“How is Hawke’s current condition?”
Leylin walked to a cage with a giant creature within it. A pair of large red eyes stared back at him. The beast opened its jaws and revealed rows of razor sharp fangs that resembled swords, with a crimson tongue that had reverse scales.
“Lord, your mount’s appetite is great. Yesterday, it had even eaten a whole red bread pig. Its temper was rather nasty, though this could be due to it being caged for a long period of time…”
The acolyte who was in charge of these mounts was obviously skilled in his work. He was also extremely diligent as he replied Leylin.
*Creak!*
A scarlet rune appeared on Leylin’s finger, forming the shape of a key and entering the keyhole of the metal cage.
“Roar!”
With an impressive roar, a green wyvern charged out of the cage.
This creature had sharp talons and claws, and its whole body was covered in murky green scales. On its back was also a pair of large green wings. The membrane of the wings shone with a green lustre under the light.
[Venom Wyvern. Strength: 13.5, Agility: 19.8, Vitality: 11.2, Spiritual Force: 9.8. Special abilities: 1. Acidic breath: A corrosive poison will be spat on the mouth, with an area of effect of 20 metres. Average power: 16 degrees. 2. Toxic Rip: The Venom Wyvern’s claws and fangs have toxic properties, with a huge numbing effect on the spiritual force.]
The Venom Wyvern’s stats were displayed by Leylin’s A.I. Chip.
“Rawrrr!”
The gigantic Venom Wyvern continued to roar. At the same time, there was a fawning look in its eyes that was incredibly humane as it lowered its head and rubbed gently against Leylin‘s body.
“Alright! Alright! I will give you an upsize for your meals when I get back!”
Leylin could not help but laugh as he rubbed this Venom Wyvern which had the mentality of a puppy missing its owner.
“Hawke, bring me to Nightless City now!”
Leylin got onto the back of the Venom Wyvern in one leap.
“Rawrr!” The Venom Wyvern snarled and the wings on its back jolted, unfolding segment by segment until they were fully extended, and were at least three times larger than its body.
With a fierce hurricane, the Venom Wyvern spread its wings and swooped into the air.
“Hah… They’re finally gone. Just having that Venom Wyvern standing here is enough to make me feel uncomfortable,” a female acolyte who was feeding a Dragon Crown Nighthawk, gave a long sigh of relief.
“With that guy around, all these Nighthawks lost their appetites!” The female acolyte patted the Nighthawk in front of her that was eating cheerfully, seemingly just as relieved as her.
“That Venom Wyvern’s power is probably close to that of an official Magus. How strong must Magus Leylin be to be able to tame it?”
The male acolyte following behind Leylin had a very contrasting opinion from the female acolyte and his eyes reflected his envy and admiration for Leylin.
The Venom Wyvern’s flying speed was twice as fast as the Dragon Crown Nighthawk had been. It was thus much more convenient for Leylin to travel between Nightless City and the Four Seasons Garden.
Upon reaching the Nightless City’s landing pad, Leylin issued some orders for the acolytes to take care of his Venom Wyvern and gave Hawke another red bread pig before returning to his villa.
“Master!” Damien and a few Grand Knights bowed respectfully.
Leylin looked around, finding that the villa was still in the same state as it was before he had left. The human slaves that he had bought later on were carefully cleaning the staircase railing and all the pieces of artwork.
Damien was wearing a butler’s uniform, looking impeccable as he stood behind Leylin.
“Master! After you left, your neighbour, Magus Crew came over once. Also, I’ve already paid the continuity fees to the communal centre. Here is the inventory.”
After which, Damien gave a report of what he had done in this period of time.
“Okay.” Leylin paid no mind to his words and nodded along. This Damien seemed to have undergone specialised training while he was a slave and was very proficient in these matters. Leylin had branded him and there was no way that he could revolt, so Leylin could place his trust in him.
“That’s enough for now. Make me some dinner and milk tea!” Leylin ordered indifferently.
“Hawke can be used for transportation and can sweep away most acolytes, but he won’t be useful in battles with official Magi.”
After a moment, Leylin, who was lying comfortably on a couch with pretty maids servicing him with their soft little hands, reflected with a hint of regret.
In the south coast, some Magi had top grade magic creatures as pets. These pets matured quickly, to the point that after their master advanced, it was possible for their own strength to reach the level of an official Magus.
In battle, how much help would an assistant with the same rank render?
Unfortunately, no matter how much Leylin searched and gathered them, he couldn’t find these high-quality pets, and could only purchase a Venom Wyvern to use as a mount.
Magi and their pets had to agree upon a strict spirit contract, and there were some that even required them to share their life force!
Leylin was obviously not going to waste his chance on this Venom Wyvern and used the simplest and cruelest spirit brand to forcibly control it. It was going to be a temporary mount, and he was planning to substitute it with a better option at the next best opportunity.
“But it’s a shame!”
Leylin turned his hand and a crystal that was like an amber revealed itself in his palm. In the middle of the crystal was a drop of green liquid that had a unique aura emanating from it constantly.
“The Venom Wyvern’s blood essence has a trace of the bloodline of the ancient creature — the Thousand Venom Dragon!” The A.I. Chip prompted.
That was why he had purchased the Venom Wyvern.
While he was in Nightless City, Leylin had constantly been collecting creatures that might have ancient bloodlines in them and tried to purify their blood with the A.I. Chip.
However, a majority of his experiments were a failure, and the blood essence in his palm was the best result he had.
“A.I. Chip, have you found out the reason?”
Chapter 174 – The Ancient Spirit Slaying Sect
In order to obtain the bloodlines of more ancient creatures, Leylin had conducted numerous experiments. However, none of them were successful.
The best result was what was in his hand — the quintessence of some ancient creature.
To most Magi, this was probably a precious treasure, but for Leylin, this was far from enough.
[Beep! After 124 practical experiments and a comparison with 9718 simulated experiments, the conjecture is that the Host’s concentration of bloodline essence is not enough. Unable to unearth deeper purification. Recommended to look for the blood essence of creatures with the power of rank 3 Magus and above as stimulus to purify bloodline.]
The A.I. Chip gave a prompt answer.
“As expected…” Leylin had already surmised this conjecture, and now it seemed to tally with the A.I. Chip’s calculations.
After a long period of time, the ancient bloodline in the mystical creatures in the south coast had been thinned out so much that if not for the amazing ability of the A.I. Chip, Leylin would not even be able to refine this blood that was full of impurities.
To obtain a pure ancient bloodline, it was necessary to gain blood samples from even stronger monsters.
The A.I. Chip had gathered that at the bare minimum, blood samples from a rank 3 creature had to be obtained.
That meant that as long as Leylin was able to obtain the blood of a monster that was rank 3 or higher, the A.I. Chip would be able to purify and extract a perfect sample of the ancient bloodline.
“But… A creature that is rank 3 or above?” Leylin smiled wryly at his thoughts, “I’d probab
ly die just from a snort from them! I’d obtained the blood from the Black Horrall Snake that originally had the strength of a rank 3 Magus. Thankfully, its might had weakened to the equivalent of an acolyte, and that alone was a giant stroke of luck. It’s as if a tasty meat pie had fallen from the heavens! ”
The Giant Kemoyin Serpent’s bloodline that Leylin was in possession of was purified from the Black Horrall Snake previously found in the Dylan Gardens.
That Black Horrall Snake was a powerful creature that rivalled the strength of a rank 3 Magus at its adult stage!
The Black Horrall Snake back then had definitely matured into an adult. However, due to the limiters inside the secret plane, coupled with prolonged hunger — and perhaps also with the other methods from the great Magus Serholm — it caused the Black Horrall Snake’s state to deteriorate in its slumber, eventually turning pitiful enough to be attacked by a group of level 3 acolytes.
This was obviously a present that the great Magus Serholm left for his inheritor. It was an intentional setup and not a coincidence.
The great Magus Serholm was a rank 4 Warlock, and as compared to Leylin who was a rank 1 Warlock, he was the sun while Leylin was but a firefly.
“These things are dependent on luck. At most, I’ll take more notice in the future. It’s not the time to think about this now!”
Leylin pulled up his stats.
[Leylin Farlier. Rank 1 Warlock. Bloodline: Giant Kemoyin Serpent. Strength: 7.1, Agility: 6.7, Vitality: 8.5, Spiritual Force: 58.9, Magic Power: 58 (Magic Power is in synchronisation with Spiritual Force). Elemental essence conversion: 70%. Status: Healthy]
In this year, he had been continuing his trade with the old witch. Using the processed spirits she had gathered, he had obtained a large quantity of the ancient potion- Tears of Mary!
With the help of the ancient potion, Leylin’s spiritual force shot up rapidly.
Leylin had spent quite some time in the Four Seasons Garden and through the exchange of contribution points, he had gathered the formulas of potions that could increase an official Magus’ spiritual force.
However, he found that those potions’ effects were nothing compared to the ancient potion.
With its help, Leylin increased his spiritual force at a shocking rate, as if he had no limits.
Presently, he had no choice but to use concealment methods to hide his tremendous spiritual force. He stayed indoors whenever possible, avoiding areas where rank 2 Magi might appear. He didn’t want there to be any chances of others finding out.
Unfortunately, even with the A.I. Chip constantly upgrading the concealment method, it was not possible to hide his spiritual force entirely.
The moment he had a break, Leylin would rush back to Nightless City to hide and avoided all social interaction.
After reaching a certain level in terms of his spiritual force, Leylin had once again used the crystallised Darkness energy particles to push his elemental essence conversion to 70%!
However, after his elemental essence conversion reached 70%, Leylin received a notification from the A.I. Chip that his body and spirit had developed a resistance towards such crystals. Unless he found more precious resources to raise his elemental essence conversion in the future, he could only rely on meditation and time and progress at a slower rate.
“Potions made by ancient Magi are really different!”
A look of satisfaction crossed Leylin’s face. “The agreement with the old witch cannot be broken. Moreover, finding new ways to conceal my spiritual force is becoming a matter of urgency.”
In all honesty, he should be collecting the spirits himself. Directly branding the spirits of slaves who helped out would ensure that this matter was kept secret.
However, the preparatory stages for the brewing of the Tears of Mary required someone with the might of a rank 1 Magus. Moreover, it had to be a Magus who was specialised in spirits.
As for Leylin, his current attainment in the knowledge of spiritual force and spirits only allowed him to brand level 3 acolytes. It was basically impossible to brand an official Magus.
Anyway, the old witch had made her vow in front of the Trial’s Eye, so she could be trusted for the time being.
“However, the amount of spirits provided by the old witch seems to have decreased. In the past few trades, she also seemed distant and unfocused and didn’t even participate in the activities organised by the dark Magi organisation. It seems there’s something of extreme importance going on. I’d better check on her tomorrow and hope that there won’t be any trouble…”
This ally of his was recently acting strangely, inciting worry in Leylin’s heart.
“Master! Your dinner’s ready!”
Damien’s voice sounded while he was deep in thought, enjoying the service from his maids.
“Alright! I’ll be right there!”
Leylin opened his eyes, the blackness in his pupils gaining another depth in them…
After a day of entertainment and rest, Leylin was feeling refreshed. Wrapped in a black cloak, Leylin covered even his face and paid a visit to the old witch’s shop.
“What happened to you?”
The moment Leylin saw the state the old witch was in, he wrinkled his eyebrows.
The first time he’d seen her, the old witch looked like a dead person. The scent of death and decay was even more apparent now, and she looked like she was a corpse which had just crawled out of an old tomb. The undulations from her spiritual force were also extremely feeble.
This condition immediately alarmed Leylin.
For Magi, injuries on one’s physical body were insignificant, but if one’s spiritual force showed signs of weakening, that immediately meant that one’s might was decreasing.
The old witch was still Leylin’s ally, and he didn’t want his supplier to suddenly disappear.
“Nothing much! Just a recent experiment that’s approaching its crucial stage!” Her body was already as weak as it could get, and just speaking resulted in her panting. However, the light in her eyes was even more radiant, as if on the verge of burning up.
Leylin had seen such a fervent heat in a person’s gaze before– in his previous life, in the eyes of lunatics and crazy people.
“You’d better not keep anything from me. Remember, we’re allies. Haven’t we been working well together in this past year?”
Leylin obviously didn’t believe her vague explanation.
“When it’s time, I’ll definitely tell you everything.”
The old witch gave a mysterious grin. “Also, I’ve found the spiritual force concealment method that you requested the previous time.”
“What? What?!” This was so unexpected that a smile surfaced on Leylin’s face.
He had always been searching for this content on the sly and attended a few of the dark Magi’s bazaars and meets to exchange resources, but to no avail.
He wasn’t expecting much when he employed her help, and it was a pleasant surprise that she had actually gotten what he wanted.
“This is information regarding the compression of spiritual force. Take a look!” She passed a green leaf to him.
Leylin reached out and took it, and then placed it on his forehead.
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