Bloodline Ignition

*Boom!* Dark black flames exploded forth from the Demon’s Arm along with sharp knife-like blades. It was obvious that the Demon Magus chief had definitely used everything he had up his sleeves for this attack.

Unfortunately, be it the flames or the blades, they couldn’t even leave a scratch on Leylin’s pure white palms. The flame was even extinguished moments after it burst forth.

“Morning... Morning...” This chief’s teeth began chattering. He had a feeling that things were progressing in a bad way. Who knew, the entire alliance army’s plan could have been hindered.

𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

“Master! Save me!” At the edge of life and death, he immediately cried for his master’s help.

“Looking for him? Too late!” Leylin shook his head, and a black blade of light swept across him.

This frightening magus, who was in the Crystal Phase and had an unfathomable strength with the addition of his Demon’s Arm, was sliced into two just like that.

Be it innate defence or magic equipment, they were all like air in front of the black light blade, posing no resistance at all.

Even at the moment of death, the other party’s face showed bafflement.

“Um?” Seeing his best subordinate killed, Cyril naturally had a reaction. By the time he understood the situation, an even more horrified expression emerged on his face. “Leylin!”

“It’s me!” Leylin handed Freya over to his subordinates’ care, and floated up to mid-air. His gaze fixed onto Cyril, showing not a trace of weakness.

*Boom!* As if an ancient beast had awakened, a mysterious yet powerful force field began to emanate from Leylin, rapidly offsetting Cyril’s Morning Star domain.

To their relief, all the Warlocks of the Ouroboros Clan felt like a load was being lifted off their backs, immediately restoring their previously sluggish spiritual force to full capacity.

“You have already advanced to the Morning Star realm!” Cyril managed to squeeze out from the crevices between his clenched teeth.

“Of course!” Leylin laughed brilliantly.

With just those two words of his, everyone on scene was amazed.

......

A while ago.

“I’ve left Parker and Tanasha at Freya’s side. There’s no need for me to worry!” Leylin, wearing a loose black robe, activated the last spell formation. A mechanical door dropped down, along with the activation of multiple layers of seals.

Vibrant runes wandered close to one another across the surface of the iron door. Leylin had used every bit of knowledge he had about defensive spell formations in this, and together with the A.I. Chip’s deductive capabilities, even a Morning Star Magus would take a while to force his way in.

The walls of the secret chamber were littered with aura isolation runes. This room could be said to be one of the best-hidden places on the continent right now.

There was no choice about it. This matter concerned his advancement to the Morning Star realm, and Leylin wouldn’t dare to be sloppy.

This was not his manor at the headquarters, but a cellar where he kept his secret purchases. The entire process was controlled by him alone, and to an observer, it would seem completely unrelated to Leylin.

In his own manor, he had set up the same defensive spell formation, displaying the facade that he was still there.

At such a critical junctures, Leylin was extremely vigilant. He even found it hard to trust some of his subordinates.

“As long as we make it through this, everything will be fine and all the future holds for us is boundless open vistas...” Leylin sighed softly. As if he released all of his emotions, his eyes became clear and he calmed down.

He sat on the ground, and some items emerged in his hands.

A milky-white fingerbone with a few narrow cracks on it, a tube of golden blood emitting terrifying energy waves, as well as a messy pile of spiritual force crystals. These crystals were mostly from his spoils, while a portion of it came from Freya’s gifts and his own collection.

“The road to the Morning Star is vast and long. Many Crystal Phase Magi do not even have the chance to come into contact with this bottleneck...” Leylin held a solemn expression.

He had only advanced to the Crystal Phase not long ago, and he was already thinking of breaking through to Morning Star. If it was an ordinary Magus, it would be nothing but a dream!

But he was different. He had a lot of cards in his hand and abundant knowledge, so much so that even some Morning Star Magi could only wish for it.

Even with just the Lamia fingerbone, Warlocks who had been stuck for years would gain the possibility of breaking through.

“A.I. Chip, report my current condition!”

[Leylin Farlier, rank 3 Warlock (Crystal Phase) Bloodline: Giant Kemoyin Serpent Strength: 40 Agility: 35 Vitality: 55, Spiritual Force: 356.5, Magic Power: 356 (magic power in synchronisation with spiritual force)]

The A.I. Chip replied loyally.

After advancing to the Crystal Phase, his own spiritual force had increased only slightly. It was instead his strength and vitality that had gotten a growth spurt under the effect of the techniques of the Multi-Armed Race.

“Rank 3 spiritual force varies from 200 to 400. The first threshold for advancing to the Morning Star realm is for it to reach a critical value, filling up your entire sea of consciousness...”

Because the A.I. Chip had already deduced more than half the information about the Morning Star realm, Leylin currently had no doubts as to his path.

In fact, this was why he had to wait for the A.I. Chip’s deduction progress to reach such a point before he could advance. Many times, the crucial reason for failure in advancing was exactly a lack of knowledge about the path to Morning Star, as well as the handling of the many real-life problems during the promotion.

The A.I. Chip’s deductions on the Morning Star realm happened to make up for this, clearing any remaining confusions that Leylin had. To a certain extent, he also needed to thank the Azure Mountain King for this. If he had not anxiously sent a clone, the A.I. Chip probably would not have been able to progress in the Morning Star deduction to over 50%.

“My spiritual force now can only be said to have just reached the Crystal Phase. It’s still far from the critical value. I’ll need the help of bloodline ignition.” Leylin picked up the test tube which was filled with golden blood.

This was the bloodline of the ancient red dragon, obtained from the Kobold Warlocks of the Forgotten Land. Although it was extremely pure, because Leylin’s own bloodline had long before been fixed, there was no chance to use it. That opportunity would only arise after he completely analysed the ancient Quicksand Organisation’s bloodline experiment results.

The bloodline ignition experiment, as its name implies, was conducted by burning various kinds of bloodlines to strengthen one’s own power.

Its requirements towards the bloodline was very strict. One had to be a Warlock in order to conduct it, and the grade of the bloodline that was to be burnt could not be too low. If not, the entire experiment would not succeed and could even backfire. The bloodline of the ancient red dragon fulfilled this requirement perfectly.

As for the supplementary resource for the experiment, it was a Crystal Phase Magus’ spiritual force crystals! Only the spiritual force fire produced by such crystals could completely burn the ancient bloodline, and convert it into energy that would serve as the driving force for the Warlock’s advancement.

A complicated, detailed spell formation was already drawn on the surface of the ground. Leylin inlaid the many spiritual force crystals one by one in an orderly manner, filling up the spell formation quickly.

The spiritual force crystal of a Crystal Phase Magus was a top-grade resource in many social circles. It could even be used as a currency on its own and was of high worth.

But now, a large amount of spiritual force crystals were laid on the ground as if they were worthless, radiating a pure, sparkling light.

The marks of the original owners of these crystals had naturally been erased by Leylin.

“The ancient red dragon bloodline is preceded only by that of the Sun’s child. It’s an extremely powerful bloodline that can at least reach rank 5! Frankly speaking, if not for the fact that my bloodline cannot be changed once absorbed, I’m afraid I too would not be able to resist the temptation, and would convert into a dragon bloodline Warlock......”

Leylin sighed, taking off his Magus robe. He then smeared the golden blood all over his body, without missing a spot.

The golden blood felt viscous to the touch, and smelt like orchids. It was cool to the touch at first, but soon became boiling hot.

At the same time, a translucent flame rose from the spell formation below Leylin’s body.

Streaks of crystal-clear light were pulled out of the many spiritual force crystals like threads. They then converged at a point, forming a translucent flame comprised of spiritual force!

Although this flame was not really hot, once it came in contact with the essence of the ancient red dragon’s golden bloodline, it sparked a violent reaction.

“Ow!” Leylin groaned. His body grew rigid in a moment, and under the burning of the spiritual force flame, he could feel the strange transformation in the ancient red dragon bloodline. It even turned into a blood-red energy, passing through his pores and making it all the way into his bone marrow.

For an ordinary person, such pain was almost unbearable, but Leylin was just more focused on the A.I. Chip’s monitored information:

[Beep! Large amounts of bloodline essence has been absorbed by host body! Identified as the ancient red dragon’s blood, beginning bloodline ignition experiment!]

[The curve of the spiritual force’s fire is stabilised, converting the ancient red dragon bloodline into energy...]

[Beep! Bloodline energy absorbed by host body, spiritual force increasing!] The repeated prompts caused an expression of delight to surface on Leylin’s face suddenly.

He noticed the initial value of 356 for his spiritual force spiking suddenly, and at the same time, a large amount of blood-red energy was injected into his sea of consciousness, expanding its boundaries continuously. Black spiritual force crystals, faintly hued red, condensed in large quantities.

Even if his spiritual force was spiking suddenly, with the amplification of Multilimb Strength, Leylin managed to hang on without losing his consciousness. This gave him an opportunity to deepen his understanding of his own body.

His spiritual force rocketed up continuously, exceeding 370, then 380. It reached 385 before it began to slow down.

Shortly after, the value shot past 390, making its sprint towards 400, the limit of the Crystal Phase.

395, 396, 397!

At this value, it began to slow, with the swift change relegated to decimal places.

*Pop!* At this moment, all of the numerous spiritual force crystals were sucked dry, and the spiritual force flame swelled! With the support of this power, Leylin’s spiritual force began to rise again, all the way to 399 before it came to a stop!