Chapter 23: The Moon Ring
The sounds of slaughter echoed throughout Moon Lake Castle, the battle extremely brutal.
Inside a room.
"We've only obtained one Moon Ring so far. We still need two more." Delia said, looking at Linley and Bebe. Bebe raised an eyebrow and said, "Just two more? Let's go out and kill two more Golden Robed Guards, that should do it."
"Don't rush."
Linley took out the Moon Ring, first dripping blood to bind it, then retrieving all the items inside. "This Golden Robed Guard was quite wealthy. His assets are worth over a million inkstones. Hmm, and quite a few violet crystals too. What a coincidence."
Linley had previously resisted the soul poison from the Godslayer Arrow and continuously used Netherworld Sword Waves, consuming a massive amount of spiritual energy.
Linley immediately absorbed a violet crystal into the Coiling Dragon Ring and completely refined it. Then he let his spiritual energy absorb those soul essences... Within Linley's soul ocean, his soul power was fully restored, and a large amount of soul essence was directly absorbed by the soul itself.
"As expected, Big Brother is clever, taking out the treasures first." Bebe said. Delia smiled beside him.
For this Demon Trial, only the Moon Ring was needed. As for the wealth inside, they could take it for themselves.
"Let's go out, but everyone be careful." Linley instructed.
Linley walked out of the room first. Just as he stepped through the doorway—
"Huh?" Linley's expression changed drastically. Right beside the door, a long spear shot out like a venomous snake, striking at Linley with lightning speed. Caught off guard, Linley had no time to react.
"Bang!" The spear struck Linley, sending him flying into the air. Midair, Linley moved with lightning speed and landed on the ground, turning to look at the attacker. It was a Golden Robed Guard holding a silver long spear. This Golden Robed Guard was also shocked!
"What incredible defense!" He hadn't expected that Linley, taking a direct spear thrust, wouldn't even have his clothes torn.
Bebe and Delia came out right after, both startled.
"Three mid-level gods?" The Golden Robed Guard's face changed drastically. "Flee!" He knew his own strength well. Against two, he might have a slim chance, but against three, he was doomed. He had no idea that his companion had already been killed by Linley.
The Golden Robed Guard shot a hundred meters away in an instant, fleeing so fast that even Delia couldn't catch him.
"Yoo—" Bebe let out a piercing sound.
Suddenly, a phantom of the Soul Devourer Rat appeared behind Bebe. This time, the phantom was only about five or six meters tall, matching the corridor's height.
"Ah!" The Golden Robed Guard found himself unable to move.
"How is this possible?" The Golden Robed Guard's eyes were filled with terror.
Bebe opened his mouth.
A strange force enveloped the Golden Robed Guard. He stared at Bebe in disbelief and fear, feeling his soul tremble and his divine spark quiver. "No—" He had never heard of anyone being able to directly devour another's divine spark without fighting!
Two divine sparks flew out of the Golden Robed Guard's head and landed directly in Bebe's mouth.
"Gulp!"
Bebe swallowed them both down and snorted, "Daring to ambush me? Looking for death!" With that, Bebe flashed over and stored the corpse into his spatial ring. The Golden Robed Guard's spatial ring was also a Moon Ring.
"Big Brother, one more Moon Ring." Bebe grinned at Linley.
"Bebe, don't use the Soul Devourer talent recklessly." Linley said. "It's dangerous in the castle. We need to be prepared."
Linley knew that using his innate divine ability consumed a massive amount of soul power.
"It's fine. I don't know soul attacks or soul defense anyway. A little spiritual energy loss doesn't make much difference." Bebe said carelessly. Linley shook his head helplessly with a wry smile.
Linley and his group thoroughly searched the third floor of Moon Lake Castle but found no one. From the fourth floor below, faint sounds of fighting could be heard.
"This third floor is cleaned out pretty well!" Bebe cursed under his breath. "There's only bloodstains and bits of flesh on the ground, but not a single divine artifact, divine spark, or Moon Ring in sight. Can't they leave one behind? Everything's been taken."
Linley and Delia couldn't help but laugh at Bebe's complaint.
"Linley, it seems there's nothing left on the third floor. Should we head down to the fourth?" Delia looked at Linley.
"Yeah." Linley knew they had no choice.
They had only just obtained two Moon Rings and still needed one more.
Walking down the dim stone steps, Linley and his group descended cautiously, always on guard. The fourth floor was naturally larger. Linley chose a main, wide corridor and advanced carefully along it.
"Boom!"
"Ha!" The sounds were chaotic, suggesting many were fighting.
Linley, Bebe, and Delia exchanged glances and quietly moved closer.
"Whoosh!" Three figures suddenly burst out of a door. They were very cautious and didn't attack when they saw Linley's group. One of them spoke, "Oh, it's you three. Hope you have good luck." With that, the three left without another word.
"They're also participants." Linley and his group knew.
There were only a thousand people in the Demon Trial.
As god-level experts, their memories were naturally excellent. Back when they came out of the metallic lifeform, a single glance had been enough for everyone to remember each other's faces.
"Bang!" A corpse flew out of a room, slammed hard into the wall, and fell to the ground.
"That's a Demon Trial participant!" Linley's group recognized him immediately. "Then the one inside must be a Golden Robed Guard." Without hesitation, the three rushed over. But before they could get close, a golden-haired youth rushed out of the room and directly collected the corpse on the ground.
"Hmph." The golden-haired youth looked very pleased.
But he immediately noticed Linley's group of three.
"He's also a Demon Trial participant." Linley and his group were surprised. A thought crossed their minds.
"Could it be that for a Moon Ring, they'd kill their own?" Linley recalled the words of the silver-haired old man at Demon Castle. The old man had warned them to be careful, not to die at the hands of Moon Lake Castle's people, but rather at the hands of their fellow participants.
"So that's how it is..." Linley and his group felt a chill.
The golden-haired youth glanced at Linley's group, didn't waste time, and immediately fled in another direction.
"It seems we need to be careful." Linley's group continued on. After this incident, they couldn't let their guard down around the other Demon Trial participants. Someone might covet their Moon Rings and kill them directly.
"Huh?"
In a narrow corridor, Linley's group spotted four people. They were familiar—the four men who had sat behind Linley in the rear cabin of the metallic lifeform.
"Hey, Linley, it's you?" The bald, burly man at the lead smiled.
"Fettis, it's you." Linley also smiled, but inwardly, he and his group weren't completely relaxed.
After all, they had just witnessed participants killing each other.
In truth, they weren't really comrades. They were just people participating in the same Demon Trial, with no close relationship.
Fettis and his four companions walked over with smiles. Fettis, the leader, spoke, "How's it going? How many Moon Rings have you gotten?"
At the mention of Moon Rings, Linley immediately became alert. He also sent a mental message to Bebe and Delia: "Be careful. These four were friendly enough during the journey, but they might still have designs on us."
"I know, Big Brother. I hope they do try something." Bebe replied mentally.
Linley nodded inwardly.
"Oh, how many Moon Rings could we have? If we had enough, we'd have left the castle and returned to the metallic lifeform by now." Linley said with a faint smile.
Fettis and his group's hearts stirred.
Linley's words implied that while he didn't have enough Moon Rings, he probably had one or two.
"Yeah, we don't have any either. Hope you have good luck. We'll be going now." Fettis said with a smile.
Linley nodded amicably.
Although Fettis's group said they were leaving, they walked toward Linley's group, seemingly about to pass by them. But Linley's group, already on guard, was ready to strike at any moment.
"Whoosh!"
Fettis's group suddenly attacked. In such close quarters, a surprise attack should have caught Linley's group off guard. But since they were prepared, they reacted instinctively, counterattacking almost simultaneously—
"Haha!" Bebe's excited, piercing laughter suddenly rang out.
"Hmph!" Linley's Blackwood Heavy Sword also swung out like lightning.
Two of Fettis's group attacked Linley, one attacked Bebe, and one attacked Delia.
Clearly, Fettis's group knew that Linley was the leader and likely the strongest, so they arranged their attack accordingly.
"Bang!" The lightning-fast exchange resulted in two of Fettis's group falling.
One was killed by Linley's Netherworld Sword Wave, and the other was directly stabbed through the head by Bebe's dagger.
Linley's entire body was covered in a yellow-brown film. One opponent's blade struck Linley's head directly, but under the protection of the Pulse Guard armor, Linley was completely unharmed. However, Fettis, struck by the Netherworld Sword Wave, fell to the ground dead.
As for the one attacking Delia, he was trapped by her Wind Space, while Delia used her speed to evade. He couldn't even get close to her and was struck by her Gortez Spear. He managed to dodge just in time, taking a hit to the chest, and barely escaped with his life.
"Flee!" The two survivors saw the situation was hopeless and fled immediately.
At the same time, a divine clone emerged from Fettis's fallen body. It naturally collected the spatial ring and also fled at top speed.
"Swish!" Linley swung his Violet Blood Soft Sword in a backhand strike.
Dimensional Slash!
The fusion of the two profound mysteries of Fast and Slow. In the past, his understanding of these two mysteries had only been about ten percent. But after more than twenty years on the Yulan Continent and over thirty years in the Infernal Realm, he had now fused nearly half of them.
The power had increased four or five times!
Killing a low-level god with a single strike was effortless. Fettis's clone was cleaved in two.
"Hmph, the clone was only a low-level god." Linley said with a faint smile.
"Fettis probably wanted his divine clone to become a god independently, not by refining a divine spark." Delia glanced at the corpse on the ground and said.
Linley stored the corpses of Fettis and the other person into his spatial ring.
"Bebe, Delia, let's go into a room and check if they had any Moon Rings." Linley said with a smile. The three of them stepped into a nearby room that looked like a storage area.
Linley figured that Fettis, as the leader, would have the Moon Ring in his spatial ring. But they needed to check to be sure.
As soon as the three entered the room, they were startled.
"Huh?" Linley and his group noticed that one wall of the room had shifted aside, revealing a passage behind it. The hidden passage slanted downward, likely connecting to the fifth floor below.
"A secret passage?" The three exchanged glances.
"Let's not rush in." Linley said. "If Fettis's spatial ring has a Moon Ring, we won't need to take the risk."
But just then—
"Swish!"
A figure shot out of the passage like the wind. Linley's group was startled. Bebe exclaimed, "Regina? Is that you?"
Regina saw Linley's group and was overjoyed. "Help!" She immediately rushed over to them, letting out a long sigh of relief. Just then, two more people charged out of the passage. Seeing that Regina now had three helpers, they were terrified and immediately fled back into the passage.
"Linley, kill them! They have a Death God Puppet!" Regina said urgently.
"What's a Death God Puppet?" Bebe asked, looking at Regina in confusion.