Listening to the leader of this mission grumble, Leilin remained silent.
The large alien tribe he had previously slaughtered was not a Fire Elemental tribe, but had clearly been swayed by that Morning Star-level Fire Elemental Elder, even developing a faith that resembled fire worship.
Perhaps they were still aliens, but the warlocks certainly showed no special treatment or leniency toward them. Although the Warlock Alliance claimed to accept all bloodline bearers, that was obviously just a slogan — hear it and let it pass, and anyone foolish enough to truly believe it was a fool.
Leilin himself understood the ins and outs quite well. If a tribe had the protection of a Morning Star, it might hold some standing within the Warlock Alliance and could provide a little help to its own people.
But if a tribe lacked such protection, it would likely have to struggle bitterly while enduring all manner of exploitation and oppression.
After all, the ones truly in charge within the Warlock Alliance were the lofty Bloodline Warlocks!
They neither considered themselves human nor alien, so their attitude toward pure alien races remained rather ambiguous.
As for traitors who had not yet joined the Alliance but had defected to the enemy — there was even less room for sentiment there.
Of course, Leilin had absolutely no desire to involve himself in such messes. For him, he had accepted the mission and completed it successfully, so he had received his payment. Simple as that.
Prolonged consecutive reconnaissance and combat had already left him feeling somewhat irritable, and his experience from his previous life gave him an uneasy premonition.
Why would a Morning Star-level Fire Elemental Elder appear here? And not only that, but it had also lured many alien tribes to its side. Had it not been discovered and dealt with in time, the entire region would likely have descended into utter chaos.
But what worried Leilin even more was something else. The moment he realized the elder had begun spreading a faith, he immediately grew alert.
Gathering believers and spreading faith — that was a very dangerous signal! Especially for someone like Leilin, who, with knowledge from his previous life and an understanding drawn from various records, legends, and even far-fetched tales, knew something about the gods of the West.
This kind of evangelistic behavior was clearly different from what high-level wizards did, and it was not the sort of natural worship practiced by primitive barbarian tribes either. This was true gods spreading their faith!
Not only this fire worship, but also the earlier resurrection and conspiracy of the Gluttony King Belusebabu — all of it gave Leilin a bad feeling.
Although Leilin in his previous life had rarely ventured into religious knowledge and studies, he could not possibly be wrong about something like this!
Of course, it was entirely possible this was just his own wishful speculation. After all, he did not truly know what the World of Gods was like. Many texts from the ancient era had not touched upon the subject.
And the moment the World of Gods had appeared, it immediately led to the decline of the World of Wizards, which meant very few ancient texts from that period survived. Even with Leilin's current standing, he had managed to collect only a scant few.
Therefore, this could very well be nothing more than a misunderstanding, but Leilin had no intention of getting further involved.
Shallow as his knowledge might be, he knew that any true deity from the World of Gods was at minimum a rank six existence who had mastered some form of authority or rule. Such beings were far beyond what Leilin could even aspire to reach at this stage. Once caught up in that kind of colossal maelstrom, with his current strength, it would be nothing short of a death sentence.
Only accept burdens commensurate with your ability — that had always been Leilin's guiding principle, and it was the reason he had managed to survive until now. He had a very clear sense of his own limitations. As for the struggle between the gods and the World of Wizards? Let the tall ones hold up the sky. Never mind the Underground — even on the Central Continent, there were still plenty of Radiant Sun Throne holders!
Leilin politely declined the burly man's sincere offer to stay, then used the Starry Space to teleport instantly back to the Phosphorescent Fire Swamp.
A flash of blue light, and from the vast and boundless Astral Gate, Leilin's figure strode out.
"This feeling of long-distance teleportation is really…"
Leilin shook his head and chuckled. Back when he was at the second rank, the spatial pressure had nearly killed him. Now, it was nothing more than a gentle breeze against his skin, unable to affect him in the slightest.
"Welcome home, Master!" A green spirit identical to the tower spirit from before flapped its wings and flew to Leilin's side.
"Mm." Leilin nodded. The moment his Chip linked with it, everything that had occurred in the wizard tower recently became crystal clear in his mind.
Behind him, the massive Astral Gate ceased its rumbling, and the blue flames on its surface began to fade.
Once the light dissipated, the Astral Gate returned to its ancient, unadorned stone-door state. Teleportation through the Starry Space required both Astral Gates to sync simultaneously, and Leilin had naturally entrusted his side to the unwaveringly loyal tower spirit to operate.
"Well done." Leilin nodded in approval.
"It is my honor to serve you, Master!" The tower spirit, which had inherited half of the Chip's intelligent program, maintained its same cold expression, its voice betraying not the slightest fluctuation.
Leilin was long accustomed to this. After all, one could not ask too much of a simulated program. He was a pragmatist — the fact that the tower spirit would never betray him due to the Chip's program commands was what truly mattered.
After stepping out of the room housing the Astral Gate, he found himself in a corridor lined with numerous laboratories and containment chambers. Several terrifying adamantine and mithril golems, as well as Void Assassins, materialized and vanished along the hallway from time to time.