Even at the moment of death, the other party’s face showed bafflement.
“Um?” Seeing his best subordinate killed, Cyril naturally had a reaction. By the time he understood the situation, an even more horrified expression emerged on his face. “Leylin!”
“It’s me!” Leylin handed Freya over to his subordinates’ care, and floated up to mid-air. His gaze fixed onto Cyril, showing not a trace of weakness.
*Boom!* As if an ancient beast had awakened, a mysterious yet powerful force field began to emanate from Leylin, rapidly offsetting Cyril’s Morning Star domain.
To their relief, all the Warlocks of the Ouroboros Clan felt like a load was being lifted off their backs, immediately restoring their previously sluggish spiritual force to full capacity.
“You have already advanced to the Morning Star realm!” Cyril managed to squeeze out from the crevices between his clenched teeth.
“Of course!” Leylin laughed brilliantly.
With just those two words of his, everyone on scene was amazed.
……
A while ago.
“I’ve left Parker and Tanasha at Freya’s side. There’s no need for me to worry!” Leylin, wearing a loose black robe, activated the last spell formation. A mechanical door dropped down, along with the activation of multiple layers of seals.
Vibrant runes wandered close to one another across the surface of the iron door. Leylin had used every bit of knowledge he had about defensive spell formations in this, and together with the A.I. Chip’s deductive capabilities, even a Morning Star Magus would take a while to force his way in.
The walls of the secret chamber were littered with aura isolation runes. This room could be said to be one of the best-hidden places on the continent right now.
There was no choice about it. This matter concerned his advancement to the Morning Star realm, and Leylin wouldn’t dare to be sloppy.
This was not his manor at the headquarters, but a cellar where he kept his secret purchases. The entire process was controlled by him alone, and to an observer, it would seem completely unrelated to Leylin.
In his own manor, he had set up the same defensive spell formation, displaying the facade that he was still there.
At such a critical junctures, Leylin was extremely vigilant. He even found it hard to trust some of his subordinates.
“As long as we make it through this, everything will be fine and all the future holds for us is boundless open vistas…” Leylin sighed softly. As if he released all of his emotions, his eyes became clear and he calmed down.
He sat on the ground, and some items emerged in his hands.
A milky-white fingerbone with a few narrow cracks on it, a tube of golden blood emitting terrifying energy waves, as well as a messy pile of spiritual force crystals. These crystals were mostly from his spoils, while a portion of it came from Freya’s gifts and his own collection.
“The road to the Morning Star is vast and long. Many Crystal Phase Magi do not even have the chance to come into contact with this bottleneck…” Leylin held a solemn expression.
He had only advanced to the Crystal Phase not long ago, and he was already thinking of breaking through to Morning Star. If it was an ordinary Magus, it would be nothing but a dream!
But he was different. He had a lot of cards in his hand and abundant knowledge, so much so that even some Morning Star Magi could only wish for it.
Even with just the Lamia fingerbone, Warlocks who had been stuck for years would gain the possibility of breaking through.
“A.I. Chip, report my current condition!”
[Leylin Farlier, rank 3 Warlock (Crystal Phase) Bloodline: Giant Kemoyin Serpent Strength: 40 Agility: 35 Vitality: 55, Spiritual Force: 356.5, Magic Power: 356 (magic power in synchronisation with spiritual force)]
The A.I. Chip replied loyally.
After advancing to the Crystal Phase, his own spiritual force had increased only slightly. It was instead his strength and vitality that had gotten a growth spurt under the effect of the techniques of the Multi-Armed Race.
“Rank 3 spiritual force varies from 200 to 400. The first threshold for advancing to the Morning Star realm is for it to reach a critical value, filling up your entire sea of consciousness…”
Because the A.I. Chip had already deduced more than half the information about the Morning Star realm, Leylin currently had no doubts as to his path.
In fact, this was why he had to wait for the A.I. Chip’s deduction progress to reach such a point before he could advance. Many times, the crucial reason for failure in advancing was exactly a lack of knowledge about the path to Morning Star, as well as the handling of the many real-life problems during the promotion.
The A.I. Chip’s deductions on the Morning Star realm happened to make up for this, clearing any remaining confusions that Leylin had. To a certain extent, he also needed to thank the Azure Mountain King for this. If he had not anxiously sent a clone, the A.I. Chip probably would not have been able to progress in the Morning Star deduction to over 50%.
“My spiritual force now can only be said to have just reached the Crystal Phase. It’s still far from the critical value. I’ll need the help of bloodline ignition.” Leylin picked up the test tube which was filled with golden blood.
This was the bloodline of the ancient red dragon, obtained from the Kobold Warlocks of the Forgotten Land. Although it was extremely pure, because Leylin’s own bloodline had long before been fixed, there was no chance to use it. That opportunity would only arise after he completely analysed the ancient Quicksand Organisation’s bloodline experiment results.
The bloodline ignition experiment, as its name implies, was conducted by burning various kinds of bloodlines to strengthen one’s own power.
Its requirements towards the bloodline was very strict. One had to be a Warlock in order to conduct it, and the grade of the bloodline that was to be burnt could not be too low. If not, the entire experiment would not succeed and could even backfire. The bloodline of the ancient red dragon fulfilled this requirement perfectly.
As for the supplementary resource for the experiment, it was a Crystal Phase Magus’ spiritual force crystals! Only the spiritual force fire produced by such crystals could completely burn the ancient bloodline, and convert it into energy that would serve as the driving force for the Warlock’s advancement.
A complicated, detailed spell formation was already drawn on the surface of the ground. Leylin inlaid the many spiritual force crystals one by one in an orderly manner, filling up the spell formation quickly.
The spiritual force crystal of a Crystal Phase Magus was a top-grade resource in many social circles. It could even be used as a currency on its own and was of high worth.
But now, a large amount of spiritual force crystals were laid on the ground as if they were worthless, radiating a pure, sparkling light.
The marks of the original owners of these crystals had naturally been erased by Leylin.
“The ancient red dragon bloodline is preceded only by that of the Sun’s child. It’s an extremely powerful bloodline that can at least reach rank 5! Frankly speaking, if not for the fact that my bloodline cannot be changed once absorbed, I’m afraid I too would not be able to resist the temptation, and would convert into a dragon bloodline Warlock……”
Leylin sighed, taking off his Magus robe. He then smeared the golden blood all over his body, without missing a spot.
The golden blood felt viscous to the touch, and smelt like orchids. It was cool to the touch at first, but soon became boiling hot.
At the same time, a translucent flame rose from the spell formation below Leylin’s body.
Streaks of crystal-clear light were pulled out of the many spiritual force crystals like threads. They then converged at a point, forming a translucent flame comprised of spiritual force!
Although this flame was not really hot, once it came in contact with the essence of the ancient red dragon’s golden bloodline, it sparked a violent reacti
on.
“Ow!” Leylin groaned. His body grew rigid in a moment, and under the burning of the spiritual force flame, he could feel the strange transformation in the ancient red dragon bloodline. It even turned into a blood-red energy, passing through his pores and making it all the way into his bone marrow.
For an ordinary person, such pain was almost unbearable, but Leylin was just more focused on the A.I. Chip’s monitored information:
[Beep! Large amounts of bloodline essence has been absorbed by host body! Identified as the ancient red dragon’s blood, beginning bloodline ignition experiment!][The curve of the spiritual force’s fire is stabilised, converting the ancient red dragon bloodline into energy…][Beep! Bloodline energy absorbed by host body, spiritual force increasing!] The repeated prompts caused an expression of delight to surface on Leylin’s face suddenly.
He noticed the initial value of 356 for his spiritual force spiking suddenly, and at the same time, a large amount of blood-red energy was injected into his sea of consciousness, expanding its boundaries continuously. Black spiritual force crystals, faintly hued red, condensed in large quantities.
Even if his spiritual force was spiking suddenly, with the amplification of Multilimb Strength, Leylin managed to hang on without losing his consciousness. This gave him an opportunity to deepen his understanding of his own body.
His spiritual force rocketed up continuously, exceeding 370, then 380. It reached 385 before it began to slow down.
Shortly after, the value shot past 390, making its sprint towards 400, the limit of the Crystal Phase.
395, 396, 397!
At this value, it began to slow, with the swift change relegated to decimal places.
*Pop!* At this moment, all of the numerous spiritual force crystals were sucked dry, and the spiritual force flame swelled! With the support of this power, Leylin’s spiritual force began to rise again, all the way to 399 before it came to a stop!
WMW Chapter 503
Morning Star! Morning Star!
[Beep! Injected spiritual force reaching critical levels!]
With his sea of consciousness swelling up, and the reminder from the A.I Chip, Leylin realised that not only had his spiritual force reached the value of 399, even his sea of consciousness were filled with black—with a tinge of red in the centre—spiritual force crystals.
Inside his sea of consciousness, the three layers of the spiritual force core nucleus started to emit dazzling lights.
‘The results of the first time the bloodline ignition experiment is performed is the best, and they decrease over multiple uses.’ As he could still feel the strong surge of bloodline energy, Leylin ordered, “A.I. Chip, initiate the promotion to Morning Star!”
[Assignment received! Vital signs under observation, initiating Morning Star deduction, starting from the prototype of the point mass…]
Numerous amounts of data, both numeric and otherwise, relating to the construction of the point mass began streaming in front of Leylin’s eyes. If not for the Azure Mountain King’s clone, Leylin could never have gotten a hold of all this secret information about the Morning Star realm as easily.
“Lamia fingerbone!” Looking at the other bloodline treasure, he realised that it was actually his biggest gain from Quicksand Castle. If he were to use it then, he could have advanced immediately to the peak of Rank 3, skipping the Hydro and Crystal Phases.
Yet, Leylin was one who did not give in easily to temptations, forcing himself to control his impulses and merely using the radiation emitted by the fingerbone to slowly nurture his bloodline.
Even though the Lamia fingerbone could help him advance tremendously, but under comparison with the advancement to the Morning Star realm, he knew which one was more important. So what’s there left to think about?
*Peng!* The milky white fingerbone disintegrated into ashes, and one of the rays of lights that appeared during the explosion pointed directly towards Leylin’s forehead.
*Hong!* The Lamia fingerbone was absorbed into his body.
A terrifying change started to occur immediately. In Leylin’s sea of consciousness, under an enormous compressive power, numerous amounts of spiritual force crystals moved towards the centre.
His face paled under the enormous pressure exerted at the heart of his spiritual force. It was so bad that his whole body started twitching.
The sea of consciousness was essentially the home of the soul. The moment that it experienced any damage, the Magus would be in deep trouble.
Under the immense pressure that the spiritual force was experiencing, sounds could be heard coming from the centre of Leylin’s sea of consciousness. It wasn’t a good sign.
“Construct the fourth innate spell!” Leylin commanded with red eyes.
[Beginning assignment. Supplementary work initiated, transferring atomic microscope!] the A.I Chip replied loyally.
Leylin’s sea of consciousness consisted of three layers presently. The outer layer held runes for two innate spells— one for Kemoyin’s Scales and the other for the Eye of Petrification. On the layer beneath was the rune for rank 2— Toxic Bile. The innermost layer held rank 3 spiritual force crystals, consisting of his rank 3 innate spell— Intimidating Gaze.
Under a sudden flash of red light, the three layers of runes perfectly combined, forming the exquisite image of a Warlock’s rune. Yet, it was missing one final thing.!
At this very moment, a fourth layer of crystals started to appear in the centre of the third layer.
As the centre of the core nucleus had a unique structure, the crystals became smaller as one went closer to the centre, but at the same time, the details on each rune became more intricate and they grew much more specialised.
At the centre of the fourth layer, even though it was a quarter the size of the first layer, it was still important that there be no errors when one was carving the rank 4 rune. That was an out-of-the-world request of a Magus’ spritiual force manipulation abilities.
“It’s no wonder that most Magi fail at advancing to rank 4. Even with the assistance provided by the A.I, Chip, this task seems to be too difficult …”
With the help provided by the A.I. Chip, Leylin who had already initiated the atomic microscope had started to carve down the Kemoyin’s Pupil innate spell on the fourth layer with the innate runes he’d recorded.
This was something every Warlock must choose and only in high-grade meditation techniques do innate spell models like these exist.
The attention to detail required to carve a rune in the sea of consciousness was much greater than carving a statue, and the act was much more difficult. Once Leylin completed the final stroke of the rune, his body almost collapsed due to exhaustion.
Under the immense pressure, it seemed like completing the fourth level rune properly was a big challenge. It took a while for Leylin’s consciousness to stabilize.
Once the innate spell had been completed, his entire sea of consciousness started to tremble.
Boundless rays of lights started to radiate from the centre of his sea of consciousness. The four layers of intricate runes started to bind together in a picturesque order, much like a piece of artwork.
Once the centremost part was filled up, the entire crystal started to shake violently, strengthening tremendously within seconds and the immense pressure that was present previously had disappeared.
“This rune?” Leylin observed the rune that was a combination of all his innate runes. It represented all of his achievements so far, and hence he commanded the A.I. Chip to record it down.
Perfection! The first impression this rune would leave on a person was that of perfection!
A gigantic rune was created by the combination of these small runes, which cirulated continuously and looked pretty much 3D. Regardless of how one looked at it, it was flawless.
“Is this… the path of my bloodline?” Leylin mumbled. At this very moment, he was almost moved to tears.
*Rustle!* Once the four layers perfectly crystall
ized, they started to crumble inwards, shrinking to a point that rapidly started revolving. Much like a black hole, it started to suck in everything in its surroundings.
The spiritual force crystals inside his sea of consciousness started to shrink as they got sucked into the black hole.
[Initiating the construction of point mass. Guidelines activated.] the A.I. Chip reported.
Leylin, too, started to construct his personal point mass according to his understanding and the information from his A.I. Chip.
*Boom!* An immense suction force could be felt coming from the mass point of the spiritual force. Not only were the spiritual force crystals sucked in, even the sea of consciousness was broken through and more energy, flesh and soul aura were pulled in.
*Slap!* Leylin’s consciousness suddenly blurred. Time seemed to pass extremely slowly, and at times it felt like eternity was squeezed into an instant.
It took the sounds of glass shattering for Leylin to wake up again.
This time, his sea of consciousness felt empty. There was a dim light shining at the centre of the core, the result of shrinking the spiritual force a million times over such that the nucelus core’s density and purity had reached an remarkable level. This was the point mass of a Morning Star Magus!
The source of the light shook, and the purified energy of the Morning Star realm, the energy of the point mass that was also known as soul force, started to leak out into the entirety of Leylin’s body.
At that point, he had entered the Morning Star realm!
[Beep! Host’s Kemoyin’s Pupil meditation technique has advanced to the fourth level. Host has advanced to rank 4!]
The A.I. Chip sounded out.
[Host’s spiritual force has undergone a qualitative change. Data is inaccurate, recalculating…]
It was a long time for the new data to go up.
[Leylin Farlier, rank 4 Warlock Bloodline: Giant Kemoyin Serpent (complete form) Strength: 50, Agility: 45, Vitality: 65, Spiritual Force: 503.7, Magic Power: 503 (magic power in synchronisation with spiritual force) Soul Force: ???][Due to a lack of information about soul force, it is currently not possible to calculate stats.]
Warlock of the Magus World 1-596 Page 347
