"Full-body iron armor, with a giant soul beast as a mount, possessing terrifyingly powerful impact force!"
The white wizard murmured.
"This should be the inheritance of the ancient Iron Knights!" Beside him, another white wizard let out an exclamation of admiration.
"In the ancient era, the resources available to wizards were extraordinarily abundant. Even advanced Meditation Methods weren't particularly rare things — any formal
He repeated these words, his eyes brimming with fanatic light.
"But the ancient wizards ultimately suffered devastating losses for reasons unknown. Historians speculate that they discovered an extraordinarily powerful alien world, and our Wizard World's invasion was met with a devastating counterattack..."
"To prevent the enemy from bringing the war to our world, the ancient wizards had no choice but to painfully close the passage to that world and seal off the passages to other worlds as well. Even so, the already crippled ancient wizards lost vast quantities of their inheritances and gradually declined..."
The white wizard leader sighed, slowly recounting a past that sounded like an ancient epic.
"Many of the ancient inheritances, even when obtained by wizards, have completely lost the hope of further advancement due to the lack of certain essential alien world resources!"
"That's why orthodox wizards still progress through continuous Meditation. This path is the clearest, with the experience of many predecessors to draw upon. As for those wizards who rely on ancient inheritances — they're in a miserable state. If they're lucky enough to find resources that happen to suit them, they can continue to advance. But most of them are stuck around the First-rank level for their entire lives..."
The leader said.
"The ancient Iron Knights! Legend has it that they originated from a neighboring world — the Iron Lava World — as a special advanced profession. After the ancient wizards conquered that world, they introduced our Body Modification techniques to improve the original profession, giving rise to what is now the Iron Knight's unique advancement path. Without extraordinary luck, their strength will forever remain at this level. There's no need to envy them..."
"So what do we do next? Keep accelerating?"
A wizard whose eyes reflected a blood-red cross asked.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Even as they moved at high speed, these Second-rank wizards continued communicating through their consciousness.
Under the effects of solidified Spiritual Power, their thoughts operated several times faster than those of ordinary First-rank wizards. A single wave of spiritual force could carry vast amounts of image and textual information.
"No! We slow down!"
The white wizard leader's eyes flashed with cold light. Their speed dropped slightly.
"Let those
"The essence of the Wisdom Ancient Tree, plus that treasure — that's enough to make them fight desperately. And we'll follow behind!"
The white wizard leader said coldly.
This was actually an open stratagem. The Iron Knights knew full well that the white wizards might try to swoop in and reap the benefits, but under the temptation of the supreme treasure, they chose to continue the pursuit regardless.
As for the white wizards' contract? If they actually seized the treasure, even handing it over would exact a sufficient price from the white wizards!
These Iron Knights were supremely confident in their own strength, believing they could end the battle completely before the white wizards arrived.
And at the front, the dark wizards who were fleeing — along with Ailisite and his two companions — had now stopped in their tracks.
Before them, a figure had suddenly emerged from the void, blocking their path forward.
This man had an utterly ordinary face, the kind that would disappear into a crowd without a trace. Yet he radiated energy fluctuations that unmistakably belonged to a Second-rank Wizard, causing all three of them to change color involuntarily.
"Hand over the Wisdom Ancient Tree essence and the treasure in your possession!"
The middle-aged man spoke with a bold tone. After finishing, he pulled a water flask from his waist, took a large gulp, and put on an air of complete nonchalance.
"You..." The two dark wizards behind Ailisite were furious. So what if this middle-aged man was a Second-rank Wizard? On their side, there were three wizards who had reached the Second-rank level!
"Awoooo!!!" Ailisite's response was even more straightforward. He roared at Leilin continuously, his already partially beastkin-transformed face contorted with enormous rage, and he lunged directly at Leilin.
"Pfft! Pfft!" As he charged, he opened his wolf's maw, and two massive orbs of wind elemental energy particles shot toward Leilin like cannonballs.
At the same time, the werewolf seemed to transform into a gust of wind, his entire body hidden within violent air currents as he hurtled toward Leilin at blinding speed, his sharp wolf claws gleaming with frost and bloody light.
"Second-rank Beastkin Transformation!" Leilin watched the rapidly approaching werewolf Ailisite, blue light occasionally flashing in his eyes.
His right hand flicked through the air, and a spray of red powder instantly dispersed.
"Scorching Touch!"
Two beams of searing light pierced through the two wind energy orbs in an instant, shooting toward the werewolf's position!
"Awoooo!" Ailisite howled wildly, his body constantly changing direction as he advanced.
But those two Scorching Touch beams seemed to have homing ability, curving eerily through the air and cutting off the werewolf's necessary path of advance. After countless hours of practice in the Chip's simulated environments, Leilin's proficiency with Scorching Touch now rivaled that of masters who had spent over a decade perfecting it. He had even developed some unique techniques of his own.
"Nngh!!!" The werewolf tried desperately to protect his chest's vital areas, but his right arm was struck directly by a red beam.
Ailisite roared as a fur-covered, clawed arm flew off into the air.
"Bind!"
Leilin extended both hands forward. Strands of shadow coalesced into two dark phantoms that lashed out from two directions, wrapping around the one-armed Ailisite.
"Help me!!"
Boom! Under the shadow's constricting force, Ailisite was forcibly reverted from his wolf transformation. He bellowed, his voice returning to a normal human tone.
The two dark wizards following him exchanged a glance and struck simultaneously!
A bald wizard pressed both palms to the ground and chanted a few shrill syllables that sounded like the wailing of tormented spirits.
Sss! Sss! A massive expanse of black bone-thorn brambles erupted violently from the earth.
Whether rock or plant, everything was pierced through by the black thorns.
The thorn-bramble forest kept expanding, a ring of black spreading toward Leilin.
Pop! Pop! The two dark shadow phantoms were punctured by the bone thorns, though not a single scratch reached Ailisite's skin.
"Heh heh! Silai! Nicely done!"
The other dark wizard grinned and thrust his black short staff forward.
"Rise! Spirits slumbering in the Abyss of Lamentations!"
A volley of green fireballs suddenly formed at the tip of the black staff, then burst apart into countless specks of green flame that scattered into the thorn-bramble forest.
Crack! Crack!
The numerous black bone spines that Silai had summoned rose into the air, assembling into thousands of enormous skeleton soldiers wielding massive bone maces and white great-axes, surrounding Leilin from all sides.
"A Combination Spell!" Leilin blurted out in shock. Among Second-rank Spells, when two wizards cast spells with similar effects, and with complementary enhancements and the fusion of certain secret techniques, their power could mutually amplify each other! Such jointly cast spells were known as Combination Spells — their power far exceeded that of ordinary Second-rank Spells!
However, among wizards, those of the Second-rank whose constitution and spiritual power fluctuations were closely matched were already rare. Moreover, the conditions for casting Combination Spells were extraordinarily stringent. The number of wizards who could satisfy all the requirements was vanishingly small. Leilin never expected to encounter one himself.
BOOM!
A massive white mace came crashing down, trailing a piercing sonic boom. The surrounding air seemed to be completely sucked away by the tremendous wind pressure, and Leilin felt a moment of suffocation.
"Target power estimate: Pure physical attack: 90 degrees!" The Chip reported promptly.
Leilin dodged the giant mace. A layer of red luminous membrane instantly appeared on his body's surface: "Pure physical attack?! That means there's also a magical attack?"
"Keke!" At that moment, the giant skeleton soldier saw that Leilin had evaded, and its jaws gaped wide open.
One after another, white bone spines launched with tremendous kinetic force, like white raindrops, covering every possible route of Leilin's retreat.
"BOOM!" When the white bone spines struck the red luminous membrane on Leilin's body, they immediately began exploding along the membrane's surface.
Violent energy waves raged ceaselessly across the red membrane, the red light flickering unstably, showing signs of failing.
"Keke!"
Behind the lead skeleton soldier, ranks of skeleton soldiers fired their bone spines in unison.
Crack! Crack!
Under the relentless barrage, Leilin's red light defense shattered spectacularly.
Bang! Bang!
A dense array of black, fine scales instantly appeared across his body, and the explosion's shockwave sent him flying a considerable distance.
A flash of yellow light — the Mimicry Spell's effect was destroyed entirely, revealing Leilin's true appearance.
"Shadow Fireball!" "Scorching Touch!"
Red and black flames spread in alternating waves, and the sky full of bone spines was instantly incinerated into black ash.
"Black flames? You — you're Leilin!"
The bald wizard who had unleashed the black thorn-bramble forest stared at Leilin and cried out in shock, momentarily stunned.
"It's been a while, Headmaster Silai!"
Leilin smiled and gave Silai a greeting.
"Silai! So this is your academy's defector? Sure enough, he's already advanced to the Second-rank!"
The Second-rank dark wizard who was partnering with Silai looked Leilin up and down with great interest. "Quite the talent!"