Leo felt his consciousness seep into an unknown realm once the contract was established. In his vision, he saw the void, then immediately felt flashes of bright light as the stars filled in.
He avoided his gaze and did not stare at the stars. In his peripheral vision, however, a few stars were blinking. One of them was aggressively flashy.
Looking at any of the stars was dangerous. The reason? They could swallow up his consciousness!
Leo could die in this place, and it all had to do with these stars, which weren't celestial bodies, but higher entities!
A mortal only had one chance at establishing a contract with these higher entities, and it was at this place. Any time later was not feasible as their consciousness later would be too weak and could not handle the contract signing or the higher entities' attention.
The stars here belonged to two categories of higher entities:
Dead and alive.
The dead ones included souls of people and spirits that had died while the alive ones included the living people and spirits. As simple as that.
People and spirits were differentiated from the very fact that spirits came from non-living things such as artifacts or in some other mysterious way.
The most famous spirit Leo knew of was the Spirit of the Blazing Demonic Sword, wielded by no one else but the Heavenly Emperor himself!
That man was the strongest sword master— no, the strongest sword god in existence, and it only made sense that he had that sword.
Demonic or holy, there was no sword in existence that the Heavenly Emperor could not wield. That was the level of prowess he possessed.
Well, at least, that's what Leo had heard from Lanlan. She loved her father and kept singing his praises. He had listened to this for so many years, that for a second Leo thought, perhaps he was subconsciously praising him too due to this young lady's influence.
The praises aside, Blazing Demonic Sword was a normal sword at first, but the demonic expert that wielded it kept upgrading it. It was upgraded to the point that it developed a spirit and eventually, once he was killed, the Heavenly Emperor became its master.
The way spirits were born was fascinating. A prime example of such a source of fascination was the Spirit of the Collateral Dreams. It was a spirit born due to a million people dreaming about the same thing.
In any case, the spirits were divided into the dead and alive like the normal living beings of the cosmos.
To be considered dead meant losing Life, Heaven, and Earth essence while getting assimilated with Death essence or getting their body, mind, and soul wiped out completely, leaving not a shred of oneself in existence. With the former, the dead could enter the cycle of reincarnation while the latter meant a complete death.
A few tweaks here and there to these things resulted in the existence of ghouls, specters, spirits, ghosts, and as such. None had Life essence in them to be considered living, but despite being assimilated with Death essence, they had not entered the cycle of reincarnation and were wandering in the Nine Realms, Limbo, and Transition Realms.
Due to the loss of Life essence and sometimes their bodies, these entities were naturally weaker than their living counterparts. It was exactly due to this that forming a contract with them was easy. The dead spirits would not resist much and a just awakened mortal could easily tame it, having it forever with him.
The downside to this was that they didn't provide much strength. They were good in the long term as they grew stronger with their master, but they would never be stronger than their master. To a newly awakened mortal, what they needed the most was strength as the risk of death was at an all time high.
It was especially the case for Leo, and thus, contracting these dead entities was a no-go.
All the flashing stars in the void of space were constellations from the entire Nine Realms. An opportunity to see everyone at once would never arise like this again, and Leo had to make the best of it.
Among these stars, there definitely was the Heavenly Emperor, the strongest sword god, but contacting him or any of the twenty-one gods with tributaries in the River of Time was simply a death wish.
Let alone a single gaze, if they even thought of Leo, his consciousness could not handle it and he may die. Usually, the unofficial rule of awakeners was that they should contract a constellation from either their own realm, or one higher than them.
An awakener could have any number of contracts given their strength of consciousness, but everyone usually kept it limited as the constellations had various demands. Choosing one strong constellation was better than choosing multiple weaker ones.
Time was running out for Leo, the indication of which were the dimming stars.
He looked around and tried to find someone good. A glimpse of the constellation would appear in his mind once he stared at the star, but looking at many could result in death as the consciousness could not handle it. There were too many ways to die here, and it was an emo's paradise.
Through his peripheral vision, Leo gauged the intensity of the blinking stars. Among them, one particular star was blinking constantly, trying to gain his attention.
Leo turned to look at it, but did not actually gaze at it directly.
The star blinked rapidly and Leo then saw a line of words in front of him and heard the same in his mind.
[The constellation 'One Kick' is staring at you.]
Oh, it's him.
In the past awakening, this same constellation had contacted him along with a few others. Leo did not form a contract with him and came to regret it quite a lot later down the line.
Leo looked at it for a split second and squinted his eyes.
As if amused by his gaze, the star turned brighter and blinked rapidly.
Leo immediately averted his gaze.
The star turned slightly dim.
Leo looked back at it, and the star was once again shining brightly.
And thus, he broke the gaze one more time.
The star shined with an angry brightness, and a string of words appeared in front of Leo's eyes.
[The constellation 'One Kick' is kicking the table in annoyance.]
A small smile formed on Leo's face. Indeed, it really is him. The same somewhat childish demeanor.
"Calm down, One Kick," said Leo.
The stars in the starry sky dimmed in response, as if shocked, and then began flashing hurriedly.
[The constellations from Black Metal are staring at you.]
[The constellations from the West are staring at you.]
[The constellation 'One Kick' is scratching his chin.]
Leo attracted quite the gazes with a single statement. As he heard the last statement, he said, "Although I do want to form a contract with you, I sadly do not walk the Martial Path. It's a waste for you and me both."
[The constellation 'One Kick' says it's a pity.]
Leo nodded. "It is, for me, that is."
What martial arts did One Kick not have access to? What resources did he lack? Contract with him would lead to a lot of gains and unhindered cultivation. However, as Leo had said, he did not walk the Martial Path and it would be a loss for both of them if they contracted.
"However, don't worry," said Leo after a pause. "In the next year's awakening, there is someone who will be right for you. Look forward to it.]
[The constellation 'One Kick' is curling his hair.]
[The constellation 'One Kick' finds you amusing.]
"You'll know who it is once he awakens and is here," Leo said and stopped bothering himself with him.
This constellation was total brawns over brains and not fit for the non-combat type awakeners. Hard headed battle maniacs were the suitable ones, and despite knowing he could be trained into a fine warrior by him, Leo did not form a contract.
Last year's choices were repeated this year as well, whether knowingly or unknowingly.
The other constellations were looking at Leo with interest. To talk so casually to a constellation like that and be so carefree, certainly this young man was from a powerful background.
[The constellation 'Silent Night' is looking at you.]
[The constellation 'Chaos Seeker' is looking at you.]
[The constellation 'Bizarre Tornado' is looking at you.]
Oh. I've garnered the attention of quite the bigshots.
Looking at you meant the constellations were interested in forming a contract. Leo just had to accept and it would be a done deal.
However, Leo shook his head and said, "Apologies, but I don't seek chaos."
[The constellation 'Chaos Seeker' is pitying you.]
[The constellation 'Bizarre Tornado' is yawning.]
[The constellation 'Bizarre Tornado' is leaving to cause tornadoes.]
[The constellation 'Chaos Seeker' is leaving to cause chaos.]
Fair enough.
With these guys being rejected, there were a few more that tried to form a contract with Leo. He wasn't paying attention to any of them and was searching for a particular star in the void of space.
The clock was ticking and having not been able to find it, Leo took a deep breath and decided to call out the constellation's name instead.
He bowed down and said, "This one pays respect to the Ruler of Six Paths."