A total of three Dark Beast Emperors had come to launch their surprise attack.
This blue giant ape was clearly far smarter than its two companions — it had harbored thoughts of escape from the very beginning, secretly creeping toward the edge of the battlefield.
Once it saw Leylin unfurl his Morning Star Domain, it fled for its life without a shred of hesitation.
Unfortunately, such petty tricks were nothing but a joke before a Morning Star.
"Bloodline Drain!"
A flash of crimson light blazed through Leylin's eyes, filling the giant ape with the sensation of imminent catastrophe. But under the suppression of the Morning Star Domain, it had absolutely no power to resist.
Pearl after pearl of blood seeped from its pores, rapidly condensing and coalescing into Leylin's hand.
As massive amounts of blood were drained away, the giant ape's life force grew weaker and weaker, until its howls degenerated into pitiful whimpering.
Thud! The withered, massive corpse toppled to the ground and crumbled into countless nutritionless fragments.
"Ding! Faint ancient bloodline aura detected. Bloodline origin identified as Water Monkey," the Chip reported swiftly.
"Oh? Not bad! No wonder it was considerably cleverer than the other Dark Beasts." Leylin glanced briefly at the crimson crystal shard tinged with a hint of blue that had formed in his hand, then stowed it away without ceremony.
The terrifying Bloodline Drain continued, but the bloodline crystals it produced were of so little interest to Leylin that he couldn't even be bothered to collect them. He tossed them casually to Xiling, Will, and the others behind him, who received them as though they had found priceless treasures.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The rival race's Wizards, regardless of how powerful they might have been, were like ants beneath the Domain. One by one, their bloodlines were drained dry, and they collapsed to the ground as desiccated husks.
In the span of just a few breaths, the vast majority of the alien forces had vanished entirely. Only shattered corpses littered the ground — every trace of vitality had been carried away with their blood, leaving behind remains that were worse than dirt and would soon dissipate into nothing.
When Leylin finally withdrew his Morning Star Domain, the Wizards who had accompanied him looked on in horror. Apart from Alesha, who remained kneeling, and a scant handful of Matrons who had followed her lead in prostrating themselves, every last member of the alien alliance — including the Dark Elves who had previously been vacillating — had been completely exterminated!
In a single move! Several Third-Tier Emperors, along with over a century of accumulated strength from the allied races, all reduced to nothing but dust!
The surrounding Wizards nearly fainted on the spot, convinced they were hallucinating.
…
In a passage of pure white around them, Leylin stood with his hands clasped behind his back, observing his surroundings with idle curiosity. Xiling trailed behind him, continuously reporting on one matter after another.
"Every academy has sworn renewed allegiance and is willing to follow the commands of the Alliance of Nature. The alien alliance has been completely annihilated — congratulations, the entire Dark Region has once again fallen prostrate at your feet!"
"Oh." Leylin responded with a perfunctory murmur, his eyes still examining the frost patterns on the walls, as though the entire Dark Region were not as important as a single shard of ice.
Seeing him like this, Xiling could only sigh inwardly. In days past, she would have been thoroughly intoxicated by such immense power.
But now, after the experiences she had undergone, she had grown somewhat weary of the struggle for dominance.
"There's more! The Wizard Alliance has already crushed the Dwarf Kingdom and the Goblin Mechanical Capital, reducing all the non-human races to slavery!" Xiling swept back the hair behind her ears and continued her report.
The deterrence of a Morning Star was immense. After Leylin had displayed his overwhelming power, the other wizards and non-human races immediately understood what true, crushing despair felt like.
While clever strategies could compensate for a certain gap in strength, once the chasm between two sides reached the level of heaven and earth, no amount of scheming could bridge it.
As a result, the human factions quickly unified, rallying under Leylin's banner.
And the non-human races, having lost a great number of their powerhouses and even their leaders, had not the slightest resistance left to offer against the human wizards' counterattack.
"Furthermore, the Dark Elves — High Matriarch Alisha has retreated to her original territory and is willing to sign an unbreakable oath with us humans, pledging that the Dark Elves will forever serve as vassals and servants of mankind!"
Such a racial oath came with extremely harsh conditions. Any violation would trigger a backlash powerful enough to wipe out an entire race, so for the Dark Elves, this was merely a choice slightly better than total annihilation.
Even last time, Leylin had only driven them to the fringes of the Dark Polar Region, demanding periodic tribute. He had never forced them into an oath of this magnitude.
But now, having witnessed the destruction of the Dwarves and Goblins, this choice was looking rather appealing to the Dark Elves.
"That Alisha certainly knows her place!"
Leylin chuckled, which left Xiling a bit jealous. A sudden sense of crisis flickered through her heart.
Passing through an icy corridor, Leylin and Xiling arrived before a massive rift. A torrent of freezing wind howled out of the fissure, carrying with it blade-like shards of ice.
Hum! A green defensive barrier shimmered into existence around Xiling, but under the relentless erosion of the cold energy, it began to falter. Xiling's expression shifted again and again.
The frigid gale surging from the underground cave was powerful enough that even a Second Order Wizard could not withstand it!
Just as Xiling felt the biting cold about to seep into her body, Leylin finally acted. Black flames formed a wall of fire before them, shutting out every trace of the freezing onslaught.