Threats
“I guess I should let you know!”
Seeing this old lady acting like this, Leylin suddenly found her quite pitiful and lost the urge to play with her any further.
He waved at the few guards. “You may return first.”
“Yes, my lord!” The guards gave Leylin a deep bow, appearing as if a heavy weight had been lifted off their shoulders, and quickly dashed out of the room.
“Wait! What did they call you? My lord? Aren’t you just a regular Magus from the Potioneering Team? Aren’t you also ostracised?”
The old woman spoke agitatedly. She could feel that things were beyond her control as if a stone had lodged deep in her heart.
“It seems like you’ve investigated me quite thoroughly! Unfortunately, I’ve climbed up the ranks a little faster than that…”
Leylin spread his hands, a mischievous grin on his face.
Was he merely fast in climbing to this position? He had practically flown here! First, by killing large numbers of dark Magi, he had obtained the position of the vice team leader of the hunting team. With his battle achievement of killing Marb, he had been named the patrolling inspector of the headquarters. In theory, he was just as powerful as Caesar, the leader of the hunting team.
After the attack of the dark Magi and Reynold’s death, he had seized a third of the power within this branch of Four Seasons Garden. But wait, there’s more! After chasing Wade out, the authority he possessed had increased to two-thirds!
His position was infinitely nearing the chairman with this much power! This old woman only had a rank 1 contribution token, which was useless against a team leader, much less Leylin.
Next, the smirk on his face vanished, and his expression turned solemn.
“Formation genie, record this down! This… Ahem! This person who holds the power in the Botelli family overstepped her authority and ordered for my arrest, with a rank 1 contribution token. I hereby announce that she be stripped of the authority and the contribution token in her hands!”
*Weng!* Magical light brightened in the middle of the room, and the walls were filled with a ring of wandering illuminated runes.
“Recorded! Verifying! Verification complete. Removing authority from rank 1 contribution token!”
A robotic female voice was heard, and the rays of light from magic suddenly flashed outwards.
The old lady seemed to be scared silly by such a strong energy wave. If all the spell formations around them exploded in one go, her body would simply vanish.
The colourful magic rays did not attack her, but transformed into a hand the size of an adult, grabbing the rank 1 contribution token in her possession!
Then, the fingers exerted force!
*Ka-cha! Ka-cha!*
The sound of an object breaking sounded. A web of cracks spread across the surface of the entire token, and under the hopeless gaze of the old woman, it turned into little bits of dust.
*Tss tss!* The magical light receded after destroying the token. Even the spell formation on the wall vanished.
The old woman was now like a duck grasped at the neck, unable to utter a word.
She naturally knew the amount of authority needed to be able to order the formation genie to destroy a rank 1 contribution token! That was something only the chairman was able to do! Could it be that this young man had already advanced to become a rank 2 Magus, and had become the chairman of the Four Seasons Garden?
This world was just too crazy. The old woman supported her head, feeling as if she was dreaming!
“How is it? Do you have any other trump cards? You can try using them!” Leylin crossed his arms, staring icily at this old woman.
Her heart fell. Her family was now not in a very good position. This token, which was something their ancestors had left behind, was the last resort, but had been rendered useless without properly being made use of! She herself would even be in trouble upon returning!
“What do you want?”
Her voice was hoarse as if she had aged by ten years. She bent her back, and then released the pride from her tone, completely defeated.
“What do you want?” Leylin sounded innocent.
“Your granddaughter came up to me, saying I’m the main cause of a war and wanted to purify me. I was forced to strike back and gave them a lifeline when I could have simply just killed them. I’m already being very kind, and now you even want to threaten me!”
Leylin was indeed the victim in this affair, except for the fact that he had retaliated with just a little too much strength.
“Jenna is the seer of our generation. Her predictions can’t be wrong!” The old woman persisted.
“You…” Leylin was exasperated but calmed his heart. There was no point in arguing over a trivial matter such as this.
“Alright, now it’s time for me to name my conditions! My requirements are simple. I’m interested in that divination ability of Jenna’s. Impart me this technique, and I’ll release the curse on her!”
“Oh, Mother of Peace! Not only does a sinner like you want to control us, you even dare to covet our family’s meditation technique!”
She clutched her chest as if she was on the verge of going crazy.
“Is it a meditation technique? Or even a high-grade meditation technique?” Leylin was suddenly very interested.
“Don’t even think about it, you monster! Devil! Don’t even think about trying to obtain our Botelli Family’s meditation technique!” The old woman resolutely rejected him, a cold glint that could not be concealed flashing past her eyes.
“Hehe… You may not know this, but the curse on Jenna’s body can only be released by me. Otherwise, you could try finding a Morning Star Magus, or else you’ll just be waiting for a dead body.”
“I’ll give you one day! Think it through!”
Leylin clapped his hands and two guards immediately entered.
“Send this lady away to get some rest. Do not be negligent!” Leylin’s tone was slightly different, and the two Magi who knew what he was implying quickly came before the old woman, ready to take care of her.
Leylin nodded and left.
Though the old woman had concealed it well, the coldness in her eyes was still apparent to Leylin. All that she was thinking had long since been discovered by Leylin.
“Trying to swindle me with a fake meditation technique? No! Magi are intelligent people! If you give me a fake one, I’ll definitely know. If I can’t tell, I can just find a few acolytes and perform tests on them… Unless… If she really gives me a high-grade meditation technique, but it has a very obvious flaw! Only with these conditions will Magi who lack high-grade meditation techniques be tempted to use it…”
“What a pity!” Leylin cracked a smile.
If he was a Magus without a high-grade meditation technique, he would definitely be unable to resist the temptation, and would end up training in it. After all, it represented an increased chance of advancing, as well as insuring a better future.
Unfortunately, he already had a high-grade meditation technique of his own—Kemoyin’s Pupil! No matter how amazing the Botelli family’s meditation technique was, he would only use it as a reference, and wouldn’t do something so stupid as to switch meditation techniques.
With a smile on his lips, Leylin went inside a secret room.
The four walls of this secret room were made of thick stone, with numerous runes that could isolate energy placed all over.
In the middle was a rather strangely shaped, little stone counter. Three pillars supported a triangular section, large amounts of green vines crawled along it.
“Formation genie, activate the communication spell formation!” Leylin spoke.
“Authority verified! Activating communication spell formation!” As the formation genie spoke, a dusky splendour shot out from the little stone counter, and all the runes in the room began to glimmer.
Leylin nodded upon seeing this. Communication between the secret plane and the external world was all but impossible, and could only work through a particular communication spell formation.
This was a specially constructed communication spell formation that could penetrate the isolation effect of the secret plane and was considerably expensive. The Four Seasons Garden only had this one formation in the entire Eternal River Plains’ secret plane.
Before, Wade’s authority to communicate with the outside world was sealed through the combined efforts of Leylin and Caesar. Hence, in a situation where he could not contact anyone, Wade had no choice but to flee.
Leylin took out his own secret imprint book and flipped through to the most recent page. At the end was a blue imprint that looked like a beacon.
Leylin lightly tapped it.
*Boom!* The blue beacon suddenly became bigger, and the runes in the room unceasingly lit up.
A red line shot out of the stone counter, connecting to the surface of the blue beacon secret imprint.
“Is this Sir Hyder? How have you been feeling recently?” Leylin asked, full of smiles.
“It’s… you! Quick! Give me the cure!”
From within the blue secret imprint, a haggard voice came on and off, as if the owner had been severely injured or was being tortured by some illness.
The owner of this voice was Hyder, the Magus who was on good terms with the Botelli Family, who had been invited by the old woman to treat Jenna!
Previously, he had failed in his treatment methods. Not only had he been infected by a poison that Leylin had made himself, but the poison had also come with a communication imprint.
Hence, Leylin was able to know a lot about the Botelli Family.
The grin on Leylin’s face widened. “Sir Hyder, I want to tell you something quite unfortunate! The wielder of power in the Botelli family has already approached me. She implored me to remove Jenna’s curse, but never said anything about you…”
Upon hearing his words, the imprint became quiet, and then came the sound of something breaking. “That whore, that lunatic! To think I worked so hard for her… Cough cough…”
After just two sentences, Hyder began to cough violently.
Leylin’s smile was even brighter. “Sir Hyder! How’s the effect of my ‘Shadow Corrosion’? I spent a lot of effort on it! You’re also a very outstanding healing Magus. I would like to know your evaluation of it!”
After a long time, Leylin once again heard Hyder’s voice from the secret imprint. “You’ve won. The composition of the poison is much too complicated, and they’re intricately linked together. I really have no way to remove it… Give me the cure, and not just medication to suppress it, and I’ll tell you everything I know!”
“Fine! I want to know everything, especially your knowledge regarding the contents of the meditation technique.”