This was the main attraction of the astral plane. There were both sides to a coin, no profit without loss. After becoming unable to use the Coin of Destiny, Leylin’s experiments had been at a bottleneck, with multiple attempts to proceed resulting in failure.
Especially today. He’d unexpectedly drawn towards himself a completely unknown living creature. It was, in fact, not an organism. Just a formless being with consciousness.
When it flared up, it was potentially more horrifying than an ancient curse.
“My luck had been average, I think it’s time to stop!” Leylin had a bad premonition about the dangers he had been facing.
“…….”
He shut his eyes lightly, and when he opened them, the same decapitated goat head appeared in front of him again. Its eyes were filled with death and traces of ridicule.
Leylin sighed. Facing the goat head eye to eye, his face was expressionless.
Ten seconds later, the goat head once again disappeared without a trace, as if what had just happened was another illusion.
“So troublesome!” Leylin was evidently annoyed, ”How dare it!”
He got up in a flash, grabbed his clothes, and went to the center of a restricted room.
Grasping the knob of the door, another illusion appeared as the yellowish-bronze knob morphed into a familiar goat head, glaring at Leylin, and giving him a sinister smile.
Such circumstances would drive any Magus crazy, and cause many other repercussions as well.
Upon opening the door, a cold mechanical voice was transmitted, “This is the core room! Only host Leylin Farlier is permitted entry. All trespassers will be executed.” Soon after, horrifying spell energy locked onto Leylin’s body.
Rays of red, green, and blue scanned his body. “Scanning has begun. Authority verified. Alarm lifted.” With the last sound, his body felt a rush of relief.
This was a small core room. There was only an experimental table with a crystal ball, and on top of it were intermittent images of a white bone.
Leylin laid down on the experimental table. Soon, he could hear noises from all around. First were some animalistic growls, and then there were the pitiful cries of someone in the throes of death.
Leylin was unmoved and nonchalantly gave the order, “Begin radiation!”
“Beginning radiation!” A mysterious energy appeared from the Lamia fingerbone, streaking across Leylin’s body. Slowly, the Giant Kemoyin Serpent bloodline in his body was roused to a gentle boil.
Given any other time, he would have enjoyed this process immensely. However, this time he felt different. Streaks of ash-grey fog appeared all over his body, enveloping him like a huge callous. It made him feel like he was struggling on his deathbed.
[Remnants of an unknown force field have been detected in the host. Confirmed to be interplanar contamination.] The A.I. Chip repeated, and then added something else. [It is advised to stop the Lamia radiation.]
“No! Increase the radioactive level. Raise it by 10 times!” an ambitious glare burned in Leylin’s eyes.
The A.I. Chip only had the rights to suggest, not to execute anything. Acting on his will, rays of blue currents radiated from the Lamia bone, causing huge energy undulations. It broke through the grey fog and shone onto his body.
Leylin groaned as he clenched his teeth, both hands holding tightly to the experimental table, using so much strength that he left imprints on it.
Purplish-black patches started to appear on his body, looking similar to sunburns.
[Epidermal cells are now 39.78% damaged! Host is suggested to abort the radiation!] The A.I. Chip sounded once again.
“It seems to be insufficient! Increase intensity, adjust to 50 times!” Leylin locked his jaw tightly and hissed.
*Zi Zi!* The enormous radiation tangled with the ash-grey fog, turning it into a liquid that dripped down.
The noises surrounding Leylin began to intensify in both volume and chaos.
The white goat head once again appeared in front of Leylin. This time, the fur on it started to be shed one by one and the two horns started to shrink back into its skull, resulting in a huge change in its appearance.
After numerous alterations and transformation, the original goat head had morphed into a female human head. Her eyes were all-white, and were streaming blood.
WMW Chapter 472
Ancient Blood Serpent Castle
[The force fields have been neutralised. Host body’s contamination is being dissipated.]
With the mist surrounding Leylin’s body becoming weaker, the female head in front of him became less distinct and finally disappeared into the air.
When the last bit of mist was gone, Leylin immediately ordered for the radiation to be stopped.
Following that, he saw his skin looking as if it had been severely burnt and smiled wryly.
These injuries would definitely have killed any normal person. However, for Magi, as long as the astral pollution could be gotten rid of, everything else was not an issue.
Leylin wriggled his body, and the wounds on his body began to crack. Skin began to crease in a process similar to that of snakes moulting. Then, as if taking off his clothes, he shed off the dead skin and revealed fair, unblemished skin once more.
In just a few minutes, Leylin, who had seemed like a malicious spirit, had regained his normal appearance.
After changing his clothes, Leylin huffed a long sigh. “It really was quite dangerous this time. That creature with consciousness is still something I am unable to comprehend.”
Just some spiritual force contamination was too much for him to handle himself. This was an existence whose strength definitely surpassed the Morning Star realm, maybe even at the strength of a Radiant Moon Magus!
If not for his Lamia fingerbone allowing him to treat this through the neutralisation of force fields, he would be plagued with troubles for a long time.
Now, though, even if the contamination through radiation was very powerful, the Lamia was an ancient rank 5 existence. When the radiation from two highly-ranked existences collided, the only result would be mutual destruction.
Leylin had taken a risk with this, but the effects seemed pretty good.
“What happened this time is a warning. It looks like I should pause my experiments for now…”
Leylin walked out of the core room, ordering the tower genie to send him some desserts and drinks, before he asked, “How has the situation outside been in the time that I’ve been experimenting?”
While experimenting, Magi usually disconnected themselves from all communication to prevent any disturbances.
The tower genie now had the role of something like a housekeeper. Not only did it have to intercept messages from the outside, it also needed to filter out the most important information for Leylin to peruse.
“Someone from Freya’s family came here? There’s even an invitation card?”
Leylin touched his chin, “Could it be that she’s already broken through to the Crystal Phase?”
His relationship with Freya was not half bad, especially after selling the bloodline gemstones to her. Though Freya had then secluded herself and not contacted him, they were part of the same clan. He had to give her some face.
Leylin thought for a moment and sent down an order, “Inform Parker that I’ll meet that Timmy tomorrow!”
Besides this, there were a few other miscellaneous matters that Leylin had to take care of as the one with the highest authority. Without his approval, many things could not be implemented on this piece of land.
These were all necessary. Even if they might be complicated and result in lowered efficiency, they could not be avoided…
The next day, Timmy, who had been waiting for a long time, finally saw the well-known Leylin in the Magus Tower.
An adamantine puppet sent in some desserts and drinks before withdrawing.
Leylin watched the reserved young man. He was obviously very young, but the purity of his bloodline far exceeded
that of Noah from Robin’s family. This descendant of Freya’s family was probably someone that they favoured. Sending him here was a show of how highly they valued Leylin.
“Lord Marquis Leylin’s Magus Tower is truly wondrous!” Timmy praised from the bottom of his heart. Leylin’s top-grade Magus Tower had a reputation of its own within the Ouroboros Clan. There were always guests coming over and gasping in awe over it.
However, when these words were produced from Timmy’s lips, there was something very sincere about it that gave Leylin a favourable impression.
After chatting for a while, Leylin asked, “Timmy, what are your intentions in coming here?”
At the mention of his business, Timmy turned solemn, “I was asked by the head of the family to pass this invitation to my lord!” As he said this, he respectfully passed an invitation card to Leylin.
Usually, if it was something common, communication via secret imprints was enough. Getting someone to specifically send an invitation was only something that large noble families would do. Even then, it was only done when there was some celebration or important festival.
There was a sweet scent from the surface of the paper. After skimming through the content, Leylin nodded. “Freya has already advanced to the Crystal Phase! As expected, it’s a joyous matter. I’ll personally congratulate her!”
For high-ranked Magi, advancement was always very difficult. Each success definitely called for a celebration. When Leylin had achieved the Hydro Phase, he had invited his seniors over. Compared to the Hydro Phase, the Crystal Phase was multiple levels higher and more difficult.
“Many thanks, my lord!” Timmy bowed respectfully.
Though Freya had only just advanced and could not be considered any genius as compared to Robin, she was still quite decent.
In addition, their family still had plans of having a good relationship with Leylin. After all, Leylin was so young and already a Hydro Phase Magus. His future was boundless.
This was without them even knowing of Leylin’s advancement to the Crystal Phase. If they did, they would definitely value him even more highly.
“I definitely need to go this time!” An invitation from nobility was extremely important. The other party had even especially sent someone over, and if Leylin did not attend, even Freya would feel very uncomfortable.
After sending Timmy away, Leylin lightly sighed. With his current strength, the rank 2 Timmy naturally would not be able to sense his real aura if he wanted to conceal it.
“Crystal Phase at two hundred years of age? That would be too high profile!” Leylin shook his head, “I need to keep a low profile and hide my strength before going there.”
Leylin had gotten used to being a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Right from his days as an acolyte, he’d developed a technique to conceal his aura and spiritual force waves. On top of that, he had obtained that spiritual force compression technique, making things much easier for him,
After reaching rank 3, the effects of these spells became weaker. Leylin improved on them again with the spell models he had obtained as well as those from the Ouroboros Clan. He had even especially created a few secret supporting techniques.
Leylin was very confident in his concealing skills.
If he went all out, even peak rank 3 Crystal Phase Magi might not be able to see through him. Unless it was a Morning Star Magus in front of him, there was nobody to fear.
‘Freya is the beloved disciple of the Blood Duchess, Emma. She would normally attend!’ Leylin touched his chin, pondering deeply.
“Recently, Kesha mentioned that the mentors seem to have found a world that could very well be Purgatory. The three elders have all been deep in experiments on the astral plane, and it’s not quite likely that they’ll emerge.”
The desire Kemoyin Warlocks had towards Purgatory was something outsiders were unable to comprehend.
Mere traces of the Snake Dowager was enough for all the Warlocks in the Ouroboros Clan to go crazy. After all, the restraints of their bloodlines could only be resolved with her.
In addition, the Purgatory World itself was a giant world. It held boundless riches and, compared to the surrounding worlds, it could be said to be a large-scaled world. If not, the Snake Dowager would not have chosen to move her community here. This resulted in many Magi going forth and exploring.
“The Snake Dowager is probably an existence at or above rank 7. Even if they found her, what could the mentors offer her?”
Leylin shook his head, not very supportive of Gilbert’s actions this time. However, there was little that could be done. Since the three elders were now consumed in their research on the astral plane, this gave him the chance to take advantage of the situation.
The other high-ranked Warlocks could not see through his pretence, and hence, concealing his spiritual force undulations and going forth to congratulate them was very possible.
……
Fresh flowers filled the ground. This was Freya’s family’s territory.
As it was a noble family that had been passed down through generations, the range of their territory far exceeded that of his own.
The wealth of the residents was something that Leylin, who had only managed things for a hundred years, could not compare to.
Freya’s castle was situated beside a snaking river, with a sea of flowers around it.
Diverse, splendid flower petals spilled all over the ground, Leylin even smelt a fishy smell amidst the fragrance in the air.
He extended an arm and immediately caught a five-coloured spotted snake under a plant.
The scales of this snake were giving off a magnificent luster. Complementing the flower petals all over the ground. It was basically impossible to distinguish them with the naked eye.
As if feeling the bloodline in Leylin, the flower snake did not dare resist. Instead, it tried to curl itself up as much as possible, looking rather pitiful.
“Looks like another result of crossbreeding!”
Leylin was speechless and released this flower snake which had toxins potent enough to break through an ordinary Magus’ innate defensive spell back into the sea of flowers, shaking his head.
As bloodline nobility, it would be unusual not to concentrate on techniques on modifying bloodlines.
However, for Leylin, who had gathered precious experimental data from the Quicksand Organisation, these experiments were rather unsophisticated.
All the creatures which had been created were the type that he couldn’t even bother catching another glimpse of.
In comparison, the castle at the heart of the sea of flowers was what interested Leylin the most.
The Ancient Blood Serpent Castle that Freya’s family had inherited was not a mere place for commoners like Leylin’s Onyx Castle. This was a true ancient Magus castle.
After the great effort of bloodline Warlocks across countless generations, every inch of the land of the Ancient Blood Serpent Castle was completely soaked in the power of magic.
This created a very formidable defence that could defend against even Morning Star Magi for a period of time.
WMW Chapter 473
Banquet and Invitation
In the Ancient blood Serpent Castle were many phenomena that even their current leader, Freya, could not explain clearly.
As a result, when he first saw the crimson structure, Leylin quickly grew fond of the place.
‘This sort of ancient castle is what is truly fit to be the residence of a Magus. My Onyx Castle lacks these details,’ he thought as he sighed.
Freya’s family was rumoured to even have seen Morning Star Magi amongst their ranks in history, and it was naturally something that Leylin could not compare to.
Yet, Leylin was confident in himself. As long as he advanced to the Morning Star realm, he would not need a long time before the Onyx Castle would be comparable to this Ancient Blood Serpent Castle and be a true ancient Magus castle.
A large number of carriages were parked at the plaza of the castle,
and in the area were many magical creatures.
A large number of guests entered from the main gate, and the entire area seemed very lively. Greetings were thrown around audibly on occasion.
For someone to come here alone was very rare, and Leylin immediately attracted attention for it.
Thankfully, he was famous to begin with, and many members of the organisation had seen him before. Even for those who hadn’t, there were definitely images and information regarding him. Naturally, he would not be mocked.
“Leylin, there you are!” After some disturbance at the gates, Freya who was dressed in glamorous attire, came forward to welcome Leylin.
Even though they had not met for a very long time, her face still looked childlike, and even though she had the might of a Crystal Phase Magus, she looked just like a little girl, a huge contrast to her mature and enticing figure.
‘Calling me directly by my name? Am I that close to you?’ Leylin rolled his eyes internally, but still allowed Freya to affectionately hold his arms as they walked into the castle.
This was obviously a signal with an obvious implication.
Leylin knew very well that, in Freya’s heart, she probably did not have any intentions of giving up on him completely. She had always liked to show how close she was to him at public occasions like these.
However, he was just as happy about the situation. This way, there would be fewer female Warlocks coming to cause him trouble.
Only Miranda would have the guts to fight with Freya over a man. However, after being subdued by Leylin, Miranda had became a lot more down-to-earth.
“I’m very happy that you’re here today. I hope to be able to meet you privately after the banquet, and discuss some matters regarding our mentor!” She lightly whispered into Leylin’s ears, and tenderly hugged him before going to entertain other guests.
She was the main lead of the event today, and there were many distinguished high-ranked Warlocks who had made their way here. Naturally, she could not only accompany Leylin.
“Mentor?” Leylin stroked his chin.
From the looks of it, Freya had gained an interest in the rumours regarding the discovery of traces of Purgatory World. However, she seemed concerned as well, and this foresight set her apart from other Warlocks.
Warlock of the Magus World 1-596 Page 329