The red blade collided with the green chains, sending out violent shockwaves.
Crack! Crack!
The red longsword shattered on the spot, and a portion of the chainmail armor over Siel's chest also crumbled. Several green iron links were sliced clean through, clattering to the ground in isolation.
"You… you're definitely not an ordinary newly-advanced wizard!"
Siel stumbled backward, his face flooded with regret.
Leilin's expression didn't change as he pressed forward in pursuit.
"W-Wait! We can talk! I still have a lot of… Aaargh!!!"
Siel tried to say more, but Leilin gave him no chance.
He surged forward again, his right fist clenched. The surface seemed coated in a layer of fine black scales, emanating a ring of dark, obsidian light.
First punch! A gaping hole was punched straight through Siel's chest, countless green iron links exploding outward at high speed.
Second punch! Siel's innate defensive spell was completely shattered. He staggered backward and collapsed to the ground, his chest caved inward, blood foam continuously bubbling from his mouth.
"Any last words?" Leilin walked up, his expression indifferent.
"M-My mentor… will avenge me!" Siel gasped for air, sounding like a tattered bellows.
"Boring!" Leilin threw the third punch without hesitation!
Bang! Siel's skull burst open like a watermelon, red and white matter spilling across the floor.
The apprentice who had earlier had a mark branded on his face sat on the ground in a daze, staring at the now completely lifeless headless corpse, too stunned to even wipe the blood that had splattered onto his face.
"I… I… I…"
George, mouth agape, tugged at Xirui's arm beside him. "That wizard! Is he really a semi-elementalized powerhouse? Could he be some apprentice in disguise?"
"In truth, just now a single glance from him would have been enough to kill us!" Xirui said with a bitter smile.
"Then… how powerful exactly has Master Leilin become, to defeat and kill Siel so easily?"
George watched Leilin as he picked through Siel's remains, his expression an intricate tangle of emotions.
"M-Master…"
Only then did the apprentices nearby react.
The semi-elementalized dark wizard who had been so arrogant just moments ago — killed just like that, at Master Leilin's hands?
"What should we do with Leihart?"
That deserter apprentice was now sitting on the ground like an idiot, muttering meaningless words over and over. The arcane mark Siel had branded on his face was particularly conspicuous.
"Handle him as a deserter! The Alliance should have a unified protocol for that, right? Do I really need to teach you?"
Leilin glanced coldly at the apprentice who had spoken.
Though it was only a glance, the apprentice stumbled back several steps, his calves trembling.
"Y-Yes, Master!"
Immediately, the deserter was seized by several others and escorted toward the castle. The apprentices on the scene all wore expressions of fear.
"Leihart is finished," one apprentice murmured quietly.
Under the White
And Leihart had deserted right in front of Leilin and so many other apprentices, with the enemy wizard's mark still branded on him — ironclad evidence that could not be denied.
In such a situation, death would be the lightest punishment.
If they ran into a particularly thorough enforcer, they would at minimum have their souls extracted and tortured for a hundred years, and the punishment would extend to their families and their mentor as well.
"What are you all standing around for? Get back to work! Do you want to stay here forever?"
Leilin swept his gaze over the dazed apprentices and spoke coldly.
"Yes! Right away, Master!"
Only then did the apprentices snap out of it and resume the harvesting work. Even George and Xirui were no exception.
If they didn't finish picking this field of Dark Mandala, the rear wizard encampment would never allow them to return. No matter how powerful Leilin was, eventually the dark wizard army would overwhelm them.
They didn't even need to wait that long. If the enemy merely eased their pressure slightly and directed even a fraction of their attention here, there would be no good outcome for any of them.
So every apprentice worked with desperate urgency, wishing they could complete all the tasks today and leave this wretched place.
"Repair!"
On the other side, Leilin stood at the edge of the flower field, drew a black scepter from within his robes, and spoke a single syllable.
Hummm!
A circle of pale white light extended continuously from the scepter, spreading like fine threads that seeped into the ground.
At the same time, from the depths of the flower field, the white defensive magical array resurfaced.
Strands of white filaments, like a spider's web, climbed upward and repaired the breaches that the dark wizards had torn open.
"Jerri Defense Array — Type 2! Physical defense: 20 degrees! Spell resistance: 23 degrees! Energy reserves remaining: 34.9…"
A light screen projected before Leilin's eyes, displaying all the operational data and information of the magical array.
With the Chip's assistance, the repair work proceeded very smoothly. Damaged areas were first simulated and calculated by the Chip, then repaired by Leilin — a seamless coordination.
"Still, this defensive power is a bit too low…"
Leilin rubbed his chin, considering whether to overhaul the magical array and bolster its defenses.
The wizard responsible for defending this area could receive a share of the harvested Dark Mandala, but the proportion was insultingly small — far beneath Leilin's notice.
However, the apprentices' work progress directly affected when they could withdraw. If they kept getting attacked every day, there would be no time to harvest petals at all.
Ensuring the apprentices' safety and completing the mission as quickly as possible was therefore an urgent priority.
"I'll come back alone in the dead of night to handle this!"
Leilin glanced at the apprentices bending over like farmers around him, a flicker of dark light passing through his eyes.
It wasn't that he distrusted these apprentices — it was simply his habit of securing extra cards up his sleeve.
Besides, he could develop techniques to accelerate the harvest. By shifting more of the Chip's computational power and raising the priority of this task by a few levels, it would only take a few days.
By then, the apprentices' productivity would surely improve.
…
Another half month passed in the blink of an eye.
Inside the Ganges Secret Realm, the sun disk slowly sank toward the horizon, leaving a faint shadow over the earth.
The wizard organization that had built this secret realm had used some unknown spell to give it a sun, a moon, and even the cycle of four seasons.
However, based on Leilin's deductions and the Chip's calculations, the sun and moon within the secret realm were likely mere energy projections of the real celestial bodies from the outside world, converted through some ancient and forgotten method and cast into the realm.
Even so, Leilin could only marvel at the technology and audacity of the ancient wizards.
Back in Trigionis City, the technique of artificially using volcanoes to boost the yield of surrounding farmland had already been enough to leave Leilin dumbstruck. But compared to the ancient wizards' power to pluck stars and seize the moon, to command clouds and rain with a turn of the hand — he could only bow and admit inferiority.
"Master Leilin is not only a powerful wizard, but who would have thought he'd be so skilled in Plant Cultivation as well!"
Inside the flower field, two apprentices working close together chatted while performing their tasks.
"Naturally — he's a fully qualified wizard! Not something we apprentices can compare to…"
The one speaking was a male apprentice with short red hair. A faint blue luminous film covered his hand as he rubbed his fingers together. Immediately, several blue threads emerged from his fingertips and wound beneath the petals of a Dark Mandala.
Crack! Crack!
A soft cutting sound rang out as the Dark Mandala petal slowly drifted free from the plant. The apprentice caught it and placed it into a nearby container.
"Before, picking a single petal cost us enormous amounts of mana and Spiritual Power. Even the most skilled — Guo'er — could only manage about twenty petals in a day. But now, ever since we started using Master Leilin's method, my daily harvest alone is over forty petals…"
The red-haired apprentice's face showed open admiration.
"At this rate, if we keep it up for a few more days, we can leave this godforsaken place!"
The first apprentice's face lit up with unmistakable hope. "I don't want to spend another day here! Dark wizards and their apprentices show up constantly — if not for Master Leilin's protection, we'd have died a hundred times over!"
Boom!!!
The defensive array's alarm blared, but the two apprentices acted as if they hadn't heard, bowing their heads and continuing their work.
"Who do you think it is this time? Some other poor sap?"
The red-haired apprentice asked with a hint of schadenfreude.
"Probably a full wizard. An ordinary apprentice wouldn't produce energy fluctuations this large." The first apprentice furrowed his brow, then lowered his head again.
"With Master Leilin here, what is there to worry about?"
"True enough!" The red-haired apprentice nodded and went back to his day's work.
…
Meanwhile, inside the castle.
In the cold, damp, lightless, pitch-black underground dungeon, Leilin strode forward with a figure wrapped in a black robe slung over his shoulder.
Clang! A cell door swung open, and without a moment's hesitation Leilin tossed the figure from his shoulder inside.
Bang! The body struck the hard floor with a tremendous crash.
The figure seemed to have been in a deep stupor, but now it jolted awake all at once.