Chapter 2934 - Chapter 8 - Expert?
Hundred Flow City, Colosseum, one of the Epic Challenge's arenas:
Along with her successful challenge, Zhuo Yalin became the topic of discussion for everyone in the Colosseum. Many of the various first-rate Guilds' peak experts present also looked at her with envy.
Among the crowd in the fifth-floor hall, a girl wearing light blue armor and carrying two longswords around her waist stared at Zhuo Yalin from a distance. A look of worship on her face, the girl with her hair tied into double ponytails exclaimed, "Big Sis Nightingale is so amazing! As expected of the genius who's on par with our Academy's Director Lin! Now that she has cleared the Epic Challenge, it seems she's certain to set foot into this year's A-League!"
In the ten years God's Domain had been in operation, all sorts of combat tournaments revolving around the game had been created. Among these many tournaments, the Professional League could be considered the most popular tournament. The Professional League was something countless experts aspired to participate in. This was because the Professional League was a place for players to display their skills to the innumerable players of God's Domain. The tournament garnered well over ten billion spectators each year, and the revenue it generated was astronomical.
The Professional League was divided into multiple stages: Preliminaries, B-League, A-League, and lastly, the Ten Saints League. Meanwhile, the top ten winners of the tournament would be officially recognized as the Sacred Ten of God's Domain.
Setting aside becoming one of the Sacred Ten, anyone capable of setting foot into the A-League would already be considered a peak existence in God's Domain, their names capable of sending tremors throughout the continent.
However, after the girl's exclamation, the gray-robed middle-aged man standing beside the girl dismissively said, "You don't need to envy her, Lingling. Setting aside the fact that your sister is also close to reaching the A-League, you yourself possess talent rivaling your sister's. With the Dazzling Wave Workshop's support, it is only a matter of time you enter the A-League as well."
Hearing the middle-aged man's words, Wu Lingling bitterly smiled and shook her head, saying, "You think too highly of me, Uncle Gan. I'm not even qualified to participate in the Professional League's Preliminaries right now, let alone reaching the A-League."
"You don't need to be so humble, Lingling. When your elder sister first joined the God's Domain Academy, she had to undergo one month of training under our vice commander before she managed to reach the middle stage of the Trial Tower's fifth floor. You, on the other hand, achieved this without receiving such training," Gan Yuan, the middle-aged Elementalist, said confidently. "Now, you have even become one of Dazzling Wave's seeded talents. Otherwise, the vice commander wouldn't have let me come here in person."
"This really is a misunderstanding, Uncle Gan. I only managed to reach the fifth floor's middle stage because of Instructor Shi's guidance. Otherwise, I would've needed to train for much longer," Wu Lingling earnestly explained.
Originally, she had not been receiving much attention from the Dazzling Wave Workshop. Yet, because of her results in the God's Domain Academy's admission test, she had immediately become one of the Workshop's seeded talents. The Workshop had even officially recruited her as a member and sent Gan Yuan, a Tier 4 expert, to train her.
Wu Lingling was naturally happy that a first-rate Guild like Dazzling Wave could value her. However, she also knew that her achievements weren't all to her natural talent, but Shi Feng's guidance instead. As proof, everyone Shi Feng had taught outside the testing hall had made significant improvements. She was merely one out of many.
"Stop being humble, Lingling. I understand that you place a lot of importance on bonds," Gan Yuan said. The more he looked at Wu Lingling's humble behavior, the more he liked the girl. He had seen many talents in his life, yet almost every one of them had a little arrogance in their behavior. For Wu Lingling to be so well-behaved and humble despite being so gifted was undoubtedly a pleasant surprise.
Then, Gan Yuan continued, "Since I've already come here, I'll make sure that Instructor Shi of yours receives plenty of benefits. I heard that Shadow has dismissed him and has even sent some veteran employees to keep an eye on him. He'll probably have a difficult life in the future if this keeps up. However, if I bring it up with Shadow, I believe he'll be fine from now on. As for your future lessons, you just need to follow me in this Miniature Ancient World."
"Uncle Yuan, isn't this...against the rules? I finally became a student of the Academy. I've also apprenticed under Instructor Shi. If I keep training with you, I'm afraid many people in the Academy will speak badly of Instructor Shi," Wu Lingling said in disagreement. "How about I train under you after I pass the Preliminaries, become a professional player, and formally join Dazzling Wave?"
There were many precedents of the God's Domain Academy's students joining a Guild while still a student. However, these students would generally only do so after successfully qualifying for the Professional League's Preliminaries. This was because of the regulations the Academy had set up to prevent the various powers from rampantly snatching talents. According to the Academy's rules, students would either have to graduate from the Academy or qualify for the Professional League before joining any Guild. Before students met either of these conditions, they would have to study under the Academy's instructors.
Although many Guilds would secretly start to cultivate the talents they prioritized even before these talents met the Academy's requirements, these Guilds typically did so in secret. If Guilds blatantly nurtured their unqualified talents, it would be a huge disrespect to the Academy and the instructors involved.
"Don't worry, Lingling. I came here specifically to talk with that Shi Feng. I believe he will be more than happy to cooperate once he hears me out," Gan Yuan confidently said while caressing his goatee.
Before meeting up with Wu Lingling, Gan Yuan had already conducted a thorough investigation on Shi Feng and found out that the other party was merely the former Guild Leader of a second-rate Guild. Moreover, even at his peak, Shi Feng was only a Tier 3 expert who hadn't even reached the Refinement Realm. He was nothing but an insignificant existence in God's Domain.
In comparison, Gan Yuan was a Tier 4 Refinement Realm expert. Any smart person would eagerly try to curry favor with him.
"This..." Wu Lingling was momentarily at a loss for words.
Having a Tier 4 Refinement Realm expert serving as a personal instructor was indeed something many students in the God's Domain Academy looked forward to. However, for some inexplicable reason, Wu Lingling did not think that Shi Feng would be in any way inferior to Gan Yuan when it came to instructing students.
Unfortunately, Wu Lingling didn't have a say in this matter. Her elder sister, Wu Xiaoxiao, had acquired this opportunity for her and even told her to cherish it. After all, Tier 4 experts were considered mainstays in first-rate Guilds, and every one of them was incredibly busy. These experts usually didn't even have time to instruct the Guild's new members, let alone provide one-on-one guidance to someone who hadn't even formally joined the Guild.
"Let's stop talking about this," Gan Yuan said, interrupting Wu Lingling's thoughts when she saw the girl's hesitance. "By the way, where is that Instructor Shi of yours right now? What's his ID? Didn't he say to meet here?"
"I'm not sure. Instructor Shi only said to wait for him in the Colosseum's fifth floor," Wu Lingling said, shaking her head. Then she quickly typed out a message and sent it to Shi Feng, asking for his whereabouts. A moment later, she received a reply and read it. "Instructor Shi just replied. His ID is Black Flame, and he says he is preparing to enter Arena No.3. He'll come to meet us once he's done with his challenge."
"Black Flame?" Gan Yuan frowned, feeling dissatisfied with Shi Feng's behavior. Then, he sneered and said, "Since he's taking the challenge in Arena No.3, we'll meet him there. I also can use this opportunity to see how capable he is."
The players in Hundred Flow City capable of passing the Colosseum's Epic Challenge probably numbered only a handful.
Shi Feng was nothing but a Tier 3 expert who hadn't reached the Refinement Realm at his peak. Let alone completing the Epic Challenge, he would have difficulty even completing the Silver Challenge.
When Gan Yuan and Wu Lingling arrived before Arena No.3, the challenge in the arena had already begun, and many players in the fifth-floor hall had come to watch.
There were only eight arenas in the Epic Challenge's hall, and each challenge cost 500 Gold. In a situation where Coins were limited, even frontline experts wouldn't recklessly take on the Epic Challenge. Instead, they would first watch other people take on the Epic Challenge and learn from their attempts.
Along with the start of Shi Feng's challenge, ten Sea Giants wearing tattered armor appeared in the blood-stained arena. As soon as these Sea Giants appeared, they immediately sprung into an attack. Three bow-wielding Sea Giants sealed off Shi Feng's escape routes with arrows, two shield-bearers charged straight at Shi Feng to force him into revealing weak points, three sword-bearers executed a flurry of sword strikes, and two spear-bearers waited for an opportunity to strike.
The Sea Giants had distinctly divided their responsibilities, and their movements were in sync with one another. They left no room for their opponent to catch a breather, and their assault was unrelenting. Thanks to Shi Feng, many of the spectating players got to experience the Sea Giants' accurate and vicious three-pronged assault once more.
"What a crazy guy. He came here to take on the challenge right after recreating his account. He didn't even bother getting a single piece of Epic Equipment."
"He's probably here to test the waters. Even so, he looks quite skilled. It's been ten seconds already, yet the Sea Giants still haven't managed to corner him. I think he won't have any problems lasting 20 or 30 seconds."
"Thirty? Are you kidding me? I say he'll last 20 seconds at best! The challenge's difficulty ramps up every 15 seconds. Each of those archers is only firing two to three arrows at a time right now, but after the 15-second mark, they'll be firing four to five!"
Although the arrows the Sea Giants fired would have their power decreased along with the increase of their arrow count, even the weakest arrow carried the power of a Level 100 Great Lord. That wasn't something a player without a single piece of Epic Equipment could receive without flinching.
Not to mention, Shi Feng was fully geared in Secret-Silver Armor only. If even one of those arrows landed on him, he would be knocked back and have his posture ruined. At that time, he would open himself to the attacks.
Gan Yuan also nodded in agreement with the other spectators' comments.
Gan Yuan had watched the Sea Giants' three-pronged assault many times already, so he knew very well how powerful the group of Sea Giants was. So long as players allowed themselves to get cornered by the three archers, the true nightmare would begin.
Meanwhile, when Wu Lingling watched Shi Feng weaving around the stone pillars in the arena while dodging the Sea Giants' arrows, anxiety overwhelmed her.
Shi Feng dodged every arrow only by a hair's breadth. He had evidently reached his limit already. So long as the number of arrows he faced increased by a few, he would certainly die.
Subsequently, the seconds ticked by one after another. When the challenge reached the 15-second mark, the three bow-wielding Sea Giants suddenly changed their rhythm. In the blink of an eye, the three archers launched a total of 14 arrows from three separate directions!
Moreover, apart from the arrows, each of the remaining seven Sea Giants had also positioned themselves beside a pillar near Shi Feng. So long as Shi Feng dared try to use the pillars to shield himself from the arrows, they would be ready to strike at him.
It's over!
Gan Yuan smiled as he looked at Shi Feng.
Wu Lingling, on the other hand, clenched her fists and looked at Shi Feng with a heavy gaze.
At this moment, even an ordinary expert like her could tell that there was no way Shi Feng could dodge those 14 arrows. And even if he desperately evaded himself, three or four arrows should still strike him. He would need to actively defend himself with his weapon if he wanted to neutralize this threat. However, Shi Feng's current equipment was…
However, when the 14 arrows were less than ten yards, Shi Feng suddenly switched his footwork, his body's movements accelerating by a large margin. From afar, it looked as if his body had accelerated from rest to lightning speed in an instant, then instantaneously returned to rest once again. Moreover, Shi Feng was repeating this cycle one after another. The sight was simply unbelievable.
Meanwhile, through this series of stops and movements, Shi Feng weaved through the 14 arrows like flowing water, letting none of the arrows hit him.
Impossible!
What did he do?
The spectating players in the arena momentarily fell silent as they stared at Shi Feng. The player who said that Shi Feng wouldn't last more than 20 seconds before even had his mouth fall wide open...