Lin Lei stared calmly at Clementine.
Facing the siege of eight powerful experts, Clementine wore a broad smile.
"If you want this Red Luster Diamond, fine — we can discuss it," Clementine said with a grin. "But I should let you know, I've already shared this information with the Lord of Light. If you go through with this, you'll be offending the Lord of Light. You'd better think carefully."
"What a joke," Dennington sneered. "Offend the Lord of Light? The Red Luster Diamond is for everyone to compete over fairly. If fighting for it means offending the Lord of Light, then you hoarding it for yourself means you're offending the Lord of Destruction, the Lord of Life, and countless other Lords!" Behind every Grand Perfection expert present, who didn't have a patron?
Probably only Lin Lei had come on his own.
Actually, in the eyes of the other Grand Perfection experts, Lin Lei's backer was the 'Lord of Destruction' from the Infernal Realm.
"Stop wasting time," Baier sneered coldly.
Clementine's face darkened as his gaze swept over Lin Lei and the other seven. He sneered, "Fine — you want the Red Luster Diamond? But how exactly are the eight of you going to split a single Red Luster Diamond? I'm very curious about that."
"None of your concern," Dennington's expression turned cold as well.
"Everyone, prepare to attack," Lin Lei said.
Clementine's face instantly turned icy. With a sudden motion, he flung the spatial ring in his hand — the force behind the throw was tremendous, and the ring became a streak of phantom light hurtling into the distance.
"He actually gave it up?" Lin Lei was startled — this was somewhat unexpected. "Or is this spatial ring he threw a fake?" Doubt lingered in his mind, but even suspecting as much, Lin Lei wouldn't pass up checking it!
"The Red Luster Diamond!"
All eight people, including Lin Lei, surged forward. But Lin Lei's divine sense was constantly radiating outward, and he clearly detected that Clementine was flying at tremendous speed toward the Mist Continent.
A deep, resonant voice rang out: "That ring might not be real. Don't let Clementine escape — stop him first!"
Even as those words were spoken, who would actually go stop him?
If one person went to intercept, the others would certainly go after the spatial ring. After all... Lin Lei and the others weren't a unified group. Everyone wanted the Red Luster Diamond. And so, even though they all knew Clementine was fleeing, nobody moved to cut him off.
They all went for the spatial ring that Clementine had thrown.
The closest and fastest — Lin Lei and Baier — charged to the very front, about to seize the ring. Even at this moment, Lin Lei had yet to reveal his true strength.
Whoosh! A terrifying current of air swept toward Lin Lei, and his speed dropped sharply.
"Hmph." Lin Lei willed it.
Crack! A steel-like dragon tail over two meters long burst out from behind Lin Lei. After his transformation, his dragon tail's scales were now entirely ink-green. Under Lin Lei's control, the tail suddenly elongated to nearly four meters, then lashed out with tremendous force —
Whoosh! The space split apart like paper sliced by a blade, leaving an extraordinarily clean spatial rift.
Bam! Baier couldn't dodge in time. The dragon tail struck him squarely, sending him flying. Not only him — even the Lightning System Grand Perfection expert 'Ninisha,' who was pursuing from behind, was similarly swatted aside by that single sweep of Lin Lei's dragon tail.
Lin Lei reached out and caught the spatial ring. In the same instant, a drop of blood seeped into it.
"The spatial ring... the Red Luster Diamond." Lin Lei's heart couldn't help but tremble with excitement.
"Everyone, focus your attacks on Lin Lei!" Baier transmitted to the other Grand Perfection experts.
But in that very instant, Lin Lei's divine sense had already swept through the spatial ring. Inside, it was completely empty — forget the Red Luster Diamond, there wasn't even a single stone. Lin Lei's heart sank, and then a surge of fury rose within him: "This Clementine really couldn't bear to part with the Red Luster Diamond."
The other Grand Perfection experts, meanwhile, were already preparing to strike at Lin Lei.
"This ring — it's a fake!" Lin Lei angrily transmitted to the others. "We've been played by Clementine!"
"What?"
The other seven Grand Perfection experts' expressions all changed dramatically. They had considered this possibility, but when it actually happened, their anger flared all the same. To be deceived like this — all eight Grand Perfection experts tricked at once! How could they not be furious?
They had thought of this earlier, and someone had even spoken up, telling the others to go stop Clementine.
But... everyone wanted someone else to go stop him, while they themselves went for the spatial ring.
Their lack of unity meant Clementine had already pulled far ahead.
"Seize him!" the Earth System Grand Perfection expert — a burly man standing a full four meters tall — roared.
All eight, including Lin Lei, charged toward Clementine.
"Hahaha! Now you finally think to chase me? Too late!" Clementine's voice echoed through the minds of Dennington, Bamuer, Lin Lei, and the others. "Just as I expected. When you're not united, all it takes is a simple little trick and I've got you all separated and fooled."
Dennington, Baier, and the others all wore grim expressions.
In truth, they had all known it might be a fake. But they still couldn't resist going for the spatial ring.
"Now it'll be hard to catch him," a cold, sharp voice reached Lin Lei and the others — it was the Lightning System Grand Perfection expert, Ninisha. "When we went for the spatial ring, even though it was only for a moment, Clementine has already flown ten thousand miles away. Of us, only four have speed comparable to Clementine's — at most, marginally faster. But the distance is simply too great. Catching him is impossible."
Ninisha sounded thoroughly discouraged.
The other Grand Perfection experts were equally helpless. As much as they didn't want to admit it, this was the truth.
"Hahaha! I thought I'd need my second trick. Turns out I didn't need it at all. Everyone — thank you all for going easy on me and letting me have the Red Luster Diamond!" Clementine deliberately transmitted.
Several Grand Perfection experts had already begun slowing down.
They had given up.
"Not chasing anymore — can't catch him." Dennington gave up as well.
Lin Lei stared ahead, his gaze razor-sharp.
"That's about enough." In his mind, Lin Lei made his decision. The Wind System Lord's power that had been surging through his body instantly receded into his sea of consciousness. In its place, fused divine power began flowing through him — the pitch-black divine power formed from the fusion of four types of superior divine power dramatically amplified Lin Lei's energy. He only accelerated slightly.
Boom!
The very plane space trembled as Lin Lei's speed surged explosively!
His speed had increased by roughly thirty percent.
In truth, with his 'fused divine power' — which was ten times more effective than a Lord's power — Lin Lei could have increased his speed several times over. But he understood one thing: "If my speed suddenly multiplies, Clementine will be too terrified to face me and will flee straight into the spatial turbulence. That would be disastrous. For now, I'm only increasing my speed by about thirty percent — that won't frighten him... and it's more than enough to catch up."
Lin Lei's original speed was already terrifying. An additional thirty percent?
Closing a ten-thousand-mile gap with just that thirty percent increase — it was almost too easy.
"You want to chase me? Dream on!" Far ahead, the fleeing Clementine was feeling smug — when suddenly his expression changed drastically. His divine sense had detected that Lin Lei had instantly left the other seven Grand Perfection experts behind and was hurtling toward him at incredible speed. "Impossible! How can he be this fast? Did he... hide his true strength before?"
The other seven Grand Perfection experts were equally stunned.
"This Lin Lei... how is he so fast?" Dennington's jaw dropped.
"This speed — it's actually nearly thirty percent faster than mine!" In the violet eyes of the Lightning System Grand Perfection expert Ninisha, shock was written plain.