It felt as though he had been falling for an eternity. When Leilin's feet finally touched the ground, he was struck by a sensation of having been separated from the world for a thousand years.
"Where... am I?"
Leilin gazed at the gray mountain mist and the dark forest not far away, sinking into contemplation.
"Kraa kraa kraa!!!"
A crow with three blood-red eyes flapped its wings and took flight from a tree branch beside him, shaking loose several black feathers. Its piercing cry echoed far into the distance.
"Chip!" Leilin instinctively commanded.
[Beep! Scanning surrounding environment! Scan complete! Beginning...]
The Chip's voice rang out—normal at first, but suddenly turning hoarse partway through, as if suffering from severe interference.
"Ahhh!!!" "Ahhh!!!" "Ahhh!!!"
Eventually, the Chip's voice transformed into a woman's shriek, growing higher and higher until it nearly pierced Leilin's eardrums. He couldn't help but order the Chip to cease operations immediately.
"Wind detection..." Leilin extended his right hand. The faint green wind-elemental particles gathered with agonizing slowness, furrowing his brow.
His True Spirit power surfaced, and a gentle green breeze finally formed, spreading out in all directions to probe the surroundings.
"This situation... I seem to find it familiar, but I just can't remember!"
Leilin frowned, feeling as though a layer of fog shrouded his memories. Yet he clearly recalled many things—even his wizardry hadn't been forgotten.
But it felt as though he had lost the most important thing, filling him with a sense of foreboding.
Soon, the dispersed breeze fed back everything it had detected, revealing Leilin's location. He appeared to be at the edge of some forest, with a dark red river flowing sluggishly nearby.
Not far away, there seemed to be a wooden cabin with faint human silhouettes inside.
"This detection range?"
Leilin's brow furrowed deeper. "Not only is casting wizardry extremely difficult, but even its effects are severely suppressed. Could this be a higher-order world?"
As the sun set, the temperature within the woods dropped steadily. The surrounding mist grew thicker, tinged with a layer of dark red that sent a chill down Leilin's spine.
He strode quickly out of the area and arrived at the wooden cabin he had spotted earlier.
Behind a fence blooming with golden roses, thin wisps of gray smoke rose into the air, giving Leilin a faint sense of warmth.
*Creak!* The wooden door swung open, and a kind-faced woman stepped out. She looked young—perhaps only in her twenties—but the wisdom and light in her eyes made Leilin think she possessed a lifetime of rich experience.
"Little brother! You're back!"
Upon seeing Leilin, the woman smiled, and it seemed as though every flower around her bloomed in response. The radiance on her face was enough to captivate even Leilin.
"Who are you?" Leilin couldn't help asking.
"Me? I'm your sister—this is your home!" The woman's face was breathtakingly beautiful, her fine golden hair drifting in the breeze, strikingly familiar to Leilin.
"My... home?" Leilin murmured.
"Yes! Your home. Welcome back!" The gentle sister opened her arms, as though she wanted to give Leilin a warm embrace.
"You... are my... sister?!"
Leilin repeated the words over and over, and the beautiful woman before him gradually aligned with several faces from his memory.
"Yes! Brother, you've finally come home!"
Tears seemed to brim in the woman's pupils.
"Wait!" The closer Leilin drifted toward her embrace, the more a tremendous sense of terror overwhelmed him—a horrifying maliciousness that sent a jolt through his entire body.
"I am Leilin Farell! A bloodline warlock from the
A voice in his mind screamed over and over, but Leilin found he could no longer control his body. His limbs moved of their own accord, and he was only one step away from falling into her arms.
"Repulsion Fire Ring!" "Shadow of the Lost!" "Dark Serpent Tentacle!"
Spell model after spell model flashed before Leilin's eyes, but his wizardry—already severely suppressed—now seemed to have lost all power entirely, without even the faintest ripple of energy.
"Come back!" "Come back!" "Come back!"
Accompanied by the woman's mesmerizing voice, Leilin's eyes grew increasingly vacant. Meanwhile, the area around the wooden cabin had undergone a dramatic transformation.
The dark red mist thickened further. The brilliant golden roses gradually withered away, revealing white skulls beneath, with small snakes weaving in and out of the eye sockets.
Behind the roses, the cabin had morphed into an enormous sphere of serpents, with several black triangular snake heads protruding from it, flicking their dark red tongues.
In the blink of an eye, the quaint farmhouse had transformed into a terrifying hellscape.
"This suppressed feeling... and this familiar power!"
Traces of dark red mist burrowed of their own accord into Leilin's body, intensifying his sense of recognition.
At last, the deepest light within Leilin's eyes flared suddenly.
"It's Dream Power! This is a dream! I've been dragged into a dream!"
[Beep!... Determining that the subject is located within a dream!]
As if the fog over his memories had been cleared, the Chip's voice was no longer that of a shrieking woman—it had become clear again.
"A deeper layer of the Dream World, rejecting all forces other than Dream Power!"
Sensing that his elemental abilities and True Spirit power were nearly completely sealed off, Leilin's mind raced, and he immediately realized something.
"Come back!" At that moment, the woman's finger was nearly touching Leilin's face.
"If that's the case! Fourth-level Dream Wizardry—Phantom Fog Scepter!" A spell model was suddenly activated by the Chip.
A massive surge of Dream Power formed a wave, coalescing in Leilin's hand into an ancient, peculiarly shaped scepter.
"Get away from me!" Leilin pointed the scepter at the woman, and an eerie dark red flame erupted forth.
"Aagh!" The woman shrieked and stumbled back, clutching her face.
"Who exactly are you?" Leilin's expression was grave as he watched the woman rise again before him.
Her face was now missing a large chunk, yet bizarrely she showed no reaction whatsoever—not even a single drop of blood at the wound.
"I didn't expect that you've already undergone Dream Modification and mastered the power of dreams..."
The woman spoke with a wooden expression, but her voice sounded oddly familiar to Leilin, making his pupils contract sharply: "You're... the Mother of Ten Thousand..."
*BOOM!!!* The entire environment shattered, revealing a river of stars spanning the void. Within that river of stars, a serpent sphere the size of a star expanded, revealing the Mother of Ten Thousand Snakes within.
"My offspring, return to my embrace!" The Mother of Ten Thousand Snakes' voice seemed to carry a strange, captivating power, and the bloodline within Leilin's body began to boil almost beyond his control.
Deep inside, a voice urged him to submit! To kneel before the Mother of Ten Thousand Snakes!
Countless giant serpents hissed and roared at Leilin, the sheer force of their cries draining the color from his face.
"This isn't the Infernal World—I'm still within the Dream!"
"My free will shall not be controlled by any external force!"
"Mother of Ten Thousand Snakes! Your greatest mistake today was dragging me into the Dream!" A look of resolute determination flashed in Leilin's eyes, and an even more dazzling, hypnotic spell model began to take shape in his hand.
"Fifth-level Dream Wizardry—Radiant Moon Dream!"
Strange ripples instantly enveloped the entire area...
A wet, slippery sensation brushed across his cheek. Leilin opened his eyes to find a massive beast looming before him, its mouth wide open, a scarlet tongue repeatedly licking his face. A foul, putrid stench blasted directly into his nostrils.
"The Central Continent's Bone-Helmet Badger? This is the real world—I've escaped!"
Leilin's eyes regained their clarity. He casually shooed the enormous creature away, and a look of joy surfaced on his face.
Looking around, there was clearly a sliding trail—the grass had been sheared away to reveal yellowish-green soil beneath.
"That's right. I was on my way back to the Warlock Alliance when the Mother of Ten Thousand Snakes suddenly pulled me into a dream, causing me to plummet..."
Leilin rubbed his chin, piecing together what had happened.
"Darkness and dreams have always been closely linked. The Mother of Ten Thousand Snakes wielding Dream Power is entirely natural. The one thing she never counted on was that I'd already undergone Dream Modification—and could even harness Dream Power myself!"
Cold sweat trickled down Leilin's back. Had he not previously had contact with the Dream World, being suddenly dragged into it by the Mother of Ten Thousand Snakes could have had unimaginable consequences.
The Wizard World and the Infernal World were separated by an immense gap, reinforced by powerful World Barrier forces that prevented the Mother of Ten Thousand Snakes from attacking Leilin easily.
But the Dream World was different! It blurred the concept of space and existed everywhere. Attacking through dreams was the most effortless approach.
Even with certain limitations, the Mother of Ten Thousand Snakes' power was more than sufficient to suppress Leilin.
The only thing she hadn't anticipated was that Leilin had already come into contact with the power of dreams—his very body was intimately familiar with it, allowing him to wake on his own. He had even managed to cast a fifth-level Dream Wizardry.
While it couldn't harm the Mother of Ten Thousand Snakes, the time it bought was more than enough for Leilin to escape.
"Mother of Ten Thousand Snakes..." Leilin murmured, a certain light flickering in his eyes.
The Mother of Ten Thousand Snakes' attack had made him acutely aware that she would never permit any of her descendants to escape her control!
And the more outstanding Leilin became, the faster he progressed, the more intense this conflict would grow.
"I never imagined that even someone as insignificant as me would catch the Mother of Ten Thousand Snakes' attention!"
A bitter smile tugged at Leilin's lips. In truth, he had felt the sensation of being watched ever since his bloodline had advanced to become the Komoyin Snake Emperor. He simply hadn't expected that this day would come so soon.