"How is it? This is a masterpiece that you and I created together!"
In what had once been Leonault's office, Xishan was monitoring the entire Four Seasons Garden secret realm headquarters through the observation formation attached to the Formation Spirit. Gazing upon a sea of blood and flames, a look of twisted enjoyment surfaced on his face.
"No particular feeling. Every living being—from birth, to growth, to destruction—simply follows the natural order…"
Leilin replied expressionlessly, feeling more and more like a charlatan each day.
He and Xishan had come here for an exceedingly important task—transferring the core consciousness entity of the secret realm gate!
This process was incredibly troublesome. The Formation Spirit's defensive and sealing formations were actually the lesser concern.
A consciousness entity was an exceedingly fragile thing, especially one that had been separated from a physical vessel. Even the slightest external attack could cause it to be annihilated completely. The old Xishan had been prepared to simply destroy it, so he hadn't needed to worry about any of this—using the most brute-force approach to break through had been perfectly fine.
But now things were different. They had to hand over the consciousness entity to the Dark Wizards, and they had to guarantee the safety of the core consciousness entity. This was an exceptionally delicate task. What's more, the stakes involved were far too great—whoever controlled the core consciousness entity would hold the Ganges secret realm gate in their grasp going forward!
Such a prize! Even within the White Wizard Alliance, wizards would tear each other apart over it, let alone the Dark Wizards!
"Who's handling the handover? You can tell me now, can't you?"
Leilin fixed his gaze on Xishan.
At this moment, the office was packed wall to wall with Dark Wizards.
The Four Seasons Garden's core command center inside the Ganges secret realm had been completely occupied by a swarm of Dark Wizards! It was an almost laughable situation.
But not a single White Wizard could laugh, because every last one of them had been turned into a corpse out in the corridor.
These Dark Wizards carried that sharp, decisive bearing that only came from rigorous military training. The stench of blood clung to them so thickly it was nearly palpable.
These were the Dark Wizards' elite. Their combat power was far beyond what any ordinary wizard could match—even the rank-and-file wizard soldiers of the Lightning Corps fell a tier below them!
Even standing still, their mere presence radiated an overwhelming sense of oppression.
Compared to them, Leilin had only Number Two and Number Three at his side, making their position look rather thin.
"The person—you'd definitely be familiar with them…"
Xishan laughed coldly, a hint of schadenfreude hidden in his expression as he looked at Leilin.
"It's me!" A hoarse, raspy voice echoed through the room.
A mass of emerald-green flame spread through the air, eventually taking the shape of a doorway.
A tall, thin Wizard clad entirely in black robes, with eyes that glowed green, stepped out from the flame doorway.
Around his body, a ring of materialized silver Spiritual Power particles drifted up and down, and waves of formidable Spiritual Power fluctuations rippled outward like ocean tides.
"Lord Keben!!!" The surrounding Dark Wizards bowed deeply in greeting.
This Second-rank Dark Wizard was none other than the one Leilin had encountered before—the mastermind behind the Thousand Leaves Hand, and the biological father of both Xishan and the giant!
"Heh heh! We meet again, boy!"
The emerald flames in Keben's eyes flared up noticeably as he sized Leilin up with a malicious gaze.
"So it's Lord Keben!" Leilin's expression remained unchanged as he gave a light bow, but inwardly he had already begun to grow tense, running the Spiritual Power compression technique he'd obtained from the old witch at full capacity.
Fortunately! The Second-rank Dark Wizard had his attention fixed on the core consciousness at this moment.
Keben arrived at the location where the seal had been. The majority of the restrictions here had already been dismantled by Leilin and Xishan working together, and what remained was utterly insignificant before a powerful Second-rank Wizard.
Keben lightly tapped the floor with his boot, and the desks on either side immediately split apart, revealing the sealing formation hidden within.
However, by now the formation had already been destroyed over half, and the magical runes upon it were dim and lifeless.
At the center of the cracked formation, a translucent recess had appeared.
A pea-sized spark of white-gold flame was slowly burning within it.
"So this is the core consciousness of the Metal Colossal Gate?" Although this tiny white-gold flame seemed as though it could be extinguished at any moment, Leilin could still sense through his Spiritual Power the enormous energy and materialized Spiritual Power contained within it.
The feeling was like dormant magma, or the ocean during a period of calm—unfathomably deep, impossibly vast!
"This is it! This is it!"
The Second-rank Dark Wizard Keben let out an entranced murmur.
Then, he turned his gaze to the assembled Wizards: "From now on! I will personally oversee this place! Until our people have completely taken control!"
The core consciousness entity of the secret realm gate was something akin to the gate's key, holding a position of extreme importance. This Second-rank Dark Wizard was clearly here to guard against accidents; should any unforeseen situation arise, he would immediately take the consciousness entity and flee, or choose to destroy it directly.
"Members of the Black Blood Legion! Go out and guard the corridor leading here! Unless you receive my orders, do not let a single person inside!"