Chapter 14

Translator: Exodus Tales

Editor: Exodus Tales

On this continent of the main world, there was a saying: ‘The stars in the skies are the portrayals of souls’. Every soul that came to be in this world had their own star, corresponding to their own fate and strength.

One important thing was that his star hadn’t come from some romantic fable or from scientific discovery, it was a fact.

A simple fact.

The continent’s inhabitants were born with their own stars, and these stars would record and save the identity of their souls. In Fang Zheng’s eyes, this wasn’t much different from registering fingerprints or DNA, but… It still wasn’t quite the same thing.

Right now, Fang Zheng was about to prove his thoughts.

According to the original memories of this body, Fang Zheng could be certain that the Holy Country would use this star ‘fingerprint’ as their guide if they were to track him down, in the same way criminals in Fang Zheng’s world would be hunted down. If his starprint was the same as the fugitive’s starprint, then it didn’t matter what his disguise or transformation was, he’d be exposed to the hunters.

After coming to understand that was where the idea came from, Fang Zheng suddenly had a dangerous thought. 

If one soul had its own starprint, then did it mean that another star would’ve formed for his own soul after the body’s original soul perished?

If his guess was correct, then all he had to do was acquire the starprint record and wipe out any problems that might remain with this body. At that point, even if the knights were to find him, they wouldn’t be able to do anything to him because the starprint wouldn’t match. The Goddess of Law was their faith, and that meant they couldn’t outright go against their own laws and beliefs.

This was the same logic as when a criminal with non-matching fingerprints was sent to court. Of course, if they wanted, they could forcefully push the case beyond reason, but if that were the case, Fang Zheng wouldn’t hold himself back. 

This was also why he’d come to this city. The proper starprint records were only in the city bureaus, and at the same time, outsiders coming in for residence needed to step through this process. After all, not everyone just ran around carrying their identification, and sometimes just matching the starprint was enough to get an upstanding citizen’s permit, as long as it didn’t match any names on the fugitive list.

Fang Zheng clearly remembered the original starprint of this body, and what he needed to do now was to confirm if his own starprint was the same as the original owner’s. If it wasn’t, then the plan could continue. However, if it was, then Fang Zheng would leave this place right away. He’d be trying to survive in the wild against the cultists and mercenaries, and that wasn’t what he wanted, but… If it came to it, it was his only option. 

He was here.

Looking at the heavy wooden door, Fang Zheng took a deep breath and extended his hand to knock. A blurry voice came out.

“Please enter.”

Fang Zheng pushed the door open and walked in.

The room looked a little dim, and above him, instead of a ceiling was a circular, glass dome. On the walls were rows of heavy bookshelves, and the entire astrology room looked like a small library. In the middle of the room was a huge, sturdy table and behind him, a small figure was seated. He had a black robe on, and from the looks of it… He was no different from those fortune-telling wizards.

“I’m here to have my starprint matched.” Fang Zheng said as he handed his document over the table. The figure didn’t even move, only looking at the document before nodding his head.

“Put your hand on the crystal ball and we can start.”

The astrologist’s voice was low, but Fang Zheng didn’t mind. He did what he was told, and put both hands on the ball. The astrologist extended his hand as well, placing it on the side of the ball as he started muttering chants.

A humming sounded, and in the next instant, a flash of light came from the transparent orb, followed by darkness. Star after star, in the form of faraway dots, similar to the galaxy pictures on TV, passed by. However, Fang Zheng couldn’t understand what all of this meant. 

The astrologist saw something and he shrieked after looking at the starry sight, standing up.

“Huh?!”

“What? What’s wrong?”

The movement made Fang Zheng tense, but he still put on a curious face as he looked at the man, calculating what his next move should be. Would he leave right away if he got discovered, or would he kill this man first?

“Ah, no… It’s not a problem, but…”

The astrologist never realized that his life was at stake, he lowered his body to look at the ball as he started mumbling.

“This…”

Fang Zheng relaxed after that, though he still frowned to look as if he was in thought. He decided to ask the hard question.

“Is this a necessary step?”

“Ah, no no no, not that, sir.”

The astrologist shook his hand. “This is a rare phenomenon with a lot of academic value for me to study. I was about to ask if you’d allow me to take a record.”

“Ah…”

Fang Zheng didn’t answer right away. He started thinking about the uses of stars as he put on a thinker’s face. For a normal person, they were similar to fingerprints or DNA tests, but with those special classes, the stars were the source of their strength. At the same time, there were legends of a very rare and ancient type of astrologist who could prophesize the fate of someone through the stars.

The so-called rare phenomenon he mentioned was similar to those rare supernova explosions and other than the specialized fields, this type of thing wouldn’t affect anyone else. There were people back in his world talking about gravitational waves and whatnot, though that didn’t matter to the other 95% of masses.

“Alright.” Fang Zheng nodded after a short thought. This astrologist seemed quite happy, though, standing up and charging at him to thank him, before walking to a bookshelf.

“Thank you, young mister, you’re a good man, I assure you I won’t let this record get leaked. Right, where’s my record book… Ah!”

The astrologist may have been too excited. He stepped on his robe and flew out, with Fang Zheng grabbing him mid-air.

And there, he felt something wrong.

Because he felt a softness, a sensation completely different from what he expected.

“Uh… I…”

The astrologist raised his head as well, and a long, thick volume of brown hair fell down, revealing a young little face.

It was a cute girl, and from the looks of it, she seemed to be a similar age to the body Fang Zheng was reincarnated in.

Or maybe younger.

At that moment, the girl’s face blushed, though she still looked at him.

“You alright? Miss?”

Fang Zheng cleared his throat and let go after seeing that look. However, the girl kept looking at him. Only after a moment did she cry out in a low voice, bending down and curling into a ball. 

“…”

“…”

The world was quiet.

What was going on?