Chapter 602: Star Omen
His hands were trembling.
Dispersion Star held the telescope barrel steady by will alone and told himself: not yet. Whatever this was — whatever it portended — this was not the moment to make it public. Not until he was certain.
When the scarlet star, or the Bloody Moon, befalls, the world will fall into a disaster beyond redemption.
He had memorized those words as a young apprentice, the way one memorized a prayer that was never supposed to be necessary. In forty years of stargazing, they had been liturgy, not prophecy. Now they sat in the back of his throat like a coal.
He raised his head slowly, careful not to disturb the telescope’s bearing, though he could have found the star again with his eyes closed.
“Write it down,” he said. “East Three Area. Early summer. Between Hexagram and Blazing Star.”
Yun’s brush scratched across the log book. “Yes. And the name, Master?”
“No name.”
A pause. “Master?”
“Just a circle. No name.” He turned from the eyepiece. “And call every astrologer to the observatory now. Send the apprentices away — all of them. Now.”
The last word came out louder than he intended — nearly a shout. Yun flinched and ran.
May the deities in the heavens bless us.
They gathered quickly, the way people gather when they feel something has shifted without being told what. Eight astrologers, standing in the brazier’s light, reading the gravity on Dispersion Star’s face before he spoke a word. The rumor about the Star of Extinction was no secret among them — Roland himself had suggested, when he visited, that Dispersion Star share the meaning of the patrimonial gold plaque with his people. Better for them to understand what they were searching for. Better for them to feel the weight of the mission. At the time, the chief astrologer had thought Roland was being naively optimistic, treating the doomsday prophecy like a logistical problem to be managed rather than a terror to be contained.
“I found a scarlet star,” Dispersion Star said.
The collective inhale was audible.
“But I’m not certain it’s real. A light spot, an ocular illusion — these are common in extended observation. Which is why I need each of you to look.”
“Starting with me,” Void Star said — not a question.
Dispersion Star nodded.
An hour later, all eight had looked. Twice they had exchanged telescopes; once the old astrolabe was used, which showed nothing — but that instrument could barely resolve the moons of the sister planets on a clear night. Every modern telescope confirmed it: a dim red point lodged between Hexagram and Blazing Star. Rose Star, whose eyesight was the keenest of them all, said she could make out a disc — not a pinprick but a tiny resolved circle, the way a distant lantern resolves from a spark into a flame when you walk toward it.
Eight astrologers. Three instruments. One result.
The silence that followed was unlike any silence the observatory had known. It was not reverent and it was not peaceful. It was the silence of people standing at the edge of something they had spent their entire lives preparing to find, and discovering that preparation had not made them ready.
Was it blessing or punishment?
Their entire purpose — every night of wrecked sleep, every meal without spice or fish, every decade of watching — had been aimed at this discovery. To find the Star of Extinction before it found them. To give the kingdoms time. That was the reason the Astrology Association existed. That was why a king would fund them from thousands of li away with expensive telescopes and regular gold royals.
Yet finding it felt like being handed a curse.
“What do we do now?” someone asked.
“Report to the king,” another said.
“Do you mean Roland Wimbledon? Will he believe us?”
“The star doesn’t disappear if he doesn’t believe us.”
“I mean — will he believe the prediction? The Star of Extinction?”
“He sent us those instruments. He can’t dismiss us entirely.”
“He’s famous for his stubbornness.”
“His stubbornness is why we’re still here and not scattered to the winds.”
Dispersion Star raised a hand. The voices stopped.
“We keep this between us,” he said. “The star exists — but existence is the beginning, not the end, of what we need to know. We must establish its orbital path, its velocity, and calculate when it might become visible to the unaided eye. The more we know before we report, the more convincing our testimony will be. Understood?”
“As you wish, Chief Astrologer.”
One week of observation, and Dispersion Star had to admit: the star was stranger than any he had encountered in forty years.
It should move. Every star moved — tracked a slow arc across the seasons, tilted with the world’s turning, rose and set in rhythm with the year. This was not a matter of philosophy but of direct observation; the logs of centuries proved it. A star that did not move was not a star.
The Hexagram had tilted three degrees in seven nights, as summer progressed toward the shift that would stand its six crossbars vertical. The scarlet star had not moved. It sat fixed between Hexagram and Blazing Star as though painted there, as though it were nailed to the fabric of the sky rather than hung from it. If the other stars were boats on a slow current, this one was an anchor on the riverbed.
If it cannot move, it cannot approach.
The prophecy required the Star of Extinction to befall the world — to descend close enough for all people to see it with naked eyes. A stationary object could not do that. And yet something was wrong with that reasoning too, in a way Dispersion Star could feel but not yet name.
He found the answer in Rose Star’s log.
She had been measuring its brightness each night with careful notation — seven entries now, each one a fraction greater than the last. So small the progression that Dispersion Star had initially dismissed it as variation in atmospheric clarity or differences in her observing eye on different nights. But on the seventh day, Brightsky Star — recovered from illness, sharp-eyed, independent — came to the same conclusion independently: the star was brightening.
Gradually. Steadily. Nightly.
They debated through the night. And then Rose Star said the thing that made the room go cold:
“If the prophecy means it must be seen by common people — if befalling means not descending but becoming visible — then does it matter whether the star moves or not? If it keeps brightening, if it surpasses Phospherus, if it blazes in the sky like a red torch that anyone who steps outside can see—”
She did not need to finish.
The common people could not read a constellation. They would not know Hexagram from Blazing Star. But a star the color of blood, bright enough to outshine the first star of evening, blazing unmistakably and uniquely in a sky full of white and gold — that they would see. Every farmer. Every child. Every refugee in every street.
Cold sweat ran down Dispersion Star’s neck.
“I’ll write to His Majesty Roland tonight,” he said. “Let us hope it is not already too late.”
Chapter 602: Star Omen
Translator: TransN Editor: TransN
With his hands trembling, Astrologer of Dispersion Star thought it was not the right time to make the news public.
“When the scarlet star, or the Bloody Moon, befalls, the world will fall into a disaster beyond redemption.”
He admittedly understood the meaning of this prophecy.
Taking a deep breath, the chief astrologer raised his head meticulously, for fear that the hard-won star would lose due to his unnecessary movement of touching the astrolabe.
Even though he could find the position of the star once again with his eyes closed.
“Write it down, East 3 Area, early summer, between Hexagram and Blazing Star.”
“Yes,” Yun replied, groping for his logbook, and then drew a circle at the corresponding position. That meant another star was included in the stellar map. “What’s the name of the star ?” he asked.
“No name now.”
“Master?” Yun startled slightly and said.
“Just do as what I’ve said, and there’s no need to write the name down. Besides, gather the astrologers in the observatory and ask the apprentices to leave… right now!” Dispersion Star said.
His last sound sounded like a growl.
“I’ll do it at once.” Shocked by the growl of Dispersion Star, Yun ran to summon the other astrologers.
“May the deities in the heaven bless us!” Dispersion Star thought.
Soon, all the astrologers flocked together around the chief astrologer.
They seemed to realize something from his solemn look. The rumor about Star of Extinction was not a secret among the astrologers anymore since Roland had paid his visit to the Astrology Association. The young king had even suggested the chief astrologer show the patrimonial gold plaque to other astrologers, as it could enable them to feel responsibility and honor in their jobs and would encourage them to focus more on observing the stars. At that time, Dispersion Star somehow had felt that His Majesty had made light of the doomsday.
“Chief Astrologer… Do you?”
“I found a scarlet star,” Dispersion Star nodded and said.
The astrologers all gasped out upon these words.
“But I’m not sure whether it’s a light spot or just an illusion… Such a phenomenon is common in star observation, so…” Dispersion Star waved his hands and said.
“So you need us to re-check,” Void Star said.
“That’s right,” Dispersion Star nodded and said, “and let’s start with you.”
…
An hour later, eight astrologers completed the stars observation. To rule out the instrument problem, twice changes in telescopes and the one time change in the old-fashioned astrolabe were made.
All the astrologers had got a clear look at the dim light no matter which telescope was used, except the old-fashioned astrolabe.
Maybe a blurred vision or an illusion would occur to one people, but it was impossible that eight astrologers were all in blurred vision.
The Astrologer of Rose Star, one of the eight astrologers, whose eyesight was the most excellent, even claimed she had caught the sight of star profile.
There was no doubt about the existence of the “scarlet star”.
Subsequently, a moment of unusual silence pervaded in the Astrological Station.
Was it the blessing or the punishment of the deities? It was a question. What Dispersion Star could make sure was that all their efforts, from the day they joined the Astrology Association, were aimed to find Star of Extinction, which heralded the misfortune and disaster. Yet when they really found it, a burst of fear struck them.
Their hard work was paid off. To know beforehand about the disaster could save tens of thousands of lives. It was the moment that the Astrology Association had totally outmatched the Alchemist Workshop. The significance of the event could not even be measured by the gold royals. Their warning, however, was also tantamount to the most vicious curse to some extent.
Doomsday prediction would be a profound responsibility for those astrologers.
“What should we do next?” Someone asked afterward.
“Under the normal circumstance, we should report it to the king.”
“Do you mean Prince Roland Wimbledon? Will he believe us?”
“The star won’t disappear even if he doesn’t believe us.”
“No! I mean he won’t believe in the prediction on the Star of Extinction.”
“Anyhow, it’s worth a try. It was he, after all, who delivered these instruments to the Astrological Station. It was impossible that he would turn up his nose at our words.”
“Who knows? He’s famous for his stubbornness in King’s City.”
“He wouldn’t leave us if he was as stubborn as he’s said in rumors.”
“Stop! Just keep the message about the scarlet star confidential, we still need some other days to observe.” Dispersion Star raised his hands and interrupted the discussion.
After looking at each astrologer around, Dispersion Star said, “It’s far from enough to only know about its existence. We need to learn about the scarlet star’s operational orbit, speed and the possible time to befall the world. The more clues we can collect, the more convincing our prediction will be. Understand?”
“As you wish, Chief Astrologer,” All the astrologers made bows together and said.
…
Dispersion Star felt that the scarlet star was increasingly fathomless after one week’s observation.
It should be motionless.
All the stars moved inevitably, which, sometimes, was in parallel with the skyline, and then raised in the mid-air; sometimes, they would fade away after midnight. Such changes were of regularity. Otherwise, the statement about the orbit could not hold water.
However, no signs of movement about Star of Extinction could be captured.
Hexagram tilted slightly in 7 days. As the autumn fell, the 6 transverse lines would change into 6 vertical lines, and the scarlet star would be moving away from the center between Hexagram and Blazing Star.
By contrast, Dispersion Star realized that the scarlet star did not move as if it was not a star but something fixed on the background of night.
Now that it could not move, it was impossible that the scarlet star would get close to the four kingdoms.
As the prediction revealed, Star of Extinction must befall into the world. In other words, the disaster would strike only when all the people could observe the star with their naked eyes. Did it mean the doomsday would never fall if what engraved in the gold plaque was true?
Besides, the light of the scarlet star kept changing.
This conclusion was drawn by the Astrologer of Rose Star, whose logbook revealed that the star was brightening gradually.
When the Astrologer of Rose star had first noticed such a phenomenon, Dispersion Star had not taken it seriously given the stability of the stars. A star would not constantly change its shape and luster like the moon. In the seventh day, however, the Astrologer of Brightsky Star who had just recovered from illness had put forward the same idea. Given that the Astrologer of Rose Star and the Astrologer of Brightsky Star were of the most excellent eyesight among the astrologers of the Astrology Association, their points of view had finally caught Dispersion Star’s attention.
After a heated discussion in the night, the whim of the Astrologer of Rose Star, a female stargazer, made all the astrologers shiver with fear.
“If the advent of Star of Extinction refers to being seen by the people, is there a possibility that the scarlet star will come into people’s eyes even though it keeps motionless all the time? Will the increasingly brightening light make it surpass Phospherus and become a torch hanging over the sky?”
Like a thundering roar, her remarks struck into Dispersion Star’s mind.
The ordinary people did not know how to identify the constellation, but that did not mean that they could not see the stars.
The brightness of some stars was a match for crescent, which could be easily seen on the night of the sunny day.
How about the star being of unique eye-catching color?
The answer was clear.
“I’ll write a letter to His Majesty Roland now, hoping it’s not too late,” The chief astrologer said with cold sweat dripping.