"Respected Lord Gegewu… cough cough… please accept our offering…"
Jay, who was off to one side, had also taken quite a beating from the earlier shockwave, but her condition was a bit better than the old witch's — she could barely stand on the field.
Seeing this, she knelt on the ground in a peculiar posture while simultaneously tossing a wizard's head before the black shadow.
"Copper Ring!!!"
Leilin's pupils contracted sharply as he recognized the wizard's head. It turned out that Copper Ring hadn't died in the mechanisms of the secret realm at all — he'd been ambushed directly by the old witch and Jay!
Standing off to the side, cold sweat poured down Leilin's back. He didn't dare move a single inch.
Although the black shadow on the altar hadn't glanced his way again, he could clearly sense that an extremely evil, overpowering strand of spiritual power had locked directly onto him.
Leilin had a premonition that if he took even one more step forward, what awaited him would be Gegewu's full-power strike!!!
Creak!!! Creak!!!
The black figure caught Copper Ring's unseeing, wide-eyed head and placed it directly into its mouth, chewing away.
A bone-chilling grinding sound echoed endlessly over the silent White Bone Mountain summit.
"Hee hee!" After devouring the entire head, the black shadow let out an extremely satisfied sound. A scarlet tongue slipped from its mouth and licked across its lips, as though it was still somewhat unsatisfied.
"A qualifying soul — state your request!!!"
An ancient, cryptic voice resounded directly in the hearts of Leilin and the other two, in a language Leilin had never heard before, yet it was bizarrely clear — he could understand the meaning of every single word.
"I want…" Jay began slowly.
"Let me! Let my daughter, Jay, be revived and given a body full of vitality again!!!" The old witch, who had collapsed on the ground, suddenly flew into a frenzy and threw herself before Gegewu's black shadow. "As long as this wish of mine can be fulfilled, I am willing to pay any price!!!"
It might have been Leilin's imagination, but when the old witch uttered those words, something like a mocking expression seemed to flicker in Gegewu's enormous eyes.
"I need… more offerings…"
The massive black shadow licked its lips. "And according to the principles of spirit conversion, a male dark-attribute black wizard is also a required material!"
"I know!!!" The old witch hurriedly fished several soul-charged crystal orbs from her pocket and pointed at Leilin.
"As for the material — it's that wizard!!!"
The moment the black shadow stated its condition, Leilin's heart sank. The acceleration spell beneath his feet surged to full power.
His figure was instantly enveloped by a black whirlwind as he shot down the mountain at breathtaking speed.
But the massive black shadow Gegewu was far, far faster than Leilin had imagined.
Facing Leilin's escape attempt, the shadow merely extended a semi-transparent hand and grabbed forward!!!
Hummmm!!!
The black whirlwind was torn straight apart, revealing Leilin's figure.
And Leilin felt as though the surrounding air had instantly solidified and was compressing inward toward him from every direction.
In the blink of an eye, a silver ribbon of light descended from the sky, wrapping directly around Leilin's waist.
From within that silver ribbon, bursts of tremendously powerful spiritual power erupted — the quality of this spiritual power was the highest Leilin had ever seen in his life. With only a tiny fraction, it shattered every last bit of his gathered elemental spiritual power!
Spiritual power was the foundation of every wizard, and the catalyst for casting spells.
With his spiritual power shattered, Leilin was naturally unable to cast a single spell now.
The silver ribbon flew backward, and Leilin was pulled helplessly back with it, ultimately returning to the front of the altar.
Shua! Shua! Shua! Shua!
Four black tentacles sprouted from the altar, wrapping around Leilin's four limbs like chains and binding them tight.
Leilin now stood spread-eagled before the black shadow of Gegewu.
"Spiritual Manifestation!!! This sentient accumulation of malice, Gegewu, is at minimum a Second-rank Wizard in strength!!!"
Leilin's face was ashen, but inside, he was constantly calculating the shadow's true power.
At the same time, the Chip was running at full speed, collecting the energy data that Gegewu continuously leaked, in order to extrapolate its statistics and weaknesses.
Spiritual Manifestation was advanced knowledge that only Second-rank Wizards were qualified to touch!!!
Spiritual power was formless and intangible. The dazzling, multicolored spells Leilin had seen wizards use before were actually just manifestations of the various elemental energy particles in the air — the spiritual power that served as the guiding catalyst had always been invisible to the naked eye.