Escape
Kesha felt giddy, her head was spinning, but she soon fell into a strong embrace.
“Ley…Leylin!” She was taken aback and called out his name.
“Sister, it looks like you’re in a difficult situation!“ Leylin rubbed his nose and gently laid Kesha down. He then tossed a potion at her.
“This is a purifying potion, it can eliminate the curse energy from your body! Use it as soon as possible!”
“Thank you!” Kesha’s face glowed with a lovely smile. Having just escaped from death, she was especially touched.
“Wait up! That… Can you also give me one…?” The huge Green-skinned Barbarian Magus rolled over like a ball, and he was eager to please.
“Huh?” Leylin looked at Kesha.
“Give it to him! After all, we fought alongside each other!” Kesha nodded her head.
At this moment, countless black shadows exploded forth with a bang. Trenchcoat stood in the center, completely unharmed. He made eye contact with Leylin and started roaring.
“This kind of feeling, it isn’t a common hybrid curse. It’s a gene curse!” Leylin’s face grew absolutely serious.
The so-called gene curse was a high-grade curse. It had the ability to materialise itself which was extremely difficult to cure.
Leylin himself had mastered a few curses. However, even he was not too sure about these gene curses.
“I’ll take care of him. You two, use the potions and leave as quickly as possible!” he said in a deep voice.
As with any curse, there were limitations on the scope of the effect. As for Trenchcoat’s gene curse, it most likely prevented him from leaving the confines of Quicksand Castle. In fact, he might not even make it through the illusory corridor in the outer layer.
Kesha and the Green-skinned Barbarian nodded their heads in agreement and opened the test tubes.
“Right, for such a high-grade curse to make an appearance is fortunate. I have long wanted to study them!” Leylin’s eyes lit up like a spark of fire. He threw out a large number of potions.
*Boom* A flash of jade-green flames ignited and blazed fiercely.
“dkjsklgmnsklm……”
Trenchcoat seemed to have some apprehensions with regards to these flames and muttered some senseless words.
“A.I. Chip! “Leylin ordered, “Compare with every language in the database!“ However, the A.I.Chip had not recorded Trenchcoat’s words and so was unable to find an answer.
“Let’s go!” Kesha and the Green-skinned Barbarian yelled. Both had the black cursed energies from their body expelled successfully by the purifying potions.
As he watched Leylin and his two companions leaving, Trenchcoat standing opposite bellowed loudly and charged at them.
*Crackle!* A copious amount of jade green flames were blazing on his body ferociously. Big patches of black clothing were flaking off onto the ground, revealing the badly scarred skin beneath.
A long hideous wound extended all the way down from his right shoulder blade. It looked like a huge black centipede, a sinister and horrifying sight.
What made Leylin frown was the fact that the profound and brutal power of the curse seemed more pronounced and vigorous on Trenchcoat’s body.
“Run, now!” Leylin waved the Meteor Sword in his hand, bringing forth horrifying poisons and the sharp radiant sword shadows, causing the surrounding structures to collapse one by one.
“Use this!” The Green-skinned Barbarian held out a glittering crystal ball that was radiating beautiful, brilliant rays.
“This is an escape crystal ball. It consists of at least 5 escape charms, enough to get us out of here!” The Green-skinned Barbarian Magus met Leylin’s eyes and explained it to him, seemingly trying to win his favour.
“Good job!” The blue light in his eyes sparkled and the A.I. Chip affirmed the authenticity of the crystal ball and its favourable functions.
He immediately stimulated the crystal ball and the three of them vanished in a blinding flash.
A black shadow whizzed past and Trenchcoat’s pair of scissors slashed across empty space as it produced senseless, incoherent roars.
Inside the illusory corridor, the surrounding walls were filled with images of many plants and flowers. Many of the plants were in a continuous loop of life -- from germination, to growth, then blossoming and finally withering.
*Bang! Bang! Bang!* Loud thuds of heavy objects falling were heard. Leylin and the rest were in the middle of the corridor.
“Alright! I can no longer feel the power of the curse at this location. You are all safe!” He shut his eyes and exclaimed.
Hearing his words, Kesha and the Green-skinned Barbarian broke into smiles of relief and joy.
“So, it is now time to discuss how we should ‘handle’ this!” Leylin pointed his finger at the Green-skinned Barbarian, revealing a sinister and calculative grin.
“Oh! No! You can’t do this to me. I saved your companion’s life! And we even fought alongside in battle!” The Green-skinned Barbarian raised both his arms, pleading innocently.
It didn’t adopt any form of resistance as its spiritual force had been drained a few days ago when it was in pursuit. It even needed Leylin to stimulate the escape crystal ball as it wasn’t able to do it on its own.
“But the fact is, you came here to capture us, no?” Leylin saw through his clumsy trickery. Thus, he held up the cross blade and aimed for the Green-skinned Barbarian’s brains.
“Seeing how things have turned out, you have paid the price accordingly. I will spare your life this time!” At that moment, Leylin revealed his true intentions.
Having heard what he said, Kesha, who was initially displeased, suddenly snapped out of her emotional state.
“But…. I do not possess any other good stuff!” The Green-skinned Barbarian Magus pleaded pitifully, but secretly slipped an odd bracelet out of his right hand.
Leylin refused to believe that. Being a Crystal Phase Magus, how could it not have a few aces up its sleeve?
Looking at the current situation, although both parties were seriously injured, they could have mustered up their remaining strength for another fight. Yet, Leylin only wanted compensation and did not want to test the opposite party’s threshold which would have inevitably caused them both to suffer.
“Hand over the compensation! Or do you want to start a fight here?” Leylin’s tone was harsh and intense.
“Sister Kesha! When the compensation is presented, I’ll share 50 percent with you!” Once these words were spoken, Kesha immediately inched closer to Leylin’s side, showing her support.
For this exploration, Kesha had ended up losing her life savings and there was no way she could ever step foot into Quicksand Castle again. She had also lost three capable assistants, who were all feared dead, so now she thirsted for compensation for her losses.
Seeing how Kesha reacted, the Green-skinned Barbarian let out a bitter smile, “All of you human Magi are shrewd and greedy, worse than the devil!”
It resigned itself to its fate, crouched down, and handed a black pouch to Leylin.
“Go ahead and take a look! My treasures are all in there!”
Leylin reached out to received the pouch that seemed to be made from animal fur. Upon further probing, many useful items of brilliant lights and vibrant colours could be seen.
Crystal Phase Magi in the Forgotten Land were not as wealthy as Crystal Phase Magi elsewhere, but it was enough to please the two Vapour Phase Magi.
There were so many precious materials inside that Kesha was dazzled by its extraordinary splendor as she let out a thrilling cry.
Leylin chose some of the most precious ones, including a few copies of notes and thereafter handed the pouch to Kesha.
Kesha showered her delicate charm on Leylin in appreciation, then started choosing gems from the pouch without restraint. When she finally passed the pouch to the Green-skinned Barbarian, it was obvious the pouch was shrivelled and light, with lots of missing items. The Green-skinned Barbarian was heartbroken.
“Alright! Since the ransom has been paid, we shall take our leave!”
Leylin bowed slightly, his lips curled in a slight smile as he walked quickly along the corridor with Kesha. They disappeared at the end, leaving the Green-skinned Barbarian speechless and bitter.
A few days later, at the desert surrounding the Quicksand Castle, in a dim and gloomy underground area.
A wave of bright red brilliant rays flashed past, and the silhouettes of the uncle-nephew pair — Robin and Noah — appeared out of thin air.
“You are both finally here, Leylin and I have been waiting for a long time!”
Kesha stood up, a tone of dissatisfaction in her voice. Soon after, she gazed attentively at Robin: “You…… what happened?”
Using her aura detection abilities, it seemed that Robin had changed greatly, yet she couldn’t tell exactly what changed.
“Huh?” Leylin scrutinized Robin’s face intently.
There was no change in his outer appearance, with an unusually bewitching handsome outlook, but in the space between his eyebrows, there was an additional black symbol imprinted. Multiple blood vessel lookalikes covered his entire forehead.
What amazed Leylin more was that the Giant Kemoyin Serpent bloodline on Robin’s body seemed to be strengthening continuously, with the tendency to purify gradually.
If it weren’t for the extremely pure and concise bloodline in Leylin’s own body, together with the probing of the A.I. Chip, he wouldn’t have noticed such changes.
“It’s nothing. On the contrary, I have never felt better!“ Robin chuckled, rational as ever as he whipped out a huge foreleg and started gnawing on it.
There were scales covering the whole animal foreleg and purple-black blood was still dripping from the severed site. It was clearly a high-energy creature from the vicinity.
Robin wolfed down his food with gusto and finished it up with just a few mouthfuls, meat and bones.
He felt like he could be wrong, but after eating the meat, Robin’s bloodline seemed to have strengthened slightly again.
“Eww…” Noah’s face turned ash-white after witnessing Robin feasting on his food. He turned away, not daring to take another look.
“And what happened to you?” Leylin had a premonition. He was sure Robin had acquired some rare resources from Quicksand Castle.
Of course, he had his own fortuitous encounter and the benefits were not small. Luck wouldn’t shine on only one person, and Leylin understood this theory.
“No...Nothing, it was just a traumatic experience. I might fast for a period, I do not even want to see anybody eating anything.…”
Noah waved his hand weakly. The horrible memories from the previous dinner left a deep horrifying impression on him.
“Noah has experienced too little, let him be! We need to leave the Quicksand pocket dimension immediately! Any objections?”
()
Robin was evidently clear-headed and wise, not mentioning anything about his experiences in the castle. Leylin and Kesha, as well, were too tactful to ask.