"Storage-type Magical Item!"
Leilin swiftly searched the other person's body, then his eyes lit up as he tore off the red gemstone pendant hanging from the corpse's ear.
He sent a probe of Spiritual Power inside, and a fingernail-sized Astral Stone came into view.
"Excellent!"
Sure enough, everything Vans had blurted out before dying was utter nonsense — he had kept the Astral Stone on his person all along.
Not only that, the other materials inside the earring could largely be ignored, but a few more items still came as a genuine surprise to Leilin.
"Diamond Jellyfish..."
Looking at what appeared to be a crystal sculpture floating within the storage space, a look of delight spread across Leilin's face.
"This is genuine top-tier material — it can increase a Liquefied Wizard's probability of breaking through to Spiritual Power Crystallization by 35 percent. No wonder he was so confident about advancing to Crystallization..."
He couldn't help but glance at his own status.
"Leilin Farell — Warlock Level 3 (Liquefied). Bloodline: Komo Yin Giant Serpent. Strength: 30. Agility: 30. Constitution: 45.5. Spiritual Power: 315.6. Mana: 315 (Mana synchronized with Spiritual Power)."
It had been some time since he advanced to Liquefaction, and previously he had only raised his Spiritual Power through the power of his bloodline, without ever using a single Spiritual Power potion.
After a hundred years of settling in, the drug tolerance built up in his body had worn off almost entirely.
Once he returned and resumed using potions, he should quickly meet the requirements for advancing to Crystallization.
"This Vans really sent me quite the haul of good stuff!" Not only that, but more than half of the items Vans had painstakingly prepared for his Crystallization breakthrough could be used directly by Leilin, saving him an enormous amount of searching effort.
Leilin couldn't help but burst into hearty laughter.
The guidance of the Destiny Gold Coin had been correct after all — this Vans was practically his lucky star. Of course, Vans himself certainly wouldn't have seen it that way.
"Found him!"
At that moment, accompanied by terrifying Crystallization fluctuations, Number Five descended as well, landing in front of Leilin.
"Leo didn't come? How disappointing!" Leilin looked at Number Five and shook his head, his face full of regret.
"Who gave you the audacity to insult the dignity of a Crystallized Wizard? Even if you just killed a peak Liquefied one!"
A layer of frost seemed to settle over Number Five's face as strands of dangerous spiritual particle energy began converging around him.
"Perhaps you don't know — not only did I just kill a Third Level Liquefied Wizard, but not long ago, I killed a wizard who had already broken through to Crystallization!"
Leilin spoke words that made Number Five's expression change drastically: "Perfect — the samples I had before were a bit thin. Another one wouldn't hurt..."
Number Five watched Leilin's calm, faint smile and suddenly felt as though he had done something incredibly foolish.
But it was already too late. A sliver of dangerous black light began to coalesce on Leilin's fingertip…
……
"Oakheart family — you'd better remember this!"
On the other side, a wizard with a hawk-nosed face was fleeing at breakneck speed, his body covered in horrifying wounds and the telltale marks of violent spellwork.
Though he had already reached an advanced stage of Crystallization — in fact, he was only a single step away from bringing his Spiritual Power to the very peak of the Crystallization realm — he had still suffered a regrettable defeat, and a grievous one at that, under the siege of three fellow Crystallization Wizards.
Chief among them was Leo. One of the high-energy creatures he had brought along was nothing short of a nightmare for this wizard. The vast majority of the injuries covering his body had come from that very beast.
What alarmed and infuriated him even more was that no matter how he fled, or how he altered his aura or anything else, Leo always caught up to him. That could only mean the man had planted something on him.
Yet no matter how thoroughly he searched, he could not find a thing. Even his communication had been cut off, and the sheer frustration of it all was driving him half-mad.
"Oakheart family — this disgusting trick of yours, I swear I will make it known to the world!"
The hawk-nosed wizard roared wildly as Leo and his two companions closed in.
"You won't get the chance!"
A vicious gleam crossed Leo's face from behind, and terrifying waves of energy surged around his body.
A phantom of a monstrous creature rose up from behind him, gradually solidifying until it materialized and blocked the hawk-nosed wizard's path.
"Gawk! Gawk!" The monster let out a harsh, grating roar.
It was some nightmare fusion of wolf and octopus — the head and torso of a grey-green wolf, but from the waist down, a mass of pale, sucker-lined tentacles, their deathly white color alone enough to make one's skin crawl.
Two green, lamp-like eyes locked onto the hawk-nosed wizard with unblinking intensity, and wisps of black-green gas seeped from the suckers.
The gas accumulated on the wizard's body, forming a thick, clinging layer of substance that caused his speed to plummet.
"Gawk! Gawk!!!" The tentacles at the creature's lower half unfurled like blooming flowers, then shot toward the hawk-nosed wizard at blinding speed…
Leo watched with evident pleasure as the monster swallowed the despair-faced hawk-nosed wizard whole. Its belly swelled and churned rhythmically, as though it were digesting its prey.