Beyond the Frost Castle, in the heart of the Ice Plains.
The dazzling blue pillar of light blazed outward with brilliant radiance, standing like the most conspicuous landmark imaginable.
Countless Ice clansfolk — and even monsters and other creatures — were drawn toward the blue light. Those who stood in their path were treated as enemies and attacked without hesitation.
To
What appeared before Leylin was a rather strange combination — savage Ice beasts and Snow Elves and other intelligent races all jumbled together. The only thing they shared was the frenzy and longing burning in their eyes.
They had trekked across mountains and rivers, making their way toward the Frost Castle as though performing the most sacred of rites.
Leylin had already witnessed this kind of scene many times.
After the illusion realm within the Frost Castle, the Ice Queen had not come in pursuit — clearly she was bound by some kind of restriction. And the summoning range of the array had grown even more expansive, now spreading across the entire Ice World.
Every day, all manner of Ice clans were drawn in, becoming fuel for the Ice Queen.
Leylin naturally would not simply stand by and watch. His expression remained cold and indifferent as his right hand suddenly slammed downward.
BOOM! A colossal palm print erupted from the ground as hard as ice, and the Snow Spirits, Ice Leopards, and other Ice creatures that had been there were reduced to piles of fragments.
After dealing with this group, Leylin frowned and headed off in another direction, where a far larger column of creatures was on its way.
How many clans were there in the entire Ice World? No matter how hard Leylin tried to intercept them, many Ice clansfolk still managed to break through and reach the Frost Castle, where they were ground into dust.
"This absolute control! It is the tragedy of an entire race!"
Leylin watched the scene unfold with a trace of sighing. It was perfectly obvious — the bloodline of every creature in the Ice World had flowed from the Ice Queen's hand. So when she decided to reclaim it, they had absolutely no power to resist.
This situation could equally be extended to the Mother of all Snakes.
With her immense strength and her absolute control over bloodlines, even if one day she ordered Leylin to die, he would likely be unable to mount any effective resistance.
And this was precisely what Leylin was doing everything in his power to avoid.
"It seems the Ice Queen is under some kind of restriction, which is why she had to cultivate Alvin. She even lets the races of the Ice World roam free, periodically performing blood sacrifices to obtain power and vitality..."
A gleam flashed through Leylin's eyes. "After last time, the other party has clearly gone mad — actually summoning every race from the entire Ice World for a blood sacrifice! Its aura grows stronger by the day!"
With that thought, Leylin produced several test tubes and flicked his fingers in rapid succession.
Purple streaks of light burst outward, sinking into the backs of several Rank 3 Ice Beasts and forming eerie, arcane symbols.
"Roar! Roar!" Seeing that Leylin was no longer trying to stop them, the Ice Beasts charged toward the Ice Castle with undiminished ferocity.
Leylin did this sort of thing every day, but how effective it actually was remained far from certain.
With a furrowed brow, Leylin made his way to a hastily established residence.
"Chip! How is the Mental Defense Formula's simulation coming along?"
"Ding! Mental Defense Formula — simulation progress at 97.6%!" the Chip reported faithfully. In its projection, an ethereal and translucent magical template had been completed down to its final stages.
"Rank 4 Spell — Mental Defense! A defensive spell specifically engineered to counter mental intrusion, developed by synthesizing the Psychic Powerblood template and the Illusion Database. Reference materials: *The Path of the Mind*, *An Introduction to Magical Templates*…"
Beneath the model, the Chip had provided an extensive breakdown, particularly in the reference section, which stretched into a lengthy list.
For Leylin, the Ice Queen's mental intrusion was a problem that had to be solved.
The Ice Queen's mental intrusion was capable of breaking through a Morning Star
Without the protection of the quality point, a Morning Star Wizard's True Spirit was still remarkably vulnerable.
Last time, sheer luck had allowed him to barely escape. Otherwise, given her ability to link illusion with reality, had Leylin perished within the illusion, his physical body in the real world would have died along with him.
As such, commanding the Chip to simulate a counter-spell had become an urgent priority.
Moreover, the other party happened to be unable to move freely, giving Leylin a significant opportunity.
However, as the terrifying summoning ritual progressed, the range from which she was siphoning life force continued to widen, and Leylin was finding it increasingly necessary to take action.
As for using a Morning Star killing strike to annihilate the entire Ice Castle — Leylin had considered it. But first, the most critical bloodline and the Scorpion Man's remains had yet to be found. Second, even as a Komoyin Giant Snake, if he could not destroy her true body in a single blow, he would still end up under her control.
In fact, the soul-force manipulation of an ancient bloodline creature was even inferior to that of a Morning Star Wizard, making defenses against such an attack all the more woefully inadequate.
"Still, at this rate, it will be fully completed by tomorrow!"
A glint of sharp light flashed through Leylin's eyes. For an ordinary Morning Star Wizard, deducing a rank 4 spell from scratch would likely consume decades or even centuries of energy. Mental spells of this nature were especially esoteric and unpredictable, requiring even more time.
But with the Chip, it was merely a matter of computational load. Once the template was complete, it could be directly transmitted to Leylin's memory zone, eliminating even the familiarization process and saving an enormous amount of time.
……
One day later, above the Ice Castle.
Stragglers from the Ice species still occasionally wandered over with vacant eyes, crumbling to ash beneath the castle.
The energy-draining area on the ground had expanded several times over, and even the earlier purple swamp had faded considerably.
"It seems the Snow Empress has been working quite hard!"
A blue luminescence flickered in Leylin's eyes as a pillar of energy blasted downward, carving out a passageway directly.
Through continuous observation and calculation, this energy-draining mechanism had long since been laid bare before Leylin, and finding the energy nodes according to the energy spectrum was naturally a simple matter.
"Rank 4 Spell — Mental Protection!" A cyan radiance bloomed from Leylin's eyes, spreading throughout his entire body.
Most notably, within his sea of consciousness, fine Rune Chains wove together into a formidable defense, forming a thick layer around the singularity.
Thud thud!
The tunnel he had blasted open led into the Ice Castle, apparently into what had once been a cellar, beneath which lay a vast network of passages and chambers.
The ground was covered in hard ice, its surface adorned with exquisite patterns and designs.
"Snow Empress! I'm here!" Leylin drew a deep breath and stepped into the cellar.
The passage stretched on for a long way, the lighting within dim and murky, with faint greenish light seeping from the walls on either side.
The terrifying ice radiation here even warped space and time, giving Leylin an eerie sense of disorientation.
A strong smell of iron rust permeated the corridor, and at its end, multicolored light swirled with increasing intensity, growing almost blinding.
"Don't…… come…… closer……" "Sinners……"
Vaguely, voices drifted into Leylin's ears in broken fragments, barely forming coherent words.
The Ice Queen's soul force spread outward, attempting to breach Leylin's quality point once more and drag his true spirit into an illusory realm.
But Leylin had been prepared. A brilliant cyan radiance blazed across the surface of his body, forming a layer of shimmering ethereal membrane that trembled violently.
Massive amounts of soul force were being consumed. Though the Ice Queen's mental influence persisted, Leylin held firm.
"Spiritual intrusion detected! Mental defense has blocked the intrusion! Initiating automatic adjustment of defensive structure!"
The Chip's voice came through continuously. With the assistance of the Chip's precise calculations, the drain on Leylin's soul force dropped sharply. Meanwhile, the cyan membrane outside stabilized eerily.
"You will regret this!" "You will surely regret this!"
Seeming to realize she could not break through Leylin's defenses, the Ice Queen's voice turned suddenly shrill, carrying what sounded like a vicious curse — then vanished abruptly.
"Only if I fail to obtain what I want will I truly have regrets!"
Leylin let out a contemptuous snort. Fierce determination burned in his eyes as he stepped forward onto the unknown path.
Boom! A massive sheet of solid ice shattered into fragments. The emerald rune patterns inscribed upon it all cracked apart, revealing the final gateway beyond.
"Even your defensive wards had to be set up by Alvin! I'd wager your true body can't so much as move!"
Leylin sighed and took a step forward.
Upon leaving the passage, the scene before him opened up dramatically.
Leylin surveyed his surroundings. This appeared to be a naturally formed underground cavern, and at its ceiling, a massive inclined tunnel bored upward, deep gouge marks still clearly visible along its walls.
At the center of the cavern lay an enormous depression, within which a vast network of fine, emerald-green threads shimmered and intertwined, forming a sprawling lattice.
Terrifying radiation energy poured continuously from the depression, so dense it was nearly corporeal.
Leylin approached with a grave expression, and at the heart of the depression he beheld a horrifying corpse. Waves of Morning Star-level energy emanated from it ceaselessly.
This was the aura of a truly ancient bloodline — profound and lofty, steeped in the sediment of ages, exuding an overwhelming sense of nobility.
Though Leylin had encountered Alvin before, compared to this colossal corpse, Alvin seemed like a counterfeit product riddled with every conceivable flaw.
"We meet again, Scorpion Man!"
Leylin couldn't help but recall the ancient memory fragments he had once seen within the Ice Scorpion Emperor's bloodline! Those fragmented pieces of information had originated from this very Morning Star creature standing before him.
Leylin examined the depression, then looked up at the tracks along the ceiling, and an image involuntarily formed in his mind — the void shattering, the Scorpion Man hurtling into the earth's crust like a meteorite, forming a massive crater. The radiation emanating from his body had transformed the surroundings into a world of ice, and later arrivals had constructed the Ice Castle atop the crater!
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