"Hmm? Special spiritual power carrying the soul plague, and this soul force tainted with resentment! You're the Gegewu — the one responsible for the Great Plague of the West!!!"
The third-rank White
"Chirp chirp!" was the Gegewu's thunderous roar in response.
The figure in the bone mask flicked its cloak, sending a massive wave of confused and maddened souls charging straight at Aivik. Many of the souls began self-destructing in midair.
"Boom boom boom!!!" The devastating soul explosions carried the lethal venom of the ancient soul plague, forcing Aivik's expression to shift rapidly as he retreated step after step.
"Glory of the Holy Light!" he bellowed, resembling a bishop ready to face death, his face blazing with brilliant radiance.
A torrent of milky-white holy light poured from his body, and a phantom of a vast, solemn structure materialized behind him.
The moment the souls touched the holy light, thick black gas erupted from their bodies, and their maddened expressions instantly turned peaceful.
Then, wearing serene smiles, they one by one cast themselves into the building behind Aivik.
"As expected — a collective of resentful spirits, a Gegewu!"
The White Wizard roared and collided with the enormous, frenzied figure.
The milky-white holy radiance and the black soul force of resentment tangled and annihilated each other.
...
Meanwhile, Leilin was placing a black Magic Stone crystal into the energy slot.
Rumble! The entire teleportation array whirred to life. Rings of light blazed in succession as four energy orbs — representing earth, fire, wind, and water — hovered atop the surrounding stone pillars. Red, yellow, cyan, and blue rays merged together, dazzling with brilliant radiance.
"I didn't expect that third-rank Wizard to arrive so quickly! But that's fine — I'm not entirely unprepared..."
Watching the spatial tunnel taking shape, Leilin let out a long sigh of relief.
He had long anticipated being discovered and tracked by a third-rank Wizard. After all, this third-rank Wizard had been activating the tracking seal at regular intervals, never giving Leilin a chance to rest or purge the mark.
To buy himself enough time, Leilin had thought of the Gegewu.
The Gegewu had clearly set its sights on Leilin, convinced he would covet the secret realm and return — and so it had set up a hidden sensing array at the entrance.
But under Leilin's scanning, none of this escaped detection. Even the previous arrays had been temporarily disrupted and sealed by him.
What Leilin had done earlier was fully activate the sensing array to lure the Gegewu here and buy himself time.
Since the third-rank Wizard belonged to the White Wizard Alliance, there was no way he would let a resentment construct like the Gegewu go — especially given its direct connection to the recent Great Plague of the West.
Now it seemed things were proceeding smoothly.
A pitch-black spatial tunnel, radiating silver light, materialized from nothing above the teleportation array.
"I have to leave now! Who knows when I'll be able to come back!"
Leilin looked back at the land behind him, suddenly feeling reluctant to leave.
Whatever else, this was the place where he had first transmigrated and grown — it had been seared deep into his memory.
If the other side turned out to be a poor destination and the third-rank Wizard hadn't discovered this place, Leilin might have been able to use the array on the other end to teleport back. But now, this path was clearly closed for good.
And without the array, if Leilin wanted to return under his own power, there was truly no telling when that might happen.
"Goodbye! South Coast!" Leilin murmured.
Boom!!!
The instant he was about to step into the teleportation tunnel, a thunderous blast erupted without warning. The surroundings shook violently, as though caught in a magnitude-ten earthquake.
Crash!!!
The ceiling of the chamber was ripped clean off, and boundless holy light poured in.
"Leilin! Don't even think about escaping!!!" Aivik screamed as he lunged forward, still bearing the horrific wounds from the soul self-detonations.
That Gegewu was, after all, an ancient creature that had possibly once touched the threshold of the Morning Star realm.
Though its power hadn't fully recovered and it was merely projecting an avatar, it had still dealt Aivik a minor blow.
"Ancient teleportation array?"
The moment Aivik saw the four-colored array gleaming at the center, he cried out in shock.
As a third-rank Wizard who had lived for centuries, how could he not know what an ancient teleportation array represented?
It meant another continent, an endless supply of resources, and countless indescribable benefits!!!
"Stay here!!!" With reddened eyes, Aivik knew that in the face of an ancient teleportation array, everything else could be sacrificed. He roared, and two enormous hands formed entirely of holy light reached for Leilin.
But Leilin merely stared coldly at Aivik and spat out two words: "Too late!"
Boom!
A layer of Komoyn scales instantly covered his body, and he lunged forward! The silver-grey spatial tunnel swallowed him in an instant.
Sizzle! After transporting one person, the enormous consumption immediately drained the teleportation array's energy slot completely. All the lights dimmed, and the spatial tunnel vanished entirely.
"No..." Watching the spatial tunnel slowly close like a beast's gaping maw, Aivik kept roaring.
Whoosh! He appeared before the teleportation array in an instant, pulled a high-grade energy crystal from his robes, and hurled it into the energy slot.
"Hurry! Activate!!!"
Although Aivik couldn't read the Turing script, he clearly had other means. Wrapped in his fully corporeal milky-white holy light, the entire teleportation array roared to life once more.
Under Aivik's reckless, no-holds-barred infusion of power, the array operated nearly fifty percent faster than when Leilin had activated it!
"Fast! Fast! Faster!" But Aivik wasn't satisfied. He continued pouring his vast spiritual power into the array.
He knew full well that once Leilin reached his destination, he would immediately destroy the array on the other end. Separated by two continents, both vengeance for his son and the benefits of the teleportation array would be lost forever.
All he needed now was a little time!!!
Under the powerful drive of a third-rank Wizard, the teleportation array spun at tremendous speed, ring after ring of energy cascading upward.
A pitch-black tunnel was about to open once more!
"That's it! Just like that!" Aivik whispered, watching the spatial tunnel slowly unfurl, his eyes brimming with delight.
Buzz!!! Boom!!!
But the instant before the tunnel could fully open, the entire teleportation array suddenly seized. Its lights dimmed in a flash, the space warped and shattered, and the tunnel disappeared completely.
This could only mean one thing — Leilin, on the other end, had already destroyed the teleportation array!!!
"Damn it!!!" Aivik roared. Rings of visible milky-white holy light radiated from his body, demolishing everything in the chamber into scattered wreckage.
Then a pillar of light struck the teleportation array, reducing the entire structure to a massive crater!
Without the array on the other side, this one was nothing more than an ornament. He certainly wouldn't leave an opening for Leilin to exploit the teleportation array again.
"Damn! Damn! DAMN IT!!!!" Aivik roared. The agony of having something nearly in his grasp only to lose it bit at his soul like a venomous snake.
"Chirp!!!"
And at that moment, with the wailing of vengeful spirits, the entire Soul Harvest secret realm began to tremble.
A pair of enormous, black, semi-transparent hands tore through the barrier of the realm as if ripping apart a curtain, forcing their way into the Soul Harvest secret realm.
"That Gegewu's true body! It's actually reached the third rank as well..."
Aivik's expression turned grave in an instant. He had no time to dwell on the frustration of letting Leilin escape. His clothes billowed without wind as his entire body hovered eerily in midair, facing off against the Gegewu's true form...
...
Regardless of what was happening there, the moment Leilin entered the spatial tunnel, a look of regret surfaced on his face.
Enormous spatial forces tore at his body, pressing in from every direction as if hundreds of tons of seawater were squeezing him.
The Komoyn scales crackled with sharp bursts, on the verge of collapsing under the unprecedented pressure.
If that happened, Leilin, stripped of his innate magical defense, would inevitably be reduced to a pile of minced flesh in the spatial turbulence.
"Miscalculation! I overestimated my physique and the Komoyn scales' defense!"
Leilin's face was grim. "This is a spatial tunnel spanning two continents, after all. Even a second-rank Wizard couldn't withstand the compressive forces involved. In ancient times there must have been some method or technique to circumvent this force, but I haven't found one..."
"I can't go on like this!" Leilin watched his Komoyn scales shrinking inward, reached into his spatial pouch, and pulled out a vial of red potion. He smashed it open.
Fwoom! A layer of red, luminous potion membrane appeared over his body's surface. It immediately began trembling violently and shattered after lasting only three seconds.
"A mid-grade defensive potion! And it could only hold for three seconds?" Leilin's expression didn't change. He pulled another potion from his robes.
As an apothecary grandmaster, he had stored dozens of various defensive potions in his spatial pouch — enough to last him a good while.
Bang! The potion membrane shattered, immediately replaced by a new layer of defense.
Leilin burned through his potion reserves, buying himself time.
Finally, when all the potions were spent, the tremendous pressure bore down on the Komoyn scales once more.
"Ah..." Leilin let out a low growl. As his spiritual power and mana drained away, the scales on his body emitted a layer of fragmented black runes that formed a shield covering his entire body.
Crack! Crack!
After holding out for a while longer, as Leilin's spiritual power was completely exhausted, the Komoyn scales' defense shattered in an instant, and the overwhelming pressure tore directly into his body.