Point out any errors I made in the chapters, as I'm very lazy and sometimes can't be bothered to reread them. Also, give your opinions on something I should change or add.
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Now that he was a Vice Administrator and could visit two Legendary Shrines, Feng naturally planned to completely exhaust all his opportunities; having met up with Black Flame and retrieved his items for the purpose of gaining the most out of his second Legendary Shrine.
After flying for a bit, Feng reached the Legendary Shrine region, continuing up to the highermost Shrines near the peak of the mountain.
Taking a slight turn, he soon arrived at a gigantic Shrine over two thousand and eight hundred meters in height that was the closest to the Main Legendary Shrine at the top.
Landing in front of it, Feng endured the oppressing mental pressure and Divine Might as he approached the gate and placed his hand on it.
System: Legendary Shrine Key detected. You are qualified to open the doors of the Legendary Shrine. Do you wish to spend 45,000 minutes to open them?
System: Vice Administrator Authority detected. You are qualified to receive a 10% discount on opening the Legendary Shrine's doors. Do you wish to spend 40,500 minutes to open them?
Choosing to open the doors, Feng spent most of his remaining minutes to enter the Shrine. Walking inside under the extreme pressure, Feng was greeted by a bewildering sight.
Although the Legendary Shrine was very big, the interior was far larger than what the exterior would suggest.
The endless sky extended out in the horizon with large fluffy clouds and floating islands below it. Even lower, there were plains, mountains, forests, rivers, and seas.
Wilderness like one wouldn't believe, there was an entire world within the Legendary Shrine. However, if one were to observe carefully, they would notice that there was no life anywhere.
Instead, small golden orbs the size of a man's fist floated around in some places, making the ground and sky glitter with a bright yellow light.
Feng was standing on one of the giant floating islands high in the sky, but his had a few special features that distinguished it from the rest.
On the opposite side of where Feng had come in from, at the edge overlooking the grand view of the Legendary Shrine's world, two poles of over ten meters stood several yards apart from each other, being connected by a flag with a checkerboard pattern of black and white squares on it.
Above the large finish flag floated a giant demonic gate.
Aside from the starting point of the challenge, there was also some kind of vending machine made entirely out of Seven Luminaries Crystals nearby.
Stepping up to the finish line and standing just in front of the starting point, Feng gazed across the sky and ground before him, locating all of the golden orbs within his line of sight, and strategizing a route in his mind.
Making sure he was fully recovered and ready, the Swordsman planted his feet firmly on the edge and bent his knees, before shooting off forward like a cannonball.
A system notification reached Feng's ears as soon as he crossed over the line.
System: You have entered the Swift Fortuitous Death challenge. Collect as many Jinxed Orbs as you can.
Time remaining: 5 minutes.
With the appearance of a timer on Feng's System Panel, he began the most infamous challenge of the World Summit.
Aside from the Main Legendary Shrine on the mountain's peak that housed some of the World Summit's finest treasures as well as the World Summit Trial, this Legendary Shrine was regarded as the greatest Shrine on the World Summit.
However, it was also regarded as the worst one at the same time.
This was due to its structure and the possibilities of the Swift Fortuitous Death challenge, along with the Jinxed Orbs which the challenger is supposed to gather.
One must gather as many of the golden orbs floating about across this place within the time limit, with their remaining time extending by ten seconds for each Jinxed Orb they snatch up, and return to the starting island once their time is up.
Upon the challenge ending, one could open the Jinxed Orbs they had gathered and find out what was stored inside them.
Whether they had just gained themselves a fortune, or if they had doomed themselves by choosing to pick up those orbs.
The cause of the Legendary Shrine's and its Swift Fortuitous Death challenge's infamy is its complete randomness and unpredictability on whether one will benefit from taking it on, while there was a great possibility of crippling themselves.
There were a total of four hundred Jinxed Orbs throughout the world of the Legendary Shrine, which although indeed vast as it expanded to over a million yards from the starting point in nearly every direction that players could move around in, could be traversed fairly easily so long as one was capable of flight.
Due to them being spread out with a significant distance between the orbs, and teleportation abilities, along with pretty much all outside tools, being disabled, there was a need to be quick when collecting the Jinxed Orbs if one wished to gather a sizeable number of them.
Though, getting a bunch of the orbs might not necessarily be a good idea.
Within the Jinxed Orbs were either rewards that would make one rich, with the least valuable among them being something one would get from the topmost Inferior Legendary Shrines and the best ones comparable to the rewards obtainable for clearing the Asura Mode World Summit Trial, or calamities for the opener.
Hence, the more Jinxed Orbs a challenger collects, the greater the chance of them encountering a dangerous backlash.
Two hundred rewards and two hundred curses.
What one gets depends entirely on luck and fate, but not the type a player's Luck attribute could change, as what each Jinxed Orb contains is set the moment a challenger enters the Legendary Shrine of the Swift Fortuitous Death challenge.
Even Feng had no way of knowing what he would get from any of the orbs or increasing his chances of getting the good stuff.
He can only pray while collecting the Jinxed Orbs.
Of course, it naturally wasn't that simple and easy to obtain them.
The moment Feng crossed over the starting line, the giant demonic gate above it opened, a dense Power of Darkness erupting from the gate and spreading throughout the surroundings.
Following which, a dark shadow shot out of the gate in Feng's direction. Sensing imminent danger, Feng switched directions, Gale Domain allowing him to easily maneuver in the air as he activated two Berserk Skills simultaneously.
Mysticsteel Berserk!
Soulharvest Synergy!
With his increased speed, Feng instantly avoided the incoming threat, a dark serrated claw whooshing over his head and nearly decapitating him with the barbed edges.
Pulling away from his assailant, Feng faced a mantis-like creature with pitch-black scales covering its entire body, the mantis's dark purple eyes staring at Feng with the eyes of a hunter as its sharp forelegs snapped like bear traps.
[Swift Demon Mantis] (Demonic Creature, Divine)
Level 100
HP 120,000,000,000/120,000,000,000
Although a Tier 6 monster, the Swift Demon Mantis's HP was fairly low, and its Strength wasn't particularly impressive. However, it had the highest Agility and fastest Attack Speed out of nearly all Demonic Creatures that weren't demons.
The mantis would chase around the challenger as they attempted to collect Jinxed Orbs, making it difficult to move freely, and even placing the player's life at risk if they weren't careful.
A barrage of slicing attacks came at Feng as he attempted to fly away, the mantis's terrifying saw claws attempting to shred him into pieces.
Continuously dodging the attacks by a hair strand, Feng made his way to the closest Jinxed Orb, successfully evading its forelegs through the air and eventually reaching the golden orb.
Upon Feng reaching out and grabbing the Jinxed Orb, the floating orb turned into golden particles within the palm of his hand, which then traveled into Feng's Spatial Bag.
At the same time, though, the demonic gate opened once again, another dark shadow shooting out of it towards Feng, while the previous Swift Demon Mantis seemed to become ever so slightly faster.
Now getting attacked by two Swift Demon Mantises, Feng was in even greater trouble as he flew towards the next Jinxed Orb, barely managing to avoid their black slicing claws.
The only reason Feng could keep his head connected to his shoulders while under the onslaught of two extremely fast Tier 6 monsters was the Destroyed Yog-Sothoth on his back.
Thanks to it, he grew faster the more enemies around him and the higher their speed was, and the mantis's Movement and Attack Speed dropped drastically whenever they got close to Feng, allowing him to escape their grappling claws.
Though, Feng's already extraordinary Agility also played a big role. In fact, right now, Feng couldn't even use his full speed to move around, as the attribute had long since passed the 100,000 mark, reaching the level of Tier 6 beings, but Feng's weak Physique and body made it impossible to utilize his full potential.
Hence, Feng has had to control the amount of power he was using throughout this entire time lest his body collapses in on itself from the powerful force of his full strength.
Even the Tier 5 Feng in the World Summit's Trial's First Phase had not been using all its attributes for the fight since its body would instantly shatter under it, subconsciously knowing to hold back and only use as much as it could withstand with its Tier 5 Peak Physique and body; possibly either due to the system's management, Feng having suppressed it beforehand and the Trial Creature copying his limitations, or through simple instinct to not go all out past the limit.
Still, the amount Feng could use right now was huge, and his Reaction Speed was unhampered by his weak body, giving Feng enough edge to barely keep track of the Swift Demon Mantises' movements and survive along with Yog-Sothoth's assistance as well as the boost Feng was receiving from going Twofold Berserk; the Berserk Skills' cooldowns, along with the rest of Feng's skills', having been reset upon entering the Legendary Shrine and taking on its challenge as the system returned Feng to his peak state, which was a fairly common feature among Inferior Legendary and Legendary Shrines.
With the mantises also starting out at a default speed much lesser than what regular Tier 6 Swift Demon Mantises possess, he could survive.
Naturally, the biggest factor was Feng's combat standards as well as his honed instincts which made it possible for him to make the most out of his current combat power, outclassing the demonic mantises as Feng predicted their moves and evaded all their attacks while approaching another Jinxed Orb.
Catching another golden orb, the pressure on Feng increased even more as a third Swift Demon Mantis appeared while the speed at which the previous two moved and attacked increased as well.
With every Jinxed Orb that Feng collected, an additional mantis would appear, and the other Demonic Creatures' Basic Attributes and Movement Speed would increase by 1%.
But since Feng was not only gaining another source to steal speed from but also an increase to what he was already taking from the previous mantises, the gap between them didn't increase all that much, with only the pressure on Feng being raised by leaps and bounds whenever a new Swift Demon Mantis joined the fray.
He was barely coping with their attacks while flying around and attempting to grab as many Jinxed Orbs as he could, occasionally relying on skills to get him out of a pitch, which happened more and more often as Feng's collection of the golden orbs increased over time.
After Gale Domain's duration ended, Feng found himself struggling once more, no longer able to freely fly through the air and agilely avoid the Swift Demon Mantises' blows.
Feng was forced to rely on the Willful Steps effect to walk on midair and dodge some of their attacks as well as utilize the Fleeting Air Passive Skill whenever possible to boost his speed by either adjusting his route to move towards any of the floating islands and rocks to use as solid ground for the skill's conditions; or create his own footing with skills like Nine Dragons Slash, Mysticsteel Dualblades, or Phantom Kill if necessary.
By using the abilities' full potential, Feng could somewhat still endure the onslaught coming from the dozen or so Tier 6 Demonic Creatures, sometimes using his offensive skills to block attacks that he could not dodge in order to minimize the damage he received; which thankfully was not a lot even when blocking attacks from Tier 6 beings thanks to the damage reducing effects of his items like the Wraithwood Sigil and Heart of Ashes, along with the Aura of Earth whenever it's switched on.
So long as he wasn't killed instantly, Feng didn't have to worry about dying since he could always quickly recover his HP with Ultimate Blood Flow and Life Domain, and increase his Defense and maximum HP with Mysticsteel Body.
As for fighting the Swift Demon Mantises or sending attacks their way, the thought never occurred to Feng.
Setting aside the enormous difference between them and Feng's inability to do much damage to those Tier 6 creatures, along with them being too fast for him to properly hit, taking out the mantises was pointless since if any of them were killed or rendered unable to continue chasing after the challenger, they'd be immediately replaced with another Swift Demon Mantis.
Thus, challengers could not get rid of them no matter how powerful they were, having no choice but to run from the Demonic Creatures and try to get Jinxed Orbs while somehow avoiding their lightning-fast attacks.
But Feng soon found himself unable to do so, being caught in a combination attack from all sides as the around twenty Swift Demon Mantises besieged him.
As their serrated claws were about to tear him into shreds, thick transparent branches suddenly shot out from Feng, striking each of the Demonic Creatures in the chest and pushing them back.
The Tier 5 Ghost Tree could not do much damage to these Tier 6 mantises as it emerged due to the tier difference despite how low the Swift Demon Mantises' Defense was for beings of their tier, so the ghostly summon was of no threat to them.
However, it did work to temporarily push them back in the surprise attack, forcing back the mantises as the Ghost Tree's long branches pushed it them nearly a hundred yards from Feng.
With a few swings from their sharp, jagged legs, though, the thick branches were instantly sliced apart, the Ghost Tree's usually impervious composition against physical attacks being useless in front of a Tier 6 being.
Immediately, the Swift Demon Mantises pounced at Feng once again.
Since the Ghost Tree could not do anything against the mantises, Feng had it retreat inside his soul, as although it was capable of moving through the air and flying around, the Ghost Tree's speed would not be able to keep up with how fast Feng and his pursuers were moving across the sky.
This way, Feng could bring the Ghost Tree along for the ride in case of emergencies, while staying on his soul would also keep Feng protected from the Tier 6 Demonic Creatures' attacks.
Tier 6 attacks were very dangerous to lower-tiered players' Immortal Souls, and even regular attacks with Tier 6 power could damage them.
Meanwhile, players killed by a Tier 6 attack wouldn't be able to log into the game for some time. Even if a Tier 6 attack didn't specifically target the soul, it would still cause significant damage to souls. Hence, players killed by Tier 6 attacks would get barred from the game for some time, and their souls would fall into a weakened state for five or six days afterward.
Even though Feng's soul was fairly strong normally thanks to the Full Blessing, Wraithwood Sigil's effects, and Soulharvest Synergy, it could still be severely damaged by Tier 6 attacks since he was still only Tier 1; especially when his soul was already being wreaked by the Power of Darkness from Moloch's Ring.
With the Ghost Tree tanking all the soul damage that came as a result of the Swift Demon Mantises' attacks, Feng no longer had to worry about his soul being damaged and just had to focus on his HP not bottoming out.
Which proved to be a problem as well since he was receiving more and more hits, unable to avoid the mantises' constant numerous attacks, while him clashing with their sharp forelegs caused Feng to get sent flying constantly as his HP plummeted even when Feng blocked with his skills to bridge the gap.
Less than a minute later, Feng was falling into predicaments more often, the Ghost Tree's occasional assistance not bearing any fruit. The Swift Demon Mantises had seen through that trick and instantly react to the branches now that they were ready, cutting up the spectral wood with their claws and doing large amounts of damage to the Ghost Tree.
The situation only got worse as Feng collected a few more Jinxed Orbs, the mantises becoming even faster while more of them arrived to surround and attack Feng.
Quickly finding himself unable to dodge or defend against all of the incoming attacks, Feng knew it was time to switch gears.
Mana inside his chestplate went berserk, the Blood Emperor's Armor exploding out into a bloody mist immediately after that expanded from Feng and collided with the Swift Demon Mantises' attacks.
Although limited by Feng's power, being a powerful skill from a Legendary item that did devastating damage increased from Feng's own power, Sanguine Annihilation could still push back the Tier 6 Demonic Creatures a bit, giving Feng enough room to weasel out of their entrapment and escape.
Unequipping the Legendary Chestplate whose color had dimmed, Feng's wings instantly emerged from his back, pulling away from the mantises' encirclement with a single flap.
At the same time, Feng switched out Mysticsteel Berserk for Power of Darkness, gaining another large boost to his speed that mostly made up for the attributes he previously received from the Blood Emperor's Armor.
Now freely soaring through the sky like a bird, Feng's flying speed while using his wings, which allowed him to use much more of his attributes due to their unique constitution and composition, was many times faster than before.
The Swift Demon Mantises could only keep up with him while going at their fastest speed, but remained unable to launch any attacks or be a threat thanks to Feng's senses, greatly superior techniques, and Chrono Ensnare slowing them down whenever his pursuers got too close.
This gap allowed Feng to move towards the nearby Jinxed Orbs without the mantises' interference slowing him down as much. His time has been rapidly decreasing while Feng was getting attacked by the Demonic Creatures, taking much longer to snatch up the golden orbs and falling into a loss of seconds that he was acquiring.
If his time continued to decline like this, Feng would soon run out and be forced to give up on gaining anything more from the Swift Fortuitous Death challenge.
By pulling away from the demon mantises, he could finally reclaim some of the minutes he had lost, Feng's flying speed being powered by his Twofold Berserk state with Power of Darkness, which he had swapped to after trying to hold on with the small boost of Mysticsteel Berserk for as long as possible in order to maximize his time in Twofold Berserk.
The Mysticsteel Pauldron's skill had bought him some time so that he could remain capable of running from the Swift Demon Mantises with his other Berserk Skills while the praying mantises still weren't too fast.
Soulharvest Synergy had been the main source of power as the Berserk Skill had empowered Feng after he sacrificed five Tier 5 souls, ten souls from Superior Mythic monsters with the power of World Bosses, and thirty-five Archaic Species Superior Mythic Guardian Bosses of various levels that Feng had obtained from Black Flame.
Having transfered those souls and some others between the Pandemonium Lashblades and Kill Collectors, including placing Lancelot's, the Moon-Howling Silver Wolf's, and Mechanical Slayer's in the soul storages, Feng had made room for and prepared fifty powerful souls to use for this trial in order to collect as many Jinxed Orbs as he could.
With the enormous boost to his entire being, Feng had been able to cope with the Swift Demon Mantises' relentless assault up until now even while only using Mysticsteel Berserk. But it was time to get serious, so Feng switched to Power of Darkness while unfurling his wings and quickly flying away from the Demonic Creatures.
Thanks to the advantages of his wings, Twofold Berserk, and Yog-Sothoth, Feng was quickly gaining more time and increasing the counter, managing to keep the trial going in a net positive as he collected the orbs faster than he was running out of time.
Capturing Jinxed Orbs faster than the clock was ticking, Feng obtained a large lead while remaining out of his pursuers' grasp, the mantises struggling to make any successful attempts at stopping Feng due to how slippery and fast he was.
Of course, that didn't last for long. After Feng picked up a considerable number of Jinxed Orbs, the Swift Demon Mantises' speed grew greater than his own, and their numbers increased as well, making it easier for the Demonic Creatures to intercept and slow Feng down.
His acquisition of the golden orbs dropped, and the more he collected, the worse it got.
Once the number of Swift Demon Mantises surpassed eighty-five, the situation became even more troublesome.
Yog-Sothoth could steal the speed from the creatures around itself and give it to the holder, so with each Tier 6 mantis that appeared, Feng's Movement Speed, Attack Speed, and Reaction Speed also grew. This included the following improvements his pursuers obtained for every Jinxed Orb that Feng grabbed.
Of the 1% increase that they obtained, 0.025% of that Movement Speed would be transferred to Feng, so the Swift Demon Mantises' speed would only grow by 0.975%. Although not a big difference, it slightly decreased the gap between them.
But it was when there was a large number of them that the broken sword's power truly shone, as their increase stayed the same, while Feng gained it from each of them.
When ten Swift Demon Mantises gained a 0.975% boost to their speed, Feng obtained a total of 0.25% of that speed. Thus, the more enemies chased after him, the more Feng benefited from it.
However, this had a limit. Yog-Sothoth could only steal the attributes of eighty-five beings within 75 yards of Feng. When all the slots were taken, Temporal Siphon gave Feng 2.125% of the increase the Swift Demon Mantises should be receiving; more than double the Movement Speed boost they were getting. This allowed him to stay ahead of the Tier 6 Demonic Creatures.
Once the 86th mantis appeared, though, it remained completely unaffected by the Destroyed Yog-Sothoth, moving at its true speed; a Tier 6 Swift Demon Mantis with an 85% increase in Agility.
Feng had to face an actual speed demon that moved faster than his body could react to.
Fortunately, Yog-Sothoth was not an item under Feng's control, and he was only using and being affected by its abilities, so the dilapidated sword automatically selected the eighty-five targets closest to the holder within the Passive Skill's range to steal the attributes from.
Whenever the mantis without its speed decreased approached Feng with its immense Movements Speed, it would instantly be switched to and become the new target; slowing down the Demonic Creature.
Naturally, this resulted in the Swift Demon Mantis farthest from Feng being released from Yog-Sothoth's effects, it turning incredibly fast and moving towards Feng, before once again getting slowed down while another gets released.
An odd scene of the mantises suddenly speeding up and getting close to Feng before slowing down, while another mantis immediately does the same, thus began to play out.
Upon the 87th Swift Demon Mantis emerging from the demonic gate, the change in speed started happening to two of the Demonic Creatures.
Even with them only getting a temporary boost while far away from him, it increased the pressure on Feng drastically since not all of them were moving at a speed he could keep up with, allowing the mantises to get ahead of him and launch many more attacks than before.
Furthermore, the problem only got worse with each Jinxed Orb he picked up, with Feng being forced to defend himself from the mantises' attacks and dodge their constant jabs.
Still, he was managing to collect some more orbs while running from the Demonic Creatures, relying on his increased attributes, wings, Falcon's Grace's effects, and Gale Domain whenever it was available to avoid getting caught in a pincer or instantly being shredded apart by the unaffected mantises' sharp forelegs.
Though, he could never distance himself from them too far, as the moment there were more than 75 yards between them, Feng's speed would decrease, while the Swift Demon Mantises would regain their stolen attributes.
This status quo continued for some time, leaving Feng in a predicament as he had an increasingly harder time getting Jinxed Orbs, two time limits ticking as his Twofold Berserk could not be kept up for too long, and his timer for the Swift Fortuitous Death challenge was running out.
---
The outer area of the Stoneclaw Mountains:
In a forested valley surrounded by mountains, lights from Spells, sparks, and Light Stones were visible in the vicinity.
Ever since Stone Forest Town opened to the public, the Stoneclaw Mountains had become the hunting grounds of expert teams. Even in the dead of night, the number of teams passionately grinding in the Regional Dungeon did not decrease in the slightest.
The various teams were grinding for Magic Crystals and equipment day in and day out.
Magic Crystal was the standard currency used at the Divine Colosseum. Since the Stoneclaw Mountains was a Level 30 to Level 49 Regional Dungeon, the equipment that the monsters inside dropped naturally ranged between Level 30 to Level 45. Moreover, the quality of the equipment dropped at the Stoneclaw Mountains was just slightly inferior to those dropped in large-scale Team Dungeons. Only, the amount of equipment that a Boss inside the Stoneclaw Mountains dropped each time was very small.
Now that Zero Wing had claimed the fame of clearing the Level 30, 100-man Hell Mode Team Dungeons, there was no longer any point in Guilds competing over the clears of other Level 30, 100-man Team Dungeons. Shifting their attention to competing over Team Dungeons that were over Level 30 which Zero Wing has yet to clear was more beneficial.
After all, reaching Level 30 was only a small milestone for players. There were still milestones at Level 40 and Level 50. Hundreds of Levels awaited them. The competition over Level 30 large-scale Team Dungeons was just the beginning.
Meanwhile, the Stoneclaw Mountains was the best location for training and preparing to compete for the First Clears of future large-scale Team Dungeons. Not only could they level up quickly at this place, but they could also gain a hefty amount of Magic Crystals. Most importantly, they could obtain a lot of high-level equipment here in short order.
Setting aside the fact that Team Dungeons in the outside world had Cooldown times, which greatly restricted the production volume of top-tier equipment, players also took time to adjust when switching from one Team Dungeon to another. Players would waste a lot of time when going through this transition. However, Regional Dungeons were different. These had no Cooldown time for entry. As long as one had sufficient strength, they could come here to grind for Level 30 or above top-tier equipment at any time. It was very efficient.
Guilds could build up a massive advantage for raiding 50-man and 100-man Team Dungeons in the future.
Precisely because of this reason, various large Guilds had frantically dispatched their members to the Stoneclaw Mountains.
"Boss, this Lord dropped something," the Star Alliance Assassin responsible for picking up the loot said excitedly.
Meanwhile, the Lord lying beside this Assassin was a Level 35 Half-orc over three meters tall. Scattered around this Half-orc were many Elite Half-orc and Special Elite Half-Orc corpses, their total number exceeding 100.
When Red Feather, who was resting underneath a large tree, heard the Assassin's words, joy surfaced on his face.
"Bring it here and let me take a look at it," Red Feather said hurriedly.
Although the Stoneclaw Mountains would drop plenty of Level 30 and above equipment, most of these were Level 30 Common Equipment.
"Boss, this is a Level 35 Fine-Gold longbow." The Assassin passed the weapon to Red Feather excitedly.
"It's a really good bow. It's slightly better than a Level 30 Dark-Gold longbow. Willow has lucked out this time. As long as she reaches Level 35, she can immediately replace her current weapon," Red Feather said enviously after appraising the Attributes of the longbow.
He and his team had been grinding in the Stoneclaw Mountains for quite some time now. However, the loot of the Bosses they killed was far from ideal. The majority of the Bosses dropped only Level 30 Secret-Silver and Fine-Gold Weapons and Equipment. Very rarely would they drop Level 35 Fine-Gold Weapons and Equipment.
"However, we wasted a lot of time on this battle. If not for the majority of our team's weapons being Fine-Gold rank, fighting these monsters might even have been dangerous." Red Feather still felt somewhat fearful when he thought back to the battle just now.
The monsters of the Stoneclaw Mountains were generally stronger than the monsters found outside. The Chieftains were only somewhat weaker than the Lords of the outside world. The Lords here were even more powerful; in terms of combat power, they could rival even the High Lords of the outside world. Only their HPs were at normal standards.
As for the Level 35 Lord ranked Half-orc their team faced just now, most of their melee weapons failed to even scratch the Lord. Only Fine-Gold Weapons or above could cut through the tough skin of the Half-orc Lord and chip away at its combat power.
In fact, Red Feather's team wasn't the only one experiencing such headaches. Any team that came to grind in the Stoneclaw Mountains found themselves facing similar problems. Every battle in the Regional Dungeon would greatly exhaust a team. Players who used Secret-Silver Weapons were even forced to use Whetstones to recover their weapon's Durability after fighting just one battle. Otherwise, their weapons were sure to break in the next engagement. As a result, the teams in the Stoneclaw Mountains could not fight continuously over long periods of time.
"Boss Red, Elder Purple Eye's team has encountered one Lord and six Chieftains. They are in urgent need of backup right now."
"Purple Eye's team is too unlucky to have actually encountered so many monsters. Everyone, follow me immediately."
Shortly after Red Feather's team began resting, Purple Eye, who was also one of the Star Alliance's top combatants, sent a request for help. Red Feather had no choice but to respond. Even if the standard of Purple Eye's team was very high, there was no way her 100-man team could take on the equivalent of one High Lord and six Lords of the outside world simultaneously. Not to mention, there should also be plenty of Elite and Special Elite monsters.
However, the problem plaguing the various teams was actually making the Candlelight Trading Firm in Stone Forest Town a fortune. Whether it was Whetstones or Advanced Whetstones, none of the Guilds had initially planned to purchase these items from the Candlelight Trading Firm. However, the consumption of these items was simply too voracious. Their own production was insufficient. Hence, the Guilds had no choice but to purchase these items from the Candlelight Trading Firm.
Due to this reason, the Candlelight Trading Firm based in Stone Forest Town was extremely busy since several hundred Whetstones might sell at any given minute.
---
Star-Moon City:
Currently, due to the Stoneclaw Mountains, a large number of players had gathered in Star-Moon City. Even White River City during its peak could not compete with the capital city's current crowd.
The players gathered in the city were not limited to the elites and experts of Star-Moon Kingdom. There were also players that had come from the Black Dragon Empire and the neighboring Kingdoms. The city's population increased by the minute. Players filled the city streets and even crowded Star-Moon City's normally desolate areas.
"Star-Moon City really is a great place. With so many elites and experts here, we wouldn't have to worry about not being able to recruit any players into our Guild." Flame Blood could not help his envy of Daybreak Fog when he saw that the majority of the players wandering the streets were Level 29. Many players had even reached Level 30 already.
Heaven's Burial's elite members were currently Level 28 or 29; very few had managed to reach Level 30. Yet, in Star-Moon City, there were so many high-level players. Daybreak Fog would have a much easier time nurturing her Branch's members than he would.
After Heaven's Burial fame had fallen into Zero Wing's shadow upon the mysterious guild sending its core members into the Trial Tower and repeatedly clearing high-ranking dungeons, it grew very difficult to recruit good players.
All the elite players with some skill were trying to get into Zero Wing without paying Heaven's Burial any mind, with only the players who had no chance of passing the entrance exam choosing to join other guilds.
This left their guild, which would have no problem recruiting experts under normal circumstances, to have a shortage of players since no one wanted to join due to being fixated on Zero Wing and its evident power, some even leaving Heaven's Burial to try their hand at joining Zero Wing; particularly in White River City as it's the place where Zero Wing mainly recruits and operates whereas other places could get by.
Fortunately, since Zero Wing wasn't letting just anyone join and had quotas for how many players it could recruit as it expanded in size, there were still leftovers for Heaven's Burial and other strong guilds to recruit.
Only they could survive in Star-Moon Kingdom's surprisingly intense environment while smaller guilds had long since been forced to disband, especially after what had happened at Stone Forest Town.
Thus Heaven's Burial continued existing and had some appeal after Zero Wing, especially upon the guild offering lucrative offers for its members as well as accomplishing plenty of achievements in the Kingdom that were simply overlooked due to Zero Wing's existence.
Not only had its fame spread throughout Star-Moon City, but some of the players in the Black Dragon Empire and the neighboring Kingdoms also knew about Heaven's Burial's success.
If Heaven's Burial recruited members in Star-Moon City now, it had a chance to obtain a considerable number of elite members. In a couple of days, the Guild could form an army to explore the Stoneclaw Mountains.
"This is only natural. Why else did you think Guild Leader chose this place?" Daybreak Fog silently replied with a gloomy expression. It shouldn't have been difficult to recruit many powerful players into Heaven's Burial and prepare for their work, but due to Zero Wing's fame, she was now having trouble drawing elites into the guild, even having to resort to giving multiple additional benefits to members.
Nonetheless, she could only work with the resources available to her and strengthen Heaven's Burial.
Daybreak Fog then pointed towards Ouroboros's Guild Residence, saying, "As long as we help Guild Leader complete his quest, even Ouroboros, with its recent development, will live in fear of our shadow."
"Are you sure? Ouroboros has grown exponentially these days. It seems to have allied with Zero Wing and was even allowed to have a Guild Residence in Stone Forest Town. I don't think taking Star-Moon City from Ouroboros will be that easy." Flame Blood couldn't help expressing his doubts.
There were no real competitors in Star-Moon City for Heaven's Burial aside from Ouroboros, with a large portion of the guilds that previously had a presence here having been forced to disband after the massacre at the Stoneclaw Mountains, whereas the rest had sustained heavy losses and would take a lot of time to recuperate.
Even the Star Alliance dared not raise its head in Star-Moon City anymore, leaving only Ouroboros and Heaven's Burial to fight each other over the city.
Outside of Zero Wing's overreaching presence, of course.
But that guild simply rules over the Star-Moon Kingdom without fighting with weaker guilds over the resources it wasn't interested in, so the two guilds competed over other things and controlling what's left of the capital's resources while Zero Wing didn't seem interested in snuffing them out.
Though, Ouroboros wasn't an easy opponent as its power had recently increased by leaps and bounds even after Cao Chenghua had weakened it due to Gentle Snow having allied with Black Flame and Zero Wing early on, turning it into a strong competitor for Heaven's Burial under the Snow Goddess's leadership.
Flame Blood didn't believe even Heaven's Burial could defeat it as easily as Daybreak Fog was claiming considering the circumstances.
"We don't have to pay too much attention to this matter right now. We've already recruited a decent enough number of elite players. Now, we need to improve everyone's levels and equipment quickly and prepare to complete the task Guild Leader has assigned to us. When Guild Leader completes his quest, Heaven's Burial will become Star-Moon City's overlord." Daybreak Fog didn't seem to share the same sentiment as Flame Blood over Ouroboros, remaining unconcerned with a flash of confidence in her eyes as she looked outside at the busy streets of the city.
No ordinary NPC City could compete with Star-Moon City.
In games, players competed with each other via resources.
Meanwhile, the resources available in God's Domain's various regions were limited.
As the capital city of a Kingdom, Star-Moon City naturally offered more resources than any other city in the Kingdom. The City also offered a more convenient transportation system. Visiting players from other Kingdoms and Empires who wished to explore Star-Moon Kingdom could only teleport to one city–Star-Moon City. Only after teleporting to Star-Moon City could they teleport to the other cities in Star-Moon Kingdom.
This alone was enough to allow Star-Moon City to stand above its competitors in the Kingdom. Not to mention, Star-Moon City had far more high-level maps and Dungeons within its region.
"Forget it. Guild Leader has already declared that our true focus is the Stoneclaw Mountains. As for the matters, leave them to Elder Seven Treasures."
"What is it that requires all of us to head there? Aren't the Stoneclaw Mountains just a place to grind for Magic Crystals?" Flame Blood asked, confused.
These players gathered here were the strongest combatants within the Guild. It would not be wise to station them all in the Stoneclaw Mountains.
"Haven't you ever wondered how the Stoneclaw Mountains activated?" Daybreak Fog laughed.
"I have no clue. Does Guild Leader know?" Flame Blood shook his head and asked.
"Not only does he know about it, but Guild Leader is responsible for activating the Stoneclaw Mountains." When Daybreak Fog spoke about Heaven's Burial's Guild Leader, Singular Burial, adulation filled her voice. She had left the Super Guild she had been apart of and joined Heaven's Burial without hesitation because of this man. Meanwhile, Singular Burial had personally dragged the Stoneclaw Mountains that every Guild in Star-Moon Kingdom fought over into existence.
Flame Blood and the others were astonished. They were unable to regain their wits for quite some time.
At this point in time, the Stoneclaw Mountains had affected players throughout Star-Moon Kingdom, as well as the Black Dragon Empire and several other neighboring Kingdoms and Empires. Its influence transcended any single event that had occurred in God's Domain so far.
"It can't be, right?"
"As expected of our Guild Leader. He has actually managed such a feat."
Everyone could not contain their excitement.
"Activating the Stoneclaw Mountains is merely one part of a quest. The follow-up quests are inside the Stoneclaw Mountains. As long as we complete this quest, Star-Moon City will fall under our control. Hence, this matter takes precedence over everything else," Daybreak Fog said sternly, her tone hinting that she would not take no for an answer.
"Since that is the case, let's prepare to head over there immediately." Flame Blood fully agreed with Daybreak Fog's words. If they could obtain Star-Moon City for themselves, it would become somewhat easier to expand their influence throughout Star-Moon Kingdom.
---
Meanwhile, inside Twilight Echo's Guild Residence...
Despite being a veteran First-rate Guild, Twilight Echo was in a state of turmoil.
Initially, they had not particularly cared about Zero Wing. After all, it was simply a farce Aqua Rose had concocted. Now, however, the situation had changed.
The Zero Wing that Aqua Rose currently occupied had claimed the First Clear of many 100-man Hell Mode Team Dungeons, an achievement even Super Guilds lacked, and the guild possessed enormous amounts of wealth in both Gold Coins and Magic Crystals. This went to show that Zero Wing's power was extraordinary.
Furthermore, the members of Zero Wing possessed heaven-defying strength, easily combating the Dragon-Phoenix Pavilion's Blood Legion and War Dragon Legion, and apparently striking fear into the hearts of Super Guilds for some reason going by their reactions and caution towards the mysterious guild.
Although Twilight Echo's information on the Realms of Refinement was surface level at best, the upper echelons merely knowing about the realms' existence without any of its members having set foot into the rumored combat standard, they had heard that several of Zero Wing's members had reached such a realm of strength.
It was obvious that the guild had built up a considerable amount of strength.
However, nobody among Twilight Echo' upper echelon believed that Black Flame was the one responsible for such a powerful team. After all, before God's Domain, nobody in the virtual gaming world had ever heard of him. The only possibility their ignorant minds could come to was that Aqua Rose was responsible for the guild's creation.
"I told you that Aqua Rose possessed immense potential, yet you were adamant about chasing her out of Twilight Echo. If Aqua Rose were still with us, given the Guild's background, we would have become the next Super-first-rate Guild by now. Tell me, then. What should we do now?" a middle-aged man with a righteous air huffed angrily.
"Elder True Martial, there is no need to get so agitated. We were left with no other choice. After all, her parents made the decision. It wouldn't be right to meddle with their family affairs," a lady nearing her forties assuaged. "However, now that everyone has seen what that child is capable of, I believe that everyone present understands what this means. This farce has gone on for long enough. It's time that we bring that child back to us."
At the Twilight Echo's Elder meeting, Brilliant Wargod was livid.
He had never expected Aqua Rose to be so capable. She had actually managed to develop a small Guild into a large Guild that even Twilight Echo could not ignore. Listening to the Elders' intentions, he realized that he could never coerce Aqua Rose in the future.
"Guild Leader Glorious, what is your will?" Elder True Martial asked coldly as he turned to Glorious Echo, who sat comfortably on the Guild Leader's throne.
Back then, Glorious Echo had strongly advocated stripping Aqua Rose of her position as an Honorary Elder. Now, however, Aqua Rose's strength was clear for all to see. Twilight Echo was not a one-man Guild. If Glorious Echo continued to hinder Aqua Rose's return to the Guild, he would make an enemy of every Elder in the Guild.
Glorious Echo, who had held his silence through the meeting, smiled and responded indifferently, "Since everyone has decided, I will not object. However..."
---
Zero Wing's influence spread across the entirety of God's Domain, changing dynamics and pushing many guilds to progress more, causing several developments to occur.
The most popular matter had to be the activation of the Divine Battlefield at the Divine Colosseum.
The Divine Battlefield was a place for players to wage war against each other. Players could obtain points for killing other players in the Divine Battlefield, which they could then use to exchange for rewards.
A wide selection of rewards was available, although the most attractive rewards were still weapons and equipment. The best reward players could trade for was Dark-Gold Set Equipment. However, the number of points required to do so was immense. Moreover, the weapons and equipment received were nontradable and were usable for only the person who exchanged for them. Hence, even if the items dropped upon the owner's death, other people could not avail of said items, though they could sell them to NPCs—at dismal prices.
To exchange for Dark-Gold Set Equipment, players were first required to reach the highest-ranking battlefield. The Divine Battlefield was divided into multiple ranks—Soldier's Battlefield, General's Battlefield, Marshal's Battlefield, King's Battlefield, and Hero's Battlefield—with each succeeding rank having increasingly higher entry requirements.
Only after reaching the Hero's Battlefield could players collect points to exchange for Dark-Gold Set Equipment.
However, this was also a good way for experts to upgrade their equipment. After all, even Guilds had a hard time obtaining Dark-Gold Weapons and Equipment.
Hence, everyone's passion for the Divine Battlefield deepened.
When various experts from the Star-Moon Kingdom, including Zero Wing's Dark God Legion members, and players of other Kingdoms participated in the Divine Battlefield, they would occasionally get slaughtered. The players visiting the Divine Battlefield did not come from just a single Kingdom or Empire. Instead, the entire God's Domain shared a single Divine Battlefield. Against monstrous experts or the encirclement of three or four top-tier experts, even many experts who previously prided themselves on their strength could only accept fate.
This experience also allowed Zero Wing's elite members and the others to realize that, no matter how strong they had become, there was always someone stronger than they were. Even if they ranked at the top of a weak, little Kingdom like Star-Moon Kingdom, they were still insignificant beings in the vast world of God's Domain.
However, it also showed them how powerful Zero Wing's core members were, as the experts of their guild had displayed strength far above what the experts in the Divine Battlefield had destroyed them with, making it clear to Zero Wing's members that the power their guild possessed was far greater than what they had previously thought.
This realization further ignited the will in their hearts to stay in Zero Wing and grow stronger, hoping to impress the upper echelons and qualify for the rumored Special Training.
Meanwhile, the situation at the Stoneclaw Mountains was also heating up. Many teams had already begun clearing the monsters wandering in between the outer and inner areas of the Dungeon, and upgrading their equipment very quickly as a result.
Zero Wing was also sending large numbers of elite and regular members to the Regional Dungeon to grind and level up, being left to their own devices by the restored members in order to grow stronger.
For a time, competition within the Stoneclaw Mountains rapidly intensified, and quite often, friction and fighting would break out between players in the Dungeon.
With the passage of time and the continuous improvement of the system, many more experts would emerge in God's Domain, allowing Zero Wing to scope them out for former members or potential talents.
Though, the guild's Guild Leader was far too busy to concern himself with that, having already landed in a dangerous predicament.
---
Shooting through the air like a bullet and smashing into one of the many floating islands, Feng instantly pushed off the ground and flapped his wings, flying off at a high speed.
Before he could even get far, though, a mantis with pitch-black scales covering its body appeared next to Feng, its dark purple eyes brimming with killing intent as its jagged claw sliced at Feng's back.
Blocking the blow with his sword in the nick of time, Feng was once again sent flying by the force behind the Swift Demon Mantis's attack, not even being able to stabilize his body from the enormous power contained within the Tier 6 Demonic Creature's forelegs.
As Feng frantically flapped his wings in order to steady himself in midair, two more mantises appeared next to him, cutting at his neck with their razor sharp claws.
The attacks were too fast to dodge or block, making Feng unable to react in time even with Chrono Ensnare slowing down their forelegs until it was already too late, their death traps clipping down on Feng from both sides.
Instead of turning Feng into minced meat, though, the black claws scraped against the golden barrier around Feng, creating sparks as their attacks failed to cut apart Absolute Domain.
Regardless of being blocked by the skill, the power behind the mantises' attacks still bashed against Feng and sent him flying, only for another Swift Demon Mantis to reach his back and strike at Feng, smacking the Swordsman in another direction without him being able to do anything about it.
Despite his strength, Feng couldn't resist the Demonic Creatures' devastating onslaught as they bounced him around between each other like a ping-pong ball, purely relying on the Tier 5 Absolute Domain to keep him alive.
However, that wouldn't last for long, since regardless of how strong the skill from the Seven Luminaries Ring's Aura of Earth had become after being upgraded to Tier 5, there was a limit to the amount of beating it could withstand.
No number of Tier 5 attacks could break Absolute Domain, and it was even capable of enduring blows possessing Tier 6 power to a great extent, but the Tier 6 Swift Demon Mantises were repeatedly bashing their attacks on the golden barrier, continuous cuts and slashes with Tier 6 Basic and Intermediate power, while some of their skills reached the Tier 6 Advanced standard.
Furthermore, this was done at a nonstop pace, with sometimes several attacks striking Absolute Domain every second by one mantis, much more when the over one hundred Swift Demon Mantises were constantly attacking Feng.
It was bound to cave in eventually. Thus, it was only a matter of time before Absolute Domain could not protect him anymore.
This was the absurdity of the Swift Fortuitous Death challenge, Tier 6 incredibly fast Demonic Creatures hunting the challenger without break and continuously attacking as they grew stronger and more numerous, while regardless of how strong a person was they wouldn't be able to do anything about the pursuers, fighting against the Swift Demon Mantises being pointless since any they kill and take out of the chase would be immediately replaced.
Under normal circumstances, anyone below Tier 6 would just be courting death by attempting the challenge.
Feng, although a Tier 1 player, had the attributes of Tier 5 players who possessed Legendary equipment, along with a Physique that was a bit lacking behind, and even if he could not fully utilize them, when it came to running, Feng was not much worse than an actual Tier 5 expert.
He only lacked things like Tier 4 and Tier 5 skills, and utilization of Mana, which, in this instance, would not be of too much help while trying to escape the Tier 6 Swift Demon Mantises.
On the other hand, Feng was carrying the Destroyed Yog-Sothoth with him, which decreased the mantises' speed while empowering him to go faster. Moreover, the Swift Fortuitous Death challenge is currently at the starting stage and was only beginning since Feng was the first one to enter it, meaning that he is now up against the lowest difficulty possible.
When future challengers attempt the trial, they'll start off with the number and speed of Swift Demon Mantises that the previous challenger ended with, so achieving literally anything in the Swift Fortuitous Death challenge will be hundreds of times more difficult for the next person.
Hence, Feng currently wasn't facing even 20% of the challenge's true difficulty.
Yet he had been rendered practically helpless against the Demonic Creatures pursuing him and got close to dying several times, the Invincibility Skill keeping him alive at the moment, making it possible for Feng to continue when he would normally have been killed.
Though, Feng was actually having it very easy.
In truth, the Swift Fortuitous Death challenge, along with the trials of the other Inferior Legendary and Legendary Shrines, as well as the higher Shrines on the Divine Staircase, were currently not nearly as difficult as they should be, as these were intended to be challenged by higher-tiered players later on once more system updates had progressed God's Domain's development.
As the game evolved, NPCs and monsters would become much more intelligent, with their combat standards rising exponentially with each upgrade to the system, resulting in players having a much harder time combating them.
This especially went for high-ranking monsters.
Although high-tiered NPCs like Serena possess quite a developed intelligence that surpasses that of some players even now, and monsters among high ranks were very intelligent as well, it was still nothing compared to what they'll become like later on.
The Swift Demon Mantises may be Tier 6 beings, but they were still just monsters, and at this stage of the game, their intelligence and combat standards weren't all that high.
They still surpassed regular experts when it came to their abilities, which made them incredibly powerful when coupled with the Demonic Creatures' immense strength.
To Feng, who was a Half-step Beyond Domain Realm expert that was used to fighting Tier 6 monsters with combat standards equal to Domain Realm experts and facing beings with combat standards surpassing his own, though, this was nothing.
He had an enormous advantage that the Swift Demon Mantises were only now managing to bridge with absolute power.
If he were to attempt the Swift Fortuitous Death challenge with his current strength a few more system updates or a major system update later, Feng would struggle to survive against even a few Tier 6 Swift Demon Mantises, and there'd be no shot of him making it this far. The mantises would have ripped him apart long before Feng even collected twenty Jinxed Orbs.
Still, he was currently reaching his limit, the difference in attributes not being something even his combat standards and Yog-Sothoth could keep him afloat against for much longer.
The time remaining he had in the challenge, as well as the durations of both Absolute Domain and Heavenly Dragon's Power that was currently boosting his attributes, was running thin, so Feng will get nowhere if the situation does not change.
When he saw an opportunity appear while most of the mantises were gathered around him, Feng used Divine Steps to create doppelgangers across the area and immediately switched with the farthest one over 10,000 yards away.
Using the time before the Swift Demon Mantises reached his new location, the giant pair of wings retreated into his back, and Feng equipped the Blood Emperor's Armor. The Legendary Chesplate then transformed into a full suit of red armor.
Releasing the wings once again, the elastic blood armor changed shape to accommodate Feng's back appendages, allowing Feng to freely flap them as he quickly flew away in the opposite direction of where the mantises were.
With the increased speed from both the Blood Emperor's Armor and his strongest Berserk Skill, Feng soared through the sky far faster than before.
Despite that, the Swift Demon Mantises only took a few moments to catch up to him even with his improved flying speed and the 10,000-yard head start, slicing at him with their sharp claws.
There was no golden barrier that the attacks collided with this time, their forelegs cutting down directly on Feng.
However, there was no reaction. The attacks carrying Tier 6 power did not make Feng even flinch or disturb his flight.
No matter how much the Tier 6 Demonic Creatures slashed Feng, even trying to cut apart his wings, they didn't seem to be doing any damage, with the power behind their strikes simply disappearing whenever they landed on his body.
Unable to stop the challenger from doing anything despite all their relentless attempts, the Swift Demon mantises could only continue the onslaught and watch as Feng flew around collecting Jinxed Orbs.
Undisturbed by the demonic bugs zooming by around him, Feng moved through the air as fast as he could, grabbing all the golden orbs he could reach and quickly bringing up his declining timer that had been close to reaching zero.
Imperial Ascendance made it easy for Feng to move through the inner world of the Legendary Shrine at a fast speed that allowed him to collect Jinxed Orbs more than he was losing time on the challenge, once again going back to being safe as the Swift Demon Mantises could do nothing during Gloomsong Glade's duration; all their attacks being neutralized and absorbed by the OP skill.
Feng spent the one minute and ten seconds of the improved invincibility time gathering as many orbs as he could reach for this final sprint, collecting another fifteen or so Jinxed Orbs and buying himself more time in the challenge as a result.
When the duration of Gloomsong Glade was about to end, Feng no longer having the option to simply ignore the Swift Demon Mantises' continuous attacks and pick up Jinxed Orbs, the Swordsman maneuvered past the mantises attempting to block his way and turned around.
The Abyssal Blade erupted with a holy golden glow as the pressure radiated by the Magic Weapon intensified, a seemingly incredible amount of power welling up inside it. In the next moment, Feng slashed at the grouped-up mantises, creating a brilliant light that filled the sky and erased the space in front of him.
Worldly Purification!
Gloomsong Glade, release!
All the blows containing Tier 6 power that the Swift Demon Mantises had been dishing out at Feng for the past minute and ten seconds were thrown right back at the horde combined all at once, along with Feng using his strongest skill boosted to the Tier 5 Intermediate standard by the Swordsmanship Great Grandmaster Title.
Although a skill of such a low caliber was nothing to the Tier 6 beings, Feng had mainly used Worldly Purification to fill the attack with purification power, which would do incredible damage to all Demonic Creatures regardless of tier, so even the Tier 6 Swift Demon Mantises would suffer under the holy power.
As expected, all the mantises had received large amounts of damage, the attack having erased the space around them and turned the entire area caught within Glomsong Glade's release into an empty void, causing many of the Swift Demon Mantises near the front to become injured and lose nearly 50% of their HPs.
The ones that had taken the brunt of Feng's attack had even fallen into a Heavily Weakened state and lost over 70% of their HP.
It was a shame Feng couldn't utilize Gloomsong Glade's full potential, only being able to barbarically throw out the force it had absorbed inside instead of making it his own and properly utilizing it for a devastating attack. If Feng could have done so, his attack would have instantly wiped out all the Swift Demon Mantises.
Either way, though, it wouldn't have amounted to much in this instance.
Each of the mantises that had been injured and had their combat power decreased suddenly began to turn into a black mist that flew back to the demonic gate, while dozens of black shadows shot out of it once again and chased after Feng; new Swift Demon Mantises having been immediately spawned in to replace the weakened ones.
Naturally, Feng wasn't standing around and waiting for them to join the party.
In reality, he had immediately turned around after throwing out the attack and rushed away from the shattered space, not even bothering to glance at the destruction he had caused or wait for other mantises to arrive.
Without Gloomsong Glade protecting him anymore, though, Feng was at the Swift Demon Mantises' mercy with no Invincibility Skill to keep him invulnerable to their attacks.
Hence, Feng could not afford to hold back in the least, choosing to use the skills that he had been keeping in reserve all this time for the final march due to their long cooldowns.
Utilizing everything that he had available, Feng managed to survive for a while longer with the skills and his increased power after re-equipping the Legendary Chesplate and activating Imperial Ascendance.
Doing his best to dodge and block all the attacks Feng could, relying on Internal Shock, Decomposition Flowoff, and Destruction Soul Flames to somewhat offset the insurmountable difference in attributes, while minimizing the damage he took with Mysticsteel Body and Void Shield, along with keeping his HP from bottoming out with Life Domain and Ultimate Blood Flow, as well as utilizing his other powerful skills like Drago Buster and Dragon Dive where he could, Feng somehow managed to keep moving under the relentless pursuit; even succeeding in grabbing a few more Jinxed Orbs during that time.
The Swift Demon Mantises had grown far too fast by now, and were quite numerous. Feng could hardly keep up with their speed anymore, which made counting the correct number of mantises difficult with how much they were zipping around. However, Feng's general estimate was that there were nearly two hundred of the Tier 6 Demonic Creatures currently chasing after him.
He also took that as a sign that this was about his current limit.
After around two minutes, while avoiding the mantises' countless attempts to end his life, Feng approached another floating golden orb. Just as he was around ten yards from it, the Jinxed Orb flickered and transformed into golden particles, disappearing from the Legendary Shrine's world.
At the same time, all the other Jinxed Orbs across the land flickered and disappeared as well. Glancing at his timer, Feng saw that it had dropped to zero, signaling that his time in the Swift Fortuitous Challenge was up.
It was no longer possible to collect Jinxed Orbs after one's time ran out, so the challenger's only option was to leave.
And that's where the truly hard part came in. Escaping back to the starting island alive.
The challenge wasn't so simple that someone could just walk in, run around for a while, grab Jinxed Orbs, and then leave. Challengers still had to face off against the Swift Demon Mantises that they had built up during the challenge and return with the orbs.
Otherwise, if they died, everything that they had gained would be lost, whereas the difficulty would not be reset to how it was before they came along.
Meanwhile, the Swift Demon Mantises become aware of the development as soon as the timer hits zero, and they instantly switch from simply trying to kill the challenger to also making sure that they don't get back to the starting island.
This usually wasn't too big of a problem to powerful Tier 6 players who could fight and kill the Demonic Creatures, but it was practically a death sentence for Feng.
The only reason he could survive for so long was the mantises' sole focus on killing him without bothering to predict that he was going towards Jinxed Orbs and blocking them off due to their low intelligence.
Now that they actually have a feature that made them want to stop him from going somewhere, Feng would be screwed. Thankfully, he had prepared for this exact problem in advance.
Without hesitation, Feng turned in the direction of the starting island and directly flew towards it in a straight line.
Unsurprisingly, the mantises reached him in the blink of an eye and slashed their claws at Feng, their jagged forelegs biting down onto his head and splitting it apart.
The top half of Feng's head was instantly separated from the rest of his body, which would normally result in death for living creatures.
However, instead of dying, Feng's sliced-off body part simply turned into gray particles that floated back to the rest of his body and merged with the lower half, before going back to normal as if nothing happened, with Feng continuing to fly at a fast speed without any interruption or disturbance.
Even the Swift Demon mantises could not help but pause at the scene, not expecting this human to not die after such an injury.
Snapping out of it, the Demonic Creatures continued attacking and cutting Feng apart, decapitating him and severing his body into multiple parts.
Nothing seemed to stop his advance, though, the removed body parts simply turning into ash-gray particles that fused together to reform Feng in his complete state. Even when the mantises cut off Feng's wings to stop him, it only served to temporarily halt his advance before the wings did the same thing and stitched themselves back onto Feng.
Having gained the Ash Composition under the Ash Body skill's effects, Feng's entire body could transform into ash that comes back to a single point, allowing his body to be recreated no matter how much it was damaged or ripped apart.
He was immune to all forms of damage during this time, even soul damage to a great extent, so Feng was basically invincible. Of course, as with all things in God's Domain, there was a limit to the amount of damage his body would reform from while possessing the Ash Composition, and if it was entirely destroyed and reduced to dust, Feng would still die.
Thankfully, Feng's current opponents did not wield such power, so there was no risk of him dying while Ash Body was active.
It was an incredible skill that Feng had saved for the end when he needed to escape back to the starting point, not wanting to use it beforehand for the purpose of collecting more Jinxed Orbs; choosing to completely rely on it instead of his other three Invincibility Skills.
When it came to Fortress, setting aside the unlikeliness of it being able to endure a blow carrying Tier 6 power, Feng would not be able to move under its effects, so it was effectively useless in this situation.
Although both Absolute Domain and Gloomsong Glade could protect him against the Tier 6 Swift Demon Mantises, they weren't suitable for Feng's needs while running to a destination.
Under Absolute Domain's defense, the skill would only stop attacks from doing damage to him, but the force behind them would still send Feng flying like before when the Demonic Creatures were tossing him around. There'd be no point in using it if he was just going to get smacked even further away from his goal.
While Gloomsong Glade did not share this trait and would fully absorb any impact that landed on Feng, that was it, and the skill did not give him the ability to get past the mantises' blockade.
If the Swift Demon mantises were to gather around Feng and enclose him completely to use their bodies as shields and living baracades, Feng would not be able to do anything since he certainly did not possess the power to force his way out, so getting past them or onto the starting island would be impossible if they were to use this method to surround its perimeter.
Ash Body, on the other hand, allows Feng to fully transform into particles that could move past any physical object with gaps, making it possible for Feng to get past anything the mantises attempt.
Hence, even though powerful, the Wraithwood Sigil's skill was much more suitable in ignoring all the incoming attacks while freely picking up as many Jinxed Orbs as possible before throwing out a powerful distraction, whereas Ash Body was more useful for making an escape under the Demonic Creature's attempts to stop him.
Though, the Ash Composition had a major flaw in this scenario, which the Swift Demon Mantises did not fail to notice or immediately exploit.
Regardless of Feng being able to have his body reconstructed during Ash Body's activation, once it was cut up into several parts, Feng's body would not be able to move or fly.
After all, his legs couldn't walk and his wings couldn't flap if they weren't connected to the rest of his body.
The ash particles' gathering was quite quick so it normally wouldn't be a problem, but Feng was currently surrounded from all sides by Tier 6 speed demons with an incredibly high Attack Speed, so the Swift Demon Mantises were just continuously slashing apart his body without giving it time to fully come together or move.
This rendered Feng completely immobile and helpless, unable to do anything as the mantises simply continued cutting him into pieces.
If the situation did not change, the demonic bugs could simply stall Feng like this until Ash Body's duration ran out, which would result in Feng instantly dying.
Suddenly, however, each of the separated pieces and ash particles exploded with movement, all of them moving through the air in the same direction.
The mantises flew after them, attempting to further slice up the parts, but they all agilely changed movement patterns and slithered past the Demonic Creatures, coming together and reforming Feng's body.
With the bigger and more predictable target, the Swift Demon Mantises' attacks now landed, once again cutting Feng up, but his severed body parts continued cruising through the air on their own as they merged back together from the ash.
Despite being separated, under the Ash Composition's effects, Feng's consciousness was within all of the ash regardless of its distance from the rest of the body or other parts, and each of the particles counted as his body.
Thus, skills that would normally affect a player's normal body in its complete state had their effects operating on each of the particles all the same.
Feng's separated body parts could hence freely fly around through the air under Feng's control while Gale Domain was activated, each of them moving exactly same as if it was Feng's whole body flying around, allowing Feng to move even when he was shredded to bits and escape the mantises' dirty abuse of his weakness.
Still, the Swift Demon Mantises did not give up in their attempts, chasing after Feng and repeatedly cutting him into pieces, which indeed served to slow Feng down and waste the duration of his skills. At this rate, without being able to fly freely with his wings, there was no way Feng would be able to reach the starting island during Gale Domain's or Ash Body's duration.
Bang!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Bang! Bang!
Bang!
Bang! Bang!
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Bang!
Numerous thuds suddenly began to echo out. As if a bunch of bugs crashing into a windshield, the Swift Demon Mantises, which had been frivolously chasing after Feng without paying too much attention to their surroundings, smashed into one of the floating islands.
Meanwhile, Feng's ash body parts, which had just been in front of them, were nowhere to be seen.
On the other side of the island, ash particles flew out of the solid rock a moment later, coming together and reforming Feng, who immediately flapped his two pairs of wings and flew forward.
The Swift Demon Mantises, being able to detect Feng's presence at all times, immediately noticed where he was now and chased after, quickly reaching Feng's location and cutting him up.
But as the individual ash parts flew around, they approached another floating island and seemingly phased through it, whereas the mantises crashed into the solid stone and had to go around the large island in order to continue flying after Feng.
His ash particles had immediately come together, Feng becoming whole and hastily moving on his path while making a slight change as he approached another island that was close by.
Just as the mantises neared him and were almost within range to strike, Feng reached the floating island and dove right in, going through the solid rock, and coming out on the other side half a second later.
Similarly to Gale Domain, Ethereality affected Feng's entire body, so each of the ash particles had gained an incorporeal trait that allowed them to pass through physical objects.
The skill should make Feng enter a ghostly state that caused all physical attacks to go through him as well, meaning that the Swift Demon Mantises' claws should be harmlessly entering and exiting Feng's incorporeal body without doing any damage.
However, due to them being Tier 6 creatures, the simple nature of their attacks that carried such a standard of power would be enough to have an effect on Feng regardless of his non-physical form, and their Mana boosted it even further.
Hence, the Demonic Creatures were still capable of doing damage to him, which was why Feng hadn't bothered to use Ethereality before this. But now the skill served a great purpose, making it possible for Feng to go through physical objects and easily fly through the floating islands in order to escape the Swift Demon Mantises' nonstop onslaught.
By using the environment of the Legendary Shrine's inner world, Feng was managing to move much more freely and fly towards the starting island with faster progress, no longer constantly being disrupted by the mantises.
Feng's pursuers had trouble slowing him down like before, having to take longer and unexpected routes while trying to keep up with Feng's movements that paid no heed to the physical obstacles, which resulted in them lagging behind.
They showed no signs of giving up, though. But Feng soon noticed that there weren't as many mantises chasing him as before, only a few dozen still coming after Feng and slowing him down a bit.
Their sudden change in action soon became obvious, if it wasn't already, as when Feng got within sight of the starting island, he saw the nearly two hundred Swift Demon Mantises gathered in front of the finish flag.
Feng's presence immediately received the mantises' undivided attention, their heads turning towards him as the demonic bugs released ear-piercing screeches.
Flying towards them without any fear or hesitation, Feng expected the Swift Demon Mantises to group up together and charge at him in an attempt to stop his advance by slicing him apart.
The Demonic Creatures did not move like he predicted, though. In fact, most of them stayed still, with only three mantises stepping forward in midair and raising their forelegs above their heads.
All three of them simultaneously swung their claws forward in Feng's direction, causing the air and space to ripple in the area before the mantises, seemingly folding in on itself as a powerful force swept across the area between the mantises and Feng, reaching him in an instant.
Tier 6 Skill, Turbowind Conlastation! x3
Feng's body exploded into ash, with all the particles being dispersed by the force and blown hundreds of yards away. The Swift Demon Mantises were merciless, combining their strongest skill and attacking Feng together in an attempt to keep him away from the island.
The ash particles even struggled to come back together, taking several seconds for all of them to gather and for Feng to be reformed, his expression now grave.
Charging forward again, another combination of three Turbowind Conlastations came at Feng, who attempted to use Shockwave and Thunder Flame Explosion to decrease its power, only to end up getting demolished once again and be forced away by over a hundred more yards from his goal.
Even when combined, the Tier 6 skill was of no threat to Feng's life. Even if all the mantises used it at once, they wouldn't be able to kill him while Ash Body was active, and it would only serve to slow down Feng's advance.
However, that was exactly the Swift Demon Mantises' intent to begin with.
Just three of them using Turbowind Conlastation was enough to disrupt Feng's charge for several seconds, so if the Demonic Creatures chained the Tier 6 skill one after the other whenever Feng came back, they'd be able to stall him for several minutes.
This would be more than enough for them to simply wait out Ash Body's duration, at which point Feng would be instantly killed. Though, Feng's chances of getting past them would drop to zero much sooner as Imperial Ascendance would only last for another minute or so before ending.
Without the Berserk Skill boosting his attributes, Feng would have no hope of making it past the checkpoint while getting body blocked by the Swift Demon Mantises.
Feng was not willing to see that, so the moment his body was reconstructed with the ash particles, he activated Blade Liberation. Feng's aura skyrocketed, and he made a mad dash towards the starting island while trying to avoid the enormous range of the space-breaking skill, using anything he had at his disposal in order to break through.
It was, unfortunately, all for naught, though.
To begin with, Turbowind Conlastation was a Tier 6 AoE skill, so the area it covered was huge. When three were combined, it practically made it impossible for someone to get out of range in time before the quick invisible force reached them nearly instantly upon the skills' activation.
Even if Feng somehow succeeded in dodging the combined skills, a second wave awaited him immediately after, making it impossible for Feng to get anywhere near the floating island; never managing to even approach within fifty yards of it.
No matter how he attempted to get close or circle to another side of the starting island, all his efforts would be snuffed out by the Swift Demon Mantises.
Additionally, the mantises which had used up their Turbowind Conlastation did not all stay with the horde, some flying out to Feng and further increasing the pressure on him by attacking from up close, allowing themselves to get hit by the incoming Tier 6 Skills without hesitation as they tried to hamper the challenger's movements.
This made it all the more difficult for Feng to do anything; everything he tried being in vain as the time slowly ran out while he got no closer to getting through.
Furthermore, Turbowind Conlastation would also decrease the Movement Speed, Attack Speed, and Defense of everything that gets caught within its range by some amount for the duration of the Swift Fortuitous Death challenge, so Feng grew slower with every wave of the skills. [1]
When only a few seconds of Blade Liberation remained, Feng finally found his opportunity, 36 doppelgangers appearing around the island and Feng changing places with one instantaneously before moving forward.
He had previously used Divine Steps moments before switching to Imperial Ascendance and starting his final march.
The skill's five-minute cooldown had finally ended with only a few seconds of his Threefold Berserk state remaining, so Feng immediately used it to create numerous doppelgangers and get close to the floating island using them.
Beyond his expectations, though, the system prevented any skills from being used within the area of the island, making it impossible for Feng to get directly on it by switching places with one of the doppelganers.
His only option was to create doppelgangers within a five-yard radius of the starting island, which was as close as the system would allow it, and get past the mantises guarding the finish line.
Non coincidently, Feng had positioned himself on the complete opposite side of the finish line which he needed to cross in order to finish the challenge, making it so that the majority of Swift Demon Mantises were as far as possible from him.
Only a few Demonic Creatures still remained in front of the checkered flag, the mantises having spread themselves around the entire island in order to prevent Feng from instantly getting on it using a method like the one he was currently employing.
The moment these mantises sensed Feng's presence, they instantly raised their forelegs and slashed forward, activating Turbowind Conlastation much faster than he could close the distance. If the turbulence of the Tier 6 skill reached Feng now, he'd get sent flying away and dash his last hopes of victory.
Instant Strike!
Using the Tier 2 Taboo Skill that he has been saving all this time, Feng appeared behind one of the Swift Demon Mantises, but instead of attacking his target as the skill was supposed to be used, Feng immediately dashed through the finish flag which the mantis was standing just one yard in front of.
Reacting instantly to the development, the Tier 6 demon mantis slashed backwards at Feng, trying to stop him from going through. Between Chrono Ensanare slowing it down to the maximum and Feng's own high speed while also being boosted by Ethereality, however, Feng managed to zip by in the nick of time; the Swift Demon Mantis merely managing to cut off his wings with its jagged claw and cause him to fall through the checkpoint.
System: You have successfully completed the Swift Fortuitous Death challenge. You may now open the collected Jinxed Orbs.
Stumbling forward after suddenly losing the back appendages which had kept him flying all this time, Feng managed to steady himself on his feet, feeling a wave of relief wash over him upon hearing the system notification.
The accumulated exhaustion also settled in, Feng nearly falling to the floor after fully exerting himself during his time and completely running out of Stamina and Concentration. If not for all the power he had built up over this time and choosing to collect the items from Black Flame, Feng would have definitely failed this challenge.
Simultaneously, Feng fell into a Heavily Weakened state, Blade Liberation's duration running out as he basked in his victory.
Before Feng could relax, though, he felt a powerful presence coming at him from behind, a determined Swift Demon Mantis not having stopped its pursuit of Feng even after he reached his destination and finished the challenge.
Reaching Feng in the blink of an eye, the mantis's sharp claw sliced at Feng's torso. Feng would have struggled to avoid such a fast attack even before while in his peak state, much less now that he had lost 80% of his attributes, so the Swift Demon Mantis cut Feng cleanly in half without any resistance.
Of course, Ash Body was still active even after his Threefold Berserk state ended, so the attack achieved nothing, and Feng's body fused back together after transforming into ash.
Just as the mantis was about to continue assaulting Feng, and as more Swift Demon Mantises approached him, the giant demonic gate above the finish flag opened.
Instead of anything coming out of it this time, a powerful suction force appeared, pulling the Demonic Creatures towards it without affecting Feng or anything else.
The mantises flailed about, trying to escape and murder Feng, but they were all sucked back into the gate moments later, which then closed shut and went back to floating in the sky.
With the threats gone, Feng could now switch his attention to other matters after consuming a Life Essence. Although he had completed the Swift Fortuitous Death challenge, Feng was not out of the woods yet.
In fact, the most dangerous, but also the easiest, part of the Legendary Shrine was coming up. Actually opening the Jinxed Orbs.
Whether one would gain some benefit from opening an orb or suffer a devastating curse from it was completely unknown, with no one being able to guarantee anything due to how much luck was involved.
Naturally, the more Jinxed Orbs one opens, the more likely they were to get a very undesirable result, but also a very good one as well.
Feng had collected a total of 179 Jinxed Orbs during the Swift Fortuitous Death challenge, so the probability of him getting some of the bad ones was extremely high.
There was a wide variety of results that could be obtained from the Jinxed Orbs, on both the good and the bad side.
One could obtain Legendary items, incredibly valuable special items, Tier 6 Skill and Spell Books, Legacy Tablets, Consumables of various ranks with some of them being able to upgrade other items to Legendary rank, Legacy Guidances, Flying Mounts, valuable Designs and Recipes, Peak Bloodlines, Mysterious Flames, various temporary and permanent blessings that would improve a player's combat power, and even Fragmented Divine Artifacts.
Contrastingly, one could trigger curses that weakened a player in many forms, decreasing attributes, Life Rating, weakening or sealing equipment, taking away a skill from an item on the player or straight up erasing a piece of equipment, taking away a skill from the player, permanently erasing a limb, or straight up instantly killing the player with various debuffs and weakening effects upon respawning.
Among them, the five best rewards were four Legendary Treasure Chests and one Divine Treasure Chest, while the five worst ones were four curses that would delete the player's account and force them to start over from scratch, and one curse that would permanently ban a player from ever entering God's Domain again.
The rewards were amazing, but the potential consequences were extremely brutal. One could see their career reach a brand new high or end at any moment by opening the Jinxed Orbs, making it an incredibly dangerous gamble.
If one did not want to play that game, though, it was possible to completely forgo the risks and get limited rewards by inserting the Jinxed Orbs into the vending machine made completely out of Seven Luminaries Crystals that was on the starting island and purchase something from it.
However, by choosing that option, one wasn't guaranteed to get as valuable things as they could by opening Jinxed Orbs, only being able to pick from a category of lower-quality purchases by spending their hard-earned Jinxed Orbs; albeit completely safe without any risks of getting anything bad.
Feng had no plans of taking that route.
He poured out all the 179 Jinxed Orbs from his bag and placed them next to each other in a straight line in front of him.
Standing in front of the first one, Feng closed his eyes and took a deep breath, opening them resolutely a moment later and choosing to release the orb.
Its golden surface scattered into particles, causing a dark purple fog to jump out and latch onto Feng before seeping inside him.
System: You have triggered Unbeknownst Ball. Your Endurance has been permanently decreased by 5%.
Without paying any attention to the bad start, Feng immediately moved on to the second one without hesitation, opening it and immediately going to the next, opening one Jinxed Orb after the other without pausing, as if he intended to open them all in one go while ignoring the system notifications sounding in his ears.
System: You have obtained the Inferior Divine Artifact Consumable, Timeeater's Tooth.
System: You have obtained the Legendary item, Anham Blade.
System: You have obtained the Tier 6 Spell Book, Point Blank.
System: You have triggered Equipment Grief, one of your equipped items will have its rank decreased by one.
System: You have triggered Xile Kop, all Basic Attributes will be increased by 25% for twelve days.
System: You have obtained the Fragmented Divine Artifact, Red Roulette.
System: You have triggered Sick Gain, EXP gain will be permanently decreased by 50%.
System: You have obtained the Hercules Bow Forging Design.
System: You have triggered Unsavory Glance, your Luck will be permanently decreased by 10%.
System: You have obtained the Extraordinary Flying Mount, Void Ray.
System: You have obtained the Legacy Tablet, Unspoken Cut.
System: You have triggered Mouse Reform, all Hidden Attributes increased by 10%.
System: You have triggered Nihil Burp, all equipment will have its attributes decreased by 3%.
System: You have triggered Jester Eyes, your vision will be weakened by 30%.
System: You have triggered Joy Ride, your Movement Speed will be increased by 74% for fifty days.
System: You have obtained the Legacy Item, Dishonor Helmet.
System: You have triggered May Sope, your Physique will be increased by one rank for thirty days.
System: You have obtained the Tier 6 Taboo Skill Book, Deadpov.
System: You have obtained the Legendary Consumable, Wool Moll.
System: You have triggered Brave Soul, your soul rank will be increased by one.
System: You have triggered Yewel Gift, one of your skills will have its tier increased by one.
System: You have triggered Cutter Saw, your Attack power will be increased by 300% for six days.
System: You have triggered Upenl Untel, all your Basic Attributes will be decreased by 90% for one day.
System: You have obtained the Legendary item, Dark Lapis.
System: You have obtained the Fragmented Divine Artifact, Trenomous Gorac.
System: You have triggered Ionner Eclipse, you're Concentration will be weakened by one tier for fifteen days.
System: You have obtained the Tier 5 Mysterious Flame, Skyburnt.
System: You have triggered Noomane, your EXP gain will be permanently increased by 240%.
System: You have obtained the Divine Artifact Consumable, World Trigger.
System: You have obtained the Legendary Consumable, Sacred Source Diamond.
System: You have triggered Bolordefying Swell, all damage received will be permanently increased by 80%.
System: You have obtained the Tier 4 Mysterious Flame, Alfal Fire.
System: You have triggered Fulljoy, one of your equipment will have its rank increased by one.
System: You have triggered Sabotage Grull, one of your skills will have its tier decreased by one.
System: You have triggered Apicious Reckoning, your Main Attribute will be decreased by 1% whenever your Level increases.
System: You have obtained the Craftsman item, Stupendous Muscle Potion.
System: You have triggered Plower Kiss, your HP will decrease by 4% whenever you use a skill.
System: You have obtained a Legendary Treasure Chest.
System: You have triggered Quidsing, damage done to all flying creatures will increase by 300%.
System: You have obtained the Inferior Divine Artifact Consumable, Bull Tome.
System: You have obtained the Legendary item, Netherite Ingot.
System: You have obtained an Inferior Legendary Spatial Bag.
System: You have triggered Dust Miteus, your Movement Speed and Attack Speed will be permanently decreased by 15%.
System: You have obtained the Legendary Consumable, Almighty Whetstone.
System: You have obtained the Legendary Consumable, Threefold Boom.
System: You have obtained the Tier 6 Skill Book, Axe Breaker.
System: You have triggered Omni Sigil, your Favorability with all beast people will be decreased by 200 points.
System: You have triggered Ola Cryss, a Glistering Hoot will be summoned.
As Feng opened Jinxed Orbs in mass, the space next to him suddenly broke, and out of it came a giant owl whose feathers sparkled like diamonds.
[Glistering Hoot] (Legendary)
Level 150
HP ???/???
After taking a glance at the enormous owl whose wide eyes gazed down at him, Feng brought out the Ghost Tree, having it attack the Glistering Hoot, as well as summoning Celestina and giving her the Absolute Demon Set.
The Level 109 Tier 5 Ghost Tree and Level 99 Tier 4 Celestina entered battle with the Level 150 Legendary monster under their master's orders, fighting the owl that was dozens of levels higher than them.
Feng continued opening Jinxed Orbs without paying them any heed, experiencing waves of weakness and power as the golden orbs were opened and affected him while all kinds of items littered the ground.
He continued like this until a grey beam suddenly flew out of one of the Jinxed Orbs and struck Feng.
System: You have triggered Dying Breath, you will receive one trillion damage.
A damage of -1,000,000,000,000 appeared above Feng's head, surpassing his HP by many hundreds of thousands of times. However, Feng did not die.
Instead, he remained on 1% of his HP.
Regardless of how high the damage, it was simply damage without any actual power behind it, hence the Wraithwood Sigil's Passive Skill Unshakable Roots could keep him alive.
Activating Life Domain, Feng healed himself as well as his two summons that were battling the Legendary monster, before continuing to open up more Jinxed Orbs.
He made no pause, opening dozens of Jinxed Orbs within a few seconds thanks to the effects of Thought Acceleration, not even bothering to do anything when a Level 180 Tier 6 Hell Meowth was summoned or when another Dying Breath struck him; only to be saved by Return From Ashes which he had activated after the Unshakable Roots were used up.
Though, the situation for Celestina and the Ghost Tree was getting dicey, the two of them having trouble keeping the Legendary and Divine monster at bay while protecting Feng, especially when a Jinxed Orb opened by him summoned a Level 150 Tier 5 Goblin Bastard.
However, they could only do their best to stall the diamond owl, flaming cat, and armored goblin for a couple of seconds as per Feng's orders since he didn't need them to actually defeat or damage the monsters at all, only wanting the pair to keep them from killing him while he was opening the Jinxed Orbs.
They should have no problem tanking a few monsters for ten or so seconds with their abilities.
Having opened over a hundred Jinxed Orbs within less than fifteen seconds, after obtaining all kinds of items, blessings, and curses, as well as surviving another Dying Breath, Feng received the system notification that he had been dreading.
System: You have triggered Bye-bye, your God's Domain account will be deleted.
Complete darkness enveloped Feng, and he could no longer see or feel anything, creating a terrifying experience. A System Panel displaying his Ye Feng character appeared before him, but was erased a moment later, leaving a blank panel.
"Is my luck really so shit that I'd get that damned thing." Rubbing the bridge of his nose while cursing at his horrible luck, the green glow disappeared from Feng's eyes as he gazed at the over one hundred golden orbs that floated in front of him, unopened.
Feng had gained a newfound appreciation for Precursor's Glimpse.
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1. Inspiration for the skill came from Grounded's Orchid Mantis.