the Light Sect.”

Not all spirits have clear sect classifications. Ultimately, the Spellcasting Sect is just a label that sorcerers arbitrarily use to categorize spirits, a classification that has always been relative and partial. Not to mention that many spirits exhibit traits from multiple sects, some spirits cannot be classified into any sect at all, such as the Observer’s Substitute spirit.

Spirits came first, then the Spellcasting Sect. The construction of theoretical systems has always lagged behind practice, and sometimes it lags far behind—such as with the Prophecy Sect and the Fate Sect. From ancient times to the present, all sorcerers have believed these two sects must exist, and they have discovered related spirits, but they have never been able to construct a complete systemic framework.

Sonya pondered, “So, Meteor should belong to the ‘Star’ sect, right?”

“There isn’t a Star sect yet,” Mifa said with a laugh. “Stars are too far away; how could sorcerers utilize them?”

Sonya glanced up at the sky.

“Doesn’t seem that far away,” she murmured.

Starsfall.

Star Prayer.

The shattered Star spirit.

The Incarnation of the Stars taken by the heroic soul.

The Secret Incarnation obtained by the Observer.

No wonder the heroic soul commander didn’t dare kill the Observer…

No wonder she preferred to use the troublesome method of a Pact to ensure she could successfully take the Observer’s soul summoning spirit…

So, the so-called Incarnation is—

Suddenly, Sonya felt a wave of nausea, and everything in her vision began to restructure itself.

Mifa opened the chamber of her heart, sunlight fragmented into blocks, fruit trees twisted into tombstones stacked with words, the sky turned into a black deep-sea, and the luminous stars sprouted countless eyes and mouths. From their bodies extended bright thin lines upward, like bait falling into the sea…

But when she blinked, the world returned to its original state, with no changes at all.

Indeed, the world hadn’t changed.

What changed was Sonya’s perception.

She knew very well the reason for this alteration. Being with the Observer, this conflicted insect, made it too easy to encounter such things.

When the world once again shed its disguise, revealing its multicolored darkness, Sonya received a response from the Virtual Realm through her perception—

“Conceptual Toxin.”