The metal life-form burst apart, and the demons who had been inside were instantly engulfed by endless yellow sand. Every single grain of that seemingly infinite sand carried the weight of a million pounds. Lin Lei was completely swallowed by the yellow sand, unable to escape at all.
"Dilia!" Lin Lei instinctively tried to grab Dilia's hand.
"Lin Lei!" Dilia likewise tried to reach for Lin Lei's hand.
"Whoosh!" Swept along by the endless yellow sand, Lin Lei had no control over his body whatsoever.
"What is this?!" Lin Lei struggled against the crushing pressure of the sand, but that strange binding force was something he simply could not resist. In the blink of an eye — "Splash!" — he hit the ground.
Lin Lei immediately scrambled to his feet and looked around. "This... what on earth is going on?" His heart was filled with confusion and shock.
It was an enormous ancient structure formed entirely from compressed yellow sand. Lin Lei looked up and could only see a massive ceiling of sand — the sky was nowhere in sight. It was a colossal building made completely of yellow sand, and Lin Lei was trapped within it.
What alarmed him most was — "There's no one. Not a single person around. Where did everyone go?" Lin Lei looked in every direction.
But inside this desert structure, there was not a soul to be found.
Lin Lei extended his divine sense and was startled. "How is this possible? My divine sense, even in Hell, can cover nearly a hundred meters — but in this cursed place, it can only reach ten meters around me?" He couldn't help but be shocked.
"It's affecting my divine sense?"
A thought began to form in Lin Lei's mind. "Could this desert structure count as a kind of space?"
Although Lin Lei had found no trace of anyone nearby, he could still sense one presence —
"Boss, how are you right now? I'm inside some strange building made of desert sand. I can't see a single person. Everyone seems to have vanished." Bei Bei's voice echoed in Lin Lei's mind.
With their souls connected, they didn't need to use divine sense to communicate — they could simply converse soul to soul.
Hearing what Bei Bei said, Lin Lei gained some clarity. "Bei Bei, I'm in the same situation as you. I'm also inside a strange building made entirely of desert sand, and I can't see anyone. Be careful... I have a feeling we might be in some kind of special space right now."
"Got it." Bei Bei replied. "Boss, I'm heading in your direction now."
"Good." Lin Lei could also sense Bei Bei's presence.
They both knew each other's approximate positions, so they could naturally move closer — even though... neither could see the other.
"This desert castle?" Lin Lei flipped his hand, and the Purpleblood Flexible Sword appeared in his grasp.
"Whoosh!" Lin Lei launched himself into the air, pushing the Purpleblood Flexible Sword to its maximum speed. A streak of purple light blazed out, and the sand ceiling above him rustled as a small pile of yellow sand was sliced loose and tumbled down.
However, the sand on the ceiling writhed and shifted, restoring itself to a perfectly smooth surface.
Lin Lei's expression changed. His Insight of Speed had already reached a bottleneck, and his most powerful material attack — the Dimensional Slash — was several times stronger now than when he had been on the Yulan Continent. Yet he couldn't even make this desert castle budge.
"What a strange force," Lin Lei said with a frown. "Some peculiar power is completely embedded in the sand."
"This bizarre place." Lin Lei wasted no more time and immediately headed toward Bei Bei's location.
"Boss, this place is way too strange. I can't get to you right now. There's a wall ahead — no way through. The wall is too weird; I can't break it at all. I chip away a little, and the sand just shifts right back." Bei Bei's voice was urgent.
Lin Lei was startled.
"Bei Bei, hold on." He continued moving toward Bei Bei's position.
The enormous sand structure had numerous forks and corridors, resembling a giant maze. After walking for a while, Lin Lei also found his path blocked ahead — a wall of yellow sand. He could clearly sense where Bei Bei was, yet he couldn't reach him.
"Bei Bei, my path is blocked by a wall too." Lin Lei frowned and looked around behind him.
"So many corridors and forks?" Lin Lei suddenly recalled something he had once seen on the Yulan Continent plane — a type of game called a maze.
A maze contained numerous branching paths and corridors, but only one route was truly correct. One wrong step, and you'd never find your way out.
"Could this strange structure made of desert sand be a maze?" Lin Lei speculated quietly.
"No other option — let's assume it's a maze for now." Linlei immediately began following the other branching paths, carefully memorizing the location of each fork as he walked. With Lin Lei's deductive ability, once he knew the positions of enough forks, he could deduce the correct route.
"Bei Bei, this strange place is very likely a maze," Lin Lei communicated through their soul link.
"A maze?" Bei Bei was shocked.
"Right. Try to find a way around and head in my direction." Lin Lei kept memorizing every fork, immediately backtracking whenever he took a wrong path.
"So it really is a maze... Fine, I'll find the correct path." Bei Bei was equally anxious. Both of them cared deeply about the people closest to them — Lin Lei was worried about Dilia, and Bei Bei was worried about Nina.
Meanwhile, over twenty people had gathered in one place, led by Inigo and his teacher.
"Teacher, anyone who cultivates the Laws of Wind to your level — there probably aren't many in all of Hell," Inigo said with a fawning smile.
The green-robed elder smiled faintly. "Flattery won't get you anywhere. This is really all I've got. In terms of raw attack power, that demon was actually a bit stronger than me. Tsk tsk... he really was powerful. He split right through the wall of my 'Castle of Wind' with a single sword strike."
"Split through it? So what — you can reshape it anytime, Teacher." Inigo knew his teacher's ability all too well.