Book 14, Fiend – Chapter 20, Cannon Fodder

In the air above Moon Lake. That pink mist was everywhere.

Within the thick mist, everyone including Linley, without being told, released their Godrealms, causing the pink mist to stay away from them. The Godrealm of a Deity wasn’t that large, but with over a thousand experts utilizing it at the same time...

Instantly, there wasn’t a hint of that fog left in the air above the castle.

“We haven’t even entered the castle yet, but people have started to die.” Linley said to himself. Just then, when that pink fog had first come out, quite a few people had their souls contaminated by that poison fog. Those people who had been more murderous to begin with had instantly exploded into madness.

In the blink of an eye, nearly ten Gods had died.

“This fog truly is powerful.” Bebe sighed in praise. “Fortunately, I didn’t release my divine sense just now.”

But Delia said, “Just now, when I heard the sounds of combat, I sent out my divine sense to see what was going on. But of course, once I heard the warning, I immediately withdrew it.” Linley couldn’t help but to turn and look at Delia. “Delia, are you alright?” Linley was frightened.

“Do I look like I’m in trouble?” Delia laughed.

“Just now, I just felt a bit grouchy. I felt only just a tiny hint of killing intent, well within my ability to control.” Delia explained.

Linley suddenly frowned and he looked to the side. There were two Gods nearby him chatting.

“Aksu [A’ke’su], this time we’re in trouble. This is a poison fog developed by a Highgod master of the Edicts of Death. Something like this is extremely precious, but the lord of Moon Lake Castle used it in such a casual manner. And that magic formation just now...this all indicates that the master of this castle is extremely wealthy.”

“Right. This sort of poison fog that stirs up an urge to kill isn’t that powerful; when I was in Blacksand Castle at Royalwing City, I once saw someone selling a poison which upon contact with one’s soul, could cause the soul to spontaneously combust and then collapse. But of course, that price was sky-high.”

The thousand Gods who were trial participants all began to discuss this amongst themselves while hovering in mid-air, waiting for the twenty-plus Fiends to come to a decision.

If the Fiends didn’t go to deal with the master of the castle and those black-robed guards, they wouldn’t dare go charging in.

Everyone, Linley included, understood that what the lord of the castle had put on display just now was most likely just a tiny little trick for him. He hadn’t shown any of his true killing strokes. How would Gods like Linley dare to charge in and throw their lives away?

At the bottom of Moon Lake Castle. Within a wide main hall.

The steward, dressed in a violet uniform, was standing to one side, while a black-haired elder whose eyebrows drooped all the way down to his chest was sampling some wine. Casually, the elder said, “Belhomme [Be’luo’mu], have you completed your investigations regarding what is going on outside?”

“Milord, the leaders are a group of Fiends.” The violet-robed steward frowned. “Milord, the situation seems to be bad. I’m afraid that some people intentionally sent out a mission for the Fiend Castle to attack us.” An attack of Fiends would be troublesome for anyone.

The same was true for the master of this castle.

“Hm?” The black-haired elder’s eyebrows furrowed. He was silent for a moment.

𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

“Forget them. Any who enter the castle shall be killed!” The black-haired elder said in a low voice. “All of the gold-robed guards are under your control. Deploy Tursens and the others as well. Someone is intentionally acting against me? After dealing with this affair, I will definitely have to investigate this.”

“Yes, milord!” The violet-robed steward bowed.

In the air above Moon Lake Castle, the group of people continued to hover, while their leader, Loysius, was vexed.

Loysius knew very well that with enough money and power, one could definitely go to Blacksand Castle to buy some forbidden items and turn this entire castle into a deathtrap. Even he didn’t dare to charge in rashly.

“No other options.” Loysius’ face sank as he looked at the surrounding Fiends.

The surrounding Fiends exchanged glances.

It wasn’t as though they had never encountered this sort of situation before. They all knew what they should do right now...

Let those Fiend trial participants be their cannon fodder! Let them lead the charge into the castle!

“Swoosh!” “Swoosh!” .....

The twenty-plus Fiends simultaneously floated over to the air above the large group of Gods including Linley, while a voice rang out. “This poison fog is everywhere, while the castle itself is unbreakable. All we can do now is go into the castle! Right now, the thousand of you will divide into ten squads and enter the castle through the windows and corridors. We Fiends will also divide into ten squads, following behind you. You will deal with ordinary gold-robed guards. If you encounter any black-robed guards, we Fiends will act!”

When this voice rang out, the nearly-thousand Gods who were participating in this trial all had changed looks on their faces.

“Bastards. They are making us into cannon fodder!” Linley cursed inwardly.

Everyone immediately understood. However, they didn’t dare to refuse...because they all knew how astonishingly powerful a strong Highgod could be.

Perhaps, against the likes of Crompton, who only became a Highgod through fusing with a divine spark, a group of Gods would be able to kill when joining forces.

But a Five Star Fiend like Loysius was different.

Someone capable of becoming a Five Star Fiend was someone who had definitely fused profound mysteries. A Five Star Fiend wouldn’t find it too hard to kill all thousand of them. And there were three of those Five Star Fiends! And a whole pile of Four Star Fiends as well! There was no way for them to resist at all.

“All of you, form a squad.” Fiends immediately began to divide them up.

However, the Gods didn’t respond.

“Hurry up. Or can it be that you want to die right now?” A cold voice rang out. The Gods looked at each other, finally complying.

They had no other options!

“There’s no way we Gods can join forces to kill them all.” Linley glanced sideways at Moon Lake Castle. “The corridors inside the castle aren’t too wide. Only two or three people will be able to walk side by side at most. With a hundred people in each squad, there’s no way we can simultaneously suddenly attack the Highgods behind.”

There was no chance of resistance. All of the Gods could only choose to obey.

After all, the Fiends weren’t trying to kill them, just have them go in first. They still had a chance at life.

“Hey, let’s take charge of that squad.” Crompton hurriedly called out.

The ordinary Two Star Fiends and Three Star Fiends were all responsible for staying behind the hundred-man squads.

“Haha, Crompton, jeeze.” People immediately began to laugh. They all knew that because of Linley’s group, Crompton decided to choose the responsibility of overseeing that squad. This was the squad Linley was in.

The main gates to the castle were tightly shut. There was no way to break through it forcibly at all.

The ten hundred-man squads could thus only slip in through the windows. Linley’s team was mixed into one of the squads, and they too slipped into the room, then began to search for an enemy in the corridor behind them.

“This pink mist has filled the entire castle. There’s no way to see what’s going on up ahead at all. If we aren’t careful, we might be ambushed.” Linley held Delia’s hand as he and Bebe carefully followed the rest of the squad in moving forwards.

Linley didn’t dare to stay too close to the rear. Crompton and the other’s were in the rear.

There was no fog in front of Linley, because all of the Gods were using their Godrealm, which was more than enough to make it so that there was no pink fog around them. However...in front of them, outside the area of the Godrealm, there was the boundless pink mist.

Everyone was careful and advanced slowly.

“Boss, how do you think that pink fog thing was developed?” Bebe chatted with Linley through divine sense. As there was no poison mist near them, they naturally were able to chat using divine sense. “It is able to directly affect the soul. I heard others say that there are even more terrifying poison mists that can cause the soul to spontaneously combust and collapse.”

“Who knows? In the Yulan continent, I did suffer that attack from the Grand Warlock. Right, in Redbud Castle, didn’t you see those Godslayer Arrows? The Godslayer Arrows had been dipped in poison, which is why they were so powerful.” Linley messaged back through divine sense. “And I hear that many of the most terrifying poisons are only available in Blacksand Castle.”

Bebe pursed his lips. “I wonder what’s inside this castle.”

“Linley. I keep on having a very bad feeling.” Delia said through her divine sense. “Be careful. Don’t get in over your head. In the Infernal Realm, there are many attacks which we have never encountered before. Have you ever encountered a poison mist like that, which can cause someone’s soul to be filled with murderous urges? Be careful.”

Seeing the concerned look in Delia’s face, Linley couldn’t help but feel a surge of warmth.

“Hurry up. You are moving too slow!” Crompton’s angry bellow rang out from behind.

Although Linley’s group of Gods were unhappy, nobody dared to say anything.

The castle had multiple layers. Linley’s group searched everywhere in the corridors on the first floor without being able to find a single person. However, when they headed down the stairway leading down into the second floor, the second floor was clearly much larger than the first one, and its layout was much more complicated as well.

“How bizarre!” All the Gods felt a sense of pressure.

No matter where they went, that pink mist ahead of them continued to block them. This caused Linley’s squad to feel that the world in front of them was utterly strange and mysterious. Their nerves were continuously taut, which was quite taxing.

“Whoooosh.”

Suddenly, the sound of a gust of wind.

“Slash!” “Slash!” “Slash!” “Slash!” .....

Before Linley had a chance to react, an arrow suddenly appeared through an opening between the people in front of him, shooting towards him. The speed was simply too fast, and Linley wasn’t able to dodge at all.

“Bang!” The arrow struck onto Linley’s earthen robe.

This robe was the Pulseguard Armor created after the fusion of two types of profound mysteries. The arrow wasn’t able to shoot through Linley’s earthen robe.

However, in front of Linley, more than twenty people immediately collapsed to the floor, their bodies riddled with arrows. They had no more life in them. Because of their death, the unending pink fog around them quickly swirled forward.

“They all died?” Linley was momentarily stunned.

Linley previously had nearly thirty people in front, but now more than half had died.

Actually, those arrows had been shot out very densely from the end of the hallway. Virtually all of the Gods who had been struck were killed, with only one or two that didn’t die. One was Linley, while the other, despite having been struck, had been able to take the hit. Clearly, his soul defense was excellent.

“Whew.”

Many of the luckily surviving Gods up ahead immediately used their interspatial rings to collect the corpses. It must be known that those corpses all had divine sparks and interspatial rings on them. Those interspatial rings had large amounts of money within them.

“Boss, your reaction time was too slow.” Linley, having been momentarily astonished, didn’t react until all the corpses had been collected. Bebe, on the other hand, had collected two.

“Linley, are you alright?” Delia hurriedly looked at Linley.

“How could the Boss have any problems?” Bebe snickered. “The Boss’s soul protection and his exterior layer of protection are both very powerful.” Actually, Bebe had been very concerned about Linley as well, but because he and Linley were spiritually linked, if something had happened to Linley, Bebe would have known.

“Retreat, retreat!” The Gods up ahead immediately called out.

From behind, Crompton bellowed, “Keep moving forward. What are you afraid of? Keep moving forward!”

The Gods up ahead couldn’t help but feel enraged, and they cursed in their hearts, “You aren’t the one being killed. Of course you have nothing to fear!”

However, the people who had the courage to participate in the Fiend trials naturally weren’t cowards. They wouldn’t quit just because of this, but they all became even more cautious.

“Delia, stay behind me.” Linley said. After having suffered that sudden arrow attack, Linley was now in the vanguard of the squad. There were only a few people ahead of him. With those people having just faced that dangerous event, their movement naturally became even slower.

Crompton, however, was leisurely walking behind them. He was sneering coldly in his heart, “I didn’t expect you not to die this time. But next time, it will be your turn.” Crompton was quite eager to see Linley die.

“Captain, that squad is continuing to advance.”

Within the gloomy darkness, ten gold-robed warriors were silently, stealthily walking while hunched over, each of them wearing a moon-shaped interspatial ring on their fingers.

“Hmph. A group of them died, but the rest are continuing forward. They truly are daring. At the next chokepoint, we’ll give them another round and kill a few dozen more of them.”

“Killing people like this sure is easy.”

“In normal circumstances, how can we so easily and blithely use Godslayer Arrows like this? These toys are quite expensive.”

The gold-robed guards quickly reached the next chokepoint.

Linley’s squad, however, continued to advance carefully. They didn’t know that soon, yet another group of them would perish.