In Garl’s opinion, Ujfalusi and Norfeller, who were Legendary powerhouses who were at the peak of the Legendary-realm, had to have been duped by Connoris and Lin Li into signing the Soul Contract in the same manner. Since they were in the same boat, Garl naturally had to find a way to pull some connections he could use.
However, Garl did not know that Ujfalusi hadn’t signed the Soul Contract under Lin Li’s threat. In the past, Norfeller had voluntarily signed the blood-oath with Lin Li. Meanwhile, Ujfalusi had followed Lin Li for such a long time, and he even advanced from a Lich that had just entered the Legendary-realm to one that was at the peak of that realm. He was just one step away from the Sanctuary-realm. How could he have any complaints?
Hence, even though they were all considered servants in terms of their status, Ujfalusi and Norfeller did not treat Garl as one of them. Moreover, everyone had just been harmed terribly by the Lord Devourer. It would be strange if they treated Garl well now. Seeing how overboard and ridiculous Garl was getting, Ujfalusi immediately pushed him away with a magic spell, and Norfeller even drew the Heaven’s Wrath Dagger.
After several failed attempts, Garl finally calmed down, and understood that the dynamics of the relationship between the members of the team did not seem to be what he thought they were.
After a period of recuperation, the expedition finally set out again. However, after the battle with the Lord Devourer, the teams from the Brilliance Shrine and the Rotterdam Kingdom suffered major losses. Although the recuperation had allowed them to recover, their morale was significantly lower.
The expedition entered the Lord Devourer’s palace, and found a gate in the depths. There was a spiral staircase that led upwards to a golden light in the distance on the other side of the gate. Upon sight of this, Archbishop Martin and the others could not help but look worried, because this was clearly different from the gates in the previous worlds that they had left. It was just a staircase that led to a higher level.
On the first floor, they had encountered a powerful enemy like the Lord Devourer, causing the teams of the Brilliance Shrine and the Rotterdam to suffer huge damage. At the thought of this, everyone would definitely be terrified. Archbishop Martin and the rest had no choice but to once again turn their attention to Lin Li, the young Sanctuary powerhouse.
“There will no longer be enemies like the Lord Devourer on the upper level. As long as we’re careful, there should not be any major casualties.” Lin Li really did not disappoint Archbishop Martin and the others. In fact, after making sure that this place was exactly the same as the Well of the Sun of the Endless World, he was already certain of the situation on the floor above. Subduing Garl was actually just giving him a good excuse to explain that, although he could choose not to, but that would certainly not be convincing in the long run.
Hearing Lin Li’s statement, Archbishop Martin and the others finally secretly heaved a sigh of relief. If they had to go through that kind of battle a few more times, there would probably be nothing much left of their teams in the end.
They did not doubt Lin Li’s statement. After all, Lin Li had just subdued a demon, and it was only right that he would know what was going on here.
The expedition passed through the gate and walked up the long staircase, all the way to the endless golden light in the distance. After walking for about an hour, they finally saw the silhouette of a majestic building at the end of their line of sight, and it was gradually becoming clearer in the endless golden light.
At this moment, the expedition finally realized that the place where they had just fought the Lord Devourer was actually just a small corner of the palace. Yet, they were terribly shocked. In fact, the moment they saw it, they almost worshiped it. Clearly, the majesty of the Sun Palace was truly beyond imaginable.
When Lin Li arrived at the gate of the second floor, he waved his hands and gestured for the team to stop advancing. Even though they did not have orders from Archbishop Martin and Donald, the members from the Brilliance Shrine and the Rotterdam Kingdom already treated Lin Li as their supreme leader. They would follow his orders without hesitation.
Archbishop Martin and Donald didn’t have any complaints about the situation. Anyway, even if Lin Li did not give them direct commands, they would still go to him and ask him some questions, which would instead affect the team’s execution efficiency. Well, Prince Kanber from the Rotterdam Kingdom was rather upset about it, even though Donald kept persuading him.
Of course, Lin Li did not take a little ant like Kanber seriously. If Kanber just followed them obediently, everything would be fine. However, if he were to jump out recalcitrantly and affect Lin Li’s plans, Lin Li would kill him effortlessly. Prince Kanber’s identity meant nothing to a Sanctuary powerhouse like Lin Li at all. If he were to really die because he had provoked a Sanctuary powerhouses, the old king of Rotterdam Kingdom would have to stand out and apologize to him.
Lin Li made the team stop not to show any authority, but rather because the journey was going to become tough from then on. Due to the existence of the Lord Devourer, Garl, the mana sources of the magic gears and magic traps around the palace were devoured together with the treasures. Hence, other than the battle with the Abyssal Demons, the expedition did not have to worry about other threats.
However, it was different here. They were not in Garl’s territory, and the mana sources of the magic traps were intact. Hence, it was not overboard to say that every step they took was dangerous. Although given Lin Li’s attainments in this regard, those magic traps and gears would not pose much of a threat to him, the expedition would easily slip into danger if they did not follow his commands.
Following Lin Li’s orders, the expedition stopped on the staircase in front of the gate, and hundreds of people and the Alchemy Colossuses of the Rotterdam Kingdom formed a long line.
It was a large gate that was extremely high, and even Angelano’s Alchemy Colossus might not be able to reach the top with its arms raised. There were also realistic flame patterns carved on the arched door, and even the golden light that it emitted seemed to be influenced by the flame patterns, making the arch look like a rising sun.
There was no obstruction in the middle of the arched door, and one would be able to tell at a glance that there was still a flight of steps that extended to the main entrance of the palace on the other side of the door. Hence, Archbishop Martin and the rest were somewhat curious about why Lin Li made them stop there. They wondered what kind of danger it contained.
However, to Lin Li, a master of magic gears and magic traps, it had a completely different significance. The arched door was actually set up with a very terrifying magic trap, and once someone barged through recklessly, they would be immediately incinerated to ashes by the flames of the sun, just as if they really walked into the sun. Not to mention the Legendary powerhouses, even a Sanctuary powerhouse like Lin Li would be burned if he broke in.
“Garl, you can devour anything, can’t you? Come on, if you have what it takes, devour this Burning Sun Flame God magic trap now.” Although Angelano promised Lin Li that he wouldn’t settle the scores with Garl for the time being, that didn’t stop him from verbally picking on Garl.
Hearing Angelano’s words, Garl did not even have time to respond before Archbishop Martin got a great fright. They finally discovered that there was a magic trap called the Burning Sun Flame God magic trap in the archway.
Although they did not know exactly what level the magic trap was, they could tell from the name alone that its power was definitely quite terrifying. Didn’t the name, Burning Sun Flame God, mean that it had the power to burn everything? Even though the name might be a bit exaggerated, it definitely wasn’t something that people like them could deal with.
Garl, who had been called out, had already lost his host, so his ability to devour was greatly affected. Besides, even if he had a host, it would be impossible for him to devour the Burning Sun Flame God magic trap.
However, Garl refused to show weakness to Angelano, and thus yelled at the top of his voice, “Don’t just talk about me, what about you? If you have what it takes, just break this trap.”
If it had been a magic gear, Garl definitely wouldn’t have said that. After all, magic gears and alchemy were related to each other. However, magic traps were different. They might be some sort of Magic Array or Alchemy Array, or perhaps even a mageweath. Garl was very certain that as a goblin, Angelano definitely would not be capable of cracking it.
“Hmph, do you think everyone else is as incompetent as you? Today, I’ll show you what Lord Angelano is made of.” Although Angelano’s forte was the Alchemy Colossus, he had still learned quite a bit about Alchemy Arrays from Lin Li during the days that he had spent in the Tower of Dusk. After all, he had a foundation in Alchemy Arrays. Although he could not compare to Lin Li, he had definitely reached the peak of the Master-level.
Hence, Angelano did not take the Burning Sun Flame God seriously, and instead sauntered across, ready to break the trap on the arched door. However, when he passed by Lin Li, the latter pulled him back.
Seeing the look of confusion on Angelano’s face, Lin Li shook his head, and said, “This is not a simple Burning Sun Flame God, but the Gate of Sunfall.”
The Gate of Sunfall was usually seen as a Burning Sun Flame God magic trap, but if one were to just take it as that and try to crack it, it would probably trigger a black hole hidden beneath it that would devour everything. It was truly a horrifying existence that even deities would not dare to touch.
When Lin Li was exploring the Well of the Sun in the Endless World in the past, he had suffered a great loss right in the face of the Gate of Sunfall, and almost dropped his Hunter equipment set. Although he later escaped the gravitational pull of the black hole, he lost his superior-grade Hunter pet which he had raised for a long time, the Shadow Leopard. Someone had once offered him 10,000 yuan for the Shadow Leopard, which had excellent Growth Stats, but he could not bear to sell it. If he had not got the Stars of Fury and the seven pieces of the debris of the stars that he coveted, he probably would have wanted to cry to death.
This time, if the Gate of Sunfall was accidentally triggered, no one in the entire expedition team would be able to escape except for Lin Li. Even Lin Li had needed the power of the seven pieces of the debris of the stars in order to escape. Otherwise, he would not have been able to escape the fate of falling.
“The Gate of Sunfall…” Angelano was so frightened when he heard that name that he broke out in a cold sweat. He could no longer care to bicker with Garl, and instead retreated again and again.
Although the Gate of Sunfall was terrifying, at the end of the day, Lin Li had already had the experience of cracking it once. This time, he was completely confident that he would be able to break the trap smoothly. Hence, after pulling Angelano back, Lin Li stepped forward casually to approach the arched door. He did not feel the slightest tinge of nervousness at all. It was as if breaking the trap was an effortless thing for him as he began to do so in a relaxed manner.
Actually, the magic trap was just like a riddle set by the person who set it up. Those who could not guess it would never be able to disable it, but once they knew the answer, they would find that there was nothing difficult about it. If it had been Lin Li’s first time cracking it, he would probably have still accidentally triggered the Gate of Sunfall like he had in the Endless World, even if he had the attainments of a Guru. Since he already knew about the existence of the Gate of Sunfall and how it would be triggered, however, the terrifying trap would not be a mystery to Lin Li.
Lin Li smoothly and quickly cracked the trap in the arched door. He was so quick that it made the others think that the Burning Sun Flame God magic trap and the Gate of Sunfall were all false and non-existent. They were just exaggerations meant for scaring others. Of course, Lin Li was a Sanctuary powerhouse, and the people of the expedition team would not doubt him. If he had been an insignificant figure, others might really have thought that way.
Afterward, under Lin Li’s orders, the expedition passed through the arched door smoothly, and made their way up the steps behind. Soon, they arrived at the main entrance of the palace.
This time, Lin Li did not purposely stop the team, but instead waved, and the two heavy-looking doors of the palace’s main entrance opened slowly and silently from inside.
There was a large space behind the gate, and the ground was also paved with golden tiles. It looked similar to the first floor of the Lord Devourer’s area. As the gate was opened, there were random noises coming from all directions inside the palace. Soon, countless Abyssal Demons rushed in.
Those Abyssal Demons might not be able to compare to the ones on the first floor where the Lord Devourer was, but they were definitely superior in quality. All Abyssal Demons were at least level-20. On the first few floors of the abyss, they would be Demon Lords. However, the Abyssal Demons here were only minions.
Seeing the massive influx of Abyssal Demons, the expedition immediately formed battle formations, and instantly got into a conflict with the legion of demons.
“Garl, can you parasitize these demons?” asked Lin Li, who immediately thought of Garl who had lost his host when he saw the Abyssal Demons. A powerful host was absolutely mandatory for Garl to use his ability to devour everything. However, Lin Li was not quite certain about the conditions required for Devouring Demons to parasitize their target.
