Chapter 1: The Silence Beneath Mars
The red dust of Mars whispered secrets to those who listened. Most didn't—but Li Yan did.
At seventeen, he had more scars than stories. His rough fingers brushed over the ancient ruins buried under kilometers of Martian stone, long hidden from the greedy hands of the Star Federation. The excavation lights flickered as the team descended deeper into the cavern, their breath fogging in the thinning oxygen. Their helmets glowed dimly, powered by worn-out fusion packs.
Li Yan wasn't supposed to be here. He was a trainee—a glorified errand boy for the Federation's archaeological scouts. But something had pulled him to this site, something he couldn't explain.
"Li Yan," barked Commander Huang over the comm-link, his voice sharp like broken metal, "You're out of position. Get back to the crawler."
Li Yan hesitated.
"Sir, I… I think I found something."
Silence.
Then, a static-laced sigh. "If you touch anything unauthorized, you'll be recycled back to the asteroid mines. Do you hear me?"
Li Yan didn't respond. His eyes were locked on the glowing etchings covering the wall in front of him—lines shaped like constellations, forming a circular diagram with a core at the center. His hand moved on instinct. He pressed his palm against the central glyph.
The world changed.
A pulse of searing blue light erupted, engulfing him. Symbols ignited across the walls, ancient characters dancing in midair. The cavern rumbled. Commander Huang's voice screamed through the static.
Then… everything went black.
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Chapter 2: The Starcore
Li Yan awoke floating.
He wasn't on Mars anymore. Around him stretched a field of stars, vast and alive. Time lost all meaning. There was no up or down—only the heartbeat of something ancient pulsing through him.
And then he saw it.
A crystal the size of his chest, suspended in space, cracked and glowing. Blue and red veins pulsed from its fractured core like living circuits. It wasn't just an object—it was alive. It was watching him.
You are chosen, a voice whispered in his mind. You have touched the Starcore.
"What are you?" Li Yan asked, but his voice didn't echo in space.
The core responded with a vision.
Planets burning. Ships torn apart in gravitational storms. People screaming in languages long dead. A woman in white falling through space with a tear in her eye and a promise on her lips. "Find the last guardian," she said.
And just as suddenly as it had come, the vision was gone.
Li Yan crashed back into his body, gasping for air. The ruins were in chaos. The chamber had collapsed. Lights were out. His team—gone.
And etched into his arm, glowing faintly, was a circle of glyphs: the mark of the Starcore.
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Chapter 3: Hunted
When he emerged from the rubble, staggering into the light of Mars' dying sun, the Federation ships were already circling.
"Unidentified entity detected. Initiating containment protocol," announced a cold AI voice from the nearest drone.
Li Yan raised his hands. "Wait! I'm not—!"
The drone fired.
He ducked, adrenaline surging, as a plasma beam scorched the rocks beside him. He ran, heart pounding, his body moving faster than it ever had before. Something was inside him now. Something powerful.
He leapt over ravines with impossible speed. His breath felt supercharged, his vision sharper than ever. The mark on his arm pulsed with every beat of his heart.
He didn't know what he had become—but the Federation feared it.
And fear made them dangerous.
---
Chapter 4: The Girl in White
Hours later, as night fell over the Martian wasteland, he collapsed inside a ravine. His body was trembling. The mark on his arm flickered like a dying star.
That's when he saw her.
A girl—no, a woman—stood at the edge of the cliff. Her white robe shimmered under the moonlight, the hem stained with red dust. Long black hair flowed behind her, untouched by the wind. Her eyes glowed with a light he'd seen before—in the vision.
"You activated it," she said, her voice calm but tired. "Foolish… but brave."
"Who… who are you?"
"My name is Bai Ling," she said. "I am the last of the Voidkeepers. And now… you've made yourself the enemy of every power in the galaxy."
She reached out her hand.
And despite everything, Li Yan took it.
---
Chapter 5: Echoes of the Past
As they walked through the night, Bai Ling explained everything—or as much as she dared.
"The Starcore is not a weapon," she said. "It's a prison. A vault that holds knowledge—dangerous knowledge—too powerful for any empire to control. Thousands of years ago, the ancient cosmic clans tried to unlock it. It destroyed them."
"Then why was it hidden on Mars?"
"Because your planet was neutral. Forgotten. But now, it has been rediscovered. And you… you woke it."
Li Yan stared at his arm. The glyphs had begun to fade, but the power he felt hadn't.
"Can it be removed?" he asked.
"No," she said. "You and the Starcore are linked now. And they will hunt you for it."
"Who are 'they'?"
Her eyes darkened.
"The Federation. The Awakened. The Ghostborn. Every faction with ambition."
"So what do I do now?"
She smiled sadly.
"Survive. And follow me. There's more to show you."
---
Chapter 6: Beneath the Red Sky
They traveled through Martian caverns, deep beneath abandoned colonies and collapsed railways. Bai Ling moved with purpose, like someone who had walked these paths for years.
In one hidden chamber, she unsealed a hatch with a glowing ring.
Inside was a small spacecraft—sleek, silver, alien.
"This belonged to my people," she said, placing her palm on the side. "It runs on Starcore frequency. And only you can power it now."
Li Yan stepped forward. The ship responded to his presence, lighting up like a sleeping dragon waking to its rider.
"What do we do now?" he asked.
"We fly."
"To where?"
She turned to him.
"To the Forbidden Galaxy. Where all truths are buried."