“I will take the main door then! Although the rooftop might contained good natural resources, the main door is much safer!” Robin chuckled.
Noah and the rest of the three Warlocks said nothing. It seemed like they followed Robin willingly.
“So I’ll…” Leylin parted his lips and was about to reply.
“Leylin, why don’t you join me?” Kesha invited, ”I know you are looking for Lamia Hair. If we find it, you’ll get priority!”
Lamia Hair was very precious, so for Kesha to make such a comment showed the great extent of her goodwill for him.
“Join you?” Leylin lowered his head in thoughts. Of course there were benefits, especially in the face of enemy troops and when facing multiple traps. In turn, though, it would create many troubles for him.
He still had some strategies up his sleeves that he had not divulged as yet because the time was not right.
“Sorry,” He smiled apologetically
“It’s nothing,” Kesha smiled, as if she didn’t care too.
“Alright! Let’s move out after we have decided on our routes. I do not wish to be chased out again!” Robin exclaimed and immediately left the room with Noah and the other three.
In this excursion, both Leylin and Kesha had not suffered much loss. However, Robin had lost two of his rank 3 subordinates, something which left him in regret. He felt a sense of urgency to search for more resources to make up for his losses.
Kesha and Leylin nodded their heads in agreement and quickly left the place.
The entire camp was left in a deathly silence. Remaining behind was the blood that had seeped into the ground and the wreckage, remnants of the violence that had taken place.
*Shoo!*
A few hours after Leylin and company had entered the depths of the ancient castle, a few rays of dazzling brilliance shone over from the horizon.
They faded out to reveal the figures of the Magi of the various tribes. In the arms of one of the women was the unconscious Dominic.
“This whole camp is completely abandoned, Coulomb and Akamu are most likely dead…” Seeing the ruins on the camp, many of the high ranking Magi had to constrain their rage.
“Coulomb is fine, he prepared a clone seed long ago. The regeneration itself will take place in our clan!” An old Green-skinned Barbarian announced, “If not for the fact that this cloning process causes huge exhaustion of his spiritual force, it would have been difficult to defeat him!”
“Not true!” Another Barbarian Bear Shaman who had a dull expression remarked.
Within this camp, out of the three Hydro Phase Magi, one was in a coma and the other still had a clone seed. Only the Hydro Phase Barbarian Bear Shaman was truly dead.
The Barbarian Bear clan specialised in physical strength. As for the spells and such, they drew support and strength from the totem, so naturally they did not have many methods of keeping their lives safe. They were also rather rigid in thoughts, unwilling to bend over and surrender like the humans.
“I can feel the power of the Crystal Phase. Based on Akamu’s ability, only with such strength could they have wiped them out in such short order!” The Barbarian Bear Shaman roared loudly.
“What do we do now?” The female Magus’ eyes met the Green-skinned Barbarian.
“Give chase! I can smell them, they have intentionally split up!” The Barbarian Bear Shaman’s eyes grew bloodshot, looking horrifying. ”Those who dare to murder those of my clan will pay dearly! I will act personally, and place their heads at our altar to suffer eternal damnation!”
It looked exceptionally furious indeed.
The female Magus shuddered in cold sweat. She had heard about such curses. It was said that the enemy’s head would be chopped off and placed on the altar and the power of the totem would inflict eternal torture.
Some rumours stated that the soul of the Magus would also be imprisoned inside the skull to suffer the eternal cruelty!
This was the Barbarian Bears’ most wicked punishment, and it looked like this time it was going to be put to use.
‘For these different tribes to survive in this Forgotten Land, they have to stay united, hence their troop cohesiveness is very high!’ The female Magus sighed. Comparatively, for the human alliance, which was made up mainly by the disloyal and traitorous, their alliance was very strong and solid but sadly there was no unity. Thus, their combined strength was less than those of the Barbarian Bears and Green-skinned Barbarians.
“Let’s split up three ways and move forward!” The Green-skinned Barbarian nodded his head in agreement.
These three powerful individuals had met and formed an alliance for the pocket dimension. Although there was some semblance of unity amongst them, the bond was rather weak. Not too long ago, even they had been at loggerheads for sole ownership of the plane.
Thus, to act independently was a wise choice.
“The Magus whose is pestered by the spirit of Akamu chose the main door. I can feel it! I’m going after him.” The Barbarian Bear Shaman hastened his steps and immediately moved forward.
“I will choose the rooftop!” The old Green-skinned Barbarian added. With a hunched back that looked like it might break anytime, he held out crutches made of solid gold and precious gems and flew upwards.
“You…”
The female Magus shook her head. She stomped her feet and headed towards the windowsill.
At this moment, Leylin was unaware that the enemy troops had caught up with them and were just outside the vicinity. He was looking around the room curiously.
It looked like a bedroom. The floor area was very small with only a bed, a table, a chair and a bookshelf, with nothing else present. The wooden planks inside the house had turned a brownish yellow. Cobwebs and piles of dust covered the corners.
On the whole, it seemed like a regular abandoned bedroom.
Leylin walked to the bookshelf and started reading the titles on the spines of the books.《57 Ways To Brew Apple Wine》, 《Ways To Capture Molten Bugs》,《The World – A General Discussion》…
There were many odd genres of books stacked neatly together, something that amazed Leylin. He held himself back and refused to touch any of them.
Such ancient Magus castles had already absorbed unquantifiable radiation from the previous residents over the years. There might have been a terrifyingly powerful Magus as well, or the Sun’s Child. The castle had probably undergone terrifying changes.
Leave alone the structure and essence, at this point it might even have manifested some bizarre phenomena. Some of those phenomena could not be explained even by the original owner, hence they could prove to be even more deadly.
Ancient Magi had been known to make good use of these as defense networks and build a large numbers of traps. Exploring Magi had previously had touched these items in the house and were drawn into a deep mysterious space, completely lost to the world.
Even well known Magi who had great status, too, met the same fate of death.
Many Magi were fearful of the terrifying outcome, therefore they would not act blindly without thinking.
“According to Dominic’s report, I have to wait for another three minutes before the door can be opened!”
Leylin stood outside the bedroom door. His eyes stared coldly at the brass handle and his expressionless face looked serious.
On the wall, a clock was slowing ticking away.
*Tick..Tock…Tick…Tock!* The needles were moving very slowly. It seemed like the world had moved for five seconds and the clock only one.
With so many odd and unexplainable environmental influences, many Magi made the mistake of telling the wrong time. If it weren’t for Leylin’s A.I. Chip, he might have fallen into the same trap.
“It is time!”
Leylin watched attentively at the A.I. Chip’s stopwatch. The moment the needle reached zero, he grabbed the handle immediately and opened the door.
*Boom!*
Distant echoes could be heard in the corri
dor. Leylin looked to the ground and saw that the bright red carpet lined on the floor was spotless without traces of dust. Beautiful chandeliers hung from the ceiling, emitting a yellow radiance.
Leylin turned his head around, the original room was nowhere to be seen, not even a single trace of it remaining. What was left was just a blank empty wall.
“This must be the illusionary corridor, and this also means that I have entered into the second level of the castle! “
WMW Chapter 425
Ecological Garden
Leylin looked into the information the A.I. Chip had previously recorded.
The three powers had been hanging around for a long time, and they had definitely obtained a few useful items.
Based on Dominic’s information, Quicksand Castle was far larger than it looked on the outside. It was practically a gigantic maze.
The numerous rooms outside were the first layer of defense.
If they did not leave on time, they would travel through countless rooms and later be trapped inside till their death.
The mark of the second layer would first be this illusory corridor.
With the dim yellow lighting, Leylin looked through the decorations in the corridor.
The two walls were mostly white, with some strange patterns of flowers and plants, but there were no portraits of humans. The red carpet on the ground extended until the end of the corridor, with not a speck of dust in sight.
“This drawing technique?” Leylin touched his chin. “It has the style of the ancient era. Looks like it is one of Quicksand’s experimentation areas.”
The strength of the current Magi could not compare to that of ancient times. Leylin even suspected that Magi at the Morning Star Realm or higher had even participated in the construction of this place.
As a mere rank 3 Warlock, , a slight misstep could take away his life!
Leylin glanced at the oil paintings in the corridor vigilantly, he started advancing in a strange pace.
The flower patterns on the two sides began to move in tune to his step. They began to grow, germinate, blossom and then wilt, creating a cycle.
“Rumours have it that the illusory corridor can only be entered with a unique walking frequency. It possesses a strange force that can send a person to any place he would like to go to.”
Leylin remembered this passage, as well as the account at the end, “If there are errors in one’s footwork, the illusory corridor will turn into a life-threatening trap, trapping both their body and soul.”
This specific footstep was discovered through the huge sacrifice from the Magi on the outside, which now made things convenient for Leylin’s group.
“What exactly do I want?”
Leylin strolled along the corridor and constantly asked himself. A unique feature of the corridor was that if one did not have a clear desire, there would be no end.
After a specific period of time, the same mechanism would activate.
“Immortality, strength and all that would be too vague and exceed the abilities of the illusory corridor. I can only mention a place it can communicate with.”
Leylin muttered to himself, “It’s not safe to directly say the location of the Lamia Hair. If such a material doesn’t exist, the illusory corridor will instantly regard me as an intruder!”
This was a test for all who entered. The true owner definitely knew what was at the end of the corridor.
The teleportation of the corridor would only work within the castle. The moment Leylin mentioned an area that did not match what was inside, not only would there be no teleportation, but defensive spell formations would be activated instead.
However, he was unwilling to give up on the Lamia Hair.
‘I would like… to go to a place that will help my bloodline mature!’ A moment later, Leylin made up his mind and constantly repeated this line in his thoughts.
In that instant, the corridor seemed to shrink and the flowery patterns on the walls sped up. In a few seconds, they completed a cycle of growth. A bit of light appeared at the end of the corridor, constantly expanding.
“Let’s go!” Leylin gritted his teeth and calmly headed ahead.
*Swoosh!* The feeling of weightlessness during the teleportation left him feeling dizzy.
Shaking his head vigorously, he took stock of his surroundings.
“Where is this…?”
He was in a large laboratory. He could see plants outside through the glass, as well as many glass vessels and experimental apparatus that were all neatly arranged inside.
“A lab, huh. My luck is pretty good. There’s definitely going to be something here to help mature my bloodline faster!”
Leylin let out a long breath, and immediately recalled the rumours regarding Quicksand. Given that their ranks consisted of Warlocks of various bloodlines, they had a vested interest in the field. It would not be difficult to find something that could help his bloodline mature.
Leylin arrived at a metal counter, and pulled out the first drawer. It was messy, mostly made of thick parchments recording data from experiments. It was all in the Byron language.
Leylin opened the other drawers, and the contents were about the same. There was mostly data from experiments, the counter practically filled by these documents.
“There is so much data, but it’s a pity there’s no information on the receptors and core data. There’s no way to tell the procedure of the experiment at all…”
Leylin found this regretful but quickly saved all the information to the database.
Even if it was mostly unrelated data, it was still very valuable. Who knows, some of these parchments could even hold the data essential to repeating the experiment!
In addition, with all its recent advances and improvement in its abilities, it took little time to record everything.
Everything was organized neatly. It seemed like the Warlocks then had left in an orderly fashion, not leaving much behind.
After recording the information, Leylin turned his attention to the ecological garden outside the giant glass wall.
Large leaves that were like palm-leaf fans covered the sky. Barely any sunlight shone down on the thick roots of the plants.
It looked like a primordial forest.
However, Leylin who had experience from Twilight Zone immediately realised the difference in this sunlight. This was not sunlight from the natural world, but an artificial recreation of heat and light. Though there was a similar effect, it lacked the harmony of nature.
“This place has probably been abandoned for thousands of years. To be able to let this ecological garden achieve a balance like this, it truly is a perfect system achieved with astonishing skill,” Leylin sighed and touched the glass.
[Custom-made reinforced glass. Degree of hardness: 3!] The A.I. Chip concluded.
A level 3 hardness meant that regular rank 3 Warlocks would be unable to break this glass. Leylin’s eyes brightened at this information.
“Looks like this place was used to hold many powerful creatures.” A giant fireball appeared in Leylin’s hands, the terrifying heat burning even the air around it into nothingness and searing through the void.
“Explosive Fireball!”
Enormous flames smashed against the glass wall, the dazzle of the heat and light incomparably piercing. Even Leylin himself had to close his eyes temporarily.
When he opened his eyes again, there was an indent in a part of the glass, but not much more. It still stood strong.
‘As expected of a material with a hardness of level 3!’ Leylin sighed, as he could immediately tell how much power this reinforced glass could withstand.
Based on the power of his attack, it needed to be used at least ten times before he could completely shatter this glass wall.
‘What for?’ he thought as he stroked his chin. While gathering information, he had also discovered an activating spell which should have been the key to entering the garden. The attack from before was purely to test how strong this
laboratory was.
‘Looks like there were at most rank 3 creatures here, so it’s not too dangerous!’ Leylin was now assured. If not, the defence would not be so uncomplicated. Even if there were still spell formations that had yet to be activated, the creatures would still be around rank 3.
He quickly arrived at an instrument that was like a disk. After checking it briefly, he found a groove and placed crystallised magic crystals inside, replacing the previous powder.
After that, Leylin placed both hands atop the disk, rays travelling from his palms and connecting with the disk. “Activate!”
*Ka-cha! Ka-cha!* The entire glass wall began to shake, great amounts of dust and silt sliding off.
*Rumble!* As it had not been activated for a long time, the mechanism seemed to be aged and produced a loud sound as a glass door opened.
A crack appeared within the glass, expanding in two directions, bringing with it an unusually refreshing breeze.
In that instant, Leylin felt every cell in his body dancing in joy, and his Giant Kemoyin Serpent bloodline beginning to stir.
“I didn’t notice this before, but it seems like every plant in this ecological garden is an ancient species. Also, they’re quite a few times larger than the species we have now, containing traits of the ancient era…”
Leylin walked out of the laboratory and looked backwards. The laboratory from before was like a giant white egg, set atop a thick stone base. Everything around it looked like a primordial forest.
‘With such obvious traits of the ancient era, and given how lively my bloodline has become, this place is a perfect copy of that period,’ he determined.
Though such an environment may have been the norm at the time. This is very valuable information…’ Leylin revealed an expression of excitement, and immediately commanded, ‘A.I. Chip, record the parameters of the environment!’
[Mission established, beginning scanning. Recording parameters of the atmosphere…]
The A.I. Chip loyally intoned, following through on Leylin’s command meticulously.
After giving the order, Leylin walked along a giant plant root, Meteor Sword in hand.
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