Chapter 2629 – Ancient Secret Land’s Power

“How is this possible?!”

“That’s a Mythic monster we’re talking about! How could a Tier 3 player like him break through its defensive threshold?!”

Crimson Star and Wildfighter could not believe their eyes as they watched the tumbling six-eyed gorilla.

Not only had Shi Feng shattered a Tier 4 Spell with a single move, but he had even used the same move to injure the six-eyed gorilla severely.

On paper, the gorilla had only lost around 500,000 HP from the attack—which was nothing compared to its two billion HP—but in reality, his attack had caused far more damage than that.

There were two general types of attacks in God’s Domain. The first type reduced the HP of the target, while the other weakened the target’s defenses. In the case of the former, if the target’s HP fell to zero, then they would die. In the case of the latter, if the target had its defenses destroyed, then its physical body would suffer damage, which would, in turn, reduce the target’s combat power, as well as the difficulty of killing said target.

Only, it was incredibly difficult for players to execute attacks capable of destroying a monster’s defenses, particularly those of high-ranking monsters, as the stronger a monster was, the higher its defensive threshold would be. Normally, players couldn’t destroy the defenses of a monster of the same tier, much less those of a higher tier. The best players could do against higher-tiered monsters was cause minor injuries and continuously stack these minor injuries to reduce the monster’s combat power.

Against the six-eyed gorilla, only an attack carrying power at the Peak Tier 4 standard had a chance of overwhelming its defensive threshold. However, despite being a Tier 3 player, Shi Feng had actually managed this feat without resorting to external tools.

This was inconceivable!

Meanwhile, when Sandstorm and the other members of Mythology saw this scene, they, too, gaped in shock.

“Can he still be considered a player?”

There were no words to describe the shock Sandstorm felt as he gazed at Shi Feng right now.

In the eyes of ordinary players, having the ability to surpass a monster’s defensive threshold only meant that they could reduce the combat power of the target monster. However, for peak experts and apex experts, who frequently fought high-tiered monsters, having such an ability held an entirely different meaning!

For peak experts and apex experts, having such an ability meant that they could solo-kill monsters!

The monsters in God’s Domain were born with high HP and Defense, particularly HP. Even if players could inflict over a million damage with their attacks, this amount of damage was nothing for high-tiered monsters like Mythic monsters; such damage wouldn’t overcome the monster’s battle recovery. An army of players was necessary to kill high-tiered monsters.

Hence, in God’s Domain, it was common knowledge that even if a player’s raw power surpassed that of high-tiered monsters, solo-killing these monsters would still be impossible, especially Grand Lords or higher-ranked monsters. This held true even for current Tier 3 players.

However, there was one method that players could use to defeat such high-tiered monsters: executing attacks surpassing the target monster’s defensive threshold!

Attacks that surpassed a monster’s defensive threshold could inflict severe injuries on the monster’s physical body. Moreover, after injuring a monster up to a certain point, aside from reducing the monster’s combat power, players could also force monsters into a Weakened state, which would drastically reduce their Defense and maximum HP. If players managed to corner a monster to the point where it entered a Heavily Weakened state, they could even impose the HP Loss debuff on the target monster and thoroughly nullify the monster’s battle recovery.

If a monster lost its battle recovery, which was also its strongest ability, solo-killing it would no longer be impossible. With sufficient Stamina and Concentration, players could slowly but surely grind the monster to death.

Now that Shi Feng was capable of surpassing the six-eyed gorilla’s defensive threshold, this meant that Shi Feng could solo-kill it.

Meanwhile, a player having the ability to solo-kill a Tier 4 Mythic monster was simply unheard-of in God’s Domain.

At this moment, however, let alone the spectating players, even Shi Feng himself found this situation astonishing.

Why did Lightshadow’s destructive power increase by so much? Shi Feng was confused as he looked at the six-eyed gorilla’s severed arm. Judging by the damage to its HP, my attack’s raw power should still be far from the Peak Tier 4 standard. Lightshadow should be just slightly stronger than a Tier 4 Spell, yet the actual destruction it caused is no different from that of a Peak Tier 4 attack. Could this be due to the ancient secret land’s environment?

Meanwhile, as Shi Feng was analyzing the situation, the one-horned bear rushed toward him. The bear’s gigantic frame made it seem as if a small mountain was charging at him. In fact, there was even the vague image of a mountain overlapping with the one-horned bear’s figure.

Tier 4 Skill, Crumbling Mountain!

The AOE of the one-horned bear’s attack covered a 50-yard radius. Shi Feng responded by raising the Abyssal Blade above his head once more.

Lightshadow!

When using Lightshadow this time, however, Shi Feng placed the majority of his focus on perceiving the Mana around himself. He wanted to see just what was enabling his Mana Technique to exhibit such immense power.

When Shi Feng started swinging the Abyssal Blade, another pitch-black wall formed on the battlefield, shattered the phantom mountain, and subsequently landed on the one-horned bear’s left shoulder.

Roar!

When the pitch-black wall cut into the one-horned bear’s shoulder, the bear let loose an agonized howl. Its HP also instantly fell by more than 620,000.

Although Shi Feng’s attack this time did not sever the one-horned bear’s left arm, it prevented the bear from freely moving its injured arm. Now, the bear could rely on only its two legs and one arm to stabilize itself. After suffering this grievous injury, the one-horned bear continuously growled at Shi Feng angrily. However, fear was also clear in the bear’s eyes.

Upon seeing this scene, Floating Light and those of Violet Sword who were retreating were dumbfounded once more.

“How is this possible?! That move just now wasn’t a Skill?!” Floating Light felt as if his worldview had been refreshed when he saw the one-horned bear daunted by Shi Feng.

In Floating Light’s opinion, the attack Shi Feng used to injure the six-eyed gorilla heavily should be a special Skill. Otherwise, there was no way the attack could be so powerful. However, only two or three seconds after Shi Feng retaliated against the six-eyed gorilla, the Swordsman was using the same move against the one-horned bear. There was no way such a powerful Skill could have such a brief Cooldown.

The only explanation for this situation was that Shi Feng wasn’t using a Skill or Spell, but a special technique instead.

By simply relying on a special technique, Shi Feng was actually capable of heavily injuring Mythic monsters. Moreover, these Mythic monsters were even the ancient secret land’s Region Chiefs. Nobody would believe Floating Light if he told this tale to others.

After repelling the one-horned bear, Shi Feng himself was stunned as well.

So, this is the reason why the ancient secret land can help players reach Tier 4? Shi Feng thought as he looked at the closing spatial tear before him.

In God’s Domain, the greatest difference separating Tier 3 and Tier 4 players wasn’t the difference in physique, but the degree of control they had over Mana and their application of it. To be precise, it was the degree of control over and application of ambient Mana.

Controlling and utilizing ambient Mana might be something players had started doing since the start of the game, but the standard at which Tier 0 players did it was only at the most basic level. Their efficiency in utilizing Mana was extremely low. Hence, players needed to rely on the Mana of their fully unlocked Mana Bodies to guide and utilize the ambient Mana for their own use.

To put it simply, players had to rely on their own Mana Bodies to integrate and convert ambient Mana into their own Mana. By doing so, one would be able to maximize the power they could exhibit with their Mana.

However, integrating ambient Mana was a challenge. Without guidelines or Legacies in the outside world to teach players how to accomplish this, players could only rely on themselves to learn how to do so.

However, while carefully observing the second Lightshadow he executed, Shi Feng noticed something peculiar about the Mana around him.

The ancient secret land’s ambient Mana had actually taken the initiative to integrate itself with his Mana. This development had drastically increased the amount of ambient Mana he could manipulate and, in turn, boosted the power of Lightshadow significantly.

However, as he wasn’t actively executing this Mana Integration, his Mana usage efficiency was still very low. The additional ambient Mana he managed to manipulate had increased only Lightshadow’s destructive power, not the Mana Technique’s strength. This was akin to putting an edge on a weapon. While he might have increased the weapon’s destructive power, the weapon itself remained unchanged.

Even so, this was an incredibly precious situation. After all, there was almost no information available in the outside world that could help players achieve Mana Integration. Now that the Mana here was actively integrating itself with his Mana, he could gain some hints on how to do so and increase his learning efficiency.

Following which, Shi Feng stopped dwelling on this matter. Instead, he executed Lightshadow two more times to chop off one leg each from the one-horned bear and six-eyed gorilla.

“The mobility of these two Region Chiefs has already been greatly reduced! Let’s go!” Shi Feng said as he turned to Crimson Star and Wildfighter, who were still in a daze.

After saying so, Shi Feng promptly ran toward the ancient city, ignoring the two Region Chiefs.

“He got through, just like that?”

Crimson Star and Wildfighter were at a loss for words when they goggled at the two Region Chiefs, which were warily watching Shi Feng leave without making a move.

They were currently inside the extremely dangerous ancient secret land, and their opponents were even two Region Chiefs, and yet...

However, Crimson Star and Wildfighter did not linger over this topic for long. They quickly instructed everyone else on the team to ignore the two Region Chiefs and follow Shi Feng. Now that the two Region Chiefs had each lost a leg, their mobility was greatly impeded compared to before. It would be almost impossible for them to catch up with Tier 3 players running at full speed. The team could easily escape the two Region Chiefs’ perception range before they fully recovered.

...

“Team Leader, are we still chasing them?” a Tier 3 Ranger from Mythology asked Sandstorm when he saw Shi Feng’s team leaving.

“Of course, we are!” Sandstorm said as he glared at the Tier 3 Ranger. Gritting his teeth, he said, “I admit that Black Flame’s combat power is at inhuman levels, but he is only one person. Even if we can’t kill Black Flame, I refuse to believe that we can’t handle the other players on his team! So long as we get rid of everyone else, Black Flame’s plans here will be ruined!”

After saying so, Sandstorm started chasing Shi Feng’s team, together with the other 30-plus members of Mythology.