The Continuation
“Success!” Not far away, the golden lion phantom was trapped in a crimson spell formation. Seeing it growl continuously, Leylin clenched his fist resolutely.
Since he had the guts to take Siebel’s place, he naturally also had a way out.
Many important locations were marked out on the notebook he had seized. The energy hub was one of the most important places. Leylin was confident that once this area was attacked, the hidden defense program would immediately be activated.
After all, he had intentionally avoided many spell formations along the way, and used Morning Star Arcane Arts with restraint. Thus, he appeared relatively harmless. Needless to say, the program would deal with the more terrifying rank 5 Warlock first.
A Radiant Moon Warlock was not to be trifled with. Even in the ancient times, such a Warlock was a strong contender that conquered.
The collisions between these two would instantly devastate their surroundings, causing an already chaotic region to become even more disordered.
Even if there were any problems or clues left behind, they would have been quickly wiped out in the destruction.
As the golden lion phantom continued growling, Leylin smiled coldly, his body completely fading into the void.
The ruins no longer held any attraction for Leylin. The dangers would increase exponentially, and forcing himself to stay wouldn’t bring him any benefits as well. Leylin thus decided to evacuate.
……
Half a month later, Phosphorescence Swamp, Ouroboros Clan headquarters, inside of Leylin’s huge castle.
“How were the ruins of Scarlet Crescent?” Leylin was now wearing a loose robe and conversing leisurely with someone else through the screen in front of him.
Paul’s figure surfaced on the screen, just that he seemed a little gloomy. Even his tentacles were drooping listlessly. Evidently, he didn’t receive any good news.
“It has been confirmed that the ruins of Scarlet Crescent have been completely closed. The coordinates have all become invalid, and I reckon that it has undertaken a spatial jump!” Paul didn’t look too well.
Previously, with the directions from the notebook, Leylin had managed to escape unharmed through a spatial path that had opened up. Hence, he also missed the drastic changes that had taken place afterwards in the ruins. Of course, this was how he avoided danger.
It was only after Paul and company emerged in a fluster that Leylin found out about what had happened in the ruins.
It turned out that the ancient Magi from the Scarlet Crescent had left behind an Adamantine Golem in the ruins, which acted as the control centre.
This Adamantine Golem had an intelligence on par with humans, and could think like a normal human being, except that it was equipped with a program to comply with orders.
What was even more special was that not only had this Adamantine Golem mastered all the ancient spell formations in the ruins, it could also recharge itself by devouring Morning Star Magus point masses!
During the previous fight, upon discovering that it couldn’t defeat the rank 5 Warlock, Wayde, the Adamantine Golem immediately started attacking the other Morning Star Magi in the ruins.
Numerous ancient spell formations had surfaced, costing Paul and company dearly.
In front of spell formations specially deployed by the ancient Magi, even Morning Stars were destined to fall. Blair and another Morning Star had fallen straight away from Spirit Circle. On Wind Wolf Lair’s end, Philip was seriously injured while Palesa fell directly. Even Cybel, the strongest of them all, was severely wounded, and was rumored to have almost fallen from his Morning Star position.
On the other hand, Jupiter’s Lightning was no better. At least half of their men suffered grave injuries, while the remaining few had superficial wounds.
After recharging through absorbing numerous point masses, the Adamantine Golem started to show its prowess. With the assistance of the many ancient spell formations, even Wayde was wounded and eventually chased out.
The other Morning Stars had to get themselves out of danger one by one. Paul was lucky; he had managed to jostle his way into a spatial crack, and was teleported to the border of the Magus world, which saved his life.
From then onwards, the Scarlet Crescent ruins vanished from Crystal Mountain. Other Magi came forth afterwards, but no matter how hard they tried to scout it out, not even a trace of the place could be found.
According to the judgment of a few specialists, the Adamantine Golem must have activated a spatial jump right after attaining sufficient energy, teleporting the ruins away.
Under such a situation, these Magi were so stunned that they could only drop the idea of going in for another round of looting.
As for Leylin? He fabricated a lie about how he hadn’t gained a lot after entering the pocket dimension, and had immediately backed out after the rank 5 battle started.
This, of course, raised doubts from Cybel and the others, but those were only suspicions. Furthermore, as they had just lost a great deal of strength, they were in no position to question Leylin.
Additionally, someone else had taken the limelight away from Leylin.
“Oh right, has Sebel been found?” Leylin asked seriously, trying to contain his laughter.
Due to Wayde’s allegations and other evidence, many Morning Stars unanimously agreed that the Marine Giant Siebel of Jupiter’s Lightning had gained the most fortune from the ruins, and had even intruded into the core control room.
Jupiter’s Lightning reacted relatively strangely. They declared that Siebel had already fallen and perished. Even the deity egg in the Magus Tower was damaged. This did raise some suspicions.
However, the Warlocks led by Wayde were enemies with them, and thus did not receive any response. They could only try to probe for information on the sly.
“He hasn’t! As you know, prophesying about a Morning Star Magus is really troublesome, especially with the presence of the Morning Star domain. Coupled with the radiation from the Magus himself, even a Radiant Moon Magus specializing in prophecy spells cannot solve such problems. We need someone that is at least a Breaking Dawn, and he has to be an expert in prophesies…”
Paul gave a forced laugh. A Breaking Dawn throne specializing in prophesies? Leylin smirked. Such a person has never been seen before in the central continent.
“We suffered many losses this time round, and returned with only injuries. Only you managed to reap some decent gains!” Paul seemed sour, which was rare. He stared at Leylin’s right ear.
Leylin gave a light laugh and touched his earlobe. A crescent accessory covered his ear, casting a crescent shadow.
This was a high-grade magic equipment: the Scarlet Earring! After confirming that it didn’t pose any danger, Leylin immediately put it on.
A high-grade magic equipment! Even Morning Star Magi would be envious. After all, even the raw materials of such an item have disappeared from the face of the central continent for a long time, thus it would be impossible to produce it again.
Perhaps only the Breaking Dawn noble powers who have explored other worlds and obtained loads of resources might own a few of these items.
Most of the magic equipment that Leylin had seen before were low-grade items, and even middle-grade items were rare. It wouldn’t be hard to guess the value of this high-grade piece magic equipment.
Not only did Leylin escape unscathed, he even reaped relatively huge gains. It was no wonder that Paul was envious of him.
It was only after much deliberation did Leylin that decide to display this magic equipment. His previous actions may have appeared suspicious; if the first batch of Magi who entered left without a single piece of loot, it would attract unwanted attention.
Now, the appearance of the Scarlet Earring would serve as a reasonable explanation for all that happened.
Paul thought to himself, ‘If it was me, perhaps I would have been satisfied with the discovery of the Scarlet Earring as well. It would have been enough for me to stop there and find my way out instead.’
What was more miraculous was how the complete disappearance of the Scarlet Crescent ruins had made most of the contract that Leylin signed with them obsolete. He didn’t even have to redistribute what he’d obtained.
Initially, when they decided upon the allocation, they had included the entire ruins as one of the most important lands. Now that they had suffered a dead loss, the agreement would naturally lose its validity as well.
This was definitely beneficial for Leylin.
He was prepared to keep the secret of the ancient Wisdom Tree until his death. It was only an intelligence report anyway, and didn’t occupy much of his share. Withholding this piece of information and then distributing his profits fairly would deceive everyone.
Now that he was the sole owner of all the shares, it was even better.
As the previous agreement was made obsolete, anything obtained from the ruins would be belong to the person who found it. No matter how jealous Paul was, he couldn’t do anything about it.
With such a high-grade magic equipment, it was needless to say that Leylin’s strength would increase exponentially. Now that Cybel was suffering from heavy losses, they couldn’t make things ugly even if they wanted to, as their strength could not be compared to Leylin’s.
Not only that,Spirit Circle and Wind Wolf Lair had suffered great losses in terms of strength. The successive fall of their Morning Stars caused problems to surface in their rule. Enemies from before also started getting themselves ready for action.
In such uncertain times, they would be more than willing to receive external assistance from Leylin, who had good connections. This would be more favourable than allowing him to side with their enemies.
That was how this matter passed.
‘If it were not for the two Radiant Moons!’ Leylin secretly added on.
Although Leylin had tried his best to cover his tracks through questioning himself, it was hard to guarantee that he didn’t leave any traces behind at all. If the Scarlet Crescent ruins were found, or even broken into, it would be possible to find gaps through on-site tests.
There were many tricks up the sleeves of those Radiant Moon Magi, many of which he would not have even thought of. Thus, there was still a hidden danger.
But what was a little risk compared to these returns?
Furthermore, the Radiant Moon Warlock on Leylin’s end, Wayde, was very certain that the Marine Giant Siebel was the main culprit. This imperceptibly lifted immense pressure off Leylin. Since he had long offended that Radiant Moon Magus from Jupiter’s Lightning, a little more enmity wouldn’t make much difference.
“Oh right, Sir Leylin, you seemed to have gained a lot from this trip to the Scarlet Crescent ruins. I have a few items here as well, how about a mutual exchange?” Paul finally revealed his true intention of making the call.
Although both he and Leylin had obtained a few items in the ruins, they might not be fit for use, thus it was vital to exchange items of equivalent value.