From what the Fiend Castle staff member had explained, Linley and the others could guess that the gold-robed guards should be at the God-level of power, while the black-robed guards, the steward, and the lord of the castle were all Highgods.
They spent thirty-two days in that metallic creature. Finally, they arrived at the destination.
“After you disembark, all you have to do is head south a few kilometers. Moon Lake is there.”
The silver-haired elder said loudly in the rear cabin, “This place isn’t Royalwing City. Life and death battles can happen at any moment. Everyone needs to be careful. We will quietly wait here for your return. If you successfully return with a moon ring, you can return to the metallic lifeform.”
Everyone maintained their silence.
They all felt tremendous pressure!
A thousand people had come to take part in the Fiend trials. But how many of them would survive to return? The number of people who had come to take part in the Fiend trials was testament to how dangerous Fiend trials were.
Since the Fiend Castle had specially picked out this mission to test them, the difficulty level definitely wouldn’t be low.
“Everyone in the front cabins has disembarked. Now all of you need to disembark!” The silver-haired elder said calmly, “Let me give you one parting advice; you don’t need to just be on guard against the dwellers of Moon Lake. You also need to be on guard against the other Fiend trial participants. There are always many who don’t die during the mission, but are killed by other Fiend trial participants. I’ve seen this far too many times.”
Linley’s heart shook slightly.
Indeed. If someone else didn’t have a moon ring but you did, the other person might ambush you so as to kill you and seize your moon ring. This was very common.
After all, this wasn’t Royalwing City!
“Let’s go.” Linley, Delia, and Bebe followed the flow of people outside, the densely packed group slowly disembarking the metallic lifeform.
At this moment, the metallic lifeform was on a broad, empty land. There were twenty-three Fiends gathered there. Amongst them, the bald ‘Crompton’ was standing in front of his friends, glancing about casually. But then, his gaze suddenly turned.
“Hrm?” Crompton stared at the entrance to the metallic creature.
And then, Crompton’s face immediately had a hint of a smile appear on it. “I didn’t expect that the three of them would also be assigned to this Fiend trial. What a coincidence.”
19
The Pink Mist
Linley didn’t want to come face to face with Crompton, but no matter what, the three of them would have to exit the metallic creature. This was unavoidable. As soon as Linley’s group exited through the opening, Crompton accidentally saw them.
Linley cautiously looked at Crompton out of the corner of his eyes as well.
At this moment, Linley was at the opening, while Crompton was currently standing amidst a tall patch of wild grass, but at that moment…
Their gazes crossed and locked!
“Not good!” Linley’s face instantly changed.
Linley’s face was now ugly to behold, but Crompton’s face had a hint of a smile on it.
“I won’t get involved with that baldy for now. If he insists on making trouble, all I can do is go all out.” Linley didn’t have any other choice for now either. All he could do was enter the group with the rest of the Fiend trial participants. All of them flew down from the metallic lifeform, landing on the patch of land with exuberant plant growth.
“Hey, bro, look.” Crompton nudged someone nearby, and then gestured with his eyes towards the front. “It’s that punk who made me lose face at Royalwing City.”
“Hey, it really is the three of them.” The Fiends next to Crompton also looked towards Linley, clearly surprised. One of them began to laugh. “Crompton, your luck is quite good. It seems you’ll have a chance to get revenge.”
Crompton let out a sinister laugh.
“I originally thought I wouldn’t have a chance, but who would have imagined that he would be delivered right to me?” Crompton naturally wouldn’t give up this opportunity.
Soon, the thousand participants of the Fiend trials had all finished disembarking.
Linley’s team was in the middle of this group.
“Linley?” That Regina greeted Linley’s group, but they only casually acknowledged her, not paying any extra attention. Regina frowned. She couldn’t help but feel puzzled, but how could she know that the three were currently worrying about Crompton?
“Boss, that Crompton is walking over,” Bebe suddenly said.
Linley looked over as well.
Crompton was sneering coldly while walking over.
“Retreat!” Linley and the other two immediately moved backwards. Seeing this, Crompton immediately snickered, “You want to flee?” Crompton’s speed suddenly increased. No longer trying to disguise it, he charged straight towards Linley’s group, his face ferocious.
“When you were a Demigod, you dared to curse at me!” The rage in Crompton’s heart that had been suppressed for thirty-plus years was now exploding forth.
If it hadn’t been for the fact that they were within Royalwing City, he would’ve acted long ago.
“Delia, you immediately retreat off to a distance while using your ‘Spatial Wind’ to restrict him and slow his movements,” Linley said through his divine sense. “Bebe, the two of us will prepare to fight.” Linley’s gaze turned cold. Since Crompton was coming for trouble…
Then it was time for them to go all out!
“Kill that foul baldy!” Bebe’s eyes had a vicious look flash through them as well.
“Hmph…” Crompton sneered coldly, and then suddenly moved to pursue, while of Linley’s group, Delia retreated at high speed, but Linley and Bebe did not; instead slowing down as though waiting for Crompton to come over.
“What are you doing!” a cold shout shook in Crompton’s mind.
At the same time, a figure appeared in front of Crompton.
Although Crompton’s mind had been clouded by his fury, when he saw this person, he was immediately frightened into his senses. He immediately said respectfully, “Lord Loysius, I, I…”
“Huh?”
Linley’s group came together once more, watching with confusion. A Fiend had suddenly appeared in front of Crompton, blocking him. In front of this Fiend, Crompton appeared to be extremely frightened.
“Who is he?” Linley looked at the Fiend in confusion.
This Fiend had long, brownish-black hair that was unbound casually, but his gaze was cold and fierce.
“Crompton, you want to kill those three?” Loysius looked coldly at Crompton.
“I…” Crompton wanted to speak, but he didn’t know how he should explain.
Loysius, a Five Star Fiend.
On this trip to Moon Lake, the leader of the Fiends was this Loysius as well as his two partners. Five Star Fiends, all three of them! This was an extremely powerful force amongst the Fiends.
“Hmph, I don’t care what you think you were doing,” Loysius said coldly. “However, the battle has yet to begin. If because you killed these three Gods, you created energy ripples that attracted the notice of the master of Moon Lake Castle, causing him to flee without engaging in battle, our mission would be a failure. If that happens, don’t blame me for acting merciless!”
“Yes, yes, I understand!” Crompton’s heart shuddered.
In his heart, he thought regretfully, “How could I have forgotten!” The energy ripples caused by battling Deities were very apparent, especially if a Highgod was to fight against three Gods… such a battle would definitely create energy ripples, and Moon Lake was only a few kilometers away from here.
Once the battle began, the master of Moon Lake would definitely take notice.
If the master of the castle fled, then this mission of Loysius and the other Fiends would have failed.
“Hmph.” Loysius gave h
im a hard look, then left.
Crompton immediately gave Linley’s group a hard look as well. He said to himself, “Count yourselves lucky. However, when the battle begins, I will definitely kill the three of you to vent my anger. Right now, I’ll just let you live a bit longer!”
After having been rebuked by Loysius, the anger that Crompton felt was naturally transferred towards Linley’s group.
“Everyone, we know that you are here to take part in the Fiend trials.” A voice rang out in the minds of all one thousand test-takers, Linley included. “We are different from you; our mission is to kill that master of Moon Lake Castle. Thus, I hope you won’t be impatient. Wait for us to kill the master of Moon Lake Castle before making your moves.”
Linley and everyone else felt shocked.
“A divine sense that encapsulates everyone? It at least covers hundreds of meters.”
In the Infernal Realm, using divine sense to speak was very difficult.
When Linley had been in the Necropolis of the Gods, as soon as he moved through the interdimensional gateway and into the Necropolis of the Gods, he had realized that his spiritual energy’s maximum area had shrunk to just a few dozen meters, while in the Yulan continent, it had been over a thousand kilometers.
In the Infernal Realm, one of the Higher Planes, the restriction was even greater.
When Linley had first arrived in the Infernal Realm, he was only a Demigod. Although his soul was fairly powerful, his divine sense was still only able to encapsulate ten meters. After absorbing eleven amethysts and breaking through to the God-level, Linley’s divine sense was still only a hundred meters.
“A Highgod’s divine sense should be able to cover a thousand kilometers.” This was Linley’s hypothesis.
That Loysius continued to speak using divine sense, “Right now, we are heading to Moon Lake. The thousand of you, follow us.”
And then…
With Loysius and the other Three Star Fiends taking the lead, the twenty-plus Fiends simultaneously flew into the air, heading towards Moon Lake.
Immediately, the thousand-man army of Fiend trial participants flew into the air as well, with Linley’s group naturally amongst them. They all flew towards Moon Lake.
“Crompton alone isn’t that frightening. But I’m worried about those friends of his,” Linley said to himself. “At Moon Lake, I expect those friends of his won’t help him when the battle is going on.”
Linley felt certain about this. Based on their behavior in the Fiend Castle, and how those friends had fanned the flames and egged him on, most likely none of them truly considered Crompton a close, lifelong friend.
Moon Lake was extremely wide and vast, nearly ten kilometers wide. A gentle wind blew, creating slight ripples and waves across the surface of Moon Lake. In the center of Moon Lake, there was an ancient castle. This castle was multiple kilometers wide as well, and could be considered a fairly large one.
Twenty-plus Fiends and a thousand Gods were standing in the middle of Moon Lake.
Loysius and his two comrades, one of which was a violet-haired, black-robed man, the other one being a blue-haired, muscular man, moved at virtually the same moment. Flying into the air, they flew at high speed towards Moon Lake Castle, and right behind them… were the Fiends.
“Let’s go.” Linley and the rest of the thousand didn’t hesitate, immediately flying into the air as well.
“Swish!”
Three figures suddenly appeared in the air above Moon Lake Castle. It was Loysius and the other two.
“They live up to being Five Star Fiends. Their speed is so fast.” Crompton and the other Fiends sighed in amazement in their hearts.
Loysius hovered there in mid-air, staring down at the castle. “I don’t want to fight inside the castle. Third Bro, split this castle in half.”
“Yes, Big Brother.” The blue-haired muscular youth flipped his hand over, and a long black saber appeared in it. The blade of this long saber was extremely broad, at least thirty centimeters. The entire thing radiated a bloody, murderous aura. Clearly, it had drank the blood of quite a few experts.
Wielding this long black saber, the blue-haired muscular youth’s body suddenly moved, and he struck out with the weapon.
“BAM!”
An enormous black saber-shadow chopped straight down towards the castle. Wherever the saber shadow passed, space itself split apart, creating massive earthquake-like ripples that emanated downwards in the air below the saber-shadow. The part of the waters of Moon Lake that were affected by the ripples began to crackle, and then the water in that area completely vanished.
And then, the water elsewhere in Moon Lake rushed in to fill the gap.
“BOOM!”
The enormous blade-shadow chopped against the castle. The walls of the castle actually began to shine with all sorts of complicated magical runes that were black in color, flashing with enormous divine power. The magical runes continually flashed, weakening the strength of the attack. The attack, despite being powerful, had been forcibly blocked head on by the castle.
The faces of Loysius and the other two changed.
“Who is the master of this castle? Did he himself set up this enormous defensive magic formation, or did he ask someone else to help him with it?” Loysius felt a hint of worry. His third brother’s material attack was the strongest of the three.
Loysius knew exactly how powerful that saber chop was. To be able to block that saber… the magic formation of this castle was something that only a true master of magic formations was capable of setting up.
If he was able to invite a master to set it up, the lord of this castle was undoubtedly extremely wealthy.
If he himself set it up, then the insides of this castle definitely wouldn’t be ordinary. There would be countless dangers within.
“No wonder it is a six-star assignment!” Loysius frowned.
The Fiends behind them, as well as the thousand Gods, all stared in confusion.
“This castle seems to be extraordinary,” Bebe said with pursed lips. “It is similar to the magic formation that previously protected the Radiant Temple.”
“They are both magic formations, but this one is millions of times more powerful.” Linley also sensed that this assignment wouldn’t be as easily accomplished as they might hope. “It seems it’s true that only a small number out of a thousand are likely to survive.”
Right at this moment, a pink mist suddenly began to emanate from the castle. This pink mist expanded very quickly, covering virtually the entire surface of the water of Moon Lake, with all of the Fiends and the thousand Gods within it.
“Huh?” Linley frowned. This pink mist was very thick. Linley could only barely see within a few dozen meters of himself.
“Crunch!” The sound of a weapon piercing into someone’s body.
“Bastard, die, die!”
From afar, energy ripples from combat suddenly appeared, causing Linley’s group to be shocked.
Linley wanted to use his divine sense to take a look; after all, Linley’s divine sense was able to spread to an area of nearly a hundred meters. But just as Linley spread out his divine sense a little bit…
He suddenly sensed a hint of a murderous intent grow in his heart, and his soul was affected as well. Only, that blue light within Linley’s sea of consciousness lit up.
“Not right.” Linley instantly grew clear-minded again.
“Everyone, don’t use your divine sense, and don’t breathe that mist into your body,” the loud voice of Loysius rang out. “This pink mist is a type of poison mist created by a Highgod master who trains in the Edicts of Death. It is designed specifically to drawn out the murderous feelings in one’s soul. No matter what, your spiritual energy and your soul cannot come into contact with that pink mist.
What was divine sense?
Divine sense was nothing more than spiritual energy that was spread out of the body. Once a person’s spiritual energy came into contact with that pink mist, it would
be impacted.
20
Cannon Fodder
In the air above Moon Lake. That pink mist was everywhere.
Within the thick mist, everyone including Linley, without being told, released their Godrealms, causing the pink mist to stay away from them. The Godrealm of a Deity wasn’t that large, but with over a thousand experts utilizing it at the same time…
Instantly, there wasn’t a hint of that fog left in the air above the castle.
“We haven’t even entered the castle yet, but people have started to die,” Linley said to himself. Just then, when that pink fog had first come out, quite a few people had their souls contaminated by that poison fog. Those people who had been more murderous to begin with had instantly exploded into madness.
In the blink of an eye, nearly ten Gods had died.
“This fog truly is powerful.” Bebe sighed in praise. “Fortunately, I didn’t release my divine sense just now.”
But Delia said, “Just now, when I heard the sounds of combat, I sent out my divine sense to see what was going on. But of course, once I heard the warning, I immediately withdrew it.” Linley couldn’t help but to turn and look at Delia. “Delia, are you alright?” Linley was frightened.
“Do I look like I’m in trouble?” Delia laughed.
“Just now, I just felt a bit grouchy. I felt only just a tiny hint of killing intent, well within my ability to control,” Delia explained.
Linley suddenly frowned and he looked to the side. There were two Gods nearby him chatting.
“Aksu, this time we’re in trouble. This is a poison fog developed by a Highgod master of the Edicts of Death. Something like this is extremely precious, but the lord of Moon Lake Castle used it in such a casual manner. And that magic formation just now… this all indicates that the master of this castle is extremely wealthy.”
“Right. This sort of poison fog that stirs up an urge to kill isn’t that powerful; when I was in Blacksand Castle at Royalwing City, I once saw someone selling a poison which upon contact with one’s soul, could cause the soul to spontaneously combust and then collapse. But of course, that price was sky-high.”
The Infernal Plane: Book 5 of the Coiling Dragon Saga Page 15