Fighting erupted throughout the Moon Lake Castle, the battles growing more brutal by the moment.
Inside a room.
"So far we've only obtained one Moon Ring. We still need two more," Dilia said, glancing at Lin Lei and Bei Bei. Bei Bei raised an eyebrow. "Just two more? Come on, let's head out and take down two more Gold-clothed Guards."
"Hold on."
Lin Lei produced the Moon Ring and dripped his blood onto it to claim ownership, then extracted all the items inside. "This Gold-clothed Guard was quite wealthy — assets worth over a million inkstones, and quite a few amethyst crystals too. What a coincidence."
Lin Lei had previously exhausted a massive amount of mental power resisting the soul poison in the God-Slaughtering Arrow and then continuously casting Void Sword Wave.
He immediately placed an amethyst crystal into the Coiling Dragon Ring and fully refined it. Then he let his mental power absorb the soul essences... The soul power within Lin Lei's "soul ocean" was completely restored, and large quantities of soul essence were absorbed directly by the soul itself.
"The boss is smart indeed — extracting all the treasures first," Bei Bei remarked. Dilia, standing beside him, also smiled.
For this demon trial, only the Moon Rings were needed. As for the wealth inside, they could take it all freely.
"Let's go out, but everyone be careful," Lin Lei warned.
Lin Lei stepped out first. Just as he crossed the threshold —
"Hmm?" Lin Lei's expression changed drastically. Right beside the doorway, a long spear suddenly lunged toward him like a venomous snake, striking with lightning speed. Caught completely off guard, Lin Lei had no time to react.
"Boom!" Lin Lei was sent flying through the air by the spear's impact. In midair, he twisted and landed nimbly on his feet, then looked toward the direction of the attack. There stood a Gold-clothed Guard wielding a silver long spear. The guard was equally shocked.
"What impressive defense." He hadn't expected that Lin Lei could take a direct spear thrust without even tearing the clothes on his body.
Bei Bei and Dilia emerged right behind. They were both startled.
"Three mid-level gods?" The Gold-clothed Guard's face turned pale. "Run!" He knew his own strength well — against two, he might still have a sliver of hope, but against three, he was certainly doomed. He had no idea that all his companions had already been killed by Lin Lei.
The Gold-clothed Guard dashed forward and was already a hundred meters away. His escape speed was so fast that even Dilia couldn't react in time to stop him.
"Yipe~~" Bei Bei let out a piercing cry.
Suddenly, a phantom of the God-Devouring Mouse appeared behind Bei Bei. This time, the phantom was only five or six meters tall, roughly matching the height of the corridor.
"Ah!" The Gold-clothed Guard found himself completely unable to move.
"How is this possible?" Fear filled the guard's eyes.
Bei Bei opened his mouth.
A strange, bizarre force enveloped the Gold-clothed Guard. Staring at Bei Bei with disbelief and terror, the guard felt his very soul trembling, his divine core quaking. "No —" He had never heard of anyone who could devour another's divine core without even fighting!
Two divine cores flew out of the Gold-clothed Guard's skull and dropped straight into Bei Bei's mouth.
"Glup!"
Bei Bei swallowed both of them in one gulp and snorted. "You dare sneak-attack me? You're asking for death!" With that, Bei Bei flashed over, scooped up the corpse and stored it in his space ring. The Gold-clothed Guard's space ring was also a Moon Ring.
"Boss, that's one more Moon Ring," Bei Bei said with a grin at Lin Lei.
"Bei Bei, don't rush to use that God-Devouring talent," Lin Lei said. "It's dangerous inside the castle — we need to stay cautious."
Lin Lei knew that using the innate divine ability consumed an enormous amount of soul power.
"No big deal. I don't know any soul attacks or soul defenses anyway. Losing a bit of mental power doesn't make much difference to me," Bei Bei said carelessly. Lin Lei shook his head with a helpless smile.
Lin Lei and his companions thoroughly explored the third floor of Moon Lake Castle but found no one. From the fourth floor below, they could faintly hear the sounds of battle.
"This third floor has been cleaned out completely!" Bei Bei cursed under his breath. "All I see are bloodstains and scraps of flesh on the ground — not a single divine artifact, divine core, or Moon Ring left behind. Couldn't they have left just one? Everything's been taken."
Lin Lei and Dilia couldn't help but laugh at Bei Bei's complaint.
"Lin Lei, there doesn't seem to be anything left on the third floor. Should we head down to the fourth floor?" Dilia looked at Lin Lei.
"Mm." Lin Lei knew there was no other choice.
He had only obtained two Moon Rings so far, and still needed one more.
They descended the dim stone staircase step by step, staying on high alert. The fourth floor was naturally much larger. Lin Lei and his companions chose a broad main corridor and proceeded along it cautiously.
"Boom!"
"Ha!"
Sounds of fighting drifted from a room ahead, and it sounded quite chaotic — likely many people were battling inside.
The three exchanged glances and silently moved closer.
"Whoosh!" Three figures burst out of the doorway. They were extremely cautious. When they saw Lin Lei's group and no attack came, one of them spoke up: "Oh, it's you three. Good luck to you." With that, the three wasted no more words and immediately departed.
"They're fellow trial participants," Lin Lei and the others understood.
There were only a thousand participants in the demon trial altogether. As god-level beings, their memories were naturally excellent. When they had first stepped out of the metal life-form, a single glance had been enough for everyone to memorize the faces of all the others.
"Thud!" A corpse flew out of a room and slammed hard against the wall before falling to the ground.
"That's a demon trial participant!" Lin Lei and his companions recognized the body at once. "Then... inside must be a Gold-clothed Guard." Without a moment's hesitation, the three charged forward. But before they could even get close, a blond young man burst out of the room and immediately collected the corpse on the ground.
"Hmph." The blond young man looked quite pleased with himself.
Then he instantly spotted Lin Lei's group.
"He's also a demon trial participant." All three of them were startled, and the same thought crossed their minds.
"Were they killing their own kind just for Moon Rings?" Lin Lei couldn't help recalling what the silver-haired elder at the Demon Castle had told them — the elder had warned them to be careful, that they might not die at the hands of Moon Lake Castle's guards, but at the hands of their own companions.