"Eeeeee~~~"
The instant Alvin was seized, a piercing sonic wave erupted from within the entire Frost Citadel. The void shuddered, and the ground heaved in endless undulations.
Countless frost guards dropped to their knees across the ground, trembling violently as they prayed for the Ice and Snow Empress to quell her fury.
But clearly, their prayers went unanswered this time.
Blazing blue energy spread outward in waves, instantly enveloping the entire citadel.
Every ice-born creature inside — guards, handmaids, servants, and prisoners alike — were all transformed into frozen sculptures, their bodies becoming perfect ice statues.
Tendrils of blue luminescence rose from each of them, then burrowed into the ground like wriggling earthworms.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Once the blue glow faded from every statue, countless fractures appeared. The ice sculptures shattered, collapsing into heaps of fine snow-white powder.
The entire citadel plunged into deathly silence…
"She really didn't come to save you, the Ice and Snow Empress?"
Meanwhile, deep beneath the earth, ice as hard as steel split open on its own to form a cellar-like chamber, radiant with the glow of a perpetual illumination spell.
Across a translucent tabletop, beakers and vessels were arranged in a seemingly haphazard yet somehow patterned manner. Some contained liquids of vivid, garish colours that gave off a rank, even nauseating stench.
This five-star Morning Star warlock — the true ruler of the entire Frost World — had been reduced to a stone statue. Even his soul had been frozen solid. All that remained was an empty shell that merely sustained the spark of life.
Based on Leylin's prior experience, the Ice Crystal Scorpion's breath had to be used under conditions of frost radiation in order to guarantee the best results.
And to ensure the freshness of the materials, Alvin had no choice but to endure the indignity of becoming Leylin's captive. His fate, naturally, would be anything but pleasant.
"However, during my earlier scan, I detected another presence within the Frost Citadel — one far more obscure than Alvin's. Could that have been the Ice and Snow Empress?"
Leylin's brow furrowed slightly. With a mere thought, thin threads of blood-red luminescence bloomed from the
"Hand over your memories! You lost lamb!"
Leylin's eyes were dark and unfathomable. He suddenly began to chant an ancient incantation, the strange, eerie syllables forming runes that flowed endlessly into the Wizard Array.
Woo... woo... The sound of a woman's weeping rose, and three female phantoms with long hair materialized abruptly within the array.
These three female ghosts wore blood-red dresses, their faces all very young—none appearing older than thirty—and possessed striking beauty, though their expressions differed.
One maintained a smiling face, her eyes narrowed into crescents. The second was filled with sorrow. The woman in the center, however, was utterly expressionless, like a block of ice.
"Go!" Leylin pointed a finger at the effigy. The three female phantoms floated up, circling the stone statue ceaselessly, at times inserting their translucent hands into the head of the carving.
Finally, all three red phantoms plunged into Alvin's head within the statue. The entire stone figure began to tremble violently. The Wizard Array nearby had to reinforce its sealing power.
Woo... woo... For a moment, the ghostly wails were amplified tenfold. And an eerie, blood-red glow began to emanate from Alvin's body.
"Critical time reached! Subject is approaching collapse!" The Chip emitted a timely reminder at that moment.
"Return, my treasures!" Leylin's eyes were filled with an otherworldly light, and his voice took on a hypnotic, compelling quality.
Then, an invisible Field seemed to manifest, pulling the three phantoms from within the stone effigy.
The three apparitions now looked different, their expressions more vivid, shrunk dozens of times over to hover in the palm of Leylin's hand. A torrent of blazing and complex emotions surged directly into Leylin's mind.
"Chaotic emotions, along with memory fragments! Chip!" Leylin immediately commanded.
BOOM! The torrent of complex emotions crashed against an invisible mountain. While the emotions of a Morning Star Wizard were incredibly potent, to the Chip, devoid of any human feelings, they were merely a complex record of hormonal secretions.
Once the emotional fluctuations were contained, the Chip began to organize the fragmented memory shards it had obtained.
Broken images, one after another, began to manifest before Leylin's eyes. Their state of disrepair was severe; even after the Chip's processing, Leylin couldn't find anything meaningful within the data.
After the massive data transfer was complete, the three specters in Leylin's hand all detonated, dissolving into mist and vanishing. Leylin's expression didn't change, though he let out a deep, quiet sigh.
"Extracting a Morning Star Wizard's memories... it really is too troublesome..."
The soul power of a Morning Star Wizard was extraordinarily formidable, and the memory zones protected by that soul strength were like the most impregnable fortresses. Leylin could destroy them easily enough, but extracting their contents was immensely difficult, even with the Chip's assistance.
However, the Chip, now greatly enhanced with its Soul Library and significantly increased capabilities, still gave Leylin a pleasant surprise.
A somewhat incomplete image was projected before Leylin's eyes — it was unmistakably a map of the Ice World, with a red dot positioned at its center, blazing with striking brilliance.
The image zoomed in, the red dot expanding to reveal a castle constructed entirely from ice, its five-colored radiance within breathtaking in their splendor.
"That much concentrated cold-ice radiation?" Leylin drew in a sharp breath. He could now confirm without a doubt that the Bronze Giantess's bloodline was within that castle.
"But what about the Ice Empress?"
Leylin flipped through the other records the Chip had uncovered with some puzzlement, but none contained any mention of this sovereign. That was truly a curious matter.
Even though the Ice Empress almost never showed her face, as Alvin — her chief subordinate — he still would have had opportunities to meet her.
"Memory block?" Leylin stroked his chin. Some wizards could choose to store or lock away important memories of their own; for a Morning Star Wizard, it was even simpler.
"It seems this Ice Empress is not only quite mysterious but also harbors some very important secrets!"
Leylin shook his head and began issuing commands. "Chip! Initiate Phase Two — acquire the Frost Breath and purify the bloodline!"
Alvin's memories were merely the appetizer. What Leylin valued most was the other party's unique cold-ice energy breath, exclusive to the Ice Crystal Scorpion — something that would have an excellent therapeutic effect on his own emotional instability.
Moreover, Leylin had a faint premonition. For the Combein Giant Serpent, rank four should not be the limit, but whether due to genetic restrictions or the influence of the Purgatory's chaotic will, the Combein Giant Serpent had been stripped of any possibility of further advancement.
If he could completely cure his emotional instability — setting everything else aside — at the very least his mastery of the Combein Giant Serpent's bloodline would reach an unprecedented level, one never achieved before and unlikely to be matched after.
Only at that degree would he have the confidence to attempt resolving the bloodline issue of the Combein Giant Serpent.
Upon receiving Leylin's command, the Chip immediately began its precise work. Alvin's vital signs were recorded in meticulous detail, and the most accurate surgical plan was formulated and presented before Leylin's eyes.
"Record every last bit of the data!"
Leylin produced a surgery scalpel of gleaming silver throughout, its handle adorned with intricate enpatterns, his eyes radiating an intense, fervent glow.
"The chance to completely dissect a creature with an ancient bloodline — one at Morning Star strength, no less — this sort of opportunity doesn't come along every day!"
"Task established. Recording now!" the Chip responded faithfully and without delay.
"Let's begin!" Leylin wore a snow-white coat, and the latex gloves on his hands had undergone rigorous air sterilization. Though the setup appeared rather primitive, thanks to the application of wizardry, the laboratory's overall capabilities had already approached — and in some respects even surpassed — the standards of Leylin's previous world.
*Whoosh!* A layer of hardened skin sloughed away, revealing the flesh and blood on Alvin's arm.
Under Leylin's scalpel, the two were easily separated, revealing the translucent blood vessels...
*Whoosh!* A streak of black light sliced across the sky, blazing like a shooting star.
Leylin's eyes shone like stars, and a look of delight surfaced on his face.
"I feel better than I ever have!" With his inner world now utterly cold and devoid of any irritability or other turbulent emotions, Leylin's mood soared.
Alvin's Morning Star-level frost breath had proven to be the perfect remedy for Leylin's emotional instability. Combined with the Chip's soul therapy, all the negative effects that had come from fusing with the Soul of the Great Demonic Snake of the Komoe had been completely purged.
In other words, the chaotic will that the Mother of Ten Thousand Snakes had previously inflicted upon the species during their migration to the Infernal World no longer existed within Leylin!
*Ding!* "Subject has eliminated the influence of chaotic will. Komoe bloodline purification in progress..."
The Chip chimed in with a reminder at that moment.
Through Leylin's soul power perception, the crimson-purple bloodline running through his body had become far more profound. With every powerful heartbeat, a purer stream of bloodline force was pumped to every corner of his body.
Under the influence of this purer energy, every tissue and organ within him was undergoing mysterious transformations. All in all — he was being reborn!
"In truth, a Morning Star Wizard's physical constitution gradually improves under the nourishment of soul power, eventually reaching the so-called perfected Morning Star Body — which is essentially on par with an ordinary member of the Phantom Star Race. But my body now has not only far surpassed the so-called Morning Star Body, it even has the potential to evolve further..."
Leylin had a premonition that once this bloodline rebirth was complete, he might be able to catch a glimpse of a far more terrifying realm!
Bloodline rank was the insurmountable barrier that had forever prevented every Komoe Warlock from ascending to the fifth rank — and now it looked as if that barrier could be shattered outright! (……)