"Hallucination?"
Leilin muttered to himself, then turned his gaze to the Chip's log interface.
"Host entity subjected to unknown Field interference! Commencing descent into chaotic state!"
"Planar Wizard Array countermeasures initiated! Charging!"
"Annihilation Lightning prepared! Wizard Tower energy supply commencing!"
"Host entity normalcy restored! Alert lifted!" The blood-red log entries still cast a shadow over Leilin's expression.
Meanwhile, the spiritual power seed he had previously cast into the spatial rift had completely vanished without a trace.
"Tower Spirit!" Leilin called out.
"Master!" The green spirit sprite immediately flew to Leilin's side.
"What is the Wizard Tower's remaining energy reserve?"
"Currently at 1.9%! Initiate immediate charging from the Positive-Negative Energy Pool!" The Tower Spirit responded swiftly.
"Why was the consumption so high?"
"Log corruption!" A rare look of blank confusion flickered across the Tower Spirit's face.
"Just as I thought! Everything that just happened was real, not a hallucination!"
Leilin exhaled a long breath. Exploring other planes always carried danger—he had long known this.
And what he had just encountered was the greatest crisis he had faced since beginning his experiments.
"Fortunately! The Three Astral Laws remain unbreakable! The entity couldn't cross over through this mirror; it could only create a projection resembling a hallucination!"
Leilin rubbed his chin, replaying the sequence of events in his mind.
"An illusory phantom from a mirage could already accomplish that... If I had opened an Astral Gate and allowed the entity's true body to come through, the entire fiefdom would likely have been destroyed..."
Thinking of this, he couldn't help but feel a chill of lingering fear.
"Fortunately! The opponent's power wasn't enough — the Planar Wizard Array's countermeasures handled everything!"
He let out a long breath and turned around.
"You know—" A massive goat's head, severed below the neck with yellowish liquid still dripping from the stump, materialized directly behind him.
Two enormous, lifeless eyeballs locked onto Leilin's gaze.
"..."
In an instant, a layer of black scales surfaced across Leilin's body, and both of his eyes shifted into amber-colored vertical slits.
"Petrifying Gaze!" A beam of light charged with mysterious power shot forth, and a layer of grayish-white stone skin immediately formed on the wall opposite him.
But the goat's head had already vanished without a trace.
"This matter isn't over yet!" Leilin's expression turned dark. "Chip, scan!"
"Ding! Task initiated! Scanning now!"
A few seconds later, the Chip's latest results came back: "Unidentified Field residues detected. Assessment: Planar contamination!"
*Buzz!*
With a wave of his hand, Leilin brought the entire Planar Wizard Array to a halt, and at its very center, the Astral Stone shattered into powder with a dull crack.
This Astral Stone, obtained from Vans, patriarch of the Nonolifa family, had exhausted every last bit of its energy. It had reached its end.
Leilin watched the scene unfold, sighed, and stepped into the antechamber outside.
At the laboratory's entrance, numerous nozzles floated beneath the ceiling, with a massive basin at the center containing a pure white, fragrant liquid that swayed gently within.
"A fifth-tier Purification Pool! Hopefully it'll work!" Defense against planar intrusions was a mandatory discipline, and Leilin had long since relocated all of Gilbert's purification apparatus to his own facility, adding a few upgrades of his own.
*Fwoosh!* *Fwoosh!*
All of the nozzles unleashed showers of green droplets, carrying a pungent, acrid disinfectant smell that quickly drenched Leilin from head to toe.
Under the wash of green liquid, fine green fuzz surfaced from Leilin's protective suit, only to be quickly rinsed away by the water.
"What a hassle this time!" Leilin frowned as he watched the scene, then stripped off his clothes to reveal his naked body, jumping into the central pool.
*Fizzle!*
A massive vortex formed, and the milky-white liquid began to boil gently.
Strands of visible black fluid seeped from Leilin's pores.
After several rinses, Leilin entered another purification chamber. There, numerous flower buds the size of ordinary people loomed open, revealing massive calyxes and scarlet tongues equipped with suction cups...
After several purification cycles, Leilin, dressed in a new loose robe, reclined half-lying on a lounger.
"Over these past three months, I've opened the star gate multiple times, but without the aid of the fate gold coins, I couldn't locate the position of the Black Rain World. Not only have my losses increased, but this time I've even attracted this thing..."
Leilin weighed his gains and losses.