"I signed a contract under the Eye of Judgment and swore an oath not to harm the interests of
This was Leilin's greatest concern.
If he had a choice, he didn't want to make enemies of this faction. After all, from the very beginning until now, Four Seasons Garden had treated him reasonably well.
"That's simple! This is a solution made from the feathers of a Filthbird. With it, you can use it to dissolve your contract with Four Seasons Garden!"
The giant directly tossed a grey bottle to Leilin.
"They actually have something like this — something that's already extinct!" Leilin caught the bottle and, after having his Chip verify its authenticity, couldn't help but draw a sharp breath.
Such thorough preparation — calling it long-planned would be putting it mildly.
"Hehe... This isn't mine. It's a treasure that the 'Lord' behind me specifically left for you!"
The giant didn't claim credit. That flat, matter-of-fact tone only made Leilin more wary.
"Then, what's your answer?"
"Recognizing the strong — that's an instinct of Dark Wizards. I need to verify your strength!" Leilin pondered for a moment before speaking slowly.
"You'll see..." The giant's voice began to drift away.
At the same time, a massive cloud of green mist engulfed the area, shrouding Leilin within it.
A long while later, the mist dissipated, and Leilin walked out with a solemn expression, looking as though he had something weighing on his mind.
"I didn't expect it to really be him..."
Afterward, Leilin composed his emotions and returned to his camp as if nothing had happened.
After one night, Leilin continued on his way.
The Ganges Plains lay at the border between Light and Dark Wizards, where public order was the most chaotic.
Here, even within city walls, brawls, thefts, and murders occurred daily. On top of that, disputes between wizards themselves broke out from time to time!
Under these circumstances, the city lord's guards were more like professional corpse haulers, responsible for nothing more than cleaning the streets each day.
And after the discovery of the Ganges Secret Realm, a flood of wizards pouring in only brought more chaos to the place.
Along the way, Leilin himself had witnessed over fifteen cases of vendettas and feuds — roughly one every so often.
Had Leilin and his party not been dressed in mysterious attire that resembled that of the legendary wizards, they too might have run into trouble frequently.
As they exited an ordinary city, Leilin's gaze suddenly sharpened. He seemed to spot a few somewhat familiar figures.
"My Lord, what is it? Are there problems with those apprentices?"
Number Two and Number Three stepped forward to ask.
"Nothing!" Leilin answered casually. Even if it really was them, the Leilin of now and they were people from two different worlds. Leilin didn't plan on having any further dealings with them — letting it pass like this was better for everyone.
But sometimes, fate was a truly wondrous thing — impossible to block no matter how hard you tried.
Just as Leilin's group was hurrying out through the city gates, they happened to run into those same apprentices Leilin had spotted earlier.
"Leilin! Hey! Leilin!!! Is that you?" Among the apprentices, a tall young man standing at the front had already begun to shout excitedly.
Previously the distance had been too great, but now that both groups met face to face, the apprentices opposite recognized Leilin immediately.
"It really has been... a long time!" Leilin looked at the group of apprentices approaching from ahead and couldn't help but smile and wave in greeting.
With his constitution and eyesight, strengthened several times over, Leilin could easily make out that among those approaching apprentices, the one who had shouted earlier was a very tall young man with a head of brilliant golden hair, thick brows and large eyes, and a high-bridged nose.
There was also a female apprentice with a graceful, curvaceous figure, platinum-white hair, and eyes like rubies. She exuded an inexplicable charm at every moment.
Leilin recognized these two apprentices at a glance — they were George and Besta, whom he hadn't seen in years!
"But wait, isn't George an apprentice of the Nine-Ring White Tower? How did he end up together with Besta from the Marsh Garden?"
This thought only flitted through Leilin's mind before being set aside for the time being, because George was already leading Besta and the others over to greet him.
"Leilin! It really is you! At first I thought I'd mistaken someone for you!"
George, the good friend he'd met on the road all those years ago, was just as enthusiastic as ever, stepping forward and giving Leilin a big hug.
As for Besta, the woman was somewhat embarrassedly fidgeting with her fingers off to the side.
Back then, she had caused Leilin quite a bit of trouble. Of course, after Leilin had secretly given her a harsh lesson by cutting off a few of her dog claws, so to speak, the woman had become very subdued.
In the end, though, she had successfully passed the wizard examination and joined the Marsh Garden.
"Leilin! Hello." Besta looked rather cool and distant.
"Come! Leilin, let me introduce you. This is Alexander!" George pointed to a young man with brownish-red hair beside him.
"And this one is Rana! This beauty in pink over here is our ranged attacker — Sirie!"
George then introduced the two female apprentices beside him to Leilin. Rana was fine enough, but Sirie was pinching the tender flesh on George's waist and twisting it hard, while George put on an exaggerated scream of pain in a very cooperative manner. Clearly, the relationship between these two was more than casual.
Leilin couldn't help but size Sirie up a few times. She was dressed in a pink hunter's outfit, revealing a pair of snow-white calves, with a green wooden bow strapped to her back. Tall and slender, she matched George quite well.
Even Leilin had to admit George's taste was really quite good.
"Leilin, why don't you introduce your two friends!" After saying that, George unceremoniously gave Leilin a punch to the chest, which caught Leilin slightly off guard.
Then he glanced down at himself and realized.
For convenience of travel, Leilin and the two Great Knights had changed into more ordinary civilian clothing. Furthermore, after obtaining the old witch's Spiritual Power compression method, Leilin had made it a habit before going out to conceal the fluctuations of his formal wizard aura.
His two soul servants were given the same treatment this time.
As a result, George and the others, who were merely apprentices, naturally couldn't see through Leilin's disguise and took him for an ordinary apprentice as well.
"These are two friends of mine — I met them on the road, and it happens we're heading the same way. They don't talk much; they're rather introverted!"
Leilin tossed a sculpture carved in the shape of a flying dragon directly to Number Two and Number Three. "You two go ahead with the mounts! We'll meet at the destination!"
Having received their master's secret mental transmission, Number Two and Number Three nodded and led the horses away.
"Leilin, you'd better be careful around them. I keep getting a really uncomfortable feeling from those two..."
George watched the retreating figures of Number Two and Number Three and quietly said to Leilin.
"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing!"
Leilin nodded.
"Haha... Never mind all that. Leilin, it's been six or seven years, hasn't it? We have to have a proper drink this time!"
George familiarly threw an arm around Leilin's shoulders. Even from several li away, you could hear his proud and exaggerated laughter: "You know what? Two years ago, I successfully advanced to Third-rank Apprentice! Even my mentor praised me for it! But it's nothing special — how could it be, when I'm a genius with fourth-rate talent..."
Thanks to this chance encounter, both Leilin and George dropped their plans to leave the city and instead headed back inside, finding a small tavern to catch up properly.
After a couple of rounds of beer, Leilin had already extracted all the information he wanted from George, who was quite the chatterbox.
George was still an apprentice of the Nine-Ring White Tower, and his girlfriend Sirie was too.
Besta, Rana, and the young man named Alexander were apprentices of the Marsh Garden.
They had all come out this time to complete missions assigned by their respective academies. George and Besta happened to know each other, so their two small teams naturally joined forces.
"We're in deep trouble this time — we got assigned a garrison mission! We have to enter the Ganges Secret Realm!" George said with a bitter face. Even hearing this, Sirie and Besta couldn't help but show a trace of gloom on theirs.
The Secret Realm was entirely the domain of official wizards. A handful of apprentices like them going in wouldn't even make a ripple — they'd be nothing but cannon fodder! They could die at any moment!
Leilin glanced at the group. In this temporary five-person team, George and Besta were both Third-rank Apprentices, and the other three had reached the Second-rank level. All in all, their strength was roughly comparable to the group of wizard apprentices Leilin had wiped out outside Moon Lute Town.
"Oh! Right! What about you, Leilin? I can sense a pretty strong energy fluctuation on you — you've probably also advanced to Third-rank Apprentice, haven't you?"
George seemed to ask offhandedly, while Besta, who had been sipping her drink through a straw, quietly pricked up her ears.
"I was lucky enough — I finally advanced to Third-rank a few months ago!" Leilin smiled.
"Anyone who can reach Third-rank deserves respect! Come! A toast to our future
George shouted without any sense of discretion whatsoever, drawing numerous glances from the surrounding crowd.
"To us!" Six glasses clinked together.
After another round, George asked, "Leilin, where are you stationed now? Black Bone Forest Academy? By the Nine Rings, I only found out after arriving at my academy that Black Bone Forest is a Dark Wizard school — they're our sworn enemies here. Even communication between us is forbidden..."
"What? Black Bone Forest?! That Dark Wizard academy?"
The instant the words left George's mouth, Rana and Alexander jumped up as though someone had stepped on their tails.
And while Sirie didn't say anything, the look in her eyes as she regarded Leilin carried a few notes of wariness.
"Alright! Alright! Don't be so tense! Leilin and I are good friends — he's different from ordinary Dark Wizards..."
George only then realized he'd misspoken, standing up awkwardly to smooth things over.