"The eye sockets are the life source of the Manxter Giant Serpent — it looks like this serpent is truly about to die!"
Meierfeile gazed at the serpent whose life aura was gradually fading, his voice tinged with melancholy.
"Look on the bright side, old friend!" Leilin found that he couldn't think of anything comforting to say in response to Meierfeile's somber mood.
After all, the casualties this time had been devastating. Out of nearly thirty people who had set out, the entire Black Iron Guard had been wiped out, and of the
Moreover, the City Lord — Great Knight
The source of all of it was this Manxter Giant Serpent!
"The City Lord? Right! Leilin, go check on Jackson quickly!" Meierfeile slapped his forehead.
"You're only just thinking of that now?" Leilin was speechless. He gave the serpent's massive body a wide berth and made his way to the other side.
Viscount Jackson lay flat on the ground, his chest caved in, traces of blood at the corner of his lips. He had fallen into a state of unconsciousness.
Leilin quickly examined him. "Three broken ribs, fractures in the arms and legs — otherwise he's fine. With a Great Knight's constitution, he should regain consciousness in a few hours."
"That's good! That's the only piece of good news I've heard today!"
Meierfeile walked over to the lifeless serpent. "This seems to be an immature Manxter. If it had been a fully grown Withered Giant Serpent, the moment we entered this cave, we would have had all the moisture sucked from our bodies and died!"
The Manxter Giant Serpent's head lay directly on the ground, one of its eyes pierced by a triangular spike, its crystalline vitreous humor oozing out.
"Even so, the materials from this serpent should be worth at least several thousand Magic Stones!"
Meierfeile stroked the serpent's enormous earthy-yellow scales, murmuring to himself.
Suddenly — the Manxter's other eye snapped open! A gaze full of hatred shot directly at Meierfeile, and the serpent opened its maw, its sharp fangs poised to slice Meierfeile clean in two.
This giant serpent wasn't dead at all!
It had been playing dead this entire time, and now it finally bared its fangs, intent on killing these detestable humans once and for all.
Faced with this sudden attack, Meierfeile seemed frozen, completely motionless.
"Watch out!"
Just as the snow-white fangs were about to sink into Meierfeile, a silver chain suddenly flew forth, coiling around his waist and yanking him clear of the attack's range.
A black arrow shot directly into the serpent's remaining eye. The Manxter thrashed its enormous body violently before finally ceasing all movement.
Hah! Hah! Hah!
Meierfeile gasped heavily. "Lei... Leilin, thank you! I owe you my life!"
"No problem! You've helped me plenty before, haven't you?" Leilin smiled as he watched the serpent, and only after the Chip chimed with the notification "Target has completely lost all life signs!" did he finally let out a long sigh of relief.
Under the Chip's detection, the serpent before had shown no energy fluctuation, but it still registered a thermal response.
Of course, for many creatures, it takes some time after death for all heat to dissipate.
But this had put Leilin on higher alert, and he had deliberately — or perhaps not so deliberately — guided Meierfeile forward, ultimately uncovering the truth of the serpent's feigned death!
"What a shame! If this Manxter had actually been dead before, just one of its eyes would have been worth over a thousand Magic Stones. Now the value of the entire carcass has dropped significantly..."
Leilin felt somewhat exasperated, then turned to look at Meierfeile.
"That you couldn't even dodge that attack just now — it really surprised me!"
An unnatural flush appeared on Meierfeile's cheek. "After using the Rune Chains, my Spiritual Power and mana enter a period of dormancy. During that time, I'm nothing more than an ordinary old mortal..."
Having just been saved by Leilin, Meierfeile now placed extraordinary trust in him, sharing even this kind of secret without reservation.
"Alright! Let's hurry up and gather the materials from this Manxter, then head back to Polar Night City!"
Leilin surveyed the chaotic surroundings. As for the corpses on the ground, the three of them had absolutely no way to transport them — they would have to send people back from Polar Night City to collect them.
The Manxter Giant Serpent was thoroughly dead now, and this area should pose no further danger.
"Ha ha... Leilin, you've contributed the most this time — you should pick the best materials!" Meierfeile said with a faint smile.
Regarding this Manxter Giant Serpent, Leilin had no thoughts of killing Meierfeile and claiming it all for himself.
Meierfeile's prior assistance was one factor, but more importantly, with only the two of them as Wizards present, Leilin was certain he could claim the lion's share of the resources without needing to risk murder.
The Manxter Giant Serpent's most valuable materials were its eyes; everything else combined was only worth perhaps one or two thousand Magic Stones — not nearly enough to tempt Leilin.
If the carcass had contained rare materials worth tens of thousands of Magic Stones... then perhaps darker thoughts might have begun to stir.
"Nice scales. Combined with the serpent skin, they should be enough to craft quite a few suits of soft armor!" Leilin stepped forward, drew his Cross Sword, and began dismantling the Manxter Giant Serpent, with Meierfeile assisting at his side.
After a round of busy work, Leilin and Meierfeile managed to extract the most valuable portions from the serpent's body. The rest would have to be collected and transported later with the manpower of the City Lord's Mansion.
……
The sound of rolling carriage wheels echoed ceaselessly. Viscount Jackson opened his eyes.
"Am I... still alive?" Before him stretched a sky blazing with stars, his body rising and falling with the gentle rocking of a carriage.
Viscount Jackson noticed that his chest had already been bandaged. A cool, soothing sensation was dispelling the pain, and the treatment had clearly been administered by someone skilled.
"Who saved me?" The question turned in Viscount Jackson's mind as he struggled to turn his head.
"My Lord! You've finally awakened!" A face framed by white beard and eyebrows appeared before Jackson's eyes.
"How are you feeling? Do you remember what happened before?" Meierfeile waved his fingers in front of Jackson's face.
"Did you save me? What about the others?" Viscount Jackson spoke with difficulty, his voice as hoarse as a tattered bellows.
"It wasn't me — Lord Leilin saved you!" Meierfeile pointed toward Leilin, who was driving the carriage at the front. "The entire party... only the three of us remain. After we made it out of the forest, it took considerable effort just to find this open-top cart..."
"They're all dead?" Viscount Jackson turned his head to the side, an inexpressible grief welling up from the depths of his heart.
"My Lord! It seems you've recovered!" Leilin turned back, tossing a bottle of green liquid. "This is a Healing Potion — I hope it helps!"
Meierfeile caught the bottle and held it to Viscount Jackson's lips, helping him drink it down.
After taking the potion, Viscount Jackson felt a warm current rolling through his chest and limbs, and strength slowly returned to his body.
"For Lord Leilin's generosity and the grace of saving my life, I will surely repay you once we return!"
"If it's not too much trouble, give me all of the Hofu Purple Leaves in the City Lord's Mansion — that would be the best repayment you could offer!" Leilin made his request without any false modesty.
"Of course!" Viscount Jackson was briefly taken aback but immediately agreed.
As the carriage continued onward, the outline of Polar Night City gradually appeared in the distance.
Some soldiers were still at their posts, carefully scrutinizing the flow of people passing through.
Viscount Jackson gazed at the scenery in the distance, his eyes stinging, and two lines of hot tears finally streamed down his face...
The news that the City Lord's expeditionary force into the Withered Forest had been mostly annihilated — and that even Great Knight Viscount Jackson himself had been gravely wounded — sent shockwaves through Polar Night City.
Even after two days, the news had not died down. Instead, it continued to spread in every direction.
As the City Lord of Polar Night City, Viscount Jackson had always used his strength as a Great Knight to suppress various dark forces. And with the news of his injury spreading, dark currents began to stir rapidly within Polar Night City.
The City Lord's Mansion was now severely weakened. Even those Wizard Apprentices who had been well-disposed toward Jackson had mostly perished. As Jackson gradually recovered, he found himself overwhelmed trying to deal with it all.
Leilin, who was living at his estate outside the city, had caught wind of these matters.
But ever since returning from the expedition, he had been holed up in his laboratory, declining invitations from both the City Lord's Mansion and numerous other factions.
Under the bright lamplight, Leilin's eyes were fixed intently on a culture dish.
On the glass surface of the dish, a small piece of red flesh was continuously swelling, and from its surface many tentacle-like growths had sprouted.
Leilin picked up another dropper and let a single drop of yellow potion fall onto the piece of flesh.
Sizzle! The flesh dissolved instantly, transforming into a pool of blood — crimson tinged with yellow.
"Finally purified — the giant serpent's primordial blood!" Leilin gazed at the culture dish as though beholding the most precious treasure in the world.
"Chip! Analyze its composition!"
"Ding! Task established. Scanning..."
"Primordial blood cell genome map complete. Cross-referencing with database..."
"Ding! Genetic similarity to ordinary giant pythons: 99.8%. Conclusion: ordinary giant python blood. Post-mortem modification detected; novel genes present..."
The Chip continued to relay its findings, projecting two genome maps before Leilin's eyes.
From the two colorful images, the primordial blood of the Manxter Giant Serpent Leilin had encountered was, in fact, identical to that of an ordinary giant python.
"As expected! This python was absolutely the product of a Wizard's experimentation!" Leilin nodded. He still remembered the label the Chip had given after scanning the python — "Semi-mature Specimen" — a designation that remained vividly etched in his mind.
However, without the Chip's atomic-level detection capabilities, Leilin would never have uncovered this secret. The other Wizards certainly had no chance of detecting the difference.
"Two days have passed — things should have calmed down over there by now!"
Leilin informed his subordinates that he would be conducting a lengthy experiment and was not to be disturbed under any circumstances, then quietly slipped away from the estate.