"Yeru... you?"
Right now, Yeru's cold gaze was like an icy blade piercing straight through Lin Lei's chest. For so many years, the four brothers from Dormitory 1987 had always been incredibly close. Even during their youth, any occasional disagreements never damaged their bond.
Lin Lei had never imagined that Yeru would look at him like this.
As if he were staring at a complete stranger—no, at a... dead man!
"Hm?" Lin Lei's expression suddenly changed.
He finally noticed the changes happening inside his body. After that cup of wine had gone down, it turned out to have contained a strange, pale gray filaments. A massive number of those threads were surging rapidly toward his brain, plunging straight into his consciousness.
The countless pale gray threads immediately enveloped his entire Soul Sea, and then... burrowed in.
"Bzzz~~"
Lin Lei felt a wave of dizziness crash through his head. His whole body swayed involuntarily, and he toppled backward into his chair. Unfortunately, he hit the chair at the wrong angle and crashed straight onto the floor. Yet Lin Lei didn't notice any of it—his entire attention had been drawn inward, into his mind.
"Lord Lin Lei!" The maid nearby cried out in alarm.
In the eyes of the maids and guards in Dragon Blood Castle, Lin Lei was as lofty and untouchable as a god. This maid had never in her wildest dreams imagined that the invincible Lin Lei would collapse to the ground like some ordinary person struck by a dizzy spell. Her startled shout immediately drew everyone from outside.
The first to rush in was Cesler.
Cesler burst into the back garden. The moment he saw the scene before him, his face went pale. "Lord Lin Lei!" He dashed to Lin Lei's side, but there was nothing anyone could do to help at that moment. Cesler whipped his head around and fixed his gaze on Yeru.
"It's you!" Cesler's eyes went cold.
Yeru simply remained silent, not uttering a single word.
"Brother, brother!" Wotton and the others came running over. Seeing Lin Lei lying on the ground, they were all struck with terror.
If someone had slashed Lin Lei with a blade, they wouldn't have been this afraid. But Lin Lei collapsing without any visible cause? They couldn't help but be terrified, couldn't help but worry!
Inside Lin Lei's mind.
Under the relentless infiltration of those pale gray threads, even though a pale aqua glow was covering the Soul Ocean, it was ultimately pierced clean through by the sheer volume of filaments. The threads pierced the Soul Ocean and shot straight toward the sword-shaped soul suspended at its very center.
The sword-shaped soul hovered in the deepest depths of the Soul Ocean.
"This is bad." Lin Lei absolutely refused to let these bizarre threads attack his soul. He immediately strained to control his Mental Power, marshaling it to block the assault.
The Soul Ocean erupted into a roar as vast quantities of Mental Power pressed down, grinding away at the pale gray threads. Having reached the Grand Mage level, Lin Lei's Mental Power had undergone a refinement, making it far easier to control. But the pale gray threads bored stubbornly through the Mental Power, closing in on the sword-shaped soul with alarming speed.
Still, in the process of piercing through, a considerable portion of the threads' energy was eroded away.
After losing roughly a third of their energy, the pale gray threads finally wrapped around Lin Lei's soul. The filaments engulfed the sword-shaped soul entirely, and Lin Lei's soul was like a turtle trapped in a jar. The threads attempted to burrow in once more.
The soul was the most vital thing.
Once those threads pierced through it, his death would be certain. Lin Lei was painfully aware of this.
"Bzzz~~" The aqua glow on the surface of the sword-shaped soul blazed to life like the sun. The pale gray threads melted away in an instant, dissolving like snowflakes. In the entire Soul Ocean, not a single pale gray filament remained.
Only then did Lin Lei let out a silent sigh of relief.
He opened his eyes.
"What are you doing?!" The moment Lin Lei's eyes opened, he barked out in fury.
Yeru had curled up on the ground to one side. His body was drenched in blood, though he was still moving—he wasn't dead yet. Wotton, Geitz, and the others stood nearby. His own son Taylor had even kicked Yeru while he was down.
"Ugh!" Yeru coughed up a mouthful of fresh blood.
"Brother (Lord Lin Lei)!" When Wotton, Cesler, and the rest heard Lin Lei's angry shout, they turned to look with relief and joy on their faces.
"Father!" Taylor spun around as well, the tear streaks still faintly visible on his face now filled with elation.
From the butler Xili down to Taylor's own children, dozens of people from Dragon Blood Castle had gathered in the garden. Every single one of them glared at Yeru with hatred in their eyes. And Lin Lei's awakening had set the entire group at ease.
"Father, are you all right?" Taylor rushed to Lin Lei's side.
"All of you, step back." But Lin Lei's eyes were locked on Yeru.
Lin Lei was certain... he had just been struck by an incredibly sinister trick. If not for the fact that, at the critical moment, the protective power unique to the Dragon Blood Warriors had mysteriously surged, whether he could have escaped that danger at all was truly uncertain.
And all of it had been caused by that所谓的所谓'fine wine' that Yeru had brought.
"Khoff, khoff!" Yeru clamped a hand over his mouth, but blood still seeped slowly out from between his fingers. Clearly, Taylor and the others had beaten him in a fit of rage—after all, Lin Lei was their family. Taylor, Wotton, they had all lashed out in fury.
If not for Yeru's friendship with Lin Lei, he would have been beaten to death right then and there.
Looking at Yeru's current state, Lin Lei simply reached out his right hand and placed it on Yeru's shoulder. He controlled the "Life Source Pearl" within his body, and a special power brimming with vitality flowed ceaselessly from the pearl, pouring through his right hand directly into Yeru's body.
Yeru's injuries healed at a visible pace.
"Yeru... tell me why." Lin Lei stared at Yeru, his voice low and heavy.
Yeru's body recovered and he stopped coughing. He gave Lin Lei one cold glance. "No particular reason." After sayingThe request was rejected because it was considered high risk