"Of course I'm afraid!"
Lin spoke with perfect self-righteous confidence: "After all, we didn't merely destroy one of the Chaos Sovereign's ports — we even massacred an entire branch of the Order Sovereign! Great Mother Supreme Sovereign above! Let's hope we don't end up jointly wanted by both of them, or we'll truly be famous!"
Lin's performance was flawless. The faint bitterness on his face immediately drew mockery from
"Hmph! A port? In truth, that Ias Harbor was nothing more than an illegal private port that Ias set up on his own in the outer seas — it never received any official authorization from the Heil continent. Even the high priests of the Filthy Bird barely acknowledged it... and these overseas colonies were always just experiments for the Filthy Bird's forces. Success would be ideal, but even failure wouldn't mean much of a loss..."
"Besides, this is still the domain of the Eye of Order's ally — the Mother Sovereign's continent! And the Chaos Sovereign and the Eye of Order are mortal enemies, so at most they'd put out a secret bounty on us, but they wouldn't dare make any overt moves... The only ones I'm truly worried about are the Eye of Order's forces!"
Belinda looked deeply troubled: "I've already seen the notices posted at the harbor. Unfortunately, it appears I've been wanted by the Eye of Order, and this news will spread quickly..."
Then she glanced at Lin, her eyes dark and unfathomable: "However, it seems that because you wiped out the entire branch beforehand, there's no information about you that's gotten out. So if you want to leave now, there's still time, you know!"
Lin fell silent. He knew full well that it wasn't just his killing of the witnesses — the concealment from the power of chaos had more to do with minimizing his traces to virtually nothing.
But seeing Belinda looking somewhat nervous, Lin offered a faint smile: "Did you think I'd abandon you for the sake of safety?"
"Why wouldn't you? Because of the alliance, the Eye of Trial's wanted notice will spread across the entire Heil continent in no time!"
Belinda sneered: "And when that happens, you'll have to endure the overwhelming pursuit right alongside me!"
"Oh! Sounds rather interesting, doesn't it?"
Lin casually stroke his chin, utterly unconcerned.
"You!" Belinda was exasperated, her whole body trembling, with faint undercurrents of agitation beneath the anger.
Lin keenly picked up on every one of these complex emotional shifts.
He chuckled inwardly, though his face remained perfectly composed: "So where do we go from here? Would the
"You... really are an idiot!" Belinda's eyes were now filled with nothing but soft tenderness.
"Don't worry! The Holy City is the sacred ground of all the Mother Sovereign's bloodline descendants. With the connections I've established before, there shouldn't be too much of a problem..."
After giving Lin a long, deep look, Belinda finally offered her explanation.
"That's great!" Lin Lei patted his chest, looking like he was still shaken.
"You..." Belinda was so exasperated she laughed, at a loss for words. Meanwhile, Lin Lei unrolled the parchment scroll in his hands.
"This map... is pretty rough! Are we currently at the port of the Andesas Federation?"
The map, with its yellowed edges, appeared quite crude. Only a handful of locations were labeled, and it seemed to cover only this particular region.
Lin Lei understood this perfectly well. After all, in this era, a complete, high-precision continental map would represent wealth that could bankrupt an ordinary
As Lin Lei ordered the Chip to record the information, he recalled some data he had gathered before. The outline of the entire Hale Continent gradually took shape in his mind.
The Hale Continent—one of the seven continents of the Purgatory World, under the rule of the Mother of Myriad Serpents. Its territory was vast, with large areas still uncharted and uncivilized, where primitive peoples lived eating raw meat and drinking blood, and even prehistoric giant beasts still roamed.
And on the Hale Continent, the most mainstream population was the bloodline descendants of the Mother of Myriad Serpents!
Various pure-blooded giant serpents, hybrid half-snake people, and snake-like races that bore some serpentine traits but had long since diverged in bloodline—these groups made up roughly twenty to thirty percent of the entire Hale Continent's population.
The rest consisted of a wide array of otherworldly races: evil eyes, Purgatory dwarves, energy beings, elemental beings, even humans, all distributed across the Hale Continent.
Of course, compared to the Mother of Myriad Serpents' bloodline descendants, these races seemed insignificant. They often existed in the gaps between two great cities or powers, taking the form of tribes or clans.
Worth mentioning further was that the most widespread systems on the Hale Continent were city-states and clan rule. Frequent battles erupted between different city-states, different races, and even within the same race.
The so-called Holy City was jointly elected by the bloodline descendants of the Mother of Myriad Serpents—theoretically the ruling center of the entire Hale Continent, and rumored to be the seat of the Mother of Myriad Serpents' grace.
In theory, the entire Hale Continent had to obey the Holy City's command, but in practice, it all depended on each city-state's own city lord.
"From here to the Holy City, even with our strength, we would need to travel at full speed for over a year..."
Belinda slowly pointed to a port symbol on the map. "But I happen to have a special route. By passing through a certain region, we can directly use a teleportation array to reach the Plains of Myriad Serpents, saving us more than half the travel time..."
As she spoke, a flurry of emotions flickered across Belinda's face before finally settling into a trace of determination.
"Is that so? Then we'll go as you suggest!"
Having recovered most of his power, and now bolstered by the enhancement of a Fourth-Tier priest, even if his opponent sat upon a Sixth-Tier Dawn Throne, he would still have hope of holding his own.
The Dawn Throne among Wizards was a position that universally commanded a portion of the power of rules. Their strength, even among all Sixth-Tier powerhouses, placed them at the very forefront!
Of course, being able to contend with someone was not the same as being able to defeat them. Lin Lei's own estimate of his current strength put him at roughly half of a Sixth-Tier powerhouse at most.
However, in the Infernal World, there were only seven rule-level existences above the Seventh Tier in total, openly known. The remaining Sixth-Tier powerhouses could be counted on one hand.
With his current strength, if it weren't for his wariness of the Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents, Lin Lei could absolutely stride across the Hell continent as he pleased.
As for Belinda—she was at most equivalent to a Morning Star. What tricks could she possibly pull?
"Judging by her expression, she seems prepared to bid farewell to her past. Could it be that she intends to settle some trouble within her clan?"
Lin Lei stroked his chin, mulling it over silently.
"The adult Devil White Phosphorus Serpent is only Fifth Tier—not a major concern. Besides, I'd like to collect a few more pure-blooded lineages. After all, high-energy creature bloodlines that can directly commune with the Dream World and channel dream power are exceedingly rare…"
Although the Devil White Phosphorus Serpent was a descendant of the Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents and had been well cared for, precisely because they existed under her watchful eye, the Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents would never permit a Snake Emperor to emerge.
A clan that didn't even produce a Sixth-Tier White Devil Serpent Emperor was, to the current Lin Lei, essentially a free meal.
"However, operating on the Hell continent means I'll need to be more cautious and discreet, to avoid being detected by the Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents. It seems the Feather of Chaos can help with this…"
Lin Lei's hand unconsciously brushed across his chest, where the gray Contaminated Bird feather emitted a faint, hazy glow.
The Contaminated Bird's Rule of Chaos inherently carried effects of concealment and misdirection. With its power of chaos now bolstering him, Lin Lei felt far more confident about masking his tracks.
Without it, in this lair of the Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents, surrounded by a multitude of her worshippers, Lin Lei would have had very little confidence in successfully infiltrating undetected.
Compared to the marginal odds he would have faced before, his greatly improved chances were well worth it—even if it meant striking a deal with the Contaminated Bird and potentially finding himself somewhat bound by its influence.
"Still, I need to keep a guard up against that one. I can't have it selling me out at a critical moment, offering me up as a peace offering or a gift to curry favor with the Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents!"
A faint blue luminescence flickered through Lin Lei's eyes, and every trace of the Contaminated Bird's energy within his body came under meticulous surveillance.
In truth, if his opponent had been the Eye of Judgment, Lin Lei wouldn't have harbored this worry at all. The enmity between the Eye of Judgment and the Contaminated Bird had spread across countless worlds, persisting from the ancient era through the primordial age and into the present—utterly irreconcilable.
But the Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents was different. She was merely an ally of the Eye of Judgment, and perhaps that alliance carried little weight. If the price were right and the Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents could be lured into his own camp, the Contaminated Bird would surely welcome such an outcome.
Even though that possibility was exceedingly slim, Lin Lei still had to guard against it.
That was the tragedy of being a small fry—after all, what he was doing right now was tantamount to walking a tightrope. One wrong step, and it would mean eternal damnation.
"Oh right! I also bought this!"
Belinda's voice was accompanied by the roaring of two massive creatures, the sound crashing directly into Lin Lei's ears.
At that moment, Lin Lei watched as the two reins in Belinda's hands were pulled taut, and the silhouettes of two creatures gradually emerged from the darkness.
Before Lin Lei stood two enormous, earth-yellow, lizard-like creatures, each fitted with an artificial saddle on its back, securely fastened in place.
"Since we'll be crossing through some special terrain ahead, these mounts are absolutely necessary!"