While Leilin was analyzing the progression of the abomination.
The spirits inside the magical array had finally been burned to ashes, and the purple flames gradually died down.
Poof! The entire magic circle's glow shattered completely.
Leilin walked inside.
A burnt smell hit him in the face, accompanied by an extremely nauseating stench.
"This smell... it's like burning sewage waste directly!" Leilin frowned as he made his way to the very center.
The ordinary corpses inside had long since been reduced to ash in the flames.
And on the ground, in the scorched and sunken center of the magical array, a faint glow caught Leilin's attention.
They were fine green crystals, like sparkling fragments of diamond, lying quietly at the bottom of the pit.
Leilin covered his hand in a layer of scales and picked up the green shards directly.
"Very light! But incredibly hard!" Leilin squeezed with all his might, his joints cracking from the force, but his strength of 7.1 couldn't do a thing to damage the crystals in the slightest.
"..." Suddenly, a faint murmur drilled into Leilin's ears. The sound seemed to emanate from the green crystals themselves.
With curiosity on his face, Leilin brought the crystal shard close to his ear.
"Thank you! Young man!"
In an instant! Brilliant white light seemed to illuminate the entire garden. Within the white light, Leilin saw thousands upon thousands of human phantoms.
These phantoms' faces were faintly familiar — they were the spirits from before, but their bodies had returned to normal human proportions.
The phantoms' faces were of both men and women, and some even wore the attire of wizards and apprentices. But now, all of them wore gentle smiles as they gradually dissolved into the white light.
"Mm." Leilin looked around. With the death of the vengeful spirit abomination, the green soul plague had receded, revealing the surface of the garden once more.
And all the spirits from moments ago had vanished without a trace, as if the whole thing had been nothing but a dream.
But Leilin knew he absolutely had not been hallucinating.
The Chip's voice rang out at this moment.
"Scanning complete! This item is a Soul Crystal — the refined essence produced by the burning of large quantities of souls! According to ancient texts, it is one of the most favored currencies among powerful beings from other planes!"
"Soul Crystal!" A flash of understanding passed through Leilin's eyes.
He had heard of these things before, though they seemed to be something that only high-level Wizards could make effective use of. A First-level Wizard simply couldn't break through the surface of a Soul Crystal to extract the soul energy within.
"Regardless, it will definitely be useful someday!" Leilin gathered up all the green soul crystals from the ground and placed them with great care into a small pouch, which he sealed shut with gold thread before carefully tucking it into his chest pocket.
At this point, the green soul plague had completely dissipated. On the black stone wall at the far end of the garden, cracks had spread across the entire surface like crawling geckos.
Leilin approached the cracked wall and gave it a light tap with his right hand.
Crash!
Countless stone fragments tumbled down, kicking up a large cloud of lime dust on the ground. Behind the wall, a deep, dark opening gleamed with an abyssal black light.
A flicker of pitch-black light passed through Leilin's eyes.
He then plucked one of his long hairs and chanted a few strange incantations.
The black hair twisted as it fell to the ground, swelling and rolling, until it finally transformed into a small black snake.
The snake had fine, delicate scales, a pair of tiny red eyes set against a jade-like body. It was remarkably miniature — far from fearsome, in fact, it was almost cute.
The little snake first circled Leilin once, extended its tiny forked tongue, and licked at his boot. Then, with a gentle sway, it slithered into the pitch-black passage.
Leilin closed his eyes. A thread of spiritual power maintained a constant connection with the small snake, and a stream of images and sounds appeared before him.
The surroundings were quite dim, but that was no problem for the little black snake.
Through the snake's eyes, Leilin could see what appeared to be an earthen mine shaft. Along the walls of the shaft, massive plant roots clung and spread in every direction.
These roots formed a web-like network, draped across the walls of the shaft like fishing nets.
As the small snake ventured deeper — after roughly a thousand meters of slithering — an earth-yellow wall of tree roots blocked its path.
"Those are... Mist Tree Roots — an ancient anti-intrusion mechanism!"
Leilin's heart swelled with excitement. The presence of this mechanism meant he was very close to the core of the laboratory.
"Enterer! Answer my question, or you shall be torn to shreds!" From the massive tree roots, an old man's face suddenly materialized. The old man stared into the small snake's eyes, as if seeing through it to the real Leilin beyond.
"Please ask your question," Leilin sent out a pulse of spiritual energy through the black snake.
"What has a face like a gemstone, eyes like pearls, and each winter the Creator grants it the gift of rebirth?"
"Let me think..." Leilin lowered his head, feigning deep thought, while inwardly commanding: "Chip! Search the database!"