"
Doruin's face was twisted with exasperation, overlaid with raging fury. It seemed he held genuine loyalty to the
As a super-large white wizard organization, the Four Seasons Garden still possessed formidable cohesion.
Even in a crisis like this, many official wizards and even apprentices were fighting to the death without hesitation.
"I refuse!" Leilin said flatly.
"What did you say?" Doruin's eyes widened, as though he couldn't believe what he had heard.
"I said — I refuse! Right now, I hold the position of Headquarters Patrol Inspector. My rank is on par with your late team leader. Even he wouldn't have had the authority to conscript me. What right do you have?"
Leilin narrowed his eyes slightly, making Doruin seethe with rage.
"You… how dare you…" Doruin pointed a trembling finger at Leilin, his hand shaking.
But after his lips worked for a long while, not a single word came out. The reasoning Leilin had given was perfectly legitimate — at his current rank, Doruin truly had no authority to conscript someone a full tier above him.
"Then! Lord Leilin! Where exactly are you planning to go?"
Doruin clenched his fists, his eyes locked on Leilin, and suddenly demanded.
"Are you keeping tabs on me?" Leilin's voice dropped, his gaze settling on the burly man.
"No! It's just that headquarters happens to have sent an envoy down, and he's defending Sector Three's testing grounds. I think you should go meet him?" Doruin lowered his head, but his words yielded not a single inch.
"An envoy from headquarters?" Leilin frowned. That was an official appointment — it represented the collective will of the entire Four Seasons Garden, and carried far more weight than his own temporary inspector title.
"Why wasn't I informed? Who is it?" Leilin asked.
"Lord
"Oh, him. No wonder." Leilin nodded.
Wade was a wizard the Four Seasons Garden had raised from childhood — from ordinary person to apprentice to wizard, every stage of his life was deeply intertwined with the organization. There was no question about his loyalty.
Moreover, Leono, who oversaw this region, was also his mentor. When it came to communication and coordination, that gave him a natural advantage.
"At a time like this, an envoy just happens to arrive. How convenient…" Leilin's mind raced.
Then Doruin fixed him with a stare. "My lord, you see—"
"Since headquarters has sent an envoy, and given the current situation, naturally I should go meet him," Leilin said evenly.
He glanced around. With black and white wizards locked in a full-scale battle, no one had the attention to spare for his corner. And since the two of them were tucked into a recessed angle, the chance of being spotted from a distance was essentially zero.
Having confirmed this, the expression on Leilin's face grew even calmer. He tucked both hands into his sleeves.
"That's good, then— ah—"
Doruin's face lit up with relief, then a complicated light flickered in his eyes, as if some scheme was already taking shape in his mind. But all of it was cut short by a pair of scarlet hands wreathed in blood flame.
Those crimson palms, their surfaces sheathed in sanguine fire, pierced through Doruin's innate talent defense as easily as puncturing paper and plunged straight into his chest.
A flash of disbelief crossed Doruin's face before the blood-colored flames reduced him to ashes.
Leilin withdrew his hands with a placid expression. As he was now, he could be considered the strongest below the second rank. Doruin hadn't even reached the peak of the first rank, and Leilin had struck with full force in a surprise attack — the kill was inevitable.
From the ashes, faint motes of gray light rose and coalesced into a skull-shaped sigil that hurtled toward Leilin.
"Oh! A tracking mark? I didn't expect Doruin to have one of these on him."
A flicker of blood-red passed through Leilin's eyes. Two beams of crimson light shot from his pupils and struck the sigil dead on.
Ssss! A great plume of white mist erupted, and the skull-shaped mark unraveled beneath the blood-colored radiance, dissolving into scattered gray flecks that vanished into the air.
This tracking mark was the same type as the ones Leilin had encountered on Bosane and Torezas before — a tool wizards used to brand enemies with a mark of enmity.
Back when Leilin was still an apprentice, such marks had been extremely difficult to remove once affixed, and they could easily be detected by other wizards. That was why he had resorted to indirect methods to kill those two apprentices.
But things were different now. Leilin had himself advanced to peak first rank. An ordinary wizard's tracking mark, in his eyes, was something he could purge completely with a modest expenditure of spiritual power.
The only marks that still gave him pause were those placed by second-rank wizards. Everything else, he no longer feared in the slightest.
"Shadow Puppet!" Even after completing all of this, Leilin wasn't satisfied. He pointed at the pile of ash on the ground.
A black shadow puppet squeezed through a gap in the shadows, then seeped into the ashes.
The ash mingled with the shadow puppet as it stretched and expanded, eventually taking the shape of a large man resembling Doruin.
Their faces and clothing were virtually identical. The only difference was that the shadow puppet's entire body was jet-black, giving it a peculiar and unsettling appearance.
"Mimicry Spell!" Leilin extended his hand. A ball of milky-white light condensed in his palm and then shot toward the puppet.
Under the spell's effect, the puppet's skin instantly turned fair, and a lifelike expression appeared on its face. It now looked exactly like the original Doruin.
"Go. Show your face to the Four Seasons Garden wizards, and find an appropriate moment to die in battle," Leilin instructed.
The shadow puppet, now wearing Doruin's form, gave Leilin a bow and swiftly departed.
"At a time like this, they want me to go meet the commander. So they're trying to use me as cannon fodder?"
Leilin regarded the spot where Doruin's ashes had lain, his expression perfectly calm.
"At this point, whether I kill black wizards or white wizards, it's all meaningless. The real treasure trove is waiting for me.
Leilin's original intent had been to exploit the chaos and secure some gains. But Doruin had been determined to maneuver Leilin into meeting the headquarters envoy, after which he would naturally be conscripted into the fighting.
This ran entirely counter to Leilin's plans. And so, Doruin had to die.
"Now… it's time for Blood Hand to make an appearance!"
Leilin murmured to himself. Light flashed on his right hand, forming a blood-red mask that he placed over his face. Then the style of his robe began to change — from white to a vivid, startling crimson, as though steeped in fresh blood.
Moreover, his aura shifted along with it, becoming steeped in gore and malice!!!
A single glance was enough to make an official wizard break into a cold sweat.
Leilin's hidden identity within the Thousand Leaf Hand — Blood Hand — now officially stepped into the fray.
Having assumed the guise of Blood Hand, Leilin casually oriented himself, then headed for the Merit Exchange Hall.
It would take a fool to ignore available gains when they were right there for the taking.
The fighting at the Merit Exchange Hall was the most ferocious of all — spells and abilities flew in every direction, and the reinforced structure had already been blasted half into rubble.
Atop the ruins, the garrison wizards of the Four Seasons Garden, robed in white, and the Thousand Leaf Hand wizards, robed in black, were locked in a vicious melee.
Scattered across the ground were various stray resources and knowledge crystals, lying forlornly in the corners of the wreckage.
"Hm?"
From the corner of his eye, Leilin spotted several dark figures crouching at the edge of the battlefield. Their fluctuations were only at the apprentice level — coming to participate in a battle between wizards was nothing short of suicidal.
These shadows lurked at the fringes of the combat zone, eyeing the scattered resources on the ground with avaricious gazes.
These were things they could never obtain even at the cost of their lives under normal circumstances. Now, amidst the chaos, a handful of bold apprentices had decided to gamble for them.
BOOM! A stream of ice-blue light exploded outward, and the residual shockwave instantly struck an apprentice standing just outside the arena.
That apprentice didn't even have time to scream before the blue light froze them solid into an ice sculpture.
The gruesome sight drove many apprentices back in terror.
But a few of the luckiest managed to snatch up some materials and resources before making it safely off the battlefield.
The official wizards present had certainly noticed them — they simply couldn't be bothered to deal with such insignificant vermin.
These apprentices were exploiting precisely that mentality, wagering their very lives for a slim chance to rise! And if any one of the present wizards so much as took a dislike to them, they would face instant annihilation!!!
Leilin felt a momentary pang of sentiment. This was the path of wizards — brutal and cruel.
He stepped forward with an unhurried gait and entered the heart of the battlefield.
"It's Lord Blood Hand!" "Lord Blood Hand is here!" The Thousand Leaf Hand wizards present cried out in excitement.
Among them, a wizard that resembled an enormous black rat wrenched free of its opponent with startling speed and hurried over to bow before Leilin.
"To think it would be Lord Blood Hand! What an honor — it's been far too long!"
The great rat's eyes, green and no larger than dragon beans, were filled entirely with an ingratiating glow.
Ever since Leilin had demonstrated extraordinary prowess in several battles — particularly his role in making the bald Viper vanish without a trace — this rat had been prudent enough to deliver a formal apology along with a generous offering of rare treasures.
From then on, whenever Leilin appeared, it would rush over with the most eager courtesy, behaving like Leilin's personal lackey.