A few dozen meters distance simply wasn’t enough for Linley and the others to react and dodge in time.
“Delia!”
In that short moment, Linley was only able to make a single movement. He stretched out his arms, striving to stand in front of Delia and use his body to completely block her from the arrows.
“Swish!” “Swish!”
Although Linley wasn’t the very first person in front, two arrows landed on his body. The arrows struck Linley like a thunderbolt, but the earthen robe on Linley’s body was made of countless ripples of divine power, instantly and completely counteracting the penetrative power of the arrows.
Bebe was struck by an arrow as well.
“Clang!” A metallic ringing sound could be heard, and the arrowhead actually exploded and shattered as the arrow fell to the floor.
“Too weak.” Bebe laughed delighted.
“We’re all fine.” Linley immediately could tell that Delia and Bebe were both safe. He couldn’t help but feel relieved.
But then, Linley’s face suddenly changed. In his line of sight, he suddenly saw from afar a terrifying arrow!
“There’s one more arrow coming!”
This was the arrow that had been fired last!
But this was also the most terrifying arrow, the arrow of a Highgod! The Godslayer Arrow glimmered with a sinister black light as it pierced through space, causing space to ripple. It gave Linley no chance to react at all as it collided directly with Linley’s chest.
“Bang!”
The penetrative power of this arrow was simply too great. Although those countless ripples of divine force wildly attempted to reduce its penetrative power, in the end, the arrow just barely broke through.
“Ah!” Linley fell to one knee on the ground, powerless.
Bebe, who had been in the process of collecting corpses nearby, suddenly turned, his face changed. “Boss!” Delia, who had just been letting out a sigh of relief, was shocked as well.
“Hmph, he finally died?” At the back of the squad, the bald Crompton had been watching Linley this entire time. When he saw Linley fall to one knee, a hint of a smile appeared on his face. “I didn’t kill you. Someone else killed you. Haha…”
He was extremely delighted.
The arrow itself wasn’t terrifying. What was truly terrifying was the poison that the arrowhead had been dipped in.
A gray energy stream instantly attacked Linley’s brain, viciously piercing towards Linley’s soul!
“Bang!”
It struck violently against that translucent membrane. The translucent scaled membrane was a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact. Aside from the breach in it, the other parts of it were as good as when it was undamaged. More than half of the energy of that gray energy stream dissipated upon colliding with it.
The remaining gray energy, as though it had a mind of its own that knew that the translucent membrane was hard to deal with, suddenly completely split apart, transforming into gray specks of light which covered the entire translucent membrane. Naturally, that included the breach. And that breach… was sealed by Linley using his spiritual energy into a ‘bandage’.
“What is this?” Linley was shocked. He had the feeling that the gray dots had a mind!
“Swish!”
Instantly, all of the gray dots, as though having discovered that the ‘bandage’ was weak, immediately began to wildly attack the ‘bandage’. The remaining part of the energy all flowed towards the breach, entering Linley’s sea of consciousness.
At this moment…
The many gray dots divided into three. These three weaker surges of gray energy attacked Linley’s divine spark, his wind-style divine clone, and his original body.
“It is actually attacking all of my souls at once!” Linley was greatly shocked.
But although he was shocked, Linley still controlled the spiritual energy in his sea of consciousness, creating a Pulseguard Defense! A large amount of spiritual energy ripples clashed with the gray dots of light. Moments later, all of the gray dots had been extinguished, while half of Linley’s spiritual energy had been used up as well.
“That really was dangerous.”
Only now did Linley let out a sigh of relief.
“Boss, Boss!”
“Linley! Linley!” Delia and Bebe were both by his side, calling out to him softly.
Although it took a fairly long time to describe the soul poison entering his body, it actually only happened over the course of one or two seconds, after which Linley opened his eyes.
“I’m fine.” Linley revealed a hint of a smile towards them.
Only now did Delia and Bebe let out sighs of relief. Linley, however, was feeling rather somber. “That poison really is frightening. No wonder the staff member at Redbud Castle had said that this Godslayer Arrow is capable of killing almost any God. Too bizarre, too frightening.”
As Linley saw it, this Godslayer Arrow’s poison had a will of its own.
Although it didn’t have the capacity to actually think, it had the ability to ‘avoid strong points and seek out weak points’.
“However, to this poison, the ‘soul’ has a powerful draw to it.” Linley knew this because if the poison was capable of thought, it would have focused its efforts on destroying a single soul. But the poison didn’t; instead, it attacked Linley’s three souls at the same time!”
“He didn’t die?” Crompton, at the back of the squad, saw Linley stand up again. He couldn’t help but stare with wide eyes, and then his face turned savage. “Hmph. He survived yet again. I want to see how many more times he will survive. Even if you managed to survive the soul attack of the Godslayer Arrow, I imagine you must have used up almost all of your spiritual power.”
“Hurry up!” Crompton bellowed yet again.
This time, ten or so people had died in the squad. After having been ambushed twice, only sixty Gods were left. Linley’s group of three were now at the very front of the squad.
“Boss, we can’t let this continue.” Bebe began to worry.
“I know.” Linley understood this as well.
Who knew what other tricks the enemies were planning? If they were continuously in this sort of situation where they could only play defense, sooner or later, when their defense was no longer able to handle it, they would be finished.
“We’re at the third floor!” Linley’s group slowly began to make their way down the stairs.
“Everyone, be careful,” a God called out. “The third floor is definitely going to be even more dangerous than the second floor!”
In a large, empty room on the third floor of the castle, ten gold-robed guards entered from above through a secret passageway.
“Our master really has gone wild this time. He has even brought out the Deathgod Golems.” The gold-robed guards were very excited.
“But we only have twenty of these Deathgod Golems in total. Our squad is very lucky to have even one of them.”
The gold-robed captain laughed calmly. “Eric, you can be the one to control the Deathgod Golem we have been given. I don’t need it!” The gold-robed captain was a Highgod, after all. Although the Deathgod Golem was powerful, it was only on par with him.
The third floor was extremely large, and the layout of the castle was so chaotic that as one walked, one might even forget which road they were traveling on. They could only choose to walk around randomly.
“We can’t let this continue!” Linley walked slowly, but up ahead was that perpetual pink mist. Nobody knew what would appear from up ahead.
Suddenly…
“Halt!” An explosive shout rang out.
“Brothers, flee!”
Chaotic sounds suddenly could be heard from everywhere in the castle, and the sixty-plus people in Linley’s squad all were stunned.
A look of delight appeared on Linley’s face.
Linley immediately spread out his divine sense to cover the forty or fifty people towards the front. “Brothers, if this continu
es, we’re all going to die. Let’s all flee together and move separately. That way, we won’t be caught and killed in one fell swoop by the people of the castle!”
“Brothers, flee!” Linley suddenly called out in a loud voice.
In virtually the same moment, all of the Gods, as though having been trained together, simultaneously scurried towards the nearby rooms, or deeper into the mist, or into the nearby passageways…
In the blink of an eye!
More than sixty Gods had all run off!
Crompton’s group of three Fiends were stupefied.
“We… who should we chase?” Crompton turned to look at the two Fiends next to him.
“Chase my ass!” a Fiend cursed softly.
22
Deathgod Golem
Sixty-plus people had fled.
Only three Fiends were overseeing them. How many could they catch?
One of them, a gold-haired Fiend, sent with his divine sense, “Right now, let’s forget about trying to use those Fiend trial participants to block for us. Come, let’s go find the black-robed guards!” These two Fiends immediately began to move forward quickly. Crompton, while in his heart unwilling to let the matter rest, still followed them.
“Linley, you better hope that I don’t meet you in the future. Next time definitely won’t be like this time.”
Crompton regretted not having killed Linley earlier.
Actually, it wasn’t that Crompton had been merciful; it was that he simply couldn’t kill Linley!
At that time, the thousand Fiend trial participants had all been divided into groups of ten. If Crompton were to try and kill Linley, the other Fiends probably wouldn’t have agreed. After all, if at a time like that, he was to suddenly kill Linley for no reason, most likely that would cause the rest of the thousand Fiend trial participants to flee and scatter.
Within the Moon Lake Castle, the scene was one of utter chaos.
Chaos, chaos, everywhere!
The members of the ten squads were wildly fleeing, and hundreds of them were dispersing throughout the third floor. Some of the gold-robed guards who had been hidden in some of the rooms discovered, to their shock, people charging within!
Although they were hidden quite well, with hundreds of people running around chaotically, naturally some would bump into each other.
The battle suddenly began!
“Bang!” “Bang!” Energy explosions, angry roars, and the sounds of battle constantly emanated from every part of the castle.
Within a hidden room.
Linley, Delia, and Bebe were here.
“It sure is noisy outside.” Bebe’s face was covered in smiles, and he turned to look at Linley. “Boss, if we hide here and all of the gold-robed guards get killed, doesn’t that mean we won’t be able to get moon rings?”
Linley said with a frown, “There’s quite a few of those gold-robed guards, and the strength of this castle is most likely more powerful than our side had predicted.”
Linley still remembered that arrow just now!”
His ‘Pulseguard Armor’ was developed through the fusion of two profound mysteries, and was more than ten times stronger in defense than an ordinary God’s! Despite such defensive strength, it was still pierced through. Linley was certain that the person who shot out that arrow was very likely a Highgod!
“In the castle, the most powerful ‘black-robed guards’ won’t start ambushing people right away. It was definitely done by the gold-robed guards.” Linley understood this logic. Petty actions like ambushes would definitely be done by those of lower status.
Linley couldn’t help but sigh, “Delia, Bebe, beware the gold-robed guards. The gold-robed guards aren’t all Gods as we thought!” Linley then immediately conveyed his thoughts to Delia and Bebe.
They had to be careful!
If they were overconfident in dealing with those gold-robed guards, they would most likely be finished.
“Killing God-level gold-robed guards and Highgod-level gold-robed guards will result in getting the same thing; a moon ring.” Bebe pursed his lips as he spoke. “I hope our luck is good.”
Although Linley’s group was conversing, they were using their Godrealm to prevent sound from leaving their room to the outside.
“Boom!” The walls suddenly shook massively.
“There’s a battle outside!” Linley, Delia, and Bebe all immediately stood up. Moving as fast as lightning, they moved to the side of the wall. If someone charged in through the door, Linley’s group would be able to immediately attack them!
“Bang!” Yet another collision!
Although the wooden door was sturdy, it was smashed open, and a human figure fell down powerlessly from outside, smashing against the ground.
Linley’s team didn’t move.
“That’s a corpse!” Linley’s team was instantly able to tell. The corpse’s head had already been utterly smashed apart, and a divine spark was rolling on the ground.
Linley, Delia, and Bebe all held their breaths.
“Whoosh!”
A human figure suddenly charged in!
“Kill!” Linley’s team moved.
Delia immediately executed her Profound Mysteries of Dimensional Space, and that figure was instantly slowed down, his speed dropping. Meanwhile, the adamantine heavy sword in Linley’s hand mercilessly smashed straight down on the figure. His most powerful attack…
Voidwave Sword!
“Fuck off and die!” Bebe laughed loudly as he gave the head a kick.
“Bang!” The figure smashed into the nearby wall, then landed heavily to the floor. A layer of magical patterns on the wall flashed slightly, but the wall itself wasn’t damaged in the slightest.
The entire castle was supported by a magical formation. However, not all walls had it. Generally speaking, only the primary supporting walls or the prisons, while the other walls and doors didn’t have any protection.
“Huh?” Linley’s team’s faces changed. “Not dead?”
The figure actually stood up.
Only, his head had become distorted by Bebe’s tough kick. The flesh on his face had exploded, revealing the metallic skull within. The metallic skull’s eyes were made of two rubies, and it stared bizarrely at Linley’s team, emitting a mechanical chuckle. “Three Gods? Not bad!”
Divine power began to flow on the surface of the metallic skull, and it immediately healed.
“That isn’t human, and it doesn’t have a soul!” Linley was greatly shocked. His Voidwave Sword hadn’t found a spirit to attack.
Linley had the feeling as though this ‘person’ in front of him was wearing the skin of a human, but on the inside was some sort of metallic monster that had no soul at all.
“What is it?” Linley, Delia, and Bebe were all puzzled.
Even if it was a metallic lifeform, it should have a soul. Any and all types of lifeforms had the soul as their base. But the creature in front of them had no soul at all! It definitely wasn’t living. But this creature not only was conscious, it was even capable of speech!
“Some sort of strange clone?” This was Linley’s guess.
“Boss, that freak’s body is very hard. I delivered a full strength kick just now, but I didn’t cause his head to explode! How bizarre.” Bebe didn’t understand it either. He knew exactly how powerful his own strength was. In terms of pure strength, not even Linley was a match for him.
This was one of the abilities that Godeater Rats had after they digested divine sparks.
“Since you have encountered me, hmph, all three of you will die.” This freak with the glowing red eyes stared at Linley’s team, then suddenly moved.
“Boom!”
Bebe charged to the front, fighting with the freak head on.
“Bang!” “Bang!” “Bang!”
Bebe and that freak’s method of battle was very bizarre. It was as though they were two barbarians, using their fists and feet to viciously attack the opponent. Over the course of this wild battle, the freak�
�s entire outer layer of skin exploded out and blood flowed, revealing the metallic internal body.
This metallic body was extremely hard.
“How… how is that possible?” The freak was astonished.
“Motherfucker, I want to see whose body is tougher, mine or yours!” Bebe shouted angrily. Bebe was extremely confident in his body’s defensive power. In his heart, he said to himself, “After digesting so many divine sparks, if I still can’t compete against a freak like this, I really would have lost all face for us Godeater Rats.”
“Boss, this definitely isn’t the real body. The real body should be outside!” Bebe said through divine sense.
“Swish!” Linley immediately flew out.
Indeed, in the corridor outside, there was a gold-robed guard who had a look of shock on his face. He wasn’t shocked at Linley coming out; he was shocked by Bebe. “There… there’s actually someone whose body is this tough. He dares to fight against a Deathgod Golem head on!” He couldn’t believe it!
A Deathgod Golem!
In truth, this was a human-shaped weapon! Precisely speaking, it was a type of divine artifact. A special divine artifact!
The twenty Deathgod Golems in the possession of Moon Lake Castle were all high-level ones, human-shaped divine artifacts of the Highgod-level!
The energy source for these Deathgod Golems was the divine jewel within its body.
The person controlling a Deathgod Golem had to first bind it with blood, which would allow him to then control the Deathgod Golem to attack others. Although the Deathgod Golem’s body was incomparably tough, it did have a flaw; it was incapable of spiritual attacks, because it had no spirit!
“I don’t care who you are!” The gold-robed guard let out a cold laugh.
A warblade suddenly appeared in the hands of the Deathgod Golem that was battling Bebe. That warblade was stained with poison, the same poison used in Godslayer Arrows. Generally speaking, once this sort of poison entered a person’s body, it would immediately begin attacking the opponent’s soul.
Thus, it could only be used once. The second time, the warblade would no longer have any poison on it.
The Infernal Plane: Book 5 of the Coiling Dragon Saga Page 17