Chapter 306 – Divine Shield Bearer

The Ancient River Secret Land was a majestic island floating in the void, and ten temples measuring over a thousand meters in height lined the island’s edges. Currently, streaks of light were constantly descending onto the plazas outside these massive temples as players across the Ancient River Kingdom entered the secret land one after another.

The majority of the players in the crowded plazas were youths under the age of 25. Among these youths, handsome men and beautiful women could be seen everywhere.

At this time, many of the youths in one particular plaza had their attention focused on three people—one man and two women—standing in the corner of the plaza.

The man had a plain appearance. In the Greater God’s Domain, where handsome men could be found everywhere, the man’s looks were rather ordinary. However, the two women standing next to the man were as eye-catching as the sun.

Of the two women, one was a great beauty with silver hair and a sultry figure, while the other was a lovely beauty with a face as delicate as jade. Both women exuded a unique temperament, and those who saw them couldn’t help but want to look at them more.

“What beautiful women. Could they be the heiresses of some corporation?”

“I don’t think so. Look at the man standing next to them. Would the heiresses of a corporation stand with someone like that? My guess is that they’re the rookie geniuses of some hegemonic power.”

“Rookie geniuses of a hegemonic power? It’d be great if I could get acquainted with them.”

Many young men started a hushed discussion among themselves as they looked at Shi Feng’s group of three, their minds filled with curiosity toward the trio.

“The mana here is surprisingly thin. Its density doesn’t even reach one-tenth of the outside world’s. The gravity here is also several times that of the outside world. Even walking in this place will be a problem for the average Tier 4 player,” Wu Xiaoxiao commented. She had long since grown used to being gawked at by other people, so she simply ignored the stares she received and calmly analyzed her surroundings. “Even though there are so many people here, none of them seem affected by this environment. Sure enough, nobody participating in the Rookie Competition is simple.”

With the state of the mana and gravity in the Ancient River Secret Land, players would need at least one Fragmented Legendary item or one full set of Epic Equipment equipped if they wanted to move unhindered here. They would also need to pair that equipment with control at the third-floor standard.

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However, Fragmented Legendary Weapons and Equipment remained precious even in the Greater God’s Domain. The various powers would typically only give their core geniuses one or two Fragmented Legendary items. As for Epic Immortal Equipment, they might not be as precious as Fragmented Legendary items, but they were still highly valuable.

Yet, there were well over 100,000 players currently gathered in the plaza. Even if all of her homeworld’s various powers joined forces, they couldn’t even come close to mustering such a force.

Moreover, these were only the players teleported to one of the Ancient River Secret Land’s temples. There were ten such temples in the entire secret land.

“This is normal. It might only cost ten units of Seven Luminaries Crystal to participate in the kingdom’s Rookie Competition, but nobody will join the competition unless they are confident in their strength,” Midsummer explained. “This annual Rookie Competition is also the perfect place for rookie geniuses to market themselves to the various hegemonic powers and corporations. So long as they can get into the top 100, they can instantly become a reserve executive of one of the Ancient River Kingdom’s six ruling hegemonic powers and gain authority over a Main Guild City.

“Even if these rookie geniuses can’t get into the top 100, so long as they perform excellently in the competition, they will still have a high chance of getting recruited by a hegemonic power or corporation. If they get lucky and become a corporation’s core member, they will receive a big monthly salary and enter the upper echelon of the Greater World’s various cities.”

Realization dawned on Wu Xiaoxiao when she heard Midsummer’s explanation. Had she not been fortunate enough to join the Green God Corporation, she would most likely be similar to these rookie geniuses in trying to market herself to attract the various hegemonic powers’ attention.

While Midsummer and Wu Xiaoxiao were talking, Shi Feng turned his gaze to the center of the floating island.

The fragment should be there, Shi Feng thought, a hint of anticipation burning in his eyes when he sensed the fluctuations coming from the Seven Luminaries Codex inside his bag.

The Seven Luminaries Codex had remained silent all this time. Yet, as soon as he entered the Ancient River Secret Land, it immediately started to show a reaction. Although the Codex only gave him a vague hint of the fragment’s location, he was certain the Codex’s fragment was located in the heart of the island.

Now, all he needed to do was advance to the Rookie Competition’s top 100 and entered the island’s central zone to search for the fragment.

Just when Shi Feng thought of analyzing the Codex’s fluctuations to narrow his search radius, a deep and powerful voice suddenly came from nearby.

“Midsummer, Xiaoxiao! Why are you two here?”

Subsequently, a group of four youths—three male and one female—approached Shi Feng’s group. All four of these youths were at Level 139. On top of that, all four wore a Gold Leaf Emblem on their chest, indicating that they were all fourth-floor experts. Every one of them was also equipped with upwards of two Fragmented Legendary items, with the scholarly young man standing in the lead having four Fragmented Legendary items. The white jade square shield the scholarly young man carried was even of indiscernible rank.

“Commander Fury!”

Midsummer and Wu Xiaoxiao were greatly surprised when they saw this group of four, especially when they saw the scholarly young man.

Desolate Fury!

He was the number one genius nurtured by the Purple Melody Alliance. Only, Desolate Fury and his group typically operated in the Myriad Forest Empire, which neighbored the Ancient River Kingdom. Rarely would they return to the Ancient River Kingdom.

Desolate Fury was currently ranked 35th out of the Myriad Forest Empire’s top 100 geniuses. Several upper-ranking hegemonic powers had already extended an olive branch to him because of his strength. Only, he had rejected every invitation he had received so far.

At this time, though, Midsummer and Wu Xiaoxiao weren’t the only ones to recognize Desolate Fury. Shi Feng had also recognized the scholarly young man.

—The Myriad Forest Empire’s Divine Shield Bearer.

During Shi Feng’s previous life, Desolate Fury had single-handedly defended a city from more than twenty Tier 6 experts. Although he didn’t manage to kill these Tier 6 experts, he had held them back for several hours until the Myriad Forest Empire’s army arrived. Desolate Fury’s fame also skyrocketed after that battle.

As for the shield Desolate Fury wielded at the time, although it wasn’t a real Divine Artifact, it was a highly accurate replica of a Divine Artifact.

However, because news of the replica got out, Desolate Fury got targeted by Demon’s Gate, an apex power. Not even the Myriad Forest Empire dared to go against Demon’s Gate. Adding to the fact that Desolate Fury had limited strength as an individual, he eventually disappeared from the Greater God’s Domain, leaving many experts lamenting this situation.

“Midsummer, Xiaoxiao, you two have worried us sick.” At this time, a bright young Swordsman standing behind Desolate Fury hurriedly stepped forward and spoke up. “We heard that you two offended Saint Three, and the Twin Saints Alliance is even hunting you now. How have you two been these past few days?”

“We’re fine, Vice Commander Chaser,” Midsummer said, smiling. “On the contrary, we’ve been having a great time these past few days.”

“Since it’s such a good coincidence that we met here, why don’t you join our party?” the bright youth named Lightning Chaser suggested, acting as if he didn’t notice Shi Feng’s existence. “That way, we can watch each other’s backs during the competition and have an easier time entering the top 100.”

As soon as Lightning Chaser finished speaking, a slight frown formed on Desolate Fury’s face.

Their party of four had long since noticed Shi Feng standing with Midsummer and Wu Xiaoxiao, so they knew that the three should be in the same party. Meanwhile, the kingdom’s Rookie Competition only allowed players to form up to parties of six to help each other during the competition.

The Rookie Competition’s preliminaries consisted of numerous rounds. For each round, players would be randomly teleported into the island’s inner zone in batches of 100, and they would have to fight each other until only ten remained. This process would be repeated until only 100 players remained. Then, the competition’s primaries would begin. Because of this system, the preliminaries would be a considerably long and arduous process.

If players partied up before the competition, they would be put into the same batches during the preliminaries. This allowed them to cover each other’s backs and increase their chances of survival.

However, their party already had four members. If Midsummer and Wu Xiaoxiao joined, it would mean that Shi Feng would be excluded.

Although Desolate Fury had long known that Lightning Chaser was trying to woo Midsummer and Wu Xiaoxiao, he didn’t expect Lightning Chaser to show so much hostility to Shi Feng simply because Shi Feng was standing with Midsummer and Wu Xiaoxiao.