One Year After a fierce round of bargaining, Leilin ultimately purchased these slaves for eighteen thousand Magic Stones.
And right there in the shop, in front of
From this point forward, the fate of these slaves was entirely in Leilin's hands.
Moreover, thanks to the shackles of the soul imprint, these slaves had to obey Leilin's every command without question—even if ordered to die, they had to carry it out without a moment's hesitation!
Furthermore, with just a single thought from Leilin, these slaves' heads would explode open like watermelons.
"Haha… I'll head back first—won't keep you company!"
After returning to the street where the villa was located, Cleo cast a glance at the two beautiful female knights trailing behind Leilin, a mischievous glint in his eyes, and went straight back to his own villa.
"Old fox!" Leilin shook his head helplessly, then led the six of them into his villa.
"This is my villa. You'll all be living here from now on. Find your own rooms in the back. My bedroom and the basement are off-limits to everyone—understood?"
Leilin swept his gaze over the six newly purchased slaves and issued his orders directly.
"Yes, Master!" The six of them began to disperse.
"Damian, you stay!" Leilin called out to the third-rank apprentice.
"Master, do you have any further instructions?" Damian asked respectfully.
"From now on, you're the butler of this villa. When I'm not here, you're to manage the place properly. I'll also grant you access to the villa's defensive wizard formations later… Your duties are to keep the entire villa clean, tidy, and stocked with daily necessities, and so on…"
Leilin began issuing instructions in a casual manner.
In Nevernight City, the trading hub dominated by wizards, many tasks could only be performed by wizards. Ordinary knights or Great Knights didn't even possess a sea of consciousness—how could they manipulate Spiritual Power, chant incantations, and the like?
Therefore, if Leilin wanted to keep the villa running after his departure, an apprentice-level butler was indispensable.
"One more thing. Tell me—how did you end up becoming a slave?" Leilin asked with some curiosity.
When he reached this part,
Clearly, that part of his past had been an agonizing experience for him.
But due to the control of the soul brand, he forced himself to continue: "I was born in Iron Fortress, in an ordinary small town... Later, I was fortunate enough to be tested and found to possess wizard talent. My mentor took me directly into Shadow of the Bright Moon—My Lord, you may not have heard of it, it was only a small wizard organization... Although having to cooperate with my mentor on human experiments from time to time was painful, I was still lucky enough to survive. And I became a third-class apprentice..."
Damien's expression was still relatively normal as he spoke up to this point, but then a look of lingering fear appeared on his face.
"Then... came the war! That damnable war! Wetland Garden, the overlord force of our region, began supporting its subordinate small organizations in their expansion. Just because our leader openly resisted, Shadow of the Bright Moon happened to be made an example of... During the war, my mentor and many senior apprentices were killed in battle. I was captured myself, and in the end became a slave..."
Leilin nodded. In the unwritten rules of the wizard world, wizards generally could not arbitrarily capture apprentices as slaves—otherwise the social order would have collapsed long ago.
But there was one category of wizards who clearly received no protection from the law or any agreements: prisoners of war.
Prisoners of war from various academies and wizard apprentices from foreign races were the primary source of wizard slaves in Nevernight City!
Looking at the grief and indignation on Damien's face, Leilin suddenly felt a chill run through him.
Back then, if Black Bone Forest hadn't stubbornly held off the enemy's assault, and if he hadn't been fortunate enough to escape early on and stay far from the battlefield, he might well have been killed on a whim by an official wizard, or captured as a prisoner of war and ultimately sold into slavery. That could easily have been his fate.
"That is precisely why I am so desperately pursuing power! Only by truly possessing one's own strength can one take the future firmly into one's own hands!"
Leilin waved his hand, dismissing Damien.
"Go familiarize yourself with the surroundings first. I need to go out for a bit—I won't be back until evening..."
......
The villa Leilin had rented was quite spacious, with rooms specifically set aside for servants. Even after six people moved in, it didn't feel the slightest bit crowded—on the contrary, it gained a touch of vitality.
Damien also demonstrated the qualities of an excellent butler, managing Leilin's villa in impeccable order, allowing Leilin to cast aside all miscellaneous affairs with peace of mind and devote himself entirely to the work in the basement—refining the ancient potion known as
A few days later, Leilin made a trip alone to the old witch's shop, handing over the two vials of Maria's Tears stipulated in the contract, and arranging a time for the next transaction.
After receiving the ancient potion, the old witch tried her best to hide her emotions, but Leilin still caught a glimpse of wild elation on her face.
Furthermore, the old witch stated that next month she would be able to process a much larger quantity of souls, and told Leilin to be prepared.
It seemed that in her desperation to obtain more rare potions, she was becoming willing to stop at nothing.
Regarding this temporary ally, Leilin expressed himself satisfied for the time being.
Though he didn't know what exactly drove the other party to be so desperate for the potions, this situation nonetheless aligned even better with his interests.
After both sides had reached a thoroughly satisfactory consensus, Leilin returned to the villa, delegated all recent matters there, then went alone outside the city and boarded the Crowned Night Eagle to fly back to
His reasons for joining Four Seasons Garden went beyond the fixed resource shares granted to its Wizards. The vast library within the organization was another aspect that greatly tempted him.
But as an organization-affiliated
This month happened to involve a very light workload — only a few days to complete — which left him with ample free time to vacation in Evernight City.
Now, however, he had to return to Four Seasons Garden and take on his monthly tasks. Unless he wanted to forfeit his share and other privileges, this routine would continue.
If he were an ordinary Wizard, slowly accumulating the academic knowledge and resources needed for his advancement through this method would take at least a hundred years!
But Leilin was different. Not only did he possess an advanced Meditation Method with the path before Third Rank Wizard laid out with perfect clarity, he also had extremely abundant reserve resources!
Wealth never came without windfall, and a horse never grew fat on daytime grass alone — he had never been one to play by the rules.
Leilin now had two lines of supply. One came from Four Seasons Garden — though the portion was small, it was steady and continuous.
The other was the Dark Wizard organization he had just joined. Though somewhat dangerous, the harvest was equally rich.
With one line in the light and one in the dark, his speed of accumulation and advancement would far exceed anyone's expectations.
"Next, it's about laying low, accumulating quietly, and waiting for the second Bloodline Transmutation to arrive…"
Leilin's plan for the coming years was perfectly clear in his mind.
At this moment, he was like the Crowned Night Eagle beneath him just before takeoff — silently gathering strength in the shadows, yearning for the day he would soar into the sky!
…
The towering mountain where Four Seasons Garden's headquarters stood remained unchanged from before, still rising proud and tall, with countless Wizards moving in and out of the passages within the mountainside like ants.
"Leilin! The ecological cycle theory you tested inside the secret realm — I'm extremely interested. How about it? Shall we discuss it together?"
At that moment, in the rest area, a male Wizard with fiery red hair addressed Leilin.
"Of course! I'm quite interested in Wizard Thomans's experience and insights into cultivating lava goldfish..."
Leilin's appearance was virtually identical to a year ago, the only difference being that the black depth in his eyes seemed to have deepened another layer.
"As it happens, I'm planning a trip to the library. We can exchange ideas there!" Leilin extended the invitation to the red-haired Thomans.
"Naturally. I've heard of your legendary reputation as the Son of the Library — your name precedes you," Thomans said with a teasing grin.
Leilin merely chuckled softly at the teasing, not taking it to heart.
Over the past year and more, he had kept an extremely low profile for the vast majority of his time — quietly completing tasks, exchanging for resources on schedule each month, and venturing out as little as possible on a daily basis.
The place that consumed the most of his time was the Four Seasons Garden's grand library.
Four Seasons Garden was a superpower far larger than Black Bone Forest Academy, and its library's holdings were extraordinarily vast.
Moreover, Leilin was now a formal Wizard. With his elevated status, he could access far more materials than an apprentice.
While certain high-level academic knowledge and potion formulas certainly required corresponding contribution points to obtain, even the resources freely available in Four Seasons Garden were immensely beneficial to Leilin.
For this reason, he had spent a full half-year recording all the materials he could gather into the Chip, greatly enriching the Chip's database.
To avoid drawing attention to his unusual behavior, even though Leilin had already recorded all the library's contents, he still went there whenever he had free time, even turning down numerous invitations from beautiful female Wizards within the organization who were showing romantic interest. Various nicknames such as "the unromantic block of wood" and "the Son of the Library" had gradually begun to spread.
Four Seasons Garden's library was built inside a massive mountain cavern, with apprentices constantly coming and going.
As formal Wizards, Leilin and Thomans naturally received better treatment — they were given a quiet private chamber for their conversation, furnished with comfortable sofas and an assortment of refreshments.