The Ancient Spirit Slaying Sect
In order to obtain the bloodlines of more ancient creatures, Leylin had conducted numerous experiments. However, none of them were successful.
The best result was what was in his hand — the quintessence of some ancient creature.
To most Magi, this was probably a precious treasure, but for Leylin, this was far from enough.
[Beep! After 124 practical experiments and a comparison with 9718 simulated experiments, the conjecture is that the Host’s concentration of bloodline essence is not enough. Unable to unearth deeper purification. Recommended to look for the blood essence of creatures with the power of rank 3 Magus and above as stimulus to purify bloodline.]
The A.I. Chip gave a prompt answer.
“As expected…” Leylin had already surmised this conjecture, and now it seemed to tally with the A.I. Chip’s calculations.
After a long period of time, the ancient bloodline in the mystical creatures in the south coast had been thinned out so much that if not for the amazing ability of the A.I. Chip, Leylin would not even be able to refine this blood that was full of impurities.
To obtain a pure ancient bloodline, it was necessary to gain blood samples from even stronger monsters.
The A.I. Chip had gathered that at the bare minimum, blood samples from a rank 3 creature had to be obtained.
That meant that as long as Leylin was able to obtain the blood of a monster that was rank 3 or higher, the A.I. Chip would be able to purify and extract a perfect sample of the ancient bloodline.
“But… A creature that is rank 3 or above?” Leylin smiled wryly at his thoughts, “I’d probably die just from a snort from them! I’d obtained the blood from the Black Horrall Snake that originally had the strength of a rank 3 Magus. Thankfully, its might had weakened to the equivalent of an acolyte, and that alone was a giant stroke of luck. It’s as if a tasty meat pie had fallen from the heavens! ”
The Giant Kemoyin Serpent’s bloodline that Leylin was in possession of was purified from the Black Horrall Snake previously found in the Dylan Gardens.
That Black Horrall Snake was a powerful creature that rivalled the strength of a rank 3 Magus at its adult stage!
The Black Horrall Snake back then had definitely matured into an adult. However, due to the limiters inside the secret plane, coupled with prolonged hunger — and perhaps also with the other methods from the great Magus Serholm — it caused the Black Horrall Snake’s state to deteriorate in its slumber, eventually turning pitiful enough to be attacked by a group of level 3 acolytes.
This was obviously a present that the great Magus Serholm left for his inheritor. It was an intentional setup and not a coincidence.
The great Magus Serholm was a rank 4 Warlock, and as compared to Leylin who was a rank 1 Warlock, he was the sun while Leylin was but a firefly.
“These things are dependent on luck. At most, I’ll take more notice in the future. It’s not the time to think about this now!”
Leylin pulled up his stats.
[Leylin Farlier. Rank 1 Warlock. Bloodline: Giant Kemoyin Serpent. Strength: 7.1, Agility: 6.7, Vitality: 8.5, Spiritual Force: 58.9, Magic Power: 58 (Magic Power is in synchronisation with Spiritual Force). Elemental essence conversion: 70%. Status: Healthy]
In this year, he had been continuing his trade with the old witch. Using the processed spirits she had gathered, he had obtained a large quantity of the ancient potion- Tears of Mary!
With the help of the ancient potion, Leylin’s spiritual force shot up rapidly.
Leylin had spent quite some time in the Four Seasons Garden and through the exchange of contribution points, he had gathered the formulas of potions that could increase an official Magus’ spiritual force.
However, he found that those potions’ effects were nothing compared to the ancient potion.
With its help, Leylin increased his spiritual force at a shocking rate, as if he had no limits.
Presently, he had no choice but to use concealment methods to hide his tremendous spiritual force. He stayed indoors whenever possible, avoiding areas where rank 2 Magi might appear. He didn’t want there to be any chances of others finding out.
Unfortunately, even with the A.I. Chip constantly upgrading the concealment method, it was not possible to hide his spiritual force entirely.
The moment he had a break, Leylin would rush back to Nightless City to hide and avoided all social interaction.
After reaching a certain level in terms of his spiritual force, Leylin had once again used the crystallised Darkness energy particles to push his elemental essence conversion to 70%!
However, after his elemental essence conversion reached 70%, Leylin received a notification from the A.I. Chip that his body and spirit had developed a resistance towards such crystals. Unless he found more precious resources to raise his elemental essence conversion in the future, he could only rely on meditation and time and progress at a slower rate.
“Potions made by ancient Magi are really different!”
A look of satisfaction crossed Leylin’s face. “The agreement with the old witch cannot be broken. Moreover, finding new ways to conceal my spiritual force is becoming a matter of urgency.”
In all honesty, he should be collecting the spirits himself. Directly branding the spirits of slaves who helped out would ensure that this matter was kept secret.
However, the preparatory stages for the brewing of the Tears of Mary required someone with the might of a rank 1 Magus. Moreover, it had to be a Magus who was specialised in spirits.
As for Leylin, his current attainment in the knowledge of spiritual force and spirits only allowed him to brand level 3 acolytes. It was basically impossible to brand an official Magus.
Anyway, the old witch had made her vow in front of the Trial’s Eye, so she could be trusted for the time being.
“However, the amount of spirits provided by the old witch seems to have decreased. In the past few trades, she also seemed distant and unfocused and didn’t even participate in the activities organised by the dark Magi organisation. It seems there’s something of extreme importance going on. I’d better check on her tomorrow and hope that there won't be any trouble…”
This ally of his was recently acting strangely, inciting worry in Leylin’s heart.
“Master! Your dinner's ready!”
Damien’s voice sounded while he was deep in thought, enjoying the service from his maids.
“Alright! I’ll be right there!”
Leylin opened his eyes, the blackness in his pupils gaining another depth in them...
After a day of entertainment and rest, Leylin was feeling refreshed. Wrapped in a black cloak, Leylin covered even his face and paid a visit to the old witch’s shop.
“What happened to you?”
The moment Leylin saw the state the old witch was in, he wrinkled his eyebrows.
The first time he’d seen her, the old witch looked like a dead person. The scent of death and decay was even more apparent now, and she looked like she was a corpse which had just crawled out of an old tomb. The undulations from her spiritual force were also extremely feeble.
This condition immediately alarmed Leylin.
For Magi, injuries on one’s physical body were insignificant, but if one’s spiritual force showed signs of weakening, that immediately meant that one’s might was decreasing.
The old witch was still Leylin’s ally, and he didn’t want his supplier to suddenly disappear.
“Nothing much! Just a recent experiment that’s approaching its crucial stage!” Her body was already as weak as it could get, and just speaking resulted in her panting. However, the light in her eyes was even more radiant, as if on the verge of burning up.
Leylin had seen such a fervent heat in a person’s gaze before-- in his previous life, in the eyes of lunatics and crazy people.
“You’d better not keep anything from me. Remember, we’re allies. Haven’t we been working well together in this past year?”
Leylin obviously didn’t believe her vague explanation.
“When it’s time, I’ll definitely tell you everything.”
The old witch gave a mysterious grin. “Also, I’ve found the spiritual force concealment method that you requested the previous time.”
“What? What?!” This was so unexpected that a smile surfaced on Leylin’s face.
He had always been searching for this content on the sly and attended a few of the dark Magi’s bazaars and meets to exchange resources, but to no avail.
He wasn’t expecting much when he employed her help, and it was a pleasant surprise that she had actually gotten what he wanted.
“This is information regarding the compression of spiritual force. Take a look!” She passed a green leaf to him.
Leylin reached out and took it, and then placed it on his forehead.
A cool feeling was emitted from the leaf and permeated Leylin’s skull, going straight into the depths of his brain.
[Spiritual force data interface has been detected. To accept the connection or not?] The A.I. Chip’s voice intoned.
“Accept!” With Leylin’s command, a massive stream of information entered Leylin’s sea of consciousness. It was constantly broken down, recorded and analysed by the A.I. Chip.
“Overall, the compression of spiritual force is to stack the spiritual force together continuously, arising in a different frequency of energy waves. From there, one can achieve the purpose of concealing their spiritual force…”
After browsing through for a while, Leylin smiled in satisfaction.
“This piece of information is very useful to me, but it seems to be incomplete. Where is the rest of it? Take it out! What do you want? Magic crystals? Potions? Resources? Just give the word!”
Leylin appeared to be extremely rich and overbearing.
“Hehehe… Just with the first half of this information, your spiritual force will be untraceable to all rank 1 Magi. Once you have the second half, even a rank 2 Magus won't be able to discover your spiritual force energy waves. Although you can definitely afford it, I wish to make a trade with you using another method…” The old witch said with a cryptic laugh and hooted.
“What method?” Leylin’s brows furrowed, guessing that it was going to be extremely troublesome.
“I will give you the first half of the information now as a gift of thanks for being my ally!” The old witch appeared to be extremely generous, “As for the second half, I need you to do something for me!”
It was obvious that the old witch was using the second half of the information as bait to have Leylin help her with a certain matter.
“I need to know the specifics.”
Leylin did not refuse, but he did not agree either.
“Hehe… Don’t worry, I won’t ask you to hold back a rank 2 Magus or anything like that. I just want you to accompany me to explore some ruins.”
The old witch revealed her true motive.
“Exploring ruins? What ruins?” Leylin probed curiously.
“The remnants of the Ancient Spirit Slaying Sect!”