The Halo of the Ice Spirit Stone had dimmed in Aelia's sleeve for three days, until the fourth morning when Qin Si, holding a Silver Tray, suddenly burned her finger on Luna's Crystal Baby Bottle.
"Madam, Young Miss insists that you feed her before she will drink the Magic Goat Milk," the maid said, rubbing her reddened fingertip, completely unaware that her collar was stained with the burnt Maple Syrup that Luna had deliberately spilled last night—an act recorded as the "Mark of Honesty" in the Abyss Contract.
"Mother," Luna suddenly poked at the Cedar Forest outside the window with her honey-covered finger, as the Chaos Stone in her swaddling cast a distorted Light Spot.
Aelia's Silver Spoon suddenly sprouted Bing Hua, and Leonard's face, shrouded in black mist from Three Days Ago, became increasingly clear within the ice crystal.
Qin Si suddenly clutched her Heart: "Xi Yuan's Barrier Stone needs replacing; the servants say the Night Owl keeps circling there..." Before she could finish, Luna let out a giggle and hurled her Sugar Coated Rattle at the Magic Crystal Clock above the fireplace—marking Leonard's daily inspection of the barrier.
The ice crystals in the Cedar Forest began to eerily refract rainbows at Noon.
Aelia's Silver Thread Embroidered Shoes pricked her fingertip, and a drop of Blood Pearl fell onto Luna's Swaddling Guardian Runes, transforming into a shape that guided a Blood Arrow.
"Look, Madam!" Qin Si exclaimed, pointing outside where twelve ice crystal Night Owls hovered and circled above the Cedar Forest.
As Aelia's Ice Mist Boots crushed the seventh dry leaf, a ripple suddenly coursed through the magical barrier deep within the Cedar Forest.
The Chaos Stone hidden in Mother’s cloak began to warm slightly as Leonard and Leonard's Concubine’s tender Magic Image automatically replayed—capturing Leonard's Last Night recorded by the Ice Spirit Stone three days ago.
"This is impossible..." Aelia's fingertip dropped the Ice Spirit Stone into a snowbank, as Leonard and Leonard's Concubine’s intimate Last Night cast a Blue Light upon the snow.
Luna suddenly burst into tears; at that moment, Sound Waves shattered the Ice Spikes atop the trees, causing twenty-eight monitoring barriers to fail simultaneously.
As Leonard turned around, his hem still carried the Iris Fragrance of Leonard's Concubine. The black Rose Mark on Mei Xin in his arms made Aelia tremble all over—it was indeed the Forbidden Totem that had caused Eldest Son's Magic Backlash fifteen years ago.
The Ice Spirit Stone suddenly levitated, projecting Leonard's Last Night across the entire Magic Fortress Defense Array's Dome.
"Mother!" Third Young Master Lucius burst through the Carved Door just as his elder brother's Wheelchair crushed the ice crystals that had formed on the floor.
Second Brother clutched the Starlight Pocket Watch gifted by his close friend last year, black mist seeping from the Ice Cracks on its surface.
"Father has tampered with the Contract using Black Magic." Brother San suddenly tore open his clothing, revealing a Backlash Mark on his chest identical to that of his elder brother.
Aelia's Ice Crystal Crown shattered in the Twilight as she tightly wrapped Luna in a swaddling blanket embroidered with the Guardian Spell. "Go summon the Council of Twelve Elders." As she spoke these words, the Defensive Formation on Eldest Son's Wheelchair suddenly illuminated the Family Crest, unseen for Twenty Years, while the black mist emerging from Second Son's Pocket Watch was dispersed by Luna's Sugar Coating.
As night deepened, the Ice Crystal Rose in Lucius Loft began to grow wildly.
When the vines pierced through the Lapis Lazuli walls, he saw the ghosts of past Lords of the Magic Castle wandering within the Dome, while Luna's Chaos Stone flickered in the Nursery—a baby doll was drawing a complete Formation Diagram of the Abyss Contract on the window glass with saliva.
A sudden Crystal Explosion Sound echoed from the West Tower, and twenty-eight Automatic Defense Arrays simultaneously turned towards the Inner Courtyard.
Lucius's Hand Back tattoo of a rose oozed Ice Blue Blood Pearls. He heard the sobbing of an Ancient Dragon deep within the castle's foundation, while Luna's cries resonated through the entire Glorious Demon Fortress's Barrier Layer amidst the Magic Turbulence.
At that moment, as Blood Pearls seeped from his Rose Tattoo, Lucius's Hand Back twitched violently. A chilling Han Qi surged from a Gap in the cracked Lapis Lazuli wall of the attic.
He staggered to steady himself against the windowsill and saw that his breath had crystallized into the shape of an Ice Crystal Sword—the very heirloom he had pawned due to his obsession with Gambling Games—bestowed upon him by Father on Ailya's fifteenth birthday.
"Third Young Master Lucius, be careful!" The Old Butler's hoarse shout was drowned out by the sound of shattering walls as vines broke through.
Instinctively, Lucius raised his hand to perform Jie Yin but was frozen in place as Han Qi retaliated while he was gathering an Ice Blade.
The broken Rose Vine suddenly coiled around his waist, the jade pendant that was a protective talisman formed by his mother with her last magical strength before her passing.
Through the illusions refracted by the ice crystals, he saw Luna finishing the last stroke of the Formation Diagram on the nursery window.
The doll tilted its head and spat out a bubble shimmering with golden light. The bubble pierced through three barriers and precisely shattered the Silver Wine Pot on his chest—inside it was a forbidden potion, Dragon's Breath Brew, capable of temporarily enhancing magical power.
"Even infants are fighting..." Lucius murmured, and his palm was suddenly cut by shards of the jade pendant.
As Blood Pearls dripped onto the wildly growing Ice Crystal Vine, the prophecy left by his grandfather Theodore Leonard in the Northern Territory exploded in his mind: "When the Black Rose drinks the Awakening Blood..." The unfinished spell was interrupted by the shattering sound of crystals from the West Tower, as twenty-eight red lights of the Defensive Formation enveloped the Inner Courtyard like a Spider Web.
At this moment, the ice crystal projection in Cedar Forest magnified Leonard's Last Night of infidelity tenfold.
Aelia's skirt hem, embroidered with an Ice Phoenix Pattern, fluttered without wind. The ice shards crushed under the Eldest Son's wheelchair suddenly floated into a Defensive Array. "Mother," his brother's incomplete right hand pressed against the Family Crest on the wheelchair armrest, "Three Days Ago I felt a disturbance in the Bloodline Contract..."
Leonard attempted to wave his Scepter to dispel the projection, but cracks suddenly appeared on the black Obsidian at its tip.
Mei Xin, Leonard's concubine, had her black Rose Mark begin to twist and deform under the enhancement of the Magic Circle, resonating with the black mist seeping from the Second Son's Pocket Watch. "Has Father forgotten?" The Second Brother suddenly raised the Pocket Watch, covered in ice cracks, above his head. "When my dear friend gifted me this item, you used truth magic to inspect it."
Luna's cries suddenly transformed into a chant of some ancient spell.
The Chaos Stone rose from its swaddling, devouring all the black mist escaping from Leonard's Staff's cracks.
Ailya's silver hair was dyed with a ghostly blue from the Ice Spirit Stone as she reached out to catch a Contract Fragment drifting from the Eldest Son's wheelchair—the parchment that had been burned by Magic Flame twenty years ago began to reorganize within Luna's magical power.
"In the name of honor!" Brother San suddenly tore open his clothing; the Backlash Mark on his chest gradually faded as it reappeared with the Contract.
His incomplete left hand finally conjured the first complete fireball in seventeen years, incinerating the Communication Scroll that Leonard had attempted to destroy into ashes. "The Ice Magic that Father taught," the sparks reflected a crimson hue in his eyes, "was actually meant to suppress our Elemental Affinity..."
The Ice Crystal Vine of Lucius Loft suddenly ceased its growth.
As he trembled and touched the crack in the wall with his bloodied palm, the Battle Mark on his grandfather's armor unexpectedly emerged on the Ice Surface.
The sound of Longyin from the direction of the Nursery shook the fragments of the Silver Wine Pot in his arms, and a memory he had deliberately forgotten—Leonard's Last Night—suddenly became clear. At five years old, hiding in the Library of Hidden Books, he had seen an ancient formation that could lift the Bloodline Curse, which bore a striking resemblance to the Formation Diagram Luna was currently drawing.
The confrontation in Cedar Forest had reached its critical point.
When the Griffon Chariot of the Twelve Elders landed at the perimeter of the barrier, Aelia gently placed Luna onto Eldest Son's lap. "Take care of your sister." The chubby baby's palm pressed against her brother's damaged right hand, and in that instant, the Family Crest on the Wheelchair Armrest projected a complete three-dimensional Magic Circle—the missing key Magic Circuit from when her brother had once performed the Forbidden Technique.
Leonard's Iris Fragrance from Leonard's Cloak was revealed under the scanning of the Defensive Formation, exposing more secrets.
Suddenly, Second Son pressed a fragment of his Pocket Watch against the Ice Surface. "Last year when the Northern Merchants were attacked, Father said that Black Rose had already gone extinct..." The black mist from his fingertip was suddenly transformed by Luna's Chaos Stone, sketching a clear trade route map on the ice crystal—the destination was precisely where Leonard's Concubine was hiding.
As the first Xing Zi climbed up the Magic Castle Spire, Lucius finally picked up the dusty Ice Vein True Solution.
Amidst the shattered aroma of wine in the attic, he raised his bloodied jade pendant towards his grandfather's phantom within the ice crystal on the wall.
A sudden cry resembling a young dragon breaking free echoed from Xi Yuan—that was the sound of his brother's Wheelchair and Defensive Formation fully activating automatically, while Luna's Chaos Stone was weaving a brand new energy net from the Magic Turbulence enveloping the entire Magic Castle.
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