"Trap!"
Lin Lei felt a chill shoot through his heart.
"What an elaborate lie!" Lin Lei shuddered.
Lowgod, Midgod, Highgod Hundred Victories trials — generally, those who achieve Hundred Victories possess high potential and special qualities! Moreover, once they arrived at this Handisai Castle, they would undergo further assessment. Those deemed truly promising would be kept. The rest would be expelled.
"Everyone who stays has potential."
"Wait — if that's the case, how do you explain Di Lin?" Based on this chain of reasoning, and the fact that Di Lin and Ta Luosha had originally sided with the Bagxiao Family, Lin Lei concluded that Di Lin must have been controlled as well.
A possibility immediately surfaced in Lin Lei's mind —
"It's not just those who pass the assessment who are soul-controlled. Even those who fail probably get soul-controlled too — just through different subordinates." Lin Lei understood: who among those capable of achieving Hundred Victories was truly weak?
Such manpower — the more, the better.
Putting himself in the Handisai Castle Lord's shoes, Lin Lei instantly grasped it: "The so-called assessment is likely for classification — to gauge a target's strength level and determine what caliber of powerhouse is needed to control them." The stronger the target, the harder it was to implant a Soul Seed.
Someone like Lomu, a Seven-star Demon, would be exponentially more difficult to control.
"Neither Lomu nor I underwent any assessment. That means... it's very likely the Castle Lord himself — the 'Commander' — will deal with us personally." The thought sent a tremor through Lin Lei. He had seen quite a few red-robed Elders on Miluo Island.
At Handisai Castle, there were Six-star Demons and Seven-star Demons as well.
"If even a Seven-star Demon can be controlled so easily, what does that say about the Commander's strength?" Lin Lei's brow furrowed. The fact that this Castle Lord could control a Seven-star Demon indicated one thing — this Castle Lord was extraordinarily powerful in the realm of the soul.
And what Lin Lei feared most —
were powerhouses skilled in soul attacks!
"If I encounter this Castle Lord, I probably won't have any ability to resist. Should I use a Sovereign's power?" Lin Lei immediately thought of Patriarch Baukway's Sovereign's power of Destruction. "This Castle Lord is clearly the Bagxiao Family's true mastermind. If even Baukway possesses a Sovereign's power, how could this Castle Lord not have one?"
"To keep Miluo Island standing in the depths of Hell, this Castle Lord's strength is absolutely beyond anything I can contend with."
Lin Lei immediately reached his conclusion —
"Run!"
He had to run.
Lin Lei glanced toward the window. Gan Mengting was resting inside the room. Now that Gan Mengting only had his Water System divine clone remaining, killing him would be easy for Lin Lei.
"I can't kill him. One kill would draw attention, and they'd definitely put us under heavy surveillance. If that happens, leaving will be far harder." Having figured all this out, how could Lin Lei sit here waiting to die?
Escape while he could!
"Count yourself lucky." Lin Lei glanced at the window, then immediately activated the Earth Movement technique and sank into the ground.
Having deduced all this, Lin Lei himself was shaken. Based on everything he now knew... this conclusion was ninety-nine percent correct! And regardless of whether that expert battle projection really existed or not, he couldn't stay even if it did!
Being controlled by a Soul Seed — that was a fate worse than death!
---
Atop the city walls, nearly forty meters tall, a large number of black-armored warriors patrolled. Occasionally, warriors in black armor with red cloaks moved among them. The security was stricter than anything Lin Lei had ever seen.
The black-armored warriors moved in silence, not daring to utter a word.
But the red-cloaked warriors chatted casually among themselves, appearing quite relaxed.
"Every time they bring in someone with Hundred Victories, even we have to come help with the patrol." The two red-cloaked warriors walked and chatted as they went.
"Actually, we're just here to catch anyone who tries to escape. The real surveillance... isn't done by us. It's done by that thing." One of the red-cloaked warriors pointed toward the castle's core.
"You mean the Elemental Heart?"
"Of course. The Water Elemental Heart sustains this endless ocean. Anyone who dares step beyond the boundary zone, the Water Elemental Heart picks up immediately. Then we just move in." These patrolling warriors were all quite at ease.
Sneaking out? Impossible.
Forcing your way through? That depended on whether you had the strength. And anyone with that kind of strength — sending these patrol warriors after them would be sending them to their deaths.
Suddenly —
The massive city wall blazed with seven-colored radiance. The light shivered twice, and every patrolling warrior snapped to alert.
"Someone's trying to escape!"
Dozens of nearby warriors clad in black armor and red cloaks shot into the air, rushing toward the source of the disturbance. They clearly saw a figure burst through at the point of impact —
Lin Lei, dressed in a red robe.
"Heavens! The walls stretching dozens of miles in every direction are covered in one enormous magic array? And it seems to contain the energy of every element?" Lin Lei looked at the seven-colored magical runes flashing across the towering wall surface before him, his mouth going dry.
There was no escape now.
A large number of black-armored warriors were fixed on his position, and many red-cloaked powerhouses hovered in the sky above.
"A red-robed Elder?" The red-cloaked warriors were startled. Then one of them called out in a booming voice, "How dare you try to flee? Hmph!"
Lin Lei faced the group of red-cloaked warriors. During the earlier assessment, he had once seen a red-cloaked warrior act — roughly at the level of a Six-star Demon. "A whole group of Six-star Demons?" Lin Lei laughed bitterly to himself.
Forcing his way out was no longer an option.
"I, Lin Lei, red-robed Elder of the Bagxiao Family! I have urgent matters and must return immediately. I originally didn't wish to trouble anyone, but you should step aside and let me go back to Miluo Island." Lin Lei spoke in a clear, commanding voice.
The leading red-cloaked warrior responded flatly, "Oh, Elder Lin Lei? The rule of our Handisai Castle is simple: unless we receive orders, no outsider is permitted to leave."
"I have important business!" Lin Lei said angrily.
"Please wait a moment, Elder Lin Lei." One of the red-cloaked warriors spoke up. "If you try to force your way out, we won't be held responsible." Though these red-cloaked warriors, seeing a red-robed Elder of the Bagxiao Family, had been reluctant to act — that could change.