"This book is an advanced Meditation Method manual, only suitable for Warlocks who possess the bloodline of the Comoin Giant Serpent and its subspecies..."
The very first line of the material sent a look of wild elation across Leilin's face.
"The advanced Meditation Method I've always dreamed of — it's finally in my hands!"
Leilin felt a surge of hot blood rush to his head, so excited he wanted to shout out loud to vent his excitement.
"Warning!!! Warning!!! Five minutes and one second until spatial collapse! Critical threshold reached as pre-set by the main body!!!" The Chip's alert sounded once more in Leilin's ear.
"Damn it!!!" Leilin immediately broke into a run.
As he rushed out of the study, he couldn't help but glance back at Bossine, who had been unconscious on the ground this whole time.
"Dying inside the secret realm is the best way to hide the killer's identity. Besides, I didn't kill him directly — the chances of being tracked down by divination magic are much lower!"
Leaving the study, Leilin once again entered the Dylan Garden, filled with all manner of flowers.
Without a second thought, he reached out and stuffed the most precious ones into his chest, then strode straight through the Dylan Garden without breaking stride.
Rushing through the metal corridor, Leilin returned to the cavern where Hallar Black Snake's corpse had originally been placed.
"No — I'm still missing something!!!" Leilin ran straight up to the black snake. The glow of the Falling Star Pendant coalesced on his right hand, and he tore open the black snake's belly along the wound, pulling out a scarlet heart from within.
This material was troublesome to prepare, and Bossine and his people had planned to retrieve it on their way back.
"No time left!" Leilin watched the countdown timer approaching zero and chanted several ancient syllables.
"Stalir Goodlian!"
This was the secret incantation for entering and exiting the secret realm, recorded right from the beginning of the Book of the Giant Serpent. Unfortunately, with the realm self-destructing, it would never be used again.
After the incantation, Leilin's entire body was enveloped by a sphere of red lightning and vanished from the cavern in an instant.
Above the cliff, several bolts of red lightning converged, forming the shape of a magical array.
An apprentice's phantom with brown hair gradually solidified under the lightning's embrace, landing on the cliff.
"Finally out!!!"
Leilin looked down at the void below, which was constantly fluctuating, his expression complex.
This was the impact of the secret realm's self-destruction on the main world — very faint, nearly undetectable.
But Leilin knew in his heart that the Dylan Garden, and everything inside it, had been completely annihilated from this world.
"What a shame! So many resources, and rare plants..."
Leilin gazed at the void below, where the fluctuations were gradually subsiding, an indescribable regret on his face.
After all, that had been a Fourth-tier
Just the various flowers cultivated in the Dylan Garden alone were worth several million Magic Stones at minimum, and more importantly, they were endlessly renewable.
With it, Leilin would have had no worries about resources after becoming a formal Wizard.
"Thankfully, it wasn't a total loss!" Leilin looked at the plants tightly clutched in his hands, and his expression finally improved a little.
In his grip were several extremely unusual flowers, though their appearance wasn't great.
When fleeing for his life, Leilin had simply grabbed whatever he saw as most valuable, which naturally caused some damage to the materials.
"And this — the Book of the Giant Serpent!!!"
Leilin touched the hard black notebook against his chest.
Though this was merely the outer smokescreen deployed by the Crimson Great Wizard to conceal the advanced Meditation Method hidden within the oil painting, its value was still enormous.
The Book of the Giant Serpent recorded not only the Crimson Great Wizard's travel experiences and images of rare items he had encountered — which could greatly broaden Leilin's horizons — but also detailed records of numerous experiments that would prove immensely beneficial.
Most valuable of all in the Book of the Giant Serpent were the templates for twelve First-level Wizard Spells and three Second-level Wizard Spells!!! These were precisely the things that the wizard organizations of the South Coast clutched desperately in their fists — things that no amount of Magic Stones could buy.
And finally, the most important thing Leilin had sought — the advanced Meditation Method — had also been obtained within the secret realm.
This meant that Leilin's path forward, while not necessarily smooth, at least now had a clear direction, giving him more hope than any other apprentice!!!
If any single item on this list leaked out, Leilin would face one outcome only: being hunted down by every wizard organization on the South Coast!!!
Every formal Wizard, every academy headmaster, and even the strongest person Leilin had ever encountered — the leader of the Night Lighthouse — would pursue him relentlessly, this insignificant little apprentice.
The mere thought of that scene sent a shiver through Leilin's heart.
At the same time, he resolved to hide this harvest with absolute secrecy.
"Then it has to be this way!" A flash of ruthlessness crossed Leilin's eyes as he turned to look at the several captive prisoners slumped on the cliff.
They had been captured by Bossine and used as test subjects for the secret realm's traps, and in the end, Leilin had bound them all to the cliff.
He had no idea how long had passed inside the realm, but from his perspective, these people were on the verge of death. If he had come out any later, he would likely have found nothing but corpses.
"I had originally planned to hand Bossine over to you after defeating him for the kill, but it seems the realm's self-destruction is a much cleaner solution!"
Wizards of great importance to their families — or prodigious academy students like Bossine — typically had various protective measures planted on them. Once they died, the magical protections would automatically activate and attach themselves to the nearest intelligent creature, forming a tracking mark. This was why Leilin rarely killed rival apprentices directly; when possible, it was far better to use expendable pawns.
Leilin muttered to himself as he walked directly up to the prisoners.
Then, with a hardened expression, he grabbed them one by one and hurled them off the cliff.
Smack! Smack!!!
A long while later, faint but muffled sounds reached Leilin's ears.
"Not enough — the enchanted stone sword grove below must also be destroyed. The corpses must be entirely dissolved with Bone-Dissolving Powder..."
Leilin murmured, casting a Levitation Spell on himself, and drifted down from the cliff like a feather.
By the time the moonlight had flooded the sky and the blue stars had lit up one by one, Leilin finally returned to the top of the cliff, his clothes still covered in traces of lime.
Streams of silvery-blue starlight were continuously pulled from the sky by the Falling Star Pendant against Leilin's chest, forming a small sphere of light.
"Falling Star Pendant charging. Estimated time to completion: five hours and twenty-one minutes!" The Chip provided the information.
Though Magical Items were powerful and required no incantations, they had to be recharged. Once their energy was depleted, a Magical Item was nothing but junk!!!
Earlier, inside the secret realm, Leilin had concealed his Falling Star Pendant and let Bossine freely use his Magical Items in front of him, burning through their stored energy. Then, in a battle of attrition, Leilin had worn Bossine down to death!
Thinking of the "Silver Light" metal orb that Bossine had possessed — the one that could transform into any object, equally capable of offense and defense — Leilin still felt a twinge of envy.
But he hadn't taken it from Bossine's body, instead leaving that Magical Item stranded within the secret realm.
Things belonging to great families — if anyone believed there wasn't some hidden contingency built into them, Leilin would be the first to disagree!
Moreover, he had slain Bossine, a genius apprentice of the Black Bone Forest Academy and heir to the Lilisite Family, one of the three great Wizard Families.
If this was ever discovered, he would inevitably face the Lilisite Family's frenzied retaliation.
But fortunately, Bossine had died in the realm's self-destruction. The location of his death wasn't in the main world but within a secret realm, which posed enormous difficulty for divination-type spells.
"Even this isn't enough! A divination wizard's methods aren't that simple!"
Leilin's expression turned grave as he sat cross-legged on the cliff, casually picking some horse-hoof grass and kneading it into the shape of a small straw doll.
Phut!!! Once the doll was formed, Leilin took out a dagger and slashed open his own wrist.
A torrent of blood gushed out, drenching the straw doll completely red.
Leilin dipped the tip of the dagger in his own blood and traced a strange magical symbol on his forehead.
Then, an ancient, desolate incantation laced with eerie mystery flowed from Leilin's lips.
The incantation was extremely difficult to pronounce and carried a metallic texture. As Leilin's voice rose and fell, the atmosphere around him took on a distinctly sinister quality.
Under the chanting, thick black gas suddenly began to pour from Leilin's body.
The black gas gathered and gathered, eventually coalescing into a semi-transparent black shadow that bore a strong resemblance to Leilin's own face.
"Go!!!"
At Leilin's gesture, the black shadow lunged straight onto the straw doll.
The shadow shrank tenfold, completely merging into the doll.
The doll's face also changed, taking on a semblance of Leilin's features.
"Done!" Leilin exhaled a long breath, then pursed his lips and whistled.
"Caw! Caw!" A black raven flew out from the nearby forest and landed on Leilin's shoulder.
"Carry it far away! As far as you can!" Leilin tied the straw doll to the raven's black talons and fed a crystal into its beak.
Whoosh!
The raven's body swelled up a size, its wings growing two or three times larger and longer. With a powerful flap, it stirred up a small whirlwind.
Watching the raven fly farther and farther away, Leilin silently sighed.
This was a trick he had found in a tattered notebook from the library, said to be effective in misleading divination magic.
Under the Chip's simulation analysis, it was assessed to have a certain degree of effectiveness.
Leilin naturally put it to use immediately, hoping it would buy him a little more time.
After killing Bossine, Leilin had never harbored the delusion that he could completely cover his tracks.
A wizard's methods were bizarre and unpredictable, impossible to guard against fully. The Lilisite Family was one of the three great families of the Black Bone Forest Academy — Leilin had absolutely no confidence he could deceive them.
Even if they used the most brute-force method — investigating from the mundane world upward — they would eventually trace it back to him.
But for the Crimson Great Wizard's inheritance, Leilin had no regrets about killing Bossine. If he had to do it all over again, he would still make the same choice.
All he was asking for now was time!
All the external conditions were in place. To survive — even to strike back — under the Lilisite Family's pursuit, he had to advance to formal Wizard rank!!!
That was why Leilin had exhausted every means to buy himself time.