Chapter 2896 – Primordial Ruin
A primordial ruin? Shi Feng’s interest was piqued when he heard the words “primordial ruin.”
Ruins were commonly found in secret lands, and they could be differentiated into ancient ruins and primordial ruins, depending on their era of creation. Of the two, primordial ruins were much rarer because they predated ancient ruins and the ancient era’s residents had already explored and dismantled many of them. Primordial ruins that managed to last until the modern era were as rare as Legendary items.
Meanwhile, the primordial era was a time when Gods flourished and Ancient Gods still wandered the land. With luck, one might even come across an item left behind by an Ancient God inside a primordial ruin. “Where are you?” Shi Feng asked through the team chat.
“A canyon stream in the south. There are many Evil Blood Soldiers wandering here, probably more than 3,000. They seem to be guarding that primordial ruin,” Fire Dance reported quietly as she observed the patrolling Evil Blood Soldiers around her. “I also saw quite a few Level 160-plus Superior Mythic ranked Evil Blood Priests walk into the ruin just now. I suspect they’ll conduct some kind of ritual inside. However, the place is heavily guarded, so it’ll be difficult for us to sneak into the ruin. The only way we can enter is by breaking through from the front.” “Over 3,000 Evil Blood Soldiers?” Shi Feng frowned.
If their opponents consisted of only several hundred Evil Blood Soldiers, their team could still secure victory under his leadership. However, 3,000 Evil Blood Soldiers was a number even he couldn’t stop. Not to mention, there were bound to be many Superior Mythics as well. Even if he could withstand their assault, the others on his team couldn’t. After all, these Evil Blood monsters weren’t idiots.
If all 3,000 Evil Blood Soldiers used their Tier 4 Skills simultaneously, even Shi Feng wouldn’t dare take them head-on. He would have to evade their attacks and kite them. After all, a Tier 5 player would still take significant damage if a Tier 4 Mythic monster’s attack struck him.
Naturally, it would be even more impossible for Tier 4 players to dodge and block so many Tier 4 Skills. It wouldn’t matter even if a Tier 4 player were at the World Creation standard. This was because Mythic monsters could keep up with the speed of Tier 4 players, and thus could precisely aim and time their attacks. Let alone hundreds or thousands, just a few dozen Evil Blood Soldiers working together would be more than enough to take down a Tier 4 MT at the World Creation standard.
A team would need at least three or four Tier 5 players to take on 3,000 Mythic ranked Evil Blood Soldiers adequately. Relying only on one Tier 5 player and several dozen Tier 4 players was simply impossible. Such a team would have to expend all its efforts just dodging and blocking the Tier 4 Skills and Spells of the Mythic monsters.
In other words, while Zero Wing’s team could defend itself against the army of Evil Blood monsters, it had no chance of defeating the army.
“Guild Leader, how about we take them on in batches?” Cold Shadow suggested. “Those Soldiers might be numerous, but they aren’t grouped up closely. It’ll take some time for all of them to gather at a single point. We can use this time to kill some of them and retreat once their combatants have gathered. With sufficient repetition, those Soldiers are bound to fall.”
After listening to Cold Shadow’s suggestion, Shi Feng shook his head and said, “That is one way to do it. However, that assumes that the other side doesn’t have any healers. Those Evil Blood Priests are all capable of healing. Moreover, as Superior Mythics, their healing range should be massive. If I’m not mistaken, the Soldiers are patrolling within the healing range of the Priests. Once we attack the Soldiers, the Priests will heal the injured Soldiers immediately.
“Unless we can one-shot those Soldiers, there is no way we can out-damage a Superior Mythic’s healing.”
Cold Shadow fell silent at Shi Feng’s words.
Choosing to kill the Evil Blood Soldiers or the Evil Blood Priests first didn’t matter. Neither was a viable option. The Evil Blood Priests’ healing capabilities were simply too powerful. If the team didn’t have the strength to kill several Evil Blood Priests instantaneously and simultaneously, they couldn’t deal with so many Evil Blood monsters.
“Are we going to give up, just like that?” White Feather grew anxious. “That’s a primordial ruin we’re talking about!”
Even Mythology had never found a primordial ruin. It had only ever explored ancient ruins. Even so, the Guild had still reaped significant harvests from those ruins, particularly regarding the improvement of the Mana Body. Those harvests were the reason Mythology’s old monsters managed to develop their Mana Bodies so quickly.
Meanwhile, a primordial ruin was far more precious than an ancient ruin. It wouldn’t be strange if it contained treasures that could help players reach Tier 5 more easily. After all, primordial ruins dated from the era of the Ancient Gods. The Legacies left behind in these ruins would be far superior to the Legacies created during ancient and modern times.
“We’re not completely out of options.” After giving the matter some thought, Shi Feng said, “However, this will be very risky. We might even suffer a team-wipe.”
All secret lands had entrance limits. Depending on a secret land’s rank, the entrance limit imposed on players would also differ. In the case of God Mode Secret Lands, players could enter only once every ten days. If a player team suffered annihilation, they would be resurrected outside the secret land and would have to wait ten days to re-challenge it.
Meanwhile, the team’s significant harvest in the Evil God’s Secret Land meant they didn’t have to risk their lives for a primordial ruin. They could just continue hunting in safer parts of the secret land and raising their strength.
Upon hearing Shi Feng’s statement, Cold Shadow asked curiously, “Guild Leader, how confident are you?”
“Roughly 30 percent,” Shi Feng said. “Of course, that’s assuming nothing unexpected happens inside the ruin.”
“Thirty?” Cold Shadow did a double take at Shi Feng. This was already a very high success rate considering their opponents consisted of 3,000-plus Evil Blood Soldiers and Priests. She then said, “I think we can give it a try. While it would indeed be unfortunate if we failed, in our current state, achieving further qualitative improvements in the Evil God’s Secret Land would be difficult unless we venture deeper into the inner region. However, there should be plenty of Tier 5 Legendary monsters roaming there, and we don’t know if we can defeat such a monster. Rather than take our chances against a Legendary monster, we might as well risk our lives for a primordial ruin. It’ll be a huge jackpot for us if we succeed.”
Tier 5 Legendary monsters weren’t easy opponents to defeat even if they had a Tier 5 player on their team, just like how Tier 4 players had great difficulty soloing a Tier 4 Mythic monster.
Moreover, a fight with a Legendary monster inside the Evil God’s Secret Land would easily attract more Legendary monsters. If two Legendary monsters appeared, a team-wipe was all but guaranteed. Only Shi Feng might escape alive.
When Blackie, Cola, and the others heard Cold Shadow’s reasoning, they, too, nodded in agreement.
Their team’s equipment standard had improved by leaps and bounds already, and further significant improvements would be difficult within a short time. Only eight-piece Level 180 Epic Sets and Fragmented Legendary items could provide them with such improvements. Upgrading Fragmented Legendary items into Legendary items was also highly dependent on luck, as not every Fragmented Legendary item needed only God Crystals for their upgrade. Not to mention, the drop rate of God Crystals was completely random. These weren’t items that could be obtained on demand.
“Since you all see no problem with it, let’s give it a try, then,” Shi Feng said when he saw everyone’s willingness to risk their lives. “Entering the primordial ruin is actually a very straightforward process. I just need someone to attract the Evil Blood monsters’ attention. So long as a sufficient number of them get lured away, I will be able to enter the ruin. However, you must also make sure to pin down those lured monsters. Otherwise, if they flood into the ruin after me, I won’t be able to do anything.”
“Leave it to us, Guild Leader!” Cola said, confidently patting his chest. “If we four MTS take turns using our Mock Skills and Lifesaving Skills, we can keep them busy for five minutes without any problem.”
“We magical classes can also use our magic barriers to trap those monsters for some time,” Zhao Yueru said, nodding.
After hearing everyone’s suggestions, Shi Feng nodded and said, “Alright, I’ll leave it to you. I’ll try to explore the ruin as quickly as possible.”
When Shi Feng finished speaking, Fire Dance, Cold Shadow, and Yan Tianxing split up, moving in different directions. The three Assassins attracted the Evil Blood Soldiers’ attention and lured them toward the appointed location.
However, after attracting the attention of a certain number of Evil Blood Soldiers, the three Assassins had to activate their Berserk Skills and all sorts of Lifesaving Skills to stay alive. Fortunately, they eventually succeeded in luring over 70% of the Evil Blood Soldiers to the appointed location.
There, Cola, Ye Wumian, Turtledove, and White Feather used their Mock Skills on the lured Evil Blood Soldiers, forcefully shifting the monsters’ aggro to themselves. The four MTs then activated their Lifesaving Skills and began kiting and dodging the monsters’ attacks. The healers standing in the distance also showered Healing Spells on the four MTs, repeatedly dragging them back from the jaws of death.
Once the four MTs had the Evil Blood Soldiers pinned down, Shi Feng, who was hiding near the primordial ruin, entered the void and dashed toward the ruin.
With the Nightwalker’s Cape’s ability, Shi Feng could cross several hundred yards with just one step.
As if he had activated Instantaneous Movement several times consecutively, he crossed a distance of several thousand yards in just two seconds and arrived at the primordial ruin’s entrance. And before the Evil Blood monsters standing guard there could react to his arrival, he had already dashed inside.
The instant Shi Feng entered the primordial ruin, the Evil Blood monsters in the vicinity went into a frenzy and swarmed toward him. The several Evil Blood Priests kneeling inside the ruin’s main hall also began chanting incantations and bombarded Shi Feng with Tier 4 Curses, one after another.
However, now that Shi Feng possessed a piece of Legendary Equipment, this degree of offensive was nothing to him. He easily evaded the oncoming attacks.
In the blink of an eye, he disappeared from the main hall and entered the tunnel leading underground. Although he came across various Magic Traps along the way, they were practically nonexistent to him, as he was a Grandmaster Magician.
In less than a minute, Shi Feng arrived in the primordial ruin’s deepest section.
The deepest part of the ruin was like an empty void. A majestic, ancient temple stood in this void. Despite the corrosion of countless years, the temple still radiated an unbelievably powerful Divine Might. If Shi Feng had come here before reaching Tier 5, he wouldn’t have been able to withstand this Divine Might.
What a powerful temple! If I hadn’t upgraded the Nightwalker’s Cape to Legendary rank, its Divine Might would’ve had a significant effect on me. Shi Feng was astonished as he looked at the temple before him.
The Nightwalker’s Cape didn’t just hide his aura. It also functioned to resist the auras of others. It acted as an isolation barrier that prevented the user’s aura from interacting with other auras.
However, despite the Nightwalker’s Cape’s isolation effect, the temple’s Divine Might still reduced Shi Feng’s mobility by 30%.
Even a true Tier 6 God’s Divine Might couldn’t compete with this ancient temple’s Divine Might.
Apart from Ancient Gods, there should be no other existence capable of creating such a powerful construct.
When Shi Feng arrived in front of the temple, the several hundred Evil Blood monsters that had been frenziedly chasing him suddenly stopped. They simply stood at a distance and worshipped the temple, none of them showing any intention of approaching it.
Shi Feng sighed in relief at this sight. Now, all he needed to do was figure out how to enter the ancient temple.
However, when Shi Feng entered the temple, what greeted him inside the brightly illuminated hall was the sight of a cloaked, scholarly young man. The youth was piecing together several golden tablets using magic arrays so complex that they gave Shi Feng a headache. The instant Shi Feng laid eyes on this youth, his soul shuddered. “It’s you?!”
Shi Feng’s eyes filled with disbelief as he looked at the scholarly youth. This was because this youth was none other than the mysterious youth who had caused a huge commotion in Blackwing City and bound his soul using soul chains during the early stages of the game. “Oh? It’s you?” The mysterious youth was slightly surprised when he saw Shi Feng behind him. “You actually survived until now, even after getting hit by my soul chains? What a surprise.”
“Should I be honored that you remember me?” Shi Feng eyed the mysterious youth cautiously.
Back when he encountered the mysterious youth in Blackwing City, he had already thought the NPC was extraordinary, definitely not your average Tier 5 NPC. Otherwise, this mysterious youth couldn’t have escaped Blackwing City after causing such a huge scene.
In fact, Shi Feng still couldn’t glean much information from the mysterious youth despite being Tier 5 himself. The only thing he found out from inspecting the mysterious youth was that the latter was also at Tier 5. Moreover, the mysterious youth gave off a weird vibe; Shi Feng felt an inexplicable fear when standing in the youth’s presence.
“Not bad. Not only are you blessed by this world, but you also managed to get promoted to Tier 5 so quickly. You just barely qualify to become my puppet,” the mysterious youth said, a delighted smile appearing on his face as he looked at Shi Feng, like a child who had just found a new toy. “Since you took the initiative to come find me, let me liberate you from your suffering!”
After saying so, the mysterious youth raised his arm and pointed a finger at Shi Feng.
A black ball of Mana shot toward Shi Feng. In mid-flight, the ball of Mana shattered and enveloped the surrounding space in darkness.
Tier 5 Curse, Dark Wonderland!