"My Lord! Perhaps you have overestimated my subordinates' strength. All of my people combined probably wouldn't be enough for Toland to kill with a single hand…"
A bitter smile appeared on Daman's face.
He felt it was absolutely necessary to make the situation clear to the other party. Even though this person was a bloodline noble and a special envoy from headquarters, he couldn't just let himself be dragged along to his death!
"Your people?"
Leilin was somewhat speechless. Those level one, level two, and even apprentice-level nobodies outside? They probably couldn't even get past this magical array.
After all, Daman was in charge of intelligence gathering — Leilin had never had high expectations for his combat capabilities.
"Leave all of that to me. You just need to manage your own people!"
Leilin said coldly, and his body drifted up into midair.
Immediately, a powerful and frigid wave of pressure descended like a mountain, engulfing the entire area.
"This—this—this—!"
Daman stared at Leilin, his eyes nearly bulging from their sockets. In his perception, Leilin — who had previously emanated a feeble aura roughly comparable to his own — had suddenly transformed into a terrifying beast!
Frightening waves of energy continued to converge on the other party's body, breaking past the third-tier boundary in the blink of an eye and climbing ever higher, to a realm he could no longer fathom.
"This lord is no sheltered bloodline noble — he's a true powerhouse!"
Daman's eyes lit up. If he could build a relationship with Leilin, his future would be secured. The dream of revitalizing his family might even come true.
"A Marquis! This lord must hold the rank of Marquis! A true upper echelon of the organization!"
Daman clenched his fists, his face flushed with excitement.
The bloodline within his body, now that Leilin had fully released his suppression, actually urged him to drop to his knees.
This terrifying sense of majesty was something even another Marquis had never been able to impose upon him.
As for what the people below were thinking, Leilin paid them no mind.
The moment he released his aura suppression, he had already been detected by the other party.
Now, the stretch of forest before him was suddenly shrouded in a thin mist — clearly, the other side had taken some kind of action as well.
"Which wizard is out there? This is merely a reclusive organization. We do not accept visitors or trade with outsiders!"
Brilliant light surged forth, forming a massive defensive barrier. Various runes flickered across its surface, making it look immediately dangerous. Combined with the resolute voice, any wizard who had stumbled upon this place by accident would likely choose to withdraw.
Unfortunately, Leilin was no ordinary wizard. He even carried orders to annihilate them.
"Is this the Hand of Vengeance?"
Leilin stood calmly above the magical array, his voice passing through it to reach those below. This was his final confirmation — he didn't want to make some embarrassing mistake.
"An Ouroboros Ring warlock?!"
A pulse of detection light flashed, and the voice immediately turned shrill, filled with hatred so intense that even Leilin felt a slight chill.
But now that he had confirmed it, things became simple.
Leilin's eyes were calm and detached. In his view, this kind of pure contest of interests had no right or wrong — only winners and losers.
Meanwhile, inside the magical array, above a cluster of buildings.
The witch who had just spoken was staring at a blood-red crystal in her hand, her expression twisted beyond recognition.
"Teacher, what's wrong?"
A young witch who appeared to be eighteen or nineteen, with a slightly baby-fat roundness to her face, approached and asked.
"It's the Ouroboros Ring — those damned warlocks have tracked us down here!"
The witch who had spoken earlier appeared to be in her thirties or forties, with a curvaceous figure that suggested she had once been quite beautiful. But a massive cross-shaped scar on her face had completely destroyed that impression.
"The Ouroboros Ring?"
The young witch drew in a sharp breath. In her mind, that name was synonymous with devils and monster lairs — every warlock among them was a demon who devoured people whole.
"Now that they've found this place, I'm afraid the situation has become extremely dangerous. When the time comes, I'll hold them off. You escape on your own first!"
The scarred witch turned around, her expression grave as she issued her instructions.
"I escape first? But what about Haoke, Fenny, and the others?" The childlike witch was stunned.
"At a time like this, who can we still worry about?" The scarred witch smiled bitterly, looking down at the increasingly chaotic crowd below.
"Who could have imagined that they would find us here!" At that moment, several other wizards also took to the air. An elderly male wizard with graying hair sighed.
"Let's fight them! What is there to fear?" spoke up a burly, middle-aged wizard — missing one eye, with a tiger's head in place of his own.
Rumble—!
At that instant, the entire magical array trembled violently, the defensive barrier rippling and shuddering.
A scene like a mountain collapsing and the earth splitting apart swept through the small settlement, draining the color from every wizard's face…
"A wizard's spiritual power can actually represent the upper limit of their spell's power…"
Outside the barrier, Leilin was leisurely studying the powerful defensive array on the ground.
At this level, even at his previous strength, it would have taken some time to completely destroy it.
"Below twenty degrees — apprentice level! Between twenty and eighty degrees — first-tier wizard. Between eighty and two hundred degrees — second-tier wizard. Above two hundred degrees — that enters the realm of third-tier magic…"
"And once a spell's power exceeds three hundred degrees, even third-tier crystallized wizards would have to treat it with caution…"
Leilin murmured, activating a complex spell model that the Chip had just transmitted to his consciousness sea.
Countless runes and structural units fit together flawlessly within the model, giving it the feel of an exquisite work of art.
Because the Chip's simulations had been run many times beforehand, Leilin now executed it as though he had practiced it thousands of times — with consummate ease.
Rumble—!
Massive elemental tides formed, and because the spell's power was so overwhelming, it instantly drained all shadow and fire particles from the surrounding area, creating a situation resembling an elemental black hole.
The expenditure of a third-tier spell was naturally incomparable to first- or second-tier magic, but the sheer magnitude of this display startled even Leilin.
The terrifying energy did not leak outward in the slightest — it all converged into Leilin's palm, condensing into a single point of black light.
"
Leilin thrust his finger forward, and a beam of black light slammed into the defensive array.
"Death's Finger: Third-tier spell! Attributes: Shadow, Fire — Concentrates massive amounts of energy to create a piercing effect, with corrosion and burning properties. Power: 330–360 degrees!"
This spell, naturally, Leilin had named himself.
By sacrificing area-of-effect capability and concentrating all its power into a single point, Death's Finger lived up to its name — it could deliver a death sentence to any being below the Morning Star wizard tier.
Of course, there was also a touch of Leilin's own dark humor in the name — a small tribute to his previous life.
Pop — like piercing a soap bubble, the once-formidable defensive array crumbled instantly before the black beam of death, shattering into countless fragments.
The mist dispersed, revealing the buildings beyond and the wizards caught in various states of panic.
"Toland?" Leilin's eyes fixed on this chapter's primary target. That scar on her face left a particularly deep impression.
According to records, she had received this wound during a previous purge. As a woman who valued beauty, she could have easily removed the scar. But to keep the hatred fresh in her mind, Toland had chosen to let it remain.
People like that were often ruthless at heart — precisely the kind Leilin watched most carefully.
"Just one person? A Comoran warlock? And at third-tier liquefied level?"
Unlike the relief visible on her companions' faces, Toland's expression grew even more somber upon seeing Leilin appear alone — tinged, even, with a hint of despair.
In the wizarding world, individual strength often outweighed collective numbers.
And for this person to come alone meant he had absolute confidence in killing every last one of them here.
"This is a matter of life and death. We hold nothing back — priority is to cover the evacuation of our seedlings!"
Toland began issuing commands.
"Of course! I've been wanting to kill a few Comoran Giant Serpent warlocks for a long time — skin them and make myself a nice carpet!"
The tiger-headed wizard spoke in a sinister tone, his hatred for Leilin laid bare without the slightest attempt to conceal it.
"Besides Toland at peak liquefied, there are two more third-tier wizards?"
A flash of light passed through Leilin's eyes. The Chip was already collecting data on his opponents and simulating every possible scenario.
As for those apprentices? Leilin didn't even register them.
"Since you're a Comoran Giant Serpent warlock — if you die here, I imagine those higher-ups of yours will be quite distressed!" Toland's eyes turned blood-red, and liquid-like armor flowed across her body, covering her completely.
"Likewise, once you're gone, the Hand of Vengeance should quiet down for a while!"
Leilin retorted coolly. "But before I deal with you, it seems I should clear the field first."
"Clear the field? No — he means to—!"
Toland's face changed drastically as she moved to act, but it was already too late.
A terrifying phantom of a Comoran Giant Serpent materialized behind Leilin.
"Gall of Deadly Venom!"
Ever since his bloodline had fully matured, the power of this innate spell had risen dramatically. The venomous attack surpassed the two-hundred-degree threshold, reaching third-tier levels.
At that level, even with warning, the first- and second-tier wizards below would struggle to survive it.
And with the defensive array already shattered, the devastation would be even more catastrophic.