The curse recorded in the Book of the Great Serpent could only target those whose strength was lower than Leilin's. This single condition alone slashed the spell's value by more than half.
And when the curse ended, Leilin discovered that the caster ultimately had to endure the attack of the evil spirit they had summoned themselves!
This was an absolute scam!!!
With so many prerequisites, it could only be used against someone weaker—and on top of that the caster had to suffer the evil spirit's backlash!
In Leilin's eyes, this kind of curse spell was completely useless—a chicken rib if there ever was one.
But
He had just advanced, following the crudest path, and every one of his stats was lower than Leilin's. Moreover, Leilin had already captured his aura back when he met with Biji.
For various reasons, Feile became the first sacrifice for Leilin's trial of the curse.
"I keep feeling there's something off about this curse spell—I'd better use it sparingly from now on!"
Leilin brushed the dust off himself.
"Still, with the Crimson Archmage's mysterious disappearance, there probably isn't anyone on the South Coast who even recognizes this kind of curse, let alone anyone who could deduce the culprit. No matter how much the Purple Orchid Family investigates, they'll never trace it back to me..."
When it came to trouble, Leilin had always avoided it whenever possible. When he could keep his hands clean, he never left any evidence behind.
After finishing this matter, Leilin departed the Marsh Duchy for good.
...
On a broad road in the Yinglan Duchy, an enormous black carriage was galloping along at a relentless pace.
Wooden wheels studded with iron nails ground against the road surface, producing a deafening creak with every rotation.
Without any suspension, the carriage pitched and swayed violently. The passengers inside all wore unpleasant expressions.
It appeared to be a public coach hired out by a carriage company. The passengers were a motley bunch: a white-bearded old man with his granddaughter, a few women, and small-time merchants clutching their hats and holding tight to their bags.
Among them sat a young man in a black overcoat.
The young man had pure black hair with a faint sheen. His handsome face carried a hint of sunlight in his smile, lending him a singular charm!
This person was none other than Leilin.
After killing Feile with the curse, he had nothing left to worry about and immediately left the Marsh Duchy.
Though the Moonlute Mountains were fairly dangerous for apprentices, to a warlock like Leilin who surpassed the strength of an ordinary official
After arriving in the Yinglan Duchy, Leilin was finally able to fully relax.
Ever since the ceasefire agreement was signed, Black Bone Forest Academy and the Gothic Sage's Cottage, bound by the contract's restrictions, had not reopened full-scale war. But their hostility had deepened further, affecting even the secular powers. It was said that these two duchies were about to wage a war belonging to mortals.
As for their official Wizards—if any set foot in the other's territory, they would face the most ferocious pursuit!
With nothing left behind to worry about, Leilin's mood lightened considerably. He abandoned the idea of traveling alone and instead used the mortal world's infrastructure for his journey.
Though he hadn't joined Black Bone Forest Academy after his advancement—and therefore wasn't bound by the contract—his current identity was still quite sensitive.
As a deserter from Black Bone Forest Academy who had no intention of joining the Gothic Sage's Cottage, he naturally couldn't be too conspicuous on their turf.
And hiding himself among mortals was a pretty good method!
Only, the transportation conditions of this era really left something to be desired!
Leilin surveyed the cramped, chaotic carriage reeking of nauseating odors and couldn't help but furrow his brow.
If he hadn't made another discovery on this carriage, he would have gotten off at the previous stop.
At this thought, Leilin glanced at the little girl in pink sitting across from him and smiled faintly.
The little girl across from him had eyes like blue sapphires, and skin as fair and smooth as milk. When she saw Leilin smiling at her, she returned the smile in kind. But then her grandfather tugged at her arm, whispering a few words in her ear—something about not talking to strangers and how dangerous it was to be out—and she hurriedly lowered her head.
Then the white-bearded old man shot Leilin a stern glare, brimming with warning.
Leilin smiled unconcernedly.
He had sensed a somewhat familiar aura from the little girl. Moreover, though she appeared to be only eleven or twelve, an unusual charm was already beginning to radiate from her, drawing the eyes of every passenger in the carriage from time to time.
All these signs filled Leilin with curiosity.
After his observations over this period, Leilin could now confirm that this girl carried the bloodline of a warlock!
Warlocks drew their power from bloodlines, and their descendants would carry a trace of that ancestral bloodline force—though it was extremely difficult to awaken.
In this little girl's case, the bloodline force had become extremely diluted. She showed no energy fluctuations whatsoever—just an ordinary mortal, not even an apprentice.
Moreover, though the bloodline grew more diluted with each generation separating descendants from the first-generation warlocks, eventually reducing them to ordinary people, the second and third generations could still produce many descendants with decent aptitude.
Therefore, warlocks often strove to produce many offspring and establish families.
In Leilin's case, as a first-generation warlock, if he ever had descendants, their blood would carry the power of the Comoi Giant Serpent!
This situation was somewhat similar to Wizard families, but also somewhat different.
Wizards primarily inherited spiritual aptitude. Every generation could produce ordinary people with no aptitude at all. And while, like warlocks, they valued bloodlines, Wizards didn't mind accepting new blood to improve the family's inherited aptitude. Among descendants, there was also the possibility of special cases where offspring surpassed their ancestors.
Warlocks were different. They fanatically believed in bloodline purity and used methods like inbreeding to preserve the purity of their blood and soul. For them, introducing outside blood would not increase the bloodline concentration of their offspring—it would only taint their blood.
Furthermore, descendants who inherited warlock bloodlines found it extremely difficult to advance to official Wizard rank unless they obtained a high-level Meditation Method suited to their bloodline's origin. Under normal circumstances, such methods would be passed down from their ancestors.
But once the bloodline concentration grew too thin, or the inheritance of the high-level Meditation Method was broken, it often marked the beginning of a warlock family's decline.
When a Wizard family declined, there was still a possibility of revival through future generations. But when a warlock family declined, it was extremely difficult to rise again—unless its descendants found the original bloodline source, or replenished the bloodline force through selective breeding!
On the Central Continent, the three major representative powers were: schools formed around high-level Meditation Methods, families built on bloodlines, and various other miscellaneous Wizard organizations.
This information and intelligence had naturally been described in the Crimson Archmage's Book of the Great Serpent.
From the clues the Crimson Archmage had let slip, he had most likely originated from the Central Continent and come to the South Coast for unknown reasons.
As a first-rank warlock himself, Leilin was quite sensitive to the aura of his kind.
Yet from the old man, he detected not the slightest trace of bloodline aura.
Clearly, he was not the little girl's biological grandfather.
However, the old man was no ordinary person either. Leilin sensed the energy fluctuations of a Wizard Apprentice from him—roughly at the level of a Second-rank Apprentice.
"Interesting! A bodyguard? Or an adoptive guardian of some sort?" Leilin offered an apologetic smile on the surface while his mind churned.
It was undeniable that Leilin held great interest in this fellow of his kind.
While it was unlikely he could extract any clues about a high-level Meditation Method from her—and even if he could, he wouldn't be able to use it unless this girl had also inherited a serpent-type bloodline—observing another warlock descendant's bloodline would be immensely useful as a reference for how Leilin could unlock his own bloodline power.
Moreover, he wanted to try whether he could extract the original bloodline source force from this little girl and obtain the bloodline of another ancient creature.
Her destination was also the Great Magelie Canyon, which happened to be on Leilin's route. He naturally abandoned any thought of traveling alone.
The white-bearded old man sitting beside his granddaughter, noticing Leilin frequently studying her with what he perceived as "ill-intentioned" smiles, naturally showed no friendliness.
However, he hadn't discovered Leilin's true identity, taking him for an ordinary person.
After his last advancement, Leilin had spent a vast amount of Spiritual Power and time commanding the Chip to further optimize and upgrade the Mimicry Spell. After the upgrade, the spell worked even better than before. He had no formal experimental data on how it performed against official Wizards, but after using the Mimicry Spell in front of this old man, the old man detected absolutely nothing.
He still hadn't fully figured out what use this little girl would be to him.
Should he simply kidnap her and take her blood? Or quietly observe and experiment from the sidelines?
After all, he didn't know whether this girl was backed by a warlock family. Though the chances were slim, Leilin didn't want to take that risk.
But it seemed the answer would be revealed soon enough!
The corner of Leilin's mouth curved upward slightly.
After so many days of observation, he had noticed that the old man furrowed his brow most of the time, looking deeply preoccupied. As the days passed, he grew visibly more agitated, urging the carriage to increase speed on multiple occasions.
After being refused, he had even briefly considered breaking away from the group—only to evidently think better of it and force himself to hold back.
"Looks like this journey won't be too boring!"
Before, when Leilin was still an apprentice, he naturally would have avoided trouble. If he'd encountered a hunted apprentice like this before his advancement, he would have been the first to turn and walk away.
But now, everything was different. On the South Coast, a first-rank Wizard was already a top-tier combatant—let alone a warlock like him who was even stronger than an average newly advanced Wizard!