An attack that exceeded the speed of sound only reached Leilin's ears after the blow had already landed.
Leilin's expression was peculiar as he glanced at his shoulder.
There, his black scholar's robe had torn open, revealing fine serpent scales beneath — but the scales had already turned charred black, with several pieces flaking off.
At the wound, traces of dark red were faintly visible.
"Not bad! It nearly broke through my defenses!" Leilin's expression remained flat.
Immediately, terrifying black energy surged together, causing the massive serpent phantom behind him to swell in size. Its tail lashed out!
Crack! One pillar of lightning toppled, seemingly triggering a chain reaction that brought the remaining seven crashing down one after another. The Lightning Prison collapsed entirely.
Hsss...
The great serpent roared, its sonic wave sweeping through the air and tearing apart the thunderclouds to reveal a massive bird within.
The bird was a deep, dark blue. The tip of every feather gleamed with the color of steel — each one a fine iron spine — while threads of blue electricity coiled ceaselessly across its body. It cut a magnificent figure, and its eyes shone with unmistakable intelligence.
"An ancient Thousand-Thorn Thunderbird? No — just an incomplete juvenile form!"
A warlock with a high-ranking bloodline, upon reaching the Morning Star stage, did possess the Bloodline Transformation Spell as a devastating trump card — but the form they could assume was limited to the juvenile stage of their bloodline's origin creature. Like
The Thousand-Thorn Thunderbird had been a sixth-rank creature in ancient times. Since the opposing warlock was only at the fourth rank, his Bloodline Transformation into a Thousand-Thorn Thunderbird was naturally still in the juvenile stage.
But even so, it was still a sixth-rank creature — and even in its juvenile form, it surpassed many fourth-rank species.
Chirr chirr!
The enormous thunderbird cried out, circling in midair. With every beat of its wings, countless bolts of lightning rained down.
The arcs of lightning across its body grew ever more blinding, until finally they enveloped its entire form, creating a colossal bird of pure lightning.
With an ear-splitting roar, the lightning bird dove downward. All the bolts it had previously unleashed clung to its surroundings, creating a terrifying scene of ten thousand thunders striking from above.
"Interesting!"
Leilin smiled faintly. Behind him, the phantom of the Kemoyin Snake Emperor grew even more solid, as if a true ancient horror had descended into the mortal world.
Hsss... The great serpent roared as it collided with the lightning bird, sending out endless ripples of energy.
BOOM! The earth trembled. Shockwaves swept outward ceaselessly, and the rising smoke coalesced into a colossal mushroom cloud. The terrifying force even reached the firmament above, cracking open massive fissures in the rock layers. Enormous boulders weighing tens of thousands of tons tumbled down, smashing into the ground and carving out huge craters.
When the smoke finally settled, the spot where Leilin had been standing had become a massive sunken crater. Many of the rocks had been melted directly into a unique crystalline substance.
A figure strode out of the crater, carrying a dark shape in hand.
"Damn it! If not for the Ten Thousand Serpent Curse Mark, just a Morning Star warlock like that—!"
Anger burned on Leilin's face. His clothing was torn to shreds, exposing the skin beneath and making him look rather worse for wear.
The enemy Morning Star warlock from before had been knocked completely unconscious and was being held aloft in Leilin's grip.
"According to the earlier intelligence, this Morning Star warlock was merely an elder of the Lias family. Above him, there are warlocks who have surpassed the Morning Star stage..."
Leilin's expression darkened. "You're lucky, kid. You won't have to die here today. But..."
He casually tossed the man to the ground, and a massive syringe materialized in his palm.
"Though you're only at the fourth rank, your bloodline concentration looks promising. You'll make an excellent specimen and test subject!"
……
Not far from the dark ruins lay a range of black hills, a somber glow reflecting off their surfaces — dazzling and captivating, like crystal.
These hills were, in fact, peaks composed of various metals, and at their center stood a towering metal fortress.
This was, unmistakably, the stronghold and headquarters of the Lias Warlock Family.
"Rumor has it that the Thousand-Thorn Thunderbird is fond of metal-rich environments. Clearly, that's no exaggeration." Leilin hovered in midair, surveying the massive fortress, while the warlock from before hung limply in his grasp, eyes filled with terror.
"I am Leilin Farell! I've come to pay a visit to the Lias family!"
Ignoring the warlock in his hand, Leilin chuckled softly. His deep, resonant voice immediately carried outward, echoing throughout the fortress and stirring up countless waves of spiritual and soul power.
"Who goes there? What a terrifying and malevolent bloodline aura! Hmm? Look at the person in his hand! He dares to hold one of our Lias family elders captive — the audacity!"
Various roars, laced with spiritual power, surged outward — but Leilin deflected them all with ease.
These small fry couldn't capture even a sliver of his interest. The only thing that drew Leilin's attention was a single aura concealed deep within the fortress — one that had clearly surpassed the Morning Star boundary and entered the fifth rank.
Leilin waited overhead for a long while. Plenty of miscellaneous warlocks came out, but the owner of that aura remained undisturbed.
Leilin considered for a moment, then the phantom of his fifth-rank Kemoyin Snake Emperor materialized behind him. A wisp of half-moon-rank True Spirit Power surged downward like a dragon, plunging deep into the earth.
BOOM!!!
Power of the same level immediately caught the other's attention. Accompanied by violent earthquakes and scenes of mountains crumbling and the earth splitting apart, numerous bolts of lightning materialized, and a vast consciousness projected outward.
"Who dares disturb my slumber?"
A terrifying fifth-rank aura swept outward like a storm, and the surrounding warlocks dropped to their knees in reverence. "Grand Elder!"
A bolt of lightning cleaved through the air like a divine sword, suddenly appearing in midair and revealing the figure of a middle-aged man.
He bore the common features of the Lias family: deep blue long hair, silver pupils, and slightly pale skin. But there was an added touch of arrogance on his face, as though nothing in this world was worth his concern.
Upon seeing Leilin, the arrogance on his face diminished ever so slightly. "A fifth-rank warlock?! Why have you come to cause trouble at our Lias family estate? Wait — no, this aura..."
"My friend, why don't we move somewhere more private to talk?"
Leilin smiled, then casually tossed the warlock toward the crowd, causing considerable commotion among them.
"Follow me!" The warlock glanced at Leilin, then turned and vanished in a streak of light, moving with extraordinary speed.
Leilin was enveloped in thick black mist as he followed at an unhurried pace. Though he appeared to move slowly, he kept pace effortlessly and showed no sign of falling behind.
The warlock led Leilin until they reached an enormous lake as vast as an ocean, where he finally stopped.
"Good day, sir. I am Leilin Farell! I hope—"
Leilin began to speak, but his expression suddenly changed.
Crash! Deep blue lightning struck downward once more — the same instant-kill spell, Flash Thunder, that the Morning Star warlock had used before, but now manifested again.
This time, however, the spell's destructive power far surpassed the previous one. Moreover, it came not as a single bolt but as five, attacking from different angles and subtly cutting off all of Leilin's escape routes.
Behind the attacker, a massive phantom of the Thousand-Thorn Thunderbird materialized, its pointed beak opening wide toward Leilin.
A terrifying wave of sound, carrying the power of lightning, spread outward. "Fifth-rank spell — Thousand-Thorn Thunder Roar!!!"
The opponent not only cast spells with incredible speed but each spell was also extremely well-concealed and triggered almost instantaneously — leaving barely enough time to even think.
Any ordinary fifth-rank warlock, caught off guard like this, would certainly have suffered a devastating blow.
But Leilin was different. His thought speed even surpassed that of lightning itself.
Almost at the very instant the lightning was about to strike, the massive phantom of the Kemoyin Snake Emperor surged into view. Coiling in a spiral, it wrapped Leilin in a protective embrace, and a vast black hole formed within the serpent's maw.
"Fifth-rank Snake Emperor innate ability — Devour!"
The five bolts of lightning were instantly sucked into the black hole and converted into a steady stream of life energy.
Then the piercing sound wave, laced with thunder-fire, crashed into the massive Kemoyin Snake Emperor phantom. Scales scattered in all directions but regenerated almost immediately.
After both waves of attack had passed, the phantom of the Kemoyin Snake Emperor dissipated, revealing Leilin standing within, completely unharmed.
"Sir... what is the meaning of this?" At this point, Leilin's eyes were glacially cold, and even his voice carried a biting chill.
"Chip, if I fully break the seal, how long can I sustain combat?" Leilin asked silently.
He was currently still under the bloodline seal. Dealing with a single Morning Star warlock had already been quite taxing, let alone a fifth-rank bloodline warlock wielding the ancient Thousand-Thorn Thunderbird bloodline.
But if this fool didn't know when to back down, Leilin would have no choice but to break the seal entirely and teach him a lesson he would never forget — or even make him fall right here.
The Chip responded faithfully.
"So that means after I break the seal, I have to finish him off within seven minutes and then reseal the bloodline? Even so, it would probably bring terrible consequences, wouldn't it? Chip?"
The Chip responded.