Kasha felt the world spin around her before she tumbled into a pair of strong arms.
"Le… Leilin!"
She cried out in surprise.
"Senior, you look like you've been through the wringer!" Leilin rubbed his nose and set Kasha down, then tossed a vial to her.
"This is a Purification Potion — it can cleanse the curse aura on you! Use it quickly!"
"Thanks!" Kasha beamed like a flower, her relief at having just escaped death bringing out a captivating charm.
"Wait! Could you… maybe give me one too…?"
A hulking green-skinned barbarian wizard rolled over like a ball, an ingratiating expression plastered on his face.
"Hmm?" Leilin looked at Kasha.
"Give him one! We did fight side by side, after all!" Kasha nodded.
"Bang!"
At that very moment, the numerous dark shadows exploded outward, and the man in the black overcoat at their center stood completely unscathed, roaring at Leilin.
"This feeling — it's not an ordinary curse hybrid, it's a curse meme!" Leilin's expression turned solemn in an instant.
A so-called curse meme was a higher-order form of curse — a materialization of curse power. It was extremely troublesome and far more difficult to deal with.
Leilin himself only possessed a few curse templates and didn't know much about these more advanced memes.
"I'll hold it in place first. Use the Purification Potions and get out of here as fast as you can!"
Leilin's voice was low and grave.
Any curse had certain limitations and an effective range, and this overcoat man's meme likely couldn't leave Flowing Sand Ancient Castle — it might not even be able to enter the outer Illusion Corridor.
Kasha and the green-skinned barbarian wizard nodded rapidly and uncorked their potion vials.
"Perfect — I've been wanting to study this kind of advanced curse-power materialization for a while now!"
A flicker of fervor appeared in Leilin's eyes as he hurled a large quantity of potions outward.
Boom! Emerald-green flames roared to life.
The overcoat man was clearly wary of these flames and uttered words of no discernible meaning.
"Chip!" Leilin commanded.
"Cross-referencing the database. No matching language found!" This time, the language spoken by the overcoat man had never been recorded by the Chip, so naturally there was no answer to be found.
"Let's go!" Once the black curse aura on Kasha and the green-skinned barbarian wizard had been purged by the Purification Potions, they immediately shouted.
But when the overcoat man saw Leilin's group leave, he roared in fury and charged straight at them.
Whoosh! Vast swathes of green flame burned across his body, shredding and tearing away great sections of his black coat, revealing the scarred skin beneath.
A long, gruesome wound ran from his right shoulder all the way down, like an enormous black centipede — hideous and terrifying to behold.
What made Leilin frown even more was that the deep, violent curse power was converging on the overcoat man with even greater intensity.
"Move!"
Leilin swung his fallen longsword, and its terrifying poison and razor-sharp sword light spread outward in all directions. The surrounding structures crumbled and collapsed one after another.
"Use this!" The green-skinned barbarian wizard raised a crystal ball in his hand, its surface radiating an enchanting glow.
"This is an Escape Crystal Ball — it has at least five escape runes sealed inside, more than enough to get us out of here!" When the green-skinned barbarian wizard saw Leilin turn to look at him, he immediately said in an eager, fawning tone.
"Good work!" A blue light flashed in Leilin's eyes as the Chip instantly confirmed the crystal ball's function and verified that nothing had been tampered with inside.
He immediately activated the crystal ball, and the three of them vanished in a burst of dazzling light.
A dark shadow flashed past. The overcoat man's silver scissors-hands sliced through the air, producing only an unintelligible roar.
Inside the Illusion Corridor, the walls on all sides were covered with patterns of various plants and flowers. Countless plants raced through their entire life cycles — sprouting, growing, blooming, and withering — in a constant loop.
Thud! Thud! Thud! The sound of heavy objects hitting the ground rang out as Leilin, Kasha, and the green-skinned barbarian wizard crashed onto the floor of the corridor.
"All right! I can no longer sense any curse-power tracking here — you're safe now!" Leilin closed his eyes, then spoke.
Upon hearing his words, Kasha and the green-skinned barbarian wizard both let out relieved smiles.
"Well then, now it's time to discuss how to 'deal with' him, isn't it?" Leilin pointed at the green-skinned barbarian wizard with an unfriendly smile on his face.
"Oh! No! You can't do this! I saved your companion earlier! We fought side by side!"
The green-skinned barbarian wizard raised both hands, protesting with a look of perfect innocence.
He didn't attempt to resist, because his spiritual power had already been completely drained during the past few days of pursuit. He hadn't even been able to activate the Escape Crystal Ball himself — Leilin had to do it for him.
"But the fact is, you still came in here to hunt us down, didn't you?" Leilin wasn't about to be fooled by such a clumsy act. Instead, he raised his Cross Sword and aimed it squarely at the green barbarian's head.
"Considering everything that's happened, hand over suitable compensation and I'll let you go — just this once!"
This was Leilin's true intention all along.
Hearing this, Kasha, who had looked somewhat displeased moments before, instantly perked up.
"But… I really don't have anything good left on me!" the green-skinned barbarian wizard wailed about his poverty, but his right hand quietly slipped away from a peculiar bracelet.
Leilin wasn't particularly concerned. After all, the barbarian was still a crystallized wizard — there was no way he didn't have a few trump cards hidden away.
The current situation was simple: although the barbarian was heavily wounded and in poor shape, he still had enough fight left in him. Since Leilin was only demanding compensation rather than pressing further, he hadn't crossed the other's bottom line and wouldn't be pushed into a mutual destruction scenario.
"Hand over the compensation — or do you want to start a fight right here?" Leilin's tone didn't soften even a fraction.
"Senior Kasha! When the time comes, I'll give you fifty percent of whatever compensation he provides!" The moment these words left his mouth, Kasha immediately sided with Leilin, showing her support through action.
This expedition had been a total loss for her. She never dared to set foot in Flowing Sand Ancient Castle again, and her three subordinates had long since gone missing — almost certainly dead. She was desperate to recoup her losses.
Seeing Kasha on board as well, the green-skinned barbarian wizard's face twisted into a bitter smile. "You human wizards really are shrewder and greedier than devils!"
Resigned to his fate, he crouched down and tossed a black leather pouch to Leilin.
"Take whatever you want! My entire collection is in there!"
Leilin reached out and caught it. The pouch's surface had a fuzzy texture, as though it were made from some animal's hide. A quick probe with his spiritual power revealed a dazzling array of treasures inside.
A crystallized wizard from the Forgotten Land naturally wasn't as wealthy as one from the outside world, but his possessions were still more than enough to satisfy two vaporized wizards like Leilin and Kasha.
Among the contents were many rare materials that drew gasps of admiration from Kasha, her eyes sparkling with excitement.
Leilin casually picked out the most valuable items along with a few notebooks, then handed the pouch to Kasha.
Kasha shot Leilin a coquettish glare and rummaged through the pouch without the slightest hesitation. By the time she returned it to the green-skinned barbarian wizard, the pouch had visibly deflated by a significant amount, which made the barbarian's heart ache.
"All right! Since the ransom has been paid, please excuse us — we'll be taking our leave now!"
Leilin gave a slight bow, a smile playing at his lips, and walked off with Kasha, the two of them disappearing around the far end of the corridor, leaving only the green-skinned barbarian wizard behind with a face full of bitterness.
Several days later, in a dark basement somewhere in the great desert surrounding Flowing Sand Ancient Castle.
A flash of red light rippled through the void, and two figures materialized — an uncle and nephew,
"You're finally here! Leilin and I have been waiting ages!"
Kasha stood up, her voice laced with complaint. Then she studied Robin closely. "You… what happened to you?"
Through her sense of aura, Robin seemed to have undergone enormous changes, though she couldn't quite put her finger on what they were.
"Hmm?" Leilin was also examining Robin's face.
Robin still had that same otherworldly, handsome appearance as before, but between his brows now sat a black sigil, and vein-like markings had spread across his entire forehead.
What astonished Leilin even more was that the bloodline aura of the Komoin Giant Snake within Robin appeared to be growing steadily stronger, showing signs of gradual purification.
If Leilin's own bloodline hadn't been exceptionally refined, and if the Chip hadn't been there to detect it, he never would have noticed the change.
"Nothing — quite the opposite, actually. I feel better than I've ever felt!"
Robin smiled, his mind perfectly lucid, and casually pulled out an enormous foreleg to gnaw on.
The animal's leg was covered in scales, and drops of dark purple blood dripped continuously from the severed end — clearly the limb of some high-energy creature from the area.
Robin ate at a remarkable pace, devouring the entire foreleg in just a few bites, bones and all.
Perhaps it was Leilin's imagination, but after the meal, the concentration of bloodline power in Robin's body seemed to have increased yet again.
"Bleh…" Meanwhile, Roya stood off to the side, his face deathly pale. The moment he saw Robin eating, he immediately turned away, unable to watch.
"What's wrong with you now?" Leilin had a premonition that Robin must have obtained some incredible gain inside Flowing Sand Ancient Castle.
Of course, his own fortune hadn't been small either. Luck didn't always favor a single person, and Leilin was perfectly understanding about that.
"It's… it's nothing. Just some lingering psychological trauma. I might have to fast for a while, and I can't stand watching other people eat…"
Roya waved his hand weakly. His experience during that last supper had left him with truly horrifying memories.
"Roya's just too inexperienced — don't mind him. We still need to leave the Flowing Sand Secret Realm immediately! Does anyone object?"
Robin's mind was clearly sharp as ever, and he showed no desire to elaborate on what he'd encountered inside the castle. Leilin and Kasha tactfully refrained from asking further.