After Lei Lin finished speaking, he turned his gaze back to the bustling marketplace.
The cycles of life and death, the blooming and withering of flowers — it all seemed to continuously morph before his eyes.
"All things in this world cannot escape the erosion of time! And precisely because of that, I resolved to pursue eternity, unwavering in my resolve!"
Lei Lin sighed to himself in silent contemplation.
However, the rebuilding of this marketplace was not without its merits. At the very least, he had learned a great deal of management experience from the process. Should he ever be tasked with overseeing a wizard gathering point again, he could certainly do a far better job.
Watching Lei Lin's expression, Xishan scoffed coldly to himself, though his face betrayed nothing. "Then let's get started quickly! Someone will be arriving today to transfer the core consciousness entity!"
"Good! Finally, it's time to act?"
A glint of anticipation flashed through Lei Lin's eyes as he walked out shoulder to shoulder with Xishan.
…
Garrick wore the custom-tailored wizard robes of the Four Seasons Garden as he slowly patrolled through his assigned sector.
Along the way, apprentices stood respectfully by the roadside and bowed. He walked past them with an expressionless face, occasionally offering a restrained nod.
"This is it! Respect! Reverence! This is what it feels like to be a full-fledged wizard…"
As a wizard who had only recently advanced to formal status, Garrick clearly had not yet fully adjusted to his new standing.
This treatment, so clearly above that afforded to common folk, had evidently gone to his head.
But all of it vanished in an instant the moment he caught sight of a massive breach in the fortress wall nearby.
At the outer defensive perimeter of the Four Seasons Garden headquarters, an enormous gap in the defenses had appeared for all to see.
This was the handiwork of the Dark Wizards from the last attack. Though Lei Lin and Xishan had ordered every effort to repair it, the breach remained far from restored.
Watching the White Wizards and apprentices still working away at the repairs, Garrick felt as though an old wound had been ripped open and mercilessly mocked before the entire world.
This gaping wound was the collective shame of every wizard in the Four Seasons Garden!
"Those damnable Dark Wizards! One day! I, Garrick, will make them pay…" His tone of complaint and cursing suddenly faltered as he recalled the madness and overwhelming strength of the Dark Wizards from not long ago.
For a wizard who had grown up in the safety of a greenhouse, every move the Dark Wizards made was drenched in blood and violence, enough to make him suffocate.
In such a state, even someone of equal strength would suffer a crushing defeat.
"Could I really handle it if it happened again?" Garrick could not help but sink into deep self-doubt. After all, he had only survived back then by sheer luck. And many White Wizards far stronger than him, with far greater Spiritual Power, had fallen in battle!
"Never mind! No point dwelling on it! There's still the Lightning Corps stationed here, the large-scale defensive and amplification formations, and Lords Xishan and Lei Lin! With this level of strength, holding out for a day or two should be absolutely no problem! And reinforcements from headquarters will arrive tomorrow!"
Garrick slowly let out a long breath.
Boom!
Just then, a ball of green fireworks streaked across the sky like a meteor, trailing a long tail of flame behind it.
"Whoosh!" Accompanying the fireworks was the ear-piercing shriek of air being torn apart.
"Crack!" The green fireworks detonated violently near the center of the sky, forming an eerie green skull pattern!
"This is... a Black Wizard's signal..." Garrick's voice was hoarse, his face filled with disbelief.
"Enemy attack!"
The patrolling wizards erupted in furious shouts. Then, along the horizon, a dense mass of mutated creatures surged forward like a tidal wave.
"The Black Wizards' bio-army! This is their cannon-fodder corps — formed by contaminating the creatures inside the Ganges Secret Realm with radiation and toxins on a massive scale! Their true main force must still be behind them! Activate the defensive formation! Notify the two Lords!"
High atop the defensive structure, a wizard with a cold, resolute face — clearly a squad leader — immediately bellowed.
"Activate the Celestial Fire Wizard Formation! Ground wizards, prepare Wind Repulsion spells and Fire Rain scrolls!"
This squad leader was evidently the commander of this sector, and he immediately began requesting authorization from the Formation Spirit through his Spiritual Power.
"Formation Spirit! Activate the Energy Amplification Wizard Formation as well! Target all wizards of the Four Seasons Garden!"
The Energy Amplification Wizard Formation was a colossal wizard formation covering the entire secret realm headquarters, granting every wizard below the semi-elemental level a powerful 10% boost to spell potency!
"Request received. Verifying authorization!"
From within his mind, the Formation Spirit's utterly emotionless voice immediately came through.
"Authorization denied! Wizard formation will not be activated!" But in the next instant, the Formation Spirit's frigid words seemed to plunge the wizard into nine layers of the abyss.
"What? Authorization denied?"
The squad leader's face contorted. He slammed his fist hard into the stone railing beside him. Crack! Large chunks of greenish stone broke loose and tumbled down.