Cold winds whistled past, sending dried maple leaves spinning through the air like butterflies.
A clear brook babbled softly, lending the place an added touch of tranquility.
A gray squirrel swished its bushy tail and scrambled down a tree with lightning speed, clutching a pinecone in its paws. It gnawed furiously, its little head darting about to scan for any sign of danger.
Crack! A dry twig snapped underfoot. The squirrel immediately abandoned its pinecone in a fright and bolted back up the tree, eyeing the intruder who had disturbed this peaceful silence with wary suspicion.
"It hasn't even been a year since I was here last… and it's turned into this?"
Gazing at the scenery around him,
He had once again returned to the small town where the ancient Soul-Slaying Sect's secret realm was located—the same one he had explored before with Old Ghost from Evernight City.
But the town had clearly been abandoned.
A species of grayish-green vine had overrun the entire settlement. Occasionally, one could spot the dark silhouettes of one or two animals scurrying past, but there was no trace of human habitation whatsoever.
Judging by all the signs, the townspeople had willingly abandoned the place—and not long after Leylin and his group had finished their expedition.
"Fear of Wizards," Leylin murmured, shaking his head, not the least bit surprised.
Although they hadn't killed every last resident on their previous visit—only rendering them collectively unconscious for three days to maintain secrecy—such eerie methods would only make the townspeople associate the incident all the more with Wizards!
Although the White Wizards of the White
But at the time, the emergence of the Ganges Secret Realm had drawn every ounce of the White Wizards' attention. Where would they have the leisure to investigate reports of possible Dark Wizard activity in some remote little town—especially when no one had even died?
As a result, the White Wizard Alliance had sent only a few third-tier apprentices to look into it.
Those apprentices naturally couldn't see through Old Ghost's disguise as a formal Wizard. The entrance to the ancient Soul-Slaying Sect's secret realm went undetected, and after conducting a cursory investigation, the apprentices could only file a report along the lines of "traces of Dark Wizard activity found, but the individual has already departed the area, presumably having achieved their objective."
A report of that caliber naturally failed to capture the White Wizard Alliance's attention, and so the matter was left unresolved.
But while the White Wizards could afford to ignore it, the townspeople who had lived here their entire lives could not!
After all, having grown up on tales spun by the White Wizards of Dark Wizards razing cities and annihilating kingdoms, they knew full well what was at stake. Even though every investigator assured them the Dark Wizard had left, what if he hadn't?
And so, even without anyone organizing it, the townspeople had left on their own accord.
The subsequent supernatural incidents had caused several elderly residents who remained behind to vanish under bizarre circumstances, and the entire town had fallen into desolation.
Leylin recalled these details with a calm expression. After assigning Damian and the others to return and guard the family, he had hurried here to take a closer look at the ancient teleportation circle he had seen before.
In order to advance to Second Level Warlock, he had destroyed the gateway to a secret realm and killed two Second Level Wizards!
The enmity that created was no small matter! Although Leylin had confidence in his own strength, both the White Wizards and the Dark Wizards possessed Wizards who had already reached the Third Level as their trump cards!
The current Leylin still did not consider himself capable of facing enemies of that caliber, and so choosing an escape route in advance had become the most urgent priority.
The forces of the White and Dark Wizards had already thoroughly permeated every inch of the South Coast. Hiding here was completely out of the question.
Moreover, every direction around the South Coast harbored terrifying danger zones — even formal Wizards who ventured there would be lucky to survive. Leylin had no route charts for ocean voyages in his possession either. Rushing out blindly would be something only a fool would do!
And even if Leylin was lucky enough to cross successfully, the other side could very well be just as barren and lifeless as the Keli Archipelago. Leylin wished to walk further along the path of the Wizard — naturally, he had no desire to go somewhere like that.
But the ancient teleportation circle was different! It could transport over vast distances, spanning at least several times the length of the South Coast, or possibly even reaching another world entirely!
Surrounding the Wizard World were many powerful planes and even entire worlds. In ancient times, the Ancient Wizards had conquered world after world, analyzing their unique laws of power to strengthen themselves!
This ancient teleportation circle might very well be connected to some world that had been conquered by the Ancient Soul Devouring Sect Wizards.
Furthermore, the destination on the other end was certain to be a place rich in resources — at least not inferior to the South Coast. Otherwise, why would the Ancient Wizards have bothered constructing a teleportation circle? The cost of building a single teleportation circle was no small sum — it was enough to strain even a force as powerful as the Ancient Soul Devouring Sect. Leylin refused to believe they would go through all that merely to create an escape route.
"Come to think of it! That Gegewu over there! And Old Ghost and Jay — I wonder how they're doing?"
Leylin stroked his chin.
Even though he had advanced to Second Level Warlock, he still felt deeply wary of that terrifying spiritual entity born from the resentment of vengeful spirits — Gegewu!
After all, it had been sealed by the Soul Devouring Sect Wizards for an uncountable number of years, yet the moment it was freed, it still possessed the strength of a Second Level Wizard!
Consider this! The Horalar Black Serpents in Dhyrune's Garden, after enduring a long period of sealing, had degraded from their original Third Level Wizard strength down to a point where they were weaker than even a formal Wizard!!!
By Leylin's estimation, the Gegewu in that secret realm, before being sealed, had at minimum reached the Fourth Level Wizard strength!!!
And Wizards of that level had a special title in the ancient era — Morning Star Wizard!
According to the Great Crimson Wizard's Serpent Book, when a Wizard reached the Third Level, they would enter an extended bottleneck period of breakthrough! And the difficulty for a Third Level Wizard to break through to the Fourth Level far surpassed all previous promotions combined — one could say that stacking together all the effort required to push an ordinary person to the Third Level Wizard would still fall far short of the difficulty a Third Level Wizard faced in breaking through to the Fourth!!!
Even in the ancient era, Fourth Level Wizards were powerhouses who dominated entire regions! And their title was — Morning Star!
What were stars like? High above! Unrivaled! Eternal and immortal!
And Wizards who ascended to the Fourth Level fully deserved that title! Moreover, their lifespans would see an enormous increase — living past a thousand years was child's play! For mortals or even low-level Wizards, this was already the realm of immortality!
At this level, Wizards would also truly command terrifying power capable of filling mountains and burning seas! No mass tactics could touch them! A single one could rival an entire legion of Wizards!
Unlike the current Lightning Legion, Wizard legions of the ancient era had at minimum over ten thousand formal Wizards! Dozens of Second Level Wizards! The Legion Commander and Vice Commander were invariably chosen from the most powerful among the Third Level Wizards!
If the Lightning Legion had met that standard, Leylin would have been long dead without even a grave.
And a Fourth Level Morning Star Wizard could utterly annihilate even such a mighty Wizard legion!
The Gegewu Leylin had encountered before, after enduring an immensely long seal, had emerged with Second Level Wizard strength — its power before being sealed was completely impossible to estimate, and it was very likely it had already ascended to the Morning Star Wizard level!
A Wizard of that caliber, to put it bluntly, could crush the current Leylin with a single finger.
If Leylin hadn't obtained several pieces of intelligence confirming that the Gegewu had already left, he wouldn't have dared return.
Near Sleepless City, after assigning tasks to several of his soul servants, Leylin disguised himself and entered Sleepless City once.
With his current Second Level Warlock methods, plus fully activating his Spiritual Power compression technique and the Mimicry Spell, even an fellow Second Level Wizard would be unable to detect him — let alone ordinary guards and the like.
Spending just a few Magic Stones, he easily obtained the intelligence he wanted.
The entire South Coast's attention was still fixed on the Ganges Secret Realm, and the hottest news right now was the sudden emergence of Leylin as a newly advanced Second Level Wizard!
As the one who had destroyed the Secret Realm gate and killed two Second Level Wizards, Leylin was now wanted by both the Light and Dark Wizard Alliance, with his danger rating directly set to the highest level!
On the South Coast, a Second Level Wizard was already top-tier strength capable of holding down a region, like Slaye — if Leylin were still at Black Bone Forest Academy, he could even compete for the next Academy Head position!
Although he was publicly wanted, in the shadows, many factions had extended olive branches to Leylin, promising extraordinarily generous terms.
But facing all of this, Leylin merely smiled faintly.
The resources he had harvested this time were already sufficient for his needs during the Second Level stage, and having barely escaped from that maelstrom, he had no desire to be dragged into any more trouble.
Aside from his own intelligence, what had drawn the most attention on the South Coast was the soul plague breaking out in the western region!
In several ordinary kingdoms along the western South Coast, a strange disease had begun spreading in recent times!
Those afflicted showed no outward abnormalities at first — only tiny black spots would appear on their faces and waists, and their bodies would gradually grow gaunt.
Once seven days had passed and the black spots swelled into large, visible marks, the patient would die without a sound.
After investigation by the Light Wizards, it was confirmed that every patient's soul had vanished without a trace! And this method of harvesting souls bore a striking resemblance to the Soul Plague of the ancient Soul-Slaughtering Cult!
This soul plague spread with terrifying speed — by now, it had already claimed the lives of over a hundred thousand commoners!
Even though the Light Wizard Alliance was preoccupied by the Ganges Secret Realm, they had still dispatched a special investigation team led by a Second Level Wizard to deal with this matter.
Their most valuable discovery was that in every area where the soul plague had run rampant, followers suspected of belonging to the ancient Soul-Slaughtering Cult had been spotted — and the one controlling them was an ancient Gegewu!!!