"This is your trump card?"
The Blue Mountain King sneered: "You think you can control the Annihilation Storm? It would be different if my main body were here..."
Even so, a look of deep apprehension still surfaced on his face, and his body involuntarily retreated a few steps.
"How would you know without trying?"
Leilin chuckled softly and abruptly rubbed a ring on his finger.
A strange ripple of energy spread outward like flowing light.
Dozens of kilometers away, Pike stared at the communicator in his hand with a solemn expression and issued the command: "Activate!"
"Begin operations! Energy Reactor One, prepare!" Sluby immediately shouted.
"Elemental Particle Collector complete. Begin crustal resonance!"
Numerous warlocks bustled about like ants, and on the surface of a massive spire reactor, eerie symbols began to light up one by one.
Boom!
In that instant, the earth's crust seemed to come alive as a whole. Massive amounts of energy were swept up and channeled toward Leilin's location.
The intense earthquakes naturally posed no difficulty for the warlocks. Sluby wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, walked over to his grandfather, and said with obvious worry, "Grandfather, do you think Master can succeed? I've never even heard of this theory before... No! Even in my wildest dreams I never could have imagined this! If any single node goes wrong, what awaits Master would probably be..."
Before he could finish, a pair of thick, rough hands pressed down on his shoulders. "Sluby! Trust your master!"
Pike's eyes made no secret of his reverence for Leilin. "He is the most learned scholar and most meticulous wizard I have ever known! Once His Lordship has made a decision, it is absolutely correct. We just need to execute the plan he has laid out!"
After over a century together, Leilin had long since won over these subordinates, both in terms of strength and knowledge.
"Mm!" Sluby nodded firmly, and his earlier worries vanished immediately.
At another location, Tinasia was doing the same thing.
A massive lightning rod, pointing straight up and nearly piercing the sky, stood firmly upon a slab of black rock.
Crackling and flashing! Thunderclouds howled overhead as dragons of lightning writhed within them. Countless blue currents surged into the black rod and were distributed in all directions through the established ritual circuits.
"My Lord! I pray for your success!" A surge of excitement rose in Tinasia's heart as she silently prayed.
...
"Node One ready. Node Two verified. Node Three charging standby..."
Data from the Chip continued to pop up as streams of blue luminous information flickered past Leilin's eyes.
Boom! The Annihilation Storm raging in the sky seemed to come under some form of control, gradually condensing and reshaping itself, gathering behind Leilin.
"Roarrr..."
The storms merged together as black currents of air spread outward. All rocks and vegetation in their path silently crumbled to ash and dissipated, enveloping the Blue Mountain King.
"H-how is this possible? How can you possibly...?" The Blue Mountain King's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.
How could a Third-rank Crystallized wizard wield such immense power?
After arriving here, he had clearly scanned with his Soul Power and found no other wizards lying in ambush, nor any traces of magical arrays!
"I cannot evade or conceal detection by Soul Power, so I didn't set anything up here at all..."
Leilin stood above the Annihilation Storm like a god from another world.
"Therefore, the nearest magical array I set up is over forty-five kilometers away. Through a large number of nodes channeling and redirecting the flow, I manipulate the direction of the underground Annihilation Storm to achieve temporary control! I call this magical array formula—Ultra-Long-Range Cooperative Resonance!"
Through subtle influences applied at various locations, accumulating and compounding, to ultimately achieve control over the Annihilation Storm!
Simple to say, but in practice, the computational requirements were terrifyingly extreme.
Even a minor error in decimal-point-level data could ultimately cause the Annihilation Storm to spiral completely out of control, and Leilin, standing at the forefront, would be the first to be obliterated without a trace.
Such terrifying computational demand made even the Blue Mountain King feel dizzy after merely running a brief mental simulation.
Something even a Morning Star Wizard could not achieve, Leilin had accomplished—because he had the Chip! A crystallization of scientific knowledge from his previous life! A freakishly powerful computational tool that had undergone multiple upgrades!!!
"The Annihilation Storm can destroy anything below Fourth-rank. Today, you are doomed to fall!"
Leilin's expression was serene, showing neither grief nor joy.
But the Annihilation Storm under his control let out a sudden roar. Vast currents of black gale-force wind began to spiral around the Blue Mountain King, seeming to drag him toward the vortex at the center.
"No! I have not yet failed!"
The Blue Mountain King's eyes turned red, the muscles on his face twisted, and he let out a furious roar.
Bang! Bang! Bang! On his body, crystalline Soul Power formed defensive light barriers as one terrifying ornament after another—each one reaching the rank of a Magical Artifact—detonated in succession.
The massive explosions generated tremendous propulsive force, temporarily even holding the Annihilation Storm at bay.
Seizing the opportunity he had so narrowly won, the Blue Mountain King immediately broke toward the outside.