Lei Lin then employed over a dozen different methods to probe the situation on the other side of the passage, but every single one ended in failure.
His spiritual power couldn't yet traverse such a vast distance through space and time, and since the foundation of any probing wizardry relied on a spiritual power connection, all his plans came to nothing.
After gazing intently at the passage one final time, Lei Lin reluctantly shut down the wizard array.
Click!
The Magic Stone crystal in the array's energy slot automatically flew into Lei Lin's hand as all the various lights dimmed.
"Hmm? Nearly ten percent of the energy consumed?" Sensing the drain within the Magic Stone crystal, Lei Lin's brow furrowed slightly.
That single attempt had burned through nearly a million Magic Stones' worth of energy!
And this was with Lei Lin not transporting any living creature — he had only used his spiritual power to probe! Had he done otherwise, the Magic Stone crystal would likely have been drained empty in an instant!
"In that case, I'll need to use puppets or soul servants that can operate autonomously — send them to scout the other side first, then transport them back!"
Lei Lin stroked his chin.
Without hesitation, he departed the Soul-Slaying Sect's secret realm. Before leaving, he deliberately made arrangements at the entrance, trying to disguise it so it looked the same as last time.
Although all signs indicated that Gegewu couldn't breach the emergency passage, Lei Lin still didn't want to take any chances.
With the Chip's precise operations, even if Gegewu showed up in person, it wouldn't necessarily discover anything — greatly increasing the security factor.
Only after completing all these arrangements did Lei Lin calmly leave the area.
……
The Thorn Iron Gate was a large wizard market located on the western side of the South Coast.
It earned this name because nearby stood an enormous iron gate covered in thorns, and behind that gate lay a mid-sized wizard secret realm!
On the South Coast, most wizard secret realms were controlled by the major wizard organizations, but this particular resource-rich secret realm was held by a league of roaming wizards — the Iron Crown.
Under the constant suppression — both overt and covert — of the light and dark wizards, many neutral roaming wizards, having endured countless oppressions, finally chose to unite and resist!
And this Iron Crown was precisely a power formed by roaming wizards!
Here, numerous roaming wizards had banded together, seizing control of the surrounding territory and even taking charge of a mid-sized secret realm!
Although a mid-sized secret realm was far inferior in scale to a large one like the Four Seasons Secret Realm, for roaming wizards, it was still an incredibly rare and precious asset!
The existence of the Iron Crown was like a torch blazing in the darkness, drawing roaming wizards and apprentices from all across the South Coast, and it continued to grow ever stronger!
But that was all there was to it.
Having been born as a wizard alliance from the very start, with a loose management structure and lax agreements, the Iron Crown had never been a particularly formidable organization. In its external dealings, it consistently maintained a neutral stance, and by the time it had developed to its current state, its strength was only marginally greater than that of Black Bone Forest Academy.
And Black Bone Forest, within the Dark Wizard Alliance, was merely a mid-ranking power at best!
The higher-ups of both the dark and light wizards — who could say what they were thinking. Perhaps out of disdain, or perhaps with the idea of carving out a designated area to serve as a common zone, they had allowed the Iron Crown to continue existing.
And so, a massive wizard bazaar had formed here!
Thanks to the neutral stance of the roaming wizards, this place had become a rare free market on the South Coast. Whether one was a dark wizard, a light wizard, or a neutral wizard, regardless of which faction one belonged to, any wizard could freely come and go here. Under the Iron Crown's enforcement, the order here was reasonably well-maintained, with no major incidents occurring, and so its reputation had spread far and wide.
Lei Lin climbed to the top of a hill and gazed at the undefended bazaar on the plain not far away, a gleam of delight appearing in his eyes.
"So this is the Thorn Iron Gate? Its scale is almost comparable to the Sleepless City…"
Standing at the vantage point and looking far into the distance, he could see, at the far end of the plain, a cluster of enormous buildings huddled together, with countless roads spreading outward like a spider's web.
What surprised him most of all was that this bazaar had no city walls and no guards whatsoever. Lei Lin could see wizards piloting all manner of vehicles from every direction, converging upon the bazaar from all sides.
This kind of boldness was something even Lei Lin had never felt in the Sleepless City.
"When the Iron Crown was first established, it too was born from blood and fire. Those thirteen roaming wizard sages — in order to purge the scourges here and carve out living space for roaming wizards — their hands were stained with the blood of both dark and light wizards…"
Lei Lin sighed, pulled his hood back on, and followed the road toward the Thorn Iron Gate.