NOVEL NEXT Chapter 102: Depths Of The Blood Refining Passage (1)
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: Sorry for taking so long with the next chapter. I've had some family matters to deal with, a ton of exams in December, I got sick (and still am a bit), and even drama in my country that made things at school and in general hectic, so it took me a while to finish, while it's also the length of nearly three chapters (I've split the chapter into two, the 96th and 97th chapters, since it was getting too long and starting to lag Wattpad a bit at 29k words. 97th chapter is done and will come out as soon as I reread it). More chapters should start coming out more consistently in January.
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Leaving the Stargazing Tower, Feng took out the Tier 4 Position Teleportation Scroll that he had obtained during the Darkness Descends Quest, and activated it, teleporting to the Top of The World; where Solomon's Treasure is.
In reality, the Top of the World was a new continent with a very high altitude.
The map engraved on the Elemental Core showed that Solomon's Treasure was hidden on Mount Sogar, one of this new continent's regions.
Mount Sogar was not a very high-level region. It was only a Level 40 to Level 60 map, so Feng won't have any trouble traversing it.
In the snow-covered forest around Mount Sogar, space suddenly ruptured. In the next moment, a pitch-black figure jumped out of the spatial crack.
Feng took a deep breath as he observed his surroundings, noting that he had arrived in the same spot as where he had teleported to in his previous life. The air was extremely thin here. Moreover, the gravitational pull was intense; the gravity here was at least 3 g. The temperature was also below 20 degrees Celsius. The environment was harsh.
After God's Domain underwent its third evolution, the Gravitational System was only one part of the system upgrade. Air density and temperature would also affect a player's combat power.
The effect of temperature on players was not significant as players only needed to acquire some Resistance to counteract the effects. As long as one had 20 points of Ice Resistance, they would not find the low temperature uncomfortable. If one could not withstand the cold, they also had the option of wearing some warm clothing. The thin air, however, would impact a player's combat power significantly. In a low-oxygen environment, the more players fought, the more rapidly they would burn through their Stamina.
Players without Stamina had no combat capabilities at all. In other words, players would not be able to fight for a long time in a low-oxygen environment. It was highly possible that they would lose the ability to fight in the middle of a battle.
Monsters at the Top of the World were already much stronger than monsters one normally found in Star-Moon Kingdom. In addition to the environmental effects, dealing with the monsters here would be quite challenging.
Though, in contrast to how he was immediately ambushed by monsters during the previous timeline upon arriving at Mount Sogar, nothing approached Feng this time around due to his high level and powerful aura.
Wanting to get to his destination as quickly as possible, Feng unequipped the Blood Emperor's Armor and unfurled his wings, taking flight.
The location marked on the Elemental Core showed that Solomon's Treasure was in Mount Sogar's core area. Activating Gale Domain as well and taking advantage of its effects, Feng flew towards the map's core at a high speed.
The ability to fly was a massive advantage when it came to getting around quicker and against monsters. However, as players reached higher levels, many high-level maps would also contain flying-type monsters. If players encountered such a monster, escape would not be an option. They either defeated the flying monster chasing after them or said monster claimed their life. It would take a miracle to escape from a flying monster.
The Top of the World was known for being an area that only experts could challenge. One would find it difficult to survive even the low-level regions of this place.
There were no flying monsters in the region of the forest, so there was nothing to get in Feng's way, allowing him to reach the core area within a minute.
During his time in the air, Feng had spotted dozens of Lord ranked monsters. In addition, there were also a large number of Chieftains and Elites roaming around the snowy forest. Even if regular players used an Isolation Scroll, they would not escape detection from so many powerful monsters.
On his way here, aside from Lords, Feng had even spotted a Level 50 Great Lord.
After arriving at the foot of the mountain, Feng continued to fly up to the mountain's peak.
The top of the mountain was flying-type monsters' territory. If normal players accidentally caught the attention of one of these monsters, they would only be able to resign their lives.
But none of the patrolling Level 50 and above monsters in the air came close to Feng. Any that spotted him would instantly steer clear of the flying, angel-like human whose wings were larger than their entire bodies.
After arriving at Mount Sogar's heart, the monsters he encountered were Level 50 at the very minimum.
The path up Mount Sogar on the ground was very narrow and surrounded by steep cliffs. Not only was it very difficult to hike up the mountain, but there were also groups of Stone Apes patrolling the path. Unfortunately, there was only a single path up the mountain.
[Stone Ape] (Elemental Being, Elite Rank)
Level 50
HP 300,000/300,000
[Stone Ape Guard] (Elemental Being, Chieftain Rank)
Level 50
HP 2,800,000/2,800,000
With him flying through the air, though, the Stone Apes were of no threat.
Along the way, Feng made a few pit-stops at some places that had higher-ranking Treasure Chests or something valuable. Among them, the Secret-Silver Treasurer Chest that he had came across during his previous life while climbing up the mountain was the one Feng first flew down for.
In a small cave that was only the size of a room, there was a tattered Treasure Chest sitting in the deepest part of the cave, giving off a faint silver glow from on top of a thorn- and moss-covered stone platform.
In God's Domain, even Common Treasure Chests were a rare sight, not to mention Secret-Silver ranked ones.
The loot one could obtain from a Secret-Silver Treasure Chest was much better than even the loot from a Lord ranked Boss.
Players would be quite lucky to stumble upon one so shortly while making their way up Mount Sogar.
Without taking any precautionary measures, Feng walked up to the Treasure Chest, which was not what one should do when encountering a situation like this.
In the past, countless players had lost their lives by triggering a trap due to their momentary excitement of discovering a Treasure Chest.
There were many types of traps in God's Domain, and any one of these traps could finish a player off easily.
The simplest traps were the ordinary, physical traps. Most players could resolve these traps.
A slightly more advanced trap was a magical trap. Even experts could lose their lives to these traps if they were not careful.
The most advanced traps were challenge traps. When triggered, challenge traps would seal players inside a barrier. Players were then required to undergo a challenge, and only after they cleared the challenge would they obtain the reward.
Although challenge traps were the most advanced of the three types, the former two were the most fatal when triggered. After all, players could simply choose to ignore the treasure if they did not wish to risk their lives, whereas the other two types would not offer players such a luxury. Hence, the physical and magical traps claimed the most lives.
Meanwhile, classes like the Assassin possessed Skills to disarm traps.
Hence, most solo Assassins could get by just fine in God's Domain.
Although Feng was a Swordsman without any Disarm Skills, he had other ways to deal with traps, such as Magic Scrolls, brute force, or disabling the trap's Magic Array if it had one.
Which was the method he employed right now to get rid of the magical trap on this Secret-Silver Treasure Chest, extending one hand to the Magic Array carved into the cave wall, which thorns and moss covering the wall had obscured, and disarming it thanks to his expertise as an Advanced Master at the moment; while extending his other hand to the chest.
Just as Feng clicked to open the Secret-Silver Treasure Chest, which would have normally triggered the magical trap, he simultaneously disabled the Magic Array for the trap, rendering it useless. Several moments later, once the loading bar for the Treasure Chest filled up gradually after over twenty seconds, the Treasure Chest, its loot increased by Divine Providence, opened.
As he was in one of the maps at the Top of the World, and this area was untouched by players thus far, the Treasure Chests throughout the Top of the World having yet to be opened even once, their loot would naturally be somewhat more abundant. This was a similar phenomenon to obtaining the First Clear of the Dungeon, whereby the end rewards would be slightly buffed.
Moreover, with Feng's current Luck, even just a Secret-Silver Treasure Chest would contain incredible things inside it.
The tattered old Treasure Chest audibly clicked before its lid gradually opened. In the next moment, an array of colors escaped the Treasure Chest, illuminating the entire cave.
Before the rainbow brilliance could even dissipate, the Secret-Silver Treasure Chest's contents began spilling out of the chest, multiple of them even flying out and falling to multiple corners of the cave as if there was no space left inside the Treasure Chest for them.
And indeed, the Secret-Silver Treasure Chest was overfilled, dozens of items spilling from its confinement as they fell to the ground next to the box.
Although it was only a Secret-Silver Treasure Chest that had little value to Feng, he still spotted items of some use such as Tier 3 Gemstones, a huge number of Magic Crystals and Silver Coins, Level 50 weapons and equipment, and Tier 3 Magic Scrolls, among which was a Magic Amplification Scroll, inside the chest.
Level 50 was considered a major milestone in God's Domain. Although part of the reason was that players could apply for their Tier 2 classes at this level, it was mainly due to the difference in equipment.
Level 50 equipment was a lot stronger than Level 45 equipment.
Originally, the Attributes on a piece of Level 40 Secret-Silver Equipment was roughly the equivalent of a piece of Level 45 Mysterious-Iron Equipment. Only, the latter had slightly higher Defense. However, the Attributes on Level 45 Secret-Silver Equipment were only the equivalent of Level 50 Bronze Equipment. That was a difference of two ranks.
Because of this, the Attribute gap between players widened significantly.
However, after reaching Level 50, players would quickly discover that high-quality Level 50 weapons and equipment would become far more difficult to obtain. Moreover, the number of weapons and equipment that dropped from Dungeons would decrease significantly.
Nowadays, ordinary players could collect a full set of Bronze Equipment so long as they put in the required effort. Many might even have a few pieces of Mysterious-Iron Equipment mixed into their sets. However, an ordinary Level 50 player walking around in a full set of Level 50 Bronze Equipment would be an impressive feat. Even Level 50 Mysterious-Iron Equipment would be rarely seen on a Guild's normal members. Only elite Guild members could barely scrape together a full set of Mysterious-Iron Equipment. One could just imagine how difficult it was to obtain Level 50 equipment of high quality.
Currently, of the several pieces of Level 50 equipment inside the Treasure Chest, most were Secret-Silver rank, and a few were Fine-Gold rank.
As for the Tier 3 Magic Scrolls, they were fairly valuable, the best being the Magic Amplification Scroll which was no less valuable than an Epic item.
It was particularly useful to the Summoner class. A Tier 1 Summoner could, at most, summon a Tier 1 monster to fight for them. After using Magic Amplification on their Skills, however, they could summon Tier 2 monsters. As for Tier 2 Summoners, they could summon Tier 3 monsters.
Whether it was out in the fields, a Dungeon, or a PvP battle, having a Great Lord ranked monster by one's side would provide massive advantages. One such monster could easily decimate an army of ten thousand players.
Although Feng was not a Summoner, he had the Bible of Darkness. With the Magic Amplification Scroll he could summon a Tier 3 Demon while still at Tier 1. Though, since Feng himself was stronger than a Tier 3 Demon, and had Celestina, there was no need for him to waste the Magic Scroll on something like that.
After storing the remaining items, Feng left the cave, continuing to fly up the mountain while occasionally stopping for Treasure Chests whose location he knew about, and soon reached a pair of massive locked doors near the top of Mount Sogar. Engraved runes decorated the stone doors and black chains bound them, each chain giving off faint Divine Might.
Although the Divine Might the chains exuded was faint, it still signified that there was something very impressive behind the doors.
Meanwhile, a gigantic beast stood guard beside the massive pair of stone doors.
[Nine-headed Magic Snake] (Ferocious Beast, Great Lord)
Level 55
HP 90,000,000/90,000,000
Ferocious Beasts were different from general Wild and Demonic Beasts. They belonged to the ancient era.
During ancient times, Ferocious Beasts were monsters that fought even Gods. Some Ferocious Beasts had even managed to kill Gods.
Ferocious Beasts were on the same level as Angels and Dragons, possessing the strength to challenge opponents of a higher Tier. Ferocious Beasts were normally on par with Primordial Beasts, often surpassing them.
Although their strength varied depending on their Bloodline, a Ferocious Beast's Life Rating and power could be on par with simply Angels, with Fallen Angels, with Dragons, or even greater than Dragons. Feng knew of Ferocious Beasts in the Greater God's Domain who were comparable to Divine Dragons[1].
Unlike other monsters, Ferocious Beasts did not just possess immense combat power. They also possessed the lifeforce passed down from ancient times.
In combat, ordinary monsters' battle recovery would only regenerate 1% of their HPs every five seconds.
Ferocious Beasts' battle recovery, on the other hand, regenerated 3% of their HPs every five seconds. A Ferocious Beast's HP already ranked at the very top among monsters. They were practically Bug-like existences.
The Nine-headed Magic Snake had 90,000,000 HP. In battle, it could recover 2,700,000 HP every five seconds.
With such a powerful monster guarding the doors, it had been made clear that underestimating this quest's difficulty would be a mistake.
Even an Epic Quest wasn't this absurdly difficult.
Feng wasn't bothered by the Nine-headed Magic Snake's presence, though, simply flying towards it.
It wasn't actually required to kill the Nine-headed Magic Snake to pass through those doors. The Elemental Core that Feng obtained from the Frost Prison Team Dungeon was both a map and a key.
There was a small circular indentation in the stone doors. The indentation was the perfect size for the Elemental Core.
Since there was a keyhole in the stone doors, he just needed to insert the Elemental Core to open them. Moreover, with the Nine-headed Magic Snake's massive body, it would not be able to cross the threshold. As long as Feng reached the other side of the doors, he wouldn't have to fight the Ferocious Beast.
But how could Feng pass up such a good opportunity to kill a Great Lord ranked Ferocious Beast?
The Nine-headed Magic Snake would die anyway once he opened the doors since its life was tied to them, so he might as well kill it himself and get the full loot of the Ferocious Beast; which would undoubtedly be very bountiful.
Feng didn't bother hiding his presence as he flew towards the Nine-headed Magic Snake, so the Ferocious Beast easily sensed his approach and killing intent.
Raising its heads, the Nine-headed Magic Snake seemed to grow serious, a hint of gravity in its eyes as the Great Lord took a fighting stance; if one could call it that considering it was a giant snake.
Despite Feng merely being a Tier 1 human, the Nine-headed Magic Snake could sense immense danger from him due to his Life Rating that rivalled a Dragon, surpassing its own, and Feng being 44 Levels above it.
Immediately preparing to face a powerful enemy, the Nine-headed Magic Snake released an earth-shaking roar, its cold, amber eyes suddenly turning blood-red. Widening its mouths, it fired multiple gray beams once more.
Maneuvering through the gray beams, Feng dodged all of the Nine-headed Magic Snake's attacks and arrived before it in an instant with Gale Domain boosting his speed, the two blades in his hands lighting up miniature suns.
Divine Providence!
Flame Burst!
Lightning Flash!
Executing seventeen strikes in an instant, Feng sent the Nine-headed Magic Snake flying, the Ferocious Beast's giant body crashing into the stone doors, while a huge bloody wound had appeared on a spot between some of its necks.
The cut forced a few of the Great Lord's heads to hang low, while a damage of nearly ten million appeared above the Nine-headed Magic Snake.
With it being a Tier 3 Ferocious Beast, the Nine-headed Magic Snake's combat power was equivalent to Tier 4, so Flame Burst, which only had the power at the Tier 3 Basic standard, should not have been able to do so much damage to the Great Lord.
But with Feng using a powerful Attack-type Bronze Combat Technique like Lightning Flash which combined seventeen instances of Flame Burst into one strike, along with Feng's extremely high attributes, he was able to take away a huge amount of the Nine-headed Magic Snake's HP and do heavy physical damage to it.
Feng also didn't give the Ferocious Beast a chance to recover, immediately appearing in front of it using Ethereal blitz and slashing at the Nine-headed Magic Snake with Thunder Flame Explosion.
Being pushed to Tier 4 standard by the Pandemonium Lashblade's effects, Thunder Flame Explosion landed on the Great Lord with a loud boom, a cloud of dust rising from the explosion.
When the Nine-head Magic Snake was in view again, the damage from Feng's attack could be clearly seen. Its magnificent scales have either been blown off or charred black, while the Great Lord's previous wound had become many times more severe. As for the Ferocious Beast's HP, not much remained of it.
In a last-ditch effort to save itself and kill Feng, all nine of the Great Lord's heads, albeit battered and bruised, stretched open their jaws once more. This time, however, the heads did not spit gray beams.
Suddenly, a massive threefold Magic Array appeared above the stone doors. The sky suddenly darkened as black winds moaned. The massive Magic Array covered a radius of 300 yards, with most of Mount Sogar's top being within its attack range.
This was the Tier 3 Curse, Dark Gale. The Curse was a Super-large-scale Destruction Spell that lasted ten full seconds.
If the full power of Dark Gale struck Feng without him activating an invincibility Skill, even he would be in trouble. Though, Feng had no intention of letting the Nine-headed Magic Snake even cast its spell, switching to the Aura of Time and activating Forbidden Domain.
The 300-yard Magic Array instantly stopped gathering any Mana and broke apart when the Silencing Skill took effect. Despair appeared in the Great Lord's remaining eyes, but Feng using up Flame Burst's Attack Count and following up with Earth Splitter removed the last of its HP.
With a final shriek, the Nine-headed Magic Snake turned into stone and shattered, becoming nothing but dust and rubble that scattered in the wind, while numerous shimmering items fell on top of the rubble. A golden light surrounded the drops, signifying that Feng had triggered a jackpot.
Feng walked up to the Nine-headed Magic Snake's remains, gathering up and taking a closer look at what items the Ferocious Beast had dropped.
The Nine-headed Magic Snake had been a Great Lord ranked Ferocious Beast. Even the most inferior item it would drop was not something one would find from an ordinary Great Lord.
Moreover, since it was the guardian boss of a place that housed Solomon's Treasure, as well as most likely the first Ferocious Beast to be killed by a player, while Feng had invested 500 units of Life Force into the Divine Providence before killing it, the drops of the Nine-headed Magic Snake were bound to be incredible.
Among the many items, one was a magical, pure-black cube covered with blood-red runes. The item was called Blood Refining Stone, and it could be used inside the Blood Refining World. This was one of the most important drops from the Nine-headed Magic Snake and something Feng had obtained from it as well during his previous life.
Aside from it, there were several Epic Weapons and pieces of Equipment, some other items, along with multiple very valuable Designs and Recepies such as the Strengthening Device Forging Design.
[Strengthening Device Forging Design]
Can strengthen player equipment, significantly reducing the consumption of Durability.
Required materials: 1 Magic Crystal, 10 Mithril Ore, 2 Intermediate Mana Recovery Potions, and 1 Basic Alchemy Array.
In God's Domain, monsters would grow more powerful as they reached higher levels. Take the monsters players currently faced for example; not only did they possess very high Attack Power, but they could also significantly reduce equipment Durability. It was why the various Guilds were forced to repair their equipment in Cities so often.
Players could repair weapons with Whetstones and Advanced Whetstones. However, there were no such recovery items for equipment.
However, there were items that could reinforce equipment.
The Strengthening Device was one such item. Only, its Forging Design was extremely hard to obtain. It only dropped from Level 50 and above Great Lord ranked Field Bosses. Dungeons would not drop the Design.
Moreover, the Strengthening Device was a Consumable item. It could not be permanently equipped.
Fortunately, the forging process was very simple, and the item also had relatively high Durability. Players could put it to good use for a relatively long period. If they dodged attacks properly, they could extend the Strengthening Device's lifespan even further.
However, one of the raw materials required was not that easy to obtain.
While Mithril Ore, Intermediate Mana Recovery Potions, and Basic Alchemy Arrays were both cheap and easily available, it was a different story for Magic Crystals. Magic Crystals were always rare and valuable.
Especially in this economy due to a certain someone causing the price of Magic Crystals to get inflated into oblivion.
Hence, crafting Strengthening Devices was expensive. Each one would cost roughly one Gold Coin to produce.
Even so, there were still a large number of players willing to purchase it.
While ordinary players were willing to waste some time traveling back to Towns and Cities to repair their equipment, large Guilds were not as willing. To them, time was money.
In the past, a Strengthening Device's standard price was 2 Gold. During its peak, however, the price soared to 4 Gold due to high demand and low supply.
Currently, the various large Guilds of Star-Moon Kingdom and several neighboring Kingdoms had sent many of their members to the Stoneclaw Mountains. Obviously, the Strengthening Devices could offer some convenience.
Just the amount of time and repair fees the Strengthening Devices could save them were worth more than 4 Gold. Though, that's taking on the condition that a power had Magic Crystals to spare for the Strengthening Devices.
In God's Domain, only Zero Wing could afford to do so right now. Feng thought that it was the perfect chance to monopolize the Strengthening Devices and sell them at large while no one else had enough materials to make them, and he notes to one of Zero Wing's managers that the guild members should work on obtaining more Strengthening Device Forging Designs when possible.
Of the remaining items, apart from a large number of Magic Crystals and rare materials, Magic Scrolls, coins, there were wasn't much more of note, except for a Consumable.
[Ferocious Essence] (Consumable)
Any Ferocious Beast that consumes this essence will have its Bloodline improved and purified. If a Mount is given the Ferocious Essence, there is a chance they will gain the Bloodline of Ferocious Beasts.
Although not particularly useful to Feng right now since he didn't have any Ferocious Beasts at his disposal or a powerful Mount he'd be willing to spend the Ferocious Essence on, it was an incredibly valuable Consumable.
Something that could improve a creatures Bloodline was always a precious treasure. It was why the Wolfstein Empire had been able to become such a powerful nation using the Lunar Packheart; the Legendary allowing it to grow at a fast pace and even remaining as an Imperial Heirloom.
Meanwhile, the Ferocious Essence was of even greater value than normal consumables that could purify a being's Bloodline. The more powerful a Bloodline is, the more difficult it is to purify and improve. Ferocious Beasts have incredibly powerful Bloodlines, so increasing their potential was much more difficult than for other creatures.
As a Consumable that could do so, and with seemingly no upper limit indicated, the value of the Ferocious Essence was even greater than that of a Fragmented Legendary item; as long as it was used correctly.
Storing everything, Feng approached the stone doors and immediately inserted the Elemental Core into the small hole in the doors.
Suddenly, the Magic Arrays on the Elemental Core and inside the circular hole shifted and aligned. They then released a faint, golden light. The runes covering the pair of stone doors lit up, releasing a dazzling golden glow. A moment later, the chains around the stone doors began to shatter.
There were over 20 chains around the doors, yet each one took a full second to break. It would take more than 20 seconds for the stone doors to open.
As the chains shattered, the initially weak Divine Might grew stronger.
By the time all 20 chains had been undone, the Divine Might coming from the door had increased by manyfold. Stretching out his hand, Feng twisted the Elemental Core.
As the Elemental Core produced a "click" sound, the massive stone doors gradually opened.
System: Blood Refining Passage has been opened. Do you wish to enter? (Time remaining: 1 hour 59 minutes)
Having nothing else to do here, Feng chose to enter the Blood Refining Passage. But as he clicked "Enter", another system notification appeared.
System: Player's Level exceeds Blood Refining Passage's Level limit. Player's Level will be reduced to 50. Do you wish to enter?
"So there is some kind of limitation." Feng understood the reasoning for there being a cap on how high a player's level could be when entering the Blood Refining Passage.
He already knew from his previous life that there were only Level 50 monsters, so if a high-level player, like Feng, were to come stumble across this place and somehow enter it with or without the key, there wouldn't be any challenge.
But Feng had no issues with this and agreed to the system prompt again.
As the environment around Feng changed, he found his surroundings slightly stifling.
Upon entering the Blood Refining Passage, what greeted him was a long and narrow passageway. Feng could not even see the passage's end. Numerous blood-red runes had been carved into the walls on either side, radiating a faint Divine Might that pressured on him; making It feel as if he were submerged in water.
The moment Feng entered the passageway, the large, stone doors had closed, preventing any retreat. Right now, his only option to escape was to give up on the quest and use a Return Scroll. Not that he'd need to, of course.
Feng started advancing down the walkway at a fast pace, not in the least bit cautious of any dangers.
However, before Feng had covered a distance of 100 yards, two monsters suddenly emerged from the walls on either side of the passage. These two monsters wore blood-red armor and wielded silvery-white bone spears.
[Blood Fighter] (Undead, Elite)
Level 50
HP 100,000/100,000
The passage was somewhat narrow, and the two Blood Fighters took up the entire path. He had no room to circle to their sides; he could only face them head-on.
After the two Blood Fighters appeared, they immediately charged at Feng while thrusting their spears, each spear splitting into three. They fought like experts who had known the same weapon for many years. All six spears aimed for Feng's vital points.
The Blood Fighters' spearmanship was on par with experts who specialized with the spear. In a fight without Skills, even elite players would stand no chance against these Blood Fighters.
However, as if he hadn't noticed the vicious attacks coming towards him, Feng continued charging towards the Blood Fighters without stopping.
Just when the spears were about to pierce him, Feng unsheathed his swords. With a couple of sparks, all six spears were deflected, while Feng had arrived next to the two Blood Fighters, large cuts appearing on their necks as the monsters' severed heads rolled off their shoulders.
Although Feng didn't have access to his skills while inside the Blood Refining Passage, his high Strength and combat standards more than allowed him to make short work of these Blood Fighters.
The two became no more than a pile of bones and armor a second later while dropping a piece of Level 50 Common Equipment and a few dozen Copper Coins. They had also provided Feng with some EXP, which was sent into the Levellume Capsules Feng carried on him.
In the next moment, the red mist that the Blood Fighters released upon death suddenly flowed into Feng's body.
System: Blood Refining Stone has obtained one point of Blood Energy.
System: Blood Refining Stone has obtained one point of Blood Energy.
Feng took out the Blood Refining Stone, which he had obtained from the Nine-headed Magic Snake.
The pitch-black stone gave off a faint, red glow. Its information had also changed.
[Blood Refining Stone]
Can evolve into a Blood Refining Crystal after absorbing 1,000 points of Blood Energy. (2/1,000)
Placing it back into his bag, Feng continued along the passageway.
He would encounter Blood Fighters every so often.
However, as he progressed down the passage, more Blood Fighters appeared with each ambush. From the initial two, the number gradually increased to three, then four.
However, this was still not the greatest change.
As the number of Blood Fighters increased, their attacks became more accurate. By the time Feng faced four Blood Fighters at the same time, their spearmanship had also become far more flexible. Their attack patterns began to vary as well.
It did nothing to slow Feng's advance, though, and he easily dispatched any amount of Blood Fighters that appeared in his way.
Just as Feng prepared to deal with the next batch of Blood Fighters, the Elites stopped appearing. Instead, a skeleton wielding a two-handed saber and wearing exquisite armor pulled away from one of the walls. Life filled the skeleton's flashing, red eyes. It was completely different from the robotic Blood Fighters.
[Blood Warrior] (Undead, Special Elite)
Level 50
HP 240,000/240,000
When he saw the skeleton, Feng changed his approach by no amount and simply continued dashing towards the enemy in front of him.
Hua! Hua!
The skeleton in black-spiked armor suddenly brandished its two-handed saber, creating a powerful gale that engulfed Feng.
Although the Blood Warrior's HP was not high, its Attack Speed and Strength were on a whole different level compared to the Blood Fighters.
Its bladework was indeed very fast, but Feng's was faster.
Before the Blood Warrior could react, its saber was deflected to the side, moving past Feng, while one of his pitch-black Sword's had been stabbed through its heart, instantly taking away all of the Blood Warrior's HP.
System: Blood Refining Stone has obtained three points of Blood Energy.
There was no guarantee that each Blood Fighter killed would generate Blood Energy. The more Blood Energy Feng accumulated, the less he could collect from the slain Blood Fighters. Hence, even though Feng had killed a few hundred Blood Fighters along the way, he had only obtained around 150 Blood Energy points.
Thanks to the Blood Warrior's death, that count had increased by three, pushing Feng closer to reaching his goal of 1,000 Blood Energy.
Aside from providing Feng three Blood Energy points, the Blood Warrior also dropped a Level 50 Fine-Gold Cape.
[Blood Refining Cape] (Fine-Gold Rank)
Level 50
Equipment Requirement: Strength 400, Agility 800
Defense +571
Strength +68, Agility +54, Endurance +56
Movement Speed +4
Evasion +15
Additional Passive Skill-
Conceal: Increases the difficulty to perceive the wearer.
Additional Active Skill-
Lightning Flash: Appear behind a maximum of four targets. Damage increased by 20%. Duration of 5 seconds.
Cooldown: 2 minutes
Capes were extremely rare in God's Domain. They were even rarer than rings and ornaments. If not for Feng already having the Legendary ranked Nightwalker's Cape, the Blood Refining Cape would have been quite the welcome gain, but it could still be of great value to the other Zero Wing members who haven't managed to obtain any Capes.
Aside from dropping the Blood Refining Cape, the Blood Warrior also dropped an ancient gold-rimmed book. The pressure this ancient book radiated was immense and could make creatures around it shudder with fear.
Two large words graced the book's cover.
Solomon's Treasure!
After Feng picked up the book, he was suddenly alerted of a system notification.
System: You have obtained the Ancient Document "Solomon's Treasure." Do you wish to activate the Ancient Document?
There were many kinds of books in God's Domain. Some were meant for reading, some could be used to learn Skills, and some offered their own abilities. The Bible of Darkness belonged to the third category. In addition to these three, there was another category that was extremely rare and special—the Ancient Document.
Ancient Documents held records of God's Domain. However, players that obtained an Ancient Document had only one chance to activate it. Upon activation, players could obtain one of God's Domain's secrets.
Although this seemed trivial, in the past, players in God's Domain had gone crazy over a single Ancient Document.
In the past, Ancient Documents sold in the Blackwing Auction House at much higher prices than even Fragmented Legendary items.
Why were they worth so much money?
They were so valued because an Ancient Document could unlock the whereabouts of a Legendary item, offering players a high chance of obtaining one for themselves.
Of course, aside from Legendary items, one could also learn the whereabouts of powerful Super Skills or tools. However, with the goal of growing stronger, a Legendary item was undeniably the best choice.
Legendary items in God's Domain were extremely limited. One had to expend unimaginable effort to claim one. One needed luck and strength.
Every Legendary item was extremely difficult to obtain. Moreover, the game would never reveal a Legendary item's exact location to players, only clues.
Unfortunately, clues were never 100% accurate, and most of the clues relating to Legendary items were likely traps.
Even after a long search, one might find nothing but a dead end, realizing that all their effort had been for naught.
In the past, to obtain a single Legendary item, many large Guilds had mobilized every available Guild force, spending a large amount of time to gain some clue. With the many clues they obtained, they would search for the location of said Legendary item. One could just imagine the manpower and resources that the search required. Hence, even after mobilizing an entire Guild, the chances of successfully claiming a Legendary item were quite low.
However, one could locate a Legendary item with an Ancient Document. There was no need to check every clue they had obtained. Hence, Ancient Documents were precious and valuable.
Even Feng placed immense value on Ancient Documents, and had placed them as one of the very top priorities for his guild members to hunt for and wanting to get every one of them that are in this God's Domain before any of the other guilds could.
He had offered lucrative rewards for anyone who obtains an Ancient Document on their own or provides any information on one's location.
During his previous life, Feng had used multiple Ancient Documents in order to find powerful and valuable items such as the Ten Great Legendary Weapons, having used this exact same one in order to find out where the Solomon's Sword's fragments were.
He had used one to gain clues leading to fragments and pages belonging to the Bible of Darkness, managing to repair the bible to Legendary rank after gathering all the parts thanks to it.
Feng had even used one in an attempt to locate one of the Ten Great Saint Legacies. Unfortunately, that endeavor ended up in failure.
Now, since he already knew the location of most things or at least had an idea on how to find them, there wasn't anything that Feng would place above the rest on the value scale for what he could use the Ancient Document to search up.
After thinking about it for a moment, though, a few items whose fragments he was unsure of how to locate, or at least the ones he didn't know about, came to Feng's mind, and then clicked to activate Solomon's Treasure.
After Feng confirmed his decision, Solomon's Treasure opened and released a blinding, golden glow. In the next moment, a fivefold Magic Array appeared before Feng. Countless runes danced inside the Magic Array.
Suddenly, the space surrounding Feng froze. Feng's connection with the outside world was severed completely. Aside from being able to communicate with the Perfect Clone through his mind, Feng couldn't contact anybody else.
System: Ancient Document, Solomon's Treasure, activating...
System: Beginning connection with the Main God System...
System: Verification completed. Ancient Document confirmed as the Sixth Volume of Solomon's Book. Allowing connection with God's Domain's database...
System: Connection with God's Domain's database is successful. You have one chance to access God's Domain's database. Please enter desired inquiry.
Immediately, he entered the words "Book of Creation Replica."
System: Searching for information on Book of Creation Replica...
System: Search completed. Confirming data on Book of Creation Replica...
System: Confirmation failed. Authority of Ancient Document, Solomon's Treasure, inadequate to retrieve information on Book of Creation Replica?
System: Connection with God's Domain's database is still active. Please reenter desired inquiry.
Seeing it unable to access any data on the Replica of the Book of Creation that he had acquired, Feng clicked his tongue in annoyance. If he could get information about the Book of Creation that had unexpectedly appeared in this God's Domain and collect its pieces, the possible gains that Feng could make would be unimaginable.
After all, even if it was only a replica, it was still a replica of a Divine Manual for Lifestyle Classes. Its rank would still at the very least be Fragmented Divine Artifact, and it could very well possibly be a Divine Artifact.
The most data an Ancient Document like Solomon's Treasure could gain access to was on Legendary Items and Inferior Divine Artifact items. As for actual Fragmented Divine Artifacts, very rarely was an inquiry successful.
In fact, Feng should be thanking his luck for still having a chance to search for something else using Solomon's Treasure.
Usually, when an inquiry fails, it results in the Ancient Document immediately losing connection with God's Domain's database, whether it be due to the item a player searched for not existing, or if it failed for some other reason like right now.
It had happened to Feng before on two occasions, one time when he attempted to find data on a Divine Artifact, and the other when he searched for info on a Fragmented Divine Artifact. Both times Feng lost the chance to inquire about anything else and ended up cursing at the Main God's System for being too fraudulent.
He had actually fully expected that the inquiry would fail when he searched for the Book of Creation Replica's data and thought that he would not get a second chance to use Solomon's Treasure, but it seems like he was given a second chance for some reason.
Since Feng had been given another opportunity to make use of the Ancient Document, he didn't intend to waste it and immediately entered another inquiry, typing the words "Philosopher's Stone."
System: Searching for information on Philosopher's Stone...
System: Search completed. Confirming data on Philosopher's Stone...
System: Confirmation completed. Do you wish to accept the information?
Feng then clicked to accept.
A plethora of information relating to Philosopher's Stone suddenly flew into Feng's brain. The system displayed a total of 2,999 clues before him. Even Feng would get a headache if he had to go through each of them.
Verifying one clue was an extremely difficult task, not to mention 2,999. Even a large Guild would go mad if it had to verify every one of these clues.
Those who manage to find Legendary items were either players who had received the blessing of the Main God's System and possessed heaven-defying luck, or they were as powerful powerful as Super Guilds. Not only did Super Guilds have an abundance of members at their disposal, but they also possessed monster-like experts. Only with this kind of manpower could they search for a Legendary item. It was practically impossible for a third-rate or second-rate Guild.
"Figures that most of it was bullshit." Feng said when he saw that all of the clues he had obtained during his previous life about the Philosopher's Stone were fakes.
Although he had tried searching for the alchemy treasure's fragments in the previous timeline, without an Ancient Document, that was far too difficult, especially when everyone wanted a piece of the Philosopher's Stone.
Feng had guessed that the ones he hadn't had the chance to look through were fake, but the Ancient Document just confirmed it.
Among the 2,999 clues listed, the system only confirmed five as legitimate. In other words, only these five clues could lead him to the Philosopher's Stone.
If Feng had not used the Ancient Document to search up its location, he might have never found the Philosopher's Stone in this timeline either.
Of the the many clues that existed for Legendary Items, every clue required a long time to verify. The easiest clue required one to spend one or three days' time, while the more difficult clues required up to half a month to verify. Even if someone only needed to spend one day verifying each clue, it would still take a single player several years to plow through them all...
Without the Ancient Document, obtaining treasures like the Philosopher's Stone was a dream.
After receiving the information, Feng grew somewhat dizzy. Suddenly, the sound of another system notification reached his ears.
System: Quest "Solomon's Treasure" completed.
Quest rewards: 10,000,000 EXP, 20 Free Mastery Points, and one Completely Random Treasure Chest.
After the system notification faded, the EXP inside one of the Fragmented Legendary ranked Levellume Capsules increased by ten million . A wooden treasure chest emitting a purple glow appeared inside Feng's bag.
[Completely Random Treasure Chest]
May contain a reward or a punishment. Disappears after five uses.
Although "Completely Random Treasure Chest" was the name the system gave, the players who were familiar with the Treasure Chest, however, had another name for it: the Disaster Treasure Chest.
Nine out of ten times, opening the Completely Random Treasure Chest resulted in a punishment. Moreover, the punishments were relatively severe. The punishments ranged from losing one or more Levels to losing some Attributes permanently. Some punishments even prevented players from gaining any EXP or reduced their Attack Power for many days. Hence, it gained the name Disaster Treasure Chest.
Of course, if players obtained a reward, they deserved a celebration.
In the past, many players had bragged on the forums about the rewards they had obtained.
There were players who had actually gained an Epic item from the Random Treasure Chest, while some had obtained a complete Dark-Gold Set Equipment. Others had been rewarded a top-tier Mount. To put it simply, the rewards the Treasure Chest provided were extremely tempting.
Reward and punishment, It was up to players to decide if the risk was worth it.
To Feng, however, the potential benefits were greater than the risks.
A player's Luck Attribute greatly affected the outcome of their draws. Even if Feng opened a punishment, due to his Luck Attribute, it was possible that the punishment would be light.
However, he didn't chose to open the Completely Random Treasure Chest, leaving it for another time. Even if there was a small chance of Feng getting a punishment if he activated Divine Providence, he thought that it wasn't necessary to take the risk if not necessary.
After all, there was a potential chance of him permanently losing some of his attributes. Feng valued every part of his strength greatly and needed every possible boost to his combat power in order for his plans to be successful.
His gains would undoubtedly offset the loss, but since Feng wanted to truly play smart and optimize his gains, he decided to only open the Disaster Treasure Chest after he has reunited with Black Flame and updated the Perfect Clone's state.
With both of them having the same information, Feng could let Black Flame open the chest, downloading the good information from him and updating the clone to get rid of any punishments that may occur in case of an unlucky roll between each use of the chest.
Feng then stored the Completely Random Treasure Chest away and took out Solomon's Treasure to begin sorting through the information he had gained regarding the Philosopher's Stone.
After using an Ancient Document, the information that flowed into the user's mind only offered a general summary, whereas the detailed information was recorded inside the Ancient Document, so Feng had to read through the true clues leading to his desired item himself.
Of the five clues, three were useless to Feng as they stated that there were pieces at the pond, inside Paradise Cavern in the Level 50 map Miner's Paradise, and the last one served as a power source of the seal for the Endless Abyss inside the Forgotten Lands that could be reached through a random mansion in a few Kingdoms and Empires[2].
These were the pieces that Feng had already found and fused together.
The other two were the information Feng has wanted and had looked for during the previous timeline.
Unfortunately, Feng couldn't get to either of them right now since both of them could only be found through Level 150 and above maps.
It would seem like Arcus Maddox had indeed been planning to piece back together the Philosopher's Stone, as aside from having maps to two of the fragments, the dude had already located one of the pieces and was using it as a power source for his sky fortress, the Twin Snake Ring.
With Arcus Maddox already being dead after he failed to escape Feng's blade, the fortress was left without anyone running it, so Feng will have to go to Arcus Maddox's headquarters in order to retrieve the piece of Philosopher's Stone. Meanwhile, not only did he have its location from Solomon's Treasure, Feng even had a map to the base that Arcus Maddox had dropped.
As for the final piece of the alchemy treasure, it was located inside an Otherworld whose passage could only be opened through completing a Quest in a Level 160 map.
Both were out of Feng's current capabilities to get his hands on, so he could only leave getting the two pieces later once he levels up more.
Following which, having sorted through the information and taken a breather, Feng continued deeper into the Blood Refining Passage [3].
In the previous timeline, Feng had reached his limit by the time he defeated the Blood Warrior, overusing Void Step during the fight in order to win the fight which drained all of his Concentration and Stamina, leaving himself on his last legs.
Since he had successfully completed the Solomon's Treasure Quest and used the Ancient Document to search for Solomon's Sword's fragments, along with there being problems back at the guild which resulted in Feng being short on time, he had immediately left the Blood Refining Passage without exploring it ang further and travelled to the Dragon's Maw.
Later when he tried to return to the Blood Refining Passage, the entrance had disappeared with no trace of it ever existing, and Feng hadn't been sure if there was only one chance to enter it or if there was some other way to locate and open the entrance again, but he never managed to get back into it and explore any further.
Now, though, Feng had plenty of free time and more than enough strength to continue going towards the deeper parts of the Blood Refining Passage, which had no end in sight.
He was actually quite curious on what kind of things could be found in a place whose starting section with only a Special Elite that would be fairly easy to defeat as long as one was skilled enough dropped an Ancient Document, and it had been one of Feng's regrets that he never fully explored this place.
After moving for a few dozen yards, another Blood Warrior wielding a silver two-handed saber appeared once more.
It attacked without hesitation, sending a streak of silver light cut across the crown of Feng's head. Naturally it didn't fare any better than the previous one, the Blood Warrior's only contribution being giving Feng three more Blood Energy points and a piece of Level 50 Bronze equipment.
Unlike the first Blood Warrior Feng killed, this one didn't drop anything special, so it would appear that the previous one had been special for some reason, possibly due to the Quest, and rewarded Solomon's Treasure, while the rest gave out loot only a bit better than regular Special Elites.
Nonetheless, that didn't discourage Feng.
The following two times a Blood Warrior appeared in Feng's way as he went further down the narrow corridor ended the same, both getting killed in a split second without being able to put up any resistance and dropping some equipment with one of them giving him three more Blood Energy.
On the fifth encounter in the Blood Warrior section, two of the Special Elites appeared. There being one more didn't change anything to Feng as he charged towards them, while the Blood Warriors took action.
Despite there being enough room in the passageway for the Blood Warriors to attack in unison like the Blood Fighters had, the two Special Elites moved toward Feng one at a time with the second one standing behind the first Blood Warrior.
Not paying their unorthodox tactic any mind, Feng simply dashed forward as usual and unsheathed his swords.
When he and the first Blood Warrior were two yards apart and about to clash, however, the Special Elite unexpectedly ducked slightly. At the same time, a silver saber flew right above its head, grazing against the top and appearing in Feng's face within an instant. Meanwhile, the Blood Warrior who had lowered its body to avoid the saber slashed from its position, cutting at Feng's torso horizontally as if to split him in half.
Their sudden and synchronized attacks would have left most experts unable to react in time, and even Flowing Water Realm experts would struggle to cope with the situation. Feng effortlessly deflected the incoming saber using the Pandemonium Lashblade, having sensed the Blood Warrior who he couldn't see throw it before the front one had even ducked, while blocking the other one's slash with the Abyssal Blade.
Without giving it time to launch another attack, Feng kicked the Blood Warrior's chest, sending it flying backward while losing over 90% of its HP due to the massive difference in attributes between it and Feng.
Although the Blood Refining Passage didn't allow the usage of any Active Skills, all the Passive Skills of Feng's equipment still functioned as normal, which boosted his combat power even more.
Before Feng could pull back his leg, the second Blood Warrior had already reached him and was slashing two one-handed longswords at Feng from both sides. Reacting appropriately from his position, Feng took his other foot off the ground as well in a sort of side flip, avoiding the two longswords with less than a centimeter to spare as they brushed past him, while his own sword cut across the Blood Warrior's neck.
As he landed, Feng's arm outstretched and he threw the Abyssal Blade forward, the Magic Weapon flying through the air and impaling the head of the other Blood Warrior who was getting up after Feng's kick. Even if Feng could use skills like Precision Throw to increase the power of a thrown sword, just his Strength on its own would be enough to instantly kill a Special Elite, let alone one with so little HP remaining.
The two Special Elites fell at the same time, turning into a pile of bones and dropping two Level 50 Bronze items, along with giving Feng six more Blood Energy points.
Picking up the drops and his sword from the corpse's skull, Feng continued onwards. No matter how many Blood Warriors appeared and attacked him at once, or what sort of strategies they used to fight him, Feng easily dispatched all of the monsters who got in his way.
After spending around twenty minutes slaughtering several hundred Blood Warriors, pushing the amount of Blood Energy absorbed by the Blood Refining Stone to over 600, a change occurred.
Instead of four Blood Warriors appearing in the narrow passageway, one singular skeleton with dark grey bones covered in a suit of formal silver armor and wielding a Greatsword.
[Blood Squire] (Undead, Chieftain)
Level 50
HP 500,000/500,000
The fight kicked off and ended in an instant, the Blood Squire's HP bar emptying out from one strike as Feng's Pandemonium Lashblade maneuvered its way around the Chieftain's defenses and stabbed into its chest.
System: Blood Refining Stone has obtained ten points of Blood Energy.
Compared to the gains from when he killed Blood Warriors, the ten Blood Energy points from the Blood Squire greatly surpassed them and increased the accumulated Blood Energy inside the Blood Refining Stone to over 700.
Additionally, the Chieftain ranked monster had also dropped a Level 50 Mysterious-Iron piece of equipment, which Feng collected before heading deeper through the passage.
The Blood Squire region of the Blood Refining Passage seemed to follow the same pattern as the previous two, being more similar to the Blood Warrior section, with the number of Chieftains appearing increasing over time.
These Chieftains coordinated their attacks even better than the Blood Warriors as well, surpassing the Special Elites not only in attributes, but also their techniques being much more polished to the point they were practically perfect. Each Blood Squire displayed the standards of an expert who has reached the eighth floor of the Trial Tower.
When Feng finished dealing with a group of three Blood Squires, the sound of a system notification suddenly reached his ears.
System: The Blood Refining Stone has collected 1,000 points of Blood Energy. Do you wish to evolve it into a Blood Refining Crystal?
After killing numerous Blood Fighters, Blood Warriors, and Blood Squires, Feng had finally managed to obtain the required amount of Blood Energy points.
Feng clicked "Confirm."
As one of the speciality drops from the Nine-headed Magic Snake, the Blood Refining Stone was naturally not an ordinary item, and seeing as he had spent so much time to collect the required Blood Energy needed to turn it into the Blood Refining Crystal, one could imagine its value.
Suddenly, the magical black cube in Feng's hands crumbled, transforming into a half-transparent, blood-red crystal ball.
There were even droplets of dark red liquid flowing within the crystal ball, each containing powerful Life Force.
The life inside those droplets of blood could be felt very clearly. It was only slightly weaker than the Water of Life.
Just one drop of the Water of Life was enough to cure a crippled NPC. After accumulating a certain amount of the treasured water, one could even use it to revive a dead NPC. Meanwhile, the blood-red crystal in his hands contained over ten droplets of blood that could rival the Water of Life.
[Blood Refining Crystal] (Dark-Gold Rank Item)
Can absorb the Life Force of powerful monsters the wielder kills. After accumulating 100 points of Blood Energy, player can produce a drop of Life Essence. Can accumulate a maximum of 1,000 drops of Life Essence. Each drop can increase a player's Stamina and Concentration recovery speed for two hours.
Current drops of Life Essences: 12/1,000
The power of the Blood Refining Crystal was quite shocking.
In God's Domain, it was common knowledge that players required rest to recover their Stamina and Concentration. Hence, players could not grind for long periods. They had to take breaks.
Although there were some tools that sped recovery, such as food and Field Tents, those items could only be used outside of combat.
There were also some items that could recover Stamina and Concentration during combat throughout God's Domain. However, these items were extraordinarily difficult to obtain.
The Water of Life was one such item. However, using the Water of Life to grind for longer periods was no less than extravagant. Not a single Guild in God's Domain could afford such a waste. The other tools were similar to the Water of Life, in which they were extraordinarily valuable and exceedingly difficult to obtain. Even if a large Guild mobilized its forces, it would barely obtain enough items to supply for a handful of experts.
With the Blood Refining Crystal, Feng could recover Stamina and Concentration much faster without having to stop his often occurring slaughters at all.
Unfortunately, accumulating Life Essence was a slow process. One could normally only get Blood Energy points from killing powerful creatures, but since Feng was fighting these Blood monsters that were decently powerful, his accumulation of Life Essence will be much faster.
Feng currently wasn't consuming a lot of Stamina and Concentration even while using only combat techniques to deal with his opponents, the amount he did consume being replenished through his natural recovery and through the Blood Soaked Passive Skill.
Hence, he had no need to use any Life Essence and simply continued going deeper into the Blood Refining Passage.
As Feng had predicted, the regions of the Blood Refining Passageway followed a similar pattern, each section repeating the same sequence of one new enemy appearing, then gradually increasing to two, three, and eventually four, until it resets with a stronger variation of the previous monster.
Once Feng killed over a dozen groups of Blood Squires, they stopped appearing, and instead an even stronger looking skeleton at High Chieftain rank appeared. The Blood Knight was decently stronger than the Blood Squires Feng had been slaughtering, having greater attributes and utilization of its combat power.
Each of the Blood Knights provided Feng with 15 Blood Energy points and a Level 50 Mysterious-Iron item, sometimes two.
What slightly surprised Feng, though, was that while killing a group of four Blood Knights, the final High Chieftain used a Basic Combat Technique to attack him after seeing all its comrades die.
Feng was unsure if that Blood Knight was special, if it was something they became capable of doing deeper in the Blood Refining Passage, or if every one of the High Chieftains had been capable of using Basic Combat Techniques, but he had simply killed them too quickly for any of the Blood Knights to try using one.
Either way, he didn't get to ponder it for long as Feng soon left the Blood Knight section, a pitch-black skeleton wearing a very suitable and professional-looking set of armor next appearing in his way.
[Blood Expert] (Undead, Lord)
Level 50
HP 2,000,000
The Blood Expert, although only a Lord, showed incredible capabilities as it attacked Feng, immediately starting off with a Basic Combat Technqiue in an attempt to quickly do heavy damage to Feng with its rapier.
Despite its valiant effort, Feng made short work of it after playing around a bit and seeing what the Lord ranked monster was capable of. Its death provided the Blood Refining Crystal with 25 Blood Energy points and Feng with a Level 50 Secret-Silver item.
Aside from the increased attributes and constant usage of Basic Combat Techniques, nothing much changed, and Feng quickly plowed through all the Blood Experts that appeared, reaching a new section where a High Lord ranked Blood Master appeared.
Its combat power was, of course, largely greater than the Blood Experts', possessing more powerful attributes and using Basic Combat Techniques more often and with more proficiency. The gains from killing a Blood Master were also better, Level 50 Fine-Gold equipment dropping from each of them and fifty Blood Energy being added to the Blood Refining Crystal; Feng gaining practically half a Life Essence with every Blood Master he kills.
When Feng reached the next section of the Blood Refining Passage, however, things changed a bit.
In front of Feng stood a skeleton with rotten flesh covering some parts of its face, with how much there was on the rest of its body unclear due to a suit of dazzling armor covering the monster, and a glaive in its hands. The creature gave the impression of a warrior who had won countless battles.
[Blood Champion] (Undead, Great Lord)
Level 50
HP 10,000,000/10,000,000