Chapter 779 – Crucible

“Guild Leader Black Flame, have you lost your mind?”

When Verdant Rainbow heard Shi Feng taking the initiative to offer such an overwhelmingly favorable condition to Death Wind, she couldn’t help but feel that Shi Feng was being a little too reckless.

The Continental Championship’s preliminaries ranked participating parties based on their accumulated points. Party members would be shuffled into different groups during the preliminaries, and they had to fight all other members of the group in a round-robin manner. Meanwhile, only the top ten members of each group would receive points.

Each group would typically have 21 players. In other words, each player would need to fight in twenty matches during the preliminaries, and they would be ranked based on the number of victories they achieved. The player coming in first place would receive twenty points, second place would receive ten points, third place would receive nine points, fourth place would receive eight points, and so on, ending with tenth place receiving two points.

Verdant Rainbow understood Death Wind’s strength well. Although weaker than her, going by her experience in participating in the Continental Championship, he should have a high chance of securing an eighth-place position in the preliminaries. Even if he underperformed, he should come in tenth place at the very least. In other words, if any of Zero Wing’s three members failed to get into the top three of their respective groups, Shi Feng would lose the bet.

Furthermore, should Death Wind rank fifth in his group, even if Zero Wing’s three members became their respective groups’ champions, Shi Feng would still lose.

“Don’t regret your words, Guild Leader Black Flame!” After staring at Shi Feng in shock, Death Wind revealed a wide grin.

Death Wind had never revealed his true strength in the Seven Luminaries Alliance. Moreover, for the sake of achieving good results in the upcoming Continental Championship, he had paid a hefty price to borrow three Extraordinary Secret Treasures. Paired with the Cloud Piercer, he now had Basic Attributes that could closely rival that of Level 200, Tier 6 Gods. With such Basic Attributes, he could even try to go for a top-five placement in the preliminaries, let alone the top ten.

In other words, if Death Wind accepted the bet, Gentle Snow, Fervent Samsara, and Heavy Abyss must become the champions of their respective groups. Otherwise, Shi Feng would lose the bet.

Meanwhile, if Shi Feng fulfilled his side of the bet and gave him a Divine Artifact no weaker than the Cloud Piercer, Death Wind was confident he could instantly become the Seven Luminaries Alliance’s strongest chosen one of this generation. He would also have a very high likelihood of becoming one of the Senate’s twelve Grand Elders. “Naturally.” Shi Feng nodded as he took out a God’s Domain Contract.

Ranking first in the preliminaries might be difficult for others, but it was an easy task for the current Gentle Snow, Fervent Samsara, and Heavy Abyss. After all, they weren’t just equipped with the new God Chaser Set right now. They were also equipped with the Dragon’s Fury Set, an Extraordinary Secret Treasure Set. Speaking purely in terms of Basic Attributes, Physique, and Mana, the three of them were superior to even Level 200, Tier 6 Gods.

So long as the three of them did not meet any of the peerless monsters in his previous life, they should almost be guaranteed to become the champions of their respective groups. This was also why he dared to promise Verdant Rainbow a top-four placement in the Continental Championship.

Meanwhile, so long as he acquired the Cloud Piercer, not only could he hamper Death Wind’s growth, but he could also give Fervent Samsara, who was a spear-user, an excellent weapon. That way, even after the Eternal Realm’s mainstream players reached Level 200, Zero Wing would rest easy knowing that it had a Taboo-level existence safeguarding its assets. After all, once mainstream players reached Level 200, Guild Towns would essentially become defenseless if they did not have a Taboo-level existence protecting it. It was especially so on the Western Continent.

Although Shi Feng had a City Building Order for the Western Continent, he dared not actually use it since Zero Wing didn’t have a Taboo-level existence who could be assigned to defend its Guild City. While Shi Feng himself could be considered a Taboo-level existence, as he was Zero Wing’s Guild Leader, he couldn’t afford to be tied down to one location for an extended period. As for Gentle Snow, Fire Dance, and the others, although they were Zero Wing’s top experts in Shi Feng’s previous life, they had yet to reach their full potential in this life. Of Zero Wing’s current members, only Fervent Samsara and Heavy Abyss had the capabilities to defend a Guild City after reaching Level 200.

In the meantime, standing behind Shi Feng, Gentle Snow, Fervent Samsara, and Heavy Abyss couldn’t help but look at Death Wind sympathetically. They felt that Shi Feng was akin to the Devil. Rather than betting with Death Wind, it would be more accurate to say that Shi Feng was blatantly robbing Death Wind of a Divine Artifact.

Subsequently, Death Wind signed a God’s Domain Contract with Shi Feng over their bet. According to the contract, should one side dare to renege on their promises, they would be permanently banished from God’s Domain by the Main God System. Not even the Divine Resurrection Water could give them a second chance at entering God’s Domain.

“Are you two done? Can we go now?” Verdant Rainbow asked in exasperation when she saw Shi Feng and Death Wind finish signing the contract. Then, when she received a nod from the two, she retrieved an ancient scroll from her bag and chanted an incantation.

A moment later, a space-time gate over a hundred meters tall appeared before the party. The gate radiated a frightening aura resembling that of Gods, causing many Tier 6 players nearby to suddenly feel the threat of death looming over them.

“We should hurry. The teleportation gate lasts only a short time,” Verdant Rainbow said before walking into the space-time gate.

Shi Feng, Death Wind, and the others did not hesitate to follow after Verdant Rainbow, all of them disappearing from the Residence’s entrance and leaving the many players inside and outside the Residence stunned. Everyone wondered where Shi Feng’s party had gone. After all, if even the teleportation gate they used was such a frightening object, the place it led to would naturally be even scarier. …

Eternal Realm, Crucible of the Ancients:

As Shi Feng and the others stepped through the space-time gate, they arrived in a grand plaza lined with stone steles and statues. Each stele and statue was upwards of a thousand meters in height, and they radiated a Divine Might as strong as that of Ancient Gods. It was like each stele and statue was a living Ancient God, and their presence made the several thousand players in the plaza feel like ants.

“This is the Crucible of the Ancients. Rumor has it that it once served as a colosseum of life and death for countless ancient beings, and every stele and statue here is a representation of them. Not only do these steles and statues carry great power, but they also hold the Legacies of those ancient beings,” Verdant Rainbow said. Since this was the first time Death Wind, Shi Feng, and the others had come to the Crucible of the Ancients, she decided to offer them an explanation of the surrounding steles and statues.

While Shi Feng and the others were gazing in awe at the countless steles and statues surrounding them, other human players who were visiting the Crucible for the first time were in a similar situation. A hint of fanaticism even colored their eyes when they saw the tallest steles and statues in the plaza.

“Incredible! Were those ninety-nine 10,000-meter-tall steles and statues left behind by Primordial God-ranked existences?”

“Yes, but they’re not the only Primordial God-ranked steles and statues the Crucible has to offer. The ones here can be accessed so long as you pass the preliminaries. If you can get into the championship’s top four, you can head to a deeper area that is said to house steles and statues that are tens of thousands of meters tall. The individuals those steles and statues represent are mighty existences, even among Primordial God-ranked existences!”

“Snap out of it. Those steles and statues aren’t for us. Ordinary parties like ours have no chance of entering the top four. Many of the royal powers’ elite parties can’t climb beyond the top thirty-two. You’ve heard of the Holy Race’s Daystar, right? Well, she’s the leader of the Sun Dynasty’s trump card party, but even she only managed to secure a place in the top eight. There is also Demon’s Gate’s Star Maiden Elise. Even though she’s regarded as a nigh-invincible existence among her peers, she barely managed to reach tenth place in the last Continental Championship.”

While the human players in the plaza were discussing matters pertaining to the Continental Championship, Gentle Snow, Fervent Samsara, and Heavy Abyss overheard them, and they couldn’t help but be shocked.

“Even that Daystar only managed to get into the top eight?” Fervent Samsara muttered in disbelief as he recalled the three-eyed Holy Race woman he saw during the defensive battle against the Sun Dynasty’s Holy Guard. Although the three-eyed woman never took any direct action throughout the battle, he could still tell how frightening she was based on her presence. It was evident she was no ordinary fifth-floor expert when it came to combat standards. It was likely she had already reached the Unthinking Realm, the second stage of the Extrasensory Realm.

In all honesty, Fervent Samsara felt that had Daystar taken action back then, the outcome of the defensive siege would have been much less decisive. Only, as Daystar was evidently trying to hide her strength, she never took action throughout the battle.

While Fervent Samsara and the others were in a daze, many of the players in the plaza suddenly turned to look at a party that had just arrived. At a glance, it was obvious that all six members of this party were fully equipped with Legendary Equipment. Each member also wielded at least one Divine Weapon. Of the party’s members, the one who stood out the most was a four-armed young man. The young man gave off the presence of a God as he stood there, and it felt like the world revolved around him.

“He’s the Holy Race’s strongest representative, Divine Fist Garuda,” Verdant Rainbow whispered, wearing a serious expression as she introduced the four-armed young man’s identity to Shi Feng and the others.

…