This silver dagger was clearly a Magical Item, radiating a sharp silver glow from its surface.
Wade collapsed with an expression of unwillingness on his face, staining a large patch of the floor red.
The earth-yellow floor twisted and writhed before finally taking on the humanoid form of Dark Shadow.
"You only paid attention to the Face-Shifter's transformation and forgot that Dark Shadow can shift into a shadow state, attaching to anything..."
Wade was gravely wounded, with no surplus Spiritual Power or mana to sustain himself. The vines that had been restraining the Face-Shifter naturally dispersed.
The Face-Shifter rubbed his wrists and sneered.
Crack!
A blood-red beam of light pierced through his neck, and scalding blood gushed out ceaselessly.
"What a pity! You've also underestimated our Four Seasons Squad!!!"
Pfft! A Four Seasons Squad member who was clearly a minor leader drew a blood-red longsword and pointed it toward Dark Shadow's position!
A blood-red beam shot out instantly, and the previous Briar Cage reappeared, enclosing Wade within it.
The Briar Cage could not only be used to trap and destroy enemies, but also to protect one's own allies!
"Protect the commander! Leave him to me!!!" The leader gave a sharp shout, and then four blood-red streaks of light sliced through the air, appearing outside the Briar Cage.
"The Face-Shifter! Dead just like that!!!" Dark Shadow looked around in disbelief.
The office was in complete disarray. Numerous Wizards had been rendered immobile by the earlier high-energy bomb. But the Four Seasons Squad members, protected by their blood-colored armor and innate talent magic, were clearly not heavily wounded. They had already begun closing in, cutting off every possible escape route for Dark Shadow!
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"
Dark Shadow constantly scanned his surroundings, letting out a furious roar: "Despicable! We've been deceived!!! Where is the backup and rescue the organization promised???"
Judging from the situation, the Thousand Leaves Hand had assigned them their mission while withholding much of the intelligence, and had perhaps made false promises as well.
"Hmph! Truly dark Wizards! The moment things go wrong, they can only look out for themselves!!!"
The Four Seasons Squad leader let out a disdainful snort, then pointed toward the Sealing Array: "Second team, guard that position! Don't let a single person through!"
A squad of Four Seasons Squad members immediately rushed to the Sealing Array's position, and a ring of red briar light blazed to life once more.
The leader swung his blood-red longsword and pointed it at Dark Shadow.
"You've made me very angry!!! This is the first time in fifty years of executing missions that a target has managed to wound me! Are you ready to pay the price?"
Rings of energy particles around his body flashed ceaselessly as an overwhelming aura of Spiritual Power radiated from him, enveloping Dark Shadow.
His gaze in particular was like that of a predator locking onto its prey, sending a chill through Dark Shadow's spine.
"Wait... wait... we can talk. I know a great deal of intelligence about the Thousand Leaves Hand. We can cooperate..."
While Dark Shadow shouted these attention-diverting words with absolutely no sincerity, a layer of magical aura so thin as to be nearly invisible flickered around his feet.
Whoosh!
His figure instantly dissolved into a dark shadow, his speed shattering the limits of what the naked eye could perceive as he burst through the encirclement of four Four Seasons Squad members.
Dark Shadow flickered several times in succession, splitting off several identical shadows that charged toward multiple directions.
Crack! Crack!
Facing this, the leader merely gave a cold smile, then drove his blood-red longsword deep into a wooden plank before him.
Ripple after ripple, like ocean waves, spread outward from the base in all directions.
An earth-yellow "figure" was ejected from the floor by the waves.
Boom! The leader appeared before Dark Shadow in an instant, his blood-red longsword tracing a gleaming arc.
Crack! The transparent armor on Dark Shadow's chest and a pendant both shattered. The blood-red longsword then mercilessly cleaved into his chest, spraying blood!
Smack! Dark Shadow crashed heavily to the ground. The
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Fine, sharp cracking sounds of bones echoed ceaselessly from Dark Shadow's chest.
Blood laced with white foam spilled from the corners of Dark Shadow's mouth as he tried to say something.
The entire series of battles had unfolded with extreme rapidity, occurring in succession within barely a dozen seconds, leaving some of the fallen Wizards still unable to process what had happened.
And at that moment, the faint black mist had not yet fully dissipated.
"Hmm?? Something's wrong!!!" Just then, the leader standing on Dark Shadow's chest whipped his head around, a look of shocked fury appearing on his face.
He immediately abandoned Dark Shadow and rushed toward the Sealing Array.
"Blood Restraint!" The leader thrust his hand into the air before him and grabbed! In the next instant, a faintly green figure was forcibly "pulled" out of the empty air.
The figure was extremely thin and small, not tall at all—like a child—covered in a ring of fine green mist.
"Heh heh! Such keen perception! I'd say you're only a single step away from the peak of the first rank!"
The figure shrouded in green offered casual praise, revealing the voice of a young boy.
Snap! Snap! Snap!
Then, a large string of crystal balls flickering with blue sparks was hurled directly outward.
Boom!!! Boom!!! Boom!!! Violent explosions erupted one after another before the leader, and the massive shockwaves forced him to keep retreating.
The green mist then closed in continuously, transforming into a thick, viscous solution that clung to his body like powerful adhesive.
"Damn it! Be careful! Their target has always been the Sealing Array!!!" The leader, his body coated in a layer of green viscous solution, could only let out a roar.
"Heh heh! Too bad—it's already too late!"
The child's figure within the green mist seemed to dissolve into an afterimage once again; the earlier red Briar Array had absolutely no effect on him.
He charged straight into the Briar Array, and vast quantities of green mist radiated from his body.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Four defending Four Seasons Squad members collapsed to the ground, green mushrooms and fungal spots already sprouting on their faces.
"Useless trash—all of them—needing me to step in!"
The boy spoke while his hands moved with astonishing speed, producing a red crystal identical to the one Leilin had used before, and pressed it toward the center of the array!
This was a self-destruct formula perfectly calibrated to the array. Once activated, the entire array along with the sealed consciousness would immediately self-destruct!
If the core consciousness self-destructed, the metal gate—the Secret Realm entrance outside—would also immediately collapse!!!
The situation had reached a moment of extreme peril!!!
Excitement blazed in the boy's eyes. He could already envision the Secret Realm entrance's destruction and the white Wizards' frantic fury.
"Now for you!"
At that very moment! A hand resembling white jade reached out through the air and clamped down on the boy's hand, while black mist coalesced into a massive serpent that bit down on the red crystal, shattering it to pieces!!!
Leilin cancelled his Shadow Stealth state and seized the boy in an instant.
The moment his hand touched the boy, torrents of crimson flame erupted from Leilin's palm, burning the green mist on the boy's surface to nothing and revealing a
"You..." The boy pointed at Leilin, about to cry out in shock and fury.
But how would Leilin give him that chance? Several blood-red serpents burrowed swiftly into the boy's seven orifices, sealing his sea of consciousness and all other movements.
He was still using the Blood Hand disguise. The Wizards outside could only see a figure in blood-red robes, radiating an aura of sinister strangeness, emerging from thin air and subduing the boy in an instant.
After raiding the merit exchange point, Leilin had returned to the vicinity of Leonor's office and remained hidden here ever since.
When Wade and the sneaking Face-Shifter's group arrived, Leilin had activated Shadow Stealth with a stir of anticipation, lying in wait like a hunting serpent, patiently waiting for prey to come to him.
Finally, after the Face-Shifter's death, Dark Shadow's severe injury, and most of the Four Seasons Squad members being drawn away, the boy could no longer restrain himself and began to take the risk.
Leilin, capitalizing on the brief moment of surprise and elation when the boy's plan seemed to succeed, struck in an instant and subdued him.
The precision with which he had seized this window of opportunity was nothing short of masterful. Without the Chip's assistance and computational modeling, Leilin could not have captured the boy so effortlessly.
"I didn't expect you to be hiding so well!" Leilin held the boy by the back of his collar, lifting his frail, diminutive body as though carrying a piece of luggage.
Having been sealed by Leilin's spell, the boy could not even speak now. He could only fix Leilin with a gaze full of venomous hatred, looking as though he wished to carve him into a thousand pieces.
This boy was none other than the Thousand Leaves Hand member who had confronted and threatened Leilin on his way to the Four Seasons Garden last time.
Back then, he hadn't even achieved half-elementalization, had nearly been killed by Leilin, and had also lost a Magical Item.
But now... Leilin studied the boy with some astonishment. Judging by the energy fluctuations radiating from him, in such a short span of time, the boy had not only broken through the bottleneck of half-elementalization but had also advanced to within a single step of becoming a peak Wizard!!!
Even Leilin, with the Chip's assistance, was slightly amazed by this speed of progression.
"Blood Hand! It's the Thousand Leaves Hand's Blood Hand! Why would he stop his own allies!"
Outside, the Four Seasons Squad leader was being washed by ring after ring of milky-white holy water, finally flushing away all of the revolting green slime.
A look of confusion hung on his face, but his steps remained firm as he blocked Leilin's path.