The Filth Bird and the Eye of Judgment were eternal nemeses.
And as the Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents, who had allied herself with the Eye of Judgment, it was only natural that she would face resistance and hostility from the opposing side.
Raylin had exploited precisely this dynamic to secure the Filth Bird's support, using its Force of Chaos to mask his own presence.
Now that the Filth Bird saw Raylin drawing one step closer to success, it was understandable that it would double down on its investment.
Unfortunately, Raylin had never once placed his hopes on the other party.
To him, the Filth Bird was equally a powerful extraplanar sovereign with ulterior motives, and Raylin had always kept his guard up against it.
This trip to the Purgatory World — the most critical core and trump card of it all — Raylin had kept absolutely secret, never revealing even a sliver.
"Chip! Initiate the plan!" Raylin's consciousness began to communicate covertly with the Chip.
【Ding! Task established! Secondary Witch Array activation!】
Accompanying the Chip's voice, a ring of dim runes surfaced along the walls and within the barriers, then quickly merged with the Force of Chaos before fading away together.
These were all part of Raylin's earlier arrangements — designed not only for concealment, but specifically to be deployed at this very moment.
【Ding! Hybrid Witch Array formation complete! Operating efficiency at 100%! No rejection reactions detected!】 the Chip reported faithfully.
"Excellent!" Raylin nodded.
With this secondary layer in place, even if the Filth Bird had planted any hidden contingencies, they would all be exposed now.
It could be said that only at this point did the apartment truly belong to Raylin.
"Time! Oh, time! I only hope I have enough of it left!"
Raylin sighed, clasping his hands behind his back as he walked over to the small flowerbed. It seemed that various plants had once been grown here, but the previous occupant had ripped them all out. Only a few Dragon Serpent Orchids remained, their pale yellow stamens still breathing softly.
A ring of yellow-green dried grass grew thickly around the orchids, giving them a surprisingly vigorous appearance.
"All things in this world are like phantom flowers in a dream — they cannot withstand the erosion of time. That is why I pursue eternity so fervently!"
Raylin's eyes held a glazed, intoxicated look, as though he had been bewitched by the beauty of the plants, but it was quickly engulfed by a sharp gleam.
He then produced a small gardener's trowel and began turning over the flowerbed. The weeds and Dragon Serpent Orchids were all cleared away, and he erected a small wooden fence in a semicircle around it.
The flowerbed was quite small — a semicircle of less than a square meter, since this was no grand villa like his previous residence.
Still, compared to the surrounding slum hostels where a dozen or more people were crammed together in a chaotic mess, it was rather comfortable — neither luxurious by any means, but far from the bottom either.
The black soil looked rich enough to squeeze oil from, clearly brimming with nutrients — even the most ordinary soil, after absorbing the terrifying radiation pervading the entire Holy City, would have undergone a thorough transformation in its very nature.
But Raylin still found it insufficient, pulling several gray crystals from inside his robe.
Crack! Crack! With Raylin's palms pressing down, these crystals immediately crumbled into ash, scattering evenly across the flowerbed, before Raylin covered them with a fresh layer of soil to conceal everything.
Once all the preparations were complete, Raylin's expression turned utterly solemn.
A silver glow flashed, spatial ripples swept past, and a semi-transparent crystal materialized in Raylin's hand.
Through its exquisitely beautiful outer shell, one could faintly make out a pinpoint of green light at its center.
"Seed of Wisdom! A gift from the Elder — the time has finally come to use you!"
A look of reminiscence flickered in Raylin's eyes. Back when he was still a fourth-tier Warlock, he had encountered the Ancient Tree of Wisdom within the Scarlet Ruins — that primordial sage who was the origin of all wisdom.
Thanks to its guidance, Raylin had learned the path to breaking through the shackles of his bloodline.
And at the very end, he had even received a gift from that being — this green Seed of Wisdom!
"According to legend, the Ancient Tree of Wisdom is the collective embodiment of all intelligence across every universe and dimension, every demiplane and world! It was a supremely powerful ancient existence that awakened the intellect of countless beings, offering inspiration to many Wizards on their paths! And its offshoots possess all manner of inconceivable powers…"
"Unseal! Root of all wisdom!"
Accompanying Raylin's voice, the Chip also began its cold notification: [Ding! Endless Crystal Seal — opened!]
The semi-transparent crystal shattered apart, dissolving into a cloud of white powder that gradually drifted away on the wind, while a ring of green light blazed ever brighter around Raylin's hand.
A mote of green light sank into the Dragon Snake Orchids that had already been pulled from the soil, making them shudder and rejoice.
Even bathed in just a sliver of that radiance, these plants had already begun showing signs of transforming into sentient life!
"Annihilate." Raylin exhaled softly, and every Dragon Snake Orchid on the ground instantly crumbled to ash.
"If I hadn't set up a Wizard Formation in advance, there's no telling what kind of chaos would have erupted!"