Entering the Caves Again
There were a total of three beast emperors who had snuck in to launch the surprise attack.
This giant blue ape was obviously a lot more intelligent than its two companions, and from the very beginning, it had planned to escape, secretly heading to the edges of the battlefield. Seeing Leylin extending his Morning Star domain, it ran even harder without regard for its life.
It was a pity that little ruses like these were akin to jokes in front of a Morning Star.
“Blood Extraction!” Crimson light flashed in Leylin’s eyes, giving the giant ape a feeling that catastrophe was coming. However, under the suppression of the Morning Star domain, it could not resist.
Blood dripped from its pores, quickly taking form in Leylin’s hands. With the loss of such large amounts of blood, the ape’s aura grew increasingly weak, and its howls of pain gradually turned into whines.
*Thud!* A withered corpse fell to the ground, turning into multiple pieces of dried meat with no nutrition.
[Beep! The weak aura of an ancient bloodline has been discovered. The source has been determined to be the Water Monkey.] The A.I. Chip quickly prompted.
“Oh? Not bad! No wonder it’s much smarter than the rest of the darkness creatures.” Leylin glanced at the scarlet and crimson intertwined with a trace of blue, and stowed it away.
The terrifying Blood Extraction was still kept up, but the bloodline crystals being formed weren’t nearly worth Leylin taking them. He tossed them to Celine, Will, and the others, and they stowed them away like they were treasures.
*Boom! Boom! Boom!* Their blood having been drawn out, the beings of the other races fell to the ground, dried out. No matter how powerful they were, they were but ants in the face of a Morning Star domain.
In just a few breaths, most of them had disappeared, and all that was left was a bunch of fragmented corpses. The essence of their bodies had already been taken away with their blood, and their bodies now held less nutrition than even the soil. They would soon crumble apart.
After Leylin withdrew his Morning Star domain, the human Magi had realised that besides Alicia and a few other matriarchs who were kneeling, all members of the other races, as well as the indecisive dark elves, had been eliminated.
In a single move, countless rank 3 rulers and a hundred years of accumulated power had gone up in a wisp!
Many Magi almost fainted as if they were in a nightmare.
……
In the snow-white passageway, Leylin had his hands behind his back, surveying the surroundings with interest. Celine followed behind him, constantly giving him reports.
“All the academies have sworn their allegiance to us once more and are willing to listen to the commands of Nature’s Alliance. The allied armies of the other races have been completely exterminated. Congratulations, the whole of Twilight Zone is now under you once again!”
“Oh!” Leylin agreed with a sound, eyes still sizing up the ice on the walls, as if all of Twilight Zone was not as important as this piece of ice.
Seeing him act this way, Celine could not help but sigh inside. If this was in the past, she would have grown ecstatic due to the power she had been given.
Now, however, her previous experiences had dulled her thirst for power. She simply tucked her hair behind her head and continued making the report. “Our armies have already broken through the dwarves’ palace and mechanical capital of the gnomes. All of them had enslaved.”
The terror of a Morning Star was immense. After Leylin was done showing off his power, the other races had learnt the meaning of overwhelming despair.
Though conspiring together had raised their strength to a certain extent, nothing could be done about a disparity as wide as the distance between the heavens and the earth.
Hence, the humans had quickly unified the area, and it was all under Leylin.
The foreign races, who had lost many powerful commanders, could not resist the humans’ attacks at all.
“Also, at the dark elves’ side, the Grand Matriarch has already retreated to their original territory, and is willing to sign a firm contract that the dark elves will be the humans’ vassals and servants for all eternity.”
This kind of agreement that affected the whole elven race was very harsh. If violated, the backlash could cause the entire race to be killed. Hence, this was just secondary to being exterminated. The last time, Leylin had merely forced them to escape to the edges of Twilight Zone, and they had to offer tributes every once in a while. There had not been any pledges like this.
Now, with the deaths of the dwarves and gnomes, even this was quite a good choice for them.
“Alicia is quite tactful!” Leylin laughed, but that only caused Celine to grow jealous as she felt an impending crisis.
Walking through the icy tunnels, Leylin and Celine came before a rift where large amounts of chilling winds surged out, even having attacks from icy blades and the like.
*Buzz!* A green defensive layer appeared on Celine’s body, but could not withstand the corrosion of the ice. Her expression changed. The cold winds of the cave were something even rank 2 Magi could not resist!
Just as Celine felt the chill about to enter her body, Leylin finally made his move. Black flames formed a wall of fire in front of them and kept the cold outside.
“When did this area become like this?” Leylin sized up the cave, looking grim. This was the entrance to the Icy Cave, but its appearance had changed drastically. Terrifyingly chilly storms surged within, so cold that even rank 2 Magi could not hold on for long. Things like having acolytes practising inside was naturally not possible anymore.
“87 years ago, the storms inside the Icy Cave grew increasingly violent. First, the acolytes could not take it anymore, and after that, even the guard Magi had no choice to leave and abandon this area.”
Celine watched the Icy Cave, feeling as if she was seeing an ancient monster opening its mouth ferociously. She could not help but hide behind Leylin.
“Based on the scanning by our academy, the icy caves’ icy radiation has already reached dragon-grade! Even rank 3s cannot enter the place anymore…”
“Mm!” Leylin nodded. He had long since found that there was an even larger world of ice under the Icy Cave, a world stemming from the radiation caused by the blood of the female bronze giant from the Icy World. This miniature version of the Icy World was vast and full of dangers, a place even he would not have entered at rank 3.
And by the looks of it, this world of ice was growing larger.
“The blood of a being that has grasped laws is this powerful even after death!” Leylin sighed ruefully, his eyes emitting blue rays as he peered through the darkness of the caves and into its depths.
“Leylin, you– you want to go down?” Celine asked from the side in concern.
“Yes, there’s something I want to retrieve from there!” Leylin nodded. There was no harm in admitting this. He feared nobody in Twilight Zone. Even if all the Magi here teamed up with all the members of the other races to oppose him, they could be taken care of with a single Morning Star Arcane Art.
“Be careful!” Celine bit her lips. Leylin had not shown a whit of interest in anything in Twilight Zone after his return. The only thing he’d done was take care of the attack by the other races.
She felt like Leylin had returned just for the Icy Cave, and would leave once more soon enough.
Even so, what could she do? She watched as his figure disappeared into the Icy Cave with a complicated expression. She couldn’t even handle the chilly gusts, so how was she to catch up to his footsteps? She could only sigh.
“Is the difference between me and Leylin already so huge?” In that moment, Celine was disappointed and frustrated.
With the howling of the winds from both sides, Leylin no longer bothered with Celine. He had only helped out with Twilight Zone because he’d encountered it on his way. If not, even if the entire Twilight Zone was placed in front of him, he probably wouldn’t really care.
Twilight Zone really was too barren for a Morning Star. It held nothing valuable other than its large lands.
Leylin had only one goal in coming here, and that was the world of ice!
At this moment, the A.I. Chip’s robotic voice sounded out. [Beep! Ambient temperatures dropping rapidly. Activating real time detection.]
[Current temperature: 173 Kelvin… 123 Kelvin…] The number in the field indicating temperature dropped continuously, eventually even dropping below absolute zero!
Terrifying cold covered the area, and even spacetime seemed to freeze over. The place was bathed in blue light.
“As expected, one can’t use common sense from my previous world here. Even the physical constants have changed…” Leylin’s body had been wrapped up in black flames, like being covered in an armour of flames.
The ground he was walking on was blue, the rigid ice as glossy as a mirror and yet surpassing even many magic alloys in terms of hardness.
The A.I. Chip’s prompt sounded again. [Beep! Detected icy radiation. 69% similar to radiation in database from the Icy Jade Scorpion. Strength multiplier is 178.6.]
“The world of ice has already expanded to this point?” Leylin was shocked.
In the meanwhile, he looked at the topographic map that had been stored inside the A.I. Chip’s database. It was evident that the terrain of the Icy Cave was similar to before, but the surface now had a much firmer layer of blue ice on top, and many creatures had been affected.
*Chik chik…* Not far away, a being called out, and the A.I. Chip immediately sent a reading. Leylin’s expression changed as he walked over.
In front of him now was a creature he was very familiar with— an Icy Jade Scorpion!
Compared with the elite Icy Jade Scorpion he had seen before, what appeared in front of Leylin was several times larger, and the strength of its energy had reached rank 2!
Even the female face on its back seemed more vivid.
“Has the radiation from the blood of a creature that comprehended laws begun to affect even physical growth?” Leylin grew serious.