As the spiritual force being manipulated was dispelled, the inferno of crimson flames lost sight of its target and began spreading to the surroundings.
The silver spiritual force soon descended down on its target. It formed a silver cross-shaped sword after having elongated and pierced the old man in the chest.
*Drip! Drip!*
The old man was bleeding profusely and droplets of blood could be seen dripping onto the ground. He tried humming, but no energy particles were triggered.
The solidified spiritual force of a rank 2 Magus far surpassed the spiritual force of an converted Magus in terms of quality. The spiritual force residing inside the old man’s consciousness was no match for the silver spiritual force and was completely locked down with a single hit.
This rationale was very similar to what had happened to Leylin, when he had been confined by the Gargamel on the mountain of white bones.
After Leylin had completely recovered his rank 2 Magus power, even a peak rank 1 Magus was nothing more than a slightly stronger ant in Leylin’s eyes.
“He…! He…! He…!”
The sight had the Magi from the Dense Fog Forest at a loss.
With just one single blow, the peak rank 1 Magus was on the verge of death! They had only heard of this kind of terrifying power in legends.
Gus’ face started to turn pale from despair before it finally became a grim.
“Roar!” Under his manipulation, the gigantic Fog Giant ferociously charged in Leylin’s direction.
Leylin started to slowly open an ancient scroll in his hands which was radiating with destructive energy that could be felt in the surroundings.
“Scorching Touch!” A bunch of red powder started to spill out, and two long and narrow energy beams which carried the destructive force of a rank 2 spell shot out from Leylin’s hands. The fog giant was immediately scorched and two large holes were created from the attack.
*Boom!* A large amount of the mist started to dissipate and all the Magi who were connected to the mist giant started to collapse to the ground.
In the blink of an eye, Leylin appeared in front of Gus.
*Zoom! Zoom! Zoom! Zoom!*
While he was moving, several snow-white ice arrows were abruptly shot out.
*Zoom! Zoom! Zoom! Zoom!*
Confronted with the might of the arrows, the innate defensive spell formations of rank 1 Magi were shredded easily like pieces of paper. The heads of numerous Magi exploded, similar to watermelons exploding.
“You…”
At the sight of this unbearable scenario, even Gus, who was preparing a spell, could not help but feel anger and a sense of despair.
The number of rank 1 Magi that had died constituted almost half of the Dense Fog Forest’s forces. All his efforts to accumulate this power all these years had gone down the drain as he lost 70 to 80% of his forces.
But at this moment, Gus had no time to think about this as Leylin arrived in front of him.
“Protection of Andes!” Gus shouted loudly and a colony of black ants emerged from his face, clothes, shoes and all over his body and formed a peculiar-looking black shield.
“A futile effort!” Leylin looked indifferent and raised his right hand.
A layer of black rays started to gather around his palm and formed a bunch of black scales. “Kemoyin’s Scale! Partial Snake Transformation!”
*Po!*
Leylin’s palms were filled with an enormous amount of energy which penetrated the shield. The colony of ants on the shield let out a shrill sound as they tried to gnaw at the black scales, but it was to no avail.
“Your last resort is just a scroll engraved by a rank 2 Magus? How disappointing!”
The silver ray of light in Leylin’s eyes started to shine brightly, and with his right hand, he grabbed Gus’ wrist.
*Pak!* The scroll, which was already triggered halfway, suddenly lost all its luster and revealed its true appearance of what seemed to be a broken piece of goatskin paper as it fell to the ground.
“Do you have any last words?”
Leylin asked Gus as he sealed his spiritual force.
“You will be punished by the joint conference. I swear on that!” Gus’ eyes turned red.
*Pak!* After which, his brain exploded, white brain juices, blood, and fluids spurting everywhere.
“Just this? How pointless! “
Leylin retracted his right hand.
He appeared in front of the hawk-nosed old man and placed his hands on the head of an old man who was on the verge of death.
“Do you choose death or subservience”?
The old man who was bleeding profusely and nearing death struggled to open his mouth. “I… I’m willing to be subservient to you, my lord!”
“Set a pact now and surrender a strand of your spirit source, or else you will end up like the others!”
The tone of Leylin’s voice was very indifferent, and the pile of corpses surrounding him made the old man have no thoughts of defying the order.
“I, Iren, am willing to serve under your command and become your most humble servant! Your future commands shall be my eternal mission!”
Even with his eyes blurred with tears, the old man still struggled to speak.
A fluctuating thread from the abyss was established between the two.
“Very good!” Leylin recalled the silver spiritual force that was restricting the old man.
“My lord!” Iren kneeled down to give his regards, the wounds on his body already beginning to heal on their own.
He had been restricted by Leylin and lost his ability to recover. Once he was freed from the silver spiritual force that was restricting him, there were far too many ways for Magi to heal themselves.
“Please accept your humble servant’s loyalty!” Although he had regained his freedom, the old man Iren had no desire to fight against Leylin as he had been deterred by Leylin’s actions.
With Iren’s words, a glowing spirit source floated out of his forehead and flew to Leylin’s hands.
After losing his spiritual source, Iren’s face turned pale and beads of sweat could be seen dripping down.
Leylin for his part kept the spirit source carefully.
A Magus’ spirit source was very important to them, and if Leylin were to destroy the source in his hands, the old man would suffer a severe blow and might even die straight away. The best-case scenario would be for him to have a mental breakdown.
It could be said that once Leylin had the spirit source, it was akin to him holding the old man’s fate in his hands.
“All good and done!” Leylin clapped his hands.
This kind of one-sided process and astonishing means from Leylin had made it difficult for Celine to process anything.
“My lord! You….” Celine had no idea of what to say.
“Have you … ascended to rank 2?” She said this carefully after deliberating over it for a while.
“Yes!” Leylin happily smiled “The injury I suffered has, instead, made me break through the restraints to my meditation technique and allowed me to rise to the realm of rank 2.”
Celine did not have the courage to continue probing despite knowing it was not the truth.
A rank 2 Magus! This was already a power that belonged to large-scale guilds! Facing this insurmountable gap in power, Celine could only accept whatever Leylin had to say.
“Wake those acolytes up and follow me!”
Leylin pointed to a few of the acolytes who were lying on the ground that included Obo and Ilya.
“Hm? What for?” Celine’s face was filled with doubts.
“Naturally, it will be to retaliate!”
Leylin’s face broke into a cold smile, “Since the opposing party has been so eager to find us, how can we not repay what they have done?”
“But…. The joint conference….”
Celine had only spoken a few words, but she decided to swallow the rest. At this moment, she had no other choice.
Ab
yssal Breath
“My Lord! That’s the Dense Fog Forest’s headquarters!”
Old man Iren pointed to a fog-shrouded forest in the middle of the basin, with a look of respect on his face.
Currently, Iren was completely submissive to Leylin and existed as his servant.
Leylin walked behind him with conflicted feelings. Together with Obo, Ilya, and the other rank 3 acolytes, their faces were red with emotions.
Rank 2 Magus! Their famed professor was actually a rank 2 noble Magus who actually defeated a lot of enemies with just one blow!
They were proud of this kind of glory.
“The Dense Fog Forest is still a medium-scale guild, with an extremely strong Magi formation barrier. With several protected and contracted beings as the first line of defense, does this not mean that we are…”
Iren had revealed all of Gus’ defensive lines backhandedly.
“We do not need anything! I alone am sufficient. All of you keep in mind, without my orders, no one is allowed to step into the basin!”
Leylin’s face was stern. After which, he transformed into a gust of wind and disappeared in mid-air.
*Ssiii*
A sound could be heard as he travelled. Celine and the rest saw an illusory shadow of a snake appearing in mid-air. The huge snake forcefully appeared and seemed to transform into the face of a terrifying devil. The shape of the devil’s face seemed to resemble Leylin.
After half an hour passed they had obtained permission to enter the Dense Fog Forest, and they saw huge amounts of rotten corpses!
A few huge high-energy beings whose size resembled small mountains could also be seen dead on the floor, their corpses, not yet fully decomposed, had emitted an unpleasant small.
“Your task is to completely search this area, and take away any resources that are of value!”
Leylin slowly landed on the corpse of a huge beast. That scene had made many absolutely horrified.
“Yes! Yes, My Lord!”
Initially, Celine had doubts over why Leylin had wanted to bring a batch of acolytes over. However, now she fully understood his intentions.
……
After having searched the Dense Fog Forest, Leylin had arrived near the premises of the headquarters of the Eight-Clawed Spider guild.
This time around, Skrill appeared beside him.
If Leylin could subdue even Iren, naturally Skrill was not a big issue.
“Go! Announce that the Eight-Clawed Spider will be disbanded! And that all the Magi shall join Nature’s Alliance!” Leylin ordered Skrill.
“As you wish, my Lord!” Skrill bowed to Leylin, evidently afraid of him.
His fear was to the extent that he was willing to accept such orders.
With regards to the subsidiary guilds of the Dense Fog Forest, Leylin did not intend to exterminate all of them fully.
In any case, since they had no chance of knowing the Icy World’s secret, it would be for the best to subdue all of them to increase Nature’s Alliance’s strength.
Furthermore, all of the Dense Fog Forest Magi had been exterminated without any exceptions under Leylin’s rank 2 Magi spell that covered a vast area. There was no longer any living beings within the entire basin.
It could be said that the Dense Fog Forest guild had disappeared from the face of the earth.
Looking at the uproar from the guild headquarters, together with Iren and the people that went forth to subdue them, Leylin smiled icily.
“Next, perhaps it’s time for the rank 2 Magi?”
How long had it been since such a large-scale attack, and such a vile way of exterminating an entire guild, had happened in the entire eastern Twilight Zone?
No matter how dim-witted the large-scale guilds were, they would have to make a stand.
Moreover, according to the latest news, the dark elven empire was starting to become restless, and it was also nearing the time when the darkness creature horde beyond the Twilight Zone was approaching. It was precisely during this period of time where Magi were supposed to collaborate that Nature’s Alliance’s move could be said to be going against the tide.
“So what?”
Leylin’s face revealed a smile that seemed to suggest that he did not care, “It is precisely because of this that I am making a move now!”
“The combining of forces to deal with external forces not only restricts the Nature’s Alliance but all the other large-scale guilds as well!”
“Would they be willing to, under these conditions, lose a rank 2 Magus? How can the strength associated with a medium-scale guild measure up to a newly promoted rank 2 Magus? Furthermore, we still possess sufficient evidence to prove that the Dense Fog Forest had started the fight first, and had even encroached into our headquarters and caused a large number of casualties…”
With strength and evidence, even large-scale guilds would not act recklessly.
With regards to this, Leylin understood the logic very clearly.
After 10 minutes or so, Skrill and Iren returned.
“My Lord! The Eight-Clawed Spider guild has officially disbanded. This is our high-grade meditation technique—Abyssal Breath!”
Skrill respectfully half-knelt and passed a black crystal wand to Leylin.
“Mm. Well done!” Leylin took the wand gently, with a thread of his silver spiritual force reaching into it.
Increasing the power of Nature’s Alliance was only part of the reason why Leylin had destroyed the guilds. The main objective behind his actions was actually to collect the high-grade meditation techniques!
As time passed, Leylin frowned, which caused Skrill to start trembling.
“Only rank 3?” Leylin sighed. The Eight-Clawed Spider guild’s meditation technique had the same flaws as Celine’s Crystal Mask. Not only was it hard to develop, it was only rank 3.
This implied that the Magi from the Eight-Clawed Spider guild could at most be promoted to rank 3, and not beyond.
“I, your subordinate, am ashamed! Our high-grade meditation technique does only have 3 levels! Personally, I have been stuck at rank 1, and can only use the irrigation of the abyss’ strength…”
Skrill lowered his head and quickly explained.
“Of course, I know!” Leylin knew that this Abyssal Breath mostly used the strength of the abyss to continuously change the body to adjust to a physical state more fitting to the abyss. Skrill’s half-human half-spider appearance was the way it was due to the imitation of a special being from the abyss.
And this is merely rank 1 of the Abyssal Breath. According to the introduction of the meditation technique and the A.I. Chip’s deductions, if one were to promote the meditation technique to its highest level, one would be able to return to their original state and have the physical appearance of a normal person.
Only then would the Magus, who had been entirely transformed by the abyss, be known as the spawn of the abyss!
But of course, these were only deductions made by the A.I Chip.
According to Leylin’s estimations, to reach the state of the abyss’ spawn, one would have to develop the Abyssal Breath higher than rank 5.
Honestly, one could not be sure whether the high-grade meditation technique even had a rank 5.
“However, after all, this is a high-grade meditation technique and is a grade higher than the Crystal Mask. This can improve the A.I. Chip’s meditation techniques information database!”
Leylin kept the black crystal wand.
Because many ancient Magi were passionate about researching about all living beings in the world, they looked for patterns, obtained strength, and frequently interacted with beings of different realms. Hence, many ancient meditation techniques had a strong and strange aura.
With respect to the Abyssal Breath, Leylin estimated that it had a deep relationship with the abyssal world, and could even have been released by a strong and powerful being living within the abyss.
“Dense Fog Forest has other auxiliary guilds, namely 3 other small
-scale guilds, and 15 unrated guilds. All of you shall break into 3 groups, Iren and Skrill will lead 2 groups to sweep the unrated guilds while I will be in charge of the small-scale guilds!”
Leylin immediately gave out his orders.
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