A cold wind whistled through, sending maple leaves spinning through the air one by one, drifting like butterflies.
A clear brook flowed quietly, lending an extra touch of serenity to the place.
A grey squirrel swished its fluffy tail and scurried down the tree trunk like a flash of lightning. It snatched up a pine cone and began gnawing on it furiously, occasionally turning its small head to watch its surroundings.
Crack! A dry twig snapped underfoot. The squirrel immediately dropped the pine cone as if startled, scrambling back up the tree in a flash and eyeing the figure who had disrupted the quiet with an uncertain gaze.
"It hasn't even been a year since the last time I came here. And it's already turned into this…"
Leilin looked at the scenery around him and let out a sigh of surprise.
He had arrived once again at the small town where the ancient Soul-Slaying Sect secret realm was located—the same one he had explored previously with the old ghost from City That Never Sleeps.
But the town had clearly fallen into ruin.
A species of grey-green vine had overgrown the entire settlement, and here and there, the dark shadows of one or two animals could be seen darting past. Yet there were no signs of human activity whatsoever.
From the accumulated evidence, it appeared that the townspeople had abandoned the place voluntarily, and the timing lined up right after Leilin's expedition.
"The fear of Wizards," Leilin murmured, shaking his head. He wasn't the least bit surprised by this situation.
Although they had refrained from killing every resident on their previous visit to keep a low profile, merely rendering them all unconscious for three days, such an eerie method could only make the townspeople associate the incident even more strongly with Wizards!
The Wizards of the White Witch Domain were relatively benevolent toward ordinary people on the surface, but who could guarantee they wouldn't run into a Dark Wizard? Panicked, the townspeople promptly reported the incident.
However, at the time, the Evergarden Secret Realm had just emerged, and all the White Wizards had been consumed by that matter. Where would they find the time to deal with an isolated town's suspected Dark Wizard activity—especially one with no casualties?
As a result, the White Wizard Alliance merely dispatched a few Third-rank Apprentices to investigate.
These apprentices naturally couldn't see through the disguise of the old ghost, who was a full Wizard. The entrance to the ancient Soul-Slaying Sect secret realm went undiscovered, and after a cursory investigation, the apprentices could only file a report to the effect of "traces of Dark Wizard activity detected, but the individual has already departed the area and presumably accomplished their objective!"
A report of that caliber naturally failed to attract any real attention from the White Wizard Alliance, and so the matter was simply left to languish.
But while the White Wizards could afford to ignore it, the townspeople who had lived here their entire lives could not!
After all, thanks to the White Wizards' relentless vilification, they had grown up hearing stories of Dark Wizards slaughtering entire cities and toppling nations! Although the investigators believed the Dark Wizard had left, what if they were wrong?
And so, without anyone organizing an evacuation, the townspeople spontaneously abandoned the town.
A string of eerie incidents that followed only made things worse—several elderly residents who had stayed behind vanished under mysterious circumstances, and the entire town withered into desolation.
Leilin reviewed these details with a detached air. After assigning Damian and the others to return and guard the family, he had hurried here to take a look at the ancient Teleportation Magical Array he had seen before.
In order to advance to the Second-rank Warlock, he had destroyed the gate to an entire secret realm and slain two Second-rank Wizards!
That kind of grudge was no small matter. Although Leilin had confidence in his own strength, both the White Wizards and the Dark Wizards had Wizards who had already reached the Third-rank as their trump cards!
In his current state, Leilin believed he was still no match for enemies of that caliber. Finding an escape route first had become the most urgent priority.
The White and Dark Wizards had thoroughly infiltrated every inch of the South Coast, so hiding here was out of the question.
The South Coast was surrounded on all sides by terrifyingly dangerous regions—even full Wizards who ventured there would be lucky to survive with their lives. Leilin had no charts for ocean voyages, and charging out blindly would be something only a fool would attempt!
Moreover, even if Leilin got lucky and successfully crossed one of these regions, the other side could well be as barren and inhospitable as the Keli Archipelago. Since Leilin wished to walk further along the path of Wizardry, he naturally had no desire to end up in such a place.
The ancient Teleportation Magical Array, however, was a different matter entirely. Its transmission range was enormous—at minimum it could span a distance equivalent to several South Coasts, and it might even lead to an entirely different world!
Around the Wizard World, there existed many powerful planes and even entire worlds. In ancient times, the ancient Wizards had conquered one world after another, analyzing the unique laws of power within each and using them to strengthen themselves!
This ancient Teleportation Array could very well be connected to a world that had once been conquered by the Wizards of the ancient Soul-Slaying Sect.
Furthermore, the other end of the array would surely be a place rich in resources—at the very least no poorer than the South Coast. Otherwise, why would the ancient Wizards have bothered constructing a Teleportation Magical Array in the first place? The cost of building even a single such array was no trivial sum, enough to strain even a power like the ancient Soul-Slaying Sect to its foundations. Leilin refused to believe they had gone to all that trouble simply to create an escape route.
"Come to think of it—that Gegewu! And the old ghost and Jay! I wonder how they're doing?"
Leilin rubbed his chin.