The moment Jacob poured his true soul force into the Map of the Blazing Constellation, it reacted and started to pulse as if the material itself began to breathe.
The faint celestial shimmer on the silky surface bloomed as a fiery constellation blazed to life, forming a complex celestial formation that resembled a stylized ram—the Aries Zodiac—its horns spiraling like twin flame vortexes.
As the image stabilized, glowing lines radiated outward, forming a shifting map across what appeared to be volcanic terrain, broken ley lines, and hidden flame altars scattered across an ancient, half-buried continent.
Yet, this was not all. The edges of the scroll curled upward slightly, and lines of hidden text, invisible before, began to glow in archaic flame-script, floating just above the surface like embers suspended in time.
This archaic script danced and twisted; it was incredibly profound and mystic, as if containing secrets of the fire.
’Who would’ve thought the Law of Fire could be written in a script...’ Jacob really admired the flame script because he knew how profound it was.
When he received the Map of the Blazing Constellation, its description mentioned that only those who had mastered the Law of Fire and Indomitable Fire could fully decipher its secrets.
Only after Jacob started to probe this map’s mystery did he truly understand what that description implied. Not only did this map require a soul force from at least a dual or maybe even tri-law soul totem, with one of the laws being the Fire Law, to activate, but without mastering the Law of Fire, it was impossible to go any further because of the flame script.
Without completely comprehending the first concept of the Law of Fire to peak where one can almost come in contact with the second concept, no one can make sense of this flame script.
Even Jacob had to spend quite a lot of time to develop the Law of Fire and the process become faster with the help of this map as well because one of its functions were to allow others to comprehend the Fire Law to the peak of first concept, not to mention he had a Fire Magic Core condensed from the Art of Nature.
Now, Jacob’s understanding of the Fire Law was profound enough to claim the title of ’Myth of Fire’ if he wants to.
Anyhow, at this moment, the flame script was decipherable to Jacob. As he focused on the script, and as if sensing his understanding, the celestial ram’s eye glowed, and the surrounding stars began to move, realigning themselves in patterns.
Those patterns suddenly shifted into vivid terrains, each seemed like an encrypted coordinate, and these encrypted parts were only unlockable with a more profound mastery of the law of fire.
The deeper he gazed, the more the map shifted and changed. At this moment, at the center of the map, a symbolic sun, stylized and pulsing like a heart, is revealed. Every so often, it released rings of firelight across the scroll, as though reacting to his thoughts and soul.
Lastly, etched faintly beneath the sun symbol, just barely readable with the right soul resonance, were six cryptic words: "Only the flame-willed may enter."
The moment those words surfaced, the map suddenly shook violently. It seemed to establish some kind of connection, and a faint attraction force suddenly formed between the map and an unknown location.
Since Jacob was recognized as the owner of the Map of the Blazing Constellation, he could sense the general location of this connection.
Jacob again looked towards the eerily silent desert, ’I have come to the right place. The pull is stronger here and no longer dragging me into the starry space. From the appearance, this place should be a Forbidden Region or something close to it if the Yang Flame is really located somewhere inside.
’Nonetheless, acquiring Yang Flame will increase my fighting power to another level while also evolving my Fire Magic Core to Yang Core just like the Yin Core. If Immortika is right, then as long as I acquired both Yin and Yang Cores, I can perfectly use Yin and Yang Magic without suffering from any backlash.
’Furthermore, I’m on the clock against that scheming bastard. The Map will only be activated with my original soul force, and now that I’ve reached the destination, I can’t just close it right away. I need to use it constantly to guide me, or I’ll be just circling around if this place has some magic imbued in it...’
Jacob has almost accurately judged his current situation, and at this moment, he coldly thought, "Black Mechanic, what do you think of the desert ahead of me? Is this place one of those where your racial abilities can be disrupted?"
The next moment, Black Mechanic’s static voice sounded in his head, "Sir’s conjecture is on point. This is a ’black site’ where space and time are disrupted because of chaotic magical elements. No ’network’ will work from here unless something like a ’Timeless Tower’ can be used as a medium."
"Which means, SAAI or Undying Will have no ’eyes’ in there?"
"Yes, but if the disruption reaches a certain level, which they detect as ’interesting’ or ’dangerous,’ they can send ’eyes’ inside using remote drones and establish a temporary network channel."
Jacob nodded in understanding, as he was now very familiar with how the SNIM Race worked; only then did he fully comprehend the terror of SAAI and Undying Will.
The crux of the matter was that the SNIM Race could virtually monitor everything as long as they had the necessary materials and technology, and no place was deemed dangerous enough for them because the danger was taken on by ’puppets’ themselves.
The only factor involved in this was whether it was worth it or not. Like the Great Cosmic Continents were worth spending energy and time, but not every place was monitored because some areas were too troublesome and required enormous resources, such as the forbidden regions.
Now that Jacob was aware of these things, he was wary of SAAI and Undying Will and no longer wanted to draw their attention to himself. The only countermeasure he had against them was the Black Mechanic, and with the black technology of the ATLAS, Jacob was already prepared.
Furthermore, Black Mechanic wasn’t going to help him hide his traces; it was involved in a much bigger project, which was already underway in another secret location.
Jacob was here to retrieve the Yang Flame and didn’t want to raise any commotion or get noticed by SAAI or Undying Will.
Without hesitation, Jacob took a step forward and entered the still desert while following the Map of the Blazing Constellation!