Flamebone Territory, in a private room above a restaurant within the city.
"Alright, you don't need to come in unless I call for you," Lin Lei instructed.
"Yes, sir."
The server carried the tray out of the private room and closed the door behind him.
"Boss, hurry up and pull out those documents and the floating projections," Bei Bei urged. They'd gotten their hands on the materials but hadn't actually gone through them properly yet — there hadn't really been a suitable place to look them over. You couldn't exactly read through them on the street. "Don't rush me." Lin Lei smiled, willed the large crate to materialize beside the table on the floor, and set to work.
Lin Lei shifted the few small dishes and drinks on the dining table to one side, then hoisted the thick stack of documents onto the tabletop.
"That's a lot," Bei Bei said, reaching for the pile.
"Hurry up, Bei Bei. You and I will each take half and skim through everything. We need to figure out which of the Nine Hells Lords would make a suitable target." Lin Lei began working through the massive pile, starting with the section that explained the rules for challenging a lord.
To challenge a lord, knowing the rules was essential.
While they read, Bei Bei suddenly glanced over at Lin Lei and asked, "Boss, are you going to challenge, or am I?"
Lin Lei looked up at Bei Bei and couldn't help but laugh. "Bei Bei, challenging a Nine Hells Lord isn't something just anyone can do. The prerequisite is achieving 'Hundred Victories' in their territory — ten consecutive battles every day. Bei Bei... do you really think you could win ten fights in a row that easily?"
"Of course I can! Once I use my innate divine ability 'God Devouring,' I bet none of them can stop me," Bei Bei said confidently.
"And without that innate ability?" Lin Lei pressed with a smile.
Bei Bei faltered.
Without his innate divine ability 'God Devouring,' Bei Bei was really only strong defensively. His attacks relied on nothing but a divine spark weapon. A divine spark weapon could handle an ordinary Highgod, but anyone who dared step onto the Blood Battle Stage wouldn't be weak — otherwise they'd just be throwing their lives away. Bei Bei winning would genuinely be tough.
"I — I have my innate ability. Your hypothetical doesn't apply, Boss," Bei Bei shot back.
Lin Lei's smile faded, and he spoke seriously: "Bei Bei, if you rely on your innate ability for all a hundred consecutive battles on the Blood Battle Stage, there are two problems. First, your Soul Power can only sustain two uses. The remaining fights would require you to replenish with purple crystals and Soul Golden Beads — it'd be exhausting. Second!"
Bei Bei raised an eyebrow.
Lin Lei continued: "Second, we're going to challenge a Nine Hells Lord this time, so ideally we shouldn't reveal all our trump cards beforehand. Think about it, Bei Bei — if you use your innate ability on the Blood Battle Stage, that Nine Hells Lord will definitely know what you're capable of. He'll come up with a countermeasure against you!"
"A countermeasure against me?" Bei Bei was stunned. "What could he possibly do?"
"Strike first and kill you," Lin Lei said with a faint smile.
"I'm not afraid of that," Bei Bei replied.
"If he's not confident he can kill you, this Nine Hells Lord might quietly leave his island instead. Then he'd announce that the lord has gone out on urgent business, making you wait a thousand years, ten thousand years. Can you afford to wait?" Lin Lei countered. "The rules allow a delay of up to ten thousand years." He had just read that part.
Bei Bei was left speechless.
Indeed, challenging a Nine Hells Lord didn't mean you'd fight right away.
If that particular Nine Hells Lord wasn't even in the Netherworld, even after you issued the challenge, you'd have to wait for him to get the news and come back before the fight could happen.
"Bei Bei, the one thing we absolutely cannot afford to waste right now is time!" Lin Lei said gravely.
"Mm." Bei Bei nodded reluctantly.
What worried Lin Lei most about letting Bei Bei fight was this: the Nine Hells Lord, upon seeing Bei Bei use his innate ability 'God Devouring,' might be too scared to accept the challenge and simply slip away. This was actually quite common. If you knew you had absolutely no chance of winning, walking into the fight would just be suicide.
But outright forfeiting would be humiliating.
So many Nine Hells Lords chose a different approach — quietly leaving and dragging things out until the ten-thousand-year deadline expired.
If the lord failed to respond within ten thousand years, the title of Nine Hells Lord would transfer directly to the challenger.
That way the challenger got the position while the former lord kept some face. In theory it was a win-win. But for Lin Lei, he had to get into the Planar War as quickly as possible, and there were only a little over eight hundred years left. He couldn't afford to delay!
"Mm." Bei Bei nodded slightly.
"Bei Bei, when I fight, I can completely hide my strength. For instance, I won't use my dragon transformation, and I won't activate my innate ability. I'll just show a little — the Dark Stone Space! Even for the Dark Stone Space, I can dial back the gravitational force. That'll be more than enough to handle Five-Star Demons, Six-Star Demons, even Seven-Star Demons," Lin Lei said with a calm smile.
Reducing the Dark Stone Space to roughly its power level when he was still a Mid-tier God — that would be more than sufficient.
When Lin Lei unleashed the Dark Stone Space at full power, even ordinary Seven-Star Demons could barely hold their ground with all their might, reduced to a state where they were practically helpless.
If he only used a tenth of its power, that was already plenty for Lin Lei.
"I'll show just enough to secure Hundred Victories. I'm sure that Nine Hells Lord won't be scared off by seeing this level of strength. Then when the real fight comes, I'll bring out everything. Bei Bei, go through the materials carefully. Find whose special technique happens to be countered by my abilities," Lin Lei said.
Bei Bei grinned. "Heh heh, Boss, you're planning to play dirty, huh? Alright, let me check — whose strength do you counter?"
Lin Lei also began reading through the materials with care.
There were a full eighty-one Nine Hells Lords. It was impossible for every single one to be flawless and without weaknesses, utterly invincible. Perhaps among them there was someone whose abilities happened to be countered by Lin Lei.
"So strong." As Lin Lei read through the descriptions, he couldn't help but draw in a sharp breath. "The lord of my first stop after arriving in the Nine Hells Domain — Lotus Rock Territory — hasn't had his position successfully challenged in billions of years. His special technique is releasing a transparent flame? Anyone struck by it dies for certain?" A chill ran through Lin Lei as he read.