As the special envoy of the Native Empire, Ajijikeluo naturally had a contingent of elites under his command.
Among them, the elite[Jungle Hunters]and[Amazon Warriors]had been the ones to intervene, managing to hold off Isabelle and her subordinates and even driving them deep into the dangerous forest.
But now, a young man had sliced straight through their defenses and reached the inner circle, directly threatening the safety of both leaders. How could they not be furious—or terrified?
At Ajijikeluo's furious roar, numerous[Jungle Hunters]brandishing spears and[Amazon Warriors]bearing strange tattoos immediately surrounded the suddenly appeared
However, Leylin's expression was peculiar—he paid scant attention to these enemies, instead staring fixedly at the crystal in his hand, as though it were everything!
"Something felt wrong the moment I set foot on this island. My instincts are never wrong—this power..."
A brilliant light blazed in Leylin's eyes.
"Kill him!" The natives roared and charged.
"Die, you insects!" Leylin, entirely absorbed in his research, waved his hand in irritation.
—[Arcane Missile Storm]!
—[Detonation
The arcane missiles, carrying tremendous penetrating force, mercilessly punched through an[Amazon Warrior's]neck before tearing a gaping hole in the chest of a[Jungle Hunter]behind him.
Arcane missiles rained down in volleys, spraying great plumes of blood.
The death cloud that followed coalesced into a black tornado, snuffing out every spark of life from the fallen natives and even corroding their corpses on the spot.
In the blink of an eye, the native elites who had surrounded Leylin had become nothing but corpses.
"How is this possible? He... is he the God of Death? Or a devil—a demon?"
Ajijikeluo stared at Leylin standing at the center of the tornado, muttering in disbelief—he knew full well the strength of his subordinates.
An[Amazon Warrior]could slay a saber-toothed tiger with bare hands, and a[Jungle Hunter]could wrestle pythons and crocodiles in the tropical rainforest.
But now, these elites were falling like mowed grass, their collapse far exceeding anything he had anticipated.
"Get them!" "Kill!"
At that moment, battle cries echoed from every direction — it was Leylin's pirate subordinates springing into action.
"You, come here!" Leylin pointed a finger, and Ajijikeluo along with the native chief were seized by a massive rocky hand and dragged before him.
"Agubaba... Klajira..." At that moment, Leylin saw a native covered in war paint and adorned with feathers convulsing before him as if seized by a fit.
"A spellcaster? A curse? Too weak! Far too weak for this level..." He casually flicked a finger, and a beam of light punched straight through the high priest's skull, sending white and red matter splattering across the ground.
The sight of the high priest — a figure of supreme authority among the natives — lying headless on the ground finally shattered what remained of their morale.
Leylin, standing before them, seemed like an enemy who could never be defied — almost like a god descended from the heavens.
The battle cries from the surrounding pirates drew ever closer, and before long,
"Chief! The tribe numbers several thousand, but these must be their soldiers — they've been completely routed..."
Robin delivered his report. This time, the Port of Pirates had sent out virtually its full strength — a thousand formidable pirates, overwhelming the natives with crushing ease.
"Mm! Clean up the battlefield, capture as many alive as you can. I have use for them!" Leylin issued the order without hesitation, then turned his attention to his prisoners and the blood-red crystal in his hand.
The crimson gem was radiating a dazzling light, and a trace of intoxication surfaced in Leylin's eyes.
"My instincts aren't wrong — this is the power of Dreams! The details differ slightly, but it truly belongs to the Dream World!"
From the moment he set foot on the island, Leylin had sensed that this native isle was shrouded in a peculiar power. After seeing the dark red mist-enshrouded forest and the native ritual, he had been able to confirm it — what existed here was the power of Dreams! Power from the Dream World!
This discovery immediately piqued his great interest.
"L-Lord... please spare me! I am an imperial envoy, you can't—" At that moment, Ajijikeluo, still clutched in the giant hand's grasp, suddenly shouted in the Common Tongue. Though he spoke haltingly, Leylin could barely make out his meaning.
"Release... me... ransom... I can pay..."
Leylin walked over to Ajijikeluo, and the man, seemingly seeing a glimmer of hope for survival, spoke with even greater urgency.
"So there really is a native empire out there!"
Leylin slowly placed his palm on Ajijikeluo's forehead: "The old me might have found this very interesting, but as for now... I think I'll take a look myself!"
——[Memory Extraction]! A layer of white immediately shrouded Ajijikelo's pupils, and the man's face was filled with excruciating agony, as though he were enduring some unspeakable form of torture.
"The Gift of Balulugulu? You use this as an anesthetic? What a waste..."
Once Leylin removed his palm, he had already grasped the gist of the matter, and Ajijikelo, having undergone the spell, had been reduced to a drooling imbecile.
"Imperial envoy, racial talents, and this Nightmare Island..." Leylin walked over to another native chieftain, performed the same procedure, and immediately obtained the relevant information.
"So... that's how it is?"
At this point, the broad outline of events had fully materialized before Leylin's eyes.
During the Age of Twilight of the
Of course, due to the unique rules of the
Perhaps it was a portion of his body, or perhaps some personal possession that was lost into the Material Plane during the great battle, and happened to land on this island — and that was what had given rise to the unique environment found here.
The powerful radiation of a high-level Wizard was more than sufficient to transform an entire island.
Every night of the full moon, something truly extraordinary would occur in the island's forests.
The first to discover this were a native tribe, who had no way whatsoever of explaining the phenomenon and could only worship it as the work of deities.
Subsequently, through thousands upon thousands of years of exploration and brutal, bloody experimentation, they had finally grasped some of the patterns governing dream power, and began attempting to extract and utilize it.
Perhaps because of contamination from living here for so long, only the natives of this particular tribe possessed the ability to extract crystallized dream power. Naturally, they called it the Gift of Balulugulu, and they attempted to swallow the crystals to gain strength.
"The ignorant truly are fearless — as expected!"
Leylin examined the crystal in his hand. In his eyes, the so-called purification was still exceedingly crude. If someone swallowed something like this, there was at least a ninety-nine percent chance of death. Those who did survive, having been stimulated by the dream power, might indeed come to possess some special ability — but the efficiency was abysmally poor.
"And they burn the crystals to obtain pleasure? Dream power can indeed bring intense mental euphoria, but it also carries contamination. The upper nobles of that native empire are probably worse than ghosts by now..."
Leylin shook his head and began using the Chip to scan the crystal in his hand.
[Ding! Task established. Commencing scan!] A streak of blue light shot out from Leylin's eyes, examining every last corner of the crystal without missing a single detail.
Soon, the Chip returned its results: [Ding! Scan complete. Identified as a Primordial Dream Force Crystal — 98.77% match with database records! Unknown mutagenic components detected!]
"Mutual compromise? No wonder — for the World of Gods, the power of dreams is arguably the most suitable force for survival. After all, no matter where a creature comes from, as long as it possesses intelligence, it likely has dreams. So the compatibility rate is quite high..."
Leylin gazed at the mutation portion of the spectrum the Chip had projected and fell deep into thought.
If it had been any other force from the Wizard World, it would have been rejected by the World of Gods. But the power of dreams had such high compatibility that, after certain modifications, it had stubbornly persisted here regardless.
"Just from this alone, one can see that the Wizard who mastered the power of dreams must have already reached a tremendously powerful level. Rank 8 at the very least — possibly even a peak Rank 8 existence who had found their own Path and refined Laws..."
This discovery left Leylin sighing with admiration. The ancient era truly was the golden age of the Wizard World — pick any Wizard at random and they were incomparably powerful.
There had already been a peak Rank 8 Twisted Shadow, and now they had found another formidable Wizard who wielded the power of dreams.
"The power of dreams... a truly excellent force. If one could master its decay principles, it would be far more powerful than ordinary Law-type powers! Moreover, using the power of dreams to contain
After all, within dreams, all manner of time and space could be distorted. Using dreams as a vessel for the power of Space and Time would carry virtually no danger.
For Leylin, this was like having a pillow delivered just as he was about to fall asleep.
"A powerful Wizard who had mastered the power of dreams would certainly understand its decay principles, and even know how to exploit them — finding ways to circumvent the risks..."
Leylin's eyes grew brighter and brighter.