Zhang Xiaoman had pulled out a black card, which was precisely the Star Alliance Marker.
Originally, he had planned to place it in his own home, but then he thought about the possibility of moving soon and decided not to use it.
Now considering that Master Liu had also been pulled into the matter, he simply decided to leave it at Master Liu’s house. After all, whenever he wanted to return, he could just activate his skill and teleport to his mother’s side. Leaving it here would also give him some peace of mind, especially since Master Liu was one of his only two relatives.
After taking out the Star Alliance Marker, Zhang Xiaoman began looking for a place to attach it, while Pei Laoliu, sitting across from him, saw the strange black card in his hand and became very curious. Although he verbally said he would let it go if the other party did not want to share, in reality, his curiosity was strong, as it is inherent in everyone.
"Hmm... maybe I’ll just stick it on the cabinet," Zhang Xiaoman suggested after walking around the room, finally standing out among the generals and finding a relatively new cabinet.
"Master Liu, last I heard your place was about to be demolished, but there hasn’t been any movement so far, so I’ll refrain from sticking it on the wall. But if one day you do need to move, you absolutely cannot lose this cabinet..."
As he spoke, he pressed the black card against the door of the cabinet and pushed hard on it. However, to his surprise, the card did not stick as he had anticipated—it fell to the ground once he removed his hand.
"Xiaoman, is this thing a talisman? Does it ward off evil?" Pei Laoliu asked, watching his actions, "And did you want to stick it on the cabinet? I have some glue here if you need it."
"This is not a talisman. It’s used for positioning and teleportation... Never mind, I’ll fix it in a bit."
Zhang Xiaoman said, somewhat frustrated. This item had cost him five Star Dusts, and it seemed absurd to think of using mere glue to affix it. That appeared vastly below its dignity.
Thinking this, he suddenly raised his eyebrows, a new possibility entering his mind.
He pressed the black card against the cabinet with one hand and raised his other hand, slowly moving his finger towards the eye on the Star Alliance Marker.
This time, he channeled some Dark Energy into his fingertip. When his finger touched the card, the Dark Energy surged in, immediately activating the waymark.
Pei Laoliu only saw a burst of white light emanate from the point of contact between Zhang Xiaoman’s fingertip and the card. The card, with its strange pattern, seemed to come to life as the background of the stars began to flow.
A dazzling flash of light passed, and the patterns on the card projected a faint image ahead, surrounded by stars. Beautiful and mysterious runes flashed alternately, casting a hallucinatory light and shadow around, making the whole cabin seem as if the galaxy had descended, spectacularly beautiful.
About ten seconds later, as the light began to contract, the room slowly faded back down, and once the phantom imagery had completely returned to the marker, the surroundings had reverted to their previous state.
However, unlike at the beginning, the original black card no longer existed, replaced by a beautiful pattern imprinted on the cabinet.
By then, Pei Laoliu was completely astounded, his mouth wide open, his face full of disbelief.
Even though he had witnessed some of his grandson’s abilities at the Cultivation Exchange Conference a few days ago, this immersive experience still left him incredibly shocked.
Zhang Xiaoman hadn’t expected the item to produce such a dramatic effect, but he was only slightly amazed, his expression quickly returning to normal. He was already accustomed to such scenes.
"Master Liu, watch closely," he said.
He stepped back to the door of the small hut, and then spent 100 points of Dark Energy to activate Unlimited Teleportation. In his mind, he immediately captured the here’s Star Alliance Marker, and the blurred scene within a 50-meter radius also emerged in his consciousness.
As Zhang Xiaoman was preparing to find a spot to teleport to, he suddenly noticed a somewhat familiar scene that made him subtly express his surprise.
It was a small room, situated at the very edge of his teleportation sense range. The room had a desk, a bed, a chair, and a cabinet. Numerous paintings seemed to adorn the walls, and a figure was currently sitting on the chair, busying themselves with who knows what. Even though the environment was as blurry as looking through fog, he could still tell where it was.
"Lin Sisi? Is it her?"
Zhang Xiaoman was surprised by his discovery; he hadn’t expected that a part of her home would be within the 50 meters range of Unlimited Teleportation. It had seemed like Lin Sisi’s place was separated by two alleys from Master Liu’s house, yet the straight-line distance turned out to be less than 50 meters.
"Hey, it seems card placement brought an unexpected benefit. If that girl ever faces any danger, I could reach her at any moment."
Zhang Xiaoman held some feelings towards Lin Sisi—after all, any man would think about a beautiful single lady. However, being a typical straightforward man somewhat oblivious to emotions and preoccupied with improving his strength recently, he hadn’t acted on this little crush.
Feeling the teleport waiting time was about to end, Zhang Xiaoman did not linger on these matters and immediately activated his skill, teleporting right in front of Pei Laoliu.
Despite the five-second preparation time, Unlimited Teleportation was silent. Master Liu only saw him vanish suddenly, and then reappear instantly by the cabinet with the mysterious pattern, the entire process as if a frame was skipped in a movie. If someone had seen it on the street at night, the mere fright might have been enough to kill them.
"Is this... what they call Shrinking Land?" Master Liu asked hesitantly, but he was quick to understand based on Zhang Xiaoman’s previous words and recent actions.
"Shrinking Land? Well... kind of, it just has a different name and works differently, but the effect is similar..."
Zhang Xiaoman didn’t quite know how to explain it to him, so he simply brushed it off.
Master Liu didn’t dwell on the issue either. He picked up his chopsticks and absent-mindedly picked up a piece of old goose, only to find that it didn’t taste as appetizing as before—for the first time in his life, he felt that old goose didn’t taste that good.