"So this is what you're banking on?"
The Blue Mountain King sneered. "You think you can control the Annihilation Storm? It'd be more believable if your true body were here..."
Despite his bravado, a look of wariness still crept across his face, and he unconsciously took several steps back.
"Only one way to find out."
Leilin chuckled and abruptly rubbed a ring on his hand.
A strange ripple of energy, like a stream of light, radiated outward.
Tens of kilometers away, Pike gazed solemnly at the communicator in his hand and issued the command: "Activate!"
"Commence operations! Reactor One, prepare for energy output!" Sluby immediately barked.
"Elemental particle collector complete. Initiate crustal resonance!"
Numerous wizards scurried about like ants, while strange symbols began to illuminate one by one across the surface of a massive spire reactor.
Rumble!
At that moment, the earth's crust seemed to come alive as a whole. Enormous quantities of energy were gathered up and channeled toward Leilin's position.
The violent earthquakes posed no real threat to the wizards. Sluby wiped the cold sweat from his brow, walked over to his grandfather, and asked with visible concern: "Grandfather, can Teacher really pull this off? I've never even heard of this concept before… No! Even in my wildest dreams I couldn't have imagined it! If even a single node goes wrong, then what awaits Teacher is probably—"
Before he could finish, a pair of broad, calloused hands clamped down on his shoulders. "Sluby! Trust your teacher!"
Pike's eyes burned with undisguised reverence for Leilin. "He is the most erudite scholar and the most meticulous wizard I have ever known! Once his lordship decides on something, it is absolutely correct. All we need to do is carry out his plan to the letter!"
After more than a century of working together, Leilin had thoroughly won over all of his subordinates—whether through force or through knowledge.
"Mm!" Sluby nodded firmly, his earlier doubts vanishing in an instant.
Meanwhile, at another location,
A colossal lightning rod jutted straight upward, almost piercing the heavens, firmly planted atop a formation of black rock.
Crackle! Thunderclouds howled overhead as lightning dragons writhed and coiled. Countless blue bolts of electricity roared as they surged into the black rod, then were distributed in all directions through the installed ritual circuits.
"My lord—I hope you succeed!" A tremor of excitement ran through Tanasha's heart as she prayed silently.
…
"Node One ready. Node Two verified. Node Three charging preparation…"
Data from the Chip continued to pop up, streams of blue luminous information flickering before Leilin's eyes.
Rumble! The howling Annihilation Storm in the sky seemed to respond to some unseen manipulation, gradually condensing and reshaping itself, gathering behind Leilin.
"Roar, roar…"
The combined storms merged, and black gales swept outward. Rocks and vegetation along their path silently crumbled to ash, closing in around the Blue Mountain King.
"H-How is this possible? How can you—?" The Blue Mountain King's eyes nearly bulged from their sockets.
How could a Third-rank Crystallization wizard wield such tremendous power?
After arriving here, he had clearly scanned with his Soul Force—there were no other wizards lying in ambush, and not a trace of any magical array!
"I can't evade or conceal detection by Soul Force, so I set up nothing here at all…"
Leilin stood above the Annihilation Storm like a deity from another world.
"Therefore, the nearest magical array I arranged is forty-five kilometers away. Through the combined引流 of numerous nodes, I redirect the flow of the underground Annihilation Storm, achieving temporary control! I've named this array formula—Ultra-Long-Range Coordinated Resonance!"
Through subtle influences at distant locations, continuously stacking upon one another, he achieved the ultimate goal of controlling the Annihilation Storm!
It sounded simple, but executing it required computational power so vast it was almost pathological.
Even a single digit's error past the decimal point could cause the Annihilation Storm to spiral completely out of control, and Leilin himself would be the first to be obliterated without a trace.
This level of computational horror was enough to make even the Blue Mountain King feel dizzy after merely simulating it in his mind.
Something that even a Morning Star wizard couldn't accomplish—yet Leilin had done it, because he possessed the Chip! A crystallization of scientific achievement from his previous life, a tool of staggering computational power further enhanced by multiple promotions!
"The Annihilation Storm can obliterate anything below Fourth rank. Today, you shall fall!"
Leilin's expression was serene, devoid of either sorrow or joy.
But under his control, the Annihilation Storm let out a deafening roar. Massive black gales spiraled around the Blue Mountain King, seeking to drag him into the vortex at the center.
"No! I haven't lost yet!"
The Blue Mountain King's eyes turned red, his facial muscles contorted, and he erupted with a savage roar.
Bang! Bang! Bang! On his body, crystalline Soul Force formed defensive membranes as one terrifying magic-grade ornament after another detonated.
The massive explosions generated tremendous propulsive force, temporarily holding the Annihilation Storm at bay.
Seizing this hard-won opportunity, the Blue Mountain King immediately attempted to break out.
"You're not going anywhere!"
A colossal Multi-Armed Clan phantom loomed behind Leilin, waving its arms and roaring. Concentrated streams of the Annihilation Storm converged in Leilin's hands. He stood directly in front of the Blue Mountain King and threw a devastating punch!
BOOM!
Like an ancient serpent's deafening roar, accompanied by howling swathes of the Annihilation Storm, the terrifying energy flow instantly smothered the previous explosions and pierced through to strike the Blue Mountain King.
Crack! Crack!
Even Soul Force, under the onslaught of countless storm fronts, began to drain rapidly. The defensive membrane started to buckle.
Crack! Crack!
Hairline fractures appeared across its surface, and under Leilin's relentless assault, the Blue Mountain King was driven back into the depths of the Annihilation Storm once more.
Gazing at Leilin beyond the storm's edge—who stood like a god of tempests—a trace of despair crept across the Blue Mountain King's face…
BOOM!
As if heaven and earth had detonated, as if the world itself were ending.
Amid the black storms, a brilliant blue light erupted violently, intensifying as it clashed against the darkness, the two forces canceling each other out.
Terrifying waves of energy rippled outward. Silver spatial cracks flickered into existence and vanished.
The black storms howled, but under the blue radiance they grew increasingly faint.
At the same time, the blue light gradually dimmed.
Rumble! The earth's crust heaved. After an apocalyptic magnitude-nine earthquake that seemed to tear the world apart, everything finally fell silent—though the surrounding landscape had been completely transformed.
Even a section of the West Sea Grand Canyon had been utterly destroyed, reduced to a massive wasteland of rubble.
"My lord!"
When Tanasha and Pike rushed onto the scene, this was the sight that greeted them. Panic written across their faces, they searched frantically until they spotted Leilin standing proud and tall atop a massive boulder. Relief and joy surged across their features.
"Mm." Leilin nodded.
His current condition was far from ideal. His body was covered in blue corrosive wounds, tiny blisters forming on their surface, and his chest bore a conspicuous indentation.
In his hand, a crystallized test tube he had prepared earlier held a charred piece of flesh, with faint tendrils still squirming around it.
"I'm fine." Leilin waved his hand, cutting off Tanasha's and Pike's worried inquiries.
"I'm giving you one hour. Search this area immediately and locate flesh that looks like this. Regardless of results, we leave as soon as the hour is up!"
"At once, my lord!"
Watching his subordinates busily set to work below, a wry smile tugged at the corner of Leilin's mouth.
The Blue Mountain King truly lived up to his reputation as a Morning Star wizard. His resolve was absolute—the moment he realized escape was impossible, he had immediately activated some secret technique and detonated his clone.
A Morning Star clone at the peak of Third rank, self-destructing, produced devastating results.
Not only were Leilin's magical arrays utterly shattered, but he himself had sustained severe injuries. It was, by all accounts, a mutual catastrophe.
"But as long as I secure these samples, the trip wasn't in vain!"
Leilin carefully stowed the flesh fragments, and only then did his composure settle.
Though the Blue Mountain King's self-destruction had robbed him of the chance to recover the full body, these scraps of tissue would be more than enough for the Chip to study for a very long time.
And with these samples in hand, the Chip's simulations of the Morning Star realm could be advanced to at least fifty percent completion!
"With this, the conditions are nearly all in place. But I must guard against the Blue Mountain King's retaliation."
Leilin stroked his chin.
He and the Oughterthorn Family had already been locked in a death struggle. Now that a Morning Star wizard's clone had fallen at his hands, the Blue Mountain King would surely fly into a rage.
"I can't stay in my territory any longer. I need to organize an evacuation as soon as possible…"
Leilin's thoughts continued to churn.
Although his Black Fortress sat in the heart of the Ouroboros Ring's territory and currently appeared peaceful, if even
Perhaps, at this point, only the headquarters in Phosphor Marsh remained marginally secure.
Though they had lost their Morning Star combatant, as long as outsiders couldn't confirm it, concealing the truth for a while was still entirely feasible.
Moreover, built upon the accumulated resources of the Ouroboros Ring, along with magical arrays and defensive constructs placed by generations of Morning Star wizards, holding off a single Morning Star wizard for a time was well within their capabilities.
What Leilin needed most right now was time!
Because the Ouroboros Ring's headquarters would inevitably become the primary target for all their enemies. The moment it was confirmed that their Morning Star strength had vanished, they would very likely face a siege by multiple Morning Star wizards.
At that point, the headquarters would become a death trap!
If his other territories fell and Phosphor Marsh came under siege before he advanced to Morning Star, then every wizard at the headquarters would have no way out!