"…This isn't the largest one." Robin lowered his gaze toward the ground, muttering under his breath in a voice so faint it almost blended with his breath.

"…?!" Althera froze, the air catching in her lungs as she slowly turned her gaze back toward the chest with stiff movements… In this sudden moment, she remembered Fear, something she had long buried and forgotten ever since ascending to become a monarch.

She had been standing right beside Robin when he opened the chest—inside were just over twenty identical pearls neatly arranged, each perfectly similar in shape and size… and then, there was one vastly larger than the rest, radiating a quiet but oppressive aura.

If Robin had casually taken one of the identical pearls, and that single one belonged to a mature space beast… then what unimaginable horror was that larger one exactly?!

"…I've heard of a legend." Althera's eyelids lifted slowly, her pupils quivering. "An ancient legend recorded by the first founder of the Dawn light Stellar Academy. He claimed it was passed down from an ancestor who personally witnessed the rise of the Cosmic Elder, Zolan, and his eventual domination over the universe."

"…During an era when space beasts swarmed in numbers equal to the stars scattered across the cosmic void, when entire planets were devoured at a pace faster than the universe could forge anew, the Cosmic Elder appeared—declaring a merciless war upon them as if he alone were an entire army. It was said that he deliberately targeted only mature space beasts, using their corpses to instill raw terror into the younglings. Rumor states he continued the carnage until he eradicated a full hundred adult space beasts over the course of just a few centuries!"

"…?" Robin raised his eyebrows in disbelief, eyes widening. A hundred of those crystal-bearing monstrosities once rampaged through the universe? It sounded impossible to comprehend.

And more importantly… how many lives, how many unimaginable sacrifices, were needed for a balance user to cut down such abominations? No wonder the Cosmic Elder eventually fell into such a miserable, hollowed state.

Althera continued speaking, her tone darkening, "…The legend says that after slaying the hundredth adult space beast, the Cosmic Elder Zolan realized such a method would never truly end the threat. Each time he killed one, the newborn and young beasts scattered into neighboring sectors, burrowing deep and entering an induced hibernation. Yet thousands of other sectors remained swarmed with threats—there were two thousand separated sectors in total, young and middle. And hibernation didn't guarantee safety forever… they could awaken violently at any moment. So he stopped completely and began searching for a method that could influence every space beast simultaneously."

"…The Cosmic Elder vanished for a time afterward, his whereabouts unknown, and began constructing an unimaginably colossal formation—using entire solar systems as anchor points and dark matter itself as cosmic ink. His goal was to perform one single, astronomical sacrifice that would exile all space beasts away from the two thousand young and mid-grade sectors."

"Hoooh~" Robin released a sharp exhale, shoulders dropping. Using solar systems the way he himself used banners? How many entire solar systems did he relocate, and with what level of stellar precision, to draw such a monstrous formation across reality itself?!

"…During that period—when the Cosmic Elder was moments away from completing the formation—all space beasts existing in the universe felt what was happening and were seized by primal panic. Yet none dared approach… except for one." Althera's body quivered involuntarily. "Records state that a space beast appeared directly before the Cosmic Elder—one never documented nor witnessed before—and engaged him in a one-on-one duel to prevent him from completing the formation."

"It's said the Cosmic Elder, by some impossible method, achieved victory that day and activated the formation immediately afterward, banishing every space beast in what became the greatest heroic epic ever attributed to him—indeed, the single greatest epic ever recorded in cosmic history." She then slowly turned toward Robin, eyes narrowed with awe. "And that very epic is what earned him his title. Before that legendary battle, he still appeared youthful and vibrant… but afterward, he became the withered figure you saw."

"The title 'Cosmic Elder' is not granted because he is simply old in age—it is because of the sacrifice he made, and the irreversible transformation of his very being for the sake of all of us."

Gulp.

Robin's expression twisted into an awkward, ugly smile. "You're not actually saying that it's…"

"No recorded history ever mentioned the existence of a space beast stronger than adult ones except on that single day—the day famously known as the Night of the Ancestor's Emergence." Althera slowly shifted her gaze toward the third chest, her voice gradually lowering. "Most signs point to the legend being true. That creature really did appear before the Cosmic Elder, and it was slain by his own hand during the largest, most catastrophic battle ever documented in cosmic history… And what lies in that chest—" she paused faintly, "—is its crystal."

"..." Little by little, Robin turned back toward the chest, feeling a weight press down on his thoughts.

Beast crystals… one of the most widely recognized and commonly utilized items in the entire cultivation world. They're used to increase affinity toward various Laws, sometimes tapped to absorb energy like concentrated Pearls, occasionally even refined into luxurious tools, accessories, or ornaments worn by nobles and emperors alike.

For some unfathomable reason, these beast crystals had appeared here as rewards side by side with planetary-tier equipment of the seventh grade, and a strangely named pen whose true nature couldn't yet be determined…

And strangely—terrifyingly—the beast crystals hadn't lost their light or presence in the proximity of such items!

"Why exactly would he give me these things?" Robin muttered under his breath as his eyes narrowed toward the third chest. Then, as if realizing something dreadful, he turned to Althera abruptly. "You said the crystal of a newborn space beast could destroy an entire planet if it exploded right now. So what about the crystal of a mature space beast?"

"…Completely unknown," Althera replied while shaking her head gently. "No mature space beast crystal ever circulated through the ages. Nobody has ever managed to kill mature space beasts except the Cosmic Elder himself." She lightly rested her chin on her hand, eyes turning distant. "But I do remember an old catastrophe… a single explosion caused by the crystal of a young space beast—the same kind that attacked the Galactic Seed, Verillion. That explosion annihilated the planet, shattered the neighboring worlds in the same solar system into fragments, killed a staggering number of Nexus State entities, and even caused permanent disability to an Monarch-level being."

"…?!" A young space beast crystal did all that? Then a mature one would be…

No, No— What about the Ancestor's crystal?!

"Did he give them to me as some sort of ultimate deterrence weapon? Something I could hold over my enemies in the final moment?" Robin's brows tightened, lines carving into his forehead. "But that doesn't align with his personality. He warned me specifically about spreading corruption—so why would he entrust me with weapons capable of cosmic devastation?"

"…Perhaps his intention was not for you to wield them as weapons," Althera murmured, not taking her eyes off the chest, her expression turning almost trance-like. "Do you know… what the most efficient energy stabilizers in the universe are?"

"Stabilizers? The ones cultivators utilize when forming a World Cataclysm Core?" Robin nodded slowly. "I've heard of star cores, stones extracted from the depths of primordial chaos, skeletal remains of space beasts, and—" Robin suddenly halted, realization striking him like lightning. "You're implying…"

"Mhm." Althera closed her eyes partially. "The refined skeletal remains of space beasts are the second-best option for refinement and use as stabilizers because they endured titanic levels of pressure from pure cosmic energy over uncountable ages." She then continued, her gaze drifting deeper into the chest as if she could see through it. "…Now imagine something that contains the same overwhelming amount of energy, but compressed into a far smaller container—something that draws power from primordial chaos, compresses it continuously, and channels it as part of its existence. That thing is the crystal."

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