Bang!!!
Solen's head, twisted in defiance and terror, flew high into the air several meters before crashing to the ground, eyes wide open, unable to close.
Before Leilin, Solen's headless corpse continued to spout fountains of blood as it collapsed to its knees.
The corpse's left hand was still reaching forward, but unfortunately, less than a few millimeters from Leilin's body, it was completely blocked by armor made of a layer of gray light.
"With the Falling Star Pendant for defense, I have nothing to fear from most apprentices' attacks. Combined with the Frost Rune enhancement on my greatsword and my Knight-level physical constitution, I'm truly unstoppable among apprentices!"
Leilin was quite satisfied with the result.
The Solen opposite him was merely slightly better than the previous Torezas. Under this tactical approach, he couldn't last more than a few rounds before being utterly defeated—even having his head cleaved off by Leilin.
"Now, it's your turn!" Leilin casually kicked Solen's corpse aside and charged toward the blonde female apprentice.
"Done!"
At that same moment, the blonde female apprentice let out a long breath, her entire body relaxing as if a great weight had been lifted.
A vibrant red flower, blooming to the size of a fist; a green stone radiating a soft glow, sprinkled with the female apprentice's blood; and a broken dagger, tossed directly onto the ground.
These three items were arranged in the shape of an inverted triangle, with numerous runes constructed from silver powder nearby.
Facing Leilin's fierce charge, the female apprentice sneered and pointed at him: "By the name of Meliphis Nofalko Machinando, the Great Binding Spirit of the Abyss, the one I point to shall lose all capacity for movement!"
Buzzing!!!
The inverted triangle formation on the ground began to glow with flowing light. Leilin suddenly felt an enormous binding force descend upon him, pinning him firmly in place.
"This kind of spell? A human immobilization spell?"
Leilin struggled continuously. The sound of iron chains snapping echoed through the void.
"Don't bother struggling. These are the chains of the Abyssal Binding Spirit. No matter how many you break, the rest will automatically regenerate, and the binding force will double!!!"
As the blonde female apprentice's voice rang out, Leilin felt the chains around him tighten further and further.
Tsssss!!! The silver-gray light emanating from the Falling Star Pendant clashed repeatedly with a force from the void, and wisps of white mist began to form.
"You lowly maggot, wretched butcher—how dare you kill apprentices from our two great academies! I shall grant you death to atone for your sins!"
The female apprentice's face was filled with triumphant vengeful pleasure, the muscles twisting her once-pretty features into something truly hideous.
"How dare you kill Solen! I'll make you pay in blood!!!"
The female apprentice pointed at Leilin again: "Strength! Stripped!!!"
The moment the words left her mouth, Leilin felt his strength draining away. In the blink of an eye, he felt as though he'd gone from a Knight to the strength of an ordinary infant.
"This feeling... is it a curse?"
Leilin struggled with all his might. "How could a mere curse make me bow down!!!"
"It's all over!" The apprentice chanted in Ancient Byron Language: "Flames of the Abyss, incinerate this sinner to ash!"
As the female apprentice's Ancient Byron Language incantation continued, a ring of black-red flames suddenly ignited beneath Leilin.
The flames spread rapidly, engulfing his entire body in an instant.
Bang!!! The Frost Greatsword in Leilin's hand fell to the ground, ice shards splitting and shattering. Finally, even the Cross Sword itself, forged from refined steel, completely melted under the black-red flames, turning into a puddle of molten iron.
Tssss tssss!!!
The silver-gray armor on Leilin's body began to destabilize. The Chip frantically scrolled warnings before Leilin's eyes: "Warning! Warning! Falling Star Pendant energy plummeting. Current reserve: 45%. Projected to be fully depleted in 34 seconds!!!"
"Never mind that—release all the remaining energy in the Falling Star Pendant at once!" Leilin commanded.
Buzzing!!! In an instant, the silver-gray glow on Leilin's body surged more than tenfold. Behind him, a massive cross-shaped phantom appeared faintly, with several gemstones shimmering with different lusters above it, a wave of power spreading through every part of Leilin's body.
"Break... for me!!!"
Leilin forced a violent wrench. A burst of crackling sounds erupted from his body as countless black runic chains materialized, then snapped and fell to the ground before vanishing.
"Now it's your turn, disgusting wretch!"
Leilin's figure blurred into a gust of wind, arriving directly before the blonde female apprentice.
"No... impossible! How did you break free?!" The blonde female apprentice screamed, clutching her head. She pointed again, and several fireballs the size of washbasins slammed directly into Leilin.
Boom!!! The flames exploded and merged with the earlier black-red fire before quickly dying out.
Inside the transparent silver-gray armor, Leilin was completely unharmed.
"No! No!" The apprentice collapsed to the ground, scrambling backward.
Leilin kicked the green stone and dagger aside, instantly disrupting the inverted triangle formation.
Two lines of bright red blood streamed from the female apprentice's nose, and tears welled up as well.
"No! Don't kill me! My mentor is..."
The blonde female apprentice wept as she crawled along the ground.
"As if I care who you are." Leilin's expression was cold as he simply pulled the blonde woman into his embrace.
His body was still wreathed in the black-red Abyssal Fire, sustained only by the Falling Star Pendant. But this woman clearly had no such protection. Under the searing flames, she let out a horrifying scream.
Rip! Flesh and blood fell from the woman's body in chunks, turning into charcoal-like remains.
In the end, what had once been a beautiful blonde apprentice had become a blood-red skeleton. Then, the skeleton gradually melted into a puddle of white bone liquid that dripped onto the ground.
Leilin curled his lips and flung the remaining white bone liquid from his hand.
Then, as if removing clothing, he "took off" the gray armor from his body.
And the black-red Abyssal Fire clinging to the gray armor came off with it.
"In legends and epics, the Abyssal Fire is said to be capable of burning through the void, something not even the children of the earth can withstand! This black-red flame is probably just a projection of a fraction of the Abyss's power—less than one hundred-millionth of its true might, or I would have long since turned to ash!"
Leilin thought for a moment, then returned to the spot where the battle had taken place. He recorded the materials and formation the female apprentice had used, then roamed the battlefield to collect spoils.
Thud!!! The unconscious Jiamen was tossed by Leilin in front of Biji.
Though the battle had been extremely fierce, it had lasted only a short time. Biji was still somewhat dazed.
"Leave this place immediately. The energy fluctuations from just now will definitely attract many apprentices. If you don't want to die, get out of here now!!!"
Leilin's voice was hoarse. After seeing Biji nod, he left without another word.
Watching Leilin's retreating figure, Biji's expression was complicated.
This person had come to rescue her, and the power he possessed far exceeded anything Biji had imagined.
The Thunder Thrower and Silver Claw were both fearsome forces from the enemy academy, yet in this person's hands, they had been as helpless as lambs, meekly begging for mercy, at his complete disposal.
"But who exactly is he?"
Biji blinked, running through the images of
But her intuition told her that she definitely knew this person—perhaps even quite intimately!
"Wizards are known for their rationality. Intuition is something that degrades our judgment. Everything must be based on evidence..."
An elder's teachings surfaced in her mind.
Biji's expression grew vacant. Then, gritting her teeth, she splashed a vial of potion on Jiamen's face and left the area.
Though Jiamen was Molly's idol, now that Molly was already dead, Biji naturally wouldn't risk herself further for him.
A few minutes later, Jiamen turned over and opened his eyes.
"What happened? Where's Torezas?"
Jiamen was bewildered, then his expression changed drastically as he reached into his shirt. Only after confirming that the magical item was still safely tucked inside and that his waist pouch was still there did he let out a sigh of relief.
"What an intense aftershock from that battle! Who saved me?"
Jiamen rubbed his forehead, then recalled the figure of a girl running toward him. "Was it Molly? With such terrifying combat, I wonder how she's doing..."
"They're here!!!"
Footsteps sounded, and two apprentices appeared in Jiamen's line of sight.
"Black Bone Forest apprentice! Kill him!!!"
The moment the two apprentices spotted Jiamen, they let out excited shouts and began preparing Zero-level Spells.
Jiamen sighed and once again took out the magical item...
Dozens of li from the battlefield, inside a mountain cave, Leilin was tallying his gains.
Those three apprentices had all been formidable figures, and the materials and Magic Stones they carried were extremely plentiful. In total, they had contributed tens of thousands of Magic Stones to Leilin, along with many other rare resources.
Leilin ran his fingers over a black-red notebook, an interested expression on his face.
"This aura... it's very similar to that female apprentice's Abyssal Fire!"
Leilin opened the notebook, and a set of strange characters appeared before his eyes. "Chip, cross-reference with the database!"
"Ding! Task initiated. Querying... Abyssal Script similarity: 98.7%. Infernal Script similarity: 45.3%..."
"Abyssal Script?" Leilin felt a headache coming on. Knowledge of other-plane writing systems had always been one of those esoteric, closely guarded advanced disciplines. He had only learned a few characters from some残页 in the library and stored them in the Chip's database.
Wait—I need to fix that. Let me redo that line.
"Abyssal Script?" Leilin felt a headache coming on. Knowledge of other-plane writing systems had always been one of those esoteric, closely guarded advanced disciplines. He had only managed to learn a few characters from some torn pages in the library and store them in the Chip's database.
"Regardless, it's a decent haul!"
Leilin put away the black-red notebook with satisfaction.