"Master Xu Shengqun isn't carrying his identification badge, but Mistress Gu Yuena has all of her identification documents; how should we proceed?"

Sister Xing faltered slightly upon hearing this. "He doesn't have his identification badge? Why not?"

"Master Xu Shengqun says that he forgot to bring it..."

Sister Xing's heart stirred upon hearing this, and she said in a slightly grim voice, "How could he possibly have forgotten his identification badge? Take them to the observation room, then get the inspection team to verify his identity."

"Yes."

The massive metal gate up ahead was slowly opened, and Tang Wulin and Gu Yue walked through it side by side. At this point, he had already adopted Xu Shengqun's appearance, and he wore a serious look on his face. Through the use of his soul power and bloodline power, even his figure had been altered to resemble that of Xu Shengqun, and he had changed into an ordinary long robe. Gu Yue was following along behind him, putting on an extremely respectful display.

"Master Xu Shengqun, due to the fact that you don't have your identification documents, we'll have to get the inspection team to verify your identity; please come with me to the observation room. Mistress Gu Yuena, your identity has been verified, so you'll be granted passage as normal."

Gu Yuena? Tang Wulin's heart jolted upon hearing this, and he reflexively turned toward Gu Yue. Why were they referring to her as Gu Yuena?

In the past, he naturally wouldn't have thought much of this. After all, a name was nothing more than a title for someone to be referred to as, but the situation was different now as Gu Yue currently bore Na'er's appearance!

Despite the astonishment in his heart, his expression remained completely calm and placid. After all, his top priority at the moment was to get out of this fortress.

"That's alright, I'll accompany Master Xu Shengqun during this identity verification process," Gu Yue replied in an aloof manner.

At this moment, what appeared to be a square metal box emerged from an opening on the wall up ahead, and there were a few flashing lights on the device. 

"Please come with me."

The box then traveled on ahead, and after a metal door was opened, it led them down a metal passageway.

Without the assistance of plants here, Tang Wulin could only try to detect his surroundings using his spiritual power. However, he quickly discovered that those efforts were completely futile as the surrounding metal walls were all over two feet thick, and there was some soul energy injected into those walls to further fortify them. Even a Titled Douluo wouldn't be able to force their way out of this place, let alone a Soul King like him.

The fortress had powerful defenses; it was going to be very difficult to get out of this place without being exposed!

They followed the metal box down the passageway, then passed through a heavy metal door and arrived in an isolated metal room. There were powerful soul weapons situated in each corner pointing directly toward the center of the room.

This was most likely the so-called observation room.

Tang Wulin sat down in the chair in a completely relaxed and placid manner while Gu Yue stood behind him with her usual cold expression on her face.

Tang Wulin had expended a lot of effort the day before to get her to maintain this stoic demeanor.

Not long after that, the wall up ahead parted, and a few figures strode in from outside. All of them were armed to the teeth with soul weapons in their hands, and the soul weapons in the corners of the room also instantly lit up before pointing themselves directly at Tang Wulin and Gu Yue. It was undoubtedly the case that he would be attacked from all sides as soon as he tried to do anything rash.

The leader of the group appeared to be in his forties, and he stepped forward with a cold expression as he asked, "Spirit Envoy Xu Shengqun, why aren't you carrying your identification badge?"

"I forgot it," Tang Wulin replied in a calm voice.

The inspector wore a serious expression as he said, "As a high-ranking member of the Spirit Pagoda, you'll receive a punishment for this breach of the rules, are you aware of that?"

"I am." Tang Wulin was emulating Xu Shengqun's voice to perfection.

The inspector said, "We'll now be verifying your identity; please cooperate with us while we conduct fingerprint and iris scans."

Another inspector strode over to them with the relevant devices.

Back when Tang Wulin had been taking infiltration lessons from the old demons, he had learned that in order to complete a perfect infiltration, the first prerequisite was to have a plan that had at least a 60% chance of success. During the infiltration process, this plan would be further honed through observations and adjustments in order to raise the probability of success.

However, in this current situation, further observations wouldn't help him in the slightest here as it was already impossible to raise the probability of success.

Tang Wulin rose to his feet, looking as if he were going to complete the fingerprint and iris scans, but in the next instant, he encircled an arm around Gu Yue's waist like lightning. At the same time, his body hurtled backward, and his other hand had already locked around Gu Yue's throat.

The soul weapons in the room immediately reacted, blasting countless lasers toward Tang Wulin.

However, right at this moment, Tang Wulin positioned Gu Yue's body in front of his, using her as a meat shield as he backed away. At the same time, a layer of yellow light instantly spread to encompass Gu Yue's body.

The lasers struck the yellow light, only to be instantly repelled, and Tang Wulin dragged Gu Yue over to a corner. In this position, he wouldn't have to worry about being attacked from all four sides.

"Stop attacking or I'll kill her!" Tang Wulin's frosty voice rang out, and all of the attacks were instantly ceased.

The inspectors present were all very startled by this turn of events. It was the first time they'd ever encountered a situation like this, and in order to make the act even more convincing, Gu Yue immediately put on a surprised and fearful expression.

That's right, Gu Yue was Tang Wulin's final trump card. It was undoubtedly the case that she already held a very lofty status in the Spirit Pagoda, and her teacher was one of the Spirit Pagoda's vice-chairmen. As such, there was a chance that the Spirit Pagoda would grant him passage if he were to threaten them with her life. The probability of this succeeding was most likely still less than 60% percent, but with Gu Yue's full cooperation, there was a decent chance that he could pull this off.

In this situation, Tang Wulin didn't have any choice but to resort to this anyway. The yellow light that had just protected Gu Yue came from his Mountain Dragon King torso bone. In order to conceal his own identity, he was going to refrain from using his martial soul and battle armor unless the situation absolutely demanded it.

"Who are you? You're not Master Xu Shengqun!" the leader of the inspection team yelled.

Tang Wulin harrumphed coldly, "Of course not, but I'm sure that you've already verified that this woman is an important member of your Spirit Pagoda. Let me leave this place or I'll kill her; I wouldn't mind dying with such a fine beauty in accompaniment. I'll give you five minutes to open the door and let me out of here."

The inspector said in a cold voice, "It's no use; you won't be able to escape from this place. Release the Reserve Spirit Envoy right now and you'll still have a chance of being spared."

Reserve Spirit Envoy? Tang Wulin's heart stirred upon hearing this. He hadn't actually been aware of Gu Yue's position in the Spirit Pagoda prior to this.

He knew that in the Spirit Pagoda, the four Spirit Envoys were the most powerful beings aside from the chairman and the two vice-chairmen. He didn't think that Gu Yue would've already become a Reserve Spirit Envoy at such a young age. Even though this "reserve" status was most likely going to stay with her for a long time to come, this was still sufficient testament to how important she was to the Spirit Pagoda. This factor most definitely weighed in Tang Wulin's favor.

He continued to maintain the defensive soul skill of his Mountain Dragon King soul bone while approaching the inspectors with Gu Yue held as hostage.

"Quit the chit-chat! Open the door or I'll kill her!"

Loud sirens were already blaring throughout the entire Star Dou Fortress.

Sister Xing was just about to go back for a nap, but she also heard the sirens and naturally had no choice but to react to the situation. All types of internal defensive devices were being activated, and a series of figures were being presented to her by various types of analytical devices.

"According to the figures, the protective barrier around the enemy has a strength quotient of 1,615. Normal lasers won't be able to break through it, and only powerful soul cannons will be effective against it, but attacks of that level would undoubtedly harm the hostage as well."

The analytical data quickly appeared, and all of the information indicated that Tang Wulin's protective barrier possessed defensive prowess equivalent to that of a seven-ring defense system Soul Sage. As such, in this situation, it was completely impossible to strike him down with a surprise attack without harming Gu Yue in the process.

Thus, a standoff ensued between Tang Wulin and the inspection team, and the situation here had undoubtedly already been reported to the highest level of supervisors of the Star Dou Fortress.

Powerful killing intent erupted from Tang Wulin's body after the standoff had lasted for several minutes, and a pained look appeared on Gu Yue's face. Just as Tang Wulin had anticipated, that was enough for the inspection team to finally comply, and the metal door was opened.

However, as soon as they emerged from the observation room, they were surrounded by several dozens of mechas and several battle armor masters.

"Get out of my way or I'll kill her!" Tang Wulin roared like a madman. An unprecedented deranged aura emanated from his body, and even his eyes had turned crimson in color.

If you wanted others to believe that you were going to kill the hostage, then you had to really sell the act. That was a lesson that had been taught to Tang Wulin by the old demons.

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