To get such benefits, one had to be at least one rank lower than the rank of that Transformer.

Going by logic, all the ones here were at least dark gold grade. And that meant none of them would benefit from this statue.

"It's either they suspect me of having a fox spirit, which is something that doesn't make sense. Or… They got newly joined Transformers, weak enough to get the benefits from this statue…"

William didn't show it on his face, but deep inside his heart, he decided to kill any damn Transformer he'd find. And he already had a guess about the place where these new Transformers were, the dark spirit master lairs.

That explained everything to him, explained why these statues acted in such an intense way towards his earlier words.

They weren't just defending their interests with dark spirit masters, but they were also defending their newly joined Transformers.

It wasn't easy to find a Transformer in this world, or even in the outer world. Even William didn't meet any of them back when he was in the outer world.

Seeing all these Transformers gathered in one place meant another thing to William… There was a method to let scary monsters turn into Transformers. And this fort held the secret for all this.

"I have to uncover all the secrets of this place," William vowed in his heart. To him, this fort became like a long-term goal of his, one that he'd try to achieve on the long course of months and even years.

"Noted," William wanted nothing more but to leave this place and return to his place. Staying in the Royals hotel was a risky move that he didn't want anymore.

"Good, we'll keep an eye on you," one of the statues said, "and don't think about doing anything funny. Those little flies you have on your side won't stand a chance at all against us."

"..."

William knew this was a direct and real threat, one that he'd not take any lightly. He knew these flies that dude mentioned were the dark gold grade guards.

Even at the same dark gold rank, spirit masters would differ greatly in power. Not to mention these dudes didn't need to move a finger. They could easily order their scary army of followers to tear anything they didn't like down.

Not to mention they got the scary and mysterious dark spirit masters on their side, and lots of monsters as well.

"Scram!" William felt the same weird power surrounding and enveloping him. Then before he'd know it, he found himself standing again in front of that closed door.

"Sigh! It seems I have to do my best," William sighed, muttering this while moving back through the series of portals he used before to come here.

By these portals, he wouldn't be able to locate the true place of these Transformers. And even if he knew, he'd not be able to do anything against them for now.

Even if he got the support of one of the Big Seven, even if he got the support of a great impact like the Lockheart impact, things wouldn't look any better.

Taking these Transformers down was a must, but it was a long-time plan, one that needed lots of planning and arranging from him.

He needed to do another thing first, one that he could do easily with his current level of power. He had to start gathering intel, gathering information about these folks, about their ties with people here and at the outer world.

He needed to know more about Transformers in this tiny world. And he had to do all this in a discrete way, without arousing any suspicions about him.

"Master, you returned," just as he passed through the last portal, he found himself standing in a side room from the lobby, the same one he went inside before taking the series of portals.

And there he found the same worker who led him here in the first place. Seeing this dude again made William recall what he said and done since meeting him. And that made this dude a big suspect in William's eyes.

"Lead me towards my room," William didn't say anything, kept his thoughts to himself. He regretted not having enough strength to use a tracking totem, the same method Ben used on him before to track his whereabouts.

If so, then tracking this dude would be easy. That dude wasn't the only suspect William wanted to heavily investigate, but there was another one as well, Mark.

He was mentioned clearly by these statues as their man in the hotel. And that meant Mark already met and knew them. That meant Mark knew lots about these Transformers secrets.

William was sure the truth Mark and others learnt about these folks was totally different from what he knew. But he never thought about trying to correct such a misunderstanding in the first place.

All the evidence was there in front of everyone's eyes. A blind man would only take these statues as normal beings. So, the ones working with them were either extorted and threatened to do so or lured out by greed of wealth and power. It was just like how these statues tried to rope William to their side.

They first used temptations. And when greed failed, they used threats. But William was special and wouldn't fall for their cheap tricks. As for others, they must have suspected something, and yet they chose to close an eye over this matter.

That meant even if William exposed the true identity of these Transformers to those who dealt with them, nothing would change. These folks were rotten to the depths of their spirits, and there was no way to salvage them.

In fact, if William tried to take these statues down, he was sure the fiercest resistance would come from these spirit masters dealing with them.

And that made him eye all of them not as victims, but enemies. Or to be precise, the hardest shell standing between him and ruining these statues, the strongest shield and weapons these bastards had on their side.