"Success!"
Watching the golden lion phantom not far away, trapped within the blood-red magical array and still roaring furiously, Leilin clenched his fist tightly.
Since he had dared to formulate the replacement plan, he naturally also had a way to extricate himself.
The captured notebook was marked with many important locations, and this energy hub was naturally among the most critical. Leilin was certain that once this place was discovered, the hidden defense mechanism lurking in the shadows would activate immediately!
And that was his opportunity!
After all, he had deliberately avoided many magical arrays along the way and hadn't used his Morning Star techniques on a large scale, making himself seem relatively harmless. With such a terrifying fifth-level warlock right nearby, it went without saying which one the defense mechanism would target first.
A fifth-level Radiant Moon warlock was no pushover—even in the ancient era, such a powerhouse would have dominated a region.
The collision between these two forces immediately began ravaging the surrounding landscape, making the already chaotic area even more devastated.
Even if there had been any trouble or clues left behind before, they would quickly be wiped away under such a barrage.
Leilin watched the still-roaring golden lion phantom, let out a cold smirk, and let his body completely fade into the void.
The ruins held no further appeal for him now—on the contrary, the danger had increased dramatically. There was no benefit in forcing himself to stay, and Leilin immediately decided to withdraw.
Half a month later, in the Phosphorescent Marsh, at the headquarters of the Ouroboros Ring—within Leilin's massive castle.
"How are things at the Crimson Arc Moon ruins?"
Leilin was wearing a loose outer robe, his expression relaxed as he conversed with someone through the screen before him.
On the screen,
"It's been confirmed. The entire Crimson Arc Moon ruins have shut down—all coordinates have become invalid. It's estimated they underwent a spatial jump!"
Paul's expression was grim.
Leilin, thanks to the guidance in the notebook, had exited safely through an established spatial passage without any incident. As a result, he had missed the massive changes that subsequently occurred within the ruins—and, of course, had avoided the danger as well.
It was only after Paul and the others stumbled out in disarray that Leilin learned what had happened inside the ruins afterward.
It turned out that the ancient wizards of the Crimson Arc Moon had even left behind an alchemical golem within the ruins to serve as the control hub.
This alchemical golem had already developed fully humanized intelligence and could think like a normal person—it merely still possessed the programming to obey orders.
More importantly, this alchemical golem had not only mastered all the ancient magical arrays within the ruins, but could also recharge by devouring the essence cores of Morning Star wizards!
During the previous battle, once it realized it couldn't overcome the fifth-level Radiant Moon warlock
Massive ancient magical arrays materialized, immediately inflicting heavy losses on Paul and his companions.
These magical arrays, specially constructed by ancient wizards, meant doom even for Morning Star wizards. Blay of the Psychic Circle and another Morning Star fell outright. The Wind Wolf Den suffered the same fate—Philip was gravely wounded, Bellis killed instantly. Even the strongest among them, Hebrew, was severely injured, with rumors saying he was on the verge of falling from the Morning Star rank.
Naturally, the Thunder of Jupiter on the other side fared no better. They lost at least half their numbers, and every survivor was wounded.
Empowered by the numerous essence cores it had devoured, the alchemical golem displayed terrifying might. With the aid of the many ancient magical arrays, it even managed to wound Wade—ultimately driving him out.
The other Morning Star wizards had no choice but to fight their way out. Paul was considered lucky—he blundered straight into a spatial rift and was transported to the edge of the
Since that day, the entire Crimson Arc Moon ruins had vanished from the Crystal Mountain Range. No matter how subsequent wizards tried to investigate, they could find no trace of it.
According to the judgment of certain authoritative experts, the alchemical golem must have, after receiving sufficient energy, directly initiated a spatial jump and transported the entire ruins away.
At that point, the wizards could only give up in resignation, abandoning their plans to profit further.
As for Leilin himself? He had fabricated a plausible lie, claiming he'd gained little after entering the secret realm and had immediately withdrawn upon discovering the fifth-level battle.
This naturally aroused suspicion from Hebrew and the others, but it was merely suspicion. Given their drastically weakened strength, they had no standing to confront Leilin.
Moreover, the appearance of another figure immediately drew away most of the fire.
"By the way, have they found Seibel?" Leilin asked with a straight face, suppressing his laughter.
Due to Wade's accusations and other corroborating evidence, the Morning Star wizards unanimously agreed that Seibel, the Ocean Giant of Jupiter, had obtained the most wealth within the ruins—even penetrating the core control chamber.
The Thunder of Jupiter's response was quite peculiar—they declared that Seibel had already fallen and perished, and that even the Sea Race divine egg within the Wizard Tower had been destroyed. This naturally provoked widespread skepticism.
But the warlock faction led by Wade had always been adversarial toward them and naturally received no response, only able to secretly gather intelligence.
"No! You know how troublesome it is to divine a Morning Star wizard! The manifestation of the Morning Star domain and the wizard's own radiation interference—even a Radiant Moon wizard specializing in divination can't handle it. You'd need at least a Sunrise Throne, and one that specializes in divination at that..."
Paul said with a bitter smile. A Sunrise Throne specializing in divination? Leilin chuckled to himself—such an existence had never yet appeared on the Central Continent.
"We all took devastating losses this time. You're the only one who came out with decent returns!"
There was an unusual hint of envy in Paul's tone as he stared at the area around Leilin's right ear.
Leilin smiled and touched his earlobe. There, a crescent-shaped ornament covered the outer ear, forming an arc of moonlight.
This was a high-grade magical artifact—the Crimson Pendant! Once he had confirmed there was no danger, Leilin had immediately put it on.
A high-grade magical artifact! Even Morning Star wizards would be green with envy—after all, the raw materials for such items had vanished from the Central Continent years ago, let alone the ability to forge another.
Perhaps only those Sunrise Throne powers that had explored other foreign worlds and obtained substantial resources from them could possess even a few such items.
The vast majority of magical artifacts Leilin had seen before were low-grade—he had rarely even encountered mid-grade ones. The value of this high-grade artifact was therefore unimaginable.
Seeing that Leilin had not only emerged unscathed but had also made such a tremendous gain, it was no wonder Paul felt a twinge of jealousy.
Revealing this magical artifact had been a carefully considered move on Leilin's part. His earlier behavior had been somewhat suspicious, and as one of the first wizards to enter, emerging empty-handed would have attracted far too much attention.
But now, the appearance of the Crimson Pendant provided a perfectly reasonable explanation for everything.
Paul asked himself—even if he had been the one to find the Crimson Pendant, he probably would have been satisfied enough to stop searching and look for a way out.
What was even more fortuitous was that the complete disappearance of the Crimson ruins had rendered most of the contract Leilin had previously signed with them void—he didn't even need to bring out his findings for redistribution.
After all, when they had originally divided the spoils, they had included the entire ruins as a major portion. Now that everything was gone, the contract naturally lost its effect.
For Leilin, this was undoubtedly excellent news.
He had already planned to guard the secret of the Wisdom Ancient Tree closely. After all, it was merely information and wouldn't take up any share of the spoils. When the time came, he could conceal that piece of intelligence, present all his other findings for fair distribution, and slip through without issue.
But now it was even better—he had claimed the entire share all for himself.
Since the previous agreement was void, whatever anyone had obtained in the ruins was rightfully theirs. Even if Paul was jealous, there was nothing he could do.
Not to mention that with a high-grade magical artifact, Leilin's strength would surely increase considerably. With Hebrew severely wounded, even if they wanted to turn against Leilin, they couldn't—their strength was simply inferior!
More than that, with the Psychic Circle and the Wind Wolf Den suffering devastating losses and their Morning Star members falling one after another, their rule faced serious challenges. Previous enemies were beginning to stir.
At this precarious moment, they were even more eager to win over Leilin—an external ally with whom they already had a decent relationship—than to push him toward the enemy's side.
And so, this matter passed without incident.
"If you don't count the two Radiant Moon wizards!" Leilin added silently to himself.
Although he believed he had done his best in every regard, he couldn't guarantee that absolutely no traces remained. Setting everything else aside, if the Crimson Arc Moon ruins were ever discovered again—or even breached—a thorough on-site investigation could very well uncover the flaws.
And a Radiant Moon wizard's capabilities included many things he couldn't anticipate, so there were still some hidden risks.
But for the sake of obtaining all this, what was a mere gamble?
Besides, Wade—the Radiant Moon warlock on his side—remained convinced that Seibel the Ocean Giant was the true culprit, which indirectly reduced the pressure on Leilin considerably. He had already offended that Radiant Moon wizard of the Thunder of Jupiter long ago, so a little more hatred wouldn't make a difference.
"By the way, Lord Leilin, your gains from the Crimson Arc Moon this time were quite substantial. I happen to have some things as well. Why don't we... trade with each other? What do you say?"
At the end of it all, Paul finally revealed the true purpose of this call.
Although both he and Leilin had obtained some things from the ruins this time, they weren't necessarily useful to each other, so an exchange of equivalent value was a necessity.