"Chip, organize the opponent's memories! Pull up the data according to my requirements!"
[Ding! Task established, beginning analysis! Extracting from target!]
Now a master in the field of soul research, and with the aid of the Chip, Leilin found what he wanted within mere seconds.
"Ah... what are you doing? I won't let you go! I curse you! I curse everything about you!"
After having his soul extracted, Avik's body naturally died immediately. But in his half-luminous state, he had regained the ability to speak, and bursts of information poured out of his soul along with several agonized screams.
Having one's soul memories forcibly extracted was far from a pleasant experience.
"Oh! So you had a brother who didn't get along with you, and he died under my curse too. What a shame!"
Massive amounts of data scrolled before Leilin's eyes. "But it doesn't matter. Dead is dead. You don't really think this is over, do you?"
"Void Assassin!" With a flick of his sleeve, a semi-transparent phantom materialized beside him.
This was his harvest from the Crimson Ruins. Each one possessed peak Tier 3 strength, and with their void traversal ability, even Dawnstar Wizards had to exercise caution around them. On the South Coast, they were practically invincible.
"Based on this information, kill every friend, apprentice, and subordinate they hold dear!"
Leilin pressed his hand down, sealing Avik's soul directly into the Void Assassin's crown. "Let him watch it all happen with his own eyes. And when you're done, sink straight into the underground magma and let his soul be scorched for eternity..."
"As you command!" A mechanical voice rang out from the Void Assassin, and then its entire body vanished into the void, leaving only Avik's final desperate screams seemingly echoing back and forth across the land.
"Are you satisfied with how I've handled this?"
Leilin turned his head to look at Krupp.
"Satisfied! Satisfied! Whatever the Ancestor does is absolutely correct!" The moment Krupp met Leilin's gaze, his entire body tensed up.
Thinking of what this ancestor had just done, even Krupp—who believed he had a deep understanding of the dark side of the
"This kind of bloodline extermination method, not even sparing friends and apprentices in the end..."
Krupp wiped away a bead of cold sweat. "This ancestor probably wasn't a good person back in the day either..."
"Let's go! Otherwise, more insects will come to bother us!"
After dealing with Krupp, Leilin glanced at the horizon and beckoned to him.
"Oh, and bring her along. At least drop her off at the next town. She came with me after all—it wouldn't be right to carelessly drag her into this..."
Just as they were about to board the carriage, Leilin seemed to remember something and pointed at Darlenlei.
However, the witch had already been completely terrified out of her wits.
"Neigh! Neigh!" The horses, their entire skeletal frames wreathed in black flames like nightmare beasts from legend, left a trail of fiery hoofprints on the ground.
The enormous carriage sped along the road like a black whirlwind. Inside, Krupp sat stiffly to one side, only daring to steal occasional glances at Leilin's black leather boots.
Darlenlei still wore that blank, dazed expression, huddled in a corner with her arms wrapped around herself, her body trembling ever so slightly.
Everything that had just happened had dealt an immense blow to the witch's consciousness. In truth, had it not been for Leilin's deliberate protection, she and Krupp would both have perished the moment Avik first unleashed his power.
Then again, surviving wasn't necessarily a stroke of good fortune for this witch.
The fall of a Tier 3 powerhouse, along with the accompanying extermination curse—Darlenlei could imagine what kind of massive storm this would unleash across the South Coast.
And as an eyewitness to the entire affair, her prospects were grim. Though White Wizards professed adherence to order, when interests were truly at stake, they were always the first to trample those very rules.
All Darlenlei had to do was close her eyes, and she could see a horde of high-ranking Wizards prying open her skull and harvesting her cerebral tissue.
Though such methods sounded like something Black Wizards would employ, Darlenlei knew full well that many White Wizards possessed memory extraction techniques no less thorough—they could transcribe every thought she had ever had from childhood to the present, without a single omission.
As for what would happen to her body afterward, that was something no Wizard would care about.
For the greater good, sacrificing for all White Wizards—she was supposed to feel honored and willingly offer up everything she had, wasn't she?
Only when she deeply felt the crushing weight of this grand momentum bearing down on her did Darlenlei realize just how utterly powerless she was. Though she had once been filled with pride in the White Wizard system and its glory, she now wished nothing more than for all White Wizards to be destroyed on the spot.
When life and death hung in the balance, everything could be abandoned.
"But as long as this lord is here..."
Darlenlei quietly raised her head and caught sight of that figure she feared beyond measure. A piercing gaze seemed to shoot from behind the mask, cutting straight through her body and making it hard for her to breathe.
She hastily lowered her head in deference, her breathing growing ragged. "Compared to Avik's fall, it's this lord's return that will truly turn the South Coast upside down..."
As for the witch's little thoughts, Leilin understood them perfectly after a moment's consideration, but couldn't be bothered to pay them any mind.
In his view, this witch was merely a stranger he had happened to encounter on the road, swept into events by sheer coincidence. In truth, even without traveling with her, Darlenlei—who had taken the task of harvesting Starlight Grass—would have come to Imboler Town all the same. And without Leilin's protection, her fate would likely have been far worse. So he considered himself to have done her a small favor.
His offhand remark about bringing her along was nothing more than a gesture of courtesy, given that they had traveled together a few times and her face had grown somewhat familiar.
Dropping her off at the next stop was, for Leilin, an exceedingly simple choice. But judging from Krupp's expression, there seemed to be a variable at play here. Leilin smiled with faint amusement.
"Krupp! Give me the Falling Star Pendant around your neck!"
Leilin spoke suddenly.
"Oh, yes, Ancestor!" Krupp respectfully removed the Falling Star Pendant and presented it to Leilin with both hands.
It was a dark red cross-shaped pendant, its surface glinting with the sparkle of small gemstones. Its weight was somewhat heavy in the hand, and a flicker of reminiscence surfaced in Leilin's eyes.
"Grandpa
"Yes! This is the Magical Item I crafted, and Damien went to the Keli Archipelago on my orders to protect the Farell Family!"
Leilin nodded in confirmation. Looking at this piece of work with his current standards, he naturally spotted the crudeness of his old craftsmanship and the many areas that remained immature.
"This Falling Star Pendant may not have the best materials, but it's not without room for improvement!"
As Leilin spoke, blood-red light enveloped the cross and lifted it into midair. The powerful radiation waves it emitted made both Krupp and Darlenlei change color.
"This... this is..."
Darlenlei's eyes went blank. "Refining directly by hand without any auxiliary tools—only a Grandmaster Alchemist, as the legends say, could accomplish something like this!"
The red light continued to expand, finally blooming into a beautiful crimson flame daffodil that slowly unfurled within the carriage.
When the last petal had fallen away, the Falling Star Pendant floating in midair had taken on an entirely new appearance.
It looked more slender than before, its dark red surface far purer, now adorned with dense, intricate black lines resembling the spine of a great serpent.
"After my reforging, this Magical Item has gained several new functions, and I've restricted its use to only those of Farell blood. Only our Farell bloodline can wield its power..."
Leilin spoke softly as the Falling Star Pendant returned to Krupp's hands.
"Reforging a Magical Item in such a short time—even upgrading it to the rank of a High-grade Magical Item!"
From her corner, Darlenlei's eyes shone brilliantly. A High-grade Magical Item was something that, on the South Coast, only Tier 2 and Tier 3 Wizards were qualified to possess.
For a low-level Wizard like her, simply laying eyes on such a treasure was an extravagant wish.
And the man sitting across from her had forged one without so much as batting an eye—even giving it away casually!
"Perhaps... my future and all my hope lie with him..." Darlenlei silently made her resolution. A small flame slowly kindled in her heart, growing ever brighter.
"Thank you, Ancestor!"
Krupp accepted the Falling Star Pendant with a face full of delight. For him, the pendant's effects had already been quite impressive. If it had truly been upgraded to the rank of a High-grade Magical Item, that alone would have been an extraordinary surprise.
But the moment his spiritual power made contact with the pendant, his eyes went wide and his entire body seemed struck by lightning.
"What? Is something wrong?" Leilin asked with some amusement, looking at his descendant.
"M-Magical Artifact: Falling Star Pendant!" Krupp's voice trembled as he read out the item's rank. "Ancestor, you upgraded the Falling Star Pendant to a Magical Artifact?"
For him, having the pendant raised to a High-grade Magical Item would have been惊喜 enough. But a Magical Artifact—the stuff of legends—was beyond shocking!
Magical Artifacts! A higher form of Magical Items that even ordinary Tier 3 Wizards were unworthy of holding. They were the ultimate trump cards of the great mega-factions!
And this ancestor had merely done a bit of reforging and elevated his Falling Star Pendant from a mid-grade Magical Item all the way to the rank of a Magical Artifact?
Krupp was rendered speechless, as if the very ability to form words had been entirely stripped from him.