The second-rank
Her features were exquisitely refined, her skin fair and delicate — clearly a rare beauty — but her face was filled with unease and anxiety.
"Alesha! So it's you!" Leilin smiled.
Among the dark elves, this matron who had confronted him in Torun City for over a decade was the only one he could even remotely call an acquaintance.
"Alesha greets the Lord Protector!"
Dark elf matron Alesha bit her lip, then sank to her knees, pressing her forehead respectfully against the cold ground.
In her heart, Alesha still felt dazed. This young wizard who had tangled with her in Torun City for over a decade had long since risen to the pinnacle of the wizarding world, leaving her far behind. She even had to kowtow when meeting him now, which filled her with a deep sense of unwillingness — but she didn't dare show the slightest hint of it.
From Leilin's vantage point, the dark matron's seductive, smooth jade-like back, her round and taut buttocks, and her long, firm thighs were all fully on display.
Seeming to sense Leilin's gaze, Alesha's face flushed with shyness, yet she subtly shifted her body a few times, offering a silent, bewitching invitation.
Meanwhile, a powerful sense of humiliation lingered in her heart, refusing to dissipate.
Although dark elves were extremely open about matters of sexuality — one could even say they had devolved into debauchery and promiscuity, and there was no lack of males of other races kept as pets — but in every such case, it was always the dark elves who held the psychological advantage, bestowing their favors from a position of superiority as masters.
But now? The experience of being presented as a gift, fearing that the recipient might not even accept her — for Alesha, a dark elf who had only become a matron less than two hundred years ago and was still psychologically very immature, this was something she could barely bear.
"Then, what exactly brings you to see me here?"
Leilin withdrew his gaze. He had always been very restrained when it came to serious matters.
Besides, since his advancement to Third-rank Warlock and his appointment as Lord Protector, there was no shortage of women who wanted to climb into his bed — he had even sampled dark elves many times before. After the dark elves' crushing defeat, the prices of dark elf slaves on the slave market had plummeted, and there were even numerous dark nobles being sold off! It had to be said that dark elves, with their excellent appearance and outstanding magical talent, made truly ideal wizard slaves.
Leilin didn't even need to show any interest — wizards eager to curry favor with him would proactively present the finest dark elf captives for his enjoyment.
"I represent the dark elf race to submit to you, my lord! I beg you to spare our people!"
Alesha's voice carried a note of sorrow. Still kneeling, she held up an exquisite crown and a piece of black crystal.
"This is our symbol of authority — the
Alesha kowtowed once more in supplication.
"Hmm." Leilin mused, his finger tapping in a slow, rhythmic pattern.
Alesha nearly stopped breathing altogether, waiting in terror and anticipation for fate's verdict.
"Very well."
Leilin nodded in agreement.
The current human alliance, after reclaiming the Northern Domain, actually no longer had the ability to push further north.
Moreover, Leilin had other considerations.
Absolute power would inevitably lead to absolute corruption. Once, with his help, humanity completely annihilated the dark elves — and perhaps even the gnomes and dwarves — then with all external threats eliminated, humanity would very likely decline rapidly through internal strife and corruption. That was not something Leilin wished to see.
Maintaining a certain level of external threat clearly served as a spur and motivation for all of humanity.
"Thank you, my lord!" Alesha was nearly moved to tears of joy.
Although he could have enjoyed the devoted attentions of the dark elf matron right then and there if he showed even a hint of interest, Leilin still had her escorted out.
Clearly, Alesha's value in his eyes was still far beneath that of the Dark Elf Crown and the advanced Meditation Method.
"Magical Artifact — the Dark Elf Crown!"
Leilin reached out and ran his fingers across the surface of the magical artifact. Since the previous great battle had consumed its last charge of use, the crown's surface had become dim and dull, appearing quite unremarkable.
If he hadn't known in advance, Leilin might well have been deceived by its appearance and missed this magical artifact entirely.
In the world of wizards, magical artifacts were an existence completely above Magical Items, possessing mysterious and formidable power. Generally, only third-rank Wizards and above could even come into contact with such things.
"Magical artifact detected. Beginning scan."
"Ding! Scan complete. 45.9% unable to analyze! Acquired Advanced Concealment Rune, Frost Rune, incomplete imprint fragments of an Advanced Illusion Wizard Array..."
The Chip's notifications streamed in continuously.
"This is just the beginning. If I can fully analyze the internal structure of this magical artifact, I may eventually be able to forge magical artifacts independently..."
Leilin clearly felt that this magical artifact represented an enormous opportunity for his alchemy and advanced enchanting, both of which had been stalled for so long without progress.
"And this!" Leilin picked up the piece of black crystal.
A massive flow of information streamed before his eyes, written in the dark elf language — but that was no obstacle. Back in the Eastern Domain, through the Alliance of Nature's library, Leilin had already acquired a great deal of fundamental knowledge, and the elven language among other things had been easy to pick up.
"Life Siphon!" This was the dark elf race's inherited advanced Meditation Method, one that only matron-level dark elves and above were permitted to cultivate.
From this alone, one could see that the Lombarton of the past had indeed done quite well among the dark elves and had earned their trust and high regard.
"This Meditation Method..." Leilin stroked his chin, mulling over the content the Chip had just recorded.
Although this brief period wasn't enough to fully analyze the Meditation Method, its general characteristics and effects were now mostly clear.
The rank of Life Siphon was naturally advanced — even within the Dark Polar Domain, it belonged to the very top tier. Otherwise, with no shortage of advanced Meditation Methods among the dark elves, why would it be designated as their inherited method?
Life Siphon's special ability was that it could stimulate the advancement of Spiritual Power by siphoning the life force of other beings, thereby achieving breakthroughs in the Meditation Method.
The higher one's level, the more easily one could drain the life force of all things. At the highest stage, it would form something like a natural disaster — a
But this Meditation Method was not without its drawbacks.
Because one's advancement relied entirely on stolen life force, an unstable foundation was inevitable. Not a single matron had ever been able to break through to the third rank and advance to the Morning Star realm.
Furthermore, once the Meditation Method was cultivated to a deep level, the wizard themselves would begin to experience a continuous loss of life force. This phenomenon could not be reversed — it could only be supplemented by constantly siphoning the life force of other beings.
And the more massive the life energy siphoned, or the higher the wizard's rank, the faster the wizard practicing Life Siphon would lose their own life force.
It could be said that every time a wizard practicing Life Siphon used this ability, they took one step closer to the abyss of death. Yet the growth in power, and then the subsequent drain of life force, acted like a narcotic, luring the wizard into ever more frequent use until they ultimately destroyed themselves!
"To successfully cultivate this Meditation Method, the best approach would probably be to find an ancient creature containing sufficient life force, completely drain its life force, and cultivate the Meditation Method to completion in one stroke..."
Leilin's vast experience immediately led him to devise several possible solutions, but he quickly shook his head.
"Setting aside the difficulty of advancing the Meditation Method, even finding an ancient creature containing such massive life force — that level of existence is beyond what a third-rank Wizard can hope to encounter... unless it's a corpse or remains..."
This thought naturally led him to the Frost Cavern.
If his guess was correct, deep within the Frost Cavern, in the ice world hidden at its depths, there lay at minimum the corpse of a Morning Star-level creature, along with the blood of an even more terrifying existence!
"With my current strength, if I ventured into the Ice World, what would the outcome be?"
Leilin fell silent for a moment, then suddenly, a flash of golden light appeared in his hand as an ancient gold coin materialized in his palm.
Clang! Leilin tossed the coin into the air, where it traced a long golden arc before landing steadily on the back of his hand!
Leilin flipped his palm open and saw that the side engraved with a skull was facing upward. From the skull's eye sockets, there seemed to emanate a mocking smirk.
"Not feasible, then?" Leilin murmured, abandoning his plan to make the trip.
Crack! And then, a hairline fracture appeared on the Coin of Fate.
As a wizarding artifact that Leilin had poured tremendous effort into creating, the Coin of Fate possessed the terrifying ability to predict the future!
But this power had its limitations. Although Leilin had used a Child of Destiny as a sacrifice and infused it with a great deal of Sacred Light Candlefire spiritual power, he himself had not cultivated this Meditation Method, so it was impossible to obtain specific images or visual information. He could only rely on the prophecies of its two faces to make a general judgment of outcomes.
Moreover, due to the limitations of the Sacred Light Candlefire's own rank and the rank of the blood sacrifice, the Coin of Fate had a limited number of uses.
If used only to predict outcomes for third-rank Wizards and below, it could be used many times. But once it involved the Morning Star realm, each use would cause immense damage to the Coin of Fate itself, and ultimately even cause it to collapse!
This time, Leilin had used it to predict the outcome of venturing into the Frost Cavern, and the skull side facing upward meant that if Leilin were to actually do so, he would meet with a terrible result!