After finishing his search of Number Five's belongings, Leilin stared at the black mask in his hand, his expression turning somewhat grave.
"The Chip's control won't last much longer. Once the drug wears off, the controller behind this will get the news immediately…"
The powder he had prepared was only effective on the Stardust Insects once. And once the effect faded, he feared these insects would relay all the previous information back to the central control room.
Leilin could not allow that. The thought of that Dawn Star
Fortunately! The other party still didn't know his identity. As long as the evidence was destroyed thoroughly enough, the other party might not necessarily be able to track him down.
With that thought, a wisp of green flame landed on the mask and burned brighter and brighter.
From the mask, there even came extremely faint cracking sounds — without the Chip's assistance, they would have been impossible to discern.
Once he confirmed that all the Stardust Insects had been eliminated, Leilin set another fire, reducing the entire scene to ashes. Only then did he let out a cold laugh and leave.
……
Leilin's retreat had been remarkably timely. He did not see the crazed expression on Leo's face when the latter arrived.
He took great care to avoid places where Wizards might be monitoring, and he didn't even take an Airship — instead, he traveled overland on foot, going so far as to pass through several danger zones in the process.
By the time he reached a safe area beyond Blue Mountain City's sphere of influence, word of the upper echelons of the Oakheart family's upheaval had already reached the region.
Seeing the news that Blue Mountain City had been placed under martial lockdown, the Airship network sealed, and a massive Wizard hunt underway, even Leilin quietly congratulated himself on having retreated early enough.
He cared nothing about how the Oakheart family might spiral into frenzy, nor did he have any intention of spreading the information.
Though if the secret of the Stardust Insects were made public, it would likely deal a devastating blow to the Oakheart family — but Leilin stood to gain little from it.
Keeping this secret in hand was, in its own way, a fine bargaining chip.
In fact, Leilin very much looked forward to seeing what sort of hush money the Blue Mountain King would be willing to offer once he advanced to the Dawn Star Wizard realm.
Of course. Before he reached that level of advancement, trying to use something like this as leverage against the other party would be nothing short of suicide!
Since he hadn't taken an Airship, Leilin's journey home felt considerably longer.
He even went so far as to take a long, circuitous route, just to sneak back into his own territory safely.
It wasn't until he entered the Wizard Tower and heard the tower spirit's mechanical voice offering its greeting that Lei Lin finally relaxed completely.
A cup of steaming coffee sat on the table. Its rich, sweet aroma wafted continuously through the air.
Lei Lin sat there expressionless, his fingers tapping rhythmically against the table surface.
Upon returning to a safe place, reflecting on his recent actions, and meticulously listing his problems and gains was something Lei Lin always did. It was precisely thanks to this habit that he had managed to navigate the treacherous world of Wizards so smoothly.
This trip had yielded enormous gains, enough to shock numerous Crystallization Wizards. However, the forces he had provoked were also incredibly troublesome. The slightest carelessness could lead to his downfall.
The wrath of a Dawn Star Wizard was terrifying. If Lei Lin were discovered, not only he but even his family and friends would likely meet a grim end.
"I've severed all the trails. The one who went to the auction house was just 'Blood Hand'. At the private trade fair, I used a completely false appearance, and the evidence was destroyed afterward. Tracing any of these back to me should be nearly impossible!"
Lei Lin was very confident in his own methods and the Chip's concealment technology.
"As for divination spells, they were never very accurate to begin with, and they lose their effectiveness entirely when used against higher-level Wizards. Plus, the Wizard Tower provides shielding..."
What Lei Lin worried about most was actually this aspect.
Worldly clues were impossible, but if combined with mysterious and unpredictable magic, the resulting effectiveness was truly terrifying.
Divination spells, in particular, were almost irrational in nature. Unless your own level was significantly higher than the target's, as long as the caster was willing to pay a certain price, they could learn everything about you!
"Fortunately! Divination-specialized Wizards are rare to begin with, and to accurately predict someone shielded by a Wizard Tower whose personal strength has reached the third-level liquidation stage? An ordinary Wizard wouldn't stand a chance. Even a Dawn Star Wizard specializing in divination would have to pay an immense price for a chance!"
Backed by the Chip's database and his own practical experience with the Destiny Coins, Lei Lin's understanding of divination spells far exceeded that of an ordinary Wizard.
"And the Blue Mountain King isn't a divination Wizard to begin with. To get a Dawn Star-level divination Wizard to pay such a heavy price? It's impossible in the short term... While this chance lasts, I must advance to Crystallization immediately. If I can hold out until I advance to Dawn Star, that would be even better..."
Divining a third-level liquidation Wizard versus a crystallization Wizard involved different costs. What Lei Lin needed to do was to increase his own strength as much as possible, making it impossible for the other party to accurately predict him.
Powerful energy radiation was enough to interfere with everything!
In fact, if Lei Lin managed to advance to the Dawn Star realm during this period and become a Dawn Star Wizard himself, then all these matters would become trivial.
No Wizard would offend another Dawn Star Wizard over the sake of one!
Once Lei Lin advanced to Dawn Star, he could very well turn around and use the Star Shard Worm matter to extort the other party, and the Blue Mountain King would have no choice but to swallow the bitter pill.
"There's also Vance and the Nonolifa family — that one doesn't need much worrying about!"
Lei Lin thought of Vance, who had died at his hands — the patriarch of the Nonolifa family. Simply because of Jessira's entanglement, Lei Lin's Destiny Gold Coin had sensed him, and he had ultimately become Lei Lin's little transport captain, dying in the most aggrieved manner imaginable.
He hadn't even known who his opponent truly was at the time of his death, and the Nonolifa family would know even less.
"
Lei Lin stroked his chin, musing. "Such precious treasures appearing simultaneously within a small family — that's extremely abnormal. Perhaps I could have Pike keep an eye on them..."
For the current Lei Lin, a family with only a Liquefied Wizard as its strongest member was simply not a concern at all.
Even if Vance were still alive, relying on the network of forces Lei Lin had accumulated over more than a century, he wouldn't need to lift a finger — his subordinates alone would be more than enough to crush them.
But a small family's patriarch suddenly soaring in power and possessing a great treasure on his person — that was enough to make Lei Lin suspect they had discovered some hidden hoard or inherited some legacy or another.
On the Central Continent, with Wizard numbers ten times greater than before, all manner of ruins and legacies emerged in an endless stream. Almost every day, some lucky individual in the Wizard world stumbled upon the inheritance of their predecessors, and it was entirely possible for them to rise to prominence practically overnight!
"No! The Nonolifa family doesn't yet know I'm the culprit — having Pike go there would be too obvious!"
Lei Lin wasn't afraid of their retaliation. What worried him was that the Oakheart family might also start drawing connections, and that would be trouble.
"Tasha! Go to the Black River Basin and keep the Nonolifa family under secret surveillance. Report their every move to me!"
Lei Lin thought for a moment, then spoke toward a Secret Arcane Imprint.
"At your command, Master!"
From behind the Secret Arcane Imprint came Tasha's respectful voice.
This woman had also been gradually fading out of the Circle of the Land of Forgotten, essentially dedicating herself entirely to Lei Lin's service. She had become the most powerful force in Lei Lin's current arsenal.
A Crystallized Wizard would be enough to wipe out the entire Nonolifa family as it once stood, let alone handle simple surveillance without any issue.
"All of that was the trouble — now for the spoils!"
After deactivating the Secret Arcane Imprint, Lei Lin let out a long breath, waved his hand, and several items floated into view on the tabletop.
Inside a purple box, two black stones—one large, one small—lay silently, their surfaces occasionally flickering with faint, firefly-blue glimmers.
These were Astral Stones, the primary objective of Lei Lin's expedition!
The larger one came from Rio's gift, roughly the size of a quail's egg. The smaller one was confiscated directly from Vance, about the size of a fingernail.
For the preliminary experiments in studying the Astral Gate, the stone from Vance alone would have been enough for quite a while. But for Lei Lin, these Astral Stones were far from sufficient! This kind of high-grade strategic resource could never be stockpiled in excess—it would never be a losing investment.
Even after reaching the Morning Star level, the Astral Stones needed just to construct the Astral Gate would be enough to give Lei Lin a headache. So while the supply was adequate for now, the more the better was always the way to go.
"With these, this trip was worth it!"
Lei Lin rubbed his chin and looked at the other items on the table.
The first to catch his eye was a crystal sculpture—pink crystal radiating brilliant light, possessing an unbreakable hardness, as if it had been forged entirely from diamond.
This was a Diamond Jellyfish, an ancient resource long since extinct, capable of boosting the probability of a Liquified Wizard successfully advancing to Crystallization by over thirty percent!
The other items, while not quite on par with the Diamond Jellyfish, were all incredibly rare resources as well. Combined, they could raise the success rate by another ten to twenty percent.
Add to that an optimized Wizard Array, and it seemed Vance's chances of promotion this time around were quite considerable.
Unfortunately, all of it now belonged to Lei Lin.
Among Vance's and Number Five's spatial storage items, Lei Lin had also discovered a massive quantity of Magic Stone Essence, valued at over a hundred million. Combined with a dazzling variety of other materials, his coffers were once again bulging.
"The atmosphere lately has been feeling off somehow. I think I'll just stay in the Wizard Tower and focus on breaking through the Crystallization bottleneck…"
Reflecting on everything he had seen and heard during this expedition, Lei Lin's expression darkened involuntarily.
Whether it was the Ouroboros Ring or Blue Mountain City this time around, everything seemed to be suffused with a tense, oppressive air—as though a great war was imminent.