Chapter 245: Hand Over the Naming Rights Immediately!

In the Palace of Rest, the Book of Brass lay wide open, projecting an image of Nag Lisi and a human clad in armor—the armor was extraordinarily thick, like heavy plate armor, encasing him like an iron can, leaving only his eyes and mouth exposed.

On the back of the armor hung a round shield, its surface emblazoned with a red five-pointed star; the breastplate bore the same star.

Nag Lisi 's spectral form gripped the seam of the Red Star armor and demanded repeatedly: "The gods fell, the gods fell—how do you know the gods have fallen?"

The Red Star muttered blankly: "The gods fell… the gods fell… Red Star shines—!"

After mumbling for a while, he suddenly rallied, radiating a firm conviction; he crossed his hands and stepped forward, unleashing a blinding red light that swept outward like a pillar.

Nag Lisi grumbled, snatched him up, shook him hard, and tossed him aside, then turned to Ang and said: "Mentally incomplete."

The Book of Brass is Nag Lisi 's true body; the underdeveloped embryonic dragon outside is merely its projection.

The Book of Brass itself is a divine artifact—a relic capable of sealing deities—its functions are numerous and still unexplored, but its most fundamental ability is to house a deity's consciousness.

Now, Nag Lisi pulled the Red Star's spirit into the Book of Brass, giving it a temporary vessel for consciousness; otherwise, the Red Star's spirit could not even communicate.

Unfortunately, even with a vessel, the Red Star still could not communicate—he was mentally incomplete and not a full consciousness.

"What a pity—I wanted to ask him what that epic meant: 'The gods fell, the stars dimmed, the Red Star shines bright.' The Red Star refers to him—but who are the gods? How did he know the gods had fallen? Who told him? Or did he witness it himself? According to Oberli, he was merely a mid-to-high-level destitute mage, barely competent in teaching—how could he possibly know about the gods' fall?"

Nag Lisi muttered to itself, and as it spoke, thick crimson light columns shot erratically behind it; the Red Star leapt about, shouting: "Red Star shines! Red Star shines! Red Star shines!"

Judging by his behavior, was "Red Star shines" actually a skill?

Too bad—once pulled out of the Book of Brass, he reverted to a mere glowing red star; not only could he not use "Red Star shines," he couldn't even speak.

Only within the Book of Brass could he easily manifest the contents of his consciousness, making it easier for Nag Lisi to study him.

"Why wear plate armor? He's a mage—could he even lift it? Why did he become a spirit? Spirits are collective embodiments of belief, usually formed when people memorialize heroes—did he die heroically?"

Filled with questions, Nag Lisi tried contacting Oberli, first finding the space mage Shiludi—but Shiludi didn't know where Oberli had gone.

Eventually, while chatting idly with Lisa, Nag Lisi learned that a wealthy witch-lich had arrived in Meishencheng; upon going to see, they found only a tiny girl who looked like a doll.

"Oberli?" Nag Lisi struggled to connect this pink, adorable little girl with the wrinkled old hag—except for height, they shared no resemblance whatsoever.

The little girl was startled, clapped her hands over her face, and said: "You've mistaken me." Then she tried to slip away.

Before she reached the door, Zi Hai blocked her: "Guest, you haven't paid yet." To prevent further escapes, Lisa had summoned Zi Hai the Titan.

The little girl sighed and returned to the counter, pulled out a membership card to settle her bill—though Zi Hai couldn't defeat her, she couldn't just assault someone to avoid payment.

The moment she pulled out the card, Nag Lisi leaned in and read the tiny text along its edge: "Oberli And Er."

Oberli grumbled: "Just pay the bill, and you still need a membership card? You people have too many tricks."

Nag Lisi smiled sweetly: "It's not that we're tricky—without the card, we can't recognize customers. You look completely different coming in than going out, so we recognize cards, not faces."

Oberli touched her own face—reasonable, and she had to admit it.

After Oberli paid, Nag Lisi pulled her aside into a reception room and asked her about its questions.

The answer was: the Red Star was always a melee mage, always fought in plate armor; "Red Star shines" was his signature technique—he wielded a metal staff whose tip emitted blinding red light, swinging it to draw enemies' attention to the staffhead.

As for that epic…

"The gods fell, the stars dimmed, the Red Star shines bright… I've never heard it. Where did you hear it? Spirit? What spirit? Why are you suddenly asking this? What spirit did you encounter?"

Nag Lisi couldn't say they'd just visited a temple and captured a spirit; instead, it claimed it had read about it in texts—reasonable, since it was the God of Knowledge, and reading texts was perfectly natural.

"The gods fell, the stars dimmed… where did he learn the gods had fallen?" For the next while, Nag Lisi muttered this phrase constantly, occasionally dragging Ang to the Star Republic's library to search records.

Undeniably, the Star Republic's Library of Histories was the most complete repository of historical records in the world; every other library had been destroyed by religion, war, fire, famine, or Andong's influence—either burned or ruined.

"Wow, so something this interesting happened back then? Oh, so that's how it was? Huh, I get it now." Nag Lisi kept emitting exclamations inside Ang's soul.

Ang could only follow along, internally bored to death—he couldn't use his Cross-Dimension Hand to plant anything here, because he'd noticed that any spatial fluctuation triggered anomalies in the detection arrays.

Clearly, the Star Republic, founded by mages, had extensive experience guarding against magical spatial anomalies, effectively preventing enemies from infiltrating via teleportation or similar means.

Ugh, so boring. Ang just wanted to return to his field—yesterday he'd just sprouted the Divine Tree and planned to use it as a rootstock to graft Spirit Beans.

"Divine Tree? What Divine Tree?" Nag Lisi asked, puzzled.

"Heaven's Square. Dug it up." Ang replied.

Right—Nag Lisi remembered: Ang had torn up the Square of the Gods to plant Spirit Beans, and chopped down all the trees on either side—they were all Divine Trees, with growth mechanisms utterly unlike ordinary crops, yet somehow Ang had made them grow?

"Do you have confidence in this? Grafting a Divine Tree…" Before Nag Lisi could finish, a sudden commotion erupted ahead—someone was arguing.

Ang walked over and saw a tented area where two groups stood around a square depression, shouting and cursing; one side pointed at the other's nose and yelled:

"Accept reality, Spring Wind's failure—your level isn't good enough to name the Grain Seed Contest. You have no right to use 'Spring Wind'—it should be called Du Binqi's Grain Seed Contest! Hand over the naming rights immediately!"

PS: Time zone messed up everything. Sigh. Should've kept chapters intact—I planned to write more for the featured push. Posting one chapter now, continuing to write.