"Ji Xing, relax your mind, don’t resist. Unfold your divine sense, feel and accept this power, let it melt into your own being." 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

In the Lan Family Forbidden Land, Zhang Xiaoman and Lan Yue were sitting cross-legged, Floating face to face. The surrounding backdrop was a deep starry sky, accompanied by endlessly beautiful and intricate Runes shining, making it all seem so mysterious and enchanting.

At this moment, in the delicate transparent little bottle in Lan Yue’s hand, the liquid emitting a fiery red glow turned into strands of threadlike water, Floating toward Zhang Xiaoman, then fused into his right arm and disappeared without a trace.

Zhang Xiaoman’s expression remained unchanged. He let those red liquids melt into his body, as if he were simply getting the most ordinary kind of massage.

Across from him, after seeing his performance, Lan Yue couldn’t help but be secretly shocked in her heart.

As a Star Pattern Master, she knew all too well the pain of imprinting the fourth Star Pattern. It was a kind of damage that acted directly on the spiritual level, like the burning of the soul itself; no matter how strong the physical body, it could not withstand it.

Unless one possessed an incomparably strong will, no one could possibly remain expressionless under such pain. In all the years Lan Yue had lived, she had never heard of anyone who could do this.

Yet today she was seeing it. This man called Ji Xing in front of her, aside from being a little nervous at the very beginning, was actually able to show not the slightest sign of struggle while imprinting the fourth Star Pattern. This was simply inconceivable.

One had to know that back when the Lan Family Head, elder Lan Gu, imprinted his fourth Star Pattern, it was also Lan Yue, this Star Pattern Master, who held the pen. At that time Lan Gu was already at Upper Control Level strength, yet even with his resolute will, he was sweating profusely from the pain and in the end had to grit his teeth and force his way through it. From this, the degree of that pain could be imagined.

But the man before her actually had a calm face; this truly astonished Lan Yue.

"This child’s temperament and will are truly terrifying. In the future he will by no means be an ordinary figure. He might really be able to achieve the Transcendent; it’s not impossible. For an existence like this, my Lan Family must draw him in. Even if we can’t bind him to the same boat, we absolutely must not offend him..."

Countless thoughts flashed through Lan Yue’s mind at this moment, but they vanished in a flash. She hurriedly came back to herself and focused on helping Zhang Xiaoman with the imprinting of the Star Pattern.

However, what she did not know was that the reason Zhang Xiaoman could appear so calm was not the peerless temperament and unshakable will she had imagined, but rather the effect of the Spirit Star Ring, which made him immune to all spiritual-type damage. At this moment, facing that burning from the spiritual level was naturally nothing to him.

In fact, this unique pain when imprinting the fourth Star Pattern was somewhat similar to what Star Alliance members felt when they used the Eye of the Starry Sky to absorb Alien Species corpses.

It’s just that, apart from having experienced that feeling once before he arrived at Rebirth Island, ever since Zhang Xiaoman put on the North Star Ring, he had never felt that pain again.

So later, when Lan Yue told him that the first step of the imprinting had been completed, he was still a bit at a loss. She had spoken so solemnly and frighteningly beforehand, but in the end the supposedly most agonizing process never came. It just ended like that, which instead left people somewhat baffled.

However, Zhang Xiaoman did not dwell too much on this. This first step was also the hardest step; most Awakeners failed right at the start of the imprinting. The reason, naturally, was that they could not endure this pain. Some people would even have their Divine Soul damaged because of it and completely turn into madmen.

Since the first step had been completed, the next would be the second step of the imprinting.

Lan Yue held a Radiant Star Pen forged from third-level materials. After pulling some distance away from Zhang Xiaoman, she waved this Dark Spiritual Artifact in her hand through the air toward where he was.

In an instant, the Stars that had originally been scattered around Zhang Xiaoman began to rearrange themselves with Lan Yue’s strokes. In the end, they actually formed a strange pattern, and that pattern was exactly the same as the one on the Eye of the Starry Sky in Zhang Xiaoman’s hand.

"Concentration Star Array! Go!"

With a soft shout from Lan Yue, the Star Pen in her hand suddenly pointed forward. Then all the Stars radiated dazzling light, countless tiny motes of dust drifting around them, connecting them to one another and ultimately forming a Formation containing powerful Spiritual Power.

Zhang Xiaoman stood at the center of the Formation. At this moment he only felt that the red liquid he had absorbed into his body earlier seemed to begin boiling, surging Immortal-like within him, and finally all converging toward the original Star Pattern position on his right arm.

At the same time, the Star Pattern on Zhang Xiaoman’s arm emitted a light that seemed to pierce straight into the soul. If one looked closely, one could also see strands of purple lines beginning to surface within that Star Pattern icon.

This was the fourth Star Pattern. In terms of external manifestation, the pattern was that patch of forest on the Eye of the Starry Sky icon.

However, the emergence of this fourth Star Pattern was extremely slow. Even though Zhang Xiaoman was strenuously circulating the Guiding Skill Lan Yue had taught him, judging from the speed at which the Star Pattern was taking shape, it would probably be impossible to finish without several years.

By this time, the two of them had already spent almost a year in the Lan Family Forbidden Land, and Lan Yue’s task could be considered successfully completed. Whether the Star Pattern could be successfully imprinted from here on out would depend on Zhang Xiaoman himself.