Tang took out the 'Astrolabe for Observing Stars' from the System warehouse. Now, this item was not like before, with only a solitary crystal planet floating on it.
Three other stars floated on the astrolabe.
One was a semi-transparent sphere shimmering with mysterious and complex light, slightly grayish-white. Its interior seemed to be filled with transparent worms, twisting together and overlapping into clumps.
When observing it, one could seemingly see strange dramas, freak shows, stilt walking, clown performances, magician's tricks, various deformed monsters, all sorts of marionette audiences, countless images overlapping and imprinted on the clustered worms, forming complex symbols evolved from countless pupil-less eyes and twisted lines, layer upon layer, extremely three-dimensional.
It represented the 'Never-Ending Theater'.
There was another star, ominous black, its surface deathly silent and eerie, as if devoid of any living beings. But once one got closer, they could hear something constantly mourning in a low voice—vengeful spirits, water ghosts, as if countless spiritual bodies were hidden within.
Its interior seemed to contain a small underworld, full of death, the realm of the dead.
It represented Owen, who had recently advanced to Sequence Five of the Death pathway, the Gatekeeper.
The last star was slightly dim, ordinary and plain, slowly rotating around the central crystal planet.
That was the star belonging to his mother, Madam Poyanka.
Four stars, representing each of them.
And these stars were not static on the astrolabe. The other three stars revolved around the central crystal planet, like planets orbiting the central star. Countless semi-transparent thin lines acted like gravitational pull, connecting them to the crystal planet in the middle.
Moreover, it wasn't just limited to Tang and others or sealed artifacts. The stars representing Owen and Madam Poyanka were also connected by semi-transparent thin lines.
This symbolized the overlapping places in their fates, and their deep connections and blood ties.
And now...
Tang watched as the two stars belonging to him and Owen swelled up. The black star of death and the dazzling crystal planet both became covered in deep black mottled marks. Vaguely, these mottled shadows would spit out some black dust, like highly polluting carcinogens, quietly and slowly deepening the erosion of the stars' interiors.
"The astrolabe can predict a certain future, the fate belonging to the stars."
Tang took out the telescope and the mosaic glasses.
"If it were the beginning, observing that the vessel of the Dark Side of the Universe would pose a threat to me, I would at most report him to the church."
Compared to dealing with the vessel of the Dark Side of the Universe himself, the Extraordinary individuals of the righteous god churches, those archbishops, obviously had more experience. Moreover, having the church's swarms of demigods and angels take action against a malicious vessel of divine descent, plus the Sequence Zero true gods behind them who could descend at any time, was much safer and had a much higher success rate than him alone.
But after coming here and inscribing Owen's fate into the astrolabe as well, Tang knew his thoughts were still too simple.
By observing that death planet, he discovered that the source of this danger was not just his own future.
The star representing Owen didn't just show 'deathly silence' because he was a Sequence Five Gatekeeper of the Death pathway.
The thin lines connecting the two of them also showed traces of turbid black pollution.
As a Seer, there were many ways to interpret the revelations of fate, but the fate revelations given by the astrolabe were very direct. Many things could be interpreted through the changes in the stars themselves.
"Every star, since it exists, will constantly affect the trajectories of other stars. The ups and downs in the fates of others will also affect my own fate through connections."
"Fate is a very marvelous thing. Even the angels of the Fate pathway revere her."
What he observed, the danger from the Dark Side of the Universe, came partly from his own arrival in the Orkney Highlands to search for and pursue the vessel of the Dark Side of the Universe.
Partly from Owen, from his closest blood relatives.
This was the danger of death. If the other party stayed here, then in the revelations of fate, undisturbed, his future would be to truly become one of the many living beings heading to the underworld, the realm of death.
Adjusting the telescope, the scene Tang saw when he looked at the astrolabe was clearer than before. He saw the vessel of divine descent shouting something, the sky covered in dark clouds, the Orkney Highlands filled with eerie winds, blood flowing on the ground, and black cracks splitting open from south to north, like entrances connecting to the abyss, wriggling and devouring the flesh and vultures on the ground.
It was like opening Pandora's Box, and what was inside was the Dark Side of the Universe, which could corrupt even gods.
Tiny humans were like babbling infants in front of it, without any power to resist, until swallowed by the corrupting darkness. Even the dead bodies would become unspeakable monsters.
Beneath that huge crack, there were twisted eyes, greedily watching the living beings on the earth. Hands and feet grew out of the eyeballs, crawling upwards, as if trying to climb out of the crack.
They were layer upon layer, one after another. Each eyeball grew hands and feet, but beneath the eyeballs were what looked like nerves, blood-red nerve threads constantly extending downwards, as if trying to pull even more terrifying things from the depths of the abyss.
That was—
A severed hand?
The huge mosaics layered upon each other. Even though it was a vision of the future, even through the mosaic glasses, Tang broke out in a cold sweat.
The Orkney Highlands, this area, was really going to become chaotic.
This could cause a terrible disaster that could lead to the destruction of nations for Loen, Intis, and Feysac.
Tang took off the mosaic glasses, rubbed his temples, and stuffed the glasses, telescope, and astrolabe back into the System space.
"The fluctuations of fate are within the next few days. Not to mention whether the churches will believe me, just that scene alone is enough to show that the entire Orkney Highlands will probably become the first place to be hit by the flood of pollution after the abyss opens."
"That level of mental pollution, those touched by it, let alone ordinary people, even middle-sequence Extraordinary individuals could fall and become monsters, completely losing control, in an instant. And the opened cracks are likely to connect to the abyss, or even perhaps..."
The astral world.
'Host?'
Tang rubbed his temples, trying to calm down the ominous premonitions that were constantly jumping due to his spiritual intuition.
"Fortunately, I was still separated by a layer of mosaic glasses and the astrolabe. If I really encountered the abyss in the real world, even getting close might cause me to lose control and die directly."
(End of this chapter)