"Senior Kasha, you've gotten even prettier!"
In the Phosphorfire Marshes, the headquarters of Ouroboros was as bustling as ever, with numerous bloodline warlocks bustling about.
Under the enormous Coumo Python statue, Leylin spotted Kasha at a glance.
He strode over with a laugh and pulled Kasha into a tight embrace, his hands shamelessly roaming over her body.
"Enough! Enough! We're on the road—we can talk about this when we get back!"
Kasha's breathing grew heavier, though her expression was one of exasperation.
"Senior, you've really fallen into my hands!"
"Haha..." Seeing his senior—who had made him suffer more than a few times—reduced to this state, Leylin couldn't help but burst into laughter, an undisguised smugness on his face.
After reverse-engineering the Quicksand Organization's bloodline experiments, Leylin's understanding in this area had advanced by leaps and bounds, reaching the pinnacle of the Central Continent's standards.
Under his own control and with the Chip's assistance, he had long since developed a bloodline defensive technique to protect himself.
After multiple "field tests" with Kasha, the female warlock had been forced to admit that even if every female warlock in Ouroboros ganged up on him and threw every inherited secret technique and arcane art they had, they still wouldn't be able to extract Leylin's life seed.
Once he had let his guard down, Leylin enjoyed himself without a shred of restraint. It was Kasha and the others who were the ones struggling to keep up.
...
The pink silk sheets were covered with traces of their exertions, and the entire room was enveloped in a rich, intoxicating fragrance.
Leylin sat half-reclined on the sofa, shirtless, his solid and well-defined muscles on full display, listening to Kasha's account from across from him.
Kasha, on the other hand, looked rather worse for wear—her body bore the marks of their passionate encounter, yet a satisfied expression graced her face. Her gauze garment did nothing to conceal her figure; if anything, it only revealed more.
Though she appeared haggard, in truth such things were child's play for a female warlock—nothing more than a stimulating game, one she could recover from in mere minutes.
As proof, Kasha's breathing now showed none of its earlier heaviness; she appeared perfectly composed.
"Leylin, your rate of advancement puts you at the very top among Ouroboros's geniuses. Only Robin ranks above you!"
When it came to serious matters, Leylin dropped his earlier casual demeanor and listened with a grave expression.
"Senior Robin built up his foundation over a long time before breaking through—how can I compare with him?"
Rather than accepting Kasha's flattery, Leylin simply shook his head with a faint smile.
He had taken only a few decades to advance to the Liquidation stage, a pace that should have caused a tremendous stir within Ouroboros, since it was the hallmark of an extraordinary bloodline genius.
But all of that thunder had been stolen by Robin.
Almost simultaneously with Leylin's advance to Liquidation, word spread that Robin had successfully crystallized his spiritual power and entered the Crystallization stage.
Liquidation-stage wizards were still considered mainstream on the Central Continent, but crystallized wizards were far rarer, and the two were not remotely comparable in terms of both strength and breakthrough difficulty.
Naturally, all of Leylin's spotlight had been overshadowed by Robin.
In truth, Leylin felt somewhat grateful. Robin had drawn a great deal of fire on his behalf. He had always preferred to make his fortune in silence—such flamboyance was not his style.
At the same time, he recalled the black sigil on Robin's forehead.
It seemed that the other's breakthrough was deeply connected to what had happened in the Quicksand secret realm.
Duke Gilbert apparently knew something, but he naturally wouldn't tell Leylin. Leylin could only piece together fragments on his own.
"You two are both freaks!"
Kasha's expression darkened with displeasure, clearly indignant. Both Leylin and Robin had obviously reaped considerable benefits from their last expedition, while she had gained nothing—and had even lost several high-ranking members of her family in the process.
What made it worse was that the bounty on their heads was something all three of them had to share.
"All right, all right! It's been over a hundred years—those people should have lost patience by now..."
Leylin drew Kasha's slender waist into his arms with gentlemanly grace and began to comfort her in soft tones.
"By the way, you mentioned Astral Stone last time—what was that about?"
After a few tender moments, Leylin finally got around to the main purpose of his visit.
When it came to business and pleasure, he always drew a clear line between the two.
Kasha understood this as well. She knew that her relationship with this gifted junior was, at best, a flimsy thread of connection. Only an entanglement of interests could bind him to her family's cause—or at the very least, place them in the same camp. So she quickly laid out the full details.
"An auction?" Leylin's brow furrowed slightly upon hearing the news.
"That's right!" Kasha didn't bother swatting Leylin's wandering hand away, but she did shoot him a look. "An auction in Lanshan City, established and hosted by a Morning Star wizard!"