"The final purification and activation of the bloodline—these conditions here probably aren't sufficient!"
Leilin surveyed the entire laboratory. The crystal-like floor and walls emitted a distinctive glow.
Such an environment would be an excellent place for experiments, even for a Morning Star
But to activate an ancient bloodline, several steps remained quite troublesome and even somewhat dangerous. It would be best to carry them out in the Morning Star Wizard Tower.
However, Leilin's own wizard tower would still take some time to complete, so properly renovating and reinforcing this place was a necessary task.
Leilin glanced at the tangled mess of the cultivation pool, paying no attention to the screams and struggles within. After issuing a few instructions to the Formation Spirit, he left directly.
"The Morning Star Wizard Tower!"
At the headquarters of the Ouroboros Ring, although Leilin had only been gone for a short time, great changes had taken place.
Not only had the number of sorcerers here increased significantly—this was because the ongoing conflicts had temporarily subsided, and sorcerer refugees from other regions had flooded in—but a massive wizard tower had also been erected in a prominent location.
Compared to Leilin's previous wizard tower, this one was not only several times larger but was also permeated with a terrifying sense of power, its spire seeming to pierce straight into the void.
This was the Morning Star Wizard Tower built for Leilin through the joint efforts of the Oakheart family and the bloodline sorcerer families.
Although constructing a wizard tower was not a short-term project, the basic framework had already been erected.
Numerous high-ranking sorcerers, imported wizard craftsmen, and formation masters were continuously working on the tower.
"Master!" Faisal, Pike, and Frey immediately came forward to greet him.
"You all have done very well during this time!" Leilin smiled at Frey, then addressed Faisal and the others.
"By following your architectural plans and suggestions, sir, we are confident we can move up the completion date!" Faisal reported respectfully.
At the same time, inwardly, he harbored a faint sense of astonishment. In his view, for Leilin to have advanced to Morning Star at the age of barely two hundred, his talent as a sorcerer was already unparalleled—but what he hadn't expected was that Leilin could also devote attention to architecture and formation work while pursuing wizard cultivation. He silently called him a monster.
Of course, that was what he thought, but he certainly couldn't say it out loud.
"Very good. Pass the word—cease work every evening. I will personally carry out deeper-level modifications to the tower..."
"Could it be that you intend to—" A gleam of light flashed in Faisal's eyes, and he promptly withdrew.
"Now, who could hope to topple you?" Leilin gazed at his Morning Star Wizard Tower, a flash of confidence crossing his face.
His previous wizard tower had been destroyed by the Oakheart family, but now they would have to compensate him with a Morning Star-level one.
Moreover, Leilin now had confidence in his own strength. Even across the entire Central Continent, very few could destroy his wizard tower again—and he would never allow himself to fall to such a state.
"Perhaps... after millions of years, this wizard tower will still stand here as my symbol, enduring forever!"
Leilin gazed at the enormous wizard tower, now a landmark, and a smile flickered in his eyes.
…
Late at night. Not a single wizard remained near the Morning Star Wizard Tower—even Faisal and the others had withdrawn to a considerable distance.
They understood clearly that a wizard tower was a wizard's core. Leilin certainly had some secrets to put in place, and the fewer who knew about it, the better.
Moreover, a Morning Star Wizard releasing radiation without restraint was an enormous burden for them, so it was best to avoid it whenever possible.
Leilin walked alone through the empty interior of the wizard tower.
Since many runes and magical arrays had yet to be set up and specific living facilities had not been installed, the tower was currently just an empty shell with no defensive capabilities whatsoever.
"Chip! Begin scanning the entire wizard tower and slowly calibrate the radiation intensity!" Leilin commanded.
"Task established. Coordinated operation initiated. Calibrating..." the Chip responded immediately.
As the Chip spoke, a three-dimensional structural diagram materialized before Leilin's eyes. A shower of brilliant light emanated from his body and began to merge with the entire structure.
Unlike last time in the Scarlet Ruins, when he had released his radiation at full power without restraint and destroyed everything, Leilin now carefully controlled the radiation's intensity, allowing the wizard tower to gradually absorb and adapt to the process.
Senior wizards could use their own radiation to activate castle materials and even generate various anomalous phenomena—this was common knowledge on the Central Continent. And although Leilin's Morning Star Wizard Tower used top-grade materials, it still had to undergo his personal radiation to fuse the materials into a unified whole and achieve optimal condition.
In many legends and stories, the places where wizards dwelled were often accompanied by ghosts or vengeful spirits, which was also due to the effects of radiation altering the local area.
What Leilin was doing now was imprinting his mark upon the Morning Star Wizard Tower while simultaneously enhancing its power.
A Morning Star Wizard's radiation, even when deliberately restrained, was a disaster for low-level wizards. That was why Faisal had to evacuate all the other wizards each night.
As for during the day? With Leilin's control and the compressive properties of his singularity, he could already lock his radiation firmly within his body without leaking even a trace, so there was no problem at all.
If anyone looked from outside, they would witness a magnificent spectacle.
In the darkness, the Morning Star Wizard Tower seemed to be shrouded in a layer of multicolored radiance, painting the pitch-black sky with vibrant hues.
Drawing closer, one could even hear the faint, sinister hissing of an enormous serpent, enough to make one's blood run cold.
Accompanying the serpent's hissing was another sound—something like an incantation being chanted, or perhaps a hymn of praise, constantly circling the entire tower and causing mysterious transformations within the structure itself.
With Leilin's active participation, the construction of the Morning Star Wizard Tower accelerated dramatically. The progress of the entire project could only be described as advancing by the day.
…
"At last, this moment has come!"
Excitement gleamed in Leilin's eyes as he looked at the golden monster within the massive containment chamber.
The Bloodthirsty Loach had completely lost its former appearance, transforming into a terrifying creature resembling the golden dragons of Western legend.
Brilliant golden scales covered its entire body, making it resemble an ancient deity. On its forehead was a rune shaped like the sun, radiating intense light and heat.
Leilin had a premonition that if he hadn't been constantly suppressing this creature, its first act upon being released would have been to transform into a massive fireball and be reborn through the flames, advancing to the Morning Star realm!
In other words, this was a Morning Star-level creature!
In the present age, creatures of this rank were exceedingly rare. If one appeared in the Astral Plane, it would immediately cause a sensation and could even drive the rise of another bloodline sorcerer family.
"Roar... roar..." Upon seeing Leilin, the golden dragon's eyes flashed with a blood-red glow, and it immediately unleashed its dragon breath!
Brilliant golden flames instantly engulfed the glass partition in front of it.
Crack! Crack! The tempered glass warped under the scorching temperature, developing countless fractures.
"Oh! So it had been deliberately concealing the true power of its flames all along. This level of intelligence can no longer be called that of a mere beast!"
Leilin smiled faintly as he watched the golden dragon displaying its might, and couldn't help but wonder what kind of power and majesty the ancient Children of the Sun had possessed!
"A pity! I created you! And I can just as easily cast you back into the dust!"
Leilin's eyes suddenly turned cold, making the golden dragon involuntarily shrink its neck.
"Blood Lock!" A blood-red gleam flashed in Leilin's eyes as his right hand seized toward the golden dragon.
Bang! A massive amount of blood immediately seeped through the golden dragon's skin, turning it into a blood dragon in an instant. Its once-proud roar became a wail of anguish.
"Blood Lock is only at thirty-five percent of the bloodline shackles' threshold, and it's already this terrifying?" Leilin watched the golden dragon wailing ceaselessly, a trace of worry crossing his face.
The small experiment he had casually conducted on the golden dragon had immediately shown him just how tenacious bloodline shackles could be. "However, this does completely validate the Wisdom Ancient Tree's hypothesis. It just requires extensive experimentation and clinical research..."
Leilin stroked his chin and made his decision.
"But the good news is that the Sun Child's bloodline has been fully activated. As expected of the bloodline of an ancient sixth-level creature—even a single drop of blood is enough to create another Morning Star creature!"
A smile tugged at the corner of Leilin's mouth as he manipulated greater containment forces to lift the golden dragon into the air.
"Now, for the final stage..."
…
Boom!
A fist-sized mass of golden blood floated in midair like a fireball, radiating terrifying light and heat that caused the temperature in the chamber to rise steadily.
The extreme heat even warped space, causing fine spatial fissures to appear around the blood—an unstable phenomenon caused by the burning of solar fire.
"Activate!" Leilin regarded the scene calmly and spoke a single syllable.
Whoosh! A surge of radiance erupted, reinforcing the surrounding walls. Numerous rune chains shot forth, binding the miniature sun of blood firmly in midair and forcibly stabilizing the turbulent space around it.
This was a chamber that Leilin had specifically reinforced, designed for storing the Sun Child's bloodline. The results appeared to be quite satisfactory.
Leilin nodded inwardly in approval, then turned his gaze to the Chip's status display.
"Ding! Sun Child bloodline genome being refined. Initiating simulation model generation. Coordinating with Solar Wings for Meditation Method projection..."
The Chip reported faithfully.