A hint of despair appeared on Xu Xiaoyan's face. "I feel so bad! What do we do, Captain?" Her voice was beginning to choke up, as if she were on the verge of bursting into tears.

"Don't worry, everything will be fine. The worst-case scenario is that we'll fail this mission and be forced to accept our punishment. We haven't done anything, so the Northsea Legion won't hurt us even though we've been detained. After all, the academy knows we're here, and we haven't attacked anyone or stolen anything, so we haven't committed any crimes."

The major smiled, and said, "You've made the right decision. Take them away and detain them. Oh, by the way, I graduated from Imperial Sun Moon Soul Engineer Academy, as did virtually all of the high-ranking officials of the Northsea Legion, so we've always abhorred Shrek Academy. You didn't think that the legion situated in the northeastern region would have such strong ties with the Imperial Sun Moon Soul Engineer Academy in the west, did you? Do you know about the relationship between these two academies?"

How could they not know? Back in the day, Tang Wulin had once led his friends to challenge the Imperial Sun Moon Soul Engineer Academy.

Tang Wulin lowered his head in a resigned and indignant manner. Not only had they walked into a trap, the people that had sprung the trap had a personal vendetta against them as well!

The major continued, "Stop putting on that fake resigned display. I really hate your Shrek Academy, but I can tell you're all definitely inner court disciples, so you must all be one-word battle armor masters to go along with your five-ring cultivation ranks. Don't even think about getting away; I won't give you any chances. No matter what kind of pitiable display you put on, I won't take pity on you. Put some spirit-sealing helmets on them as well; there's no way they'll be able to escape then. With those helmets on, you won't even be able to think, so just take a good nap for about 10 days here, and I promise you that I'll definitely release you at the conclusion of the 10 days. Perhaps you'll be quite hungry by then, but you definitely won't die."

Tang Wulin abruptly raised his head at the sight of the helmets the soldiers were carrying toward them, and a panicked expression appeared on his face. "No, you, you can't do this! You... Argh!"

As soon as the helmet was fitted onto his head, a powerful magnetic field completely scattered his cognitive functions, and he slumped straight to the ground.

Everyone else had had their soul power sealed, so there was no way for them to resist. As such, they were also fitted with the same helmets and fell unconscious as well.

The major shrugged. "This is how things should be. Students of Shrek Academy are all extremely cunning, so I can't give them even the slightest opportunity. These spirit-sealing helmets will completely seal off your minds, so just sleep like good boys and girls. I wonder if your academy will actually expel you after this. Don't blame me for all of this; if there's anyone you should blame, it's Shrek Academy for being too heartless with its students. Take them to the detention center and release them in 10 days."

14 soldiers immediately rushed forward at once, splitting up into groups of two before quickly carrying away Tang Wulin and his friends.

The major stroked his chin with a contemplative look on his face, and said, "Get the special operation unit to search the area around the base and use the radars to see if they have any allies lurking outside the base. In particular, make sure to detect for the presences of mechas."

"Yes, Major."

The major was always renowned as a very methodical and thorough man, so he certainly wasn't going to allow any oversights.

The dark detention chambers were the places that soldiers were most afraid of.

There was nothing inside the rooms, and each room was only two feet tall, making it impossible for one to sit up, and the rooms were completely devoid of light. There were only small openings through which food could be delivered, and the most terrifying thing about these detention chambers was that there was absolutely nothing in them.

For normal people, being able to last seven days in here was already an extremely remarkable feat as being enclosed in dark and claustrophobic spaces for long periods of time will inevitably lead to mental breakdowns.

Thus, Tang Wulin and his friends lay in silence in a detention chamber with handcuffs around their wrists and helmets on their heads.

After a long while, a pair of hands slowly rose up within the dark space before gently grabbing onto a helmet, then slowly wrenching it apart.

That's right, the helmet was literally being wrenched apart. Normally, these helmets couldn't be opened without their corresponding keys and electronic passcodes, but this helmet was being torn apart by a pair of bare hands

Due to the restriction from the pair of handcuffs, the process wasn't very smooth, but in the next instant, the pair of hands jerked violently, and the handcuffs were instantly shattered, while the helmet was also completely prised apart in the process.

The one who had just struggled out of the helmet and handcuffs was none other than Tang Wulin, and he flexed his wrists as he gradually regained control over his own soul power, upon which faint purple light emanated from his eyes.

He inspected his surroundings and heaved a faint sigh of relief after ascertaining that all of his friends were also present in the same detention chamber.

After taking a few moments to ascertain who was who, he prised open Xie Xie's handcuffs and helmet first, then immediately covered Xie Xie's mouth with his hand.

Xie Xie's body shuddered, and Tang Wulin immediately whispered, "Don't talk!"

Xie Xie immediately understood what was going on, and as his cognitive functions returned, he began to quickly recover his own soul power.

Tang Wulin replicated this process, breaking the handcuffs and helmets being worn by all of his friends.

Why wasn't his mind sealed by the helmet? In reality, he hadn't done anything remarkable to achieve this. It was undoubtedly the case that the soul-sealing handcuffs could seal off one's soul power; even Soul Masters more powerful than him wouldn't be able to avoid the handcuffs from taking effect.

However, it was important to remember that Tang Wulin still had immense blood essence power. In the instant before the helmet was fitted onto his head, he immediately circulated his blood essence power into his head to form a protective barrier. If the major could've seen Tang Wulin's head through the helmet, he would've definitely known that his mind hadn't been sealed as golden dragon veins had appeared all over his head.

With his blood essence acting as an impeding barrier, it was naturally impossible for the helmet to take effect, and the rest was very simple. After everything had gone quiet for a while, Tang Wulin immediately removed everyone's helmets and handcuffs.

"The academy is being way too heartless!" Xie Xie couldn't help but whisper. Everyone was breathing slightly heavier than normal.

Indeed, the academy hadn't just chosen Northsea City for no good reason; they were using the Northsea Legion here to screw everyone over! No wonder everyone who knew about the nature of the military training was so sympathetic toward them; they hadn't even reached the island yet, and they were already in this horrible situation.

"Complaining isn't going to do us any good; at the very least, this is not the worst situation we can be in. We're still in the base, which is better than being thrown out of it. Xie Xie, send out one of your clones to investigate." Tang Wulin rolled over to the entrance of the detention chamber as he spoke.

This was a very small yet extremely heavy door that was locked from the outside.

Tang Wulin narrowed his eyes as he focused his attention to detect the situation outside. In doing so, he discovered that there were no guards positioned outside the chamber. Perhaps they were so confident in the effect of the soul-sealing handcuffs and spirit-sealing helmets that they thought guards were simply redundant.

However, Tang Wulin didn't grow complacent because of this. "Make sure to be careful when you send your clone out of here. All you have to do is find out what places in the base have soul planes. There must be many security measures in this base; things like thermal imaging scanners won't be able to catch you, but your clone will be susceptible to energy analysis devices. If someone catches you, immediately dissipate your clone; they won't suspect that we're behind this anyway. Make sure to take every precaution necessary, and do your best to bring back some useful things."

"Alright, leave it to me," Xie Xie replied with a nod.

Tang Wulin reached out with his right hand, but he wasn't planning to open the door of the detention chamber. Instead, he made his way over to the side of the chamber. "This is an air vent; I'll remove its cover so you can get out through here. I can sense using my spiritual power that this vent has a very small diameter that a normal person will get stuck in, but your clone should be able to make it through, right?"

Xie Xie nodded, and replied, "For sure. I can compress my clones as they're constructed from energy, and they can pass through any space as long as it's no thinner than an arm."