Leilin looked at Posain, who lay collapsed on the ground, yet felt no trace of satisfaction.
"You are a worthy opponent! Your strength, equipment, and cunning are all formidable. If I hadn't hidden my true power, and if your Magical Items hadn't been drained of energy before mine — and if you hadn't used up several life-saving treasures — the outcome today might very well have been reversed..."
These were Leilin's honest words.
If he hadn't been playing the fool the entire time, quietly watching Posain burn through the energy stored in his Magical Item "Silver Light," and if fate hadn't conspired to force Posain to expend his trump cards, today's result truly could have been different.
But in the end, Posain still fell at Leilin's hands, unable to even control his own life or death.
This encounter served as a direct wake-up call for Leilin.
In the world of Wizards, all manner of geniuses emerged ceaselessly, and trump cards were beyond counting. From now on, unless absolutely necessary, it was best to keep a low profile.
Moreover, the more trump cards one possessed, the greater one's chances of survival.
"My father will find you — you'll die a horrific—" Posain's words were cut short as his eyes bulged from their sockets.
Pfft!! A flash of silver light swept past. Leilin flicked his arm, and half of Posain's tongue fell cleanly to the ground.
"For an Apprentice, as long as they can still chant a incantation, they represent a danger!"
Leilin regarded the half-fainted Posain with an indifferent gaze. "Although by my estimation, your Spiritual Power and mana have both been completely depleted, one can never be too careful!"
"Bind!!!"
Leilin chanted a few syllables, directly summoning a Shadow Chain that lashed around Posain's limbless body, binding it tight.
Posain stared at Leilin — who was still capable of casting spells — and the light in his eyes went completely dim.
The fact that Leilin could still cast spells at this point meant his Spiritual Power and mana still exceeded Posain's own. And Posain had already reached the Spiritual Power threshold for promotion to a formal
"One layer of insurance doesn't seem to be enough!"
Leilin furrowed his brow, extended a slender, pale finger, and pressed it directly against Posain's forehead.
Hummm!!!
A bizarre, twisted black rune materialized between Leilin's fingertips, passed through Posain's body, and sank into his forehead.
Posain's eyes rolled white, his body convulsed, and he lost consciousness entirely.
"Good."
Leilin rose to his feet, brushed off his hands, and on his face was an indescribable look of longing.
"Now, all that remains is the inheritance of the Crimson Grand Wizard..."
The defensive radiance of the Falling Star Pendant had been enveloping Leilin's body the entire time. Wearing a guarded expression, Leilin made his way past the wreckage of countless bookshelves until he reached the desk at the very center of the room.
Upon the desk sat a neatly placed black box, its surface adorned with slender, sinuous patterns — as though composed of countless tiny serpents.
"Adjust Falling Star Pendant to defensive focus: right hand!"
At Leilin's command, the grey luminescence around his body shifted, thinning elsewhere and converging onto his right hand, forming a thick layer of armored protection.
Leilin gritted his teeth, extended his right hand, and opened the black box.
Click!! The black lid swung open, and to Leilin's surprise, nothing happened.
Inside the box lay a thick black book. The remaining space was lined with crimson silk, giving the whole thing an opulent appearance.
Leilin picked up the book. Clack!! The sound of a mechanical latch suddenly echoed through the silent study.
"Damn it!"
Leilin stared at the text revealed at the bottom of the box — where the black book had been — and felt a surge of speechless exasperation.
At the bottom of the box, in the space exposed by removing the black book, elegant characters in the Ancient Byron Language read: "Inheritor! Once you remove the 'Book of the Great Serpent,' the entire secret realm will initiate its self-destruct sequence in three hourglass-hours!!!"
The words were written in what appeared to be blood, making them startlingly vivid.
"What on earth was this Crimson Grand Wizard thinking?"
Leilin's mind raced. Three hourglass-hours should be enough time to find a way out. He could even make a detour to ransack the garden from the beginning before leaving.
"No — wait. It's too easy. Something's wrong!!!"
Leilin immediately began flipping through the Book of the Great Serpent.
"Chip! Record the data!"
The entire book was extremely thick, its text densely packed, and some portions were written in cipher. For an ordinary person, three hourglass-hours would barely be enough to finish the preface.
But Leilin was no ordinary person. He flipped through the Book of the Great Serpent at a frantic pace, a faint blue glow flickering in his eyes as the Chip continuously received and recorded the data.
In less than half an hourglass-hour, Leilin had gone through the entire book.
"Chip! What do we have?"
"Processing information... Eliminating 34.8% of useless and extraneous data. Authentic content of the Book of the Great Serpent extracted!!!"
"Discovering 667 travel journals, 78 experimental records, 12 First-level Spell Templates, and 3 Second-level Spell Templates!"
The Chip rapidly transmitted the consolidated information into Leilin's mind.
"There's none!!! There's no advanced Meditation Method data!!!!" Leilin had identified the most critical omission.
"According to what the Evil Spirit Roman said, the Crimson Grand Wizard had clearly left behind an advanced Meditation Method!!! This haul would be considered extraordinarily rich for an ordinary Apprentice or even a formal Wizard, but without the advanced Meditation Method, it's still a failure!"
"WARNING!!! WARNING!!! The area where the host is located is in an unstable energy state. Estimated time until collapse: 15 minutes and 45 seconds. Countdown initiated..."
The Chip displayed a red warning alert that continuously scrolled across Leilin's field of vision.
"Chip, scan the study!!!"
A look of steely determination settled onto Leilin's face as he began deploying every method at his disposal to probe the study for hidden compartments and secret spaces.
Five minutes passed, and Leilin's expression grew increasingly grim.
"I estimate I'll need five minutes just to get out, which means I have less than six minutes left to search! I have to retreat before then!!!"
Leilin desperately wanted to obtain the advanced Meditation Method, but he valued his own life even more.
"The desk is clean! The chair is clean! The painting — the painting!!!"
Leilin fixed his gaze on the most suspicious item: the oil painting.
The entire painting depicted nothing beyond an ouroboros resembling some kind of emblem or insignia, with no other details whatsoever.
"Hm!?"
At that moment, Leilin felt a sudden rush of heat emanating from something small tucked against his chest.
He reached in and pulled out an ordinary brass ring.
The ring looked unremarkable — it bore signs of wear and patina, and on its surface was a symbol resembling the letter "K," which appeared to be the mark of some organization.
"This is... the ring I found on Roman's remains!" Leilin recalled the ring's origin.
When he had been exploring the Crimson Grand Wizard's laboratory in Polar Night City, he had discovered the skeletal remains of the Evil Spirit Roman by the door. This ring had been found among those bones.
It seemed that the Evil Spirit Roman had obtained far more than just information — and had cleverly concealed certain details from Leilin.
Leilin rubbed the brass ring between his fingers.
The closer he moved toward the oil painting, the more intense the heat radiating from the ring became. And the "K" symbol on its surface began to emit a bright glow.
Crack!! Crack!!
At the base of the oil painting, a patch of paint flaked away, revealing a notch that matched the symbol on the ring perfectly.
Leilin pressed the ring into the notch!!! Bam!! The two fit together with seamless precision, and a strange energy ripple radiated outward.
Hiss!! Hiss!!
The runic black serpent on the oil painting seemed to come alive. Its eyes blazed with scarlet light as it chased its own tail, spinning faster and faster around the center of the painting.
The black serpent spun ever faster until it collapsed into a yawning portal wreathed in dark radiance.
Inside the portal was a space no larger than a small cabinet — and within it, a cage formed of blood-red lightning!!!
Leilin steeled himself, glanced at the dwindling timer, and thrust his hand straight in.
Boom!!!
Inside Leilin's mind, an aged voice suddenly erupted.
"The test begins! Depict this magical array within 30 seconds!!!" A pale yellow spell projection materialized directly before Leilin's eyes.
"There's still a test?!" Leilin was now thoroughly convinced that this Crimson Grand Wizard was a complete lunatic.
With the secret realm on the verge of collapse, the inheritance still demanded that the successor take a test!
And even constructing the most basic Spell Model would require several hours at minimum — 30 seconds? This was practically mockery!!!
"Chip! Scan and analyze immediately! Redirect all computational power!!!"
At Leilin's command, a beam of brilliant blue light suddenly shot from his eyes — the external manifestation of the Chip's cloud computing capacity pushed to its absolute maximum.
"Task established. Beginning analysis..." The Chip faithfully executed the command and soon projected a fully constructed array into Leilin's mind.
"Construction complete. Next test: construct this magical array within 30 seconds!" This time it was a blue array.
Leilin rolled his eyes and continued letting the Chip solve the puzzles.
Then came the third — a black magical array. This time the computational load exceeded Leilin's expectations, and he only barely completed the construction as the 30-second mark approached.
"That should be the end of it, right?"
After finishing the third array, Leilin thought to himself.
But at that moment, the yellow, blue, and black arrays in his mind suddenly merged together.
Crack!! The three arrays fused instantaneously, transforming into a single scarlet magical array covered in mysterious symbols.
Sssss!!! The blood-red lightning behind the oil painting seemed to be drawn by some irresistible force, surging directly into Leilin's body.
"My inheritor must be brave yet wise, shrewd yet possessed of true intellect — only thus can one hope to shatter the shackles of bloodline..."
The aged voice echoed through Leilin's mind once more.
Simultaneously, the Chip issued its notification: "Spiritual Power data interface detected. Authorize data transfer!"
"Authorized!!!"
Immediately, Leilin felt a massive flood of information pour into his mind — identical to the sensation he had experienced when first entering the Academy and receiving the Meditation Method.
An enormous stream of data surged ceaselessly into his consciousness, absorbed and integrated by the Chip.