"But! Although there were some problems with the process, it's still largely in line with the original plan!"
Leilin had a smile on his face as he walked toward the sealing array that Kebin had been protecting.
"Stay away from there!"
Suddenly, a somewhat familiar voice rang out.
The moment the voice sounded, over a dozen black shadows materialized, instantly surrounding Leilin.
The leader was someone Leilin knew very well—the giant from the Thousand Leaves Hand! However, at this point, his legs had regrown, and the mist around him was even thicker.
Beside him, Xishan had also been freed. Covered in dust and looking rather wretched, he was glaring at Leilin with hatred.
"Leilin! How dare you betray us! Betray the honor of the Dark Wizards…"
"Enough!" Leilin interrupted the giant's litany of accusations with some exasperation. "Aren't Dark Wizards creatures who put self-interest above all else? Since when did you have things like honor?"
He cast a sideways glance at the giant, whose face had gone pale green. "If you want revenge, just say so! There's no need for this fake posturing!"
The giant's voice cut off abruptly, his face flushing red with fury.
"Yes! I want revenge! My side is all elite Dark Wizards, each with an Elemental Transformation of over seventy! I admit you're strong! But as long as you haven't reached Second Rank, there's absolutely no way you'll survive under the combined assault of so many wizards…"
The giant pointed at the surrounding Dark Wizards. "You dared to kill Boylan, and you treated me like that!!!!" The muscles on his face twitched. His previous crushing defeat at Leilin's hands was undoubtedly the greatest humiliation of his life.
"Ah… I'm going to kill you! I'll skin you alive and use you as my carpet!" the giant roared.
"What a… completely unoriginal speech…"
Leilin sighed indifferently. Even surrounded by so many Dark Wizards, he still had the composure to survey the current situation at the
Even Numbers Two and Three, who followed behind him, seemed to have taken after their master and showed no signs of nervousness.
With the addition of the Lightning Legion as a fresh fighting force, the originally one-sided defeat on the Four Seasons Garden's side had finally turned around. Dark Wizards and Light Wizards were now split into countless small battle groups, each fighting independently.
At the very center was the massive tornado where Leisiman and Kebin were clashing.
The tornado howled and raged, and anything that stood in its path—whether wizard or building—was instantly reduced to dust!
At the heart of the tornado, two figures could vaguely be seen exchanging blows at tremendous speed.
Streams of electricity crackled everywhere, sometimes piercing through the tornado and splashing outward, causing massive casualties.
"What a complete mess…"
Leilin sighed, then looked at Xishan and the giant across from him with something like pity. "Leave now! I can let you go one more time!"
"Are you insulting us?" Xishan and the giant spoke simultaneously.
Even though they had just witnessed Leilin's power, they didn't believe he could survive under the combined assault of so many wizards. They naturally took his words as a provocation.
The giant waved his hand furiously. "Attack, all of you!"
Instantly, the surrounding Dark Wizards struck. Corrosion Runes, Hands of Exhaustion, Toxic Clouds, Acid Lightning, Frost Bolts—all manner of insidious dark magic surged toward Leilin in a colorful wave.
Every single magical attack had a power level of forty-five or higher!
Under this level of siege, even a peak First-rank
But Leilin was different. After his heart had been successfully modified and fully fused with the Corrmosser Giant Serpent bloodline, though he hadn't immediately advanced to Second Rank, he had reached a level infinitely close to that grade!
He could now almost be called the most peak First-rank Wizard in history!
"Shadow Domain!"
Facing these attacks, Leilin loudly chanted the incantation, forming a strange hand seal with both hands before pressing them against the ground!
Hummm! A ring of mysterious, profound blackness rapidly expanded outward from Leilin, instantly permeating an area of several hundred meters around him.
This was a domain-type attack that Leilin had created through shadow simulation. Though its effects were far inferior to a true domain-type spell, it was still far more powerful than anything at his level!
In the Giant Serpent Tome, the Crimson Great Wizard had noted that high-level wizards possessed a skill similar to a domain, which could instantly control a large area and suppress the innate talents and abilities of any wizard of lower level, instantly reducing the strength of a lower-ranked wizard who entered the domain by several levels.
As wizards progressed to even higher ranks, they could even alter the physical rules within their own domain!
It could be said that within their own domain, high-level wizards were godlike existences!
Leilin certainly couldn't achieve that level yet. The Shadow Domain spell he had developed was merely a knockoff—it couldn't even suppress other wizards' strength. It could only enhance his own. But it represented his ambition!
"Shadow Domain—First-rank domain-type spell effect: Instantly creates a one-hundred-by-one-hundred shadow zone. Within this zone, the caster's agility is boosted by thirty percent, spiritual power recovery speed is boosted by ten percent, and elemental resistance is increased by ten percent. Duration: five minutes. Cost: fifteen points of spiritual power, fifteen points of mana!"
In the blink of an eye, pitch-black shadows swallowed all the Dark Wizards near Leilin.
Every kind of magical attack, once covered by the shadows, silently vanished into the air without releasing even a trace of energy fluctuation.
Then, as if reborn within the darkness, Leilin became like a demon lord of the night, beginning to reap the lives of the wizards within.
Low, bone-chilling exhalations echoed continuously from the darkness.
After just a few dozen seconds, the shadows enveloping the area began to condense, pulling back to Leilin's feet.
The Dark Wizards who had surrounded him stood with blank expressions, the shock from moments before frozen on their faces.
Pfft! A gust of wind blew past, followed by a soft sound.
A Dark Wizard before Leilin burst apart like a soap bubble.
Pfft! Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!
As if triggered in a chain reaction, the Dark Wizards exploded one after another, turning into a slurry of flesh.
Vivid crimson blood mist instantly permeated the area.
Within the blood mist, two figures still remained alive.
They were Xishan and the giant—the two split personalities. But at this moment, their bodies were covered in metal-cutting wounds, their blood had dyed their clothes red, and they had completely passed out.
Leilin was not yet a Second-rank Wizard, after all, and he didn't want to attract Kebin's attention. If the latter abandoned his opponent and came after him instead, that would be extremely troublesome. So he chose to leave Xishan and the giant alive.
"Hidden Shadow Fireball!"
Seeing the elite Dark Wizards instantly wiped out under Leilin's hand, the surrounding wizards—whether Dark or Light—no longer dared to provoke him. They tacitly moved away, leaving the area to Leilin.
Leilin walked to the spot where Kebin had originally deployed the black membrane. He extended his hand, and a fist-sized black fireball appeared in his palm.
"Go!" Leilin tossed the fireball, which instantly tore through the void, reached the surface of the membrane, and began burning.
Drops of black substance melted continuously from the membrane and were quickly evaporated.
Leilin's control over spiritual power had now reached an extremely precise level. Under his hand, the Hidden Shadow Fireball could not only unleash tremendous destructive force but could also attack silently, completely containing its power.
Pop!
The black membrane fluctuated continuously before finally giving way, shattering into butterfly-like motes of light and revealing the sealing array within.
Thanks to the special protection of Kebin, the Second-rank Dark Wizard, the area around the sealing array was the only region that had remained completely intact during Leilin's earlier large-scale attacks.
One could even see a circular floor outline that ended at the boundary of the membrane.
"The core consciousness of the Secret Realm Gate!"
Leilin's eyes could see nothing else. He stared at the platinum-white flame at the center of the sealing array, a look of intoxication in his eyes.
"Follow the original plan!" he said softly to Numbers Two and Three behind him, then entered the array without looking back.
"Understood, Master!"
Numbers Two and Three exchanged a glance. In each other's eyes, they could see unwavering resolve and a trace of willingness to die! As Leilin's soul slaves, even if Leilin ordered them to commit suicide, Numbers Two and Three would do so without hesitation.
They each pulled a blood-red prismatic crystal from within their robes.
"For the Master's glory!"
Numbers Two and Three let out a low shout and crushed the blood-red crystals. A layer of crimson light screen instantly rose from the crystal shards, enveloping the area of the former sealing array.
These two blood-red crystals turned out to be single-use instant-cast wizard arrays. Judging by the defensive power of the crimson light screen, their price was certainly not low.
Woo woo…
As if the wailing of the wronged, or the lament of the suffering, a sorrowful cry that seemed to originate from the soul itself rang out across the Four Seasons Garden headquarters.
With the sound, dense black runes emerged from the surrounding buildings, one by one.
These runes twisted and writhed like tiny tadpoles, or like elongated little serpents—extremely eerie and mysterious.
The twisted runes combined continuously, eventually forming the pattern of a large-scale wizard array.
The array's range was enormous, encompassing the entire Four Seasons Garden headquarters. Whether at the forward defensive positions or the rear Secret Realm entrance, these black runes were everywhere.
Fine black lines continuously linked the symbols together. Even though layers of ground had been stripped away by the prolonged battles, thin black lines instantly materialized in the void, immediately filling the gaps!
The entire grand array activated instantly!