After finishing speaking, Leilin turned to gaze at the bustling market once more.
The cycle of life and death, flowers blooming and withering — it all seemed to endlessly shift and transform before his eyes.
"Everything in this world is helpless against the corrosion of time! And precisely because of that, I swore to pursue eternity — and I have never wavered!"
Leilin sighed inwardly.
But rebuilding this market hadn't been entirely pointless. At the very least, he had learned a great deal about management from the process. If he were ever put in charge of a wizard gathering point again, he could certainly do a far better job.
Watching Leilin's expression, Xishan sneered coldly to himself, though not a trace of emotion crossed his face. "Then let's get started! People are coming today to transfer the core consciousness!"
"So it's finally happening?"
A glimmer of anticipation flashed through Leilin's eyes as he walked out alongside Xishan.
...
Galet strode slowly through his section of the perimeter, wearing the special wizard robe of the
The apprentices he passed along the way all stood at attention by the roadside and bowed respectfully. He walked past them expressionlessly, occasionally offering a reserved nod.
"This is it! Respect! Awe! This is what it feels like to be a true wizard…"
As a newly promoted true wizard, Galet clearly hadn't fully transitioned out of that state yet.
The extraordinary deference he received had clearly gone to his head.
But all of that vanished in an instant the moment he laid eyes on the massive breach in the fortress wall.
On the outer defensive perimeter of the Four Seasons Garden headquarters, a gaping hole had appeared — enormous and impossible to ignore.
It was the handiwork of the dark wizards from the last attack. Though Leilin and Xishan had ordered repairs, the damage still hadn't been restored to its original state.
Watching the white wizards and apprentices still working up on the wall, Galet felt as though his own scars had been ripped open, mercilessly mocked for all to see.
This gaping wound was the shame of every wizard in the Four Seasons Garden!
"Those damned dark wizards! One day! I, Galet, will make them pay—" His voice of complaint and cursing suddenly faltered as he recalled the dark wizards' frenzy and overwhelming power from not long ago.
For a wizard who had grown up in a greenhouse, every move the dark wizards made was drenched in blood and violence, enough to make him nearly suffocate.
In such a state, even someone of equal strength would be crushed mercilessly.
"If they really came again… could I handle it?" Deep doubt crept into Galet's heart. After all, he had only survived last time by sheer luck. And far more white wizards — stronger, with greater spiritual power — had been cut down outright!
"Whew… Never mind! There's still the Lightning Corps, the large-scale defense and amplification arrays, and Lords Xishan and Leilin! With that kind of strength, holding out for a day or two should pose no problem at all. And tomorrow, reinforcements from headquarters will arrive!"
Galet slowly exhaled a long breath.
Boom!
Just then, a green flare tore across the sky like a meteor, trailing a long tail of luminous fire.
Ssshh! The flare was accompanied by a piercing shriek of displaced air.
Crack! The green flare detonated high near the center of the sky, forming a grotesque green skull pattern!
"That's… the dark wizards' signal…" Galet's voice came out hoarse, his face contorting in disbelief.
"Enemy attack!"
The patrolling wizards roared the alarm one after another. Then, on the horizon, a dark mass of magical creatures surged forward like a tide.
"The dark wizards' bioengineered army! This is the cannon-fodder force they created by using radiation and toxins to corrupt the living creatures inside the Evergreen Secret Realm. The real army must still be behind them! Activate the defensive arrays! Notify the two lords!"
On the elevated battlements, a wizard with a cold, stern face — apparently a squad leader — immediately bellowed the orders.
"Activate the Celestial Fire
This squad leader was clearly the commanding officer for this sector, and he immediately began channeling his spiritual power to communicate with the Array Spirit.
"Array Spirit, activate the Energy Amplification Wizard Array as well! Target — all Four Seasons Garden wizards!"
The Energy Amplification Wizard Array was a colossal wizard array whose range covered the entire secret realm headquarters, capable of boosting the spell power of every wizard below half-elemental transformation by a powerful ten percent!
"Request received. Verifying authorization…"
From within his mind came the Array Spirit's utterly emotionless voice.
"Authorization failed. Array activation denied." But the Array Spirit's icy response struck the wizard as though he'd been plunged into the ninth level of an abyss.
"What? Authorization denied?"
The squad leader's expression changed. He slammed his fist against the stone railing beside him, and a large chunk of green-tinged stone crumbled away.
"Again! Just like last time — there's a mole!!!"
He whipped his head around toward Leonore's office. "Is it Xishan? Or Leilin? Or both?"
Wizards were no fools. The Array Spirit's activation failure last time could have been written off as a fluke, but happening again now narrowed the field of suspicion considerably. Any attempt at cover-up would be futile.
Xishan and Leilin had no intention of hiding it, either. After all, after today they planned to sever ties with the Four Seasons Garden entirely.
"Squad leader, what do we do?" A female wizard at his side asked anxiously.
"We're leaving!" The squad leader glanced at the oncoming tide of magical beasts and then at the distant metal gates of the secret realm, and made his decision through gritted teeth.
"The situation is extremely dangerous, and we've got a mole on the inside again! Casualties will far exceed last time! If any of you want to live, follow me — now! Right now!" he explained rapidly.
His authority within the squad was absolute. Several members immediately chose to follow him, while the remaining few decided to stay.
At a time like this, those who remained in the Four Seasons Garden were the most fanatically loyal.
The squad leader's expression shifted momentarily, then hardened back to ice. He led his team to begin breaking through from the flank of the magical beast tide.
Just before leaving, the squad leader glanced back one last time at the Four Seasons Garden's defensive line.
Though the Array Spirit's large-scale array couldn't be activated, many of the garrison wizards had chosen to hold their ground. Hailstorms, crackling lightning, and cascading rain of fire lit up the defensive line in constant flashes.
"Forgive me," the squad leader murmured inwardly. Then he turned and left without looking back.
Wizards were, at their core, a deeply rational people. The squad leader understood perfectly that with the enemy attacking so fiercely and such a high-ranking mole facilitating them from within, the wizards of the Four Seasons Garden here had no chance of a good outcome.
As the bioengineered army clashed against the garrison wizards' spells, enormous waves of magical energy swept through the entire Four Seasons Garden.
In an instant, the Four Seasons Garden descended into utter chaos once more.
Wandering wizards, recalling the last attack, chose to break through and flee. The apprentice-level ones, who counted for less than ants in a battle of this scale, could only wail in despair.
On top of that, certain wizards with ulterior motives took the opportunity to engage in illicit activities. The clamor, the weeping, the energy signatures of spells, and the roars of magical creatures all merged into a deafening cacophony that shook the entire area.
"This is terrifying! The Four Seasons above! Is my nightmare really going to happen all over again?"
"It's horrible! It's horrible!"
Galet muttered under his breath. His duty as a garrison wizard of the Four Seasons Garden urged him forward to defend his home, but his legs trembled uncontrollably, carrying him slowly backward.
Boom! At that moment, a half-eaten corpse suddenly plummeted from the sky, and the rain of blood it shed during the fall drenched Galet head to toe.
"Aah…" Galet's face twisted in horror, and without a moment's hesitation, he broke into a full sprint.
As he ran, his lips moved faintly, and a swirl of green energy particles flooded his body, reducing his weight by half.
A thin layer of earthen scales materialized across his skin.
"Forgive me…" Galet apologized silently in his heart even as he ran for his life.
Boom!
As he passed by one of the buildings, the seemingly tranquil structure suddenly lurched violently, and a massive fireball erupted across its surface.
Scorching waves of heat spread in every direction, interspersed with sparks and chunks of stone. Several nearby apprentices were instantly reduced to charred husks by the blast.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Thanks to his innate defensive wizardry, Galet was largely unscathed, but several large stones struck him square in the chest, turning his face pale and sending him stumbling back several steps.
"How? How could the dark wizards advance this quickly?"
Confusion and bewilderment filled Galet's face — and it was the last expression he ever wore.
Shlk! A massive blood-red greatsword, its blade wreathed in blazing golden flames, punched straight through Galet's innate defensive barrier and plunged directly into his heart.
"Oh? There's still a true wizard here! Almost let him get away!"
With that cold voice, a wizard clad in a black robe appeared before Galet's corpse and wrenched the enormous blood-red sword free.
Surveying the surrounding ruins, he wore an expression of fascination and bliss on his face. "Kill! Weep! Only after absorbing the deepest despair can my Weeping Skull Sword unleash its true power!"
He glanced at the stunned apprentices nearby, the greatsword in his hand erupting with raging flames, and charged into the cluster of wizards once more.
In an instant, mountains of corpses and seas of blood!
Xishan had been using his authority these past few days to secretly summon a considerable number of elite dark wizards into the fortress, positioning them at various critical points. Now they all struck at once.
The entire Four Seasons Garden headquarters erupted into a sea of fire! Smoke rose from more than a dozen locations as the dark wizards slaughtered with abandon, venting the deepest cravings of their hearts…
Under this assault from both within and without, the Four Seasons Garden would not last long at all.