This oppressive feeling of an impending great war — with Lei Lin's cunning nature, there was no way he could be mistaken about it.
It wasn't just the atmosphere. The increasingly frenzied and blood-soaked missions in the trading hall, the circumstances of Lei Lin's own previous deployment, and the appearance of the Forbidden Ancient Bell at the Blue Mountain auction — all of it served as powerful evidence corroborating this premonition.
The Central Continent's combat power far surpassed anything Lei Lin had previously encountered on the South Coast or in the Dark Polar Domain. When a Morning Star
Under that kind of apocalyptic, heaven-sent annihilation, it was no longer a question of innocent bystanders being caught in the crossfire — low-level Wizards wouldn't even qualify as cannon fodder!
And this time, Lei Lin couldn't even distance himself from the storm.
The volcanic rift connecting to the Dark Polar Domain was still choked with lava. Besides, he had no intention of abandoning the Ouroboros Ring — he was rather satisfied with life here.
"The rise of Morning Stars is always paved with corpses and painted in blood. Right now, I'm lacking that kind of baptism of fire…"
Flames seemed to burn within Lei Lin's eyes.
"The Central Continent represents the pinnacle of the Wizard World's surface-level combat power. Once chaos erupts here, nowhere else will fare well either. Worrying about anything else is pointless. The most important thing right now is to improve my strength as quickly as possible…"
After a moment's thought, Lei Lin issued his command: "Tower Spirit! Seal off my bedroom and main laboratory. Announce to the outside that I'll be conducting an extremely important experiment and do not wish to be disturbed. Withdraw everything from Storage Vault One and supply it all to my laboratory!"
"Yes, my master!" The small green sprite with wings bowed in mid-air, then quickly vanished…
Three and a half months later.
Inside a quiet chamber of the Wizard Tower, Lei Lin sat with disheveled hair, his clothes wrinkled and filthy — it was impossible to tell how long it had been since he'd changed.
Yet in stark contrast to his tattered attire, Lei Lin's eyes blazed with piercing clarity, radiating an intimidating gleam, luminous and crystalline.
Around Lei Lin, countless empty reagent tubes were strewn across the floor, making the entire room look like a disordered heap of rubbish.
"Chip! Pull up my current status!"
Lei Lin ordered.
"Lei Lin Farell, Warlock, Level 3 (Liquefaction). Bloodline: Giant Coatl Serpent. Strength: 30. Agility: 30. Constitution: 45.5. Spiritual Power: 349.9. Mana: 349 (Mana is synchronously determined by Spiritual Power)."
The Chip reported back faithfully.
This was Lei Lin's harvest over these past few months — the dramatic surge in Spiritual Power was inseparable from the terrifying consumption of potions.
And as for those Spiritual Power potions — if supplied to the Ouroboros Circle, they would be enough to last the other Warlocks an entire year. This was the sheer terror of brute-forcing growth with resources!
During the century-plus he had spent lying low before this, Lei Lin had endured patiently every single day, refusing to use Spiritual Power potions. He had even sealed away all the potions he had brewed himself, relying solely on the power of his bloodline to drive his Spiritual Power forward, all so that he could completely purge his body of drug tolerance.
Constant potion use would have been detrimental to his growth.
And now, with his foundation firmly established, surging all the way to the peak of Liquefaction had been as smooth as water flowing downhill — not the slightest hint of obstruction.
"There are three sub-stages within Level 3: Vaporization, Liquefaction, and Crystallization…" Lei Lin murmured thoughtfully. "Vaporization corresponds to Spiritual Power above 250, Liquefaction above 300, and for Crystallization-level Wizards, the Spiritual Power figure must exceed 350! Now, I've reached the point where I can attempt to break through the Crystallization bottleneck!"
Unlike the Spiritual Power figures themselves, the gap in actual combat strength between the different Spiritual Power sub-stages within Level 3 was starkly apparent.
After all, a hundred pounds of cotton and a hundred pounds of steel might have the same mass, but their density and resilience were polar opposites.
The same held true for a Wizard's Spiritual Power readings — the difference between Vaporization and Liquefaction was already significant, and Crystallization was on an entirely different level.
A Wizard at that level could already be considered a candidate for Morning Star Wizard. Crystallized Spiritual Power was the foundational material needed to construct a "Quality Point"!
Once a Wizard successfully crystallized their Spiritual Power, their entire being would undergo a complete, reborn transformation!
This transformation — through Toland and Number Five — Lei Lin had already caught a faint glimpse of. The Chip was also actively researching it.
"Warlocks are different from Wizards — they also require a bloodline condition!"
Lei Lin chuckled. In the past, his own progress had far outpaced his bloodline. By the time he had advanced to Level 3 Warlock, the Giant Coatl Serpent bloodline had still been lingering in its infant stage!
Had his bloodline not been extraordinarily pure, the boost it provided during each successive breakthrough would have been considerably weaker.
But now, through the continuous radiation from the Snake Woman's bone segments, his bloodline had entered the mature stage and fused perfectly with his own rank.
All the bottlenecks that had been restraining his breakthrough had vanished without a trace.
On top of that, Patriarch Vance's "generous contribution" and that
"Subject meets Crystallization breakthrough requirements. Predicted breakthrough probability: 89.6%!" Sure enough, the Chip's prediction aligned closely with Lei Lin's own estimate.
Lei Lin nodded, took out his grimoire, and flipped to a page.
"Tasha! Has the Nonalifa family had any unusual activity recently?" Looking at the mark, Tasha had already contacted him many times before, but Lei Lin had been focused on improving his Spiritual Power and hadn't paid much attention.
"Very strange! The family was in chaos for a while — I heard their patriarch vanished without reason. Then three days ago, after a massive upheaval swept through the entire family, every single member disappeared without a trace…"
Tasha's voice was steady, but Lei Lin caught a trace of deeply buried fear beneath it.
"Who's the culprit?" he asked, his voice low.
"I don't know! I didn't even find any trace of high-level Wizards having been there…" Tasha said with a bitter laugh.
To completely conceal one's presence from a Crystallization Wizard — a Wizard of the same level could no longer accomplish that. Only a far more powerful being could manage it!
Lei Lin was silent for a moment before replying, "You're no longer needed there. Come back as soon as possible, and stay hidden!"
After closing the arcane mark, Lei Lin's expression turned grim.
The Nonalifa family's members vanishing overnight — that sent ripples far greater than an entire clan being massacred in a single night.
He could already feel it: a vortex that grew larger by the day had completely enveloped this continent.
The Ouroboros Ring, Luxi, Furi,
Yet every time Lei Lin tried to peer further into the future, the Coin of Destiny emitted a strained creak, clearly indicating that whatever lay ahead exceeded its capabilities.
"In that case, I might as well break through now. The greater the danger, the more I need strength!"
Lei Lin's gaze was almost sharp enough to solidify.
For a Wizard at his level, going months without food or water was hardly a concern. Some Wizards even underwent full undead transformation to devote themselves entirely to research, freeing themselves from the burdens of mortal life — though the price was terrible, far too steep for Lei Lin to pay.
For him, if he lost the pleasure of living, then even glimpsing the full face of Truth, even ruling the world, would be worthless.
Still, though he couldn't compare to those necromancers or spirit Wizards, with the replenishment of energy potions, Lei Lin felt not the slightest hint of fatigue.
On the contrary, his mental state had reached something close to perfection. Lei Lin had a premonition: if he couldn't break through this time, his path forward would become exceedingly difficult.
Lei Lin trusted his own premonitions.
So with a wave of his hand, the potion vials on the ground vanished instantly, replaced by a Wizard Array brimming with an aura of mystery.
Crystallization Wizard Array (Improved) — an essential item for liquefied Wizards compressing their Spiritual Power. Increases the success rate of Spiritual Power crystallization and possesses the ability to purify Spiritual Power impurities!
This Wizard Array was covered in blood-red symbols, twisting and writhing like snakes.
The crystallization array used by warlocks was naturally somewhat different from the ones ordinary Wizards employed. Lei Lin looked down on the one Vans had won at auction and instead directly used the array he had obtained from Frey.
Last time, Frey had used a large quantity of rare materials, along with the liquefaction and crystallization arrays, to trade for Lei Lin's only publicly known
And it was precisely by leveraging these resources that Lei Lin had managed to advance successfully all the way.
Now it was time for this crystallization array to play its role.
The Chip had even added a number of improvements on top of the modifications originally made by the Frey family.
The ability to purify Spiritual Power impurities was something Lei Lin had specifically prepared for himself — after all, Spiritual Power accumulated through potions was somewhat impure, and it still needed to be purified and refined.
When it came to his own foundations, Lei Lin had always placed the utmost importance on them.
"Let's begin!" Lei Lin made up his mind, pulled a crystal jellyfish model from his spatial leather pouch, and took a vicious bite.
Crack! The crystal-clear material collided with his teeth, producing a sharp shattering sound as a chunk was bitten clean off the crystal jellyfish.
This was a Diamond Jellyfish, a rare ancient material capable of increasing a Wizard's probability of Spiritual Power crystallization. Lei Lin had no idea where that Vans had managed to get his hands on such a treasure.
The Diamond Jellyfish melted the moment it entered his mouth, forming a surge of heat that flooded Lei Lin's entire body. It felt extraordinarily comfortable, and Lei Lin devoured the whole thing in just a few bites.
Once the last wave of heat had settled in, Lei Lin felt a terrifying surge of heat rising from his lower abdomen, his entire body growing scorching hot.
"Main body has ingested essence substance. Identified as Diamond Jellyfish. Spiritual Power rising!" The Chip's voice rang out.