An anticipative tension hung over the Elpaxin Arena, as though beneath the calm surface of the sea, an invisible storm was brewing.

Fang Hong slowly opened his eyes, their deep black orbs gleaming with a soft luster. With his hand, he made a horizontal swipe across the metal panel from left to right, then a vertical one intersecting it from above.

He concluded the test with this most traditional ritual among alchemists.

Taking a step back, he nodded in satisfaction before turning around to walk back at an unhurried pace, taking the control gloves from the hands of a towering Lion Person.

"How was it?"

"Fantastic. Elpaxin's machines are much easier to use than Kapuka's."

It was a simple conversation—

But paired with the big boy's breezy smile, it acted more like a cue, triggering a thunderous applause that swept across the Elpaxin Arena.

As though on a prearranged signal, everyone in the audience stood up, the applause was like a torrential downpour, a wild ocean of celebration, endless and prolonged.

Fireworks shot into the air, bursting into a radiant display of colors.

Above the field, airships began to scatter petals downward, as the Ancient Tower People silently exited the stage amidst a flurry of fragrant blooms.

"Has the final effective time been announced?" Lady Aisha shouted, needing to raise her voice to be heard through the roaring applause.

The Wandering Horse checked his live streaming room, noting the community had already released the information before them.

Three and one-fifth Talia ticks, approximately fourteen minutes.

A new record was born.

Lady Aisha's face flushed with excitement, struggling for words.

The Wandering Horse also felt a stir of excitement, instinctively clenched his fist, then released it. Inside the community, the official channel sent their congratulations, celebrating his first live broadcast as a resounding success, far beyond expectations—

Yet, he felt an unusual calm within.

It was as if a fresh landscape was unfolding before him. The super-competitive era of Eteliria, under the twinkling starry sky, was marked by one immature silhouette.

Simple and silent, yet utterly heart-stirring.

He remembered that brief ID—

Ade.

As if an ancient voice was knocking on his heart's door.

It was the age-old gene dormant in the blood, when millions of years ago, primate ancestors first left the forest; and at the other end of the sixty thousand years of time, the first homo sapiens was looking back towards the horizon of the Sinai Peninsula.

In memories from twenty centuries ago, a young man from Hanzhong in Chenggu County held a rune sigil, gazing at the Hexi Corridor's vast starry night. Looking back again, it was a sailor's chant, where seven hundred years earlier a shaky shadow of sails was slowly leaving the Iberian coast.

It was the anxious gaze upon the unknown shores, the curious flame that ignited the intelligent starry sky.

It was the silent inspiration from the epochs, civilization written beneath the heavens, pursuing survival and dreams in a brilliant poetic cloud.

Above that vastness,

were names like stars, stretched out across the long night, precursors watching those who follow, like a voluminous scroll chronicling the courage and explorative spirit of humanity—sublime and ideal.

Years later, The Wandering Horse could still recall the stirring in his heart at that moment.

As if it was the rapid currents in a long river, subtly but irrevocably altering the course of his life choices.

The rolling, enduring applause.

In a VIP stand, Princess Briana watched the scene with a gentle gaze.

She then turned back to nod at the Dwarf in front of her and stood up, saying "Se'randu Aduri (Stars and flowers, the morning breeze under the night sky be with you)," an ancient greeting of the Numelin Elves. "Send my regards to Aksu, I haven't seen him for many years. Tell my Dwarf friend, in the Elves' long memory, there's always a place for companions."

The Dwarf bowed respectfully, responding, "It would be an honor, Your Highness."

Princess Briana nodded, then turned and exited under the escort of the Guard of Dawn.

The Dwarves watched her leave, then looked up at the projection of Fang Hong again, exchanging nods and murmurs among themselves before they too stood up and exited in another direction.

Inside the competition corridor—

Rosetta rubbed his large knuckles, feeling unusually nervous as he looked at the door. Having lived through one hundred forty years, he was considered a well-seasoned elder among the Dwarves, thinking he wouldn't easily exhibit the nervousness akin to the clumsy apprentices in the Eldron mine tunnels, but reality proved—it was just not the time yet.

That young man in the contest room reminded him of more than a decade ago, the heyday of the Colin Ishurian Artisan Association, those good old days he deeply missed—Colin-Ishurian won the Continental League championship twice in a row, and Elpaxin, Kapuka had many outstanding players then.

But then, everything slowly changed.

When did it start? He still remembered his days as a Grand Artificer, the deputy chairman of the Magic Guided Department—who was it again? Old Wright? Oh, that old geezer from the Tasha family had been dead for many years now.

'Click.'

The sound of the door ahead opening broke his train of thoughts.

The Old Dwarf only then remembered, he hadn't yet asked about that Kapuka contestant's identity, what was his position in the Kapuka Artisan Association, what level alchemist was he, a Chosen or a Native?

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