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.
Note 1: Sorry for the delay. I genuinely have no idea why this simple chapter took me so long to complete. Next chapter should come out in a few days to make up for it.
Note 2: Might be more errors than usual.
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After the two of them walked through the darkness for a short while, Celestina suddenly stopped.
"Here it is." Despite there being no change in scenery, the Demon Empress declared that they had reached their destination.
Reaching out in front of her, Celestina's hand entered the darkness and seemed to grab something.
A second later, the Power of Darkness around them quickly gathered towards Celestina's hand like being sucked into a whirlpool.
It took a couple of minutes for it all to clear out, revealing the true interior of the Inferior Legendary Shrine. The two of them now stood in front of an altar made of bones and demonic scales.
There wasn't much of note in the Shrine aside from the altar as it was a fairly empty giant room of over 30,000 yards, with the metallic walls expanding as far as the eye could see being covered in some demonic writing and illustrations. The only things that stood out were a couple of statues around the altar and near the entrance gate.
Meanwhile, Celestina held a small piece of leather parchment with a circular symbol and miniature inscriptions on it. The leather was pitch-dark like the night sky, its texture and overall aura resembling the cover of the Bible of Darkness. Though, it was also different.
Upon the small parchment sucking in all the dense Power of Darkness, Celestina carefully observed it in her hand.
"It's odd." The demon girl spoke after looking down at the leather piece for a few seconds.
"What is?" Not a fan of cryptic one-liners with which not much was explained, Feng inquired, unwilling to put much thought into what she meant on his own.
"This thing seems to be similar to a part of the bible, yet it's not at the same time. How peculiar." Confusion was painted across Celestina's face while inspecting their reward for clearing the Inferior Legendary Shrine, having no idea what it was "I wonder what is its purpose?"
"Who knows?" Without bothering to answer or explain the parchment's purpose to the Demon Empress, Feng took out the Bible of Darkness and feigned curiosity.
When the dark tome and piece of leather came close to each other, their auras were incredibly similar, and they seemed to resonate. However, even after some time passed, nothing happened.
"Oh well. Guess I'll just keep it on me." Apparently not caring enough to try anything else, Feng stored both the bible and leather piece in his bag before walking off.
Celestina looked at him with suspicion, finding his behavior weird and uncharacteristic. From her experience, Feng always seemed to know what was going to happen and was aware of many things he couldn't possibly know with his strength and location inside this Elementary God's Domain.
The fact that he had chosen to enter this Inferior Legendary Shrine and use up one of his slots meant there was something he wanted from it, while Feng had obviously already known about Synrse's presence and what to expect in the Shrine.
Yet now he was saying that he doesn't know what this reward is?
It didn't add up, and Celestina found his words difficult to believe considering her previous experiences with the man.
But there was nothing the demon maid could do about her doubts. Hence, she didn't bother questioning Feng and chose to remain silent.
Not paying any mind to Celestina's scrutinizing gaze, Feng moved on from the parchment, going back to Synrse's loot. The Demon Empress had died a long time ago and had no idea about some new things that had been created since then.
Feng felt no desire to explain what the thing they had acquired is to her, especially since she'd be far from pleased about it.
He just had to store away the Harbinger Incantation Array until the time came for it to be used.
After returning to the mountain of drops, the Salvage Ghosts had already cleaned up the place, with only a few items remaining. These were the ones with the most powerful auras which prevented the ghosts from picking them up.
It truly was an impressive haul that even Feng was slightly surprised by once he looked through all the items Synrse had dropped.
Apart from around a dozen high-quality Fragmented Legendary items and Inferior Divine Artifact materials, there were nearly two hundred Legendary materials, dozens of Master Recipes and Forging Designs for Epic items, along with two Grandmaster Recipes and an Epic Set Equipment Forging Design, all for high levels, as well as plenty of Epic Equipment, Weapons, materials, and Consumables.
Additionally, a few items that could only drop from high-level demons also appeared, together with a Legacy Guidance of decent value.
The two items that Feng had wanted to get the most, though, were a page from the Bible of Darkness, and a Black Destruction Soul Fire.
Of the two, the Soul Fire was undoubtedly the far more valuable one.
Anything that has the capability to harm souls and permanently kill players would be immensely sought after. It was especially so when it came to something like this Soul Fire which could be potentially absorbed and used as part of one's own power.
Although absorbing the Soul Fire was a bit different than regular Mysterious Flames and much more difficult, as long as one could master its usage, one's strength would receive an enormous leap.
Players who had absorbed Soul Fires and been capable of using them with some proficiency in the past were all top-tier powerhouses who no one wished to go up against. Even large powers would steer clear of conflict when it came to such individuals regardless of size due to the players' capability of causing very severe death penalties and permanently killing their members.
Of course, it largely depended on the player's strength overall and their mastery over the Soul Fire. The difficulty of fully mastering Soul Fire was very high, which contributed to the low number of players who could use it, but another factor that added to it was the scarcity and rarity of Soul Fire that players could absorb.
One wasn't likely to find a Soul Fire that was absorbable even if they scoured across dozens of God's Domains and killed large numbers of Demon Gods.
Synrse was a very old Great Demon King with a pure Bloodline and high concentration of Power of Darkness that he had gathered during his life and inside this Inferior Legendary Shrine overflowing with the thick darkness. He also had a very high mastery of Soul Fire himself. Thus, when coupled with Feng's high Luck, it wasn't that implausible for Synrse to drop one.
But it would usually be impossible to get a Soul Fire that players could absorb by killing anything less than an Ancient Demon God or coming across an opportunity of similar rarity or fortune.
Those who did get a chance to absorb a Soul Fire from one such occasion were players blessed by the Goddess of Luck.
Getting a Soul Fire itself through raiding powerful demonic beings or finding it in a treasury was usually much more probable and less complicated than finding an opportunity for it.
Still, acquiring one was incredibly difficult and rare, making any that appeared something even apex experts would try their best to get their hands on.
This Soul Fire that Feng obtained could likely be sold for a high-quality Fragmented Divine Artifact, or more depending on its quality, in the Greater God's Domain.
However, Feng had no plans of either selling the Soul Fire or absorbing it himself. There was practically no player who'd be willing to pass up on such a treasure, but Feng had other plans and options.
During the previous timeline, Feng had accidentally triggered an event that got him a Soul Fire to absorb. Moreover, unlike the Soul Fire Synrse dropped, that one had been a Silver Soul Fire.
Soul Fire could be categorized into two types: Black Destruction and Silver Creation.
The one used by demons like Celestina and Synrse was Black Soul Fire, which possessed frighteningly destructive power. As for the Soul Fire Feng had absorbed in his previous life, it was of creation. Although it was not as powerful as Black Soul Fire in terms of Attack Power, it possessed the ability to alter and mend souls.
Both of these two flames were Mysterious Flames that were exceptionally hard to come by, and few could control them. Of the two, though, Silver Soul Fire was several times rarer, and far more difficult to learn to control and proficiently use than Black Destruction.
Silver Creation was not nearly as useful in combat, which players who were capable of obtaining a Soul Fire and absorbing it would be focused on, than Black Soul Fire; being far more usable when it came to the creation of items and changing of souls. Usually, only Lifestyle Players would prefer Silver Creation Soul Fires over their destructive counterparts, but they had a much lower chance of getting either flame; much less absorbing one.
Feng was primarily a combat player before anything else, but he still preferred a Silver Soul Fire.
Technically, there was no problem with someone absorbing both types of Soul Fire and using them simultaneously. However, it doubled one's work in completely absorbing and mastering the fires' usage, while also forcing the user to find and maintain a balance between their flames so that they don't interfere and combust the user's soul.
Taking into account both types' immense rarity, value, and difficulty of utilizing, it was no secret why basically no one ever even bothered with absorbing both types of Soul Fire.
Throughout, God's Domain's history, only a few players had done it. Their mastery of either flame wasn't too great, though, which somewhat limited their potential despite the versatility of the players' powers and possibilities of combining the Silver and Black Soul Fires.
Having experienced the difficulty and cumberness of trying to master one Soul Fire, Feng had no intention of adding another one to his plate.
Particularly so when he had other ways of utilizing the Black Destruction Soul Fire, whereas there were no alternatives for getting the flames of Silver Creation.
Even with Feng's heaven-defying luck, he had only ever came across one Silver Soul Fire in his previous life.
And that was thanks to Sharlyn and the Scholar.
Its astronomical scarcity was obvious, so Feng would rather absorb it in this timeline as well while opting out of the Black Soul Fire, as apart from its actual usefulness being limited to the current him since the control he could possibly exercise over the Soul Fire wouldn't be of too much help against any opponent powerful enough that Feng would actually need to use the flames on whereas others would not possess the strength for such a thing to be required, Feng also had Black Destruction Soul Fire to attack with using something like the Pandemonium Lashblade.
In short term, he couldn't effectively utilize the Black Soul Fire if he chose to absorb it. Silver Creation Soul Fire was better for the long term as well considering that Feng could use his Soul Manipulation ability to simply break others' souls once his tier increases, whereas the creation flames could be of assistance in Feng's changing of souls using his ability.
Hence, the Soul Fire he'll later get from Sharlyn is a much better choice for Feng.
Moreover, he had just gained another way of using the Black Destruction flames from Synrse apart from absorbing the Soul Fire, and it was one of the main reasons Feng had chosen this Inferior Legendary Shrine.
Holding the pitch-black page with ancient demonic symbols written across it, Feng retrieved the Bible of Darkness from his Spatial Bag.
System: You have discovered a core page of the Bible of Darkness. Do you wish to spend 3,000 Magic Crystals to assimilate this page with the Bible of Darkness and repair it?
Feng agreed to spend three thousand Magic Crystals without hesitation, causing the page in his hand to turn into a strand of thick darkness with all kinds of symbols circling it.
The Bible of Darkness flew up into the air at the same time, opening up near the center. Flying towards the bible, the strand of darkness melded into the missing place inside the book, causing the Power of Darkness around it to surge and expand.
After around half a minute, the book's aura calmed, and the page had merged into the Bible of Darkness as seamlessly as if it had never left in the first place.
Compared to before, the feeling given off by the bible grew more grand and terrifying as its Power of Darkness thickened around it, becoming much denser.
[Bible of Darkness] (Fragmented Legendary Item)
The Bible of Darkness had been destroyed during the Great Destruction. However, the Power of Darkness contained within the Bible is extreme. If one can gather the other fragments, they can restore the Bible's power, gaining dominance over all Demonic Creatures and become the Lord of Demons.
Additional Passive Skill 1: Demonic Respect
Makes all demonic creatures of the same Tier as the user and below unconditionally obey the user. (Up to a maximum of Tier 5)
Additional Passive Skill 2: Darkness Influx
The Bible of Darkness slowly absorbs the Power of Darkness in the environment and from within all demonic creatures in the vicinity. The Power of Darkness is stored and can be used to enhance certain skills or gradually repair the Bible of Darkness to a certain extent.
Additional Active Skill 1: Demon Summoning
Summons the Demon Gate with the Power of Darkness, calling forth a random Demon that is no higher than 1 Tier and 10 Levels than the summoner (Maximum Tier cannot exceed Tier 5). The holder of the Bible of Darkness can command the summoned Demon for up to 5 hours and 30 minutes.
Cooldown: 3 hours
Additional Active Skill 2: Gate of Darkness
Allows teleportation to the Dark Den. Can also be used in the Dark Den to teleport to the outside world. Can teleport a maximum of 30 people at a single time.
Cooldown: 1 day
Additional Active Skill 3: Light of Darkness
Strengthen a player with the Power of Darkness, allowing said player to wield the Power of Darkness. Can strengthen up to a maximum of 2,500 people. Every player strengthened provides one Source of Darkness to the wielder of the Bible of Darkness.
Additional Active Skill 4: Power of Darkness
Fill your body with the Power of Darkness, increasing all Attributes by 140%, decreasing Cooldown of all Skills by 30%, and increase damage by 50%. Duration will be equal to the number of Source of Darkness*1 seconds. (Power of Darkness cannot stack. Can only strengthen players up to a maximum of Tier 5 classes)
Cooldown: 5 hours
Additional Active Skill 5: Tainted Conversion
When activated, there is a 55% chance of turning any targeted creature into a demonic being (Up to a maximum of Tier 5). Success depends on the target's Concentration standard.
Cooldown: 3 days
Additional Active Skill 6: Coming of Demons
Open a permanent gateway to the Demon Realm that any creature below Tier 6 can cross.
Cooldown: 1 year
Additional Active Skill 7: Darkness Release
Gather all the Power of Darkness within the Bible of Darkness for a single devastating attack. Power of attack depends on the amount and quality of Power of Darkness absorbed by the bible (Up to Tier 6 Basic). After activation, the Bible of Darkness will enter a Weakened period with none of its skills available for ten days.
Cooldown: 30 days
Additional Profound Inheritance: Black Destruction
Recorded are passages of flames that destroy everything they touch. Gain the power of Black Destruction through the Bible of Darkness.
Active Effect: Fourth Passage - Flame Coating
Coat your weapon with potent Soul Fire to do devastating damage to all creatures the weapon touches.
Duration: 3 minutes
Cooldown: 20 minutes
Unlike previous pages from the Bible of Darkness that Feng has been finding, the one dropped by Synrse was a core page.
The Bible of Darkness was a large book with many pages and a lot of powerful skills inside it. Naturally, some pages are more high-ranking parts of the bible and possess greater abilities, making them much better additions to the bible.
Those are core pages.
Core pages were parts of the Bible of Darkness that held the most important information, pertaining to core aspects of the demon race.
They could be of great use even by themselves, but when a core page is returned to the Bible of Darkness, it could increase the bible's power by an immense amount.
Abilities far more powerful than those from regular pages are unlocked while the Power of Darkness wielded by the bible receives a significant improvement, making them of great importance to Feng.
Unfortunately, most of the core pages were scattered across the Universal God's Domain, with only a few being in Feng's home God's Domain despite it being where the World Summit and Bible of Darkness itself are located.
The core page Synrse had a practically 100% chance of dropping was the only one Feng could obtain at the moment, so his options were very limited. Thankfully, though, this core page had about the best ability Feng could ask for from the Bible of Darkness.
It was a passage in the bible's record of Soul Fire, adding the Black Destruction Profound Inheritance to the book upon it or one of the other passages being put back inside.
By itself, the Profound Inheritance was incredibly valuable as it would allow one to become capable of using Black Soul Fire as if the user had absorbed such a flame.
The only limiting factor was that the Soul Fire didn't truly belong to the player and thus couldn't be freely wielded without the Bible of Darkness being on them at all times, while the Black Destruction's power and potency was dependent on how many passages the bible had; causing how well the player could use the Soul Fire to be out of their control as their only way of improving the flames was to find more passages.
Feng wouldn't benefit from the control over Soul Fire provided by the Profound Inheritance any more than gaining the most basic level of mastery over the black flames if he had absorbed one. Regardless of how much he could utilize them through the skill, the abilities gained by passages gave a direct way of using Soul Fire.
Synrse's Fourth Passage allowed Feng to directly coat his swords with Black Soul Fire not unlike the Pandemonium Lashblade's skill, but this one could be applied to any weapon and had a much longer duration. The only flaw was that the flames' power is correlated to how many passages had been put inside the Black Destruction Profound Inheritance.
Of all the abilities gained through the passages, Flame Coating was of greatest value to Feng since others either weren't of direct use to the current him or he couldn't bring out their full potential due to Feng's weak Mana.
It was the greatest boon he could ask for and the core page the most valuable item for Feng of the ones dropped by the Great Demon King.
Coupled with the Black Soul Fire which Feng could give to one of Zero Wing's experts to use as well as the loads of other immensely valuable loot, not to mention the high-quality Harbinger Incantation Array that served as the reward, Feng's trip to the Inferior Legendary Shrine turned out to be very profitable.
Exiting the Shrine, Feng spread his wings and flew down the mountain, heading to the bottom.
Although he still had one more chance to enter another Inferior Legendary Shrine, since most of his strong skills were now off cooldown, Feng planned to first climb up the Divine Staircase as many times as he could and get a bunch of goodies before going for the fourth Shrine; in which the skills would be reset upon beginning its challenge.
Feng flew through the Shrines faster than ever before in this timeline, easily taking down the Guardian Bosses and immediately moving on without even needing to pause to pick up the drops thanks to his Inferior Legendary Spatial Bag's Roomba Passive Skill.
Even when faced with Mythic monsters past the 40th Shrine, he didn't have any trouble making short work of them thanks to his high attributes and the level difference between them.
Superior Mythic Guardian Bosses proved to be more troublesome, Feng not being able to easily bring those down through normal attacks considering their higher HP, Defense, survivability, and intelligence. Still, it only required him to chain a couple of skills with short cooldowns to kill even Superior Mythic monsters.
Of course, that was thanks to the monsters on the Divine Staircase usually having significantly lower HP than creatures in the outside world, even as Realm Lords. Otherwise, Feng would find it difficult to solo a Superior Mythic monster without trying his best due to his damage-dealing capabilities being too low to handle their enormous HPs.
Soon Feng reached the 80th Divine Shrine, now facing a genuine challenge up against the Archaic Species Superior Mythic monsters. It took him a lot of time and effort to defeat any Guardian Boss after that point, but Feng still mainly relied on skills like Thundering Flash and Thunder Flame Explosion to do large amounts of damage quickly, along with using Combat Techniques and other skills in order to kill them.
After slowly fighting through the Archaic Species Superior Mythic monsters, Feng reached the 90th Divine Shrine. Now he began struggling with even doing enough damage to the Guardian Bosses that were on par with World Bosses, not being able to outpace their natural recovery.
Activating Mysticsteel Berserk, Feng had to up his game and use more power to deal with the difficult foes. Even then, he struggled with actually killing and finishing off the Guardian Bosses, especially if he brought their HP lower and caused the monsters to use more moves or go Berserk.
Their power and his low damage output forced Feng into having to use the more powerful skills in his arsenal, such as Mass Impact, Internal Shock, Decomposition Flowoff, Destruction Soul Flames, and the new Flame Coating, or utilize some of his Tools to quickly take the monsters down.
Unfortunately, all the strongest skills have longer cooldowns, so he picked which ones to activate when or to pause between Shrines for some to become available again.
In such a way, Feng climbed through the Divine Shrines with the World Boss-level Superior Mythic Guardian Bosses, having gained another three Exploits after killing the 90th Shrine's boss monster along the way, and rose to the 100th Divine Shrine.
Coming face to face with the Level 100 Hellish Broodmother once more, Feng wasn't going to get completely trashed like last time. Despite there being a one-level difference between them and the Legendary Realm Lord having crossed a major Level threshold, the Guardian Boss could not overwhelm Feng.
Compared to before, Feng was higher level and had much greater attributes thanks to his improved equipment and overall combat power, so although he was technically on the losing end, the Hellish Broodmother wasn't magnitudes stronger than him now.
Feng wasn't lacking in attributes and he could handle himself against the Legendary creature, but the Tier 1 Swordsman fell short when it came to the edge that high tiers gave to creatures who progress through the rankings. Feng simply couldn't compete in many aspects with the Hellish Broodmother, which prevented him from properly standing his ground.
Nonetheless, the giant arachnid wasn't winning either.
In fact, since God's Domain hasn't developed all that much, even a Legendary monster's combat standards weren't that high all things considered, allowing Feng to easily combat the Hellish Broodmother; and with Yog-Sothoth at his side, the boss monster was even less of a threat. While easily dodging all its attacks with grace, Feng could even manage to get a few strikes in.
However, his regular attacks didn't do shit to the Legendary spider, while the damage Feng could dish out with his skills was far from adequate to pose any kind of threat to the Guardian Boss.
Without being disheartened by the revelation since he had already been aware the situation would develop in such a manner, Feng continued steadily attacking as he prepared to take down the Tier 5 Guardian Boss as a Tier 1 player.
Soulharvest Synergy!
All of Feng's skills for combat having previously been reset thanks to the Inferior Legendary Shrine's rules, his strongest Berserk Skill could be used once more while he fought against the Hellish Broodmother.
Except this time, he wasn't using all his power just to survive and escape with his life after stealing the Platinum Legacy Tablet. Instead, Feng was fighting to kill the Legendary spider.
Though, he didn't go Twofold Berserk just yet, choosing to only use Soulharvest Synergy right now.
Feng's attributes and overall power greatly increased thanks to the Berserk Skill as he sacrificed fifty souls of Superior Mythic monsters, some of which he had gained himself while climbing up the Divine Staircase and some being from the batch Black Flame gave Feng.
The Hellish Broodmother had even more trouble trying to catch him now with Feng's increased speed, and when he landed a blow after activating Soulharvest Synergy, the force was enough to actually do a decent bit of damage to the Realm Lord.
Feng immediately followed up with Internal Shock and commenced an onslaught on the Legendary Guardian Boss. Much differently than before, Feng's attacks did much more to the giant spider this time, large damages appearing above its head as the Hellish Broodmother began screeching.
Purple blood was spat out from its mouth, the powerful internal force from Internal Shock causing great damage to the Realm Lord's insides.
His current damage output could even allow Feng to slay the fiend, while the physical damage would weaken its combat power significantly.
After all, with the Shock-Inducing Fists now being at Legendary rank, even Tier 6 beings would suffer from the effects of Internal Shock, much less a Tier 5 monster like the Hellish Broodmother.
All of the power behind Feng's attacks was directly transferred to the spider's internal structure and organs, which were much weaker than the Legendary creature's tough exterior body which his current attacks could barely scratch without Feng using his full strength.
After a couple of precise hits, the Hellish Broodmother's speed and accuracy seemed to drop, giving Feng an even greater advantage, and when he landed a good hit on its head, the purple spider seemed to have grown dizzy.
It all went downhill for the Guardian Boss from there.
Within Internal Shock's duration, Feng did enough damage to its insides that the Legendary monster was practically crippled, even getting its natural recovery cut off upon Feng nearly destroying the spider's heart from the outside.
Not much later, Feng took away the last of the Hellish Broodmother's HP while activating Divine Providence, a hill of loot appearing upon its death. Feng was also rewarded with five more Exploits.
Continuing his ascent up the Divine Staircase, Feng killed the Legendary Guardian Bosses in the 101st and 102nd Shrines as well with some effort by using his stronger skills, though they weren't quite as effective as Internal Shock.
However, when he attempted to fight the 103rd Divine Shrine's Level 106 Guardian Boss, Feng found that he wouldn't be able to kill it the same way even with Soulharvest Synergy activated and all his skills. It had crossed another minor Level threshold and become too powerful for Feng to wholly defeat.
Feng would either only be able to get close to killing it but unable to finish it off, or it would take a very long time until he's able to eventually whittle the boss monster down.
Thus, Power of Darkness was activated as well, entering Twofold Berserk and fighting the Level 106 Legendary monster head-on.
Taking it down, Feng didn't waste any time and continued up to the 104th Divine Shrine, hurrying to kill its Level 108 Guardian Boss as well before Power of Darkness's duration ran out. Relying on the enormous boost in power provided by his Twofold Berserk state and the high-damage skills, the Legendary monster fell under Feng's hands just before the improved seventeen-minute duration ended.
System: Congratulations! You have passed the Divine Shrine. Rewarding 300,000 Shrine Points.
System: Congratulations! You have passed the Divine Shrine within the time limit. Rewarding 300,000 Shrine Points.
System: Congratulations! You have killed the Guardian Boss within the time limit. Rewarding 2,000,000 Shrine Points.
Exiting the 104th Shrine, Feng received more Shrine Points, bringing his total to 34,711,360; while the amount of loot he had gained was enormous.
Still, Feng's climb up the Divine Staircase was far from done. He was simply pausing to wait for Internal Shock and his other powerful skills that could be used against the Guardian Bosses to come off cooldown.
Apart from the bestowed Power of Darkness that Feng had copied, he still had another, more powerful, one to use from the Bible of Darkness, along with a few other Berserk Skills, so Feng could still achieve Twofold Berserk and continue taking down the Legendary Guardian Bosses one by one as high as he could go before the Level difference became too much. Not to mention Feng's other trump cards.
As for Soulharvest Synergy, he wasn't worried about it running out any time soon.
The Pandemonium Lashblade's Profound Inheritance was fundamentally a very different Berserk Skill than that of other items. It had no set amount of attributes that it gives or length that it lasts.
How much power one would obtain upon activating it and the skill's duration depended on the quality of souls that are sacrificed for Soulharvest Synergy's activation as well as the user's own Tier and soul ranking.
Although Feng's attributes were already high, he was still only Tier 1 and his soul wasn't very powerful at the moment even with Sharlyn's Blessing due to there not being much it could improve.
From his experience and calculations, Soulharvest Synergy usually grants the user 1-3% attributes from the creature whose soul is absorbed for creatures of the same or lower tier as the user, while 4-5% attributes are transferred from beings of a higher tier than the user when their souls are absorbed.
Duration varies more along with the difference in tiers and strength of the creatures whose souls are used. At the moment, Feng would get a few seconds from a Tier 0 soul, a Tier 1 soul would give 5 to 10 seconds, a Tier 2 soul 20 to 40 seconds, 1 to 5 minutes from Tier 3 souls, 10 to 20 minutes from Tier 4 souls, and Tier 5 souls would provide at least one hour; Tier 6 souls were an unknown. It still largely depended on the soul's power, and if it was from a being of a higher order like Dragons, the duration provided might be equivalent to half a tier or a tier higher than theirs.
Meanwhile, Soulharvest Synergy allowed the user to absorb 50 different souls.
All the souls Feng had absorbed belonged to powerful Tier 4 Superior Mythic monsters obtained from Guardian Bosses serving in Divine Shrines numbered 90th to 99th. Each of them provided 19 to 20 minutes of Soulharvest Synergy duration, resulting in Feng having around 16 hours of Berserk state. Additionally, this time is further extended by 75% thanks to the Savitarian Carnation Bloodline's effects, reaching over 28 hours.
Of course, the durations are so long due to the difference in tiers between Feng and the souls he is consuming. If he were a Tier 4 player, the combined time from those souls would have given Feng less than twenty minutes.
This way, though, he received the high attributes for hours.
That being said, Feng didn't really benefit from the attributes themselves since he already couldn't use his full strength due to the limitations of his tier.
But Soulharvest Synergy improved more than just attributes. It also enhanced one's Physique, Mana, and overall improved their power. Hence, in this situation, the Berserk Skill allowed Feng to utilize more of his strength rather than increased it.
Paired with Feng's powerful skills and potentially another Berserk Skill, he finally had enough strength to kill Legendary monsters as a Tier 1 player.
However, it was due to Feng once again abusing the current low development of God's Domain and the monsters' low intelligence. If he were to attempt the same thing after a few more updates, Feng wouldn't even be able to fight the Hellish Broodmother, much less these higher-level creatures.
Feng planned to fully take advantage of his current chance to gain large amounts of valuable items, high-quality souls, and Life Force for the Blood Refining Crystal by mass-killing the Tier 5 monsters.
After the necessary skills were available again, Feng went on to the 105th Divine Shrine. Upon making his way through its giant interior and engaging the Level 110 Legendary Guardian Boss, it quickly became apparent the Level difference was a big problem, so Feng activated his second Power of Darkness.
This one activated from the bible was both stronger and longer, giving Feng the edge he needed to do damage to the Legendary Realm Lord. By chaining his stronger skills one after the other, he could do actual damage to it and pose a threat to the boss monster.
Feng managed to take it down with struggle before continuing to the 106th Divine Shrine. Facing the Level 112 Legendary monster serving as the Guardian Boss, even with Twofold Berserk, Feng could only survive against it right now since most of his skills were on cooldown.
Delaying it and doing a small amount of damage to the Guardian Boss until Power of Darkness duration was almost up, his skills were available once more and Feng immediately used them one after the other or together to quickly beat down on the Legendary creature.
He barely made it, managing to kill the boss monster shortly after the Berserk Skill ended; leaving the Shrine after collecting all the drops.
System: Congratulations! You have passed the Divine Shrine. Rewarding 450,000 Shrine Points.
System: Congratulations! You have passed the Divine Shrine within the time limit. Rewarding 450,000 Shrine Points.
System: Congratulations! You have killed the Guardian Boss within the time limit. Rewarding 3,000,000 Shrine Points.
Taking another break while waiting for the skills to be ready, Feng made his way through the 107th Divine Shrine, trying to get to the Teleportation Array without attracting any attention from the patrolling monsters or trigger traps.
When Feng arrived at the Level 114 Guardian Boss's location and was prepared, he activated Heavenly Dragon's Power and rushed in with a sneak attack.
Although shorter than Power of Darkness and not as well-rounded when it came to attributes, the Fragmented Legendary Ring's Berserk Skill provided a greater boost to the Strength that Feng could use, so it was a better skill for these situations against extremely powerful foes and why Feng left Heavenly Dragon's Power to be used after his Power of Darknesses.
During the five minutes and fifteen seconds of Twofold Berserk, all of Feng's skills like Internal Shock and Flame Coating were utilized in an effort to kill the Legendary ranked Realm Lord.
The fights grew a lot more difficult with each consecutive Shrine due to the quality of Guardian Bosses improving as well as their Level rising, forcing Feng to give it more effort while switching to more powerful means.
Even with Heavenly Dragon's Power, he struggled to whittle the boss monster down enough, especially when it went Berserk, but Feng somehow managed to defeat it thanks to skills like Forbidden Domain preventing the Legendary monster from showing its full might.
Another pause was made between the 107th and 108th Shrines for Feng's skills to come off cooldown, going to face the Level 116 Guardian Boss with Imperial Ascendance this time around and throwing the abilities at it. Even with the increase in power between the Shrines' boss monsters, Feng bridged the gap with an even stronger Berserk Skill and more Combat Techniques used one after the other along with his powerful skills.
Killing the Legendary creature seventeen Levels higher than him, he left and, following a slightly longer break, went on to the 109th Divine Shrine.
By this point, Feng was out of long Berserk Skills, being left with only his new Supersonic Fists. It was Feng's greatest damage-dealing Berserk Skill, but also the shortest, having a duration of a little over two and a half minutes even with the Savitarian Carnation Bloodline's improvement.
Nevertheless, he planned on making that time count.
Feng began by restricting the Level 118 Legendary Realm Lord as much as possible without holding anything back, activating Forbidden Domain, the Tier 4 Abyssal Bind and Abyssal Curse, Dragon's Authority, the Tier 5 Emperor's Haki, Gravitational Dominion Field at maximum power, and even the Space Helmet's new Vacuum skill.
All of a sudden, the unsuspecting boss monster was rendered completely immobile, under an extreme mental suppression, its body experiencing a very powerful gravity that stiffened it even further yet at the same time feeling weightless and without anything around it or ground to stand on. Breathing became impossible as the creature could not feel any air or its surroundings, while even the Mana around it seemed to have been removed.
Using the Mana in its body or any of its skills also didn't seem to work for the Guardian Boss, leaving it completely helpless and powerless.
Appearing in front of the poor monster with Ethereal Blitz after switching to the Aura of Fire, Feng began wailing on it, executing Sword's Orbit at a standard nearing an Advanced Silver Combat Technique with Supersonic Fists, Internal Shock, Flame Coating, and Destruction Soul Flames activated. He also used the skills he had been somewhat reserving because of their long cooldowns such as Dragon Dive, Moonchaser, and Drago Buster.
Throwing literally everything Feng had at the Legendary monster that could not move or feel or use any skills while being weakened and having its Defense and Magic Defense reduced by nearly 100%, the overpowered protagonist tried to end the one-sided fight without it truly beginning before his Berserk Skill ended.
Enormous damages were being done to the boss monster, both its HP decreasing like flowing water and its body being ravaged by the internal force wreaking its insides and Soul Fire leaving scorching burns across the Legendary creature and its soul.
Over time, it began slightly fighting off and recovering from its suppressed state, particularly after Abyssal Bind's duration ended, but it could still not do anything or fight back.
Even when Supersonic Fists', Internal Shock's, and Destruction Soul Flames' durations ran out, the Guardian Boss could still do nothing against Feng or protect itself while the damage it had sustained was so gruesome that despite not being in Twofold Berserk anymore, Feng still managed to kill it with the follow up of Decomposition Flowoff and Mass Impact.
Collecting the loot and taking a small break for his Concentration and Stamina to recover a bit while the skills came off cooldown, Feng departed from the 109th Divine Shrine, receiving another 3,900,000 Shrine Points, and headed into the 110th Divine Shrine.
Reaching the central area that housed the Teleportation Array and Guardian Boss, the thought of killing this Level 120 Legendary Realm Lord like he did the other boss monsters did not occur to Feng.
There was no sudden attack or volley of restriction and attack skill thrown at the creature, with Feng calmly approaching it in steady steps. The Guardian Boss, which was a ten-meter-tall golden anteater that possessed a special Bloodline, took notice of the intruder as soon as Feng revealed himself; dashing forward and slashing its claws at the small human.
But when the Level 120 boss monster's strikes landed on Feng, they didn't even ruffle his cloak. Surprised and enraged, the anteater began madly attacking Feng, using whatever moves and skill it had to kill the intruder.
Nonetheless, it all failed to do any damage to him, who just stood still and let it happen.
The nonstop assault lasted for a minute and ten seconds before Feng made his move. When the Legendary monster made a big, unsuspecting opening, having realized that the human was not attempting to do anything, Feng struck forward, executing Swordmaster Blitzstrike for an attack with Worldly Purification and releasing all the power Gloomsong Glade had accumulated through his sword.
Despite their close proximity, the Tier 5 anteater's sharp senses took notice of the sudden danger, but it was too late for it to dodge, whereas all of the Guardian Boss's skills became unavailable out of nowhere. The most it could do was cross its forelegs in a defensive attempt.
Boom!
An unstoppable power rushed out and smashed into the Legendary monster, sending it flying a hundred yards until it crashed into the building housing the Teleportation Array.
Feng reached it in the blink of an eye and unleashed an onslaught upon the anteater, which had been heavily damaged with its forelimbs gone and chest caved in. A large chunk of the Guardian Boss's HP was also removed as it fell into an Injured state.
However, despite the advantage Gloomsong Glade had bought him, and the Legendary creature being unable to even properly defend itself while Silenced and injured, Feng could not kill it. Internal Shock and his other skills did do damage, but their durations would run out way before Feng is able to actually finish off the Level 120 Guardian Boss.
'Welp, about what I expected. Seems like I have no other choice.' Feng understood that it was pointless to keep going like this since there was no hope of killing the Legendary monster, so he activated Gale Domain and moved on with the next thing he had in store.
The next time Feng's sword slashed across the Guardian Boss, a white feather enveloped with a dark blue shine appeared and flew to pierce the anteater's body as well, causing a large damage to appear above its head. With every lightning-fast attack Feng landed, another feather would appear and join his onslaught.
Profound Inheritance, Rendering The Sky!
With each aerial hit that Feng performed, he could summon a feather that flew and attacked his enemies for a certain amount of time during the skill's duration.
Aerial hits was a bit of a loose condition when it came to Rendering The Sky, basically counting any attack that lands while performed during flight or in freefall. Though, it didn't count if one was flying using their Mana Domain like beings at Tier 4 and above do; with only natural ways like wings or a skill that allowed flight fulfilling the requirement for a Flowing Feather to appear.
Gale Domain worked for Feng's purpose quite well, and he could essentially float around slightly above ground while striking the boss monster with Sword's Orbit; the anteater being unable to protect itself in its current state.
Thanks to none of his extraordinarily fast attacks being blocked, the number of Flowing Feathers quickly rose, and Feng managed to summon three hundred of them simultaneously within less than thirty seconds.
Suddenly, upon the number of feathers reaching three hundred, they all shot into the sky and came together, fusing in a blinding light.
Screeee!
Following a defeating bird screech, a terrifying aura washed over both Feng and the Guardian Boss that was attempting to get up, along with a powerful Divine Might coming from above them. The stupendous pressure seemed to do nothing to Feng, as if he was immune to it, while the Legendary creature got even further suppressed; and it could only look up at the sky in fear, where a ginormous pair of wings had appeared.
---
Up the World Summit at the Legendary Shrine area, Black Flame quietly sat as he meditated. The Perfect Clone had already used up all his chances to enter the Epic and Inferior Legendary Shrines, so he was only left with going to a Legendary Shrine.
However, he had used up plenty of Concentration and Stamina during his ascent up the Divine Staircase and the subsequent tasks in the Shrines for rewads, so Black Flame decided to rest here for a while until Feng finished with his thing and brought him all the powerful items that he could equip.
After all, the clone was about to attempt the most difficult challenge on the World Summit, second only to the actual World Summit Trial; and potentially the genuine true challenge for the real Bible of Darkness that someone would normally have to pass in order to get the bible without the Darkness Descends Quest.
Thus, the two of them wished for Black Flame to be as prepared as possible for it, since his success or failure in passing the challenge would spell doom for them. Without the item that was the challenge's reward and possibly the best item one could get on the World Summit, and potentially the greatest Divine Artifact ranked Consumable in the entire universe, it's very likely that their hopes of completing the goal of killing a Tier 6 natural-born God and passing the Tier 2 God Mode Promotion Quest would be dashed.
---
In the 119th Divine Shrine on the Divine Staircase, a lone human stood before the corpse of a gigantic creature. The Level 138 Legendary Guardian Boss still excluded a powerful aura even in death, but its body was in a pitiful state.
Huge gashes and wounds covered the Legendary creature's entire body, and its eyes seemed to have been ripped out.
Feng calmly picked up all the dropped loot and stepped into the Teleportation Array, leaving the 119th Shrine.
System: Congratulations! You have passed the Divine Shrine. Rewarding 1,000,000 Shrine Points.
System: Congratulations! You have passed the Divine Shrine within the time limit. Rewarding 1,000,000 Shrine Points.
System: Congratulations! You have killed the Guardian Boss within the time limit. Rewarding 8,000,000 Shrine Points.
As expected, Rendering The Sky was an extremely useful skill. So long as Feng succeeded in summoning a Sky-Rendering Falcon, killing any Legendary Guardian Boss was a trivial matter.
Even with a level difference between them, a Level 119 Tier 6 Divine monster could still trample over the Legendary Realm Lords.
Feng simply had to create three hundred Flowing Feathers simultaneously, and he was guaranteed to win. But that was easier said than done.
Unlike the 110th Divine Shrine's Guardian Boss, those that came after it were in top shape and didn't just lay there injured, accepting Feng's bombardment of attacks. Each of them attempted to kill the intruder with full effort, making it very difficult for Feng to even survive against them since he just had Soulharvest Synergy active now, much less spare some effort into landing blows on the monsters.
Furthermore, Gale Domain had a limited duration, so once the flying skill ended, Feng switched to Aeon Glide for a while, before he was eventually forced into unequipping the Blood Emperor's Armor and using his wings to achieve aerial attacks.
The removal of his Legendary Chestplate made things even dicier for Feng, but he managed to pull through by relying on his speed while flying and techniques, along with utilizing skills like Forbidden Domain to hamper the boss monsters' attempt to kill him as well as keeping himself safe with Absolute Domain and Ash Body to not get killed.
Along with Feng's other skills, it became possible for him to summon a Sky-Rendering Falcon for multiple battles, since unlike the Ghost Tree Feng couldn't take them through the Teleportation Array along with him, managing to climb up through ten Shrines from the 110th to the 119th within the twenty-six minutes and fifteen seconds Rendering The Sky was active.
It was barely enough time since Feng first had to quickly make his way to the Shrines' center without getting caught up in the dangers spread out through his path, and then survive against the powerful Guardian Bosses while trying his best to land three hundred attacks that properly landed and counted within thirty seconds on said Legendary monsters.
This was difficult considering the Realm Lords were plenty strong already, growing even more powerful the higher he went with greater Bloodlines and Levels, which also caused it to take longer as the Tier 6 summon killed it.
The entire process had to be done without any mistakes or wasted movements in order to make the most of Rendering The Sky's duration and climb higher up the Divine Staircase.
Though, even if Feng could summon a Tier 6 creature to fight a Guardian Boss for him, it normally would not be enough to clear Shrines like this. After all, although a Divine monster could still kill Legendary Realm Lords of higher levels than itself with relative ease, it would take some time and effort to end the opponent.
A skill with a regular Divine summon would have at most allowed Feng to rise through two to three Divine Shrines.
However, Sky-Rendering Falcons were in no way ordinary, being ancient creatures from an era before the Great Destruction. They were much stronger than monsters of today and could be considered Primordial Beasts.
Nonetheless, the strength a Sky-Rendering Falcon would possess upon being summoned by Rendering The Sky would still largely depend on the user. With Feng's current standard and abilities, the falcons he summons would have strength comparable to Archaic Species Divine monsters.
Hence, Falcon's Grace was of incredible use, coming in to be very helpful in the goal of climbing as high as possible on the Divine Staircase.
Just as the Profound Inheritance was about to end, the Level 119 Tier 6 Sky-Rendering Falcon that Feng had summoned in the 119th Shrine managed to finish off the Level 138 Legendary Guardian Boss. With its death, another huge amount of high-quality items was added to Feng's bag space, along with a huge number of Shrine Points.
Once Feng had rested up a bit, he went on to enter the 120th Divine Shrine.
Even the weakest creature in this Shrine was a Level 138 Mythic monster, and they all patrolled in sizeable groups with an Archaic Species one leading the way. Superior Mythic monsters could also be often seen.
Feng was once again forced to tread carefully and sneak past them all like a rat, lest he get besieged by these monsters around forty Levels higher than him.
After a while, he finally arrived at the center where the Teleportation Array was housed, making sure to fully conceal his presence.
Standing in front of the Teleportation Array like a guard dog was an enormous t-rex-looking creature that was over seven hundred meters tall. The behemoth gave off an oppressive aura with just its size, while the immense pressure it radiated even distorted space.
[Xoriorapptus (Realm Lord)] (Archaic Species, Legendary)
Level 140
HP 180,000,000,000/180,000,000,000
The 120th Shrine's Guardian Boss was an absolute beast, being a creature with an insanely high Defense and amount of HP. With its battle recovery, the Xoriorapptus could recover 3.6 billion HP every five seconds.
Feng did not have any chance of killing it in battle, and even his Sky-Rendering Falcon would need a while to whittle down the Legendary Archaic Species monster. Attempting to fight it would simply be suicide right now since Rendering The Sky was on cooldown.
But Feng had no intention of fighting the Xoriorapptus. He would simply kill it.
Tier 3 Taboo Skill, Instant Strike!
Using the skill, Feng appeared on top of the giant t-rex, calmly standing on its head. His presence was instantly noticed by the Guardian Boss, its eyes the size of a truck rolling within their sockets to gaze upwards at the figure that dared to step on its head.
The Xoriorapptus opened its mouth, wishing to release a world-shaking roar of anger and pulverize the human, but before the boss monster could make a sound, it froze with its mouth wide open, and eyes colored in shock and fear.
Feng activated Divine Steps and disappeared from his spot, leaving behind a small black sphere, that slowly began to expand, within the top of the creature's head.
Profound Inheritance, Black Hole!
Within an instant, the black hole grew three times in size, beginning to consume the ginormous Legendary monster from the head.
Out of instinct, the Guardian Boss attempted to run away and activate a skill to escape, but an incredibly powerful force pulled it, primarily the Xoriorapptus's head, towards the black hole, with even all the Mana being sucked inside its gravitational force from the surroundings and the Legendary creature's body; making it incapable of manipulating any Mana or using skills.
Even if that wasn't the case, though, Forbidden Domain currently enveloped the Xoriorapptus, so its skills wouldn't come into play either way.
Try as it might, the Guardian Boss could not escape the Black hole's immense suction force, its head getting quickly absorbed from the inside as the spatial phenomenon grew from the very fatal place that Feng had put it.
The Legendary monster's brain was soon mostly consumed by the black hole, and although the Tier 5 being could continue surviving and moving without the head that quickly followed, the pulling force only increased as the Black Hole became larger and larger; rendering the Xoriorapptus completely powerless to run for its life.
Before more of its body could get spaghettified, the Legendary Archaic Species Realm Lord's HP fell to zero, as one would expect it to do after a black hole grew inside the unsuspecting dinosaur's head.
Seeing that the Guardian Boss was dead, Feng deactivated Black Hole. If he didn't the gravitational catastrophe would continue to endlessly grow in size and power until it devoured the entire Divine Shrine, continuing to remove the World Summit from the Dark Den, and eventually encompassing the entire Dark Den itself.
Feng was actually slightly curious if the World Summit's powerful environment and Legendary Shrines could do anything about the Black Hole and stop it from engulfing the huge mountain, but he'd rather not experiment with such a thing right now.
Having been turned off, the black hole began shrinking down, returning to its initial size within a few seconds and continuing to grow smaller until it became a small black dot that puffed out of existence, as if it had never been there.
However, the distorted surroundings, bent space, disassembled Mana, ruined Mana flow, and giant corpse of a Legendary monster told a different story.
Moments later, a golden light shone down on Feng.
All of the stress on his body was instantly relieved, while Feng's Stamina and expended Concentration recovered completely.
System: Congratulations! You have exceeded your own limits and achieved a feat acknowledged by the Gods. Rewarding five Exploits.
Couple with the Exploits he received from killing the 90th, 100th, and 110th Divine Shrines' Guardian Bossess, Feng had accumulated 18 Exploits during his climb.
Simultaneously, a ray of holy light descended from the sky, and Feng heard a divine chant sounding throughout the Shrine space as several hundred globes of light fell from the sky, landing around the t-rex's corpse.
Getting a Holy Chant was simply the cherry on top for Feng, gaining a huge amount of precious items from the Legendary Archaic Species monster. After picking up all the drops along with his Salvage Ghosts, Feng left the 120th Divine Shrine.
System: Congratulations! You have passed the Divine Shrine. Rewarding 1,500,000 Shrine Points.
System: Congratulations! You have passed the Divine Shrine within the time limit. Rewarding 1,500,000 Shrine Points.
System: Congratulations! You have killed the Guardian Boss within the time limit. Rewarding 12,000,000 Shrine Points.
Having cleared the first 120 Divine Shrines on the Divine Staircase while killing every Guardian Boss along the way, the number of Shrine Points Feng had gained was huge, totaling to 151,011,360 points.
Feng had no more trump cards to play against the following Guardian Bosses who were even more powerful than the Xoriorapptus, so he chose to leave the Divine Staircase.
Immediately upon returning to the bottom, Feng entered it again and began soaring up through the Shrines, wishing to take full advantage of Soulharvest Synergy's long duration to use up as many of his chances to go on the Divine Staircase as possible.
For the next twenty-four or so hours, he repeatedly flew up and down the Divine Staircase nine times. Thanks to the Berserk Skill being active Feng had an even easier time dealing with the Superior Mythic Guardian Bosses and was able to quickly go up to the 100th Divine Shrine, and beyond.
Each run took him two to three hours depending on how his skills line up and whether his Berserk Skills were off cooldown.
Whenever his Power of Darknesses were available Feng would go up to 109th Shrine, killing all the boss monsters along the way. If they weren't, he could only go up to the 102nd Shrine before having to give up on murdering the Guardian Bosses and either just pass by them for Shrine Points or return to the bottom and restart.
In such a way, Feng had climbed up to both the 102nd and 109th Divine Shrine four times, while on his ninth go, all his Berserk Skills' and Rendering The Sky's cooldowns ended in the same period, allowing him to continue back to the 119th Shrine.
Feng saw that less than two hours of Soulharvest Synergy remained when he was at the start again, so this time, once he reached the first Superior Mythic monster, Feng summoned the Ghost Tree.
With the Tier 5 Ghost Tree, he was now steamrolling through the monsters, flying up to the 100th Divine Shrine in a few minutes while having killed all the Guardian Bosses and used them as nourishment for the apparition.
Another spider bit the dust under the Ghost Tree's branches, and they moved past the 100th Shrine, quickly climbing all the way up to the 104th through a combination of Feng's and the Ghost Tree's power before having to stop and restart, lest Feng won't have enough time for his remaining chances.
But after going up to the same point three more times, Feng noticed that the ghost Tree had grown considerably stronger after absorbing the many Guardian Bosses and was able to kill them even faster now, so he went on to the 105th Divine Shrine, managing to kill its boss monster with relative ease as well when Feng and his ghostly summon worked together.
For the remainder of his tries up the Divine Staircase, Feng would venture higher with the Ghost Tree every time as it turned into a more powerful entity with each ascent and massacre of the Guardian Bosses.
Thankfully, by the time the Ghost Tree Profound Inheritance ended, Feng had already used up all the chances his Legendary Key gave him to step foot on the Divine Staircase.
Within those twenty climbs, a harvest of stupefying proportions was made, definitely being the most any player below Tier 5 had ever obtained from the Divine Staircase.
Feng had accumulated a total of 1,036,627,200 Shrine Points by reaching such high Shrines and killing their Guardian Bosses; along with eighteen Exploits.
The monsters Feng had slain, specifically the Tier 5 creatures, contributed the most.
He had killed over eight hundred Superior Mythic monsters, their power ranging from regular monsters to World Bosses of the same rank, and one hundred and thirty Legendary monsters of various strengths, amounting to over 130 Tier 5 souls that Feng had snatched within the Pandemonium Lashblade and Kill Collectors; having filled up all his soul storage with their and the Superior Mythic monsters' souls. Once Feng couldn't carry any more on him, he resorted to absorbing parts of the weaker souls with Reaper instead of storing them in the Profound Inheritance, boosting Feng's strength even more and allowing him to go further at a quicker pace.
Apart from souls, the Life Force Feng gained for the Blood Refining Crystal from killing Mythic, Superior Mythic, and Legendary monsters was very large, amounting to numerous Blood Points. Their deaths resulted in Feng forming a couple of Life Crystals, which would come to be of great use. The Ghost Tree had also benefited a lot from devouring the Guardian Bosses, having grown much stronger than before.
Most of all, the loot was abundant, drops of so many high-ranking Realm Lords being very valuable by themselves, not to mention when over a thousand of such creatures were killed by a person of Feng's Luck, with him having activated Divine Providence for every Legendary boss monster as well as a large number of Superior Mythic ones. Thanks to having a bunch of Life Force stored within his Life Capturers, Feng could afford to use a maximum Divine providence for so many of them, further contributing to the items he had gathered while climbing.
All these high-ranking weapons and equipment would come in very handy once Feng restored more Zero Wing members, adequately equipping them for work as soon as they joined the Burning Wing Legion.
There were too many materials to count, so Candlelight won't be seeing a shortage of these any time soon, whereas the Designs and Recipes Feng acquired could give all the Trading Firm's members plenty of work. He had also gained several fragments for the Oppresing Slayer Design, an Advanced Design players could get by killing Guardian Bosses past the 100th Divine Shrine. Though, a large number of fragments were still missing before Feng could complete it.
And that was without counting all the other treasures Feng had picked up from the Guardian Bosses' corpses; or more like sucked up thanks to his Inferior Legendary Spatial Bag's abilities.
Finally leaving the Divine Staircase completely, he headed over to the Divine Hall's exchange counter.
Much different from the last time Feng was here with a bustling crowd of Zero Wing members, there currently wasn't anyone around in the Divine Hall.
All the players had already used up their chances for the Divine Staircase and purchased their desired items or done whatever business they could with other restored members, so they had moved on, either climbing up the mountain to visit Shrines or leaving the World Summit.
When Feng arrived at the counter, though, he noticed that a certain demon receptionist was lying across it in a sexy pose with a portion of her clothes removed, Mariabelle gazing at him seductively as if knowing Feng would come beforehand and choosing to make a seduction attempt.
"Sir, you've returned," The demon girl spoke in a coquettish tone as she welcomed Feng, but suddenly paused, her eyes widening for a moment before her smile turned even wider "Allow me to congratulate you on becoming a Vice Administrator, sir. I'd expect no less from the person who had climbed the highest on the Divine Staircase."
"Thank you very much." Feng didn't reserve himself upon reaching the exchange counter, putting his hands on the receptionist's waist and pulling Mariabelle to his chest, asking after she brought the matter up "Can you tell me what privileges I get at the Divine Hall as a Vice Administrator of the World Summit?"
"Of course," Restraining her voice from emitting a moan when she felt Feng's hands touch her, the demon girl explained "Since you are a Vice Administrator, you are allowed to purchase items from the Basic Menu without restrictions with a 50% discount for Shrine Points and 100% discount on Exploits. On the Advanced Menu, a Vice Administrator can exchange for up to five items of the same type and rank with a discount of 30% Shrine points and one Exploit. If you don't have enough to exchange for something, it's possible to pay for an Exploit using 10,000,000 Shrine Points, or purchase five million Shrine Points worth of items for one Exploit."
Feng couldn't help being shocked upon hearing the benefits of being a Vice Administrator.
Being able to purchase as much as he wanted of anything on the Basic Menu for half the required Shrine Points, or for only a fifth in Feng's case since he has an Advanced Membership and is the player highest on the Divine Staircase, and no Exploits is way too overpowered.
Since all the Bloodlines and the majority of items that cost the most had already been purchased, Feng could buy everything that had a limited number of items off the Basic Menu for practically nothing.
But that feature was inconsequential compared to the benefits Feng got involving the Advanced Menu.
Apart from the discounts that made things easier and the number of limited items Feng could exchange for increasing, having the option to pay for Exploits using Shrine Points was precious beyond measure.
Exploits were difficult to obtain on the Divine Staircase, and they could not be farmed. Players had a limited number of Exploits they could get while each next method was more difficult than the last. They were the biggest limiter when it came to purchasing items at the Divine Hall.
Shrine Points, on the other hand, were a different story. One could easily farm a huge number of them as long as one was strong enough to continuously climb high up on the staircase.
Even with an exchange rate of 10 million to 1, it was still an incredible boon.
A Vice Administrator like him could easily buy as many things as he wanted from the Advanced Menu up to the restriction of five items of the same type and rank which had increased by three from his previous limits.
This development also allowed Feng to see another path towards purchasing the Demon Empress's Horn available at the Divine Hall.
Previously, he thought that, with the price being 100,000,000,000 Shrine points and 100 Exploits, it wouldn't be possible to buy the Divine Artifact material the normal way, and that they'd have to first get the World Summit's Authority before simply taking the Demon Empress's Horn.
Now that he could pay for Exploits using Shrine Points, though, the feat became plausible. Feng just had to amass 101 billion Shrine Points, or 60.99 billion with the discounts, and he'll be able to purchase the horn.
Although the price of the Demon Empress's Horn might rise while the exchange rate could grow too as more players come to the World Summit, Feng was certain that he could put together the sum required to buy the horn when he reached Tier 3, so it was of no concern.
Just as Feng was about to begin choosing which items from the Advanced Menu he wished to exchange for using this feature, a soft body embraced him from behind, adding onto the warmth Feng was already getting from the demon girl on his chest.
"Dear, did something good happen? You seem to be in a very jovial mood, since you're even hugging random demons wantonly." Violet popped in out of nowhere and hopped on Feng's back while lovingly wrapping her arms around his neck.
Though, with her words and the way she was tightening her arms, it was uncertain whether she was trying to warmly embrace Feng or choke him after catching her man in the middle of cheating.
Mariabelle shot the human girl a deathly glare after her interruption, but Violet paid the demon receptionist no mind.
Feng was just as dismissive of Violet's obvious displeasure, asking "Yep. I just got something very amazing. How about you, Violet? You seem to have fully absorbed the Collapsing Heavens Bloodline."
"Mhhmm, it went pretty well." The pink haired girl's attitude switched to a joyous one upon being reminded of her new Peak Bloodline.
It was a truly remarkable Bloodline that was quite suitable for her. Some Bloodlines, especially high-ranking ones, could not simply be absorbed and completely integrated into oneself the normal way, so players had to put some extra energy and resources into the ordeal depending on the Bloodline if they wished to absorb it.
Feng didn't have any trouble while absorbing the Draconic-Voidling and Savitarian Carnation Bloodlines due to being Feng, but others would not have it so easy.
Thankfully, Violet was a powerful expert herself, so she succeeded in wholly absorbing the Collapsing Heavens Peak Bloodline after some time and effort.
Afterwards, she went back to climbing up the Divine Staircase, having a much easier time making her way through it and even managing to kill the 40th Shrine's Mythic Guardian Boss, being rewarded with two Exploits for the feat.
The extra Shrine Points and Exploits allowed Violet to purchase even better stuff from the Divine Hall, further boosting the Cleric's strength.
She continued climbing up and down through the Divine Shrines similar to everybody else, amassing a large number of Shrine Points and items to place in Zero Wing's Warehouse.
Having just completed her last run, Violet came back to the exchange counter and planned on spending her Shrine Points before returning to her business outside the World Summit, when she spotted Feng being clingy with the half-dressed demon girl, greatly insisting Violet's vexation and jealousy.
"In that case," Hearing Violet say so, Feng unequipped all his armor before picking her up with one hand and Mariabelle with the other "I think this calls for some celebration."
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