"Chip! Pull up my status panel!" Leilin commanded silently.
"Leilin Farell, Warlock, Fourth Rank. Bloodline: Kemoyin Giant Snake (Complete Form). Strength: 50. Agility: 45. Constitution: 100.2. Spiritual Power: 956.8. Mana: 956 (Mana determined by synchronization with Spiritual Power). Soul Force: 96 (Five Stars)."
Seeing that his constitution had broken past 100, fully resolving the aftereffects of the explosive growth in spiritual power and soul force, Leilin finally let out a sigh of relief.
His fundamental reason for coming to Sky City had been to resolve this very problem.
First had been the amplification of the Secret Energy Scepter, which raised his constitution by two energy levels and twenty points. Then, during the backlash of the Sunfire, fortune had emerged from disaster — the Fire Feather Technique had absorbed a massive amount of the Sunfire's energy, producing a mysterious transformation that pushed Leilin's constitution past the critical threshold of 100!
At this point, his original goal had been fully achieved, though the accompanying side effects were somewhat troublesome.
At the thought of this, a bitter smile tugged at the corner of Leilin's mouth, and his mood soured considerably.
Stuart was, after all, still a wizard of Sky City — and a fifth-rank Radiant Moon at that! Even searching through all of Sky Throne's subordinates, there were few as high-ranking as him.
Now that Stuart had fallen at Leilin's hands, how would the other side react? Even if Sky Throne formally expelled Stuart from their ranks, it was likely nothing more than a temporary measure to avoid provoking Leilin. As for whether they truly harbored no ill will — even Leilin himself wouldn't believe that!
Leilin could shatter this world and simply walk away, but Sky Throne could not. They had to bear the cost of the battle between Leilin and Stuart — repairing the torn world rifts and so forth. After all, their stronghold was right next door; they had no choice but to intervene.
At a time like this, the other party surely hated him to the bone.
Leilin could now be said to have provoked the entirety of Sky City's forces.
After all, Leilin had previously only used world coordinates and a portion of Sky City's wizards to pressure Stuart, leaving the latter humiliated and embarrassed. That had still been within the bounds of tolerance.
But directly killing him — that would probably make even Wells and the people behind him feel the chill of shared fate.
By this reasoning, everyone in Sky City from top to bottom held no goodwill toward Leilin, and some might even make a direct move against him.
"This is really... quite the trouble..." Leilin was still smiling bitterly, but the cold light in his eyes grew increasingly sharp.
For him, if others schemed against him, they had better be prepared for retaliation.
Besides... a Dawn Sun wizard — was that really so impressive?
With the Chip, the Wisdom Ancient Tree's teachings, and even the Kemoyin bloodline, Leilin had full confidence in his future advancement to the Dawn Sun rank — and even beyond it!
"But I still have to face practical problems! Right now, I can barely handle a New Moon-rank Radiant Moon wizard. By activating my bloodline imprint, I can even threaten a Full Moon-rank Radiant Moon!"
Leilin had an accurate assessment of his own combat strength.
"But the Son of the Sun's bloodline imprint only has one activation left! Once it's used, it's gone! And even with an attack from the ancient Son of the Sun, a Full Moon-rank Radiant Moon wizard still has a certain chance of survival. As for a Dawn Sun Throne, they could absolutely withstand it — it just depends on how much they have to pay..."
"Therefore, if I show myself now, there's a chance that a Full Moon-rank Radiant Moon or even a Dawn Sun wizard, wary of my growth potential, could move to eliminate me! If they do, I'll have absolutely no way to fight back!"
This was exactly why Leilin had been hiding and why he hadn't returned to the Ouroboros Circle's headquarters.
Although the situation outside was unlikely to escalate to that extent, Leilin always preferred to assume the worst when calculating his enemies' intentions.
If he were truly caught by a Dawn Sun Throne, then even with every trump card played, he would still have no chance of survival.
Life was only given once, and Leilin didn't believe he'd get another chance to transmigrate after death.
"I'm afraid that until I advance to the Radiant Moon rank, I'll have to stay hidden behind the scenes!" Leilin sighed.
Once he reached the fifth-rank Radiant Moon, with the warlock's bloodline bonus plus his own methods and trump cards, escaping from a Dawn Sun wizard would become a possibility.
And if he could manage that, he would stand at the absolute peak of the entire Central Continent's wizards! He would never again need to fear any hidden arrows or open spears.
"Fifth-rank Radiant Moon..." Leilin sighed. "The bloodline shackles of a Kemoyin Warlock — how could they be so easily overcome? But no matter how difficult, I must break through. Otherwise, I'll probably have to hide for the rest of my life. At that point, I might as well just start over in an alien world!"
With that thought, Leilin opened the Arcane Signal Book in his hand and tapped on a pattern depicting a Kemoyin Giant Snake.
After a burst of crackling sounds, Gilbert's somewhat excited voice came through from the other end: "Leilin! Is that you?"
"It's me!" Leilin replied concisely. Although the Arcane Signal had its limitations, since both users were Morning Star wizards, the use of soul force to boost the signal greatly extended its range.
"It's really great that you're all right. Tsk tsk... you've really stirred up quite the commotion! Emma and Furui have both been terribly worried about you!" Unsurprisingly, Leilin heard Gilbert's bitter laugh from the other end of the Arcane Signal.