Leilin looked at the wizard guarding the perimeter in front of him and lightly tapped his right index finger forward.
Hum!
From within the shadows, countless dark silhouettes suddenly emerged, layering and converging around Leilin. As the shadows accumulated in greater and greater volume, a faint glow began to emanate from between his fingers, forming a small inward vortex that seemed capable of drawing a person's very soul inside.
Across from Leilin, a layer of greyish-blue stone instantly materialized on the wizard's skin.
This was the Stone Skin Spell—a first-level earth-attribute innate spell that earth wizards loved to inscribe permanently.
Pop!
Leilin's finger, seemingly slow but actually swift, touched the surface of the wizard's Stone Skin Spell, producing a sound like fingertips meeting ripples on water.
Before Leilin's fingertip, the wizard's Stone Skin Spell suddenly began peeling away in strips like shed snake skin. The wizard's face twisted in utter disbelief before Leilin's finger struck his forehead. His eyes rolled back and he collapsed unconscious on the spot.
"Laura?!"
The team leader let out a cry of shock and rage.
Immediately, a scroll appeared in his hand, while Black, standing beside him, drew a palm-sized buckler shield.
Both items radiated powerful waves of energy, as if they could be triggered at any moment.
"You two can come along as well!"
Leilin simply smiled faintly at this and reached both hands forward.
Zzzt!
Dark currents of energy surged from all five of his fingers. The ten streams of black energy writhed like small serpents, wrapping around the two wizards.
On the ground where the two wizards had been standing, two black cocoons had formed. Occasionally, the distinctive hissing of serpents could be heard from within.
After a dozen seconds or so, the dark mist dissipated, revealing the two wizards lying unconscious on the ground.
On their faces, a misty imprint resembling small black serpents still lingered, slithering back and forth.
Snap!
Having captured the three wizards, Leilin willed the shadow vines that had been blanketing the sky to withdraw back into his shadow.
"I can feel it! As my bloodline continues to awaken, my control over shadows is growing stronger!"
The darkness in Leilin's eyes deepened further, yet his expression grew increasingly intoxicated as he murmured to himself.
After dealing with the three captured wizards, Leilin waited at the spot for a few more minutes.
Whoosh!
Two figures, barely discernible to the naked eye, moved across the ground at blinding speed toward Leilin. Even with his sharp vision, he could only make out a few fragmented afterimages.
Thud! Thud!
The two dark figures, carrying something slung over their shoulders, arrived before Leilin and dumped their burdens onto the ground.
"Master!" Number Two and Number Three dropped to one knee in salute.
"As per your orders, we've captured them all! Not a single one escaped!"
Only now could it be seen—the two lying on the ground were the very wizards who had fled earlier.
Both wizards bore several wounds deep enough to expose bone, and their faces were deathly pale—a result of massive blood loss. It was easy to imagine that they must have fought desperately before being beaten into this state.
"Mm! Well done!"
Leilin nodded in satisfaction at his subordinates' performance.
Though these two wizards were only newly advanced to the lowest rank, the fact that Number Two and Number Three could still subdue them demonstrated the formidable combat power of the Brand Swordsmen—an ancient wizard specialty.
Then again, this might also have been the inevitable result of Number Two and Number Three burning through their potential and life force.
To gain strength quickly, Leilin had been forced to cut corners, employing numerous forbidden techniques on Number Two and Number Three to help them break through their limits and become Brand Swordsmen in a short span of time.
Because of this, both of their life forces had been severely depleted. According to the Chip's calculations, they had less than two months to live.
"Take them. Let's move!"
Leilin sighed inwardly and pointed at the five Black Bone Forest Academy wizards sprawled across the ground.
He still had many questions that needed answers from their lips.
Moreover, a
Leilin still had numerous ideas and theories about Brand Swordsmen that he needed to verify using these wizards.
After all, in ancient times, Brand Swordsmen had been a wizard's professional specialty, not a knight's!
Therefore, using Great Knights as test subjects—even with the Chip's assistance—always felt like something was missing. The final products had turned out to be defective versions like Number Two and Number Three.
Could it be that the absence of a wizard's vast Spiritual Power was what made it several times harder for Number Two and Number Three to channel elemental energy particles from the air compared to the Chip's simulations?
Leilin ran through the calculations in his mind once more, then prepared to bring these five wizards to a safe, secluded location. After extracting intelligence from them, he would immediately begin his experiments.
Only during wartime, against the enemy faction, did Leilin dare to act so brazenly.
Otherwise, using full-fledged Wizards as test subjects would easily provoke the entire class's displeasure and fierce backlash...
On a highland blanketed with white blossoms.
Shrouded in thick mist stood an enormous castle shaped like an inverted cone.
Its base touched the ground at only a single point, yet it supported the massive body of the castle above—giving the illusion that the world had been turned upside down.
It was as if the castle had originally been standing upright and someone had simply flipped it over and set it on the ground.
Along a corridor paved with white marble, an elderly woman with silver-white hair walked slowly, carrying an oil lamp.
Click! An iron door crackling with blue electrical currents was gently pushed open by her.
Hiss! Vast quantities of white gas began to spill outward, carrying an astonishing cold that coated the corridor behind in a layer of white frost.
The elderly woman stepped inside. Within was a world of white ice and snow where the temperature plunged below freezing—no ordinary person could have survived even a few seconds in that environment.
In the center of the chamber stood two objects resembling coffins of ice, wisps of white mist continuously rising from their surfaces.
Through the semi-translucent coffins, one could make out the motionless forms of a burly man and a young girl lying inside.
Yet even with their eyes shut, expressions of pain and struggle kept flickering across their faces. On each of their necks and right hands, a twisted serpent-shaped magical rune had been branded.
"I'm sorry to trouble you, Doctor Haitaer!"
The elderly woman stepped aside, and from behind her emerged another wizard with snow-white hair.
This wizard appeared quite old, with rings of wrinkles stacked upon his face, yet his eyes were exceptionally bright and carried a kindly smile.
"Curses are one of the most troublesome branches of magic, involving all manner of bizarre and cruel things. Even across the entire South Coast, very few wizards practice this kind of magic. I can't promise anything—I'll just do my best..."
This healer wizard named Haitaer did not go to examine the patients first. Instead, he addressed the elderly woman.
"You're the expert in this field. If even you can't solve the problem, then I don't know who else to turn to..."
The elderly woman replied with a bitter smile.
"Very well! I'll do my best!"
Haitaer nodded. Under normal circumstances, he would never have taken on such a job—it was not only dangerous but also easily offended the wizard who had cast the curse.
However, he had a close relationship with this family and owed them several favors from years past, so he had no choice but to come.
Haitaer first stepped forward to examine the ice coffins, then nodded.
"When treatment isn't possible, freezing the victims is an excellent stopgap measure!"
Then his gaze pierced through the ice. Upon seeing the curse runes within, he immediately drew in several sharp breaths.
Haitaer's expression turned extremely grave in an instant, and an oppressive atmosphere even began to permeate the air itself.
He then pulled all manner of strange objects from beneath the hem of his robe, apparently probing the nature and effects of the curse.
Behind him, the elderly woman held her breath, not daring to utter a single word.
After a long while, Haitaer set down a device resembling a stethoscope and wiped the cold sweat from his brow.
"How is it?"
The elderly woman immediately stepped forward to ask.
"Very troublesome! No—extremely troublesome!"
Haitaer's expression was utterly solemn.
"I can sense a trace of ancient aura within this curse—it's very likely a curse passed down from antiquity. There are no other templates on the South Coast to reference. Moreover, the formula is extraordinarily complex. Without extensive experimentation and testing, if I act rashly, it will only cause the curse to run wild entirely. The consequences of that would be something neither of us wishes to see..."
Now, having witnessed just how tenacious and sinister this curse was, even Haitaer was beginning to have second thoughts—was it worth offending such a terrifying dark wizard over a matter of favors?
"An ancient curse... hiss..."
The elderly woman also drew in a sharp breath.
As a member of a family with a long historical lineage, she understood better than most just how troublesome such curses could be.
In particular, attempting to forcibly break such a curse would only result in mutual destruction—unless the caster voluntarily relented.
"Is there no other way?"
She looked at Haitaer with a glimmer of hope in her eyes.
"The best solution would be to negotiate with the caster. Beyond that, to break this curse, I would need a large number of test subjects as well as on-site trials..."
Haitaer tilted his head and thought for a moment before speaking.
"Furthermore, this curse has a time limit. Based on my earlier assessment, it will erupt completely in at most one month!"
Haitaer delivered yet another piece of devastating news.
Hearing this, the elderly woman's body trembled. She then drew a deep breath, and a look of resolve appeared on her face.
"Manla, I could accept—but Jenna must not come to harm! That is my bottom line!"