Chapter 26: Changes in the Star Palace

"Zhang Wei, I'm about to starve to death... you, you, what's wrong with you??"

Seeing Zhang Wei walk into the room covered in blood, Bai Guagua's complaints immediately turned into panic, her voice trembling with fear.

Zhang Wei squatted down, his expression solemn: "Do you want to eat skewers or hot pot? Add tripe, add pig's trotters, add meatballs, add whatever you want."

Bai Guagua was even more flustered: "Why are you being so generous? You're usually as stingy as a cross-eyed person. Did you commit a crime and are planning to run away, thinking of treating me to one last meal?"

Tsk... this girl has too vivid an imagination, doesn't she?

Seeing that Zhang Wei didn't speak, Bai Guagua puffed out her cheeks and said angrily: "Why are you so worrying? If you're going to run, then run, but how dare you leave me behind alone? How far can you run with that physique of yours?"

Zhang Wei was stunned: How did she start lecturing him?

Bai Guagua thought for a moment, her expression gradually calming down, a hint of determination faintly revealing itself: "Hurry up and pack your things, I'm going with you."

Zhang Wei was speechless: "You're a child, what can you do if you come with me while I'm on the run?"

Bai Guagua pursed her lips and said calmly: "You'll definitely need my help, did you forget I've had an Awakening?"

Zhang Wei scratched his head: "No, what help can you provide? Can you kill people?"

Unexpectedly, Bai Guagua nodded lightly, something strange faintly rolling in her eyes, "It's just killing, that's all. Whoever chases you, I'll kill them. Whoever wants to catch you, I'll kill them!"

Zhang Wei was truly a bit alarmed; have I been negligent in my guidance? How can this girl say such things without changing her expression?

Bai Guagua glanced at Zhang Wei and continued: "I'm very strong now, and very fast too. As long as I have a fruit knife, dealing with two or three people within ten meters is no problem, and it's also hard to get hit by a gun... you don't understand these things, in short, I will become more and more powerful, and our chances of surviving will also become greater and greater, as long as..."

"As long as what?" Zhang Wei asked, stunned.

Bai Guagua raised her head, her small body trembling slightly, as if thinking of something terrifying, a murderous aura faintly revealing itself on her bun-like face: "As long as I'm alive, I won't allow you to die alone!"

Absorbed Bai Guagua's Resentment, +999.

Zhang Wei remained silent, but the scene of life and death on the small hillside echoed in his mind.

He was thinking, perhaps the final kick that prompted him to open that mysterious door was not the life-or-death threat, nor that mysterious awkward song, but a kind of obsession, a stubborn belief in insisting on surviving under the cold gaze of others—just like how he had been able to study hard despite the decadence of losing his family over these past few years; everything was this obsession continuously transforming into motivation!

Touching the threshold of Awakening, everyone has similarities but is not entirely the same; Zhang Wei's threshold was this step, and he successfully stepped over it.

He thought, if there had been a pair of eyes belonging to Bai Guagua among the gazes fixed on him at that moment, even if she did nothing, the warmth contained within them would have been enough to make his Awakening fail.

Seeing he didn't react for a long time, Bai Guagua became anxious: "What are you still thinking about, hurry up and pack... ah!!"

The little girl let out a scream, caught off guard, as her small body was hoisted up by Zhang Wei and placed on his shoulders, just like when Bai Guagua first entered his home...

"Let's go, let's go eat hot pot!"

Looking at his joyful demeanor, no matter how silly and cute Bai Guagua was, she knew something was wrong, and with a dark face, she said: "Zhang Wei, are you acting for me?"

"I told you that you watch too much TV; isn't this all just your own brain-filling? I didn't say anything."

"... I'll pinch you to death! I'll strangle you!!"

Absorbed Bai Guagua's Resentment, +999.

"Pinch or don't pinch as you like, let me tell you, I'm also a person who has had an Awakening now."

"Really? When did this happen, tell me quickly."

"This is a very long story, let's talk while we eat..."

This night was destined not to be peaceful; Zhang Wei was not the first person to complete an Awakening under the Starlight, but he was perhaps the one witnessed by the most people.

Especially the final scene, where a giant palm composed of light and shadow slapped the ape down from above, a scene that made the mountains shake and the ground tremble; even through a screen, one could still feel the soul-stirring power on the scene!

And the ferocity of the ape was also shocking; even while bleeding all over and severely injured, it could still dart into the mountain forest with agility and disappear from everyone's sight.

It's just that many people didn't know that the power of that palm did not entirely belong to Zhang Wei; he merely borrowed the residual power when the great force descended.

That night, this scene on the mountain spread across half of Rongcheng. Videos recorded by hundreds of people flowed out like ripples into their respective social circles and quickly appeared on major forums, leaving everyone shocked and giving them a new understanding.

Zhang Wei looked at the recording playing on his phone screen, feeling fortunate that it was night; the dim light was not enough for the phone to capture a clear image, nor could he be identified from the footage, and even the third eye on his forehead could not be seen.

Thinking of this, Zhang Wei felt a bit of a headache.

He had just played the persona of Tang Seng, how did he instantly switch to Erlang Shen? This thing looked creepy even to himself; if someone else saw it, wouldn't they treat him as a monster?

Fortunately, it could be opened and closed; when his eyes were closed, the space between his brows became smooth again, so he didn't have to go out with a weird eye and annoy people.

Zhang Wei opened the Vertical Pupil; without needing to do much, he felt a cold and lofty power descend, penetrating through his eyes. This was somewhat similar to the feeling when the Starlight descended during his Awakening, except one was swift and short, while the other was long and continuous.

"It seems that it is this bead... the third eye became the medium for communicating with the stars, which allowed me to successfully Awaken. Could it be that I don't possess the Aptitude for Awakening?"

Zhang Wei pondered repeatedly, feeling that it was very likely as he guessed; after all, his Awakening was different from Bai Guagua's. He was very likely the type of person who could never Awaken no matter how much he struggled. If it weren't for this Vertical Pupil, perhaps he would never have had the chance to push open that door.

But what does that matter? He had finally taken this step, and from now on, "Am I a person of the common weeds?"

Next, Zhang Wei clicked on "Star Palace" in the menu; the originally pitch-black screen finally changed: the pale blue sky was dotted with dense stars, each one extremely dim and barely perceptible, except for one star in the center that bloomed with scorching light!

After observing for a moment, with his weak astronomical knowledge, he still noticed that the arrangement of the stars in the Star Palace was exactly the same as the sky above his head.

"In other words, the standard for Awakening is to light up a star?"

But Zhang Wei clearly remembered that in the information circulating on the internet, most people had Awakened without going through the Star Light Body Tempering stage; could there be a difference in this?

Looking at the only glowing star in the Star Palace, he tried to cast his intent onto a dim star next to it, and sure enough, he received a prompt in his mind.

"Consume 10,000 Resentment Value?"

Zhang Wei was both shocked and happy; he was happy that this Resentment Value had finally come in handy, and he no longer had to fill the bottomless pit of the spinning Lucky Draw; he was shocked that it was too expensive; he had risked his life and even sold his integrity, and he only had a little over 20,000 now.

After thinking about it, he ultimately didn't light it up immediately.

Zhang Wei hadn't forgotten that it only took Bai Guagua a few days to light up the second star; according to the inertia that it gets harder the further you go, it wasn't cost-effective to use it up early.

More importantly, there was also the mysterious matter of "Dream Teaching".

On the night of the Giant Demon Devouring the Moon, a white rainbow spanned the sky, and then the corpse was shattered into ten thousand pieces and fell; blood rain sprinkled over almost half of the Earth. Although there was no image evidence, many netizens speculated—besides the Giant Demon, there must have been an existence of an extraterrestrial visitor!

It's possible that this Dream Teaching, as well as the grand Great Awakening Era, are directly related to this extraterrestrial visitor.

Thinking of this, Zhang Wei closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep, while at this very moment, the Resentment Value was still constantly refreshing, its speed being unprecedentedly terrifying, and the balance was also skyrocketing; that was brought about by numerous viewers in front of their screens because of his flashy operations...