Brian Carter rubbed his hands together, but there was nothing he could do except set off on the long road home.

Over four hours later, night had completely fallen, and Brian Carter was still trudging along the way home. Fortunately, his stamina wasn’t bad, thanks to his regular exercise.

Back in seventh grade, he had pursued Lily Carter. Lily Carter had said, “I don’t like fat guys. If you can slim down to 120 jin, I’ll consider it.” So he started working out, beginning a three-year weight loss plan.

He ran every morning and evening, did push-ups and pull-ups between classes, even hopped up every flight of stairs. Even when his classmates laughed at him, he never wavered.

Unfortunately, with all the exercise plus puberty, his height started shooting up like crazy. In eighth grade, he grew from 156 cm to 175 cm, and naturally, his weight just wouldn’t drop—he still weighed a hefty 190 jin. Brian Carter noticed that basketball players all looked “skinny,” so in eighth grade, he foolishly joined the school basketball team. Of course... it was useless. All it did was make him grow even taller in ninth grade, reaching 183 cm. He did lose over 30 jin, but still weighed 160 jin, still far from Lily Carter’s requirement. Even though Brian Carter had developed an eight-pack under his clothes, thanks to his naturally round face and big bones, he still looked like a chubby kid.

Brian Carter was already exhausted. He looked up at the star-filled sky; the brilliant starlight lifted his spirits a bit. He had loved gazing at the stars since he was a child—whenever he saw a sky full of stars, he always felt better. But with urbanization, it was rare to see such a night sky anymore.

He stared for a while longer, then lowered his head slightly. But the next second, he suddenly sensed something was off. He quickly looked up at the sky again, only to see countless stars twinkling, like dazzling festival fireworks, the Milky Way spanning the sky, constellations spread out...

But... in a city with such severe air pollution, how could it be possible to see such a magnificent starry sky?

Chapter Two: Elixir of the Emperor

Brian Carter suddenly broke out in a cold sweat, feeling a chill shoot from his tailbone all the way to the top of his head, every hair on his body standing on end.

“What kind of strange astronomical phenomenon am I witnessing? Or did I suddenly mutate, and my eyesight skyrocketed? Usually, I can only see seven or eight stars, even on a clear night—how could I suddenly see so many?”

Brian Carter looked around a few times, but didn’t notice any improvement in his vision—he still couldn’t make out the distant billboards—so he ruled out the possibility of a genetic mutation. As for what kind of astronomical event could make a heavily polluted city night sky display such a clear and splendid array of stars, Brian Carter had no clue. He wasn’t an astronomy buff to begin with, and besides, he had a vague feeling this wasn’t any kind of astronomical phenomenon.

A shiver ran through Brian Carter’s heart, and a bad premonition suddenly arose. Soon, his fears were confirmed: on the rooftops of the nearby apartment buildings, clusters of light began to appear. Within each cluster, there was a faint shadow—some human, some beast, some bird, some tree or object.

Brian Carter took a deep breath, suppressing the urge to scream for help or run for his life. Even though cold sweat had soaked his back and his legs had gone weak, he simply couldn’t move.

“I must be hallucinating. I need to calm down, just calm down a little longer...”

As Brian Carter muttered to comfort himself, something in the sky seemed to flash, and then countless “shooting stars” began to fall.

These shooting stars didn’t vanish in an instant, but instead turned into milky-white beams of light that streamed down from the night sky.

The beings within the clusters of light atop the apartment buildings became active, their light intensifying, even releasing strange bursts of radiance to intercept those milky-white beams transformed from the shooting stars.

One especially large “shooting star” streaked across the night sky, and just as it was about to hit the ground, it suddenly veered and shot straight toward Brian Carter. Instinctively, Brian Carter raised his hands to shield his face, but it was useless. He just felt a chill all over, as a cold, eerie energy merged into his body.

But that wasn’t the end...

The cold, eerie energy from the shooting star seemed to possess some mysterious power, instantly activating a hidden organ within Brian Carter’s body, unleashing a devouring force as vast as the heavens. Any “shooting star” passing overhead would be drawn by this mysterious power, abruptly changing course and flying straight toward him.

In just over ten minutes, Brian Carter was struck by at least a dozen “shooting stars.”

With each one that merged into his body, the devouring force within Brian Carter grew stronger, until finally, it formed a black radiance so dense it seemed to swallow even light, completely enveloping his figure. The chilling sensation intensified, and something inside Brian Carter became more and more active, until at last it burst out of his body, transforming into eight streams of black energy, twisting and writhing like eight monstrous pythons.

The instant the eight streams of black energy broke free, Brian Carter felt an indescribable sense of exhilaration, letting out a roar he never expected, deep and resonant, like an ancient beast suddenly revived, returning to the world of men.