"My blood descendant! Emperor of the Tagalians! You may make one more request!"
The Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents' voice carried a note of helplessness, and the slight furrowing of her elegant brows was enough to break one's heart.
"This constant charm power is really..." Raylin sighed bitterly to himself. This charm was like a warlock's innate aura — naturally born, yet possessing devastating lethality.
However, the Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents' declaration had plunged him into deep contemplation.
On the surface, she seemed genuinely sincere, but Raylin would absolutely not participate in this plan until his own safety was guaranteed.
But if he could truly form an alliance with the Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents — turning an enemy into a friend — the benefits to Raylin would be enormous.
After all, the rule-level existences he had truly offended numbered only a handful: Beilusebabu, the Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents, the Bird of Filth, and a scant few others.
Among them, Beilusebabu was already completely finished, merely waiting for Raylin to reap the harvest. And if the Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents turned from enemy to friend, then the Eye of Judgment, her fellow ally, would surely follow. The enemy camp would immediately shrink by more than half, greatly reducing the pressure Raylin faced.
Perhaps, by then, he would no longer need to cower within the
"The Snake Mother's conditions are quite tempting..."
Raylin considered for a moment before continuing: "But I do have demands of my own!"
"Please speak!" It was clear that the Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents truly regarded Raylin as an equal.
"First, I will only agree to begin this plan after I have truly advanced to the seventh rank. Furthermore, I also require..."
Raylin laid out the conditions he had prepared.
"Wait for you to advance to the seventh rank?" The Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents' gaze swept over Raylin. "The Rule of Devouring that you command is an exceptionally outstanding ability, even among other seventh-rank existences. To fully complete it will likely require an extremely long time... As for your other demand..."
The Snake Mother fell into contemplation as well.
"Don't worry about my advancement. Within a thousand years at most, I will certainly comprehend the complete Rule of Devouring. As for that demand — it is my bottom line! If you cannot agree to it, then I can only express my regret."
Raylin showed no sign of yielding even an inch.
"Agreed!" After a long pause, the Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents' voice finally came through. "Furthermore, we must sign a Bloodline Contract! With the Dream World as witness!"
……
A moment later, the colossal sphere of serpents vanished from the starry sky, and the surroundings returned to their deathly silence.
Raylin stood upon the wasteland, his expression still one of contemplation.
"Even conditions like these the Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents agreed to — and she signed a contract, no less. She certainly seems sincere about it! Besides, by then my strength will have undergone another earth-shattering transformation. I won't need to worry about her turning on me…"
Raylin was no battle maniac. If he could minimize his enemies while still protecting his own interests, that was naturally the best outcome.
Moreover, this contract had bought Raylin at least a thousand years of peaceful development — a period absolutely crucial for him.
"So this is how beings who embody Rules communicate with one another? Since destroying each other is nearly impossible, compromise becomes essential. The stronger party naturally holds the greater advantage, but even the weaker side's interests can be safeguarded…"
Through today's events, Raylin gained a deeper understanding of how beings of Rules conducted themselves.
Still, helping the Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents seize control of the Shadow World would be no easy task. Fortunately, the contract did not stipulate that he had to begin immediately, granting him a lengthy period to prepare.
After all, from the day of his birth until now, he had not yet lived a full thousand years — yet he had already reached a height that other Wizards could only aspire to across their entire lifetimes, wielding the authority of Rules.
If given another thousand years, just how far would he have grown?
Even Raylin himself could not help but feel a flicker of anticipation in his eyes.
"Since I've already come to the Dream World, I might as well go check on
For high-level Wizards, there was often a remarkable prophetic sense — an ability to intuit fragments of the future that might prove unfavorable, and then take steps to avert them.
Of course, the result was usually the opposite: the more one wished to prevent something from happening, the more events spiraled toward an even worse outcome.
Raylin's sudden thought about Gillian and the others belonged to the same kind of premonition.
"Which means… Gillian and the rest might not have perished entirely. They could still be alive somewhere in the Dream World — and perhaps, for my future self, they might even prove useful?"
Raylin rubbed his chin, a faint smile tugging at the corner of his lips.
In the next instant, his entire being transformed into a streak of crimson light and vanished beyond the horizon.
Within the Dream World, both time and space were distorted, making traversal exceedingly troublesome — even for a Rule-bearing existence like Raylin.
However, the Dream World falling into silence also carried its advantages.
At the very least, the other Dream Evil
Otherwise, those Evil Gods were also Rule-bearing existences who could cause him no small inconvenience — to say nothing of the most treacherous Dream spatial scenes. Once caught in such a scenario, even the current Raylin could potentially perish.
If the Dream Power hadn't depleted, even with ten thousand times his courage, Raylin might not have dared to explore the Dream World so brazenly.
"The gathering point where Gillian and the others are located is not far from my previous laboratory!"
Last time, the failure of his spatial experiments and the subsequent dimensional overlap had turned Raylin's laboratory into a peculiar entity capable of connecting to the Dream World.
Raylin had naturally seized the opportunity, not only collecting a wealth of precious data and Dream materials, but also setting up arrangements near the laboratory.
Now, he was following the signals he had previously planted, attempting to find the location where his laboratory had crossed over.
Mid-air, a faint crimson glow flickered in Raylin's eyes as his figure seemed to blur into afterimages, chasing thread after thread of faint, elusive connections while constantly adjusting his direction.
Along the way, Raylin repeatedly sensed existences at his own level.
These were regions where the entire sky changed color and destructive snow fell without cease. At their centers, Evil God-level beings were clearly slumbering.
Raylin naturally dared not rashly trespass on their territories, and could only choose to make wide detours from a distance.
The limits of the Chip's scanning range, combined with his own abilities, allowed him to glimpse only vast formations of crystalline substance at the heart of the destructive snow — resembling the most powerful of seals.
"Had the Evil Gods chosen self-sealing, or were these arrangements made by the Dream World? If it was the latter, then those Evil Gods must be in truly wretched circumstances…"
Raylin shook his head. After passing through several Evil God territories, he could already sense that the signal he had planted long ago was drawing closer and closer.
"Hmm?!" Just then, Raylin's expression shifted.
His materialized soul power allowed him to perceive an enormous aura up ahead. What shocked him even more was that this aura's owner possessed the strength of a Seventh Level Wizard!
Moreover, the other party showed absolutely no signs of being sealed or slumbering.
BOOM! The earth cracked open, revealing an enormous yellow eyeball, followed by a spine covered in thorns like rolling hills, and two pairs of massive fleshy wings that blotted out the sky.
"ROOOAR…" A colossal one-eyed dragon burrowed out from underground, its body shimmering with iridescent light like a diamond.
Its massive eye locked directly onto
"Welcome, young Wizard!" The creature spoke in Ancient Byron Language, which genuinely delighted Leylin.
"May I ask... are you a being from the Dream World? And have you encountered other Wizards before?"
"Ohohoho... I once witnessed the ancient glory of the Wizards with my own eyes, and survived the destruction of the Ancient War... I exist in the past, the present, and shall inevitably extend into the future..."
This dragon was clearly a few screws loose, or perhaps its train of thought was so convoluted that Leylin felt an almost irresistible urge to roll his eyes.
Fortunately, after finishing its self-congratulatory monologue, the one-eyed dragon finally came back to reality: "As for natives of the Dream World? Of course not! The great Jijikel dragon clan can only hail from the Origin World... In fact, during this period of decline in the Dream World's power, many beings like to come here sightseeing and try their luck at scavenging. Just two hundred years ago, I once encountered a Planeswalker who actually found a set of incomplete Tarot of Fate cards — but unfortunately, an Evil God's unsealing was triggered immediately and they were hunted down..."
Despite the one-eyed dragon's shameless narcissism, Leylin still extracted quite a bit of useful information.
According to its account, during this period when the power of dreams had waned, because the numerous Evil Gods had all fallen into slumber and the bizarre dreamscapes had largely dissipated, the place had become a paradise for explorers. There were no shortage of beings who had comprehended Laws among the visitors, either.
Of course, by now there was nothing of value left in the Dream World. If anything remained at all, it would be in the Evil Gods' own territories.
To claim those, one would have to risk being hunted by the Evil Gods — and if you truly poked them in a vital spot, no matter how reluctant they were to expend energy, those enraged deities would absolutely emerge to kill.
"Hehehe... those fools. The dormancy of the Dream World's power caused the most precious treasures to sink into the World Core. How could anything worthwhile still be left on the surface? Oh! Blast it — I let that slip without thinking!" The enormous one-eyed dragon clapped a claw over its mouth.
"Farewell, Wizard!"
The colossal one-eyed dragon burrowed back underground like a groundhog, its movements so nimble and practiced that Leylin almost laughed.