Abyssal Breath
“My Lord! That’s the Dense Fog Forest’s headquarters!”
Old man Iren pointed to a fog-shrouded forest in the middle of the basin, with a look of respect on his face.
Currently, Iren was completely submissive to Leylin and existed as his servant.
Leylin walked behind him with conflicted feelings. Together with Obo, Ilya, and the other rank 3 acolytes, their faces were red with emotions.
Rank 2 Magus! Their famed professor was actually a rank 2 noble Magus who actually defeated a lot of enemies with just one blow!
They were proud of this kind of glory.
“The Dense Fog Forest is still a medium-scale guild, with an extremely strong Magi formation barrier. With several protected and contracted beings as the first line of defense, does this not mean that we are…”
Iren had revealed all of Gus’ defensive lines backhandedly.
“We do not need anything! I alone am sufficient. All of you keep in mind, without my orders, no one is allowed to step into the basin!”
Leylin’s face was stern. After which, he transformed into a gust of wind and disappeared in mid-air.
*Ssiii*
A sound could be heard as he travelled. Celine and the rest saw an illusory shadow of a snake appearing in mid-air. The huge snake forcefully appeared and seemed to transform into the face of a terrifying devil. The shape of the devil’s face seemed to resemble Leylin.
After half an hour passed they had obtained permission to enter the Dense Fog Forest, and they saw huge amounts of rotten corpses!
A few huge high-energy beings whose size resembled small mountains could also be seen dead on the floor, their corpses, not yet fully decomposed, had emitted an unpleasant small.
“Your task is to completely search this area, and take away any resources that are of value!”
Leylin slowly landed on the corpse of a huge beast. That scene had made many absolutely horrified.
“Yes! Yes, My Lord!”
Initially, Celine had doubts over why Leylin had wanted to bring a batch of acolytes over. However, now she fully understood his intentions.
……
After having searched the Dense Fog Forest, Leylin had arrived near the premises of the headquarters of the Eight-Clawed Spider guild.
This time around, Skrill appeared beside him.
If Leylin could subdue even Iren, naturally Skrill was not a big issue.
“Go! Announce that the Eight-Clawed Spider will be disbanded! And that all the Magi shall join Nature’s Alliance!” Leylin ordered Skrill.
“As you wish, my Lord!” Skrill bowed to Leylin, evidently afraid of him.
His fear was to the extent that he was willing to accept such orders.
With regards to the subsidiary guilds of the Dense Fog Forest, Leylin did not intend to exterminate all of them fully.
In any case, since they had no chance of knowing the Icy World’s secret, it would be for the best to subdue all of them to increase Nature’s Alliance’s strength.
Furthermore, all of the Dense Fog Forest Magi had been exterminated without any exceptions under Leylin’s rank 2 Magi spell that covered a vast area. There was no longer any living beings within the entire basin.
It could be said that the Dense Fog Forest guild had disappeared from the face of the earth.
Looking at the uproar from the guild headquarters, together with Iren and the people that went forth to subdue them, Leylin smiled icily.
“Next, perhaps it’s time for the rank 2 Magi?”
How long had it been since such a large-scale attack, and such a vile way of exterminating an entire guild, had happened in the entire eastern Twilight Zone?
No matter how dim-witted the large-scale guilds were, they would have to make a stand.
Moreover, according to the latest news, the dark elven empire was starting to become restless, and it was also nearing the time when the darkness creature horde beyond the Twilight Zone was approaching. It was precisely during this period of time where Magi were supposed to collaborate that Nature’s Alliance’s move could be said to be going against the tide.
“So what?”
Leylin’s face revealed a smile that seemed to suggest that he did not care, “It is precisely because of this that I am making a move now!”
“The combining of forces to deal with external forces not only restricts the Nature’s Alliance but all the other large-scale guilds as well!”
“Would they be willing to, under these conditions, lose a rank 2 Magus? How can the strength associated with a medium-scale guild measure up to a newly promoted rank 2 Magus? Furthermore, we still possess sufficient evidence to prove that the Dense Fog Forest had started the fight first, and had even encroached into our headquarters and caused a large number of casualties…”
With strength and evidence, even large-scale guilds would not act recklessly.
With regards to this, Leylin understood the logic very clearly.
After 10 minutes or so, Skrill and Iren returned.
“My Lord! The Eight-Clawed Spider guild has officially disbanded. This is our high-grade meditation technique—Abyssal Breath!”
Skrill respectfully half-knelt and passed a black crystal wand to Leylin.
“Mm. Well done!” Leylin took the wand gently, with a thread of his silver spiritual force reaching into it.
Increasing the power of Nature’s Alliance was only part of the reason why Leylin had destroyed the guilds. The main objective behind his actions was actually to collect the high-grade meditation techniques!
As time passed, Leylin frowned, which caused Skrill to start trembling.
“Only rank 3?” Leylin sighed. The Eight-Clawed Spider guild’s meditation technique had the same flaws as Celine’s Crystal Mask. Not only was it hard to develop, it was only rank 3.
This implied that the Magi from the Eight-Clawed Spider guild could at most be promoted to rank 3, and not beyond.
“I, your subordinate, am ashamed! Our high-grade meditation technique does only have 3 levels! Personally, I have been stuck at rank 1, and can only use the irrigation of the abyss’ strength…”
Skrill lowered his head and quickly explained.
“Of course, I know!” Leylin knew that this Abyssal Breath mostly used the strength of the abyss to continuously change the body to adjust to a physical state more fitting to the abyss. Skrill’s half-human half-spider appearance was the way it was due to the imitation of a special being from the abyss.
And this is merely rank 1 of the Abyssal Breath. According to the introduction of the meditation technique and the A.I. Chip’s deductions, if one were to promote the meditation technique to its highest level, one would be able to return to their original state and have the physical appearance of a normal person.
Only then would the Magus, who had been entirely transformed by the abyss, be known as the spawn of the abyss!
But of course, these were only deductions made by the A.I Chip.
According to Leylin’s estimations, to reach the state of the abyss’ spawn, one would have to develop the Abyssal Breath higher than rank 5.
Honestly, one could not be sure whether the high-grade meditation technique even had a rank 5.
“However, after all, this is a high-grade meditation technique and is a grade higher than the Crystal Mask. This can improve the A.I. Chip’s meditation techniques information database!”
Leylin kept the black crystal wand.
Because many ancient Magi were passionate about researching about all living beings in the world, they looked for patterns, obtained strength, and frequently interacted with beings of different realms. Hence, many ancient meditation techniques had a strong and strange aura.
With respect to the Abyssal Breath, Leylin estimated that it had a deep relationship with the abyssal world, and could even have been released by a strong and powerful being living within the abyss.
“Dense Fog Forest has other auxiliary guilds, namely 3 other small-scale guilds, and 15 unrated guilds. All of you shall break into 3 groups, Iren and Skrill will lead 2 groups to sweep the unrated guilds while I will be in charge of the small-scale guilds!”
Leylin immediately gave out his orders.
“As you wish, My Lord!” the surrounding Magi all bowed with respect.
Leylin nodded. Iren was a peak rank one magus, and Skrill was a semi-converted elemental Magus. To put them in charge to deal with the unrated guilds was a terrifying force to be reckoned with.
The unrated guilds did not stand a chance with the teams led by the two of them.
Furthermore, upon performing this deed, these newly subdued Magi would have no way out, and would only be able to come under Leylin’s wings.
……
Several days later, explosive news spread across the entire Eastern Twilight Zone that caused a sensation in the Magi world, and even continued to spread in the 4 other zones.
After having existed for a few hundred thousand years, large amounts of contracted guardian beasts, countless official Magi, and even a peak rank 1 Magus that oversaw a medium-scale guild, the Dense Fog Forest, were entirely destroyed!
The one responsible for it was actually Nature’s Alliance! This news had revealed that the honorary professor of Nature’s Alliance had made a breakthrough to rank 2!
A peak rank 1 Magus was considered as a large power, while a rank 2 Magus was the goal of many official Magi, which were also known as the elites of the human forces!
Typically, a rank 2 Magi would only appear in large-scale guilds. The presence of the one or two old and experienced rank 2 Magi was that of the trump card of these guilds.
Nature’s Alliance, on the other hand, was only a small-scale guild!
At this point in time, the entire eastern Twilight Zone was shocked.
Under Leylin’s control, the actions of Nature’s Alliance went extremely smoothly.
Not only did Nature’s Alliance attack all of the Dense Fog Forest’s auxiliary guilds and wiped out all traces of its history, many Magi had joined Nature’s Alliance and enhanced its strength, such that it had been promoted to a medium-scale guild! These were all within Leylin’s expectations.
Moreover, the taking over of the Dense Fog Forest’s resources was also proceeding smoothly.
This, of course, was not in accordance with the rules set by the council members and had sparked their displeasure.
However, under Leylin’s suppression, Nature’s Alliance continued doing whatever they wanted to without any hesitation. The guild sent out many troops and their strength increased day after day.
With regards to small matters like the strength of the guild, Leylin could not be bothered to oversee them and would casually instruct his acolytes to handle them.
The newly-joined Magi that were now part of Nature’s Alliance were all given roles as professors or guest professors, but in actual fact, they would only listen to Leylin’s bidding.
Celine’s powers were suppressed to the maximum, but she could only force a smile, and could not complain much.
Leylin had suddenly been promoted to a rank 2 Magi, and just his strength alone would make Celine’s previous plans prove futile. Furthermore, in terms of trickery, back in the southern coast the underhanded means that Leylin had employed did not pale in comparison to that Celine’s.
Under these conditions, Celine could only give up.
Due to her special status, other official Magi would still be slightly respectful towards her and would not reject her requests towards small matters.
Furthermore, these Magi were still under Nature’s Alliance, even if only in name, which gave Celine some comfort.
