Bessita trembled and picked up her cloak, which was on the floor, and covered her delicate, naked body.
She had been able to entice Leylin without feeling apprehensive, but now, all she felt was shame. Such a strange feeling made her turn beet red, wishing there was a hole that would swallow her up.
After going through the door to another room, Bessita found that she had come to a secret room that was entirely sealed.
It was a small room, and one could see traces of the bricks on the walls.
In the middle of the secret room, there was a cumbersome metal desk that was similar to that of an experimentation table. Fixed on the four corners of the table were handcuffs and legcuffs.
Looking at this metal desk, Bessita’s face turned pale.
She wanted to retreat, yet she did not dare to. Then she realised that oddities were hanging on chamber walls.
For example, there was a short cudgel that was littered with small beads on its surface. There was also a large syringe filled with various glass pearls within, with a suction pad and handle and other strange add-ons.
Bessita’s heart sank like a weighted rock.
Of course she was aware that many official Magi had strange fetishes.
She had even heard of a story where a professor in her academy ate a girl while she was still alive after having finished toying with her.
“Don’t misunderstand, this isn’t mine, but a gift left behind by the previous Magus…”
Leylin fetched a unique binding instrumentation made with cotton and metal chains from the wall. “But I realised that his hobbies are quite similar to my own, in the past…”
Here, Leylin was naturally referring to that unfortunate idiot who had died and allowed Leylin to take over his body.
Leylin didn’t like Bessita since she had been taking advantage of him before. Hence, he was planning to teach her a lesson she wouldn’t forget.
The previous Leylin had suffered a great deal at the hands of others, and had eventually died.
Leylin believed that since he had taken over everything that belonged to the previous Leylin, it might be his duty to take revenge on his behalf. It wasn’t anything that difficult anyway.
“These items here have been modified and are exactly what ‘I’ liked.”
Leylin glanced at Bessita who was in front of him; a malicious smirk was on his face…
After Leylin willfully vented his feelings, he seemed to be completely fine the next morning and handled matters in the fort.
Bessita, however, struggled as she emerged from the secret room the second night.
Her face was completely pale and her bones seemed to have no feeling in them. The scent of blood was strong on her, and Bessita stayed in bed for a whole week before she could force herself to walk.
If this had happened before, acolytes would have expressed their disapproval and complained.
But now, even if Bessita were to be absent for seven days, they could only tolerate her behaviour. After all, not every acolyte could have relations with an official Magus, right?
She suffered repercussions after that incident, and every time she looked at Leylin, both her legs would involuntarily shake as if she had seen a devil.
Of course, Leylin didn’t care about that.
Once he had used all the methods that he had gleaned from the previous Leylin’s memories on Bessita, he never approached her again.
The reason for what he did to her wasn’t because of some perverted desire or hobby. He simply wanted to punish her and take revenge for the original Leylin Farlier.
Hence, after heartily venting his anger, all matters regarding Bessita had been forgotten.
Leylin was currently patrolling the sea of Black Mandara Flowers.
These black flowers had petals that were the size of a palm. Atop were blue spots that were like stars, and in the night they would even give off milky white rays of light.
The Black Mandara Flower was a subdivision of the Mandara Flower. Their petals were an extremely precious resource for acolytes and even official Magi who specialized in negative energy.
In the external world, a Black Mandara Flower petal could sell for a staggering price of over 1,000 magic crystals!
And here, what Leylin had in front of him was a whole sea of these flowers!
“The resources in the Eternal River Plains’ secret plane are so bountiful that it makes one’s hair stand erect!” Leylin exclaimed even though it was not the first time he had seen them.
A pity that above this sea of Black Mandara Flowers there was a surveillance spell. Before he decided to turn his back on the light Magi, he had to temporarily restrain any notions of seizing the flowers for himself.
In addition to the surveillance spell, there were intricate probing spell formations at every entrance to the secret plane . The question of how to secretly transport these resources out was a very troublesome problem.
Now he could understand why the Four Seasons Garden wanted to erect a fort in this area.
Occupying a strategic location was just one aspect, but Four Seasons Garden could also not give up this huge sea of flowers.
Although the Eternal River Plains’ secret plane was extremely vast and had bountiful resources, this sea of Black Mandara Flowers was extremely valuable even amongst the other resources in here.
If not for this terrible location, the Four Seasons Garden may have most likely sent a large army to defend this area.
“Lord! Our task every day is to try harvest as many of these Black Mandara Flowers and transport them away before the enemy arrives!”
Beside the sea of flowers, an acolyte trailed behind Leylin and explained the concrete details.
“Ennea Rings bless us! As those damned dark Magi discovered several large-scale resource areas, skirmishes arose as a result. We will most likely be facing a large amount of dark Magi forces… There are still some dark Magi and acolytes who try to break through the defenses every once in a while to steal the resources. Furthermore, we also have to guard against certain light Magi…”
This acolyte smiled wryly.
“I understand! Anyway, our mission is to harvest all these flowers as soon as we can and fend off wandering Magi and acolytes. If we are in a situation of distress, we have to send a signal. Is that right?”
Leylin asked indifferently.
“Yes, that’s about it!” The acolyte’s smile turned even more bitter.
Such a tactic was plainly inviting Leylin and his party to dance at the edges of a sword and use their lives in exchange for resources.
“I got it!” Leylin spoke solemnly after a moment of silence.
Chapter 208 – Conflict with Ciel
Leylin looked over the immeasurable number of black flowers in the distance as he calculated their progress.
As long as all these Black Mandara Flowers were harvested, the headquarters wouldn’t have any reason to prevent him and the others from leaving.
All the acolytes that Leylin had previously met were currently in the sea of flowers, carrying simple containers made from green vines. Their hands were covered with rings of dark energy particles as they plucked the Black Mandara Flowers with great care.
“This progress is too slow!”
With this kind of harvesting speed, Leylin estimated that it would take at least another month before this field of flowers would be completely harvested.
The opposing dark Magi would never give them so much time.
“I must find a way to speed up the process!”
Leylin squatted on the ground. With his hands covered by the dark light of a magic spell, he touched the petals of the Black Mandara Flowers, a light flashing in his blue eyes.
*Ding Ling Ling!*
Suddenly, a series of shrill sounds, like those of a small bell, rang.
*Buzz buzz!* A barrier of white light was emitted to tightly surround the field of Black Madara Flowers.
“The defensive spell formation has been activated!
There’s an intruder!”
An acolyte started to yell, “Everyone, beware!”
*Whoosh!* Suddenly, a dark silhouette darted out from the high grass surrounding the field of flowers.
*Crack! Crack!*
Two huge white skulls emerged from the hands of the black silhouette.
The skulls didn’t have bodies attached to them, and floated in the air spookily. Inside each of the skulls’ eye sockets was a red ball of continuously burning flames.
These huge skulls opened their jaws, revealing fine, sharp, white teeth as they bit into the white light barrier.
*Boom! Boom! Boom!*
The white light of the barrier was blinking constantly, as if it would break at any moment.
“Oh!” The black silhouette exclaimed in surprise, seemingly unsatisfied with his own performance. Following which, a black aura consisting of energy particles appeared around his body.
Suddenly, the black energy aura emitted a serene light, which turned into two streaks of light as they hit the skulls.
*Crack! Crack! Crack!*
The red fire within the skull’s eye sockets suddenly expanded, and the structure of the skulls expanded considerably. Cracks even appeared on the surface of the skull. It seemed that the energies inside were expanding too rapidly and the skulls were on the verge of bursting.
Following this transformation, the offensive power of these two skulls increased. The white light barrier kept shrinking, and in the end, it finally broke in front of the crestfallen acolytes.
“A semi-converted elemental Magus? We are finished!”
A more experienced acolyte collapsed to the ground with an expression filled with despair.
“Fear not! Lord Leylin is also an official Magus!” George held the small hand of the trembling Shiera.
“What would you know!” The previous acolyte, who had collapsed to the ground, yelled in despair, “Our side only has this newly advanced and outcasted Magus! On the other hand, our opponent is a powerhouse who has been an official Magus for dozens of years. Being a semi-converted elemental magus, all his spells are stronger by at least half! At this stage, he is simply invincible as compared to those newly advanced Magi!”
Believing that his end was nearing, this acolyte didn’t care any more. He even started to be disrespectful towards Leylin.
“Hehe! A very interesting explanation, but quite accurate nonetheless!”
The black silhouette walked unhurriedly towards the flower field, and revealed himself to Leylin and the rest.
He was a young green-haired Magus. He was dressed in a strange black robe, which had a few green skulls and chains embroidered on it.
“He’s from Kurute Academy, which is known for its methods of torture and and use of the spirits of the dead!” Leylin’s eyes flashed as he recognized this Magus in front of them.
This Kurute Academy was only a tiny faction within the dark Magi of the south coast.
They produced plenty of lunatics, and mentally unsound people. Even the other dark Magi could not stomach their actions, and hence, they only partook in sporadic missions and were often excluded from various operations.
The green haired Magus clasped his hands behind his back and greedily looked over the sea of Black Mandara Flowers.
“What an enchanting atmosphere… I can detect the taste of darkness…” The youth muttered.
Following which, he turned and stared at Leylin with his dark green eyes.
“Light Magi! Kneel before me, the great Lord Ciel, and offer to me your souls and devotion. Then I might consider letting you be my slaves…”
This Magus named Ciel had a rather proud demeanor, but Leylin could understand why.
The age of a Magus couldn’t be determined just by looking at their physical appearance, but Leylin could estimate that this Ciel was around 50 years old based on the energy waves he was unknowingly releasing.
His being able to become a semi-converted elemental magus at such a young age did indeed give him the rights to be proud, but he had met the wrong opponent.
Leylin smirked, but before he even had the chance to speak, the acolyte that sunk to the ground previously had already hastened towards Ciel, kneeling and kissing the ground before Ciel.
“Esteemed Lord Ciel! I am willing to serve you! I will become your most loyal slave!”
It was clear that the actions of this acolyte was a complete surprise to everyone.
Next to Leylin, plenty of acolytes carried expressions of scorn. They clearly didn’t know that this acolyte who normally carried himself rather decently would turn into this kind of person at a crucial moment.
The other acolytes were able to conceal the internal struggle within them such that it did not show on their faces.
“Very good! I’ll accept you as a servant!” Ciel revealed a strange smile on his face as he proceeded to extend his left hand and gently wiped the face of the acolyte.
“Ahhh!”
White smoke rose, accompanied by the pained scream of the acolyte.
Ciel’s left hand was like a red-hot iron plate as it left a large black charred mark on the face of the acolyte.
While the acolyte was screaming, the Magus looked extremely excited as he slid his fingers over the acolyte’s face repeatedly.
A little over ten seconds later, a complete rune mark was burned into the face of the acolyte.
The front of the mark resembled a skull, with a chain extending from within.
“Thank… Thank you my Lord for… this gift!”
The acolyte struggled to salute once more.
“Haha… After receiving my mark, you are now my slave forever!” Ciel laughed, then looked over at Leylin.
“What is it? Light Magus, are you scared silly?”
“Not really!” Leylin shook his head.
“I just think he’s a bit pitiful, that’s all!” Leylin pointed towards the acolyte who had half his face ruined, his facial muscles still twitching.
“Why is that?” Ciel rubbed his fingers as slivers of white gas emerged from his fingers to form the shape of a skull.
The elemental particles surrounding his body was faintly discernable as his eyes emitted a dangerous light.
“Blurgh!” The acolytes behind Leylin all fell back, and some of them even doubled over and started to hurl.
The radiation from an official Magus, especially when voluntarily released from a powerful Magus with such a high degree of elemental conversion was something that acolytes found hard to deal with.
“He- will he be alright?”
George was supporting Shiera as he retreated quite a distance. He then glanced worriedly at Leylin, who had remained behind.
“Relax! Lord Leylin is very powerful!” As Shiera recovered, she also started to comfort her lover.
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