Chapter 2915 - Tides Have Turned
Chapter 2915 – Tides Have Turned
Dark Night Empire, Thousand Nights City:
Although nightfall was still several hours away, players already flooded the city’s streets. In addition, more than 70% of the city’s players were Level 140-plus, Tier 3 experts. At this time, though, all of these experts had nervous and solemn expressions on their faces.
The reason for their sullen mood was the consecutive failures to defend several of the Dark Night Empire’s border fortresses and cities. By now, the empire’s players had no choice but to retreat to the largest border city in the south to fight the Outerworld’s NPCs and players. Currently, over eight million Tier 3 players and 200 Tier 4 experts had gathered in the city-more than what one would normally see even in Dark Night City.
Starlink’s Residence, Guild Leader’s office:
“They won?”
Lu Tiandi was stunned when he read the report regarding the Twin Towers Kingdom his subordinate sent him.
The Outerworld’s NPC army’s abrupt decision to begin its invasion of the Twin Towers Kingdom had been Lu Tiandi’s dearest wish. With just the NPC forces available in the Twin Towers Kingdom and Star-Moon Kingdom, there was no way the Twin Towers Kingdom could repel the Outerworld’s NPC army.
After all, there were almost no Tier 5 NPCs in these two kingdoms. In contrast, the Outerworld’s NPC army had multiple Tier 5 NPCs leading it. In Lu Tiandi’s opinion, even with Shi Feng’s presence, the Twin Towers Kingdom would be fortunate to defend even one fortress, and the kingdom’s fall was inevitable.
Currently, out of all the eastern continent’s empires fighting against the Outerworld forces, only the Fire Dragon Empire managed to repulse the Outerworld NPC army’s invasion. Nonetheless, it had still lost two fortresses and had to resort to guerilla warfare to stop the NPC army’s advance completely.
Yet, he was now told that Zero Wing had successfully defended not only the Steel Lion Fortress but also the Redthorn Fortress and Thunder Gorge City. Zero Wing had stopped the Outerworld NPC army in its tracks at the Twin Towers Kingdom’s borders.
Five first-rate Guilds’ Guild Leaders standing nearby similarly looked dumbfounded, having never thought that Zero Wing would succeed in repelling the Outerworld’s NPC army even without the support of their five Guilds. Moreover, Zero Wing had even dealt significant damage to the Outerworld’s NPC army.
This victory also meant that the Guild and independent players who had participated in the defense would earn a fortune. After all, without the interference of enemy air units, they would have a much easier time killing the enemy’s Tier 3 NPCs.
“Guild Leader, according to our investigations, Zero Wing’s Gentle Snow and Aqua Rose have both gotten promoted to Tier 5. Moreover, the main reason behind Zero Wing’s successful defense is its Blue Thunder Flying Ship. That single Flying Ship has the power to suppress the Outerworld army’s airpower,” Yi Kui said, a hint of envy appearing on his face when he mentioned the Blue Thunder Flying Ship. “If not for that Flying Ship, Zero Wing wouldn’t have been able to retain those three strongholds even with three Tier 5s!”
“The Blue Thunder Flying Ship?” After watching a battle video showing the Blue Thunder Flying Ship’s performance, Lu Tiandi turned to Yi Kui and ordered in a determined tone, “Do everything you can to find out how Zero Wing acquired this Flying Ship! So long as we can get one ourselves, resisting the Outerworld’s NPC army will no longer be a problem!”
The main reason why the Dark Night Empire failed to defend its border fortresses and cities was its inadequate airpower. As soon as the fortresses’ and cities’ defensive magic arrays fell, the Outerworld NPC army’s air units had destroyed the core magic arrays very quickly, depriving the defenders of their advantages.
However, the Blue Thunder Flying Ship had easily solved this problem!
Not only did the Flying Ship have the power to pin down a Legendary monster, but it even pummeled the Outerworld’s air fleet to the ground while doing so. It was basically a tyrant of the skies.
Lu Tiandi wasn’t the only one with designs on the Blue Thunder Flying Ship. After seeing its performance, the various superpowers and even the Outerworld’s player forces began looking into how Zero Wing acquired this flying behemoth. Countless spies began sneaking into Star-Moon Kingdom and Zero Wing. Lu Tiandi had gone the extra mile, offering 100 million Credits to anyone who could provide detailed information and the source of the Flying Ship. He had even offered 100 billion Credits to anyone who could get a complete Blue Thunder Flying Ship for Starlink.
The bounty Lu Tiandi offered instantly caused an uproar among God’s Domain’s players. After all, the average person wouldn’t even see ten million Credits in their lifetime.
Star-Moon Kingdom, Star-Moon City:
“Guild Leader, many of our trading firm’s core members fell for Starlink’s temptations and sold all information regarding the Blue Thunder Flying Ship to Starlink,” Melancholic Smile said in an embarrassed tone as she handed a list of names to Shi Feng. “Many of these people are even old members, who have been with Candlelight since its establishment. Yet, this time…”
The Blue Thunder Flying Ship’s construction required a lot of manpower. Although all the participants had been required to sign a confidentiality agreement and given a significant amount of remuneration for silence, some people still fell for Starlink’s inducement. Now, everyone knew of the Blue Thunder Flying Ship’s specifications and that the Flying Ship’s design originated from Shi Feng
At Melancholic Smile’s words, Fire Dance, who stood beside Shi Feng, chuckled and said, “That’s nothing. Quite a few of Zero Wing’s members even tried to steal the Flying Ship itself when it was getting repaired in the Sky Spring City Residence. If not for Blackie and the others taking turns guarding it, these people might’ve even succeeded.”
The Blue Thunder Flying Ship wasn’t bound to any specific player. Although its activation required a key, storing it into an Epic Spatial Bag didn’t.
“It’s 100 billion Credits, after all. Even I’m tempted to sell the Flying Ship, let alone them,” Shi Feng said, chuckling. “It’s impossible to stop others from targeting the Flying Ship. Letting someone carry it isn’t an option, either. The only thing we can do is strengthen the security around it.”
Piloting the Blue Thunder Flying Ship required a minimum of ten people. While having someone carry it in their bag might prevent theft to a certain degree, nobody knew when the Outerworld’s NPC army would strike again. Should the Outerworld’s NPC army return and the person holding the Flying Ship just so happened to be preoccupied with something, Zero Wing would be put into a very awkward situation.
“I’ve already stationed four Tier 4 Fine-Gold Guards inside the Flying Ship’s control room. Without orders from you or one of the Vice Guild Leaders, they will not allow anyone to pilot it,” Fang Shihan said, nodding in agreement with Shi Feng’s words. “Even if someone inside the Guild plans to steal the Flying Ship, they will need to deal with those four guards first.”
The Tier 4 Fine-Gold Guards possessed combat power at the Tier 4 Peak standard. Each of them could take on two or three ordinary Tier 4 players easily. Only Tier 4 players at the Void Realm standard and fully geared in Epic Equipment could fight one-on-one with these guards; Tier 3 players stood no chance whatsoever.
“By the way, how’s the production of the Blue Thunder Flying Ships and Flame Beast Puppets coming along?” Shi Feng asked Melancholic Smile.
Even Tier 5 combatants could do very little to affect the state of the current War of Worlds. To defend against the Outerworld’s NPC army adequately, Zero Wing would need a large number of Blue Thunder Flying Ships and Flame Beast Puppets.
“The Flame Beast Puppet’s production difficulty and manpower requirement are lower, so we’ve already manufactured three of them thus far. We just need to engrave the core runes and magic arrays to complete them,” Melancholic Smile reported. “As for the Blue Thunder Flying Ship, we have encountered some difficulties. With the materials we have on hand, we can produce three more Flying Ships. However, because of the information leak, the various powers have started purchasing the production materials as well, so subsequent manufacturing will be a problem.”
“In that case, build those three Flying Ships first and then focus on producing the Flame Beast Puppets,” Shi Feng said after giving the matter some thought. The Outerworld’s 19th Army Corps had attacked only three locations in the Twin Towers Kingdom. With the 19th Army Corps’ strength, it could attack five or six locations simultaneously if it wanted to. If that happened, Zero Wing wouldn’t be able to defend all of the targeted locations in time.
At least three Blue Thunder Flying Ships were needed to defend the Twin Towers Kingdom’s borders adequately.
“Guild Leader, the Secret Pavilion contacted us earlier, asking us to help them using the Blue Thunder Flying Ship. In return, they are willing to pay us 100,000 Gold Coins and 300,000 Magic Crystals as remuneration,” Fang Shihan said as she forwarded the Secret Pavilion’s request for help to Shi Feng. She then added, “Because of the rewards we gave out to players who managed to kill the Outerworld NPCs, Zero Wing City’s and Ancient Rock City’s incomes have been greatly reduced. If we help the Secret Pavilion a few times, it will relieve a lot of the financial pressure on the Guild.” Previously, Shi Feng had basically wiped out all of Zero Wing’s liquid funds to obtain the two designs. The Guild was also spending a lot of money to strengthen Ancient Rock City and recruit more members.
After pondering on the matter for a moment, Shi Feng said, “We can help them, but we currently cannot afford to mobilize the Blue Thunder Flying Ship. Tell them that we are willing to send, at most, three Flame Beast Puppets. Also, in addition to the Coins and Magic Crystals, we will need 20 Magic Elven Stones, 100 Titan Gold ingots, and 100 Seven Luminaries Crystals as payment.”
The Blue Thunder Flying Ship was of utmost importance to the Twin Towers Kingdom’s defense right now, so it definitely couldn’t be sent outside the kingdom’s borders.
However, if the Secret Pavilion was only looking to defend a fortress or city, three Flame Beast Puppets would more than suffice as reinforcements. After all, Tier 5 combatants were rare even among the Outerworld’s NPC army.
Although the addition of three Tier 5 combatants might not let the Secret Pavilion achieve a landslide victory, the Secret Pavilion wouldn’t have any trouble defending its fortresses and cities.
“I’ll notify them right away,” Fang Shihan said, nodding
Although Shi Feng’s conditions were slightly more demanding, they were preferable to losing a fortress or city. After all, losing an area’s stronghold to the Outerworld NPCs also meant losing access to the area’s resources. Once the Outerworld NPCs captured an area, no native player would dare set foot there to harvest resources anymore.
Just as Fang Shihan expected, the Secret Pavilion agreed to Shi Feng’s conditions without hesitation. The Secret Pavilion also asked that Zero Wing come over as soon as possible, as the Outerworld’s NPC army had already started moving. The NPC army would take another one or two days, at most, before it began its assault on another one of the Fire Wing Empire’s NPC cities.
In response to the Secret Pavilion’s request, Shi Feng immediately started engraving the core magic arrays of the three Flame Beast Puppets.
A few hours later, he completed the engravings and had Fang Shihan bring the three 50-meter-tall Combat Puppets to East Lake City, one of the Fire Wing Empire’s border cities.
When the battle at East Lake City took place, the difference between the two sides was significant. Although the Fire Wing Empire had dispatched two Tier 5 NPCs and over 500 Tier 4 NPCs to defend the city, the Outerworld’s NPC army had dispatched an even stronger force of four Tier 5 NPCs, over a thousand Tier 4 NPCs, and six million Tier 3 NPCs.
The difference between the player armies of the two sides was also significant. Although the Secret Pavilion had dispatched many of its experts and gathered the help of many Guilds, it only managed to form an army of around 400 Tier 4 players and 10 million Tier 3 players. In comparison, the Outerworld’s player army had over 800 Tier 4 players and 10 million Tier 3 players.
The battle at East Lake City lasted more than a day. During this time, the three Flame Beast Puppets played a vital role, pinning down two Tier 5 NPCs and one Tier 5 summoned creature.
In the end, the Tier 5 summoned creature’s control duration ran out, and the Outerworld’s NPCs and players had no choice but to retreat. Although the Secret Pavilion suffered a casualty ratio of six to four, with six of the Secret Pavilion’s members dying for every four of the Outerworld’s players, this result still shook the entire eastern continent.
This was because no empire had ever attained such a casualty ratio before this battle. Typically, the various empires had an eight-to-two or even nine-to-one casualty ratio.
If all battles could end with a six-to-four casualty ratio, the eastern continent’s native forces would have a significant advantage in the long run, and the Outerworld forces would eventually suffer defeat. This was because of the significant difference between the respawn points of the two sides.
The Outerworld players who died in battle could get resurrected only at the World Passage’s entrance. This meant that they would have to travel a great distance to return to the battlefield. Native players, on the other hand, could get resurrected in the fortress’s or city’s Resurrection Temple and rejoin the battle immediately.
After the battle at East Lake City, many of the eastern continent’s superpowers started sending requests for help to Zero Wing.
Shi Feng was naturally more than happy to accept these requests. Zero Wing could earn a ton of wealth, as well as the materials needed to manufacture the Blue Thunder Flying Ships and Flame Beast Puppets, through these requests and even accumulate Seven Luminaries Crystals.
Subsequently, for the next month or so, Zero Wing’s Flame Beast Puppets visited one battlefield after another on the eastern continent. Initially, there were only three Flame Beast Puppets moving from one battlefield to another. Later on, there were a dozen Flame Beast Puppets divided among three or four battlefields at a time. Eventually, there were 34 Flame Beast Puppets fighting in more than ten battlefields simultaneously. Because of these Flame Beast Puppets, the eastern continent’s overall war situation experienced a significant improvement.
In the meantime, Zero Wing had made a huge profit. And because of this massive wealth, not only did Zero Wing City, Ancient Rock City, Silverwing City, and Stone Forest City receive comprehensive improvements, but even the Lost Town had been upgraded to a Basic City. Now, over a million Zero Wing members could be seen training in the Lost Town at all times.
Moreover, during this past month, Zero Wing’s Tier 3 member count had also breached three million. And thanks to the Lost Town’s Extraordinary Tower and the environments of Zero Wing City and Ancient Rock City, the number of experts getting promoted to Tier 4 in Zero Wing also far exceeded that of all Guilds in God’s Domain. Zero Wing now had over 200 Tier 4 players under its command.
In addition, Fire Dance, Violet Cloud, and Yan Tianxing had succeeded in creating their Tier 5 Mana Bodies and gotten promoted to Tier 5, instantly increasing Zero Wing’s overall combat power by a considerable margin. This development caused all of God’s Domain’s Guilds to grow envious.
After all, during the same period, the Five Great Super Guilds had managed to produce only one Tier 5 player each in contrast to Zero Wing’s three. Moreover, this was after they had expended all their war contributions to exchange for resources that could aid in the Tier 5 promotion.
Meanwhile, with Zero Wing’s combat support, many player forces had managed to produce a significant number of Tier 4 players by utilizing the resources they acquired from their respective kingdoms and empires. This, in turn, gradually bridged the gap between God’s Domain’s and the Outerworld’s players and turned the tide of the War of Worlds in the eastern continent’s favor.
On the other hand, Starlink, which had constantly been opposing Zero Wing, wasn’t doing so well. Starlink had failed to defend many of the NPC cities it controlled in the Dark Night Empire and lost most of its investments there. The situation in the other empires and kingdoms Starlink operated was similar, and Starlink fell to the bottom of the various superpowers. Now, many of its members were even withdrawing from the Guild.
However, just when everyone thought the second War of Worlds would stabilize again, like last time, an earth-shattering battle took place in Flame Horn City, one of the Fire Dragon Empire’s top eight cities.
Working together, Flame Horn City’s Magistrate Krobidi, who was the Fire Dragon Empire’s former Deputy Knight Commander and a Level 200, Tier 5 Dragon Knight, and the War God’s Temple’s Elder Lovefrid, who was a Demigod-level existence and one of the Ten Saints, fought a mysterious youth in Flame Horn City.
However, after only three exchanges, the mysterious youth reduced both Krobidi and Lovefrid to ashes, and Flame Horn City disappeared from the Fire Dragon Empire.
Five days later, the mysterious youth appeared in the Glory Empire’s Light City, along with several of the Outerworld’s Tier 5 NPCs. Together, they stormed the palace in Light City and killed the Glory Empire’s emperor and over a dozen other Tier 5 existences. Afterward, Light City also disappeared from the map of God’s Domain.
The Glory Empire fell in the blink of an eye, which plunged the eastern continent into unprecedented fear.
During the first War of Worlds, only kingdoms had fallen to the Outerworld. In the eyes of players, empires were unshakable existences. This was because an empire’s foundation wasn’t something that Tier 5 existences could threaten. Even the appearance of multiple Tier 5 Dragons would, at most, cause an empire severe losses.
Not to mention, the attacked city was the Glory Empire’s capital. The ancient barrier protecting the city could allow an allied Tier 5 combatant to go up against several hostile Tier 5 combatants easily. Light City itself had also had over a dozen Tier 5 NPCs garrisoning it, with some of them even equipped with Legendary Weapons and Equipment.
It was no exaggeration to say that Light City could put up a fight against even Tier 6 Gods.
Yet, the invincible Glory Empire had still fallen. Moreover, the souls of a considerable portion of the players killed in Light City had sustained heavy damage, which prohibited those players from logging into the game for one whole month. Some even had to restart with a new account.
Ancient Rock City, City Lord’s Mansion, core control room:
Currently, Shi Feng sat alone inside the quiet and spacious hall. With Golden Soul activated, he tried using his mind to completely stop the operation of all Mana within his vicinity.
Over the past month, Shi Feng had not only reached Level 192 but also learned how to forcibly stop the operation of Mana. Even without the help of Golden Soul, he could now incorporate the Law of Destruction into his sword techniques. The only problem was that doing so placed a much heavier burden on his Concentration.
It seems I need to push my Concentration to Tier 6, no matter what. Otherwise, I can’t truly control the Law of Destruction. When the effects of Golden Soul disappeared, Shi Feng smiled bitterly as he looked at the shattered space around him.
At this point, he was already flummoxed by the difficulty of raising his Concentration to the Tier 6 standard.
He had originally thought that he could continuously develop his Concentration with the help of Soul Water and Crystals of Souls. Even if the process took a lot of time, it wouldn’t matter. Unfortunately, he discovered that he was mistaken. Roughly two weeks ago, he had sensed that his Concentration had reached the limits of Tier 5. No matter how much Soul Water and Crystals of Souls he consumed after that, his Concentration did not improve in the slightest.
In contrast, after consuming the Meditation Potions in the real world, he had broken through to the three-star mental strength master standard two days ago. His improvement in the real world was many times faster than in God’s Domain.
Just when Shi Feng was racking his mind on how to improve his Concentration, Fang Shihan suddenly entered the hall.
Approaching Shi Feng with a Magic Crystal Recorder, Fang Shihan said with a grim expression, “Guild Leader, I’ve uncovered the purpose of that mysterious youth’s actions.”
“What’s his aim?” Shi Feng asked with concern.
When the mysterious youth appeared in Flame Horn City, Shi Feng had already guessed the other party’s identity. The mysterious youth was none other than the Scholar.
However, compared to their meeting in the Evil God’s Secret Land, the Scholar who had appeared in Flame Horn City had undergone significant changes. During their last meeting, the Scholar didn’t have any divine markings on his face. In Flame Horn City, the Scholar had dark-purple divine markings on his forehead and cheeks. Moreover, he also gave off a sacred feeling.
“His aim should be the Seven Treasures. According to the information and video recordings taken, he demanded the Seven Treasures from the NPCs he fought,” Fang Shihan said as she passed the Magic Crystal Recorder to Shi Feng.
When Shi Feng activated the crystal, what appeared before him was a video recording of the battle in Light City. This video was taken by a Tier 4 Assassin who had been spectating the battle from far away using a Magic Mirror.
In the video, the Glory Empire’s emperor could be seen taking out a silver emblem. Several barriers then appeared in front of the emperor, which blocked all of the Scholar’s attacks.
After seeing his attacks blocked, the Scholar said, “As expected of the Treasure of Space! Hand over the Spatial Emblem, and I will spare your life!”
However, the emperor did not agree to the Scholar’s demand, and he fought the Scholar to a standstill, relying on his superb spatial manipulation techniques. Eventually, though, the Scholar took out his staff, and the battle was quickly decided. Meanwhile, after seeing that the situation was amiss, the Tier 4 Assassin, who was recording the battle, promptly fled Light City.
“He’s looking for the Seven Treasures?” Shi Feng frowned.
Shi Feng had constantly been searching for the Seven Treasures. However, even now, he had managed to acquire only four of them: the Treasure of Illusion, Treasure of Time, Treasure of Fire, and Treasure of Wind. The Treasure of Wind was something Fire Dance and the others had gone to great lengths to locate and obtain. As for the three remaining treasures he was missing, he never found any information on them. Shi Feng never thought that the Scholar would also be looking for the Seven Treasures.
This was undoubtedly terrible news for him.
Shi Feng suspected that the Scholar was currently under some restrictions, which prevented the Scholar from attacking him. However, there was no doubt that the Scholar was slowly and steadily removing those restrictions. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have dared attack and kill Tier 5 NPCs. At this rate, it was only a matter of time before the Scholar came for him.
“Oh, by the way, Guild Leader, I’ve found the two weapons you asked me to find,” Fang Shihan said as she took out two longswords from her bag. With a pained expression, she continued, “The one named Broken Steel cost us one Fragmented Legendary Weapon and one Fragmented Legendary Armor to acquire.”
The two longswords she took out were both Epic Weapons that could be used up to Level 180. Although they were excellent weapons for Tier 4 experts, they were hardly as valuable as Fragmented Legendary Weapons. Yet, Shi Feng was willing to exchange for them using Fragmented Legendary Weapons. This was simply a huge loss. “Great! This is great!” Shi Feng grew ecstatic as he looked at the two longswords.
Of the two swords, the sky-blue one was named Broken Steel, while the black one was named Night Slayer.
Although Fang Shihan deemed Shi Feng’s decision wasteful, he paid no heed to the cost at all. After all, even ten Fragmented Legendary Weapons weren’t worth as much as one Legendary Weapon. Not to mention, Solomon’s Sword was one of God’s Domain’s Ten Great Legendary Weapons. Previously, after the Scholar’s sudden appearance in Flame Horn City, Shi Feng had been thinking of completing Solomon’s Sword to elevate his strength further. Otherwise, with the Light of Two Worlds alone, he would have difficulty keeping himself alive in front of the Scholar.
The instant Shi Feng accepted the two longswords from Fang Shihan, a system notification entered his ears.
System: All the fragments of Solomon’s Sword detected. Do you wish to recast Solomon’s Sword?
“Recast it!”