"Luo Wei?" Ophelia blinked in confusion. "What exactly is happening? Did you figure something out?"
"Of course!" Luo Wei sneered at Carlton, even chuckling to himself. "You claim to have studied in this dump for sixteen years, but what have you actually accomplished? From the basic magic sigils to the incantations, and even the casting methods—everything is laughably wrong! Is this how a 9th-circle spell like [Soul Torrent] is supposed to be used?"
"Let me teach you what real magic looks like!" Luo Wei immediately glanced at Ophelia.
She knew he was about to cast a spell, but her expression betrayed her lack of confidence. "If we let magic manifest again, he might corrupt it..."
"Trust me," Luo Wei met her gaze firmly. "When have I ever been wrong at a time like this?"
After only a brief hesitation, Ophelia chose to believe him.
"Alright."
Luo Wei forcibly gathered mana, pushing beyond his usual limits, and unleashed a [Soul Torrent] straight at Carlton.
His version of [Soul Torrent], limited by his level, looked more like a leaky faucet—thin and unimpressive compared to the terrifying display from the witch.
But at least it was a proper "circle" spell.
The moment he cast it, the surrounding darkness surged, clearly indicating Carlton's attempt to corrupt Luo Wei's magic again.
Luo Wei quickly shot Ophelia a look, and she instinctively cut off her domain's influence.
"See? This is how 'circle' magic is supposed to work."
Luo Wei actually began lecturing Carlton in a dead-serious tone. "First, your mana storage organ needs to accumulate enough energy, then the incantation guides the resonance of the magic sigils. Any proper magical academy teaches this stuff... And the higher the circle, the more exaggerated the resonance power of the sigils becomes, allowing you to tap into this 'miracle force.' Lastly—"
"Shut up!" Carlton hurled another spell at him.
"This one’s wrong too. Let me tell you, the finishing stage should never be done like this—it’s a surefire way to trigger backlash..."
Ophelia stared in stunned silence as the two exchanged spellfire...
During this time, Eleya, at Luo Wei's request, didn’t lift a finger to help.
Yet somehow, Luo Wei managed to hold his own against Carlton in a back-and-forth duel...
As she watched, a realization slowly dawned on her...
"Ophelia, do you see it now?" Luo Wei shot her a quick glance. "That guy doesn’t actually know anything. He’s no grandmaster who’s fused all these extraordinary powers! When it comes to the arcane and the supernatural, he’s just regurgitating book knowledge and filling in the gaps with his own delusions! A hack like him probably knows less about mysticism than I do!"
"Magic is simple—you either know it or you don’t. He’s never successfully cast a single spell in his life. He doesn’t have the ability, you get it?"
"We see the witch studying magic every day. Now look at him—he can’t even get the simplest incantation right. It’s all jumbled, full of holes!"
Luo Wei blocked another surge of Carlton’s mana and continued mocking him. "No wonder your spells looked so weird earlier, old man. What kind of act are you putting on? Is this how you’re supposed to use this? Mana eruption is a mage’s last resort in life-or-death situations, and you’re just throwing it around like it’s nothing? You trying to drop dead on the spot?"
"Shut your mouth!" Carlton roared, bombarding Luo Wei with spells, but gradually, the magical surges around him weakened.
"I’m doing you a favor here! Shouldn’t you be thanking me for saving you from becoming the laughingstock of the magical world?" Luo Wei laughed. This tactic was called "knowledge corruption"—an attack on the cognitive level.
He’d been puzzled by one thing.
If Carlton claimed to be an omnipotent deity within this domain...
With power like that, why didn’t he just summon a bolt of lightning to strike him dead or conjure 114,514 trucks to run him over?
Because he couldn’t.
Like he said before, everything in the Dreamlands wasn’t pure imagination—it had to follow real-world logic.
In Carlton’s "anti-magic domain," he could only pretend to wield magic, divine arts, and other supernatural abilities...
And that was the key to breaking through.
"Ophelia! Do you understand now?" Luo Wei turned to her urgently. "Don’t fear him. The core of the domain lies in 'confidence'—in crushing his will completely!"
"That’s why I covered your ears earlier. I didn’t want him to keep undermining your self-belief. All that crap about being an arbiter, about ideals—it’s all fake! He’s just a power-hungry narcissist! Everything he’s done is to eliminate anything that threatens his control. How dare he say you’re inferior to him? You have to believe that in the future, you, me, Tilis, Eleya—the new world we’ll build together will be far greater!"
Eleya blinked in surprise beside him. "Wait, me too? Aren’t I your enemy?"
Luo Wei ignored her and kept encouraging Ophelia. "Believe in yourself! Don’t hesitate, don’t be afraid. No matter what happens, I’ll always stand behind you!"
"I..." Ophelia murmured. "Can I really do this...?"
Her gaze drifted to Carlton II, whose furious, lion-like eyes were locked onto her without blinking.
"Ophelia, I’m giving you one last chance!"
His voice was a guttural snarl.
"I’ll release you from the domain. Leave this place, leave Saint Callen. I won’t hold you accountable for anything!"
"The coup in the Royal Capital has nothing to do with you. None of this concerns you. Just walk away, and you can go wherever you want, do whatever you please—you’ll be free!"
"Haven’t you always wanted freedom?"
"Wasn’t your dream to escape my control, to break free from the Royal Capital’s cage and live as you wished?"
"Well, now I’m giving it to you!"
Carlton’s roar echoed through the endless darkness, vibrating painfully in their ears, hearts pounding.
"Only now, at this point, do you make such an offer..." Ophelia smiled bitterly. "Don’t you think it’s too late?"
"It’s never too late! Nothing is more important than survival. Just go, and you’ll live!"
This time, Luo Wei didn’t interfere with Carlton’s attempt to manipulate Ophelia, even though he knew exactly what the man was doing.
Ophelia covered her own ears.
What meaning would there be in living alone?
Even if she left the Royal Capital, even if she gained freedom—it wouldn’t be the freedom she truly wanted...
In the silence of her own making, she stared calmly at the enraged Carlton. And in that moment, she knew—she could do this.
It was precisely because of his guilt that he grew so furious, so desperate to make promises.
To put it in Luo Wei's favorite words—he was...
panicking.
The corners of her lips slowly curled into a faint, composed smile.
With Ophelia at the center, the boundless darkness trembled violently, her domain momentarily overwhelming Carlton's.
An overwhelming force surged in all directions, even piercing through the darkness and spilling into the real world.
The vast Haiglitze Palace, its grand architectural complex, collapsed in waves, the thunderous tremors felt even kilometers beyond the palace grounds.
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
saw a female celebrity tied up and stuffed in the trunk! Little did he know, countless cameras were aimed at him at this moment - this was a new type of reality show. The first randomly selected passerby was caught in less than an hour. But when Xu Moru was selected, things started to take an unexpected turn. "Damn, this isn't how the script goes. This Xu Moru is too bold, he's not following the rules at all." "Crap, is this guy taking it seriously?" "The female celebrity has been scared to tears!"
ap a wealthy young lady? Or else I'll be eliminated by the system? Ye Feng, who awakened the Kidnapper System, originally wanted to live a peaceful life but never imagined he would become a kidnapper of young women. However, after some time, he discovered that all the girls the system ordered him to kidnap were far from ordinary. "Big brother Ye Feng~ You've kidnapped my heart, and now you're not allowed to leave me ever again~" "Ye Feng~ You kidnapped me back then, now it's my turn to capture you♡" "Little Feng, you're mine! You can only be mine!" "Ye Feng, none of them deserve you. Only I love you the most♡" ... This is madness, they've all gone mad! Wait, what? Why are all the girls I kidnapped yanderes?!
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
