Vast and elegant, the phantom of the Comorin Snake Emperor — radiating a noble, regal bearing — materialized behind Leilin. A torrent of crimson energy enveloped his entire body.
"Hiss..."
The Snake Emperor let out a roar, and before it a black hole seemed to be born, devouring everything in its vicinity — ice water, soil, rock, even debris and the void itself.
Once the massive quantity of material had vanished into the serpent's maw, Leilin felt a surge of tremendous life energy begin to circulate through his body.
Sizzle! First his bones, then his internal organs and flesh, and then his skin — with the aid of this vast life force, the injuries covering his body began to heal at a terrifying speed.
"Could this be the devouring ability of the Comorin Snake Emperor?" Leilin's mind stirred.
In the next instant, his arm went numb as the severed limb began to regenerate. In barely a dozen seconds, his grievous wounds had fully healed.
This speed left even Leilin somewhat stunned. "With this rate of recovery, I could heal quickly even during a Radiant Moon-level battle — and with my body alone, I could withstand a Morning Star's killing strike and recover instantly!"
"If the devouring ability is this terrifying, then what about the dominion ability from before?"
Leilin considered. Information on the Comorin Snake Emperor existed only from the ancient era, and much of what the Chip had obtained was self-inferred combined with bloodline memories, making it rather sparse.
But even from the text alone, he could tell that the dominion ability the Comorin Snake Emperor wielded over all Comorin Warlocks was such that even if a Morning Star-level Comorin Warlock were ordered to die, the victim would have no power to resist.
"Hiss..."
Though Leilin had fully recovered, the phantom of the Comorin Giant Serpent behind him was not satisfied. It burst through the layers of earth and soared into midair.
A terrifying pulling force emerged, dragging everything nearby — living or not — toward the black hole within the serpent's maw.
Moreover, the range of this pull instantly surpassed the bounds of the Ice Castle and began radiating outward in all directions.
Leilin watched as several powerful creatures that had reached the strength of Third-rank Crystalization were torn directly from the void by the suction force and swallowed into the black hole.
Virtually every creature in the Ice World, upon sensing the majesty of the Comorin Snake Emperor, automatically lowered its head in reverence, trembling too fiercely to move.
The vast life energy accumulated in greater and greater amounts until it eventually formed a cocoon of light that enclosed Leilin.
Behind him, the phantom of the Comorin Snake Emperor roared ceaselessly, devouring nearly the entirety of the central ice plains before retreating contentedly into the cocoon.
Inside the cocoon, Leilin was undergoing a wondrous transformation.
The immense power of his bloodline, combined with the surging life energy, drove him to assault the threshold of Rank Five!
Rank Five — also known as Radiant Moon! In the entire central continent, there were likely fewer than twenty such beings, their status surpassed only by those on the Dawn Sun Throne.
It was, in fact, precisely because a few Radiant Moon Warlocks had existed that the legacy of bloodline warlocks had been preserved!
For Leilin, this breakthrough held even greater significance — for he had finally shattered the shackles of the Comorin Giant Serpent and possessed the means and ability to challenge Rank Five!
"My soul strength had already reached the peak of Morning Star — the very threshold for advancement — after fusing the Fire Feather Art. What had truly been limiting my breakthrough to Fifth-rank Radiant Moon was the Meditation Method and the bloodline problem. But now..."
Leilin smiled calmly. Under the combined assault of the Fifth-rank Comorin Snake Emperor bloodline, this advancement was proceeding with extraordinary smoothness.
The Fifth Layer of the Comorin's Eye Meditation Method, freshly deduced by the Chip, began to circulate slowly.
Hum!
In his Sea of Consciousness, the singularity spun at furious speed, its density surging as the surrounding nebulae entered a new phase of frenzied expansion.
And upon the surface of the singularity, a layer of delicate black runes slowly materialized.
Through the Chip's soul-detection capabilities, Leilin could observe the True Spirit at the center of the singularity, which had begun its own evolution.
The soul, already at the absolute limit of Morning Star, suddenly expanded, taking on the shape of a full moon — brilliantly radiant and flawless, suffused with a sense of perfect wholeness.
A continuous stream of soul power flowed into it, causing a cool, pale luminescence to ripple across the moon's surface.
When the transformation was complete, Leilin's soul — already a full size larger than that of an ordinary Radiant Moon wizard — was traced with fine soul power that gleamed like a crescent moon, radiating intense light.
"My current soul power is nowhere near sufficient to fill a Radiant Moon True Spirit. It can occupy less than half the volume, which is why from the outside it still looks like a crescent moon!"
Leilin suddenly gained a measure of understanding regarding the cultivation of Radiant Moon wizards.
During the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Rank stages, wizards undergo the tempering of soul power. The Fourth Rank — Morning Star — is still a stage of exploration. But the Fifth Rank — Radiant Moon — is where one truly enters the discipline.
A soul like a luminous moon represents perfection, and the remaining task for a Fifth Rank wizard is to fill the True Spirit completely with one's own soul power.