BOOM!!!
Just as Leono was using illusions to interrogate Leilin, a massive magical fluctuation suddenly came from the distance.
The energy fluctuation was so enormous that even the buildings here could feel a faint tremor.
"Hmm? Enemy attack???" Leono shot to his feet.
A ball of white light, like some kind of communication device, instantly lit up on his body.
"What happened?" Leono asked calmly.
"It's Dark Wizards! We've been ambushed by Dark Wizards!!! The first and second defense lines have already been completely wiped out, and we're currently holding at the third defense line!"
On the other end of the communicator, a burly white man in what appeared to be a military uniform appeared.
He was the leader of the Defense Group, specifically responsible for the defense of the
"Useless trash!" Leono cursed, though he knew in his heart that all the group leaders were peak first-level wizards, among the absolute elite of the South Coast wizarding world. To make one of them this frantic, the opponent certainly couldn't be ordinary.
"I'll mobilize the Combat Group and Hunting Group to come over as soon as possible. You—" Leono spoke into the communicator.
Then, his expression darkened.
Through the communicator's image, he saw a massive black hand descend from the sky, gripping the white man firmly in its palm.
"Ah..." The white man screamed frantically as large plumes of milky-white flame erupted from his body.
Crack! Crack!
Many anguished faces suddenly materialized on the black hand, opening their wide mouths and devouring all of the milky-white flame.
Crack! Crack!
Bone-chilling gnawing sounds continued without pause. In the end, after consuming every last wisp of the milky-white flame, the faces actually began biting into the white man's body.
"Heh heh heh..."
In midair, materialized silver-white spiritual particles continuously emerged, eventually condensing into the shape of a face.
"Leono! An old friend has arrived! Why don't you come out and say hello?"
The face laughed coldly.
Then, the massive black hand swept back and forth, smashing the Four Seasons Garden's defense lines to pieces. Under the pressure of a second-level wizard, ordinary first-level wizards were as insignificant as ants.
*Snap!* The armrest of Leono's vine chair was crushed in his hand.
*Whoosh!* He instantly transformed into a green streak and charged out.
Crack! Crack!
After he left, his original vine chair began to writhe — vines continuously twisting and intertwining until they finally formed a humanoid creature that stood beside the still-unconscious Leilin, as if standing guard.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Even more massive magical fluctuations came through — two second-level wizards were exchanging blows at incredible speed.
Then, the range of their battle grew farther and farther, as though both sides were intentionally avoiding this location, gradually moving off into the distance.
Inside Leono's original office.
Suddenly!
Leilin, who had been sleeping in his seat, snapped his eyes open.
His eyes had now become amber-colored vertical pupils!
Innate Magical Art — Petrification Eye!
The vine humanoid that his gaze fell upon transformed into a grey-white stone statue in an instant.
After his bloodline's second leap, not only had the Komoyin Scales evolved, but even this magical art seemed to have undergone some mysterious changes.
Leilin glanced around, stretched lazily, and slipped the Ring of Clarity back onto his finger from the round table.
"Although the process was somewhat unexpected, at least nothing went wrong..."
At this moment, Leilin's gaze was perfectly clear — not the slightest trace of being under any illusion!
Earlier, Leono had indeed used materials he'd never heard of to set a trap, which had momentarily plunged him into a state of confusion.
But in an instant, the bloodline power from the ancient creature — the Komoyin Giant Serpent — had surged continuously within his body, devouring all the foreign substances!
His Constitution, which exceeded 25 points, further allowed him to quickly regain his senses.
At the time, Leilin had played along, pretending to be under control in order to lower Leono's vigilance.
With the Chip's adjustments, his breathing, physical condition, and spiritual fluctuations were all perfectly disguised — even fooling Leono himself.
And the Brand Swordsman story was, of course, fabricated. With the Chip's fine-tuning, simulating brand runes was a trivial matter.
Only now did Leilin have the opportunity to examine the office of Leono, this second-level wizard.
Based on his preferences, the entire office was furnished with bookshelves and display cases made from plants, along with desks, chairs, and stools. Leilin even spotted strange books woven from leaves.
The entire office was constructed with exquisite precision, yet its volume wasn't large — instead, it had a compact, almost miniature feel.
"Where exactly is that place that requires a formula to open?" Leilin murmured, pulling a blood-red crystal from his waist pouch.
At this moment, the crystal emitted a blood-red glow throughout, along with an extremely intense wave of heat.
"This... seems to be some kind of sensing technique?"
Leilin rubbed his chin and held the crystal, gently sensing the direction.
Then he discovered that when the crystal was pointed toward Leono's desk, it emitted the brightest red glow and the greatest heat — so intense that his hand felt as though it were being scalded.
Following the crystal's guidance, he arrived in front of Leono's desk.
It was a massive emerald-green desk, its surface marked with concentric rings of plant growth patterns.
Hum hum!
At that moment, the crystal in Leilin's hand suddenly burst with a ring of blood-red light and began floating in midair on its own.
"This is... an automatically triggered spell formula!" Leilin's pupils contracted. He pointed his right hand at the crystal, and wisps of black gas coiled onto it like small snakes.
Clatter!
Under the crystal's blood-red radiance, the emerald-green desk suddenly trembled. A large number of documents, quills, ink bottles, and other items rolled off its surface.
The desk's surface began to writhe, with various plant roots continuously crawling and spreading outward.
*Snap!* The green desk split in two down the middle. From beneath each half of the tabletop, numerous plant roots extended outward like tiny legs, standing up and carrying the pieces away.
In the place where the desk had been, a massive hollow had appeared.
At the center of the hollow was a large sealing magical array, with countless fine runes glowing with various fluorescent colors floating ceaselessly across its surface.
On the array, there were several notches. After comparing them, Leilin suddenly realized that the one right in the center was perfectly sized to hold the blood-red crystal in his hand.
"To think that even this kind of secret was stolen out, and a special formula was set up to guard it..." Leilin murmured to himself.
Suddenly, in the very instant he was making this observation, an unexpected change occurred!!!
The blood-red crystal, which had been floating peacefully in midair, suddenly ignited with blood-red flames on its surface and shot like a rocket toward the indentation on the magical array!
Inside this crystal, a trigger condition had been embedded — upon contact with the array, it would immediately activate!
Combined with the Giant's deliberate concealment, even without thinking, Leilin knew that once the crystal went off, nothing good would follow.
However, at this moment, there was not the slightest trace of panic on his face. Instead, a meaningful smile appeared.
"I've been waiting for you to do exactly this!" He immediately reached forward with his right hand!
"Serpent Bind!"
The small black snakes that had been coiling around the crystal instantly intertwined, forming a massive sphere of serpents that tightly wrapped the blood-red crystal inside.
Black gas spread outward, almost completely obscuring the red glow.
Hum hum!
The red crystal kept expanding, and Leilin seemed to hear a defiant voice from within it.
"As expected — there was a backup plan! What a pity..."
Leilin rapidly chanted an incantation, scattering some light-blue powder into the air.
"Glacier Freeze!" As he finished the final syllable, a ring of pale blue light instantly enveloped the serpentine sphere.
*Hiss hiss!* Thin wisps of white steam formed. On the surface of the sphere, a faint white mist condensed and instantly froze into a thin layer of ice.
The ice grew thicker and thicker, until at last, the serpentine sphere was firmly wrapped in a thick shell of ice. The entire construct instantly became like a massive blue ball of ice.
The red glow that the crystal had been emitting was now completely sealed inside.
As if it had lost its signal, the massive magical array at the bottom of the hollow ceased its rumbling. The various runes on its surface solidified and stopped moving.
*Swish! Swish! Swish!* Three enormous pillars of ice connected to the blue ice ball like supports — or perhaps like chains.
"Hmm! This sealing magical art is quite impressive!" Leilin nodded with satisfaction.
This sealing formula had been extorted from Bill of the Four Seasons Garden, and it seemed — as expected of something stored in their vault — the effect was excellent. Bill hadn't fobbed him off with some defective product.
Then, Leilin turned his gaze to the array at the center of the hollow.
"Chip! Compare the rune formulas..."
A burst of blue light emanated from his eyes, shining straight down onto the array.
Waves of massive data streams scrolled past before Leilin's eyes.
Countless runes and formulas were continuously compared.
The red crystal from before was merely a key, and its runes were quite unfamiliar — Leilin couldn't deduce its function from them alone.
But now, both the key and the lock were present. Precisely because of this, he could compare the runes from both sides to determine the specific functions of the array and the crystal.
A few seconds later, the Chip's conclusion appeared before Leilin.
"The hollow contains a sealing array, and the crystal's function is to completely detonate this place..."
After reading just two lines, a cold sneer appeared on Leilin's face: "Giant! Fine! You just wait!"
Then, the Chip's mechanical notifications continued to sound.