A flaming meteor plummeted from the sky and crashed violently into the sea, sending up enormous plumes of spray.
"Ugh!" The shock of the icy seawater jolted Lei Lin fully awake. A briny, fishy taste assaulted his taste buds relentlessly.
"This is... the ocean!"
His consciousness rapidly came back to him: "I was caught in the aftershock of those rule-level existences, but I managed to slip through the membrane and release my substitute puppet! So that means..."
"This place... is the Purgatory World!"
Taking in the dim, oppressive glow on the horizon and the chaotic will that was uniquely the Purgatory World's own, a grin split Lei Lin's face—and it kept growing wider: "Ha... ha... I did it!"
On the path to breaking through his bloodline shackles, Lei Lin had finally taken his first crucial step. Wild elation spread across his face.
As an outsider, Lei Lin was bound to cause ripples in the membrane when traversing the Purgatory World.
Those ripples would certainly be detected by rule-level existences. For that reason, Lei Lin had anticipated the appearance of numerous will projections. He had even made preparations for it.
But what actually happened far exceeded his expectations. Not only were there more rule-level existences in the Purgatory World than he had anticipated, but they also seemed to belong to different factions. He even spotted several familiar faces.
"The Mother of Myriad Serpents isn't the only one here—the Eye of Judgment and the Filth Bird are both present too? I wonder whether it's their true bodies stationed here or just avatars that descended..."
Lei Lin floated on the surface of the sea, bobbing along with the waves. Under the Chip's monitoring, his injuries were gradually healing, and he would soon regain the ability to move freely.
Floating on the open ocean was exceedingly dangerous—it could attract bloodthirsty sharks or other high-energy creatures—but at the moment, Lei Lin wasn't emitting a single trace of aura fluctuation. He looked no different from a piece of driftwood, so nothing bothered him.
During this period of recuperation, Lei Lin's mind continued to race at full speed.
"The Eye of Judgment and the Filth Bird—an old pair of nemeses. I never expected to see their true forms here... Even their avatars likely carry at least half the power of their originals!"
The ancient Eye of Judgment was widely employed by Wizards in the signing of contracts, serving as an arbiter and protector, its power cast across countless worlds.
From all the way up at the Dawn Throne down to the lowliest apprentice, anyone signing a contract could summon the Eye of Judgment as a witness—though, naturally, the Eye of Judgment summoned by different Wizards was fundamentally different in nature.
But in Lei Lin's view, the Eye of Judgment did not perform these services for free. In truth, by protecting contracts and judging those who broke them, it reaped considerable benefits of its own.
The rules it had comprehended were most likely the likes of Contract and Judgment. Through these activities, the Eye of Judgment could not only accumulate deeper insight into the laws but also attract the attention of the primordial astral force, thereby bolstering its strength.
In contrast, the Filth Bird most likely comprehended rules akin to Betrayal or Chaos. This was precisely why the two had become mortal enemies—their warring flames had once spilled across multiple worlds.
And now, Lei Lin had discovered projections of both their wills within the Purgatory World!
That meant a powerful avatar of each—if not their actual true bodies—was directly stationed within the Purgatory World!
"What kind of secrets does the ancient Purgatory World hold? Not only the Mother of Myriad Serpents, but even the Eye of Judgment and the Filth Bird have all turned their gaze here..."
Lei Lin pondered silently. The appearance of the Eye of Judgment and the Filth Bird—what kind of variables would they introduce to his current undertaking, and could they perhaps become an asset?
"Based on what I've seen and heard before, the Eye of Judgment seems to be a protector of the Rules. After recognizing my bloodline as a descendant of the Mother of Myriad Serpents, it showed leniency and intervened on my behalf. The Filth Bird, on the other hand, is clearly hostile to the Mother. Once it saw that the Mother of Myriad Serpents not only refused to protect me but seemed intent on killing me, it immediately changed course and sent me into the Purgatory World…"
Lei Lin's eyes flickered with a sharp gleam as he replayed the earlier scene in his mind over and over again.
"If I had to sort them into factions, the Eye of Judgment most likely belongs to the Mother of Myriad Serpents' side. Of course, it's also possible that it was merely honoring the terms of a contract. The Filth Bird clearly has no respect for the Mother of Myriad Serpents, and there seems to be some deep grudge between them… As for that tattered-winged beast that appeared at the very beginning, it could be a neutral force…"
"Naturally, there could be misdirection at play here. But how proud are these beings of the Rules? The chances of them all conspiring to put on an act just to deceive a mere fifth-level Wizard are vanishingly small—practically negligible… Still, I can't afford to let my guard down…"
Lei Lin's temples throbbed with a dull ache. Trying to divine the secrets of so many Rule Beings from a mortal's vantage point left him with the unmistakable feeling that his mind simply wasn't large enough for the task.
"Chip! How's the analysis of the surrounding environment and the world's Rules coming along?"