Inside the
Jesia remained silent throughout, and only after Rochi left did he turn his head stiffly and pull back the sleeve on his right arm.
The skin on his right arm, which should have been perfectly smooth, was instead covered in ridges and depressions that formed the eerie face of a woman.
"What do you make of the Ouroboros Ring?"
Gurgle! Gurgle! Two slits opened, becoming the woman's eyes, brimming with a lively, almost sentient gleam.
"You're currently in the midst of a deep transformation. Your true body can hardly be dispatched at will…"
The mysterious woman's voice rang out once more.
"You mean we should let this opportunity slip?" Jesia's eyebrows shot up.
"No. We—" The woman's voice gradually faded, quickly drowned out by the rushing sound of the dark pool water beside them…
……
Above the troposphere, vast stretches of white clouds converged together, stretching to the horizon like an endless ocean of white jade.
A streak of black light rippled across the jade ocean's surface. Within it soared a sleek, streamlined private airship, its hull wreathed in a faint luminescent film of energy that shielded the interior in perfect calm.
In the bedroom, Leilin sat cross-legged on a platform, the spectral image of a Coamoy Giant Serpent slowly materializing behind him.
Fiery red light flickered between bright and dim, lending the spectral serpent behind him an even more dreamlike quality. The crimson stripes covering its body grew ever finer and more intricate, giving it an air of regal splendor.
Daily meditation was Leilin's indispensable discipline. Even after reaching the pinnacle of the Morning Star realm, he had never abandoned it.
As a torrent of Shadow System particles and Flame System particles were drawn in by his spiritual power, the spectral serpent behind Leilin let out a hiss before slowly shrinking back into his body.
Whoosh! Leilin opened his eyes, and the entire bedroom seemed to crackle with arcs of lightning.
"Thanks to the Chip's optimization and its fusion with the Fire Plume Technique, the Coamoy Eye Meditation Method is at least 1.5 times more effective than before!"
This was the most precise figure he had obtained through personal experimentation.
With the Solar Wing—a top-tier Meditation Method—as a benchmark, Leilin could clearly see that, apart from lacking sufficient depth in its layers, the Coamoy Eye Meditation Method was already very close to the顶尖 tier.
At this thought, Leilin turned his consciousness inward toward the Chip. "How is the推演 of the Coamoy Eye Meditation Method's fifth layer progressing?"
"Beep! Seventy-six point five percent complete! Remaining portion under optimization!" the Chip's mechanical voice reported faithfully.
"At this rate, the fifth layer of the Meditation Method will be fully推演ed very soon!" Joy spread across Leilin's face.
Because of the shackles of their bloodline, no Coamoy Giant Serpent sorcerer had ever broken past the fourth level—Morning Star. As a result, the specialized bloodline Meditation Method, the Coamoy Eye, had only four layers.
This was yet another manifestation of the bloodline shackles! The Meditation Method itself served to limit the breakthrough of Coamoy sorcerers!
But now, Leilin had discovered hope for breaking free! The Meditation Method was only one aspect, yet it was equivalent to prying open a crack in what had been an airtight seal! All that remained was to widen that breach.
If he persevered, Leilin believed that one day, the bloodline shackles of a sorcerer would be utterly powerless to stop him!
"The Meditation Method is only one facet of the sorcerer's bloodline shackles, and it accounts for a very small portion at that. The most fundamental issue lies in the bloodline itself—and in the limitations of the soul…"
At this, Leilin's expression grew somber. Though he had confidence in his future, he would not allow that to make him underestimate the difficulties before him.
"The Coamoy Giant Serpent's innate limit is the fourth level, and since I've fused with its bloodline and soul, my original soul ceiling is also only at the fourth level!"
Bloodline restrictions, upon reaching the Morning Star realm, crystallized into limitations of the soul! This was the true face of the bloodline shackles!
The soul was a domain of boundless complexity. Even a fourth-level Morning Star Wizard had only managed to grope at its outermost edge.
"How do I break through the soul's limitations?" Leilin stroked his chin. "Would I need to conduct bloodline synthesis or bloodline modification experiments?"
With the massive trove of experimental data left behind by the ancient Shifting Sands Organization, Leilin was hardly unfamiliar with this field—he even possessed considerable experience.
To modify or synthesize the Coamoy Giant Serpent's bloodline and forge an entirely new one—perhaps in the entire Central Continent, only Leilin had the confidence to attempt it!
"But! Artificially synthesized bloodlines will always carry flaws. They can never match the vitality and vigor of bloodlines naturally selected and refined through nature and the passage of time!"
This was the inherent disadvantage of all artificial creations. Unless Leilin was willing to invest vast amounts of time, letting the synthetic bloodline grow naturally across several or even several dozen generations until it slowly matured. But the time required would far exceed his own lifespan.
Moreover, while bloodline modification might occasionally produce particularly powerful bloodline types, the chances of ending up with a worthless variant were equally significant. Leilin would never dare gamble his entire future on such a roll of the dice.
And so, this seemingly attractive idea flitted briefly through his mind before being set aside.
"If those won't work, then the only option left is the proposal the Ancient Tree of Wisdom left behind last time. Pity… my current level isn't high enough to execute it…" A shadow of gravity crept onto Leilin's brow.
In terms of sheer wisdom and experience alone, he couldn't possibly compare to the Ancient Tree of Wisdom—a being who had been active from the Primordial Age through the Ancient Era and into the present. The suggestions it had offered were therefore both incisive and practical.
The Chip had also run numerous simulation experiments, all confirming its feasibility.
But sadly, that proposal still lay far beyond Leilin's current reach. His own strength was insufficient to drive the plan forward.
"Besides, the method it provided would be a permanent, one-time solution. The effect I'd get from using it now would certainly be inferior to using it later! I must save it as my trump card—it may well be my only lifeline when I eventually face the Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents!"
Leilin's eyes gleamed with a dark, distant light.
"Perhaps… from the very beginning, my thinking was flawed. Rather than seeking external forces to corrupt the bloodline, I should turn inward and explore my own bloodline more deeply. That might yield entirely different results!"
Leilin made his decision.
"Beep! Currently entering the range of
The Chip's alert chimed.
"Hm? Over a month has passed already?" Leilin looked momentarily dazed. Then, glancing at the Chip's time log, he shook his head with a rueful smile. "There's always been talk that high-level Wizards spend years—even decades—on a single experiment, only to emerge and find the world utterly changed. I never expected to experience it myself. I merely meditated a few times, ran a few experimental validations and conjectures, and the time slipped away without my noticing…"
To outsiders, Wizards not only wielded formidable power but also enjoyed the long lives that others could only envy. Even first- or second-level Wizards could live for several hundred years—a span that seemed impossibly vast.
But Leilin knew all too well that such time was far too short! Too short! Wizards had to meditate, yes, but they also had to conduct experiments! They had to venture out on expeditions! Any one of these tasks could consume decades or even centuries! So even after advancing to Morning Star and gaining a lifespan of over a thousand years, they still felt perpetually short on time!
"It's precisely because of this that so many Wizards choose to transform into undead or spirits and the like. But even that only buys a brief reprieve. The dissolution of the soul cannot be halted by the body alone, and the process carries countless side effects—even cognitive regression…"
Leilin couldn't help but shudder. If his lifespan were truly running out, he would certainly never choose such a method. Even if it let him live a while longer, the price would be a dulled mind, or worse, idiocy and madness. He would far rather return to the embrace of the Star World with his mind intact.
Hummm! At that moment, the entire Great Serpent began to ascend, the hull tilting at a noticeable angle.
"Have we arrived at last? Sky City—the holy land of Wizards on the Central Continent, heralded as the cradle of truth and knowledge!"
A flicker of anticipation crossed Leilin's eyes as he walked out onto the deck of the Great Serpent.
The fierce wind pressure and atmospheric compression posed no strain on the Great Serpent's defenses, and Leilin, inside, felt nothing at all.
At that moment, the bow of the Great Serpent pitched upward, clearly beginning a rapid climb to even greater heights.
The Great Serpent had already been cruising above the troposphere, where there were no violent weather phenomena, and in a single surge it punched through the stratosphere into the higher reaches of the sky.
"Beep! Detecting pressure changes in the vicinity of the subject. Oxygen levels decreasing!" A notification box popped up from the Chip.
"Heh, it's still far too early for that!" Leilin shook his head. The entire Great Serpent surged upward along a near-vertical trajectory like a rocket.
80 kilometers! 200 kilometers! 500 kilometers! The Chip's readouts refreshed at breakneck speed!
"If I were back in my previous world, I'd probably have passed through the thermosphere and entered the exosphere by now, wouldn't I?"
Leilin cast a curious glance at the Chip and found that, aside from a sharp drop in temperature and anomalous changes in the ionosphere, nothing else unusual was occurring.
"Not at all!" Leilin looked up. What greeted his gaze was not the void of space but the same sky as before—only the sunlight seemed to have grown more vast and dazzling.
"The Wizard World is fundamentally a continent contained within a massive dimensional membrane. It naturally can't be the same as my previous world!" Leilin chuckled with a touch of self-deprecation.
And then, a mass of dark clouds materialized abruptly above the Great Serpent, spreading across the sky like a vast curtain.
Only upon drawing closer could one see that these were enormous thunderheads, within which serpentine bolts of lightning crackled and roared ceaselessly.
"The Akefulei Layer! Sky City's first line of defense!"
Leilin smiled and piloted the Great Serpent straight into the heart of the storm.
Crash! Crack! The countless bolts of lightning erupted in fury, hammering down upon them!