"Secretary-General, the protective field on the base of the Eternal Stele has been deactivated."

A researcher walked over to report to Abraham.

Abraham put down his tea, nodded, and then said to Shi Ming, who was reading a newspaper,

"Alright, my friend. After about a ten-minute wait, we can go and engrave your honorary mark on the stele’s base."

The researcher standing to the side was stunned for a moment.

’They deactivated the base’s protection... just to engrave a name?’

’This person is so young, how could he be allowed to engrave his name on the Eternal Stele? Only Honorary Knights, Admiral Captains, S-rank Awakened, and those who have made immense contributions to a King-level ship have that privilege. How could a young man who looks to be in his early twenties have achieved something like that?’

’This kid is something else!’

Shi Ming put down the newspaper.

He stood up and followed Abraham to the top floor of the Twelve Stars. This was the Hall of Glory, where the Eternal Stele was housed. It also served as the research center for the adjoining Stone Tablet Research Room. Under normal circumstances, this area was closed to the public; gaining permission to visit was an incredibly troublesome process that involved numerous approvals.

The Eternal Stele was shrouded in a wondrous, hazy glow. This was a special protective field for the stele itself, but it didn’t hinder reading or research.

Beneath the stele was a pedestal made of basalt.

The names were engraved on this pedestal, not on the stele itself.

The main reason was that the material of the Eternal Stele was incredibly hard; no one had ever been able to carve a single character into it.

The moment Shi Ming saw the text on the stele, he was certain. This was another piece of the Divine Revelation Stele. The characters on it were written in the same mysterious language he had spent several painstaking days learning in the Starry Sky Space. Each character contained a vast amount of information, its meaning changing completely depending on the context.

Even a single line of text could have a completely different meaning when read in isolation versus when read with the surrounding paragraphs.

In just a moment, he had grasped the general meaning of the text.

[Divine Revelation Stele - Part Four]

[Author: ...]

The author’s name was obscured, just like on the third Divine Revelation Stele that Shi Ming had collected in his warehouse.

The content on this stele was divided into three main sections.

[The Five Magical Trees and Their Fruits.]

[Methods for Increasing Spiritual Power.]

[The Seven Holy Halls]

The first thing that caught Shi Ming’s eye was "The Seven Holy Halls," engraved at the very bottom. This was the part he was most interested in, so naturally, he began to decipher it in detail first.

He translated the abstract characters into modern language. The meaning was roughly:

The creator of this stele—its author—had discovered powers on this planet that surpassed the S-rank. Known as Holy Hall Level powers, they were reflections of the Origin, manifesting as seven distinct forces: Life, Death, Spacetime, Eternity, Fate, Corruption, and Destruction. Seven fortunate, ancient beasts received the acknowledgment of these powers, becoming the first seven Holy Hall-level beasts.

But "first" did not mean "forever"; Holy Hall Level Power could be transferred.

However, the threshold was extremely high.

One not only had to possess physical prowess comparable to the beasts, but also resonate with the Origin Power. But as the modern saying goes, "the antidote is always found near the poison." The method for resonating with the Origin was often hidden somewhere near these beasts.

As long as one possessed three different Holy Hall Level powers simultaneously, one could...

Shi Ming’s brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.

There was nothing more.

’It cut off at the most crucial moment.’

’Authors who leave cliffhangers are the worst.’

...

...

...

"My friend, you can begin now."

"Alright, Mr. Abraham. The text on this Eternal Stele looks so grand and mysterious. Do you have any idea what language it is?"

Shi Ming asked, feigning confusion.

All the while, his eyes continued to analyze the stele’s contents. The Seven Holy Halls was the information at the very bottom; there were still two sections above it.

[The Five Magical Trees and Their Fruits.]

The general meaning was:

The stele’s author had discovered five wondrous trees on this planet: Jianmu, Dachun, the Bodhi Tree of Suffering, the World Tree, and the Immortal Fusang Tree. Each tree had a magical property; either the tree itself possessed an incredible ability, or it could bear magical fruit or secrete a magical sap.

Jianmu: Traversal.

Dachun: Resurrection.

Bodhi Tree of Suffering: Purification.

World Tree: Rebirth.

Immortal Fusang Tree: Agelessness.

These were the five wondrous trees and their magical properties. Shi Ming had fruit from the Immortal Fusang Tree in his warehouse. He had picked it from the tree of the Three-Eyed Golden Crow. It was infused with the essence of the sun, and eating it would grant the body an "ageless" state for three years. During that time, one’s appearance, Physical Strength, and various bodily organs would revert to their previous peak condition, with no side effects.

As for the Bodhi Tree of Suffering, Shi Ming had seen it in the *Compendium of Marvels of the Endless Sea Region*. The marrow from its core was the Purifying Marrow, ranked 96th.

Shi Ming committed this to memory without dwelling on it and continued reading.

[Methods for Increasing Spiritual Power.]

This was the second section of the inscription. It primarily recorded a method of meditation, but the author also noted that its effectiveness was limited by a creature’s comprehension, making it usable only by intelligent beings. The rate at which beasts could increase their Spiritual Power was far slower than that of intelligent life. However, they had a more efficient method: tempering through time.

The longer a creature lived, the more powerful its Spiritual Power would become, tempered by the passage of time.

The base comprehension of every Holy Hall-level beast was very low, but because they lived for so long, their Spiritual Power grew immensely powerful over the vast spans of time.

There was also a creature called the Nameless Cocoon, which had lived for ten thousand generations, its Spiritual Power so high it was undetectable.

Shi Ming froze, not expecting to see a mention of Ah Jian here.

He knew that, similarly, his own Spiritual Power was also undetectable.

’But I haven’t lived for ten thousand generations.’

’Is it because I merged with the Eye of the Divine and traversed worlds? Or is my own comprehension just naturally high? Or both?’

’There was no way to know.’

Abraham gazed at the Eternal Stele and answered Shi Ming’s question:

"The origin of this mysterious script is unknown, and to this day, no one has been able to decipher it. The sole exception is the Xirang Research Institute on the King-level Wandering Ship, the Da Yu. By using a massive sample of thirty-three thousand characters from a larger stele, along with extremely powerful computing equipment, they have managed to interpret a small fraction of its meaning," Abraham said.

"So far, the Da Yu has deciphered two sections of content."

"Based on their research, they created derivative works in modern language, compiling two lists that ordinary people could understand. They named them the *Compendium of Marvels of the Endless Ocean (Middle)* and the *Compendium of Marvels of the Endless Ocean (Lower)*. These lists catalogue some of the wondrous items in this world, and the Calm Sea Pearl is one of the items recorded within."

"If you’re interested, the Twelve Stars can provide you with copies of these two lists, free of charge."

Shi Ming lowered his gaze from the stele.

He had already committed every character on the stele to memory.

But he remembered the warnings from the Eye of the World and the mysterious woman: he must not reveal that he could understand this script.

"Then I must thank the Twelve Stars and you, Mr. Abraham."

"You’re too kind, my friend."