Leylin was silent for a while and then spoke.
“Alright! I’ve contacted the Four Seasons Garden’s headquarters in the external world. The elders are in a frenzy, and the entirety of the Four Seasons Corps will be dispatched here, along with a rank 2 Magus!”
Caesar also gave more news, “Five days! We have, at most, five more days!”
What he and Leylin needed to do within this time period was to push out Desmund and Wade, and hand over the defensive spell formation and core of the secret plane to the dark Magi.
As long as all of that was done, all entrances to the secret plane would belong to the dark Magi.
“Five days is enough!” Leylin stood up and left. As he walked out the door, he turned back and smiled at Caesar. “Also, remember! I don’t like the look in that middle eye of yours. It’s disgusting!”
*Pak!* The door slammed shut, and the expression on Caesar’s face darkened.
“Despicable!” With a swipe of his arm, the cup, documents, and other items on the table fell to the ground, producing the crisp sound of objects colliding.
“If not for my “Three Spirits in a Body” still being incomplete, and me needing him to help me in my plan… I’ll kill him! I swear on it!”
Caesar’s facial muscles contorted.
For him to be defeated by Leylin, who he had looked down upon in the past, was an absolute humiliation. Also, as he was not better than Leylin, and even had to concede in some matters; it was like reopening old wounds and exposing them to the scorching sun.
What made him more furious was that Leylin had actually killed the little boy, and had inflicted heavy injuries on Giant!
These two Magi were the other spirits that were part of the trio from his body. Though they had different personalities, it could be said that out of the three people, including himself, one had been killed and the other two had been seriously injured! This hatred was definitely not something that a contract could restrict.
Caesar had concealed it well, but Leylin could see through it.
“It’s a pity… So what if he knows? I admit that you’re a genius and even the kind that’s one in a million! But so what? You’re now bound by the contract and don’t have much time to grow any further…Once the plan succeeds and you lose all your value, I’ll retrieve your spirit and torture you for two hundred years! I swear on it!”
Caesar lowered his head and began to laugh, like the murmurings of a patient who was nearing death.
Caesar moved extremely quickly, and on just the next day, Leylin heard news of increased dark Magus activity at entrance No. 2 to the secret plane. For the sake of security, Desmund had led the Lightning Corps to guard the area again.
Though there were many intelligent Magi who could tell this was a ploy to lure him away, Desmund still left.
For Desmund’s and his superiors, if the Four Seasons Garden was able to eventually maintain the possession of their entrance, not only would the Four Seasons Garden would benefit, and they themselves would be able to obtain ten to twenty percent of the resources.
But entrance No. 2 was different! There were resources there that they were in charge of, and as long as they took care of the entrance, profits would come in like a wave!
Hence, even if there was just a slight possibility, Desmund did not want to risk anything.
As for his good friend, Reynold? Too bad! Magi were a bunch of practical people, and a dead friendship was a friendship no more. Without a similar strength and position, this friendship could not continue.
After considering both sides of the situation, Desmund made the decision to return.
After all, most Magi were selfish people! When it came to their own benefits, even rank 2 Magi could not resist temptation!
“However, Desmund still had to put on a superficial front and pacify the Four Seasons Garden members.”
Leylin strolled around, and the Magi who walked past respectfully bowed to him.
Whether it was in terms of power or authority, Leylin was one of the core existences in the headquarters within the secret plane. The rest of the Magi in Four Seasons Garden could only duck their heads.
What was more interesting was that most of the team leaders of those divisions that Leylin had extorted had died in battle. Furthermore, the remaining members of those teams bribed Leylin by sending over even more resources and ingredients as they wanted to shirk their responsibilities.
In the past, Leylin had needed to do the work himself, but now, bribes would appear on his doorstep on their own, and they were only afraid that he would not accept it. This treatment was vastly different from before.
In this situation, Leylin, of course, accepted all these and promised them blindly to everything they requested.
After all, the amount of time he would stay here could be counted in days. Once he was to leave, these Magi would only be left in shock.
Unrestrained
“When the time comes, these Magi who bribed me before will, unfortunately, be apprehended and accused of helping the enemy… I wonder what expression will be on their faces when that happens?”
Leylin thought to himself as a sly grin appeared on his face.
His feet did not stop moving until he came to a building that was still being rebuilt.
This had once been the merit points exchange centre, and after having experienced the attack from the dark Magi, which Leylin had been the leader of, it was now destroyed to a terrible extent.
Most of the main structure had been destroyed and, what was even more serious, the huge loss of a few resource-based warehouses!
Besides the main warehouse, the greedy Magi also went after a few small-scale branch warehouses. There were some slightly valuable magic crystals, and if they had not already been stolen by the dark Magi, them they had self-destructed under the protection of their spell formations.
In the end, the dark Magi who had grown green with envy had even burnt up the whole area and torched everything!
On the bare surface of the stones in the surroundings, one could also see the burn marks here.
“Lord Leylin!” A light Magus who appeared to be the person in charge here quickly came over and greeted him.
“Hn!” Leylin nodded. He had never bothered remembering this light Magus’ name, and could only vaguely remember that he was the person in charge.
“How’s the progress of the rebuilding?” he asked.
Though it seemed as if Leylin had posed the question on a whim, sweat beaded on the forehead of the light Magus who was waiting by the side.
“Over 80% of our main infrastructure has been lost. This is not a large problem with earth elemental magic, but the key issue is that the spell formations have to be remade…”
This light Magus pulled out a white handkerchief from his robes and unceasingly wiped his shiny forehead.
“I’m not worried about that. When is the latest we can start working again?” Leylin stared hard at this Magus who was slightly plump.
“Three… No, two days! At the latest, we’ll be able to resume our work in two days.” The light Magus could feel himself tremble under Leylin’s gaze and quickly promised.
“Two days?” Leylin furrowed his brows and then shook his head. “Far too long! I’ll give you two more Magi and twenty acolytes. The progress has to be 20% faster!”
“Yes, my lord!”
From the aura that Leylin was unwittingly giving off, the light Magus became even more afraid and the sweat on his forehead flowed quicker. He didn’t even have time to wipe it off with his white handkerchief as he agreed.
Leylin nodded, waved his hand, dismissed the person in charge, and began to stroll around the construction site.
Leylin had experiences from an alternate world and was naturally aware that the protection from the headquarters in the secret plane was as good as the rebuilding work after wars in his previous life.
There were two main points in this operation. One, regain the credibility of the administr
ation, and two, guarantee the flow of trade!
In terms of credibility, even though a rank 2 Magus from Four Seasons Garden had died, the main organisation in the external world was still significant enough that no Magus could look down upon them. There was no issue at all.
What was more urgent now was to make the merit points exchange centre operational!
From what Leylin knew, contribution points were the currency in this world. In order to make things work in this place via getting many light Magi to take on missions to help rebuild the area, what did they need?
Merit points! But merit points were a virtual currency that could not be used to trade for material resources directly, and were thus meaningless! With the merit points exchange centre, large amounts of merit points could be given out as the light Magi performed specific tasks, which could then be exchanged. This process would allow Four Seasons Garden to quickly regain their power.
For this reason, even under these conditions, Leylin and Caesar quickly transferred a batch of resources over so that the merit points exchange centre could resume operations.
Though he and Leylin were dark Magi spies, they were extremely cautious, and before they officially took action, they were as dutiful as any other Magus from Four Seasons Garden.
Hence, Leylin would come over occasionally and closely watch the progress of the reconstruction. Caesar was buried in a sea of documents and had to deal with a pile of urgent and frustrating work.
However, this was something he himself had instigated, and it could be said that he had caused himself trouble.
Leylin looked past the acolytes who were busily using earth elemental magic to create large numbers of stone pillars and bricks and approached a few people who were vigilantly surveying the area.
They were all wearing the uniform of Four Seasons Garden, which had lightning insignias on it.
They were members of Desmund’s Lightning Corps. Though a rank 2 Magus had left, there was still a vice team leader and two large groups staying guard here!
They were all official Magi who had experienced multiple battles and combined with the formation genie and defensive spell formation, even if a rank 2 Magus were to attack, Leylin and the others had the confidence that they could withstand the attack for a period of time until reinforcements from the nearby light Magi alliance arrived.
“The system of our defense has been re-built. It can’t be said to be watertight, but it’s no problem if we talk about maintaining our current situation. If not for me and Caesar being traitors…”
Leylin felt some pity in his heart.
To be honest, Four Seasons Garden had not treated him very badly. If not for the fact that he had little choice, he did not want to betray them either.
Compared to the dark Magi who would often change their minds, he actually preferred having to deal with the light Magi, who kept their promises, even if this was only applicable to those on the same level of strength as them.
With Reynold and Caesar pushing him into a corner, Leylin had little choice.
Caesar had first let out news of his identity as Thousand Meddling Hands’ Blood Rogue, causing Reynold to become suspicious of him. Caesar had then assigned him to continuously participate in the battlefield, and wherever it was dangerous was everywhere Leylin would go. It was a pace where he could possibly work Leylin to death!
At the end, Reynold had even personally tried to identify Leylin’s identity. This was a very dangerous sign, as this implied that the higher-ups in Four Seasons Garden were already beginning to lose trust in Leylin. Or perhaps, they had never trusted him at all.
Hence, whatever Leylin had done till now to increase his strength was for the sake of survival!
Now, after his bloodline’s second transition and seeing first-hand the strength of a rank 2 Magus from Thousand Meddling Hands, he could now somewhat defend himself and escape. It was for this reason that he could temporarily leave this cycle and worry about Four Seasons Garden and others.
Leylin was not a heartless person. In a situation where his interests were not affected, he would definitely not mind helping friends and perhaps organisations.
“Under the name of changing the guards, George and the others have been transferred far behind the frontlines, so they should be fine. Dark Magi wouldn’t have any interests in a few pitifully poor acolytes…”
Leylin indifferently pondered.
He was pretty much in possession of a third of the power within Four Seasons Garden’s headquarters in the Eternal River Plain’s secret plane. This amount of power was simply astonishing.
But it was certain that he was going to betray them. In order not to implicate George and others, he could only work in a roundabout way.
“Are you ready?”
At this moment, Caesar appeared like a ghost behind Leylin and asked.
“All ready! We can start anytime!” Leylin nodded, “With us together, he definitely won’t be able to escape even with just what the formation genie grants us access to!”
He and Caesar’s conversations were transmitted using spiritual force, and nobody would find out.
……
Wade expressionlessly got up from a bed that had a strange smell to it. His face was stiff as he came before a large crystal mirror.
Like a transparent crystal mirror, what was reflected was a person whose hair had withered, facial features sunken and two eyes caved in, much like the corpse of a mummy.
The curse on the dagger that had been used in sneaking an attack on him had constantly been eating at his life, causing his external appearance to undergo changes.
Wade could be considered a pretty boy in the past, but now, any Magus from Four Seasons Garden definitely wouldn’t be able to recognise him.
“Teacher…”
A low mumble emerged from Wade’s dry and cracked lips.
For Wade, the first half of his life was the model of someone who was treasured by the heavens. Since he was young, he had been tested to have the first-rate talent in becoming a Magus, and successfully entered Four Seasons Garden without much trouble. He had even become the student of a powerful rank 2 Magus! He had then advanced to become an official Magus, and even the bottleneck that happened while he was a semi-converted Magus was easily overcome. However, everything had been destroyed the day before. In what seemed like the blink of an eye, his entire world had altered.
Four Seasons Garden’s entrance to the secret plane had been attacked, causing his teacher, Reynold, to die in battle. Even he himself had been struck with a curse that had maggots that burrowed into his flesh and bones, and could not be ridden of. This resulted in his current appearance, where he looked like an abomination.
“Teacher! I’ll definitely avenge you!”
The corpse-like Wade in front of the mirror let out a low howl and a resolute look appeared on his face.
For official Magi like Wade, external appearances were of no concern. As long as he had time, he could slowly choose a look and make changes to achieve it.
This curse was directed at his life force and even his spirit. The moment both were diminished, no healing techniques would be useful!
Originally, he could have chosen to return to the headquarters in the external world and be treated. With the methods of the Magi there, even if they were unable to heal him, it was a large possibility that they could slow the development of the curse and give him more time to come up with more ways to deal with it.
However, for the sake of his teacher, Reynold, Wade firmly chose to stay behind.
He had too many questions regarding his teacher’s death. There were also a few suspicious points that he needed to make sense with the help of the investigation team from Four Seasons Garden before he would leave.
Hence, even if the conditions here were simply terrible and the curse was constantly eating at his body and turning him into a horrific state, he would still choose to stay behind.
“My lord! How do you feel today?”
&nb
sp; A Magus wearing an armour of thorns entered.
Divulged
“Goro! It’s you!”
Wade glanced at one of the few surviving members of the Four Seasons Corps, his tone displaying his regret.
That day, he had sustained serious injuries, and practically all of the small team from the Four Seasons Corps had died. All that was left was Goro. As he had fainted because of the explosion, he had narrowly escaped death.
At the sight of Goro, Wade couldn’t help but think back to that scene.
Explosion! Figures! Green mist!
Everything had happened so suddenly that even his secretary who was also his girlfriend, had died in the attack.
Warlock of the Magus World 1-596 Page 191
