Behind the main lines of the collapsed hall, the slaughter reached a fever pitch. The knights and Magi of the Astral Requiem moved like a well-oiled grinding stone, systematically executing the dark Magi of the Thousand Meddling Hands who had failed to flee the chamber in time.
Blades clashed against makeshift kinetic barriers, and the stench of burnt flesh and spilled blood filled the air.
Lancey, standing amidst the chaos, turned her masked face toward her two personal bloodline knight bodyguards. They wore heavy, faceless iron visors to conceal their identities.
"Vane, Kaelen," Lancey commanded, her voice cutting through the din of battle and ringing directly into their heads. "With me. We are moving to Reynold's office, today I am gonna settle Ceaser once and for all."
The two towering knights gave a silent, disciplined nod, their heavy broadswords resting against their shoulder plates as they immediately fell into formation behind her, abandoning the general melee to follow her into the inner corridors.
Meanwhile, Leylin walked forward into the rear of the shattered hall, his expression completely detached from the screams behind him.
With a casual wave of his hand, he summoned the Black Horrall Snake. The massive, terrifying creature materialized from the shadows, its dark scales glistening with a foul, oily sheen. The single horn protruding from its forehead blazed with an intense, crimson magical light.
With a deafening hiss, the giant serpent lunged forward, colliding head-first into the reinforced structural wall at the back of the hall.
CRASH! The massive stone wall collapsed instantly under the brute kinetic force, throwing up a dense cloud of dust and debris to uncover a hidden, subterranean passageway beneath the rubble.
The Black Horrall Snake slithered forward like the fiercest apex predator of ancient times, its heavy body clearing the path under Leylin commands.
Leylin navigated while relying entirely on the structural data and maps his A.I. Chip had copied directly from Lancey's mini-chip.
Every hidden trap, pressure plate, and defensive spell formation along the corridor was brutally detonated or torn to shreds by the giant snake before they could even activate.
In just a few moments of rapid advancement, Leylin stood before the entrance of the primary resource warehouse.
Faced with a massive, reinforced metal security door, the Black Horrall Snake roared and unleashed a concentrated torrent of lightening attack from its horn.
Under the thunderous elemental attack, the thick metal door groaned, glowing white-hot before melting entirely into a glowing liquid that flowed freely across the stone floor.
With his hands calmly clasped behind his back, Leylin brazenly walked into the large resource warehouse, his clothes pristine, without even needing to lift a single finger to defend himself.
The warehouse was a cavern of wealth, lined with crates of high-grade magic crystals, rare herbs, and refined metals. Leylin unceremoniously began to search through the inventory.
He ignored the bulkier crates; instead, the smallest and most valuable items that all disappeared one by one into the Black Horrall Snake's belly, which the creature used as a temporary, highly secure storage cavity.
"An ordinary warehouse like this can be left for strike team to gather." Leylin murmured, his ruby eyes scanning the back wall. "I am only interested in the main warehouse."
He raised his index finger. Strands of ink-like blackness emitted from his skin, twisting and turning in the air until they formed dozens of thin, writhing black pythons. These spiritual constructs fanned out across the room, testing the walls for hidden spaces.
Leylin knew very well that this public inventory was just a front; the location of the true, main warehouse was a secret that only the Merit Zone Overseer, Magus Pierre, was privy to.
This was an opportunity that was simply too rare to pass up. The items hidden within that main vault were bound to be the absolute top-grade treasures and exotic ingredients that the Four Seasons Garden had harvested from the deepest sectors of the Eternal River Plains' secret plane.
Following the precise vibrational feedback from his probing spell, Leylin bypassed the dead ends and slipped through several concealed passageways. The path was heavily guarded by silent alarms, sensory arrays, and lethal magic traps, but they were all effortlessly destroyed by Leylin's overwhelming spiritual force before they could send a signal.
Ordinarily, the primary function of these subterranean traps was to instantly alert the Light Magi of an intrusion, summoning a small army of Four Seasons Garden defenders to bottleneck the tunnels.
Under normal circumstances, any deep intrusion would have immediately startled Chairman Reynold into action. With a formidable Rank 2 Magus like him patrolling the base, the vaults were as safe as they could possibly be.
But the situation today was completely inverted. The Four Seasons Garden's headquarters within this secret plane had been plunged into utter confusion and bloody chaos. Reynold, the very Rank 2 Magus tasked with guarding these treasures, had been successfully lured far away into the plains by his counterpart from the Thousand Meddling Hands.
With the main deterrent gone, a few dull, automated traps and static spells were nothing more than a bad joke to an unhindered intruder.
After navigating a complex maze filled with false crossroads and pressure-sensitive traps, Leylin and the Black Horrall Snake finally came to a halt.
A vibrant green barrier blocked the passage directly ahead of them.
The passageway here looked extremely narrow, tapering down to a point where only one person could cross at a time. Within this bottleneck, innumerable thick, thorned vines twined together tightly to form a living, pulsing green wall.
Powerful, rhythmic energy waves radiated from the plant matter, emitting a specific magical aura that Leylin recognized instantly, it carried the distinct spiritual signature of a Rank 2 Magus. This was Reynold's personal sealing formation.
Leylin stood back, carefully inspecting the intricate restriction spell formation woven into the wood. The Black Horrall Snake let out a low shriek, shrinking rapidly until it wrapped itself around Leylin's wrist, disappearing completely beneath his long sleeves.
With a sharp, lengthy whistle, Leylin's right hand turned a deep, blood-red color. He activated Crimson Palm, the specialized Rank 1 spell derived from the Book of the Giant Serpent. Huge, ethereal blood-red claws coated in fierce crimson flames manifested around his hand as he struck the wall of vines with brutal precision.
Rumble!
Immense energy waves shot out in all directions upon impact. The narrow passageway shook violently, causing jagged rocks and ancient dust to shower down from the ceiling.
When the dust finally cleared, Leylin observed the damage. A jagged hole roughly the size of a basketball had been blasted into the center of the vined entrance. The interior of the hole was pitch-black, with traces of his stubborn crimson flames still burning and eating away at the exposed wood.
Crash!
Suddenly, a surge of bright green light flashed across the barrier. The living entrance seemed to awaken, with innumerable tiny tendrils twisting and writhing together as they desperately tried to regenerate and fill the gap.
However, Leylin's crimson flames burned with a viscous intensity, instantly turning the new growth into ashes.
While this restriction spell formation had been crafted by a genuine Rank 2 Magus, even a powerful, peak Rank 1 Magus could eventually tear it down given enough time; against Leylin's actual Rank 2 strength, it was as flimsy as a paper wall.
Sizzz!
In an instant, the areas of the door that had been struck began to burn furiously. The crimson flames ran along the runic lines of the vines, forming straight, intersecting lines of fire that converged at the center.
Weng Weng!
A massive, compressed crimson fireball manifested before Leylin. Pulsing with a specific, destructive frequency, it bombarded the exact center of the weakened vine barrier.
Tsssss!
A horrific tearing sound echoed through the tunnel, sounding like someone shredding thousands of pieces of dry parchment simultaneously. The green-vined entrance crumbled into shattered pieces. The healthy, vibrant green of the wood turned a sickly, wilted yellow in an instant, its life force completely drained by the necrotic heat as the fragments fell uselessly to the floor.
Ka-cha! The entire seal shattered into dust.
Leylin's steady footsteps did not falter for a single second as he immediately stepped through the ruined threshold.
"Someone actually managed to find this place? Who are you!?"
After crossing the threshold of the green passage, Leylin entered a hidden chamber that resembled a small, highly secure vault.
Standing in the center of the room was a man dressed in the formal attire of a high-level appraiser. He wore a pair of delicate, gilded spectacles and stood silently behind a stone desk. This was Magus Pierre, the Overseer of the Merit Zone.
At this moment, the expression on Pierre's face was incredibly ugly and strained. The immense, unsuppressed spiritual pressure radiating from Leylin made the air in the vault feel like lead, making Pierre look as if a mountain had been placed directly onto his chest.
His eyes darted to Leylin's attire, his gaze growing profound and terrified. "Those robes? Those runes... I know them. You must be from—"
Leylin had absolutely no intention of conversing with a dead man.
Boom!
He immediately activated his Rank 1 innate spell—Petrifying Gaze. Thick, muddy brown rays of spiritual light shot directly from Leylin's ruby eyes, slamming into Pierre before the appraiser could even finish his sentence.
Caught completely off guard, Pierre's innate defensive spells flared up in a panic, but the brown light tore through his barriers like glass.
The muddy rays struck his flesh. Starting directly from his eyes, Pierre's skin began to gray and harden, turning rapidly into solid, cold stone.
"No! Wait—spare me—!" Pierre shrieked, his voice cracking as pure panic took hold. He desperately tried to manipulate his spiritual force to cast a counter-spell, but the petrification was absolute and merciless.
The gray stone spread medically to laterally across his face, locking his features into a mask of pure horror. The calcification raced downward from his head to his torso, then straight to his toes. In a matter of mere seconds, the official Magus was entirely silenced, turned into a flawless, lifelike gray stone sculpture.
Minutes later, Leylin walked past the stone statue with complete calmness, stepping over the threshold into the deepest, most secure treasure vault belonging to the Four Seasons Garden.
The chamber was softly lit by the glow of containment fields, and Leylin's eyes were instantly drawn to the rare, exotic items arranged before him.
This main treasure warehouse was incredibly small, measuring only a dozen or so square metres. Unlike the vast storage caverns outside, there were no towering crates or overflowing shelves here.
Instead, the room was minimalist, dominated by a single stone counter crafted from dense, grey granite.
On this counter lay only three items. Though they appeared completely unremarkable at a first glance, the fact that they were sequestered within the deepest, most heavily restricted vault of the Four Seasons Garden meant they had to be something of immense value.
Leylin strode forward, his footsteps echoing softly in the enclosed space as his ruby eyes scrutinized the items on the counter.
On the leftmost side sat an object that looked like an ordinary leather pouch. It was completely black, yet its surface was intricately traced with detailed silver designs that shimmered faintly under the ambient magical light.
Despite its mundane appearance, a subtle, highly unique wave of spatial energy emitted from the pouch. Even the Giant Kemoyin Serpent bloodline dormant within Leylin's body throbbed slightly, offering a strange, instinctual response to the material.
"The Void White-Eyed Snake storage pouch," Leylin murmured, his lips curling into a smile.
The Void White-Eyed Snake was a legendary ancient being, widely regarded by ancient Magi as the darling of the void. Upon maturing, this creature would naturally awaken terrifying abilities tied to the fabric of space, gaining a powerful innate skill that allowed it to practically travel through time itself.
In the ancient era, its skin was frequently harvested and processed into high-grade storage artifacts due to the natural void runes that crystallized on its body. A single pouch made from its hide was capable of containing items that were a thousand, or even ten thousand times the size of its main body.
However, due to the excessive, merciless hunting by ancient Magi, the species was driven to complete extinction in the middle of the Ancient Era. To find a perfectly preserved specimen today was an astronomical stroke of luck.
Moving his gaze, Leylin glanced at the remaining two items situated beside the black pouch.
In the middle of the stone counter lay a very thick, heavy black volume that strongly resembled a massive dictionary. The edges of the parchment were noticeably tattered and yellowed with immense age, bound in weathered leather that absorbed the light.
"The Secret Plane Builder's Book..." Leylin identified it instantly based. The Four Seasons Garden had excavated this directly from the core zones of the Eternal River Plain's secret plane. "According to what I have gathered, this was left behind by the very Magus who originally constructed this secret plane, it is easily the most valuable item here for me."
An item like this was something only large-scale, regional organizations could truly utilize to manage their pocket dimensions. Leylin, however, dared to steal it because he knew exactly how to weaponize this knowledge.
With the blueprints and spatial theories locked inside this book, he could further strengthen and fortify the shifting defenses of his already formidable Astral Castle.
Finally, at the far right of the thick volume, sat a bizarre object that resembled a black honeycomb or a jagged piece of charcoal briquette. Its bumpy, porous surface was dotted with tiny holes, and within each cavity, beads of dark green pearls were tightly embedded, gleaming with a greasy, unnatural luster.
Leylin knew that any item stored within a high-level Magus warehouse was guaranteed to be fiercely guarded by automated defense spell formations.
Not only were these traps woven into the granite counter itself, but the items themselves would also possess independent, secondary spell formations branded onto their structures. These defensive arrays usually possessed a highly volatile self-destruct mechanism.
The moment an interloper used the wrong method to approach or lift the items, the formations would instantly detonate, destroying the treasures entirely and ensuring the thieves left with empty hands.
However, against a Rank 2 Warlock like Leylin, who was thoroughly accustomed to these treacherous scenarios and possessed the refined talent and specialized skills of a master breaking unsealing arrays, such traps were merely obstacles waiting to be dismantled.
Whoosh!
A sudden gust of localized wind whipped through the small room. Little drafts of deep purple spiritual energy erupted from Leylin's outstretched hand, swirling rapidly before gathering at the surface of the stone counter.
Weng Weng!
The purple streams of air solidified in a fraction of a second, turning into a thick, pitch-black, sticky liquid that completely shrouded the granite counter like a dome of dark tar.
Only at this exact moment did the ancient security runes etched into the stone finally react to the intrusion. Triggered by the invasive energy, the counter struck back with a violent, explosive counter-attack.
A series of blinding, colorful elemental lights detonated within the tar, violently expansionist as they tried to break through the thick, black liquid shrouding them.
Yet, Leylin's Rank 2 magic power was like an immovable mountain. He manipulated his spiritual force, weaving it into silk-like blue threads of mana that bypassed the exploding energy and tightly bound the leather pouch, wrapping it until it resembled a glowing blue cocoon.
Leylin made a plucking motion with his hand. The blue cocoon automatically detached from the counter, flying smoothly across the room and settling directly into his palm.
Without missing a beat, Leylin pointed his finger once more. Thin blue threads shot forward again, targeting the heavy black book in the center.
For Leylin, this volume was likely the detailed technical diary of the ancient Magus who had laid the foundations of the Eternal River Plain's secret plane.
If he successfully obtained it, he could radically improve the inscription imprints and defensive barriers inside the Astral Requiem.
As the book flew through the air and reached his hands, it felt heavy and brittle. Leylin rested his palm against the cover, mentally commanding his internal assistant.
'A.I. Chip, begin scanning and data logging.'
[Beep! Scan initiated...] the cold mechanical voice echoed in his mind.
[Target: Secret Plane Builder's Book. Author: Ancient Magus 'Oron'. Compiling structural contents... Warning: Dense concentration of highly complex inscription arrays detected within the schematics. Categorizing: 42 High-Tier Attack Arrays, 57 Layered Defensive Arrays, 14 Spatial Hiding and Illusion Formations, 23 Lethal Containment Traps, and 3 Advanced Teleportation/Gateway Formations. Recording data...Beep! Complex Encryption detected! Initiating deconstruction and deciphering...!]
Leylin calmly closed the heavy volume, a look of profound satisfaction flashing across his face before he turned his attention back to the remaining two items.
He smoothly picked up the honeycomb-like charcoal briquette, and lastly, secured the Void White-Eyed Snake's pouch.
The exotic snakeskin used to craft the black leather pouch felt incredibly soft to the touch, continuously radiating a gentle, soothing warmth directly into Leylin's fingers. The silver runic designs etched across its exterior felt almost alive; they shifted and writhed subtly across the surface of the leather, emitting a brilliant, dazzling radiance that signaled its massive internal dimensions.
Finally, Leylin examined the charcoal briquette. Up close, the dark green, pearl-like objects embedded into the honeycomb holes looked strangely like tiny, unblinking eyes.
This was fossilized flesh from a Thousand Eyes Starfish. The flesh of this ancient creature contained an unimaginably rich concentration of pure life energy, capable of instantly regenerating a Magus's shattered or severed limb, and could even pull a high-level Magus back from the very brink of death.
Furthermore, it was highly sought after for its miraculous properties in permanently strengthening and modifying internal organs.
While Leylin himself had no need for it, he appointed its true utility instantly. If he refined this fossilized flesh and incorporated it into the upcoming bloodline stabilization ritual for Ivy, it would provide a massive influx of vital energy.
This would undoubtedly push her Pala Nighthawk bloodline purity a few levels upwards, solidifying her position as the prime specimen for his Bloodline knight experiments.