Leylin’s mind jolted and he rushed towards the cave.
*Bo!* As if penetrating a shapeless water membrane, Leylin arrived in a physical world, and the immense pressure from space vanished.
“That was close!” It was all a blur in front of Leylin’s eyes. With all his strength, he drew a red line and destroyed the runel on the spell formation beneath his feet, and went into a dead faint.
*Drip! Drip!*
The stalactite above him in the cave constantly dripped light red droplets that fell on the ground, producing a rhythmic sound.
Leylin’s eyelids flickered and he opened his eves.
“Ugh!” He held onto his forehead, feeling the pain that was all over his body.
“A.I. Chip! Check my current stats!”
Leylin immediately spoke inside.
[Leylin Farlier. Rank 2 Warlock, Bloodline: Giant Kemoyin Serpent. Strength: 15 (21.1), Agility: 4 (14.4), Vitality: 19 (27.9), Spiritual force: 0.01 (104.3), Magic power: 0 (104) (Magic power is in synchronisation with spiritual force). Status: Serious injuries all over body, exhaustion of spiritual force!]
The A.I. Chip quickly intoned. At the sight of his condition, Leylin could only force a wry smile.
As he had underestimated the dangers of spatial teleportation, he had not made enough preparations. This trip through the spatial passageway had almost cost him his life.
Not only had his overall stats decreased, even his spiritual force had been nearly completely exhausted.
This state would probably spell the end for regular Magi. However, Leylin had a shocking vitality, and was even able to maintain his consciousness.
“I really got seriously hurt! Alric, I will return one day…”
A cold glint appeared in Leylin’s eyes, and he shifted his gaze to his waist.
Seeing that the black leather pouch was still there, a look of relief appeared on his face.
This spatial leather pouch was a high-grade magic artifact. Though it did not have any offensive powers, its own defence was extremely startling, and with the spatial runes on the surface protecting it, it was not the least bit damaged
Thankfully this was the case, if not all of Leylin’s assets would have vanished into thin air.
“Any regular Magus lucky enough to survive my injuries would also require a large amount of time to restore their strength. Their strength might even go down a rank from the injuries!”
Leylin checked the state of his body. Though there were serious injuries all around, he could feel a cold stream of air full of life and vigour being sent out from his heart. With his blood being pumped to all parts of his body, the stream of air within began to help heal his injuries. Though this process was very slow, the good thing was that this was a continuous process.
“The regenerative abilities of a warlock’s bloodline are this powerful!” A hint of joy was seen in Leylin’s eyes, “With the potions that I currently possess, I can even further increase the speed of my healing…”
With this thought, he expended a great deal of effort to raise the only limb that he could move, his right arm, and took out a red healing potion from the pouch. He used his teeth to remove the cork and, began to drink in huge gulps.
*Rumble!* A pink layer of light encompassed Leylin.
Due to the effects of the layer, the horrifying injuries on his body began to recover at a frightening speed.
*Ka-cha! Crack!* From Leylin’s body, the sounds of bones hitting each other could constantly be heard.
The muscles on his face constantly twitched, and he huffed through his nose; even his breathing was becoming more serious.
After a few minutes of this, the pink layer on Leylin’s body dissipated. *Pak!* Leylin soared into the sky, and from his previous position of half-sitting on the spell formation, he was now standing upright.
“All of my external injuries have now been healed. Though the internal injuries are a lot more troublesome, they wont affect simple movements!”
Leylin exercised his four limbs, did a few motions that were standard in Knight drills, and furrowed his brows.
“No! With my body, I can only withstand the movements equivalent to that of a Preparatory Knight. If not, it would affect the recovery of my internal injuries…”
In other words, before his injuries were completely healed, Leylin could only use the strength and speed of a Preparatory Knight.
Leylin touched his skin, retrieving armour from his pouch and putting it on.
His Magus robes had been torn apart by the pressure of the space, and they had long since turned into what looked like a beggar’s rags, hanging from his body while being full of holes. Leylin simply tore his old clothes off.
After inspecting his body, Leylin focused his attention on the sea of consciousness within.
The state within was even worse. As a large amount of spiritual force had been used, his sea of consciousness even showed signs of drying up. The crimson colour had turned dimmer, and there wasn’t even a hint of silver spiritual force.
Leylin’s expression immediately turned grim, as even fine cracks had appeared on the walls of his sea of consciousness. If his sea of consciousness shattered, it wouldn’t be as simple as falling in rank.
Upon seeing a little white ray still stuck in a corner in the sea of consciousness, Leylin’s face turned even darker.
This was the mark that Alric had left on Jajone’s body. After Leylin had killed Jajone, this mark had transferred itself to Leylin’s sea of consciousness, sticking like a piece of sticky candy. No matter what Leylin did, it just would not disappear.
The only way to deal with this sort of mark was to use large amounts of spiritual force and slowly wear it down. Though it was from a rank 3 Magus, they were currently a huge distance apart, and without boosts from the original Magus, the mark would not be able to persist under Leylin’s spiritual force. However, this required a lot of time, which Leylin did not have.
Now, however, it seemed like this was the time to deal with this thorn in his side!
Leylin sat down cross-legged, recalling the core information regarding the high grade meditation technique, Kemoyin’s Pupil. “Meditation in your spirit. With your eyes, make eye contact with the Giant Kemoyin Serpent and gain its strength!”
The daily training of meditation techniques was something every Magus had to do. Every time Leylin used Kemoyin’s Pupil, adjusting the frequency of his spiritual force until it was the most compatible with the operation of the meditation technique, he was able to penetrate through time and space and see the ancient, terrifying amber vertical pupils of the Giant Kemoyin Serpent!
This state was a phenomenon written about in the Book of Giant Serpent, which only occurred after one had studied it to a very profound level.
As Leylin meditated to a deeper level, the crimson rays in his sea of consciousness gradually grew stronger, and traces of silver spiritual force welled from the bottom from his sea of consciousness, refilling the dried up spring with new vitality.
In the dark cave, spots of dark red light fluttered in the air like fireflies, and entered Leylin’s body. This entire process was silent, but the terrifying apparition of a giant serpent appeared behind Leylin. The huge body kept rotating, becoming more and more substantial physically.
After one round of meditating, Leylin had regained half of his spiritual force, and a look of satisfaction appeared on his face.
“As expected of a high-grade meditation technique! Whether in terms of rate of improvement or recovery, it’s the best on the south coast! It’s a pity that there are only three levels…”
Worry appeared on Leylin’s face
Though Kemoyin’s Pupil was a high-grade meditation technique, of all the inheritance he had gained from the Great Magus Serholm, there were only three levels of information.
The level of a high-grade meditation technique and a Magus’ rank corresponded to one another. In other words, unless he could find the rest of the information regarding Kemoyin’s Pupil, his spirit
ual force would be at a standstill due to the lack of a meditation technique.
“Based on the information that the Great Magus Serholm provided, the second half of Kemoyin’s Pupil should be on the central continent. Where exactly am I right now?”
Leylin stood up, surveying his surroundings
“I’ll go out and take a look! Hopefully, this is the central continent! Before anything else… A.I. Chip, are there any remedies for the damage to my sea of consciousness and the mark by the rank 3 Magus?”
Leylin enquired in his mind.
Large amounts of data, images and graphs flashed past, and the A.I. Chip worked at an extremely high speed, quickly giving an answer.
[Based on Host body’s requirements, as well as comprehensive calculations of current conditions, this is the best solution: solidify large amounts of spiritual force in Host body’s sea of consciousness, until all damage is healed and the mark completely disappears.
“Solidify large amounts of spiritual force?”
Leylin was surprised. This meant that before all his injuries were recovered, he would always need to solidify a portion of his spiritual force in his sea of consciousness, and would not be able to use that part at all.
In that case, his overall strength would largely diminish.
“How much do I need to solidify?” Leylin glanced at the cracks that were constantly expanding in his sea of consciousness, face falling while he asked cool-headedly.
[Requires 51.2% of Host’s spiritual force!] The A.I. Chip quickly answered.
In other words, before completely taking care of all damages, I can only use the strength of a rank 1 Magus?”
Leylin stroked his chin.
Barren
“To heal the damage done to my sea of consciousness, as well as dispel the mark from Alric, half of my spiritual force can’t be used during this period, right?”
Leylin stroked his chin while contemplating.
A moment later, he decided. “Let’s start!”
*Weng Weng!*
The moment he gave the order, silver spiritual force in his sea of consciousness clung on to the nearest cracks at the edges, and then crystallised and solidified!
The silver crystals covered about half of the sea of consciousness, and within the crystal, the milky-white spot was frozen, like a little worm frozen in amber.
After solidifying about half of his spiritual force, Leylin realised that the fine cracks in his sea of consciousness had stopped expanding after having been reinforced by the solidified spiritual force. He heaved a huge sigh of relief.
This way, he had completely dealt with the troublesome parts of his body. The price he had to pay for this was that he could only use the strength of a rank 1 Magus.
After stabilising his injuries, Leylin was now in the mood to survey his surroundings.
It was rather dim, with some moss that gave off some faint light, which allowed him to see just a few metres away. Everything else was just pitch black.
“This must be somewhere within a cave! I wonder what direction leads to the outside…”
Leylin gave a long sigh and took another look at the teleportation spell formation.
The spell formation here was the same as that in the Ancient Spirit Slayer Sect’s secret plane. However, a rune at one of the corners had already been destroyed by Leylin.
Leylin believed that if he was the rank 3 Magus on the other end if he was not going to personally keep watch, he would destroy the spell formation at the other area. Hence, this teleportation spell formation would not be able to be used for a long period of time.
On one end, the set up by the Magi of the Spirit Slayer Sect was very simple. There was only the spell formation in the cave, and other than that, there was a very long and narrow passage that seemed to be carved out from the stone walls.
“Night Vision!”
Leylin used a support-type acolyte level spell on himself.
A black glint flashed in his eyes, and darkness no longer hindered his sight and he took his surroundings in.
“The dark elemental particles here are very dense. It seems to be more than in the south coast!” While using this spell Leylin could tell the large difference between the two continents.
If it was said that the concentration of dark elemental particles in the air in the south coast was 1, it would be at least 1.5 or even up to 2 here.
“A.I. Chip! Test the concentration of elemental particles in the air and make a comparison with that in the south coast!”
[Mission established. Beginning collection of data. Generating comparative diagrams.]
Quickly enough, the A.I. Chip transmitted two different pie charts to Leylin.
In the pie chart, the ratio of colours that represented different elemental particles had various percentages. These were all presented in front of Leylin clearly.
“On the right is the average data found on the south coast, while the one on the left is the newest data!”
Leylin compared the differences between the two.
The newest set of data revealed that the concentration of dark, shadow and death, as well as other negative energy particles, rose to about two times that of in the south coast.
The positive energy particles such as that of light, plant and life were a little lower.
“Also, the concentration of earth elemental particles is quite high, while fire and water are quite meagre.”
Leylin touched his chin, looking thoughtful.
“In other words, there is approximately the same concentration of elemental particles here as in the south coast, though the composition is a little different. The concentration of negative elemental particles is almost equal to that of a small scale secret plane, while the positive elemental particles are only like that of the Chernobyl Islands…”
Leylin made a few conjectures and took a few large steps forwards, entering the long and narrow stone passage.
This passage was quite long, and only after ten or so minutes of strolling did he reach the end.
At the end of the passage was a large stone door.
Calling it a door might even be a stretch. From what Leylin could tell, it was just a large rounded rock that was blocking the exit.
Through the chinks in the rock, Leylin could hear the faint sounds of wind entering.
“It’s best to keep this stone door. When I need this teleportation spell formation in the future, I can still come back!”
With a thought, he used a rank 1 spell. “Shadow Stealth!”
Black rays surrounded Leylin’s body, and within the rays, he started to become transparent.
The effect of Shadow Stealth was that the user would temporarily become hard to see, and would be able to hide within tiny shadows. He could pass through most physical objects, but in this mode, he would be unable to attack, else this stealth mode would disappear. Area of effect attacks using energy or sound waves were also the bane of this spell.
Now, however, this was just meant to pass through a rock, so it was a simple task.
The faint image that Leylin turned into easily passed through the shadows of the cracks on the rock and he reached the outside.
“Hah! This is…”
Leylin looked at the view outside, and was stunned for a few moments.
He was standing on a little hill formed from large rocks, and surrounding him was a vast plain. There were also a large number of shrubs.
A gloomy darkness encompassed the whole area, making it so that there was no light at all. The sky was dim and looked as if it would collapse at any moment.
Vastness, gloominess, a deathly stillness! This was Leylin’s first impression about the place.
With the help of his night vision, Leylin did not have any trouble looking at his surroundings.
“This plant looks quite strange!” Leylin picked up a dried up twig on the ground.
“It has no leaves and at most, just has some thorns. On top of that, it seems like all the plants I can see share
this characteristic!”
Leylin grabbed forward with his right hand, a little mole-like creature was captured from the ground. It constantly made ‘chik chik’ sounds.
“Its eyes are small and don’t seem to serve much of a purpose. It also looks like it has albinism! This is a mutation from not being able to get sunlight for a long period of time!”
Leylin mumbled to himself, clearing up his doubts.
*Pak!* He tossed the mole aside and pushed himself into the sky using a dull, red light.
Leylin kept ascending, and he could feel pressure on his head. Finally, after who knows how long, Leylin reached the end.
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