Raylin finished speaking, gave his robe a shake, and turned to leave.
"What are you going to do?" Hishan asked coldly.
"Going to clean up the aftermath, of course, and arrange for the Dark Wizards to take over the defensive array and supplies…" Raylin's figure gradually receded into the distance, his voice still echoing through the area.
Raylin made his way back to his room, opened a hidden door, and revealed a cellar below.
"My Lord!" A dwarf dressed in black bowed respectfully to Raylin.
"Mm." Raylin nodded, then pointed a finger at the dwarf. A mote of bright yellow light shot from Raylin's fingertip and sank into the dwarf's forehead.
The dwarf's body swelled in an instant. Veins of bluish-green bulged across his muscles, writhing and squirming like small snakes.
Crack!
The dwarf's body kept expanding, and in the span of a single moment, he transformed from a small, squat figure into a towering brawny man who stood a full head taller than the average adult!
As his frame continued to grow, the black clothing was ripped apart, revealing a powerful, masculine physique brimming with vigor — though across what would have been a perfectly formed male body, all manner of rune brands now covered the skin, forming the pattern of a strange magical array.
This hulking man, with a sorcerous array branded onto his body, twitched uncontrollably, beads of cold sweat the size of beans constantly dripping from his face. It was clear that this transformation was far from pleasant for him, yet the man clenched his jaw tight and didn't let a single sound escape.
"Well done! Number Two!" Raylin looked at the brawny man and offered a faint word of praise.
"It is my honor to serve the Master!" The man, as it turned out, was one of the two Brand Swordsmen under Raylin's command!
In truth, given Number Two Brand Swordsman's strength, he should have had no trouble killing even Vade — a man weakened by a curse and far from his full power. The mission's failure had been entirely at Raylin's specific instruction.
Furthermore, even the warning note Vade had received beforehand had been deliberately planted by Raylin.
"I've lent you a hand as it is. What happens next is up to your luck!"
Raylin let out a soft sigh, his gaze seeming to pierce through the void itself, arriving at Vade's fleeing figure in the distance.
The reason he had done this was nothing more than a passing whim.
After all, his relationship with Vade was reasonably good, and it had been through Vade that he had gained entry to the
Although Leonore had harbored ill intentions and Raylin had struck back decisively — even causing Leonore to die indirectly at his hands — this had nothing to do with Vade.
Therefore, Raylin did not mind letting him go when it was convenient.
Even in the worst-case scenario, whatever shred of
After this incident, Raylin considered the debt he owed Vade to be fully repaid. If Vade ever foolishly provoked him again, Raylin would naturally kill him without a second thought.
In Raylin's heart, there had always been a clear line drawn.
Right now, Vade offered him a small amount of utility, and their relationship was still decent. So he would casually spare him this once. If their relationship were a shade closer, Raylin might have arranged for Number Two and Number Three to escort him out safely, rather than leaving him to live or die on his own as he had now.
Of course, all of this was predicated on it not harming Raylin's own interests. Otherwise, no relationship or favor would be worth a damn!
"I won't be pursuing him any further myself, but Xishan will certainly dispatch Black Witches from the Thousand Leaves Hand to hunt him down, just to be safe! Best of luck to him!"
Raylin estimated that Vade's chances of surviving out in the world right now were no higher than forty percent — and that was factoring in his personal luck and other variables.
Still, that was leagues better than the certain death awaiting him at headquarters, so Raylin merely sighed briefly before putting the matter out of mind. After instructing Numbers Two and Three to remain hidden as a contingency, he headed straight for the area where the Spell Spirit Core was located.
As for Xishan's orders and such, those had long since been cast aside. It wasn't as though Xishan would dare pick a fight with him over something like this.
The Spell Spirit Core was now situated at the very center of the Four Seasons Garden headquarters, not far from where Leonore's office had once been.
Here, one could see numerous grim-faced White Witches carrying out patrol duties every few steps. Among them were not only the Four Seasons Garden's own White Witches, but even several from the Lightning Legion had caught Raylin's eye.
By Raylin's estimation, the Spell Spirit Core was essentially the equivalent of a server room in later times — it governed the entire Four Seasons Garden's magical defense arrays and held an extremely important position. Coupled with the recent attack, the defensive level had been raised by several notches.
But all of this was mere decoration to Raylin! He was now one of the two highest-ranking figures in the Four Seasons Garden at this location. The witches who spotted him did not approach to question him; instead, they immediately saluted.
After dismissing the witches outside, Raylin walked straight into the server room where the Spell Spirit Core resided.
The room was quite empty, with wisps of white cold air rising around the perimeter, bringing the temperature down considerably.
At the center of the room stood the metallic column housing the Spell Spirit Core's main body, exactly as Raylin had seen it last time, standing there silently.
Strictly speaking, this kind of Spell Spirit was nothing more than an unconscious execution program — it did not even possess basic intelligence, falling far short of even Raylin's Chip. But the fact that magic could accomplish something like this was already deeply surprising to him.
This was merely the work of First and Second Tier Wizards. Then could Third Tier, or even Fourth Tier Wizards, use magic to generate artificial intelligence — or perhaps even create life?
A faint thrill stirred in Raylin's heart, mingled with a quiet note of vigilance. Even though he possessed the Chip and had gotten a head start far beyond that of other Wizards, high-level Wizards whose brain regions had been developed were no longer inferior to ordinary computers. His advantage would grow ever less conspicuous, and might even vanish entirely one day.
Yet at this moment, deep in his heart, Raylin brimmed with an intense confidence!
Even if the Chip's edge were eventually matched or surpassed, he was certain he could accumulate enough strength beforehand to face any challenge without fear!
A trace of a smile played at the corner of Raylin's lips as he pressed his palm against the surface of the metal column.
"Welcome! Seven-Star Authority Holder, Wizard Raylin Farrel! Please select the operation you require!"
The Spell Spirit's voice resonated directly inside Raylin's mind, and several basic modules promptly branched out — formation monitoring, data retrieval, basic rune modification, and more.
Raylin's Spiritual Power brushed against the data retrieval module, and in an instant, a massive stream of information flooded into his mind.
In Raylin's eyes, this Spell Spirit was essentially a colossal central computer, and the Wizards of the Four Seasons Garden had stored enormous volumes of data on this computer's hard drives.
Now, with his level of authority, everything except a few top-secret files was open for him to browse at will.
"Ganges Secret Realm maps! Resource distribution! Mission compendiums! Warehouse inventories! Academic knowledge archives!"
"Detected operable data platform! Execute remote access procedure?"
At that moment, the Chip's voice sounded in Raylin's ear.
"Yes!" Raylin nodded.
A tendril of Spiritual Power immediately enveloped the metal column.
"Ding! Task established! Data copy initiated! Progress 1%... 34%... 100%!"
The Chip's efficiency was astonishing, and its storage capacity far exceeded what Raylin had anticipated. It copied the entirety of the Spell Spirit's data in just a few seconds, without even consuming much memory.
"So it seems! After the spacetime transit, the Chip not only merged with my soul but also had its storage capacity reinforced. Even if I copied all the data that a high-level Spell Spirit at the Four Seasons Garden headquarters had accumulated over a thousand years, there would be no problem at all..."
A flash of delight crossed Raylin's face before he issued a command: "Search! Miscellaneous Items category!"
Instantly, an image was transmitted into the Chip's comparison database — a strange object resembling a honeycomb coal briquette, its surface studded with pearl-like orbs that looked like eyeballs, dazzling and sinister!
This was something Raylin had found while scouring the treasury of the Four Seasons Garden headquarters — undoubtedly a top-tier resource recovered from the Ganges Secret Realm.
Although Raylin didn't recognize the object himself, and the Chip had no prior records of it, Leonor — a Second Rank Wizard — certainly would. Otherwise, he wouldn't have kept it so carefully preserved.
And as long as he had this, the Formation Spirit's database would surely contain a record as well.
Sure enough, after uploading the Formation Spirit's data library, the Chip immediately produced an answer.
"Fossil of the Thousand-Eye Sea Star flesh! Rarity: 5S rank! Discovered at: Ganges Secret Realm, Hunting Horse Strait! Recorded by: Leonor!"
"Thousand-Eye Sea Star! It seems to be some kind of ancient creature!" Raylin stroked his chin, then looked down at the functional description below.
"The flesh of the Thousand-Eye Sea Star contains an extraordinarily rich amount of Life Energy. It can instantly reconnect severed limbs and even help a critically injured Wizard retain a measure of vitality. It also has an excellent effect on organ modification — adding just one milligram of sea star flesh can accelerate organ adaptation progress by two energy levels!"
Upon reading this, even Raylin couldn't help but flash a look of wild elation in his eyes.
"Organ adaptation? Does that mean it can be used for my heart transformation as well?" His current heart transformation progress had been stuck at 69% for some time.
After all, organ modification was an extremely dangerous field of study — and Raylin was attempting to continuously push his heart closer to the form of a Komoan Giant Serpent.