"I appear to be very close to the ruins right now, but in reality..."
Lei Lin gazed at the ethereal spatial projection flickering before him and shook his head.
He had merely found the entrance, but he hadn't entered through the proper channels. Forcing his way in with raw power alone meant that reaching his goal wouldn't be so easy.
The other Wizards who had entered after him were in the same situation.
After all, finding the heir of the ancient Crimson Arc Moon was highly unlikely at this point, so Lei Lin and the others hadn't wasted any effort trying to deduce the proper method of entry.
In any case, for Morning Stars, once the entrance appeared, forcing their way through was merely a matter of time.
It was just that spatial laws were vast and enigmatic. Lei Lin had only barely grasped enough to protect himself, and to fully break through this layer of spatial defense would still require constant deduction and planning.
Likewise, the Morning Stars who entered after him would all have to go through the same ordeal.
This meant that Lei Lin still held a time advantage over those who came after him.
This was precisely why he had used Seibel's power to break through the barrier together and advance the ruins' appearance! Although they had previously signed an agreement on dividing profits, it only covered the distribution of the secret realm as a whole and the subsequent development and allocation of gains. As for how items from the Crimson Arc Moon were to be selected — or rather, regarding the specific distribution of items — it was naturally first come, first served, with those who arrived first holding priority.
Strolling through the spatial corridor felt like wandering through outer space. Nebulae of every conceivable shape surrounded him, and silver spatial storms and turbulence occasionally swept past.
Strange black substance had even condensed along the edges of the corridor, forming peculiar black flower buds. They appeared ready to bloom, yet gave Lei Lin a vague sense of immense danger.
After an indeterminate stretch of walking, the ground suddenly vanished beneath Lei Lin's feet. It felt as though he plummeted from an extreme height, only to be violently caught at the last moment.
When the intense sensation of weightlessness subsided, Lei Lin found himself standing in a small garden. The black flower buds he had seen earlier blanketed every flower bed here and even crept along the fence.
In one corner of the garden, a wooden sign lay half-buried and overturned. The letters on it had long since become illegible, though black tendrils could still be seen crawling across its surface.
"Flowers saturated with malice and danger..." Lei Lin murmured thoughtfully. The Chip rapidly cross-referenced its database but failed to match them to any known ancient plant.
At that very moment, the black petals trembled slightly, then suddenly burst open, revealing blood-red pistils within!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
As if triggered in a chain reaction, countless black flower buds exploded in rapid succession. In an instant, the entire garden was filled with black petals dancing through the air, the vivid red pistils within writhing like the forked tongues of venomous serpents, brimming with lethal menace.
A faint trace of ancient curses and memetic corruption tickled his senses, causing Lei Lin's brow to furrow slightly.
"So that's it! A final defense against intruders... and a warning?"
Lei Lin smiled. His pupils suddenly narrowed into vertical slits, with a thin red line flickering through their centers.
Next, a tremendous and ferocious wave of radiation erupted from his body!
This was the body radiation of a Morning Star Warlock, carrying the bloodline power of the ancient Coamau Giant Serpent! Lei Lin had been suppressing most of it until now, but deliberately releasing it all at once produced terrifying changes!
A layer of five-colored radiance, similar to a rainbow, flickering with green and orange fluorescence, began to spread across the entire garden.
The surrounding air seemed to suddenly grow hazy, carrying a slightly distorted view.
After the wave of radiation passed, space seemed to suddenly become stagnant, the air filled with a faint smell of rusting iron.
All the original colors of the entire garden seemed to have drained away with the previous radiation wave, leaving the entire garden only in shades of black and white, like the oldest photographs.
Crack! Crack!
A fine crack first appeared in a corner, then suddenly spread, covering the entire black-and-white garden, a cracked pattern filling the place.
Bang! Like a glass rod exploding, or a water bottle bursting, after a loud noise that was both muffled and piercing, the entire garden shattered into pieces like an oil painting, revealing the dark space and a silver storm within.
Whoosh! The tornado howled, swallowing up a large amount of the fragments.
The spot was left riddled with damage by the spatial storm. After waiting a few minutes, the silver storm gradually subsided, revealing the broken remains of the garden.
All the original black flower buds in the center had vanished without a trace, and only occasionally a few tattered petals drifted weakly to the ground, filled with a sense of sorrow.