Lord of Mysteries: Return of the Stars!

Hearing a voice behind him, Kaspars asked curiously, "You're interested in that young man?"

Behind him, Maric replied, "The reason desire is called desire is because the human heart is never satisfied."

Kaspars chuckled and said, "Right now, my only desire is to make more gold pounds—make enough, and I can retire early and enjoy life."

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Back home, Hastur took out the paper recording the Lawyer potion formula and memorized the required Main and supplementary Ingredients.

Main Ingredients: One black-patterned lily, five drops of black-striped snake blood.

Supplementary Ingredients: 10 milligrams of crushed pear tree bark, one star-patterned grass, ten drops of rose dew, 100 milliliters of beer (Southwell beer is the best).

The method of consumption was also simple—mix all the ingredients thoroughly and drink it in one gulp.

These materials were relatively common and not too difficult to collect. The hardest one, black-striped snake blood, could be purchased from the black market that sold Beyonder materials.

The Beyonder materials the original owner bought for the resurrection ritual last time were also purchased from that black market.

"Tomorrow I'll become an Beyonder being. I really can't wait."

To celebrate a little, Hastur went downstairs to the kitchen and made a pan-fried steak, sprinkling plenty of seasoning—fragrant and tender, quite tempting.

After enjoying the midnight snack, he walked heavily into the study and continued reading the introductory law books.

...

Early the next morning, Hastur washed up, hurriedly ate breakfast, then locked the doors and windows before heading out.

It was close to 3 p.m. when he finally finished buying all the required materials.

Back home, he chose to prepare the potion in the kitchen.

First, he poured all the materials into a pot and stirred them carefully with chopsticks, then poured the mixture into a bowl.

He took a sniff—the smell wasn't pleasant, but fortunately, the smell of Southwell beer masked most of the odors from the other materials.

Hastur closed his eyes and drank the potion in one gulp.

It was icy cold when it entered his mouth, didn't linger for long, and quickly flowed down his throat into his stomach.

His whole body began to heat up. Thin veins bulged on his forehead, and he vaguely heard whispers from another world.

In his mind, a starry sky seemed to rise, and chains representing order and rules descended from above. Beams of light burst from the stars—knowledge, illusions, the eyes of strange beings gazing upon him.

Hastur tried to remain calm, imagining the Hall of Stars in his mind, outlining its shape and the eleven chairs clearly and precisely.

Soon, all illusions and sounds faded, the heat in his body cooled down, replaced by a refreshing sensation.

He closed his eyes and carefully sensed the changes within his body, while receiving new knowledge in his mind.

Lawyer—guardian of order and discoverer of loopholes. Understand and utilize rules and order to benefit oneself.

He had three main abilities:

First, he was skilled at discovering and exploiting loopholes in the rules and weaknesses in his targets, adept at using order to strike enemies.

Second, he had excellent eloquence, could easily persuade others, and was able to twist or guide the thoughts of targets to a certain extent.

Third, his thinking became particularly agile, as if possessing the Beyonder ability to see through others' thoughts.

Other capabilities also improved, such as a little enhanced physical constitution, quicker learning, and stronger memory than the average person.

Hastur quietly experienced his new abilities as a Lawyer. Only after gaining a general understanding did he open his eyes again.

Compared to other Beyonder paths, the Lawyer was not suited for combat and lacked much combat power.

They were better suited as persuaders, naturally adept at convincing others to act according to their will, with a certain degree of control implied.

"Next is trying to activate Spirit Vision."

Hastur turned off the desk lamp in the room, plunging the surroundings into darkness.

In the dark, he focused his attention on the area between his eyebrows and his eyes, repeatedly trying to open and close his eyes.

Soon after, different colors appeared in the darkness—similar to the spirit-seeing eyes in movies that could see ghosts and phantoms.

He looked around the room several times. The remaining Beyonder materials glowed in different lights, while lifeless and non-Beyonder objects appeared the same as usual.

He gradually adapted to this Spirit Vision state until pain radiated from his brow and his head began to swell, then he turned off the Spirit Vision.

After a brief rest, he set a simple trigger for activating Spirit Vision—snapping his fingers twice.

But feeling it was too ostentatious and obvious, he changed the trigger to rubbing his thumb against his index finger three times.

It resembled the motion of counting money.

After practicing for a while, pain from overuse began to radiate from his brow and temples.

Hastur deactivated his Spirit Vision, groggily supported himself along the wall and staircase, went upstairs, pushed open the bedroom door, and collapsed directly onto the bed. Before long, he fell sound asleep.

In his dream, the Hall of Stars reappeared—this time with some changes.

The stars in the sky were particularly bright, and a thick platinum chain, glittering with radiant starlight, descended from the starry sky and hung behind the first chair.

Aside from this prominent change, Hastur also keenly sensed that the power of order and rules within the Hall of Stars had greatly strengthened.

After scanning a few more times, he reached out with his right index finger and thumb and gently rubbed three times.

Spirit Vision activated, and the first thing he saw was a vast and dazzling field of starlight.

He felt as if he stood at the center of the entire starry sky, with stars all around orbiting and converging toward him.

That platinum chain that hung down from the starry sky transformed into a massive pillar of order and law, propping up the starry dome above and stabilizing the flow of the stars!

He then looked at himself—his form shimmering faintly with starlight. This was his pure spirit body.

Every time he entered the Hall of Stars, it was always in this spirit form.

After scanning the surroundings a few times, he deactivated his spiritual vision.

He walked to the first seat and sat down, and a new insight surged in his heart.

Chain of Order, Pillar of Law—a chance to establish new order and rules.

Hastur could clearly understand the first two terms, but this part about "a chance to establish new order and rules" left him slightly puzzled.

Did this mean he could arbitrarily set a rule that would then take effect in both the Hall of Stars and the real world?

If he made a rule that everything he bought must be free, would that mean he'd never have to pay for anything again?

That sounded a bit too easy.

No, if he wanted to get things for free, he didn't need the Hall of Stars to make that happen.

In reality, he could just do it anytime—so long as he wasn't afraid of being caught and beaten by the vendors, or invited to the police station for a chat.

This felt a bit like the power of a wish-granting lamp. It could fulfill your wish, but not necessarily in the way you hoped.

For example, creating a rule that he would never die.

It sounded like he'd become immortal, but in reality, he might be sealed in a dimension where time doesn't flow.

In a space of total temporal stasis, he truly wouldn't die, but he would be imprisoned for eternity, never regaining his freedom.

What would be the point of such immortality?

Another example: setting a rule that he must become a god.

Would he need to specify an exact time for his ascension?

Even if a time were given, would he really become a god? And if so, would it be a sane god or a god but without sanity?

There were too many possibilities, too many uncertainties.

And was this wish-like usage even in line with the meaning of "order" and "rules"?

"Order"—with "ord" emphasizing structure and non-chaos, and "er" emphasizing sequence and non-reversal.

[T/ N: Here the break down of Ord and Er is maybe related to the Chinese letters, is what I think.]

It implied a degree of consistency in both natural and societal processes, a state of stability and continuity.

"Rules"—similar in meaning to law—a system of standards and regulations that everyone must follow.

The two were similar, yet not the same.

To truly explain it, he couldn't say it clearly either. After all, he had only just stepped into the Beyonder path, and his understanding of both was limited.

He could only use a simple example to distinguish them a little—like jaywalking.

Red light means stop, green light means go. Most people voluntarily follow this rule and cross the street when the green light appears.

This is order—something followed not because of coercion, but from inner discipline.

But there are always those who refuse to follow this order and insist on crossing during the red light. When that happens, they get hit by cars, causing a traffic accident.

With an accident comes investigation, determining responsibility, and finally making a ruling based on who was at fault.

In that process, the traffic police and judge make decisions based on the law.

That's a rule.

One could say that rules are more coercive. Everyone must follow them—whether they want to or not. A rule doesn't change just because of one person.

Of course, this only refers to the ideal scenario.

In real life, there are always exceptions. Where there is order, there are shadows; where there are rules, there are loopholes.

Hastur then thought about the symbolic meaning of lawyers. No matter what kind of order or rule, there will always be shadows and loopholes.

No matter what kind of rule he ends up creating, it can never be perfect.

Faced with this, the best he could do was carefully phrase it to avoid or minimize major shadows and loopholes.

"This really is hard to decide."

Hastur put aside all the messy thoughts. For now, he had no good ideas. In any case, he was still some way off from advancing to Sequence 8 Barbarian, so he had time to think it through.

He temporarily suppressed the matter and looked at the chain that symbolized order and rules. He should be able to control it now, right?

He focused his will, and the chain hanging behind the seat floated up in response. It twisted and coiled to his thoughts—sometimes forming a circle, sometimes taking the shape of a fishing rod.

He named this chain, which represented order and rules, the Chain of Order!

Once he could control it as easily as an extension of his arm, Hastur turned his gaze toward the star that symbolized the Son of Chaos.

It was time to find a test subject for the Chain of Order.