"Hmph! Count yourself lucky!"
Stuart shot Leilin a venomous glance before his entire body dissolved into wisps of black smoke and dissipated.
"What are you waiting for? Let's go!" Leilin straightened his clothes, his face betraying neither joy nor anger, making it impossible for Bofiel to read any expression.
"You... you... you..."
Bofiel stammered, his pointing finger trembling. "You actually blocked a strike from Lord Stuart? He's a fifth-tier Radiant Moon Wizard! Wait — what did he just say? Five-star! You've reached five-star?!"
A storm of emotions churned in Bofiel's heart. Leilin had reached five-star — what did that even mean?
Among the Morning Stars of the Central Continent, fewer than thirty had energy intensity at the five-star level. As such, Leilin now stood at the very pinnacle of the entire Central Continent's Morning Stars.
Moreover, to have withstood a fifth-tier Radiant Moon strike? Bofiel looked at Leilin, increasingly feeling that the other party was a genius or monster on par with Wells.
"Little Wells, you've finally found your match!" Bofiel thought bitterly to himself. He then stepped forward and looked at Leilin, feeling rather at a loss.
"Let's hurry — we shouldn't keep His Highness waiting!"
Leilin said this with perfect consideration.
He had already figured out Stuart's intentions. The other party's sudden appearance was clearly meant to catch him off guard. If Stuart could capture him outright, that would be ideal. Even if he couldn't, the incident would plant a seed of distrust in Bofiel's heart — and once that surfaced during the audience with the Sky Throne, Leilin would be finished.
Leilin certainly had the patience for this. Although he had already mentally written Stuart off as a dead man, not a hint of it showed on his face.
"Oh! Right! We can't keep His Highness waiting!" Bofiel snapped back to his senses.
After passing through the garden, vast numbers of exquisitely crafted buildings connected together, forming a flawless circuit formation.
The pure white marble columns were adorned with green vines, but once the Chip scanned them, it returned an abundance of wizardry circuits.
"This kind of construction?"
Leilin was startled, recalling a type of structure he had seen in the Great Library. "Could this be a Perpetual Motion Wheel?"
"Yes! It's the Perpetual Motion Wheel — a device that, according to legend, can operate eternally without any external energy source!"
Bofier's voice carried a hint of nostalgia. "The Sages of our Sky City all lent their efforts, and together with His Highness, they refined this concept into the power source for the entire Aerial Garden."
"Unfortunately, it still falls short of the legendary Perpetual Motion device that provides energy endlessly. The Sky Garden here still requires 9,826 Magic Stones' worth of energy every month, and there's no way to scale it up to cover the entire Floating City..."
"Just consuming this small amount of energy to sustain the Aerial Garden for an entire month is already incredibly impressive!" A look of genuine admiration surfaced on Leilin's face.
As for applying it to the Floating City? If that were possible, the skies over the Central Continent would have been filled with Floating Cities long ago. There wouldn't be only one Sky City.
Still muttering his admiration, Leilin walked into the palace by himself, leaving Bofier behind outside. He had originally wanted to pull the other man along, but Bofier had flatly refused, leaving Leilin somewhat speechless and struck by the awe-inspiring majesty of the Sky Throne.
The towering white gate rose dozens of meters high, constructed entirely from jade, radiating an aura of sacred solemnity. Standing before it, Leilin felt like an ordinary person who had suddenly been transported to the kingdom of giants.
"Not a trace of wizardry or forbidden law fluctuations?" A faint blue light flashed across the bottom of Leilin's eyes as he scanned the massive gate pillars and the colossal statue before them.
"Is it that I simply cannot detect the Dawn Sun's arrangements, or... for the Sky Throne, these things simply no longer matter?"
Leilin was more inclined to believe the latter, though he secretly wished for the former.
"Still..." Leilin touched the white gloves on his hand as though drawing strength from them, took a deep breath, and stepped up to the gate.
As if sensing Leilin's arrival, the gate groaned open with a thunderous rumble, revealing a vast, empty space within.
Clang!!! Once Leilin stepped into the palace, the gate slammed shut behind him, the deafening sound echoing through the hall.
"This place?"
Leilin looked around in surprise, finding himself in an enormous ceremonial hall. The walls on both sides were adorned with countless religious paintings, most depicting scenes of human Wizards locked in battle with alien races, with the occasional demon or other creature appearing among them. The further inward he looked, the more abstract the paintings became, until the final ones were nothing but meaningless clusters of lines.
Directly across from Leilin stood a colossal sculpture — a human figure with six pairs of wings emerging from a massive seashell, flanked by angels blowing sacred trumpets and handmaidens scattering flower petals.
The lines of the entire sculpture were strikingly lifelike, brimming with a sense of fluid vitality.
In particular, the statue's eyes, forged from black pearls, seemed almost alive — and they had turned their gaze directly upon Leilin.
"Leilin Farell!" A vast, resonant voice echoed through the hall.
"Hmm?!" Leilin snapped his gaze toward the beautiful male statue with six pairs of wings.