Inside the Wizard Tower, in a secret chamber, beside the Pool of Sighs.
Jessiah had been silent the entire time. Only after Loche departed did he turn his head mechanically, pulling back the sleeve on his right arm.
On his right arm, the skin that should have been perfectly smooth was instead covered in ridges and depressions, forming the eerie visage of a woman's face.
"How do you feel about the Ouroboros Circle?"
Gurgle! Gurgle! Two slits opened to form the woman's eyes, brimming with a lively, spirited quality.
"You're currently in the midst of deep transformation — your true form probably can't be dispatched easily…"
The mysterious woman's voice from before rang out once more.
"You mean we should let this opportunity slip?" Jessiah raised an eyebrow.
"No! We—" The woman's voice gradually faded, quickly drowned out by the crashing of the dark pool water nearby……
……
Above the troposphere, vast clusters of white clouds gathered together, stretching endlessly in every direction like an ocean of white jade.
A streak of black light rippled across the surface of this jade sea. Within the light was a sleek, streamlined private airship, its hull shimmering with a faint luminous energy shield that kept the interior perfectly calm.
Inside the bedroom, Leylin sat cross-legged upon a platform, the phantom silhouette of a Comoyin Giant Serpent slowly materializing behind him.
The fire-red glow fluctuated between bright and dim, lending the serpentine phantom behind him an increasingly dreamlike quality. The crimson stripes along its body grew ever finer and more intricate, making the creature appear all the more regal.
Daily meditation was Leylin's unshakable discipline. Even after reaching the peak of the Morning Star realm, he had never abandoned it.
As large quantities of darkness-attributed and flame-attributed particles were drawn in by his soul force, the serpentine phantom behind Leylin let out a low hiss before slowly retreating back into his body.
Whoosh! Leylin opened his eyes, and it seemed as though bolts of lightning were flashing through the entire bedroom.
"After the Chip's optimization and fusion with the Fire Feather Technique, the Comoyin Eye Meditation Method is at least 1.5 times more effective than before!"
This was the most precise figure he had obtained through his own experimentation.
And with the Sun's Wing top-tier Meditation Method as a benchmark, Leylin knew full well that, aside from lacking sufficient layers, the Comoyin Eye Meditation Method was already remarkably close to a top-tier Meditation Method.
With that thought, Leylin sank his consciousness into the Chip: "What are the inference results for the fifth layer of the Comoyin Eye Meditation Method?"
"Ding! Seventy-six point five percent complete! The remaining portion is still being optimized!" The Chip's mechanical voice reported faithfully.
"At this rate, the fifth layer of the Meditation Method will be fully deduced before long!" A look of delight surfaced on Leylin's face.
Comoyin Giant Serpent Warlocks, due to the shackles of their bloodline, had never produced a single existence that broke past the fourth-tier Morning Star realm. As a result, the specialized bloodline Meditation Method — the Comoyin Eye — had only four layers.
This, too, was a form of bloodline shackling! The Meditation Method itself placed a ceiling on the breakthrough potential of Comoyin Warlocks!
But now, Leylin had discovered a glimmer of hope for breaking those shackles! The Meditation Method was only one aspect, yet it was equivalent to prying open a crack in what had been an airtight seal! All that remained was to widen the gap.
As long as he persisted, Leylin believed that one day, the bloodline shackles of the Warlock would pose absolutely no barrier to him!
"The Meditation Method is only one aspect of the Warlock's bloodline shackles, and its proportion is still quite small. The most fundamental issue lies in the bloodline restrictions themselves, and in the limitations of the soul…"
Thinking of this, Leylin's expression grew somewhat somber. Although he had confidence in his future, he would not allow that confidence to make light of the difficulties before him.
"The absolute limit of the Comoyin Giant Serpent's own power is the fourth tier. And having fused with its bloodline and soul, my original soul cap is also only at the fourth tier!"
After reaching the Morning Star realm, bloodline restrictions would manifest as soul limitations! This was the true face of bloodline shackling!
The soul was far too vast and complex a domain. Even a fourth-tier Morning Star Wizard had only managed to grope along a single corner of it.
"How does one break past the soul's limitations?" Leylin stroked his chin. "Would I need to conduct experiments in bloodline synthesis or bloodline refinement?"
With the voluminous experimental records of the ancient Quicksand organization at his disposal, Leylin was certainly no stranger to this field — in fact, he possessed a great deal of experience in it.
To refine or synthesize the Comoyin Giant Serpent's bloodline into something new — in all of the Central Continent, perhaps only Leylin possessed the confidence to attempt it!
"However! An artificially synthesized bloodline will always carry flaws. It simply cannot match the vitality and vigor of a bloodline selected through the natural winnowing of evolution and history!"