Leilin couldn't help but notice with some resignation that while the Ring of the Ouroboros was indeed a vast organization with a long lineage and formidable strength, its internal rules and complex regulations had become so numerous as to be utterly tedious.
This especially strict hierarchical system—he couldn't tell whether it was inherited from the Comoyin serpent clan's habits—was rigid beyond belief.
Although they had both been Comoyin Giant Snake Warlocks before, Kasha had already reached the stage of vaporization and generally didn't bother much with Leilin. But now that he had broken through to this rank himself, her attitude changed immediately—so fast that Leilin could barely keep up.
Lucy, whose strength was the highest among them and had already reached the Third-rank crystallization stage, sat quietly to one side drinking, wearing an air of aloof superiority—yet everyone took this as perfectly natural.
While Leilin silently rolled his eyes, he could only play along with the rules.
"Senior Lucy has always had this personality. He's paid the price for it many times, but he just can't change!"
Robin noticed Leilin's glance and immediately whispered to him via voice transmission.
"Actually, deep down he's very happy about your breakthrough. He wouldn't even glance at an ordinary banquet invitation!"
Perhaps it was because of his role as Gilbert's chief steward, but Robin's social skills and ability to read people were remarkably sharp. The moment he saw Leilin glance to the side, he immediately explained.
"Don't worry! I know!" Leilin said with a wry smile.
Even if the other party didn't give him any face, there was really nothing he could do about it.
Right now, even if he played every card he had, he could at best handle a Third-rank liquefaction warlock. When faced with such a disparity in strength, words were meaningless. If it weren't for the sake of their mutual teacher Gilbert, and the fact that this was Leilin's first invitation, whether Lucy would even show up was uncertain.
"Oh, right! Let me introduce you all—this is my apprentice! Shilubi!"
Leilin gestured, and a somewhat nervous young man stepped forward. He had a few acne marks on his face, and when he smiled, he actually had dimples.
"Hon... Honored sirs and madams!" Shilubi stammered out his greeting.
The three Third-rank warlocks merely gave reserved nods and ignored him. Even Kasha's two juniors looked down on him somewhat.
They had instantly recognized the Horall Black Snake bloodline in Leilin's apprentice. While a bloodline capable of reaching the Third-rank was quite impressive in the Central Continent, to these bloodline aristocrats it was rather lowly.
Combined with their knowledge of Leilin's top subordinate Pike, they basically figured they had guessed Leilin's motive for taking on an apprentice, and naturally paid no further attention. The nods they had given were purely out of respect for Leilin.
Fortunately, Leilin had only brought Shilubi out for the exposure, and immediately sent him away after he had paid his respects.
Shilubi agreed quickly and departed even more swiftly, with an almost panicked air that made Leilin think he was fleeing for his life.
"So this is the hierarchy among warlocks!"
Leilin sighed inwardly. By comparison, although Kasha's two juniors were equally weak in strength, the fact that their bloodlines were noble—giving them the potential to break through to the Fourth-rank—meant they were immediately valued. Even their Third-rank elders considered this perfectly natural.
For warlocks, while bloodline couldn't determine your minimum achievement, it could certainly determine your maximum potential.
Take the two Comoyin Giant Snake Warlocks Kasha had brought along. With just a bit of effort and time, reaching the Third-rank was practically child's play. Vaporization and liquefaction wouldn't be too difficult either, but crystallization would depend on talent! As for breaking through to Morning Star? Talent alone wouldn't be enough—they'd need a fair amount of luck too!
After all, they weren't first-generation Comoyin Giant Snake Warlocks. Their bloodlines had already lost enough purity that it couldn't allow them to advance to the Fourth-rank upon reaching adulthood.
In truth, within the entire Ring of the Ouroboros, there were no longer any absolutely pure-blooded Comoyin Giant Snake Warlocks. Warlock bloodlines continuously degraded over time, and the three elders back then had not only expended enormous resources and blood, sweat, and tears to break through to the Fourth-rank Morning Star stage, but had also needed a bit of luck.
Leilin didn't actually know how pure his own bloodline was, but judging from the importance that Furi, his senior brothers and sisters, and his teacher placed on him, it probably wasn't too bad.
In fact, he had immense confidence in the Chip's bloodline purification technology.
During his time in the Ring of the Ouroboros, he had discovered that even the Central Continent didn't have microscopes precise enough to detect genes at the atomic level and map them into a genome.
Their research was at most limited to the cellular level, and even the most advanced microscope facilities could only see down to cell structures.
Back then, the Chip had directly extracted the Comoyin Giant Snake gene segments from the bloodline essence of the Horall Black Snake, and then recombined them!
Leilin even suspected that the bloodline within him might rival that of the first-generation Comoyin Giant Snake Warlocks!
These were warlocks whose bloodline purity had reached the absolute limit—warlocks so terrifying that they could break through to the Morning Star stage purely through the passage of time!