The dim, gray mist stretched infinitely in all directions.

The pale, color-faded ground seemed endless.

Rode stood in this colorless dreamscape, somewhat bewildered.

"Am I back here again?"

"So, I don't need to find the Young Lady for a massage?"

Ignoring his disappointment, Rode quickly became excited again.

If entering the dreamscape was this simple, he wouldn't have to worry about not finding the truth.

He looked around and soon saw that peculiar obelisk again.

The shadowy figure, like an evil spirit, had long disappeared, and the excruciating pain didn't return.

This indicated that the changes were real, and the dreamscape was continuous.

Rode felt a slight joy in his heart.

The truth might be hidden within that obelisk.

He quickly ran over, the dim mist and pale gray soil sweeping past him, everything here exuded a sense of deathly stillness.

Except for the obelisk.

It was green, full of vitality, the damage it had suffered last time had vanished, and the cracks on it were only faintly visible, slowly healing.

Rode stood before the obelisk, reaching out to gently touch it.

The surface of the obelisk once again became deep, countless star-like points of light flickering in and out of view.

In the center was still that dark red point of light, its glow solid and flowing like lava, much brighter than all the other points.

When Rode focused on it again, many incomprehensible characters emerged within the light.

Suddenly, Rode had an epiphany.

Could it be the "spark"?

In the royal city, "spark" was a term with many meanings.

It often referred to trialists and students with infinite potential.

It also generally referred to the budding of hope and the dawn of the future.

Additionally, it had an important meaning.

That was the Firebearers of the "Star Fire" sequence, whose souls contained latent potential.

Each time a Firebearer of the "Star Fire" sequence ignited a spark, they would gain an ability and strengthen their soul.

The simple standard for measuring the strength of "Star Fire" combatants was the number of sparks.

According to Wayne, most "Star Fire" individuals could only ignite three to four sparks in their lifetime.

A few strong ones could ignite five to six.

Beyond six, they were extremely rare, always excelling in their fields.

And only one person had ignited nineteen, becoming the most renowned legend in the royal city.

If...

This dark red point of light was an already ignited spark...

Rode jumped up as if pricked by a needle.

Then, wouldn't the Archbishop's strange favoritism towards him be understandable?

And the Mechanism Research Institute's assessment of him, wouldn't it be correct?

This dark red point of light must be the spark known as the "Black Cauldron."

The strange characters within the light must contain the meaning of "Black Cauldron."

Rode gazed at the countless points of light, flickering and almost invisible.

If this point of light could be ignited...

Then could all these points of light in the sky be ignited?

Suddenly, Rode felt a surge of excitement.

But he quickly calmed down.

He remembered clearly that the "Black Cauldron" only truly ignited and reached its current brightness after devouring the soul of someone named "The Bloom on the Cliff, Northern Prince Hagor."

If using the method of elimination, this "Northern Prince Hagor" was likely the shadow that had attacked him before.

After he killed it with the inexplicable golden light aiding him, he obtained its soul and fed it to the "Black Cauldron."

If igniting a spark required a soul, where would he find a new soul?

Moreover, didn't this method seem rather evil?

Rode suddenly thought of the annihilation of the migration team and the strange patterns among the corpses.

Could that have been some kind of soul sacrifice ritual?

The murderer sacrificed the souls of the migration team members to gain some hidden benefit.

Rode's heart suddenly turned cold.

Could it be that I was the one who killed them?

Am I the murderer?

"No, not necessarily."

Rode found it hard to accept this conclusion.

"This is just my imagination; the facts might not be like this."

"There must be clues I haven't discovered yet."

He removed his hand from the obelisk, and the deep night sky and star-like points of light gradually faded, the surface returning to its original state.

Suddenly, Rode noticed a detail he hadn't before.

"This obelisk has four sides; could the other three be different?"

Rode immediately moved to one side of the obelisk, reaching out to gently touch the surface.

Sure enough, a new change occurred.

The green surface gradually turned black, like ink dripping into water, quickly settling.

The pure black color rose from the bottom, stopping halfway up.

Rode waited for a while, but nothing changed.

He didn't gain any information.

Puzzled, Rode moved to another side and touched it again.

This time, the surface turned gold.

But like before, the gold stopped after covering a fifth of the surface, with no further changes.

Rode had to let go, and the surface returned to normal.

He felt these two sides were like thermometers, measuring some existing metric.

The obelisk had one last side left.

Please, give me some useful information.

Rode reached out and pressed his hand against the surface.

In the next moment, a new change truly emerged.

A line of blood trickled down from the top, forming dozens of strange characters on the surface.

They flickered slightly, like some kind of eerie warning, seemingly foretelling something.

But he didn't recognize any of the characters.

Rode had never hated being illiterate as much as he did now. He forced himself to remember the shape of each character, planning to find a way to decipher them at Kimberly's library as soon as he woke up.

After a moment, Rode let go, and the blood-red characters gradually faded.

But their shapes were firmly etched in his mind.

There was nothing more to see on the obelisk; more information would have to wait until he could read.

Rode glanced into the distance; the mist was boundless, with no end in sight.

Since he hadn't woken up, he might as well explore; maybe he'd discover something new.

Rode walked away, wandering aimlessly in the misty world.

After all, he would return to the real world upon waking, so he wasn't afraid of getting lost.

After a while, a sharp pain suddenly came from the back of his hand.

Rode looked down to see the strange eye pattern on the back of his right hand heating up, the black lines making it up boiling as if about to burst out.

"What, what's happening?"

"Is my demon king seal about to break?"

Rode was a bit panicked, but in the next instant, the eye on the back of his hand shot out, transforming into a large mass of black mist that fell to the ground.

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