"No. 2! No. 3!"
Leilin barked the orders.
"Master!" The two Branded Swordsmen in heavy armor immediately appeared before Leilin and dropped to one knee.
"Activate all hidden and defensive formations. Guard the perimeter outside. Don't let anything approach…"
Leilin issued his commands, and the two soul servants nodded before stepping outside to stand watch.
These two Branded Swordsmen had been completely controlled by Leilin through soul branding — they would not hesitate even if ordered to die, making them the ideal bodyguards.
"Countdown: eight, seven, six…" The Chip's voice grew fainter and fainter.
The only thing Leilin could do was flick his finger. A ring of magic formations suddenly erupted around the edges of the pool, once again sealing the area in protection.
Having done all he could, Leilin closed his eyes and sank completely into the green solution.
…
Ten days later, inside this small cavern, within the bounds of the magic formations, dense dark-energy particles — intermingled with fiery red fire-energy particles — had filled the space where the pool once stood.
The concentration of energy particles was so great that they became visible to the naked eye, casting a kaleidoscope of colors across the surrounding rock walls.
At the very center of the energy particles, wisps of black and red mist condensed, on the verge of crystallizing into pure energy crystals.
Inside the pool, the original green solution had completely vanished, revealing a dry bottom.
At the center of that dry basin lay an enormous black cocoon, utterly still — save for the occasional expansion and contraction of its surface, as though it were breathing.
With each slow "breath," streams of dark-energy and fire-energy particles were drawn ceaselessly into the black cocoon.
The cocoon's shell grew thinner and thinner, until finally, the shadowy outline of a perfect human figure could just barely be seen within.
"Hssss!"
A long, drawn-out inhalation echoed from within the light cocoon.
Immediately after, a tremendous storm swept through the entire cavern.
The dark-energy particles and fire-energy particles in the air seemed to have encountered a black hole, all being pulled toward the center of the black cocoon.
The black cocoon grew thinner and thinner, until it finally dissipated entirely.
"Hm?!" Lei Lin opened his eyes.
The instant he fully regained consciousness, he felt as though his entire body was coated in a layer of something sticky and viscous, deeply uncomfortable.
He raised his right hand. On his arm, a layer of flesh-yellow skin clung there like withered tree bark.
"What is this? A imitation of snake shedding?"
Lei Lin was somewhat speechless, then promptly tore the dead skin away.
Crack! Crack!
In just a few quick motions, he peeled the entire layer of dead skin off his body. On the shed skin, there were patch after patch of scale marks, looking just like a snake's shed skin.
Lei Lin set the shed snake-skin aside and examined his body once more.
At this moment, there wasn't a single wound on him. All damage had fully healed, his vitality was at its absolute peak, and his condition had reached an incomparably perfect state.
Lei Lin looked at his own hands.
His palms now appeared even fairer and more refined, with pores that had practically vanished — like the skin of a newborn infant.
But Lei Lin could clearly sense just how terrifying the power hidden within his arms truly was!
Thump-thump! Thump-thump!
At the same time, his heart beat powerfully, sending waves of blood and other nutrient-rich substances throughout his entire body. With each heartbeat, Lei Lin could even feel his physical constitution continuing to improve, bit by bit.
Though the degree was exceedingly subtle, accumulated over time, it would become a terrifying amount!
"My physical attributes are already this freakishly powerful — so what about my Spiritual Power?"
Lei Lin closed his eyes and began sensing his sea of consciousness and elemental particles.
Inside the sea of consciousness, the crimson glow blazed even more brilliantly, while threads of silvery-white Spiritual Power coiled like fine filaments, radiating a sense of solidity.
"The total volume of my Spiritual Power — it's actually increased this much?"
Lei Lin immediately circulated a strand of silver Spiritual Power and released it outside his body.
As he mobilized his Spiritual Power, a feeling of effortless fluency washed over him. The dramatic surge in Spiritual Power had been completely assimilated by his body, and Lei Lin knew it had undergone a subtle, peculiar transformation — carrying a hint of tangibility. Among first-level Wizards, its quality was absolutely at the very top tier.
When he extended a thread of bright silver Spiritual Power into the space beyond his body, a startling sight appeared.
Black — countless black motes of light materialized in midair like fireflies, scrambling over one another to cling to Lei Lin's Spiritual Power.
This sensation of effortless resonance was something Lei Lin had never experienced before.
Even without the Chip, Lei Lin knew that his level of spiritual elementalization had already reached an extraordinarily high degree.
"Wrong! All wrong!"
Lei Lin froze for a moment, then let out a bitter laugh.
"The Komoi Giant Serpent was always the darling of shadows — elementalization is child's play for it. Instead of exploring and awakening the power of my bloodline, I kept hammering at the bottleneck with dark energy particle crystals. What a waste…"
Fortunately, it was not too late to realize this now, and the use of energy particle crystals had only delayed Lei Lin's second bloodline leap.
After familiarizing himself with his body once more, Lei Lin silently intented: "Chip! Pull up my latest monitoring status!"
Swish, swish — rows of pale blue text refreshed across his field of vision.
"Warning! Subject's bloodline has begun rapid activation. Krier Coefficient: 44—46—56—78!—89!—101!! Activity has reached threshold. Second bloodline leap of the Komoi Giant Serpent initiated!"
"Warning! Subject has entered deep sleep state. Internal reconstruction of Komoi Giant Serpent bloodline commencing…"
"Unidentifiable components detected! Request authorization to expel using subject's energy… countdown: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!"
"Warning! No authorization received from subject — expulsion impossible! Switching automatically to
"Cardiac reconstruction commencing. Completion: 1%, 2%, 15%, 30%, 51%…"
"Subject's bloodline strengthened! Innate wizardry Komoin Scales has been enhanced!"
"Komoin Scales: Forms a layer of scale defense on the body's surface with instant-cast capability. Physical Defense: 35 points! Spell Resistance: 40 points! Cost: Consumes 1 point of Spiritual Power and 1 point of mana every 6 hours!"
"Significant increases detected in subject's physical parameters. Re-collecting data…"
"Ding! Data collection complete. Digitization commencing…"
Immediately, Lei Lin found that his personal status panel had been refreshed once again.
"Lei Lin — Farrell — Warlock, Rank 1 — Bloodline: Komoin Giant Python — Strength: 20.1, Agility: 13.4, Constitution: 25.7 — Spiritual Power: 75.9 — Mana: 75 (mana determined by Spiritual Power synchronization) — Spiritual Elementalization Progress: 89% — Status: Heart reconstruction in progress, 61% complete"
"The heart is the blood-producing organ of the Komoin Giant Python. Ancient Warlocks gained life force and blood-production capabilities equal to those of the giant pythons through heart reconstruction!"
Through the Chip's scan, Lei Lin could clearly see a ring of purple-red color continuously spreading across his heart.
Powerful surges of energy and blood were being transported by the heart to every part of his body.
With each heartbeat, the last few decimal places of the numbers representing Spiritual Power, Constitution, and Elementalization Progress continued to tick upward.
"Before the heart reconstruction is complete, this rate of improvement will continue to be maintained. This is terrifying…"
Lei Lin murmured to himself.
His current physical parameters could be said to rival those of a peak Rank 1
Right now, he felt stronger than he had ever been before!
Crack! Lei Lin braced both hands downward, and his palms pressed deep handprints into the rock at the bottom of the bath.
He launched himself upward, leaping out of the bath.
Boom! Boom!
Beneath his feet, fine cracks in the rock spread outward like a spider's web.
"After such a massive surge in Constitution, even my body density has increased. And this strength — I'll have to retrain to bring it back under control!"
Lei Lin looked at the destruction he had accidentally caused, and a wry smile crossed his face.
He pulled a set of black clothes from one of the bundles nearby and slipped them on, then gave a casual snap of his fingers.
Buzz!
The defensive formation that had been running nonstop wound down to a halt, and two dark figures surged inside in a flash, dropping to one knee before Lei Lin. "Master!"
"Were there any abnormal situations while I was dormant?" Lei Lin asked coolly.
No. 2 and No. 3 exchanged a glance. In the end, No. 2 stepped forward a few paces and presented a pendant that looked like a small book to Lei Lin.
"During your dormancy, everything here was normal. The five test subjects have remained comatose the entire time. However, contact requests have been constantly flashing up on your communication sigil. Without your permission, we didn't dare respond on our own..."
"Oh?"
Lei Lin reached out and took the pendant, flipping it to a page imprinted with a strange smiley-face seal. Below the grinning face, contact requests were packed together in dense rows. Unfortunately, he'd been right in the middle of his bloodline transition, so he naturally hadn't had time to deal with them.
He gave the smiley face a light tap with his finger, and a string of dark energy particles began to flicker across its surface.
"Sssss..." A burst of static, like a faulty old radio, crackled through before the voice of the old man on Lei Lin's team came through.
"My lord... is that you? Forgive me — the signal inside the secret realm is unreliable, so I could only send you a message through the headquarters' signal tower..."
"Cut the crap. What do you need me for?" Lei Lin asked toward the sigil.
"My lord... during the time you went missing, Hunting Zone Three was subjected to a frenzied assault by a peak Level 1 Wizard named Marb. He was like a rabid dog — apprentices, full Wizards, anyone who appeared before him was hunted down relentlessly. What's more, he called out your name, declaring that if you didn't show yourself, this would keep going... Bat and Crow are already dead at his hands..."