Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 1087: Shard and March

Holding the cat, Shard glanced back again at the moonlight outside the window:

"I couldn’t find that relic during the day, it seems it’s not just the wrong time..."

Amidst the sound of whistles and bells, the rotating brass life ring slowly emerged from the depths of the steam mist. The spiritual light of the core spirit rune "Silvermoon" illuminated the wall, but nothing appeared after waiting for a long time.

"Could it be that I was wrong, and this is not the way to do it this time?"

[Perhaps you could try a bit more.]

"You mean, because it’s the Source of Chaos, I should use the Yellow Moon spirit talisman?"

Shard asked in his mind, but he didn’t immediately try to do so, because he saw the reflection of his own ring of fate on the wall due to the existence of the sparse moonlight.

"Oh?"

He looked at the perfect circle on the wall, with himself inserted like a vertical bar into the circle, feeling it resembled some intriguing mystical symbol.

Then, inspiration struck him, and he subtly shifted his steps, simultaneously moving the ring of fate behind him up and down, until the reflection of the ring on the wall’s circular center aligned with where the ink blot originally was. Shard then slightly crouched, positioning his eyes at the center of the circle.

In this way, the moonlight from outside cast into the room, then passed through the core spirit rune at the center of the ring behind Shard, illuminating the back of his head, while also reflecting his head and the ring’s body on the wall.

When Shard carefully shifted his position, until his own height and the ring’s reflection on the wall reached a certain determined position, the black shadow fixed itself on the wall, gradually transforming into a yellow moonlight ring.

Shard was amazed looking at this scene before him and saw his shadow on the wall moving. The shadow, like a character in a flat painting, stood on one side of where the ink blot was, yet still within the moonlight ring.

The shadow extended its finger to point at a position on the wall, making a gesture of knocking three times, then the shadow disappeared.

[Now you should understand.]

"Yes, this method really is hard to find. But indeed, very interesting."

With one hand holding Mia, Shard also approached the wall. He examined the beautiful moonlight ring on the wall, maintaining the position of the ring behind him, and also made a gesture of knocking on the wall.

Dong~

The first knock indeed struck the solid wall.

Dong~

The sound of the second knock changed slightly.

Dong~

The third knock struck the surface of wood.

The yellow moonlight ring formed by the reflection of Shard’s ring gradually retracted inward on the wall until the yellow circle nestled upon the wooden surface about the size of a palm.

This was a palm-sized brown wooden door, with the glowing circle decoration sparking a mystical sensation.

Shard reached out to that small door, intending to use sorcery to move the object and forcibly open it, yet surprisingly, as he reached out, the left end of the glowing yellow circle remained embedded in the wood, and the right end slowly floated upwards, transforming into a handle:

"Interesting, it seems without the correct method, you can’t open this small door even if you find it."

His fingers hooked the handle, and with just a slight pull, the small door opened, revealing a hidden compartment built into the wall.

In that hidden compartment, a flawless bright yellow treasure bead emitted an enticing, dazzling glow under the sparse moonlight behind Shard.

"Oh!"

"Meow!"

Their eyes immediately became dazed.

The unlit, empty room began to turn colorful in front of Shard, who uncontrollably chuckled as he turned around, seeing dozens of little Mias crawling around the floor.

Looking up around, more and more little Mias poured in from the room door and window, standing on only two hind legs, embracing in pairs, dancing to the moonlight tune coming from an unknown place.

"So many cats... so many cats..."

"Sir, would you like to dance?"

Suddenly hearing a voice from the side, a foolishly smiling Shard turned around, only to see a girl with quite a good figure, wearing what seemed like merely a silk cloth simply wrapped around her for a red dance dress, appearing to his left, wearing red high heels that revealed toes painted with red nail polish.

But what set this girl apart was not just her figure and attire, but her face. Surprisingly, it was also Mia’s cat face, just magnified several times over.

"Hmm? Oh!"

The extreme shock startled Shard back to soberness. He admitted Mia was cute, but if Mia’s face appeared on a human body, that would be too horrifying. He only liked simple girls or simple cats.

[I thought you would like such a girl.]

"That is Professor Manning’s hobby!"

Due to the fright, Shard slowly leaned against the wall and slid down until he sat on the floor. The powerful chaos magic had quite a significant impact on him. Even though he was also proficient in the power of the moon, he could not exempt himself from the force of the relic above his head:

"I need to take a breather."

He took deep breaths as he looked at his house, which had returned to normal. The colorful patches before his eyes had disappeared. Then, he looked down at the cat he was holding; it too looked quite foolish, desperately rubbing its face against Shard’s chest. After Shard patted it a few times, it let out a suspicious "meow~" as if not understanding why everything suddenly changed again.

"Not the brightest of creatures."

Shard commented.

After quite a while, he finally stood up again, but the secret niche on the wall had vanished. So, Shard summoned the Ring of Fate again, and following the previous steps, he revealed the secret niche. This time, when pulling the yellow moonlight ring to open the small door, Shard was well prepared and avoided looking inside the niche.

His hand reached inside and indeed touched the relic. But inside the small door, there was not only the treasure bead; underneath it was a letter.

"You found it!"

The sudden voice startled Shard. He turned around and saw a young man sitting on his windowsill, wearing a large green hat with a feather on it, holding a lyra, dressed in a dashing white shirt, green coat, tight flared trousers, and brown leather boots.

"Congratulations, brave hero who defeated the demon, you found the yellow moon that I set my heart on."

Gently plucking the strings, the bard smiled at Shard:

"So, what kind of reward do you want?"

"Nothing."

Shard calmly said, and the bard smiled and shook his head slightly, placing the familiar blue tear-shaped crystal stone on the windowsill:

"Ah, the moon, it’s so beautiful, but long gazes under the moonlight can drive one mad."

He softly sang, and Shard asked:

"Did you know from the beginning that this relic was in my house?"

"Yes, I came to this city a hundred years ago and saw the relic’s appearance a century ago. The previous holder nearly got swallowed by this house, luckily he ran quickly."

His fingers grazed the strings once more:

"But I believe that now this house has welcomed its true master."

The bard sang with a smile:

"Brave hero, an even greater challenge awaits you."

He nodded slightly to Shard:

"I look forward to you composing more grand Chapters."

His body leaned back, directly falling towards the window outside. Shard didn’t bother looking out to see if the bard landed safely; there was no need to think about it, he had certainly vanished.

"Thief Jack, demon, Source of Chaos... the third Sage’s Glowstone."

Picking up the tear-shaped crystal stone from the windowsill, Shard turned again to look at the secret niche still visible on the wall. This time, well-prepared, he dared to pull the ring again, focusing on the smooth and flawless treasure bead. Relying on his own primordial strength and the wisdom blessing from the Old God "The Undefined Sage," Shard managed to stabilize his mind, extracting the relic from the niche.

It was indeed an immaculate treasure bead, with a misty bright yellow aura that was so enticing. Shard dared only glance at it twice before diverting his gaze; this item wasn’t something to be casually used; it was quite dangerous.

Shard swatted away Mia’s paw, which reached out, and amidst the cat’s disgruntled calls, he carefully held the treasure bead toward the Ring of Fate that reappeared behind him.

The sealed Red Moon Spirit Rune gradually approached the treasure bead in Shard’s hand, and the moment they touched, a clear "crack" sounded in Shard’s ear.

Joy filled his heart, but he quickly realized that the relic hadn’t directly shattered the seal of the Red Moon Spirit Rune; instead, it caused Shard’s Yellow Moon Spirit Rune to resonate, further triggering the core Spirit Rune Silvermoon.

Both Spirit Runes summoned the power of the Red Moon, which, at a cost of the Sleeping Princess, was sealed away. The Red Moon Spirit Rune trembled slightly, but the seal was still not completely lifted.

Shard furrowed his brow thoughtfully, retrieved the letter from the secret niche, and then headed to the basement to take out three stone tablets filled with time mysteries.

He ascended to the attic once more, sitting at the center of the moon resonance ritual that had yet to be cleaned away.

Three stone tablets were arranged in a triangular formation around him, and the Source of Chaos was casually tossed out, then hovered before his forehead, illuminating according to its trait.

The Ring of Fate emerged behind him, and the bright yellow treasure bead first triggered the Spirit Rune’s resonance, which then influenced the three stone tablets.

Shard closed his eyes in meditation, while Mia stood by the wall watching him, as Shard’s body emitted silver moonlight, observing the three stone tablets on the ground slowly levitating, steadily rotating around him.

The glimmer of the Source of Chaos spread across his body, and red, silver, and yellow glimmers appeared on the stone tablets.

In such tranquil moonlight, the three Spirit Runes on the Ring of Fate trembled slightly; only the spiritual light of the Red Moon was the weakest.

But as the moonlight around him grew ever brighter, amidst the "crack" sound that only Shard could hear, the Desecration Spirit Rune - Red Moon finally bloomed with the light that originally belonged to it.