Chapter 1 Compared to the towering and bizarre Spirit World Clock Tower or the Highspire of Stars, Anthony's mage tower appeared much more樸實. Although it looked mysterious, the tower was less than half the size of the Spirit World Clock Tower and its style was more "pragmatic." Its grayish appearance and the lack of curves in its spires made it look no different from an ordinary castle bell tower. Its only unique feature was that the tower's overall shape resembled a strange "fork." The lower half of the tower was a straight cylinder, while the upper half branched into several thinner tower bodies, each with its own independent spire, making it look very unstable—although it was actually incredibly sturdy.

Apart from the strange spires, the entire mage tower had nothing special about it. But its朴實 appearance did not mean simplicity. Anthony's mage tower was built from huge gray-white rocks, with a mixture of refined gold and mithril cast between the stones. These metals were almost enough to buy any small kingdom on the continent, yet the tower had stood here for a century, and no one had dared to attack it.

Oh, actually, someone had tried—those people were now buried under the giant wooden walls of Grandia, nourishing the elven kingdom's forest.

The old mage didn't use the priceless rare metals as cement simply for luxury and waste. In fact, these magical metals cast into the gaps between the rocks brought a huge magic power throughput rate to the mage tower, allowing it to conduct the power of its master with great efficiency, and also providing convenience for Anthony's many magical studies. Before becoming an inspector, Anthony was first and foremost a powerful and erudite kingdom court mage. Studying the mysteries of magic and the stars was his greatest hobby. After becoming an agent of the gods, he naturally had more opportunities to continue these studies. The old mage had his own identities on many civilized planets in the Chandale star cluster. Sometimes he was a mysterious prophet, sometimes a royal wizard employed by a kingdom, sometimes a great and awe-inspiring magician with a strange temper, but more often he was a recluse living in isolation, hard to find. But no matter what identity he lived under, he would build a mage tower on the local planet, just like the one in front of him.

This was a habit he had when he was still an ordinary person.

The mage tower was not as gloomy and oppressive as ordinary people imagined a wizard's tower to be. In fact, apart from the magical creations and arcane phenomena that startled people from time to time, the tower was brightly lit and had a bright style. Hao Ren could see that the stone walls inside the tower were glowing with a dim blue or green light, which was the aura released by the magic-conducting metal seeping into the stone seams under the catalysis of the arcane environment. Anthony was obviously very proud of his design. While leading the way, he introduced his home: "I've spent more than three hundred years improving this traditional structure, and finally I was inspired by the 'simulated nerve fiber network' technology of a certain world. I wrapped the entire tower with a three-dimensional energy network. These metal filaments and magic energy conduits buried in the rock walls conduct energy like blood vessels and nerve bundles. The tower can also be used as an antenna to connect with the bases I have set up on other planets. I'm ashamed to say that many basic technologies and resources were bestowed by the goddess. Human power has its limits... But for guys like us who are immortal, as long as we have time, we can actually research anything."

"You've made much more progress than me," Hao Ren scratched his head. "I'm not cut out for scientific research."

"Don't underestimate yourself. Many people are paying attention to you. Your skills have already made many senior inspectors blush with shame," Anthony waved his hand. "And I'm sure that your research and gains in 'divinity' are definitely better than mine. I've been an inspector for thousands of years, and I haven't dared to deal with divine artifacts too much. But I heard that you've piled a lot of divine artifacts in your house, and you even dare to dissect demigods in the laboratory—I've never done such a feat in my life."

Hao Ren curled his lips, thinking that it wasn't like he wanted to deal with such dangerous things all day long...

"Let's talk about Yggdrasil," Hao Ren changed the subject. "How is it doing now?"

"I've never been in contact with a 'First Born' kind of creature, but from what I've observed, its current state should be considered stable—maybe it's exhausted, but it's quite docile now," Anthony said as he walked up the long spiral staircase, stroking his beard. "I have a wizard's cottage set up in space. An apprentice on duty in the cottage happened to capture the scene when 'that thing' descended. The poor kid almost got a psychological trauma."

They went up the spiral staircase, passed through the banquet hall of the mage tower and two laboratories of unknown purpose. The upper space became empty, and Hao Ren didn't know if it was his illusion: he found that the higher he went in the tower, the wider the surroundings seemed to be, as if the inside of the tower was a cone that was thick at the top and thin at the bottom—but this was completely opposite to the shape of the tower.

He suspected that some kind of space expansion effect had been solidified inside the tower.

Finally, they came to a huge circular hall that was almost as wide as a soccer field. The circular hall was enclosed by stained glass, and above it was a black dome made of obsidian. The dark and heavy dome was oppressive, and between the obsidian domes, there were countless twinkling lights, like stars moving. The light spots looked like they were projected on the roof by some kind of spotlight, but on closer inspection, they looked like light seeping out from inside the obsidian. Gala卓尔 introduced from the side, "This is Anthony's observatory."

"I said before that I temporarily shielded Yggdrasil with the Astral Barrier to prevent ordinary people in the Chandale star cluster from being disturbed. This is the entrance to the Astral Barrier." Anthony's voice echoed in the huge circular hall, and as he spoke, a thick mass of darkness suddenly bulged from a certain shadow in the hall. The darkness quickly took shape, and finally turned into a petite girl with pale skin. The girl curiously glanced at Hao Ren, and then "floated" silently to Anthony like a real shadow.

"Teacher," the girl respectfully saluted, "the star track disk has been adjusted."

"This is a student I took in more than thirty years ago, A露, she is responsible for maintaining the observatory here," Anthony introduced. "I must say, not many students can complete those studies. You just saw that half-baked guy running away—so don't underestimate A露. A露, this is阁下Hao Ren, who I mentioned to you, he's my colleague, and these are his friends..."

A露 was originally looking at Hao Ren curiously, but when she heard his name, she immediately showed a look of association, and then jumped back like a startled rabbit...

Hao Ren: "..."

"I, I'm sorry!" A露 immediately realized her impoliteness and apologized nervously, "Inspector阁下! I just..."

"No, don't say it, I know what you want to say," Hao Ren said with a wooden face, then tilted his head slightly to look at Gala卓尔, "Hehe."

Gala卓尔: "..."

Everyone, please don't forget who spread Hao Ren's nickname of "wherever he goes, things explode," "blasting genius," and "bomb Ren."

Anthony was also a little awkward, but the old man was indeed very good at holding the situation, or rather, the older he got, the thicker his skin became. He directly ignored the awkward atmosphere caused by his student and ordered, "Open the entrance to the Astral Barrier, we're going to meet the big guy we discovered yesterday."

A露 breathed a sigh of relief, and then ran to open the barrier: the barrier controller was on the edge of the circular hall, a mana sphere floating in mid-air. Hao Ren initially thought it was a light bulb...

As A露 injected energy into the mana sphere, Hao Ren heard a strange clicking sound in the hall, and the source of the sound...

Was the obsidian dome overhead!

In the stunned gaze of everyone, countless crisscrossing bright cracks suddenly appeared on the obsidian dome, which looked incredibly thick and seamless. These cracks were like the lines connecting the stars in the constellations, outlining countless patterns on the stone roof. Then, the entire obsidian layer gradually decomposed and dispersed based on these lines, slowly disappearing from everyone's sight.

An endless space appeared in front of everyone, with real stars shining brightly in the sky.

The top of Anthony's tower was built directly among the stars.

"I connected the space equipment issued by the organization with the facilities of the magic tower to create a plane hall. This tower is actually divided into two parts, the lower part is on the surface, and the upper part is near the Chandale star—the Chandale star is the origin of this star cluster's name, although it is the most inconspicuous of the hundreds of stars here, it is the birthplace of the ancient civilization here... Oh, you should have already read this information."

At this time, Hao Ren had only one thought in his mind: as expected of a veteran employee!