The silence of the Forgotten Corridor was broken by the engine roar of the dawn, as the phantom of Elvia, the Starlight Watcher, slowly turned in front of the pure white spire.

The outlines of twelve pairs of light wings appeared exceptionally ethereal under the reflection of the broken starlight, yet the Broken Star Scepter in her hand still radiated an undeniable majesty.

Bai Cheng was the first to step out of °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° the bridge, the insignia of judgment on her forehead glowing faintly.

Zi Yuan followed closely behind, the Tide-Breaking Blade Intent silently enveloping the surroundings. The rest of the companions descended one after another, warily looking at this graveyard of ruins frozen in time.

"Welcome to the final archives of the Sky Federation." Elvia's voice echoed directly in everyone's consciousness, a ripple akin to a smile appearing on her illusory face,

"I am Elvia, the Starlight Watcher, the seventy-ninth Speaker of the Federation—or rather, an obsession-filled phantom left behind before her collapse."

Aurora took a step forward, the Solar Holy Word rune appearing at the tip of her wooden staff:

"Excellency Elvia, the Shandora sun core received your invitation. You said... there are unfinished instructions from the Lord of the Sky here?"

"Yes." Elvia raised her broken scepter, pointing toward the dim, broken crown crystal at the top of the spire. "oath of starlight, one of the three memories of authority split by the Lord of the Sky before his fall.

The other two: one is hidden deep within the Divine Realm Ruins, stolen and twisted by the Observer Council a thousand years ago; the other... vanished with the Lord of the Sky's true body at the other end of the Star Abyss."

Thunder light flickered in Garel's lone eye: "You say the Observer Council stole a memory of authority?"

"Not just stole." Elvia's phantom wavered, and the surrounding broken ruins suddenly began to reconstruct illusions. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

That was a scene from two thousand years ago: in the circular hall of the Sky Federation's High Council, twelve councilors sat in a circle. Three of them, dressed in silver-white robes—the core members of the original Observer Council—suddenly stood up at the same time.

Their faces began to blur, turning into pure mirrors that reflected the deepest fears and doubts within the hearts of all the other councilors.

"The split of the Council was no accident, but a meticulously planned betrayal." Elvia's voice was steeped in a pain that hadn't dissipated for a millennium,

"Those three councilors had long been eroded by the existences within the cradle. They used the stolen memory of authority to reverse-engineer a method to control the collective consciousness of the sky island civilization.

The observation nodes within the golden bell were just the tip of the iceberg of their plan."

The illusion changed: after the golden bell shattered, the Sky Federation fell into civil war. Elvia led the loyalists to retreat to the Forgotten Corridor.

But at the last moment, she discovered that the Observer Council's true goal was not conquest, but—

"They want to transform the entire sky island civilization into an Absolute Rationality Experimental Field." Elvia's phantom trembled,

"To turn all living beings into puppets that only move according to logic, erasing all emotions, beliefs, and dreams... because these variables interfere with the optimal solution for civilizational evolution."

Bai Cheng's silver eyes gazed at the sky island citizens in the illusion, who were bound by silver-white data chains: "So you left this obsession, waiting for the arrival of the successor of judgment."

"The authority of judgment is a key the Lord of the Sky specifically left for the variable." Elvia looked at Bai Cheng,

"The Lord of the Sky foresaw that pure rationality would eventually lead to the self-destruction of civilization, because a civilization's true vitality,

never existed in anything other than those incalculable possibilities. Before his fall, he sealed the final hope of opposing the cradle within three memories of authority."

She raised the broken scepter, and the broken crown crystal at the top of the spire slowly descended, hovering before everyone.

Dim starlight flowed within the crystal, where fragments of the rise and fall of countless civilizations were vaguely visible.

"oath of starlight carries the oath made collectively by all civilizations during the Sky Federation's peak: May starlight forever illuminate the freedom of choice."

Elvia's voice became solemn, "But to activate it, three keys are required."

The phantom waved her hand, and three marks appeared on the crystal's surface:

The first was the burning insignia of judgment.

The second was the resonance rune of the golden bell.

The third... was a blank space.

"The Seal of Judgment—you already possess it."

Elvia looked at Bai Cheng, "The resonance of the golden bell—you have already awakened it. And the third key is the unobserved future.

It requires an 'absolute variable' that has never been recorded by the Observer Council and has never been locked by any timeline of fate."

Everyone's gaze instinctively turned toward Lu Duo.

The Spirit Race girl from the Emerald Sea was stunned, looking down at the emerald brilliance naturally emerging from her hands.

Among everyone present, that was the only power without a direct bloodline connection to the sky island's original civilization system.

The birth of the Emerald Sea was later than the Sky Federation, and the core of the star track network originated from the natural evolution of the Lord of the Sky's authority fragments, rather than direct inheritance.

"The Spirit Race's life network indeed fits the definition of an absolute variable." Data streams flashed in Leng Ningxue's icy eyes,

"In all historical records of the Observer Council, the Emerald Sea was never included as a major observation sample, because the compatibility of the Spirit Race's power system with rational logic is lower than 0.01%."

Lu Duo clenched her hands, a hint of unease flashing in her emerald eyes: "Can I... really do it?"

"It's not that you can, but that you must." Elvia's phantom began to grow thin; her time was running out,

"The third key doesn't require you to do anything; it only requires your existence itself.

Stand before oath of starlight as a living being who cannot be calculated, and witness the awakening of the oath."

Bai Cheng stepped forward and pressed her hand onto the broken crown crystal. The light of the insignia of judgment poured in through her palm, and the dim starlight inside the crystal suddenly brightened.

At the same time, a distant bell toll came from the direction of Shandora.

The resonance of the golden bell arrived across space, and a second beam of light was injected.

Lu Duo took a deep breath and, under Yu Nian's encouraging gaze, gently pressed her palm against the crystal's surface.

Emerald brilliance flowed, triggering no energy reaction, but on the blank mark on the crystal's surface, a leaf vein totem—representing new life and unpredictability, never recorded in any sky island classics—slowly emerged.

The three marks lit up simultaneously.

The broken crown crystal fully awakened.

It split open from the center—not shattering, but blooming—like a lotus made of starlight.

Hovering in the center of the lotus was a teardrop-shaped crystal, only the size of a fingernail, yet seemingly containing the entire sea of stars.

The core of oath of starlight.

"Take it, successors." Elvia's phantom was now as thin as mist, and a sense of relief finally permeated her voice,

"Bring it back to Shandora and fuse it with the golden bell. Then, the sky island civilization will have the qualification to oppose the cradle. But remember..."

Her gaze swept over everyone one last time, especially Bai Cheng.