732 - 740

Serpentes Plains

After death, Kenta's corpse swelled and regained its form of a giant snake that was tens of thousands of metres long.

A flicker of a truesoul abruptly emerged, as if about to accept guidance into the cosmic world and turn into a floating island for all eternity.

"Trying to leave?"

Leylin sneered, terrifying power sealing the surroundings. Dark red chains trapped the truesoul and was emptied into the black crystal ball in Leylin's hands.

"The soul of a rank 5 is the main ingredient for a rank 5 beast spirit!" Leylin muttered to himself, keeping the crystal ball properly.

"The materials for the dream imprint have been gathered!"

Leylin came before the gigantic carcass of the Alabaster Devil. After having much of its blood extracted, the body looked like it had shrunken, but was still tremendous.

"Return!" With a flash of spatial undulations, the large snake carcass disappeared without a trace. This was the body of a rank 5 giant snake, and even without blood, it still had a very high value.

"Next is all of you!"

Leylin surveyed his surroundings. The nobility of the Alabaster Devils who saw that Leylin had killed their family leader without any trouble and they themselves affected by the Intoxicated Serpent Flowers, they were now completely in despair.

"Their bloodline force is too varied. What a disappointment."

Leylin grabbed forward, and crimson blades of light appeared, decapitating the giant Alabaster Snakes that had been lying on the ground. Leylin gathered the materials and only left behind Belinda and the rest of the mixed bloods.

Leylin set up a humongous, grey offering spell formation where he placed the rest of the materials that he did not need.

*Chirp chirp!*

The figure of a giant grey bird appeared, large amounts of grey flames absorbing these offerings.

"You did well! Not only did you kill one of the clones of the Snake Dowager, you even sacrificed the descendants of the Snake Dowager. I am very satisfied!"

Large amounts of the power of chaos descended. If Leylin was willing, he could raise his offerer ranking up to rank 5, but Leylin did not want to do so.

After rank 4, he would need to place the dignitary's markings on his own body, which was completely unacceptable for Leylin.

Hence, he chose to gather all this power and turn them into crystals to be stored.

Leylin then charged into the mansion, gathering all the treasures and documents before leaving in satisfaction.

...

"It's over? So that powerful person is a follower of the Nefarious Filthbird! The offerer rank should be at or above rank 5…"

A long while after Leylin left, Belinda struggled to get up and gazed at the White River Valley that had turned into a pile of ruins.

Only a few mixed bloods survived. Due to her traps and the Intoxicated Serpent Flowers, many had lost most of their strength and could be killed easily.

Noticing Belinda looking over, these people immediately gazed at her imploringly.

"Hehe… family!"

Belinda shook her head. While she had already completed her revenge, it still felt like something was missing.

Elated, she was just about to leave when, at the entrance to the valley, she saw two people that left her in shock.

"Why did you come here? Are you trying to create trouble?"

"Sister!" Sophia yelled and threw herself into Belinda's arms.

"Brother Nick and I were so worried for you! Sister… boohoo…" Sophia's eyes went red, and while Belinda consoled Sophia, she glared at Leylin venomously.

"Hehe…" Seeing the sisters embracing each other, Leylin merely laughed and rubbed his nose.

He had already retrieved the shadow clone secretly. With his strength, he wouldn't find any trouble hiding from a bunch of rank 4 or 5s, much less a little lass.

"So? Is everything settled?"

"Everything's settled!" Belinda turned and gazed at the White River Valley that was now in a very sorry state, patting Sophia's head, "Let's go and never return…"

"Mm, alright!" Sophia answered, looking excited. It seemed that she did not have many happy memories here.

...

On the plains that were moving up and down occasionally, gigantic snake paths could be seen, as well as moulted skin and scales.

The round moon in the sky emanated a purple luster and looked especially evil.

An orange-yellow bonfire flickered on the plains with a warm luster, with several simple tents nearby.

"There are descendants of the Mistress on the Serpentes Plains, as well as many mixed bloods. We need to be careful and try our best to be as far as we can from these snake paths…"

Belinda gazed at Leylin meaningfully, "Also, try your best not to attack. These large snakes have parentages that can be traced back to various large families…"

Amongst the descendants of the Snake Dowager, even in the family of the Alabaster Devilsnakes, there were many branches. The top were of course the tens of pure-blood families, where practically every member was a pure blood.

Belinda's family was a mere distant branch with a bloodline that was not very pure. In the whole family, only her father was a pure blood, and his lifelong wish was to refine the family's bloodline till it was pure. He did not mind committing sins for this reason, which had resulted in much suffering during Belinda's childhood years.

Of course, all of this was already over. Belinda was now just warning them.

"Alright!" Leylin smiled tenderly, passing over the grilled meat with sizzling oil that was emitting steam.

"Thank you…" Belinda extended her arm and took it, and then passed the food to Sophia. He watched her tear it into pieces carefully, smiling so much that his eyes were like crescents and traces of gentleness could be seen on his expression.

"Did you notice anything?"

Leylin had a varying opinion, "Yes! Even if I get Sophia to be an alibi, the timing at which I appeared both times is too coincidental. Anyone would suspect that. Of course, that's merely a suspicion…"

Belinda was no fool. At most, she had guessed that Leylin had hidden his true strength as he was a follower of the Filthbird, but would definitely not connect him with the fugitive Magus.

"Besides, the few times I acted were all for her sake. Even if she discovers anything, she won't leak news of it…"

Leylin was confident in this. He could tell Belinda's nature, and her reliance on those of her own race was so much so that it was almost abnormal.

This time, especially, she had passed her sister to him. That already indicated that she regarded her as someone close to her.

In this situation, the possibility of her betraying Leylin was low. Furthermore, she didn't know Leylin's true identity.

"But I still need to guard myself against this situation!" Leylin rubbed his chin. He had yet to retrieve the stardust bugs he had left on her.

Whether it was on the Serpentes Plains or the holy city, he needed a guide. Take for instance the traversing. Without her providing the Dream Forest, Leylin would probably still be hastening along along the coast, and it would take about half a year to even reach the Serpentes Plains.

For Leylin, who was tight on time, this was very useful.

"You guys can eat first. I'll go get some rest!" Gobbling up his food, Leylin elegantly bade the sisters farewell and entered his tent.

On the surface, he merely lay on the soft mat and closed his eyes to rest. Inside, however, he was conversing with the A.I. Chip.

"A.I. Chip, have you reorganised all the materials gathered yet?"

Leylin asked. These were naturally items gathered from Belinda's family. After killing the leader, Leylin had charged into their mansion and plundered it, taking not just treasures and resources, but also all sorts of books.

This information was then passed on to the A.I. Chip to tidy up.

If Belinda were to find out that the thief who had robbed from her family was now flipping through her family's collection unabashedly, he wondered what her expression would be like.

She had made some guesses in the past before, and was even subconsciously denying this thought.

[Beep! Reorganisation complete. Calculated to be 34 printed resources, 13 with beast skin, 142 with content stored with spiritual force. Conversion to stats completed.]

The A.I. Chip loyally intoned.

[Others have been categorized. Related to strength systems: 16. Related to geography: 24. Related to materials: 9. Others have been deemed to be general or miscallaneous information.]

With the A.I. Chip's abilities, it could quickly scan and categorise the information and form a complete library for Leylin to browse through.

"Mm! Show me information regarding rank 5 beast spirit masters, especially the part about the spell formation to seal beast spirits!"

Leylin commanded.

[Preparation of related information has been completed. Transmitting to Host's memories.]

Along with the A.I. Chip's voice, Leylin felt there was another portion of content in his memory that was related to the training of higher-ranked beast spirit masters. It felt very familiar to him, as if he had recorded everything painstakingly himself.

"When it comes to training, rank 5 beast spirit masters need to have a good truesoul as a base. One must completely destroy the remaining conscience that remains in the rank 5 beast spirit and use a rank 5 soul sealing spell formation. The boosts and support from using beast spirits will also be on a higher level."

Leylin carefully pondered over the differences between a rank 5 beast spirit master and one weaker. Power at rank 5 and above was academic knowledge that was tightly sealed. In the Elias port, Leylin had only gathered information up to a rank 4 beast spirit master. Anything above that was strictly against the rules.

However, Belinda's family was Alabaster Devil family and had a long history and even a rank 5. The content on this was therefore very detailed and thorough.

"I have the theory and knowledge, and the beast spirit is also in my possession. What's left is to do it…"

Two Conditions

"The most important part of a beast spirit master is the training of his soul power. Any Magus will not face any issues in this aspect. After sealing the rank 5 beast spirit, and adding the other tricks that I prepared beforehand, it should be possible to push the truesoul to advance to the peak of rank 5 at Full Moon…"

Leylin stroked his chin, his eyes emitting large amounts of light.

"A.I. Chip! Based on my previous calculations, what is the rate of success of this method?"

[Beep! Task established. Inputting data, constructing main model, in the midst of simulation experiment… Beep! Success rate is 78.99%!] The A.I. Chip immediately intoned faithfully.

"A rather decent probability. If it's the peak of a rank 5, there will be an additional guarantee to the feasibility of my final plan…" Leylin muttered to himself.

His fundamental purpose of coming to the Purgatory World was to break the bloodline shackles, the eternal curse that perplexed all Warlocks!

Due to the restrictions of the bloodline shackles, even if the Warlocks could have advanced by leaps and bounds in the earlier stages, so much that they could be stronger than Magi of the same rank, these chains still held them back. A mere look at the current central continent would reveal that there were many rank 6 Breaking Dawn Thrones among those Magi, yet not a single Warlock was of that status. If not for the support from the Morning Star fort and a few rank 5 Warlocks, the entire Warlock heritage would be broken off, and one would be able to imagine what would happen next!

According to Leylin's own understanding of the bloodlines, and the guidance previously given by the Wisdom Tree in the Scarlet Ruins, Leylin had a obtained a greater knowledge of such bloodline shackles.

"Bloodline shackles! The root cause is still the bottleneck in bloodline strength, which has infiltrated every single cell, and even the genes, of Warlocks. It was much like the 'gene locks' hypothesis proposed in his previous world, but of course, even scarier, forming a shackle that restricts the soul…"because it had transformed one's soul and turned into a spiritual chain…"

"And to break through the confinements of the bloodline strength, it requires an advanced force that is at least of a higher grade than bloodline strength! Also… the blood of the origin!" Leylin's pupils twinkled with a fervent glow, which even contained a hidden trace of… fear!

Leylin previously did not know about a force that was of a higher grade than bloodline strength. But upon entering the rank 5 realm, his horizons had been broadened, and he had already found two types during his experiences in a great many other worlds. The first was Dreamscape energy at its peak value, not the kind at its lowest point. The second was the power of laws, and it had to be complete, or above 90% at the very least; not the kind of semi-finished goods like the Flame Monarch's, which didn't even have half of the comprehension of laws.

No matter which type, they were not easy to obtain.

Firstly, the Dreamscape energy. Although the Dreamscape energy that Leylin usually brought with him seemed incomparably tough, it was far from its peak value.

After all, at its peak value, it was possible for Dreamscape energy to bear demonic spirits!

Based on Leylin's train of thought, perhaps… Only the real Dreamscape demonic spirits would be able to summon the Dreamscape energy at peak value! The deceptive uncertainty of the Dreamscape energy made implementing this plan especially inconvenient.

As for the power of laws, it was needless to say much. As of now, Leylin hadn't even fully comprehended even one percent of the fire laws. To truly come into contact with the energy of the rules, one had to be at least a rank 6 Magus, and to completely gain control of it was something that only a rank 7 Magus could do.

This formed a paradox: in order to break through the bloodline shackles, one had to grasp either the Dreamscape energy of the energy of laws, or they would be unable to advance to realms that were above rank 6. Yet, these two types of energy required one to be at least a rank 6 before they could attempt to master them. But without breaking through the bloodline shackles, it was absolutely impossible for Leylin to promote to rank 6!

This mere vicious cycle was enough to dash the hopes of all Giant Kemoyin Serpent Warlocks who wished to break through their bloodline shackles, much less satisfy the other conditions after that.

Fortunately, the gift from the Wisdom Tree previously, as well as the information obtained in the Purgatory World allowed Leylin a method around this knowledge gap.

The second condition was the blood of the origin, which would be the blood that was the source of the Giant Kemoyin Serpent bloodline.

This origin was something that Leylin felt a trace of dread towards.

The origin of his bloodline was a rank 8 being, the Exemplary of the Hale Continent, master of all snake species: the Snake Dowager! Stabbing a rank 8 being? Heh… It was probably easier to think of how to die…

But no matter how challenging, Leylin would not give up. This was a stumbling block in his journey to become a rank 9 Warlock at his peak, and his pursuit of an eternal path.

Without removing it, it was simply impossible for Leylin to advance to a higher realm.

However, the difficulty of having to stab a rank 8 being was something that Leylin could only laugh bitterly about.

Anyway, in order to stab the Snake Dowager, the problem of whether he'd be able to defeat her aside, he would have to find her at the very least, no matter what.

Therefore, Leylin had no other choice but to head towards the holy city of the Hale Continent. Besides, this was the sacred place of the descendants of the Snake Dowager, and also a place rumoured to be favoured by the Snake Dowager herself.

According to the intelligence reports and the analysis of a few resource materials that Leylin had gathered, the possibility of the Snake Dowager being there was high.

After all, every once in while on the 'Snake Dowager's birthday', the Dignitary Snake Dowager would appear, giving rise to the holy city's rumour of it being her favoured place.

Other than waiting idly outside the holy city and leaving it to chance, Leylin didn't have a better plan.

Of course, if she didn't appear in the end, Leylin would have to take the initiative to show himself instead. He believed that she would definitely rush over by hook or crook upon discovering his tracks. But in doing so, Leylin would lose his chance to make the first move, and he thus dared dared not take action.

What he hoped for was to secretly stay low in the holy city, then find a suitable opportunity and strategy so that he could firmly seize the upper-hand and give himself the advantage of making the first move.

"Although I already have a defined draft and contingency plan in mind, why do I feel like I'm indulging in a wild fantasy?"

Leylin gave a bitter laugh. Taking into account his strength as a rank 5 Warlock, wanting to challenge the Snake Dowager and even seize control of the Dreamscape or energy of laws was a wild thought no matter how he thought about it.

However, he didn't regret choosing the Warlock path then. After all, at that time, Leylin was an acolyte who did not even hope to obtain other high-ranking meditation techniques.

Moreover, with his average natural endowments, if he didn't pick the bloodline path, perhaps he might still be a rank 2 or 3 Magus fooling around in the south coast.

Without the supplemented bloodline energy, even if he had other methods, he would be far from having the graceful bearing of someone practically without a rival of the same rank, which had allowed him to acquire more resources.

In both the Magus and Warlock paths, the greater one's strength was, the more one gained. The weak would only be slowly tossed to the sidelines, and eventually lose all hope. Even if they lived longer than ordinary people, and grasped formidable strength, it would still be hard to escape the evil palm of death.

"When in pursuit of the path to eternity, naturally the faster one walks, the more one is at an advantage!"

Leylin reminded himself and ingrained it in him. As he had chosen the bloodline path, he was now a rank 5 Radiant Moon Magus, and would be considered a decent contender in ancient times.

Additionally, due to the amplification of the bloodline energy, his multiple advancements were strangely quick. As compared to his life, which would be thousands of years long, he was still in his infancy years. This was under the circumstances in which spells that contributed to his life expectancy were not considered.

Even if those rank 5 Magi possessed all sorts of spells that would increase their vitality, they would have spent a great amount of time climbing to the rank 5 realm, and it would be amazing if they could live for another millennium.

In comparison, Leylin virtually held a huge advantage.

Of course, everything evened out. Since Leylin had obtained extraordinary strength and a longer life span, he naturally had to carry the burden of the corresponding restriction: the bloodline shackles!

Once this restriction was broken through, it would be time for Leylin to shoot for the sky!

"Even if it's a gamble, so what? If I can't obtain eternity in this life, what's the point of me travelling here? For my body to decay in another world, for my truesoul to be annihilated, and to turn into filthy soil?"

Large amounts of radiance glowed in Leylin's pupils.

"On the other hand, even if I fall on my journey in pursuit of eternity, I would have accomplished my dream and achieved a marvelous life experience, second to none!"

"Now that I've laid my cards on the table, this would naturally increase the probability of success. Although a Half Moon and Full Moon would appear like ants to a rank 8 being, the main difference being their size, but at a critical moment which would determine life and death, an increase of the success rate by even a millionth would be useful!"

Leylin communicated with the A.I. Chip, "How's the progress on the analysis of the rank 5 spirit seal spell formation?"

[Beep! 100% of the spell formation has been analyzed, ready for optimization.] The A.I. Chip projected a simple and unadorned spirit seal spell formation in front of Leylin. The runes on it reeked of the distinct style of the Purgatory World.

[Optimization will lower the beast spirit's willpower to resist, raising the degree of a harmonious relationship by 15%.]

"This probability is slightly lower than the rank 4 spirit seal spell formation from before. But it's understandable considering how the quality of the spirit seal spell formation gathered by Belinda's family was already very high…"

A gloomy radiance unknowingly came into view all of a sudden, forming a barrier that isolated the inside of the tent from the rest of the outside world.

Shortly after, a crystal ball appeared with a flip of Leylin's palm. Within the crystal ball was a small white snake, its pupils a deep red. Its forked tongue showed from time to time, as though trying to probe the seal on the crystal ball.

The aura of a rank 5 Alabaster Devilsnake kept radiating out. If not for the barrier that Leylin deployed, it would have definitely been sensed by Belinda, who was outside.

"A rank 5 Alabaster Devilsnake… Even though its a beast spirit, it's very formidable, and a rare find amongst rank 5 creatures. Of course, unless I wish to become a fugitive wanted by everyone, I can't use it often here because this is the Hale Continent. It's even better if I silence those who come face to face with it…"

"We meet again, Chief Kenta!"

Leylin smiled weakly. A soul force of Half Moon rank probed into the crystal ball, and it immediately sensed the tremendous and brutal spiritual force engulfing it, complete with hostility.

Since he wanted to train it into a beast spirit, its memories had naturally been destroyed long ago. However, its enmity towards Leylin was instinctively left behind, and was still considered an inconvenience.

A Strange Environment

The beast spirit had to be attacked personally, resulting in a blood feud between the two. Its hostility, along with its instinctive resistance against being enslaved, simply made subduing this beast spirit a fantasy for any average beast spirit master.

"Resistance is futile!" Leylin shook his head. Magi and Warlocks definitely cultivated their truesouls to a greater degree compared to the aboriginals of the Purgatory World.

With his tricks and refined manipulation techniques, it was possible to even extract the hatred from the beast spirit directly, as though it was a highly precise surgery. This would greatly reduce the difficulty of subduing the beast spirit.

However, in comparison to making use of one's truesoul to defeat it, the difficulty of such a surgery would be much higher, and the time required would be much longer.

Thus, Leylin chose to subdue it forcefully, instead of taking an approach that would make the beast spirit's hatred simmer down.

"If I get rid of the beast spirit's will to resist entirely, as well as its hostility, I'm afraid that perhaps even a rank 4 beast spirit master would be able to make this rank 5 beast spirit submit to him, especially Belinda. With the effect her bloodline energy has, the probability of success is much higher… Of course, it's of no use to me all…"

Leylin was aware that he might have unintentionally unearthed an even more terrifying way of utilizing the Purgatory World's beast spirit spells. It was a pity that he didn't belong to this world, and that he didn't major in beast spirit spells. Hence, he could only toss this idea to a side.

*Hiss…*

Following the invasion of Leylin's soul force, the alabaster phantom within the crystal ball started to appear abnormally irritable. The scarlet tongue kept flashing continuously.

"It's just like a mantis trying to stop a chariot!" Leylin snorted coldly. The horrifying soul force that followed after immediately made the little snake shrink to a corner, as though it had been struck by lightning. Even the radiance in its pupils became dull.

"If we maintain this pace, it would be possible to thoroughly tame it within roughly half a month's time. Before arriving at the holy city, this beast spirit can be sealed…"

Leylin nodded as he assessed his progress.

For an average beast spirit master, the amount of time spent on subduing this beast spirit would often need to be measured in years. Leylin's method of removing the fragments of resentment from the beast spirit would also take as long. Only the most simple and cruel method of subduing it would require the shortest amount of time.

"It would take about a month to traverse the Serpentes Plains and arrive at the holy city. In that case, I should be able to advance the truesoul to Full Moon rank before we reach the holy city…"

Leylin stroked his chin.

Judging by the strength of rank 5 beast spirits in repaying their owners, advancing the truesoul to Full Moon was initially a feasible task. But now, with the presence of the Curse Mark of Ten Thousand Snakes, Leylin probably needed to prepare a few more things.

"Taming a beast spirit is not something that can be done in a day. It will need some time to prevent it from crumbling straightaway."

When his work was done for the day, Leylin kept his crystal ball. There was a hint of rumination in his eyes.

"Since we've arrived at the Serpentes Plains, 'it' should have started…" A glaring chill was dispelled from Leylin's pupils. It reeked of extreme evil, and it even made the temperature of the surroundings fall greatly.

Fortunately, he had deployed a barrier. Otherwise, Belinda and her sister would have detected that something was off.

By then, after seeing what Brother 'Nick' had turned into, it would be questionable whether Sophia would still continue to stick to Leylin like before.

…..

*Swish! Swish!*

The yellowish-green underbrushes swayed continuously. Shortly after, the stout shadow of an animal ran across in a flash, making Sophia scream in excitement.

Maybe it was because she wasn't very intelligent, or perhaps it was the result of being constrained within the family for a long time, but everything that the young girl had witnessed on her journey amazed her incessantly. It even made for a few jokes.

"Sophia!" Belinda yelled. She was unhappy, but didn't reprimand the child directly.

With both her and Leylin around, they could naturally confirm that the little chap that just ran past was the most harmless creature around that would cause no harm to Sophia.

After all, Sophia was the hybrid borne of a rank 5 Alabaster Devilsnake. It wouldn't be a problem to achieve the standard of a rank 2 or 3 Magus merely through the strength from her bloodline.

She might not even need to cultivate her energy, and may even rise to higher realms solely through ageing. It could be said that she was enjoying a natural advantage, just that her childish mentality might not allow her to put them to good use.

"A dusty pink rabbit!" Contrarily, Leylin recognised the name of that creature.

With the A.I. Chip's amazing learning abilities, Leylin was no longer the clueless fool that he was when he had first stepped into the Purgatory World.

[Dusty pink rabbit. Strength: 1.3, Agility: 2.5, Vitality: 1.9, Spirit: 0.7. A creature special to the Hale Continent of omnivorous nature with an extremely extensive diet. Innate skill: breeding. As long as it obtains a sufficient amount of food, the dusty pink rabbit's ability to propagate knows no limits. Its breeding season occurs all year round, throughout the four seasons. (Note: The mapping of the above-mentioned creature's genome has shown anomalies. Discovered that the part about reproduction contains traces of artificial optimization!)]

Although such a rabbit would definitely be considered a demonic animal among the normal humans in the Magus World, it was as weak as an ant in Leylin's eyes. What caught him by surprise was the modification made by the A.I. Chip in the annotation.

"It's not just a dusty pink rabbit!"

*Hiss…* At this instant, a giant snake as thick as a person's arm slithered by the roadside. A giant grey rat hung from its mouth. Through the A.I. Chip's analysis, although the grey rat's data was endlessly similar to the dusty pink rabbit's in all aspects, it was clear that their reformed reproductive abilities were exactly the same. This made their already formidable innate skill even more terrifying.

"Wow…" Sophia was slightly startled by the gray snake, but she still went forth without fear, seeming as though she wanted to touch its head.

*Hiss…* The giant grey snake let Sophia do as she pleased without resisting at all. This made Sophia giggle with laughter, and at the end, the giant grey snake even placed the food that it had caught in front of Sophia as a show of its subservience. It was only until Sophia explicitly declined, did it then continue to hold the rat in its mouth as it slithered through the bushes.

The bloodline of a rank 5 Alabaster Devil had the ability to restrain most of the common snake types across the Serpentes Plains. This was why Belinda was so at ease.

Leylin, on the other hand, gazed at the trail left behind by the grey snake, seemingly in deep thought.

"I'm afraid that the Snake Dowager was the one who tampered with the animals at the bottom layer of the food chain. It's rumoured that there are all kinds of giant snake types in the Serpentes Plains that are incapable of transforming. These include the Giant Kemoyin Serpent, the Double Loop Snake, the Three-Headed Python, the Purgatory Fire Python and so on, as well as a great many mixed-bloods and other subspecies. Even though the Serpentes Plains is incomparably plentiful, it might not be able to withstand such a tremendous consumption of energy. But if it's just the bottom layer of the food chain, perhaps there wouldn't be enough…"

Leylin grabbed a weed at random. There was fresh soil on the stem, and the pale yellow roots felt moist.

"Sure enough, even the dusty pink rabbit's food had been taken into consideration. There must be more changes in the environment to come, and even things such as them getting fatter at fixed times…"

"Seems like the entire Serpentes Plains is basically a cultivating ground for giant snake types…"

The corners of Leylin's lips revealed a slight smile. Just by observing the Snake Dowager's method of doing things, he knew that its academic attainments regarding bloodline experiments were definitely not few.

"Individuals manufactured in the laboratory are bound to have defects. The best method is still to seek for coincidentally mutated animals born in nature! The Snake Dowager's plan is actually identical to the hypothesis that the A.I. Chip raised previously, just that…"

A hint of suspicion slowly appeared on Leylin's forehead.

"What is the Snake Dowager trying to achieve from this? By creating an even stronger individual, isn't it afraid that something more powerful would emerge?"

"No! Perhaps it wouldn't allow a powerful being from the various tribes to arise, but maybe a first-rate mutated individual would be permitted… Or maybe she's trying to cultivate an emperor bloodline that can fully take control…"

"It's also possible that she's performing these experiments purely out of curiosity. Or perhaps she wants to break through a bottleneck herself, and attain the rank 9 eternal realm or something… There are way too many possibilities…"

All sorts of possibilities flashed across in Leylin's mind, making him frown slightly.

"Anyway, no matter what, the environment here is much better than I expected. There will absolutely be no problem in carrying out the plan…"

"Nick! What are you thinking about?"

Belinda walked over unhurriedly. Ever since she had gotten her revenge, she seemed to have unloaded a heavy burden worth thousands of kilograms. Even her usual grim expression had melted more or less—of course, this was only true in front of Leylin and Sophia.

"Oh! Nothing much, I'm just wondering if the Serpentes Plains will be dangerous…"

Leylin smiled.

"This place is indeed a treacherous for other foreign tribes. After all, among the snake clans that cannot transform, there are dreadful giant snakes that are rank 5 or 6… Even strong rank 6 contenders would be besieged by these humongous pythons, and I'm afraid that they would only end up falling…"

"But we're different. The descendants of the Snake Dowager will never be attacked on the Serpentes Plains! Of course, this refers to those rational giant snakes. If we bump into those that are as stubborn as a rock and are influenced by their instinctive appetite, then we have no other way out even if it's us. But fortunately, such snake types that are affected by their instincts are usually only rank 3 or below…" Belinda seemed rather proud.

She clearly understood the Serpentes Plains very well. She even had connections in the holy city. This was why Leylin was insistent on bringing her along.

"Hm!" Leylin nodded, then looked at Belinda, "You are a wanted for a trial. About that contact in the holy city…"

"Rest assured! That's my close friend. Besides, this is the Hale Continent after all!"

Belinda was obviously highly confident. "Nick, you haven't entered the holy city before, have you? Then you'll have to register your identity. It will be more troublesome for such a frequent traveller like you, but no matter, this friend of mine will come in handy…"

Leylin identified himself to Belinda as a mixed-blood Alabaster Devilsnake who had always been on the go, and he hadn't even been to the holy city. Although such situations were rare, the Hale Continent was so vast that anything could happen. Besides, Leylin's Alabaster Devilsnake bloodline could not be falsified, and thus Belinda was convinced.

Gluttony's Defilement

The journey through the Serpentes Plains was extremely smooth as the Giant Serpentes avoided Leylin whom had carried the Devilish Alabaster bloodline on him,

As for those snakes without intelligence that tried to harass Leylin or treat him as a prey, they were swiftly slain by Belinda, which gave Leylin the cold shudders.

Perhaps, amongst the snakes, only those with intelligence could be considered as the same family. Those without any ability to think or those that only acted on instincts were not considered as part of them.

Furthermore, between the different races under the Snake Dowager, cannibalism and wars were often executed.

These races were mostly hovering between ranks 1 and 2, even Sophia could deal with them easily without Belinda's help.

Over time, Leylin's party gradually entered the deeper regions of the plains.

Under the purple moonlight, the plains were extremely tranquil. Time to time, flickering red light from burning coals surfaced, bringing heat to the surroundings.

Suddenly, Leylin's figure appeared above a tent with burning charcoal beside it, before flickering into concealment again.

"The distance is just right, it'll be here!"

Leylin looked up at the moonlight high up in the sky as he muttered and left the camping grounds.

He left behind a puppet equipped with basic A.I. Chip capabilities, which would be enough to deal with most situations.

Not long later, a marsh appeared in front of Leylin, where puddles seemed to be strung together on the plains, like starry shining pearls in the sky.

In this vicinity, Leylin felt large amount of energy waves which were concealed, time to time hearing the hissing and roars of giant snakes nearby.

Oftentimes, battles between creatures would surface to vye for the water source.

Leylin had passed through this region with Belinda a few days ago. However, to avoid unnecessary battles, they avoided this area. However, Leylin had etched this place into his memory back then.

"Sssiii….."

A giant snake with the circumference of a vat emerged from the marshes and opened its bloody jaws, wanting to swallow Leylin in just one bite.

"Scram!" Leylin's brows furrowed. The snake roared and escaped right after it was flicked away.

"These useless things that don't know their place are so troublesome!"

Not every low ranked snake would be subjugated to Leylin's bloodline. Back then, the grey snake that Sophia had encountered had only been subjugated due to it being extremely weak.

However, the moment rank 2 and 3 giant snakes without intelligence appeared, Leylin would only be akin to a tasty prey to them.

"Because they share the bloodline from the snake dowager, a higher ranked snake would not strike fear in them?"

Leylin suddenly grinned, "This is the right specimen that I want!"

*Boom!* A gigantic white snake phantom the size of tens of thousands of meters surfaced from behind Leylin's back, as two scarlet vertical pupils the size of stars let off a ferocious roar.

At the same time, the regal aura emanated from the huge snake.

Right now, those giant snakes without any intelligence had also slithered away quickly and left the vicinity.

Leylin was not a Warlock with mixed bloodline, hence just with the tiny trace of regalness emanated would stop the giant snakes with insatiable greed to devour him. Instead, these giant snakes with no intelligence were now extremely frightened.

"Slick…." Beds of snakes continuously left the marsh, forming a tide of giant snakes. Mixed bloodlined snakes and even those that Leylin could not identify were escaping.

"Huh! As expected, they're all weak. There aren't any traces of rank 4 species here, but it is also logical, since no matter how low their intelligence was before, they would undergo a transformation after they enter rank 4.

Leylin's gaze swept through the horde of snakes, before his eyes brightened, "It's you!"

A giant black snake was writhing and crying as it struggled in the grasp of Leylin.

This snake had black scales and its vertical pupils were filled with horror and plea. As for its strength, there were rank 3 energy waves emanating from it.

"Black Horrall Snake! The subspecies of Kemoyin! We meet again!"

A trace of remembrance shuttered past Leylin's thoughts as he watched the snake in front of him, keeping its silence.

Back then, his Kemoyin bloodline was extracted and purified from the Black Horrall Snake. Thinking of it now, even though the great Magus Serholm left his inheritance behind, it was not as powerful as it seemed to be, as he did not have any intentions of passing down the Kemoyin bloodline.

Perhaps, in Serholm's eyes, a rank 3 Warlock was strong enough to conquer the south coast and he did not want his inheritor to be swept up in the perilous dangers of the central continent.

However, it was all for naught. Even the great Magus Serholm did not expect that his inheritor would be this heaven-defying, purifying the Black Horrall Snake's bloodline into the Giant Kemoyin Serpent, turning into a powerful presence.

"I have already done this much, now I will need your strength!"

A dark red test tube appeared in Leylin's palms, where the contents within continuously frothed, filled with an ominous aura.

"The quintessence from the clone of the Monarch of Gluttony — Beelzebub! Leylin muttered. This was the huge risk he took to summon Beelzebub through the constraining spell formation before he entered the Purgatory World.

Although it had been purified many times, the quintessence still contained large amounts of Beelzebub's branding. Once used, the target will definitely be affected by the sin of gluttony. The target's intellect will disintegrate, turning into Beelzebub's puppet or the preparatory body of a clone.

"Purgatory World is too quiet, I have to introduce chaos to this place!"

Leylin chuckled as he poured half of the contents of the test tube into the Black Horrall Snake's jaws.

"Sssii!….Grrrroarrr." The Black Horrall Snake struggled continuously within Leylin's grasp as dark coloured runes appeared on its body, so much that the scales seemed to be breaking apart, as if a devil within its body was trying to break free.

"Go!" Leylin tossed the Black Horrall Snake back into the horde of snakes.

Immediately, the Black Horrall Snake attacked the other giant snakes beside it. Its pupils were filled with a type of overzealous rage, as the aura on its body exponentially increased.

*Ka-cha!* A giant boa had it's head bitten off by the Black Horrall Snake, before it was devoured completely by it.

*Sssii!*! A crackline appeared on the head of the Black Horrall Snake and expanded continuously until it exploded.

Large amounts of skin were molted. Now, a larger, stronger Black Horrall Snake appeared, its strength nearing that of a rank 4 Magus.

The Black Horrall Snake with it increased strength continued to devour the other snake species. Eventually, another head appeared from its neck, accompanied by fiendish flames spewed from its mouth.

"The fiendish transformation is even more apparent now!" Looking at the scales on the Black Horrall Snake that looked even more malevolent now, Leylin shook his head.

"Sssii…" The double headed Black Horrall Snake in this Purgatory World had advanced into rank 4, yet it did not dare to provoke Leylin.

After looking at Leylin with fear in its eyes, the black coloured purgatory snake dashed into the distance, leaving behind a trail of corpses.

"Not so stupid huh. Although you won't live happily ever after, claiming yourself as the king amongst all snakes on the plains for a short while should be a blazing glory as you were originally only rank 3 huh?

Leylin muttered, as he tossed the other half of the test-tube into the marsh behind him.

*Gulp! Gulp!* Dark red colour contents that were frothed expanded quickly in the marsh, leaving behind a peculiar smell lingering in the air.

Under the enticement of this scent, very soon a huge grey rat conquered its fear of snakes and scurried over, before lapping the water.

With each mouth, this rat only grew larger in size. Very soon, its eyes turned red, as if in an enraged mode.

Very soon, more grey rats scurried over. There were even white rabbits, accompanied by more snakes.

After these organisms had finished quenching their thirst, they began to attack other animals ferociously, at the same time transforming into unrecognisable creatures.

Looking at this scene, the corners of Leylin's lips curled up maliciously.

"Heyo Beelzebub! Are you satisfied with this Purgatory World that I found?"

By just thinking about it, Leylin knew that Beelzebub hungered for this world. It was a huge world with abundant resources. Even with the chaotic World's Will, it did not reject these new life forms on the world.

To Beelzebub, such a world held an incomparably huge enticement.

Even if Beelzebub knew what Leylin was scheming out in the open, he would still be attracted by the benefits and take a gamble. It was an irresistible trend.

"Of course, the power of gluttony is still weak in the beginning and has to be protected!"

Leylin smiled, as a pair of chaotic grey wings appeared, with the power of chaos, enveloping the marsh and its nearby region with a grey barrier.

"With this disguise, high ranked organisms would not be able to notice it until it's too late!"

Leylin laughed blandly.

Although the Snake Dowager was considered a dignitary, she would not be able to understand the continent like the back of her palms, much less monitoring the happenings across the Hale Continent.

Furthermore, with Leylin using the power of chaos intentionally for disguise and concealment, nothing can be changed when the Snake Dowager has realised it.

Moreover, this was the marshes. Any organisms which were attracted were just expendables. Leylin would not feel the pinch in his heart even if all of these creatures were completed dead.

"Man-made environments are often the weakest type of ecosystems. After this has blown out of proportions, I'm sure it will cause the Snake Dowager and the Holy City enough headaches for a few years…"

Eve of the Arrival

Manmade environments were often the weakest and the most susceptible to external influences.

Through the Snake Dowager's power that boosted reproduction rates, coupled with the defilement of gluttony running rampant through the plains, the combined results of both of these would not just be a simple addition, but a powerful immeasurable change in the rate itself. Even Leylin himself highly anticipated the changes that were bound to happen.

The most important thing was that those effects were all due to the power of laws. Leylin had barely done anything at all to make that happen, which fully removed him from the situation.

Even the Snake Dowager herself would only suspect that it was the Monarch of Gluttony invading from another world, and thus her attention would be diverted away from Leylin.

With these two law wielding existences vying to control this world, what sparks would it bring about?

Just thinking of it amused Leylin.

Finally, Leylin gave one last lingering look at this marsh that was riddled with chaos and gluttony, before leaving and not giving one more glance at it.

Now that the seed has been planted, how it would develop and grow would no longer be under his control.

The next morning, Leylin brought Belinda and Sophia away from this area.

"What's wrong? Nick? Did you sense any danger?"

Belinda felt that Leylin's actions were somewhat suspicious.

"I have a premonition that something hugely unfavourable to us is happening behind our backs!" Leylin put on a solemn face, his eyes filled with worry.

"Mm, Sofia also felt it, that evil sensation, full of chaos and gluttony…" Belinda was still half-suspicious, but what surprised Leylin was Sofia, who stood to the side and nodded in agreement, her eyes filled with fear.

"That frightening evil feeling has become a vortex just behind our backs, and its range is still expanding, sister! Let's leave this place right now, please!"

Sofia's eyes widened and her shoulders began to tremble slightly.

"Alright, we'll leave at once," Belinda put her arm around Sofia's shoulders and began to gently console her, no longer having any thoughts on Leylin's proposal to leave. However, Leylin looked at Sofia and took measure of her with great interest.

"I really couldn't tell, although her bloodline power isn't particularly concentrated, she has this innately sharp perception… Does it originate from the sensitivity of her soul?

Although Sofia had sharp perceptive powers, it was a pity that she was facing Leylin, who was an old hand at this and was already in the middle of his long life. He was long able to bury his own emotions at the bottom of his heart, and put an end to anyone sensing or peeping on his feelings.

Consequently, Sofia thought that brother Nick smiled gently and had a comforting expression, and never discovered even the slightest trace of his investigations, hidden deep within.

"This sort of innate soul sensitivity, although there is still room for it to develop, for now it is far too weak," Seeing this, Leylin could only shake his head and urge on the giant earth lizard once again to continue its journey.

...

With Leylin's secret calculations, and with his true body faintly emitting a powerful aura, the beasts afflicted with the desire for gluttony didn't dare to come and offend him as he gradually left the area behind. Sofia had also slowly calmed down, and had recovered to her original childish appearance.

Leylin had left a wake of terrifying desire for gluttony behind, and its influence continued to spread. Afflicted rank 4 and rank 5 continuously emerged and began to fight those intelligent Morning Star serpent clans.

By the time the Snake Dowager took it seriously, it was already too late.

The abundant resources of the Allsnake Plains, as well as the superior snake species living in it were nurtured by the Snake Dowager with utmost care. However, it had become a paradise for gluttony to grow.

Naturally, as this area was too vast, gluttony was limited to wreaking havoc in the tiniest part of it. With Leylin's arrangement and interference from chaotic power, even though it spread quickly, it did not attract much attention.

Only with the passing of time did this situation become more and more complex, and became even more frightening.

As the originator of this disaster, Leylin didn't particularly manage the matter further. After ten days had passed, after they passed through yet another long journey, the Holy City of all snake descendents and the heart of the Hale Continent had appeared before their very eyes.

"At our current speed, we will arrive at the Holy City tomorrow at noon, at the very latest!"

Belinda looked at the map in her hand and spoke confidently.

Leylin only lightly nodded. In reality, he had already seen some changes on their journey today.

A few small snake hybrids began to appear, and there were even established ranches and botanical gardens. Everything he had seen told him he had entered an area of superior intelligent species.

"My friend, Aegnis, holds the post of the highest ranked guard in the Holy City, I believe she will definitely help us!"

Belinda looked rather excited, and Leylin knew what she was thinking about.

As a wanted criminal of the Trial's Eye, Belinda definitely felt that it was a horrible situation to be in. If she could not resolve this affair, perhaps she would have to go into hiding with Sofia for the rest of their lives.

However, this place was the Hale Continent, and Belinda hadn't really betrayed the Trial's Eye, but had only rebelled against one of its forces, even if she had gone a little overboard.

If she gained the protection of a powerful person in the Holy City, although it couldn't undo the Trial's Eye influence and repeal the arrest warrant, it would be possible to keep the affair under wraps. Belinda certainly would be able to live with Sofia freely in the sunlight.

"To do this, one would need to be rather powerful. Belinda's previous status wouldn't let her do it, unless her friend is a direct descendent from a major clan…"

Leylin stroked his chin and had already guessed everything.

"That Aegnis, is she from a great clan in the Holy City or an influential direct descendant?" He directly asked.

"You really guessed it," Belinda froze, apparently surprised at Leylin's perceptive abilities, but she did not deny it. "Yes, Aegnis is from the Steward family, one of the top 10 most influential families in the Holy City. They possess the Matriarch's most noble bloodline as direct descendants, and for generations they have served as the Holy City's fundamental defenders."

"As long as I rely on the Steward Family, the earlier 'Eye of Sacrifice' organisation I was in wouldn't dare to offend them. So after some time, there is some hope for me to renegotiate with them about the arrest warrant!"

Belinda had evidently planned everything out, "And so, with her help, we will definitely be able to secure a settlement certificate. Nick, are you…"

Belinda was clearly rather worried that Leylin wouldn't be able to save face in this situation, but this was something she was needlessly worrying about.

"Don't worry, I have no issues with this," Leylin smiled.

What was the point of saving face? Leylin didn't care about it at all. Additionally, he had helped Belinda from the very beginning, and had even secretly taken her feelings into account, wasn't it all for this purpose?

Leylin had previously heard of the stringent rules of the Holy City. If one didn't have a powerful guarantor vouching for them, then with his status as an unidentified foreigner, it would be incredibly difficult for him to settle there, to the point where it would be easier for him to fly than to become a citizen.

Especially after he had secretly set things into motion, one could gather that the Holy City would become more and more lively. Without any real basis for entering, perhaps he would suffer a lot of harassment.

Compared to that, saving face in this situation was definitely not an issue.

Leylin had always focused solely on benefits, and with his current identity as a mixed-blood Alabaster Devilsnake and as Nick the wanderer, no matter how humiliating it was, how could it bother him?

It had to be said that in some respects, Leylin's moral integrity was rather heinous.

"That's good," Belinda's eyes grew warmer, with a satisfied look.

In reality, she was confident about settling down herself in the Holy City, but if Leylin didn't agree to bow his head and give in, then his unknown origin would definitely pose a huge problem.

Seeing that he had now agreed to yield made her immediately feel more relieved.

"I still have some savings, and with our strength we can accept missions in the Holy City. The pay will be sufficient for us to live on! As for Sofia, I must hire a governess or a nanny to prepare her for marriage in the future…"

Belinda seemed to be immersed in her plans for the future, until the last part where she secretly stole a glance at Leylin. She secretly blushed, but then immediately forced that expression away.

"I-It's already getting late, we should rest…"

Belinda seemed to become unconsciously shy, and pulled Sofia, who was still playing, into her tent. Sofia's dissatisfied cries of "No, no!" could be heard.

Leylin looked in the direction where Belinda had left and stroked his chin, with a strange smile appearing on his face.

...

"Then… Goodnight, girls!"

Leylin came to their tent and softly spoke to them.

"Goodnight, Nick," Belinda's voice was rather shaky, and finally he heard Sofia's voice, "Brother Nick, I want to tell you…"

"Ah!" Sofia's voice was interrupted, and immediately Belinda's humiliated and angry scolding could be heard.

Seeing the noisy and unstable tent, Leylin only smiled a little and returned to his own tent.

If it wasn't for the Allsnake Curse on his body, and how close he was to the Holy City and the Snake Dowager, he wouldn't have minded playing more games with Belinda.

However, Leylin wasn't in the mood due to the huge pressure of the curse.

In fact, if his willpower and acting skills weren't so good, perhaps Belinda would have seen through him already.

After his everyday routine had been arranged, Leylin's expression became solemn and imposing.

"Tomorrow, we'll arrive at the Holy City, the headquarters of the Snake Dowager."

There was a dark expression in Leylin's eyes, "Everything I have, as well as my hopes of breaking the bloodline shackles- whether I fail or succeed all depends on my next move!"

Beast Spirit Seal

"But before that, I should finish doing everything else." A crystal ball emerged in Leylin's hands, with a red-eyed little snake, with scales as pure white as jade, wriggling around within.

Bound within the ball was Belinda's father, a rank 5 pure-blooded Alabaster Devil. This was the beast spirit of Kenta! If Belinda were to find out, things might get troublesome, but Leylin didn't really care about her anymore.

Besides, Leylin was very confident in his concealing techniques.

Now, the hatred and obstinate look in the beast spirit's eyes had disappeared, and all that was left was bewilderment.

Leylin was very satisfied upon seeing this.

[Beep! Scan of target completed. All hostility in its subconscious has been removed.] At this moment, the A.I. Chip prompted in a robotic tone.

"Good! My hard work for almost a whole month hasn't been in vain! I've finally tamed him."

Leylin pressed his fingers against the crystal, allowing the little white snake to break free of its bindings. It flit between his fingers, and even seemed to have a sense of dependence on him. A month ago, that would have been unthinkable.

"No matter how poor my spirit sealing spell formation is, it seems that there's a chance of success over 50%!"

Leylin's lips quirked in a smile, "Just as well. I'll seal him completely tonight!"

Leylin was very attracted to the Purgatory World's strength systems. In this period of time, he had almost completely figured out and understood the strength systems here.

In Purgatory World, besides the innate abilities of the various races, these two strength systems were the most widespread: The path of offerings and the path of beast spirits!

The path of offerings entirely depended on the dignitary. If you gained the dignitary's favour, you would attain more power and reach a higher Sacrificer rank even if you weren't as devout, or even if the offerings were lacking. However, the price was having your body completely branded by the power of the dignitary, or even breaking off all possibilities of entering rank 7, the realm of laws. Of course, for devout followers, this method of 'existing together with one's god' might perhaps satisfy their thirst and desire even more.

The path of beast spirits was more primal. This path depended on hunting large beasts and refining them into beast spirits, and then sealing them to be ordered around in combat.

Though it sounded simple, every time they sealed a beast spirit there was a huge challenge to a beast spirit master's own soul, in terms of its cultivation and strength. If the seal failed, there were far too many instances in Purgatory World of the beast spirit devouring the master instead.

The higher-ranked the beast spirit, the more terrifying their resistance was. Hatred that retained from the soul were extremely dangerous for all beast spirit masters.

Of course, once a beast spirit of a certain rank had been successfully sealed, the beast spirit master would naturally rise to that rank.

After sealing, the beast spirit master could not only order the beast spirit to fight, one could also enjoy the many benefits to the soul from the beast spirit.

For this reason, there were so many beast spirit masters who did not fear death and pursued high-ranked beast spirits and did their best to seal them, though failure was very common.

While Leylin had a deep understanding of the path of beast spirits, beast spirits were very difficult to obtain. He only had a Gudrick beast spirit that was rank 3 and yet to mature. Hence, his beast spirit master ranking was only 3!

That was fine though. At the White River Valley, Leylin had massacred Belinda's family and extracted the soul of her father, refining him into a beast spirit.

A rank 5 Alabaster Devilsnake beast spirit was very rare even in the whole Purgatory World.

Even on the Serpentes Plains, there weren't many rank 5 giant snakes. Leylin hadn't seen any, and most of them travelled around in groups. If it were to move, the whole race would move along with it.

In Leylin's eyes, these giant snakes were less outstanding compared to the Alabaster Devilsnakes.

"Whether as a bloodline imprint or as a cover, this beast spirit will be the most helpful to me!"

Leylin observed the little snake in his hands. The snake even flicked its scarlet tongue, constantly licking at his fingertips.

He had gathered much of the bloodline of the Alabaster Devilsnake and even attempted at creating bloodline imprints, giving him the key to entering the Dreamscape at will.

If he had the beast spirit of the Alabaster Devilsnake as well, whether a bloodline imprint was made, used, or if he were to explore Dreamscape, he would have great advantages. Leylin had always liked preparing things well, and if his plan were to fail, then dreamforce would be his trump card. Hence, Leylin's research had been focused on exploring Dreamscape.

Besides this, for Leylin who had snuck into holy city, having an Alabaster Devilsnake beast spirit was another insurance for him.

While he had the bloodline traces on the Mask of the Dreamless, as well as the cover from the Nefarious Filthbird's power of chaos, Leylin didn't mind adding another layer of security.

"What comprises of a life form is both the bloodline and the soul.'

Leylin mumbled, "With replenishment from her family, the consumption to the Mask of the Dreamless' bloodline has been made up for. With this beast spirit, I can use it in place of my soul at crucial moments. Even if the Snake Dowager were to scan over a large area, I'm sure I can hide from her…"

Using the aura of a beast spirit as a substitute for his own might be just a dream to the inhabitants of Purgatory World, but this was no issue for Leylin. What was more important was that the main material for the beast spirit was a soul. Hence, there was nothing that would not merge. With the A.I. Chip, Leylin was very confident.

"Hence, the beast spirit of the Alabaster Devilsnake is my best choice!"

Leylin's eyes shone with determination, "Furthermore, after becoming a rank 5 beast spirit master, my truesoul will probably reach full-moon."

The increase of strength in any amount was a chance hard to come by.

[Beep! Beginning seal of beast spirit. Setting up rank 5 soul sealing spell formation.] The A.I. Chip's voice sounded. Meanwhile, an intricate soul spell formation diagram was shown.

Leylin was only a rank 3 beast spirit master now, and if inhabitants of Purgatory World were to hear that he wanted to seal a rank 5 beast spirit, they would say he was merely dreaming.

Even rank 4 beast spirit masters did not dare do this even after obtaining a rank 5 beast spirit. At the very least, they would have the confidence to attempt this after sealing more rank 4 beast spirits and nourishing their soul for centuries.

A rank 3 beast spirit master? The body would probably not be able to bear the powerful undulations of a rank 5 beast spirit and just crumble, with there being a chance of exploding into bloody mist!

But Leylin was no ordinary person. His truesoul was at half-moon, and his body, which had been strengthened by bloodline force and various techniques overtime gave him this confidence.

"Compared to rank 5 beast spirit masters of Purgatory World, rank 5 Magi souls have already condensed their truesoul. The density and quality is incomparable. The power of their soul, what the soul can withstand and precision in controlling it exceeds that of a rank 5 beast spirit master by several levels! Besides, my body and vitality has already gone through bloodline force and Multilimb Strength and received boosts from body tempering spell formations. A mere rank 5 beast spirit…"

Beast spirit masters of Purgatory World could seal beast spirits as long as they were lucky enough. Their bodies would then be nourished by the beast spirit, which meant just lying around would allow them to increase their strength. Once they hit the limits of the beast spirit, they could just seal a new spirit. This turned into a cycle.

Compared to Magi who had to be cautious at all times, study continuously and advance, their method might seem comfortable and easy, but it lacked the most important experience and knowledge!

At the soul level, Magi of the Magus World could definitely look down on these beast spirit masters. If they obtained suitable beast spirits, the speed at which Magi would adapt to and seal the beast spirit would be faster than beast spirit masters.

"The reason the path of beast spirits did not prosper in the Magus World is related to the different laws of the world, and might have something to do with the extinction of species in the central continent. After all, which world has as many beast spirit resources as in Purgatory World?"

Making sense of his thoughts, Leylin looked solemn.

The path of beast spirits was worthy of Magi looking into. At the very least, the soul sealing spell formation, the beast spirit turning on the owner, coordination between the soul and the flesh were all huge inspirations for Leylin to conduct experiments.

While he focused on the path of bloodline Warlocks, Leylin would not look down on other strength systems. No matter how insignificant it might seem, anything that was passed down was definitely worthy of looking into.

Only by constantly studying would the path of Magi be filled with fervour and life.

[Starting atomic microscope. Helping with carving of rank 5 soul sealing spell formation.] Along with the A.I. Chip's voice, an intricate spell formation began to appear at the back of Leylin's hand.

At the heart of the profound spell formation was a twisted pentagon diagram and many soul runes filled with mystery and savagery. These were key to subduing beast spirits, and even led to beast spirits turning on the beast spirit master.

Even the A.I. Chip was unable to analyse some of the runes and could only use them as much as possible.

The rays emitted from the spell formation enveloped the Alabaster Devilsnake beast spirit, and the little snake began to float.

"Hss…" While already tamed, the little white snake showed signs of resistance.

However, the familiar soul force from Leylin's eyes felt very familiar to the little white snake, and it now had an internal conflict.

Gradually, the bundle of light around the little white snake came closer to the spell formation on the back of Leylin's hand.

"Now's the time. Seal!"

Along with Leylin's cry, the soul sealing spell formation suddenly emitted rays of light that absorbed that bundle of light.

"Next up… is a contest between souls!"

Fullmoon Truesoul

Leylin closed his eyes.

Now, in his gloomy soul space, his half-moon truesoul showed itself. Opposite it was the little white snake from before.

"Hss…"

This contest had already happened many times in the past month. Hence, after sensing the familiar soul aura that belonged to Leylin's truesoul, the Alabaster Devilsnake beast spirit immediately became fearful.

"Obey or die!"

Leylin did not give the beast spirit much time and immediately warned, boundless half-moon truesoul strength descending and pressing the little white snake to the ground.

"Hss…" The snake flicked its tongue and chose to obey. A flash of cold, clear moonlight entered through its eyes, controlling it completely.

Gradually, the eyes became dazed, and a half moon appeared…

[Beep! Host has successfully sealed rank 5 Alabaster Devilsnake beast spirit. Promoted to rank 5 beast spirit master!]

The A.I. Chip's voice sounded. Everything had gone extremely smoothly with how everything had been set up.

A beast spirit above rank 4 usually had some malicious intent or memory fragments from the body. For a soul like this that had lost all its will and was defiant, beast spirit masters found this very troublesome.

Even if the beast spirit was successfully tamed eventually, a part of the beast spirit's soul source would be consumed from battle and cause it to weaken.

However, Leylin had long since tamed it, which allowed the sealing process to go smoothly.

The soul sealing spell formation had already been optimised by the A.I. Chip, which raised the compatibility between the beast spirit master and the beast spirit to the highest. Hence, not only had Leylin successfully become a rank 5 beast spirit master, but he also could display the full strength of the original Alabaster Devilsnake beast spirit!

"But the process of sealing a beast spirit has already been deduced by the A.I. Chip to have a success rate of 90%. The process of the boost is the most important…"

At this thought, Leylin looked more grim than before, and placed his focus deep in his sea of consciousness amongst the point mass nebulae.

[Beep! Boost of rank 5 beast spirit beginning.]

Along with the A.I. Chip's voice, a fantastic change happened in his sea of consciousness.

On the back of Leylin's hand, a vivid tattoo of a little white snake appeared and roved around. A stream of pure soul force spiralled as it was absorbed and devoured into the point mass vortex in his sea of consciousness. The refining process was repeated and then abruptly poured into the point mass.

The point mass of a Radiant Moon Magus had already formed, the two innate runes on it were extremely dazzling.

Within the point mass, Leylin's half-moon truesoul was cheering excitedly. The point mass, that was like a full moon that was already half filled with light, suddenly expanded, charging towards filling the other half.

After entering the realm of a rank 5 Radiant Moon, a Magus' truesoul was like a full moon, signifying fullness.

The strength of soul force would show on the surface of the round moon. From the crescent to the half-moon, and then to the most powerful full moon; these would show the various phases of rank 5 Magi as they trained.

Leylin's truesoul had only been at half moon, but with the help of the Alabaster Devilsnake beast spirit, he began to make a burst for the full moon!

[Beep! Rank 5 beast spirit boost has begun. Host's soul force is being enhanced. All stats are changing…]

The A.I. Chip's voice sounded at this moment.

[Beep! Detected that Host's soul force has reached threshold. Beginning upgrade. Now at 210.] [Beep! Host has absorbed a large amount of purified soul origin. Soul force upgrading. Now at 220.]

The A.I. Chip's prompts kept refreshing, and accompanied by its robotic intones, Leylin's half-moon truesoul within his point mass filled up, beginning to transform into a full moon rank.

230! 240! 250! With the boost from the rank 5 beast spirit, the rate of progress of his truesoul could be said to be terrifying.

His truesoul that was already full began to expand in size, the luster from a full moon practically filling the whole truesoul.

At this very moment, something strange happened!

"Hss!" At Leylin's forehead, a black snake rune that was bound by thorny chains appeared, with a seal from the concentrated power of chaos circling it.

[Beep! Detected disorder from the Curse Mark of Ten Thousand Snakes. Determined to be triggered by sudden increase of soul force. Now flaring up.]

With the A.I. Chip's voice, Leylin felt that there seemed to be a terrifying black hole in his body that began to absorb much of his bloodline and soul force.

"No!" Leylin's eyes were filled with wisps of blood immediately.

Though he'd already known that with the seal of the curse, it would be difficult to increase his strength, Leylin did not expect it to be this serious.

Based on his plans, after raising his truesoul to full moon, he would then reach peak rank 5. Even with the suppression of the curse mark, he could still regain his strength and even surpass it.

After all, if Leylin's previous strength was 10 and the seal decreased it by 2, the strength he had left would only be 8.

But once Leylin reached peak rank 5, the limits of his strength would rise to 15, and even with the weakening of the seal by 2, he would still have 13 which far exceeded what he currently had.

However, the terror of the curse mark and the Snake Dowager's adeptness at curses exceeded his expectations.

"Power of chaos!" A grey illusory feather appeared in Leylin's hand. Large amounts of crystallisation of chaos combusted, beginning to support the seal on his forehead.

"The curse mark even has the function of automatically increasing strength along with the increase of strength in the host body!"

Leylin looked terrible at this point, and his expression turned into one of determination. He'd already had a contingency plan for this, but it wasn't a crucial time yet and he didn't want to waste this.

"Fine! Don't you want to absorb me? I'll give you everything!"

With his eyes red, Leylin ordered. A fiery-red jade-like crystal suddenly appeared from his spatial item, with flaming red luster and the indistinct phoenix cry!

The Soul Unique Item— The essence of the fragments of the phoenix egg, also the gem of Lava World! It could enhance soul force as long as the host's vitality could withstand it.

Though Leylin had already reached the limits before, after sealing a beast spirit, his own vitality had been enhanced. On top of what he had been amassing all this time, it was enough for him to use this essence again.

*Chirp Chirp!*

A black demonic fire phoenix suddenly emerged from Leylin's back, devouring the phoenix egg.

*Rumble!* Golden, brilliant flames burnt around him, and turned a demonic black.

Terrifying soul force that brought with it boiling fiery rays appeared around Leylin's body, and filled the black hole of the curse mark.

*Chirp chirp!* Compared to bloodline force, the soul force that had the burning powers of the ancient phoenix caused the black hole to ripple, fiery-red rays flashing from deep within the black hole.

"Get lost!"

With Leylin's roar, the curse mark on his forehead abruptly pulled back and even had a red scratch on it. Great amounts of the power of chaos formed a seal around the mark, suppressing it.

[Beep! Host has absorbed essence of phoenix egg. Obtained much soul origin. Soul force numbers increasing.]

With its voice, Leylin's soul force numbers shot forward like a rocket, and in almost that instant, broke through the 250 bottleneck. After a few jumps, it broke through the critical point of 300!

[Beep! Host body's soul force has broken through 300, reached full moon. Host's stats have all changed. Recalculating.]

The A.I. Chip's voice was still transmitting, but Leylin had no energy to investigate. His attention was now on the truesoul in the point mass.

The truesoul that was like a full moon had not only swollen up to the extreme, its whole body was filled with clear luster that gave off a feeling of perfectness.

"This is… the truesoul of peak rank 5 at full moon?"

Leylin mumbled as he gazed upon the gigantic full moon truesoul, looking drunk. The full moon not only had a clear luster, there was also a golden line that shimmered in and out of existence at the heart of it. However, it was covered by the brightness surrounding it. Unless he stared at it, he wouldn't notice it.

"This is… when soul force has a qualitative change…"

Leylin's eyes momentarily showed confusion, but was then filled with elation.

"I know, this is rank 6 truesoul force! Once Radiant Moon Magi reach full moon, their truesouls have already reached the limit. The next thing to do is to change the soul force from negative to positive energy, turning into the truesoul like a scorching sun of rank 6 Breaking Dawn Magi!"

"This golden line signifies my truesoul has already reached the limits of rank 5 and is beginning to transform into rank 6!"

Leylin sighed. For regular rank 5 Magi, getting their truesoul to full moon was already exceptionally difficult. They would have to work unceasingly to get their truesoul to fill completely and then automatically upgrade. That would take centuries, but Leylin had reached full moon in an instant.

"With negative soul force, I need to produce positive energy from this dark negative energy in order to gain solidified positive force. It's not something a rank 5 beast spirit can achieve. The only explanation would be the essence of the phoenix egg!"

Leylin's pupils brightened, "The phoenix egg contains not just a large amount of soul origin force that can strengthen a Magus' soul, but also possesses anode soul force, and its the guide for full moon Magi to promote. That's saved me hundreds of years of hard work!"

In that moment, Leylin thought of the reason.

Life Curse

The method to refine negative soul force into positive and obtain the essence of positive soul force was the key for a rank 5 Radiant Moon Magus becoming a rank 6 Breaking Dawn Monarch.

The phoenix egg was the treasure of the Lava World after all, and the positive power it possessed could save most Radiant Moon Magi centuries worth of hard work.

If this was seen by those Breaking Dawn Monarchs who had broken through with hard work or peak rank 5 Radiant Moon who were still training desperately, they might be so jealous of Leylin that they might go crazy with envy.

"But that means the phoenix egg has been completely used up…" Leylin found this result quite a pity. With the boost from the rank 5 beast spirit, that was enough to push him to full moon. The phoenix egg left behind could be used in training at rank 6.

With the abundance of positive soul force in the egg, which could even help a Breaking Dawn Monarch advance at lightning speed, using it recklessly now as a rank 5 made him feelextremely wasteful.

Due to the limitations of his bloodline, Leylin's truesoul already had signs of transforming into an substantialised positive soul, and he would never be able to succeed unless he completely rid himself of his bloodline curse.

"It's too early to talk about rank 6. I'll need to focus on the benefits that I now have!" While he found it a pity, Leylin was optimistic about the use of the phoenix egg. Due to the interference of the Allsnake Curse, he would not have been able to reach full moon if not for the power of the phoenix egg.

If the same thing were to happen again, Leylin was sure that he would make the same choice.

Ridding himself of other thoughts, Leylin gazed at the A.I. Chip's stats column. As he had forcefully broken through to full moon, much of his stats had undergone huge changes.

[Leylin Farlier. Rank 5 Warlock. Bloodline: Giant Kemoyin Serpent (Complete form). Strength: 70 (85), Agility: 53 (66), Vitality: 175 (200.7), Spiritual force: 2315 (3001.2), Magic power: 2315 (Magic power is in synchronisation with spiritual force). Soul force: 232 (300) State: Boost from full moon truesoul and status as rank 4 Sacrificer. Rank 5 beast spirit seal: Alabaster Devilsnake. Estimation of Allsnake Curse's next flare-up : 19 years.]

"As expected, after advancing, all the limits have increased. Even with restrictions of the curse marks, I've basically returned to my most powerful state before, with some increases even!" Leylin's eyes shone as he felt the power in all parts of his body and couldn't help but clench his fists, "Only this power would be enough for my plans in the holy city!"

"But…" Leylin, who had regained his calm, watched the insides of the tents that now looked messy and could not help but laugh wryly, "Thankfully, I set up a seal. Otherwise, Belinda and Sophia would have been alarmed."

"The flare up of the Allsnake Curse happened with the Snake Dowager so close…"

Leylin looked incomparably serious, "A.I. Chip, activate strongest preventative measures!"

[Beep! Mission established. Initiation underway.]

Numerous white scaly patterns formed the most intricate patterns on Leylin's face. Meanwhile, the Alabaster Devilsnake beast spirit tattoo on Leylin's body began to wander around, emitting a unique soul undulation.

After making all the preparations, a tremendous conscient was like a tsunami, spreading from the holy city.

"What is it, Mighty Mistress? Who dares go against you and caused you such ire?"

Such a terrifying conscient shocked many in that instant. Belinda and Sophia had walked out of their tents and knelt in the direction of the holy city, bodies trembling in the moonlight.

"She's naturally looking for me!"

Leylin snickered inside, though on the surface, he looked to be kneeling in reverence and trepidation, praying that the Mistress would calm her anger. Of course, Leylin knew that before he was captured, this would be impossible.

Sensing this conscient roaring above him and passing him by, yet not doubting him at all, his lips quirked in a smile.

"As expected, the double cover of my soul and bloodline, as well as support of the feather of chaos, makes it impossible for the Snake Dowager to find me with this kind of scan with her conscient unless she sees me personally."

This was definitely good news to Leylin.

Though the Nefarious Filthbird had guaranteed this, Leylin did not dare place too much hope on it.

When it came to life and death situations, he would not mind using all methods possible to increase his rate of success.

"Hss!" Realising that doing that would not help her find Leylin, the temporary wave of soul undulations passed and instead, a bright bundle of light rose like the sun from holy city.

Within the sun was a gigantic snake ball figure that was like a sun, and there were even sounds of sacrificial chanting from there.

These sounds were very ancient and had some strange pitches that caused one to be intoxicated in it.

"This…" Just after hearing a little, Leylin's expression immediately changed.

[Warning! Warning! Host's curse mark is acting up.] The A.I. Chip's voice sounded in time, before a rune began to flicker on Leylin's forehead.

Thankfully, Belinda and Sophia now had their heads down as they closed their eyes to pray, or else they'd definitely notice the change in Leylin.

"Feather of Chaos, ignite the crystals and get back!"

The blood vessels on Leylin's face writhed, and immediately after, two forces began a dangerous confrontation inside.

*Chirp chirp!* At this moment, the flame imprints that were already on the curse mark began to flash with red lights, and Leylin seemed to hear the cry of a primordial fire phoenix.

With the joint work of the two, the flare up of the curse mark was suppressed.

Only after the illusion from the holy city disappeared did Leylin sigh deeply, and hastily reinforced his appearance-changing methods to hide any external changes, which was how Belinda did not notice anything different.

Even so, it was impossible to hide everything that had happened.

No matter what repercussions there were from the Snake Dowager's sudden anger, Leylin and the others had to carry on their journey.

"Nick! I…" Belinda glanced at Leylin, who was the same as before, and seemed to have something to say.

"What's wrong?" Leylin turned, a tender look and smile on his face as if nothing had happened.

"Oh, no, it's nothing!" Belinda looked dazed, and also a little confused, "It just feels like something about you has changed, but I don't know what it is for sure."

"It's the smell!" Sophia, who was ahead, turned back, eyes full of happiness as she sniffed at Leylin.

"The smell on Brother Nick's body is even more aromatic, and Sophia feels more close to him!"

"Stop it!" Belinda grabbed at Sophia's little face, causing her to frown.

Meanwhile, Leylin was stunned at her keen senses.

"I was discovered so quickly! Such a pure and sensitive soul is rather rare."

Leylin naturally knew the reason why Belinda felt something was off, since a peak full moon truesoul was worlds apart from what things had been the previous day. Even if Leylin did all he could to conceal this, there would still be a subtle difference.

Besides, the rank 5 beast spirit that Leylin had chosen to seal was Belinda and her sister's father! The bloodline aura from someone of the same kind and family had caused Sophia to realise what was off.

"However, from her experiences, I doubt she's discovered this. If she found out the feeling of feeling closer to me came from her father, she might be fearful. After all, Kenta didn't give the siblings a good impression…"

Pondering over this for a while, Leylin continued the journey with the sisters.

Though nothing had changed from the previous day, and Leylin was still chatting and joking with them cheerfully on the way, he was actually reading the contents of the prompt on the A.I. Chip, and his heart could not calm.

[Beep! Affected by Snake Dowager's undulations. Variation to Curse Mark of Ten Thousand Snakes, increasing corroding ability.] [Curse of Corrosion– High grade variation of the curse mark. After entering region of Snake Dowager's influence, Host's life force will constantly be absorbed till death. The process is irreversible.]

"After realising she can't find me, she's used this method to force me to show myself?"

Feeling the life force in his body unceasingly being seized from his body, and his body heading towards death gradually, Leylin's lips quirked in a smile instead, "But… for you, who can only do this much, does it mean you have no other ways of limiting me?"

"It's not just my bloodline and soul force, but even my life force is being absorbed by the curse, subduing my strength.]

Leylin raised his arm, his pale skin and firm muscles full of life. However, he could feel a sense of losing something.

"Under the effects of the corrosion, my body's life energy is quickly dissipating. Though there aren't obvious changes on the outside, in just a few years time, my appearance will become that of an old person… Even with appearance changing techniques, it wouldn't be able to conceal these changes…"

"Just from the bloodline curse, I have about 19 years left, but with the curse that corrodes my life force…"

He smiled wryly.

He had a feeling that this sort of complex curse would have even worse effects the closer he got to the Snake Dowager.

This would go on till the day the curse mark completely flared up and ruined his soul, causing him to die, or until he would be discovered by the Snake Dowager.

"So many restrictions and so much pressure! How… enjoyable! This is too enjoyable!"

Leylin brushed the back of his hand against his lips slowly, "Such power restrictions is so enjoyable! The greater the pressure, the worse the backlash! I can't wait to see the day I destroy these restraints and soar!"

Reaching Holy City

"The Hail Continent's holy city!" Leylin muttered as he sized up this city that seemed to have been built by giants.

The entire city was filled with brilliant lights, and what was the most unforgettable was the giant sculpture at the very heart of the city.

It was a very bewitching female with long hair with separated out and transformed into exotic snakes of all kinds. There were the iant Kemoyin Serpents, the Alabaster Devilsnakes, Three-headed Pythons, and many other species could be found within the hair of this snake chieftess.

"The sculpture must have been made with the Snake Dowager as the model. I can see it so clearly even outside the city, and if I were to determine the scale, it must be over tens of thousands of metres tall…"

Leylin's eyes were full of admiration. If not for the spell formations and other assistance from other worlds, a statue of this scale could never have been accomplished.

The secret undulations hidden in various parts of the holy city made Leylin's expression change slightly. While he was unable to detect rank 7 existences, the radiation from rank 6 Breaking Moons could no longer resist the A.I. Chip's scans.

Hence, Leylin was certain that there were at least ten rank 6s in the holy city, and they were all descendants of the Snake Dowager!

'From the intel and what I saw yesterday, the Snake Dowager is here, but I don't know where she is.'

"Keke…" Leylin suddenly began to cough.

"What's wrong, Nick?" Belinda and Sophia looked over, their eyes full of concern.

"It- It's nothing!" Leylin laughed forcefully, hiding his palm that now had traces of blood.

"In the holy city, where the Snake Dowager's aura is even more concentrated, the rate at which my life force depletes is even faster. With this rate, I might not be able to hold on for a few years, but thankfully, these few years should be enough!"

"I was just a little emotional after seeing such a huge city. Let's get in! Have you notified your friend yet?"

"I've already notified Aegnis. She'll be here soon!" Belinda laughed.

The three of them now stood outside the huge holy city. There were three huge triumphal arches, and a bridge that was tens of metres long. Below it was a surging moat, though the waters were black and gave an ominous feeling.

The gates of the city opened, and many half-snake people and even pure-bloods passed by in an orderly manner.

"That's…" Upon seeing this, Leylin's eyes narrowed.

The queue that wound around like a long snake suddenly had a small disturbance near the gates, and immediately after, a half-snake person with black scales on its face wailed as he was separated out, and was pushed into the black moat.

"Ah…" Its mournful cries vanished in an instant, and Leylin immediately saw only white bones, and even then, they melted quickly.

"Just now…" Leylin's eyes shifted to the stone sculpture of snakes on the city gate. The vertical pupils of the sculptures were now flickering with green light.

"Seems like when that snake being passed by, the eyes of the sculptures turned bright red! Is that some sort of bloodline identification system?" Leylin was slightly afraid, because he had not found anything strange about that snake person earlier.

"That is the Snake Sculpture found everywhere in the holy city. As long as there are residents whose souls or bloodlines aren't pure, or have not gotten permission, all will be detected and thrown into the Howling Abyss!"

There was a grim look on her face, "Based on the system of the holy city, whether it's bloodline beings with unknown origins or wanted criminals, none can stay in the holy city!"

"Oh! In other words, if you and I were to enter, the sculpture's eyes would turn red, and many soldiers would be attracted?"

Leylin stroked his chin, "What benefits are there, for so many of them to scramble there?"

"Benefits?" Belinda smiled wryly, "There are obviously a lot! First of all, all those who get permission to stay in holy city will have their safety guaranteed. In the Hail Continent, there are few organisations who dare treat residents of the holy city roughly!"

"Absolute protection?" Leylin nodded. In this era of living from hand to mouth, absolute protection was a dream come true for the weak.

"Also, the holy city is the core of the Hail Continent. You'll be able to get anything at all here, even the most highly-ranked strength systems, the best offerings and beast spirits… but most importantly…" At the mention of the holy city, she evidently became excited.

"What's most important is that the entire holy city has gained the favour of the Mistress, and all of those who live here will have the purity of their blood not fall in rank and even continuously increase based on the length of time they stay here." Another voice sounded from the side, and along with a streak of black light, there were two more figures appearing.

"Aegnis!" Upon seeing who had arrived, Belinda grinned brilliantly.

"Belinda, my sister! We haven't seen each other in around 132 years!" Someone headed over and gave Belinda an enthusiastic hug. This must be the good friend that Belinda had constantly mentioned, Aegnis.

Leylin could not help but size up this being. She had short brown hair, a tall stature, fair and glowing skin, and she wore tight-fitting armour that seemed to be made of crystal. Her fine nose was raised, and she had a heroic air to her. While a female, she had a gender-neutral beauty to her.

What surprised Leylin was the bloodline aura of her body. This even caused him some fear. This was definitely the bloodline of a rank 6 giant serpent, and Aegnis herself had already reached rank 5.

'She evidently has the formidability of pure blood nobility! She's only half-mature, and already has rank 5 strength. Once her bloodline completely matures, reaching rank 6 isn't an issue! I can't tell her Sacrificer and beast spirit master ranks though…' Leylin silently began to judge her strength.

Compared to a mixed-blood like Belinda, she had a pure bloodline from a giant serpent. In other words, her main body was a python, and her human form was just for convenience.

"It must have been a miraculous coincidence that these two could have become good friends from the beginning!"

"Don't worry! I won't let off those people of the Trial's Eye organisation for treating you that way! I told you before not to go to that sect made out of lunatic eyes. Only the might Mistress is worthy of our faith!" Aegnis warmly held Belinda's hand, completely ignoring Leylin's existence.

She held Sophia, eyes sparkling, "This must be your sister, Sophia, right? How adorable! I'd only seen her in portraits before. Don't worry! I'll take care of you and your sister's identities. You'll definitely be able to get the residence permit and gain the right to stay in the holy city permanently!"

Seeing how she was itching to hug Sophia close and her facial muscles twitching, Leylin suddenly thought of another word from his previous world.

"Alright, alright. Aegnis! I have a friend who I've yet to introduce to you!"

Her friend's invasive gaze full of fervour was a little too much for Belinda, and she huffed as she struggled out of the devilish grasp of Aegnis, before pointing at Leylin.

"This is the person I talked to you about, and a good friend who's rendered me a lot of help: Nick!" Belinda placed emphasis on the two words, 'good friend'.

"Good friend? Him?" It was only at this point that she noticed Leylin and glared at Leylin challengingly.

"He doesn't seem all that strong? He's only a rank 5 mixed blood Alabaster Devilsnake! Oh, sorry, my beloved Belinda, I wasn't talking about you. Whether it's the blood from your father or mother's side, they have combined magnificently on you, whether it's your ruby-red eyes, or long silver hair full of luster… they are so intoxicating…"

"Aegnis, Nick is my friend just as you are!" Belinda smiled wryly and had to repeat herself.

"Alright, alright. Friend!" Aegnis flicked at the hair at her forehead, "Since it's your friend, I'll do it too!"

"Wait, sister, how can you let people with unknown origins just enter the holy city? Did you forget our work?" At this moment, the person behind Aegnis suddenly spoke.

"Hm?" Leylin noticed the person at this moment. He had short brown hair like Aegnis, and there was a faint resemblance. It seemed that they had blood relations.

"Oh, Belinda! So this is the useless brother I've mentioned before, Thomas! Thomas! Come here and say hello!"

"Good morning, beautiful ladies!" Thomas bowed respectfully, he looked enchanted and intoxicated as he gazed at Sophia, who was like a little girl,

"Aegnis!" Noticing the siblings ignoring Nick, obviously trying to infuriate him, Belinda was slightly annoyed.

"If you still keep that attitude, I'll leave with Nick! Anyway, besides the holy city, there are tons of places we can go."

Based on what she had mentioned, after obtaining permanent residency in the holy city, they could receive preferential treatment everywhere in the Hail Continent. It was the best method to counteract the fact that they were on the wanted list. Now for Leylin's sake, she was unexpectedly discarding this opportunity, it could be said that this was very unusual.

'But come on, don't you know that the closer you seem to me, the more trouble you'll bring to me?' Leylin was speechless. He could already sense two pairs of eyes that were willing to burn him to ashes.