Now, after the fierce battle, the enemy's Morning Star combatants were all bearing different injuries and focused on breaking through, with little fighting strength remaining. They were practically easy pickings.
Leilin choosing to withdraw at this time made him the very model of selflessness and high-mindedness. He immediately received many grateful looks, though naturally there were also those who regarded him as a fool.
But Leilin paid no attention to any of it. With a wooden expression, he retreated to the rear to recuperate, watching the battle unfold from the sidelines.
"Now, although the enemy has no heart for fighting, if they realize they still can't break through, their death throes could still be terrifying! Most importantly — I'm not a worshipper of the Eye of Judgment. Working myself to the bone for them like this brings me absolutely no benefit…"
Leilin shook his head, his thoughts already made up.
"And now is the time!"
"Chip! Execute Plan Alpha as previously established!"
[Ding! Mission established! Plan initiated! Agent One preparing!] the Chip reported faithfully.
"Good! Release the bloodline seal!"
Following Leilin's will, the dormant bloodline power within his body began to rage wildly. Although the Curse Seal of Ten Thousand Serpents simultaneously absorbed a large portion of it, the power of a Fifth-rank Warlock gradually awakened within Leilin.
"This feeling — this is the power of a Warlock! Shadow Puppet!" Leilin was so exhilarated he nearly roared aloud, but forced himself to hold back.
A Shadow Puppet identical to Leilin formed on the spot. With the Chip's intelligent assistance, it could simulate everything about Leilin with lifelike precision — even acquaintances wouldn't be able to tell the difference, let alone these strangers.
And beneath the ocean surface where Leilin had been standing, a massive serpentine shadow shot out like a black arrow from a bowstring, vanishing swiftly into the deep sea. Thanks to the serpent's innate stealth properties and the augmentation of shadow power, not a single person watching the battle noticed a thing.
"True Eye of the Evil King!
The battlefield had now entered its most intense phase. Several Guardians fled, only to be cut off. The fighting raged on, and at the very center of the battlefield, an enormous illusory figure of an Evil Eye materialized.
The innate ability demonstrated by Evil Eye Elder Beclark was far more powerful than what Gegedor had shown earlier. Not only was the phantom it summoned nearly solid, but the Death Ray fired from its pupil was incredibly dense, carrying a thick aura of death.
"My Lord, Wings of Fluctuation! Master of Chaos! Please bestow your humble gaze upon your loyal servant and help him escape this predicament…"
Facing this Death Ray, even Governor Iyas did not dare to be careless.
Amid high-pitched chanting, the Supreme Bird of Corruption behind him immediately descended with a torrent of gray corruption power, demanding no sacrifice whatsoever.
This was the privilege of a Fourth-rank Worshipper — they could receive power first and settle the sacrifice afterward.
The gray corruption power enveloped Iyas's entire body, not only suppressing all of his injuries but continuously pouring into the Night Eagle beneath him.
"Kyooo!" Accompanied by a piercing eagle cry, the massive Night Eagle's exterior seemed to don a layer of gray feathers, and its very form expanded considerably. It began to break away from the Night Eagle's form, growing increasingly similar in appearance to the Bird of Corruption.
After its transformation, the Night Eagle's aura grew even more formidable, showing hints of breaking through the Fourth-rank barrier. Carrying terrifying wind pressure, it charged head-on into the incoming Death Ray.
Massive red light erupted, accompanied by faint roaring that made even the Morning Star powerhouses unable to look directly. From the center of the explosion, several gray feathers that appeared utterly real drifted down one after another.
When the blinding light faded, the Night Eagle flew back to Iyas's side with barely a scratch visible. The Death Ray from before had vanished without a trace.
"Hehehe! To combine the path of worship with the Beast Soul Technique to this degree — Iyas, you're not bad at all!"
Beclark seemed somewhat surprised. "Your eyes now have value as part of my collection!"
As soul fluctuations rippled outward, the majestic phantom of the Eye of Judgment materialized behind Beclark. Massive golden lightning crackled through the air.
"Judgment!" "Judgment!" "Judgment!"
The sizzling of clashing lightning and the whistling of hidden winds merged into a collective cry, as powerful judgment forces descended through mysterious channels.
"Hehehe! The gap in rank makes all effort futile! I am a Fifth-rank Worshipper — I can even call down a trace of Judgment force! Under my Lord's judgment, all corruption shall be utterly burned away!"
Beclark's expression was one of utmost piety, and with his declaration-like proclamation, massive bolts of golden lightning rained down, sweeping away every trace of the gray corruption power.
The gray corruption power met the golden lightning like snow meeting the sun, dissipating with startling speed.
Watching this, Iyas's face went deathly pale.
This outcome didn't mean the Bird of Corruption was inferior to the Eye of Judgment — it was simply that his rank as a Worshipper was lower, and the power he could summon was far less.
The hierarchy among Worshippers was the same as among Wizards, with each rank presenting an enormous, insurmountable gap.
If a Fourth-rank Worshipper's energy conduit was a river, then a Fifth-rank Worshipper's was the ocean — surpassing the former not only in quality but in sheer quantity.
Therefore, Iyas's defeat was practically inevitable.
"Supreme One… and my family… and my dream… it all ends in failure like this?"
The overwhelming judgment force had even isolated this area, making it not only harder for the Bird of Corruption's power to be transmitted but also cutting off his last avenue of retreat. Iyas looked around and, seeing his subordinates and Elder Guardians defeated or killed one after another, fell into complete despair.
The hardship of coming alone to the Heier Continent to establish a colonial outpost, and the subsequent life-and-death crises — all of it flashed before his eyes, causing Iyas to lapse into a brief stupor.
For someone of his strength, such a thing was nearly impossible.
"Hehehe! Already in despair, heretic? Allow me to seal away your abilities completely before performing the final 'ritual.' With your physical constitution, you should bring me quite a pleasant surprise! Hehehe…"
Beclark grinned wickedly, then suddenly all three vertical eyes widened in alarm.
"No! This isn't him falling into an illusion on his own — it's Dream Power! Disperse!"
Powerful judgment force, carrying golden electrical currents, surged through Beclark's body, squeezing out wisps of dark reddish-brown mist.
Only then did Beclark realize that at some point, they had been enveloped in a layer of dark reddish-brown mist.
It was precisely this Dream Power's influence that had caused Iyas's mild hallucinations.
"Belinda! Nick! What are you doing?!"
Under the influence of the Dream Power, even Beclark's subordinates experienced a degree of spiritual disorientation, allowing several key targets to escape. Seeing this, Beclark erupted in fury.
"What's going on? Are there still others of our kind nearby?"
"Nick" stared at the scene with evident shock, an expression of surprise surfacing in his eyes — the combined product of Shadow Puppet and Chip intelligence, performing Leilin's mannerisms with lifelike accuracy.
"No! This power of connecting to the Dream Realm — it's not a half-blood! Only a pureblood Devil White Phosphorus Serpent could do this!"
Belinda had also recovered from her stupor, but at the cost of letting her opponent escape the battlefield. However, she had no attention left to spare for that now.
While some Devil White Phosphorus Serpent half-bloods did have the ability to connect to the Dream Realm, a hallucination field of such vast scope — one that had even ensnared Beclark — was completely beyond what any half-blood could achieve. Belinda was absolutely certain of this!
The implication made her blood run cold.
"A direct bloodline descendant of the Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents, defecting to the side of the Bird of Corruption? And… a fully mature specimen at that — otherwise Lord Beclark could never have been deceived…"
With that thought, Belinda quietly retreated to Nick's side.
"Something's not right! Be careful, and listen to my commands!" Belinda transmitted secretly to Nick.
"Don't worry, I know. Don't push yourself too hard. Once we face a pureblood noble, the bloodline suppression alone would be enough to strip away most of our power…"
"Nick," played by the Chip, spoke with an expression of deep concern.
"Who is it?! Show yourself!"
Golden lightning swept outward, clashing with the increasingly dense red mist around them.
Obviously, after the initial fury and shock, Beclark had come to recognize that this ability to summon Dream Power on such a massive scale was far beyond what Belinda and Nick — mere Fourth-rank half-bloods — could accomplish.
In his understanding, only an adult Devil White Phosphorus Serpent, and one among the White Demon Clan at that, could pull off something like this.
And the White Demons had always been a direct faction loyal to the Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents. The implication of this went beyond Belinda — even Beclark was starting to grow suspicious and paranoid.
Gurgle! Gurgle!
The dark reddish-brown Dream Power grew ever more viscous, eventually coalescing into several humanoid shapes of red light that surrounded Beclark and his group.
"Go!" A tremendous force seized Iyas along with several other survivors and vanished into the red mist in an instant.