Lei Lin quickly swept his gaze across the faces of those Wizards.
Every single one was completely unfamiliar. Lei Lin was certain that with his memory, anyone he had ever seen at the
These Wizards were all hidden forces of the Four Seasons Garden, ones who would never show their faces in the outside world under normal circumstances.
It seemed the Four Seasons Garden had truly gone all out for this secret realm offensive and defense.
Furthermore, Xishan, the three-eyed
Lei Lin's heart grew somewhat heavy. After all, he still carried an undercover mission issued by the Thousand-Leaf Hand!
Now it seemed completing this task was going to be exceedingly difficult.
Lei Lin recorded the entire situation here with the Chip, then followed the signs along the path to find his quarters.
"Master!"
Lei Lin arrived before a wooden house in Zone D-9. Thanks to the Chip's detection, the two Great Knights Number Two and Number Three immediately rushed out of the house and knelt on one knee in salute.
In the pen behind the wooden house, the Venomous Fly Dragon Hulk also raised its slumbering head and let out an excited roar.
"Mm." Lei Lin looked at these two subordinates he had personally modified, and suddenly felt a twinge of regret at having sent them ahead first.
Otherwise, with the strength of the two of them as Brand Swordsmen, he would never have ended up in such a badly wounded state.
"Still! I need to find an opportunity to field-test the attack power of a Brand Swordsman!"
Lei Lin looked at Number Two and Number Three kneeling respectfully on the ground, and stroked his chin.
……
The Four Seasons Garden's administrative efficiency was impressive. Just as evening fell, an official dressed in something resembling a black suit knocked on the door of Lei Lin's house.
"Esteemed Wizard Lei Lin! In the name of the Four Seasons Garden, the Elder Council requires you to proceed to the secret realm starting tomorrow and assume responsibility for the defense of Zone Thirteen…"
The visitor was also an official Wizard who spoke in a very slow but clearly enunciated tone. After reading the order aloud, he handed Lei Lin a piece of parchment stamped with an official seal.
Lei Lin reached out and accepted it.
The surface of the order was a dark yellow color. The paper was thick, with a sturdy feel to it.
The contents of the order were exactly the same as what the clerk had just read aloud. At the very end of the entire document, there was also a seal bearing the emblem of the Four Seasons Garden along with several handwritten signatures.
Lei Lin's fingers lightly traced over the seal.
Hiss! A ring of four-colored light suddenly erupted from the seal. The light danced across the surface of the order, gradually forming a continuously rotating four-colored ring before quickly fading away.
This proved that both the signatures and the seal on this order were genuine!
Lei Lin was silent for a moment. "I was told that Apothecaries like myself would be assigned to treatment positions. No one mentioned anything about being sent to the front lines!"
Although he already knew this must be Xi Shan's doing, Lei Lin still put on a display of outrage and indignation.
"I am an Apothecary!!! Not one of those combat personnel! You cannot hold me to the same standards as those Wizards with blood on their hands! I wish to file a protest!"
"My apologies! But this is a resolution passed by the upper echelons of the Four Seasons Garden! If you have objections, you may appeal to the Elder Council within twenty-four hours! However, unless the Elder Council issues an order to rescind this assignment, you must still report to Zone Thirteen tomorrow. Otherwise, you will be charged with desertion!"
The clerk who had come wore a businesslike expression. He then bowed elegantly. "If you have no further matters, please excuse my departure, Mr. Lei Lin!"
Click!
After the door closed, the angry expression on Lei Lin's face vanished instantly, replaced instead by a look of deep contemplation.
For him, ever since arriving here, he had already steeled himself for difficulties and mistreatment. Everything that had just happened was nothing more than a performance for the benefit of outsiders.
Otherwise, an Apothecary being sent to the front lines who simply accepted it calmly — that would look abnormal no matter how you viewed it.
"Still, if the timeline is this tight, some of the preparations I had planned will have to start right now…"
Lei Lin lowered his head, and a faint glimmer of dark light flickered within his eyes…
The massive platinum-colored metal gate still stood there in silence. It was only upon truly standing before it that Lei Lin realized the sight he had seen before could not begin to describe even a fraction of its grandeur.
Being this close, his impression was far more profound.
From this secret realm gate, he could not only sense a trace of an ancient aura, but what surprised him even more was that a faint wave of Spiritual Power emanated from the entire structure.
This Spiritual Power did not belong to any Wizard present. It emanated from the gate itself.
"As if it were a living thing, possessing its own spiritual fluctuations. Perhaps... after a while longer, it could give birth to its own wisdom, and truly become a living creature!"
Lei Lin sighed in admiration, then glanced around.
Although it was still early morning, many Wizards and apprentices were already lining up before the gate, each holding what looked like tickets.
With the supervision of several dozen powerful Wizards, the crowd remained orderly.
As an insider of the Four Seasons Garden, Lei Lin naturally had no need to endure the misery of waiting in line. Instead, he and a few other Wizards took up the best spot right in front of the gate.
Number Two and Number Three carried thick parcels, quietly following behind Lei Lin.
"It's eight o'clock! Open the gate!"
Lei Lin pulled out his pocket watch and checked the hands. The hour hand had already reached the number eight.
Each opening of an entrance to a super-large Secret Realm was an enormous expenditure. Even the Four Seasons Garden would feel the sting.
Therefore, the entrance to the Ganges Secret Realm only opened to the outside at a few fixed times each day.
As the command was given, more than a dozen Wizards whose strength had reached the semi-elemental stage simultaneously placed their palms against the doorframe.
Hummm!
A violent spatial ripple rapidly spread outward in all directions with the gate at its center.
Crreeeak!
A sliver of light split the gap in the door. Light! Vast amounts of pure white light poured out from within, engulfing every Wizard and apprentice standing before the gate!
Lei Lin felt his vision go bright, followed by a dizzying sensation of the world spinning. By the time he regained his bearings, he found himself standing on an enormous white plaza deep inside the Ganges Secret Realm.
"Hah!"
Lei Lin drew a deep breath.
His very first impression of the Ganges Secret Realm was the elemental energy in the air — dense to an extreme degree!
"External energy concentration detected, at 371% of outside levels!"
The Chip projected its detection results directly before Lei Lin's eyes at that moment.
"Such dense energy! Combined with the vast land area! This place is heaven for Wizards!"
Lei Lin remarked with some emotion.
"Listen up! I'll only say this once!"
After the Wizards and apprentices in the plaza had begun to adapt to the environment, a bald, burly man who appeared to be some kind of manager, dressed in the Wizard robes of the Four Seasons Garden, ascended a raised platform.
His voice was enormous, the booming tones echoing ceaselessly across the plaza.
"Those Wizards and apprentices who do not belong to the Four Seasons Garden! From this point on, you may move freely throughout the Secret Realm! As long as it isn't an area explicitly marked by the White Wizard Alliance, everything you obtain belongs to you! However, if you wish to leave the Secret Realm, return here! Remember! Do not attempt to conceal your gains! If this behavior is discovered, you will regret ever having been born into this world!"
The bald man's words were extremely blunt, but the row of official Wizards standing behind him like bodyguards quickly suppressed the discontent brewing in the crowd.
After the bald man announced the start of free activity, all the independent Wizards and apprentices let out a cheer and, like wild horses released from their stalls, charged off in every direction, vanishing completely within minutes.
"Right! You're Wizards of the Four Seasons Garden too, aren't you? Follow me!"
The bald man turned his gaze toward Lei Lin, and both his tone and expression softened immediately. "The name's Doruin! Deputy captain of the Four Seasons Garden security team! If you ever have any issues in the future, you can come find me..."
Clearly, the big man's attitude was considerably more pleasant toward those who belonged to the same organization.
"I have a question — is it really a good idea to give those foreign Wizards such a high degree of freedom? What I mean is, aren't you worried they'll just stay inside the Secret Realm indefinitely, or leave through some other entrance?"
A petite female Wizard asked directly.
"Ha! The Ganges Secret Realm is vast, and danger lurks everywhere! No Wizard can survive here alone for long, unless they want to die in one of those bizarre environments or become fertilizer for those high-energy creatures!"
A flicker of contempt and lingering fear flashed across the big man's face.
"As for exits, within a radius of a million mu around here, the Four Seasons Garden is the only way out. If they want to reach another exit, they'd have to cross several extremely dangerous zones — places where even official Wizards would be lucky to survive one out of ten tries!"
"Furthermore, all exits of our White Wizard Alliance charge the same fees, and they're all equipped with rigorous detection formations. There's no chance for them to smuggle anything out!"
"So, trekking such a long distance and braving such tremendous danger would be completely pointless. Unless... they want to go over to the Black Wizards' side... but I imagine those Black Wizards would be far more interested in seizing every last thing they have and then peeling their skin and grinding their bones for raw materials..."
Doruan shrugged his shoulders, putting on an exaggerated look. ...1292