Chapter 2113

This time's challenge reward feels a bit lacking; although first place was given three extra commands, it doesn't help personal growth at all.

Xiao Feng climbed the steps and reached the area beyond the third-stage challenge.

The Origin Secret Realm has six challenge layers; clearing the third layer means you have officially entered the Origin Secret Realm, and all its features become available.

The latter three layers are advanced challenges that lead to a higher state.

After clearing the first and second stages, you arrived at a spacious, pristine blue‑stone platform devoid of any buildings or usable items.

On the third layer, the landscape shifts to reveal a series of circular arenas dotted along the outer flank of the encircling mountain, resembling a bead necklace wrapped around the mountainside.

This area isn't vast—the mountain's cross‑section measures about 4–5 km across, the outer ring is about 10 km in size, and arenas are spaced roughly every 300–400 m, giving a total of 36 arenas.

Without a doubt, these arenas are one of the items in the High-Level Contention.

The Origin Secret Realm was originally an important battlefield in the Myriad Heavens Myriad Races Contention, a contested strategic point.

Without securing any advantage here, even intense fighting in the Myriad Heavens Battlefield makes ultimate victory hard to attain.

Xiao Feng spread out his divine sense to survey the surroundings.

The arenas don't make up all of the Origin Secret Realm's interior; going up the steps into the mountain's inner side reveals additional competitive options.

He assumed those were the contents after the fourth stage, but upon stepping onto the stairs, no challenge materialized—he simply passed through with ease.

An entire stairway.

Clearly, the Origin Secret Realm's formal area is tiered: the bottom layer holds 36 arenas, above it stand eight statues, and higher still are three furnace‑like structures resembling volcanic mouths.

Xiao Feng reached the summit; beyond the furnaces lay further steps, yet when he attempted to ascend, the system shoved him back.

【Please undertake the fourth-stage challenge only after 360 days have passed since completing the third-stage challenge; your current remaining interval is 359 days, 23 hours, 51 minutes, and 23 seconds.】

Stages four through six are solo challenges, with no need to vie for rank against others.

But it isn't instantly accessible—you must wait a full year.

"It seems I can only mess around on the third layer for now," Xiao Feng remarked ruefully.

Qian Sha and company won't be able to ascend anytime soon, leaving the third layer as Xiao Feng's personal stage for now.

Furnaces, statues, arenas.

These three sections make up the entirety of the Origin Secret Realm's contention events.

What lies above pertains solely to personal power growth, unrelated to contention.

Xiao Feng descended from the summit, initially inspecting the top‑tier volcanic furnace.

At the inner side of the blue‑stone platform's cliff, a volcanic‑cave‑like gap opened, spanning several dozen meters across.

He walked a few steps forward, and the system displayed an information window.

【Overlord Furnace·Heaven】

Status: Unclaimed

Upon capturing the Overlord Furnace·Heaven, you can refine the Civilization Sword into the Overlord Heaven Sword, tripling the battle zone's qi‑plunder efficiency and bestowing a flight‑nullification effect that grounds everyone—NPCs and monsters alike—within a 10,000‑km radius, overriding any other effects.

Beyond the special effect

To claim it, you must be a Civilization Lord above level 1500, contribute 10 billion qi in one go, and defeat challengers (the system auto‑sets up 1v1 duels; you have 60 minutes to answer, or you lose). Each battle zone's God King can launch at most one challenge per day, and after you win 20 straight challenges in a day you may decline further ones.

Duration held: Not yet occupied

Having read the description, Xiao Feng frowned.

Isn't this just pushing him to take up the role of Civilization Lord?

Even though the Divine Emperor has reached the God King Realm thanks to a Breakthrough Pill, his power pales beside the server's strongest players—he's in a totally different tier.

The only way to secure the Overlord Furnace's allegiance is for him to become its lord himself.

"Looks like I'll need to get serious once the contention era starts," Xiao Feng mused.

He's been loafing around for way too long.

After the Primordial World ended, he kept offloading responsibility—throwing the Civilization Sword to Jiang Ning, then to the Divine Emperor—and hasn't wielded it himself for even a day.

Yet when the contention tournament's official stage comes, he must take it back.

Besides the first, the Origin Secret Realm contains two more furnaces that he took a look at while passing by.

Those two furnaces bear different names.

The King's Furnace·Earth likewise triples qi‑plunder efficiency, yet instead of blocking flight it creates a passive swamp effect that turns the terrain within 1,000 km into marsh, cutting ground units' movement speed by 80%.

Non‑Main‑God players cannot fly in the Myriad Heavens Battlefield, and they still make up the bulk of the population.

Only about 15% manage to break through to Main‑God status.

Hence the swamp's limiting effect is highly significant.

Moreover, the Luck‑Devouring Cannon needs a launch platform; without usable ground, employing it becomes a hassle.

Naturally, there are workarounds: using large creatures or mounts as carriers, or building aerial platforms; otherwise, turning a city into a Sky Fortress would make it difficult to breach.

The third furnace, the Wise Furnace·Living Beings, likewise triples qi‑plunder efficiency and gives allied troops within 1,000 km a 30% across‑the‑board stat boost that persists even after the lord's demise.

Each furnace demands the same: you must be a Civilization Lord of at least level 1500 (a God King qualifies, no Ancestral God breakthrough needed), invest 10 billion qi, and prevail in the combat.

For Xiao Feng, the only hurdle is his level; everything else is easy, so he will certainly seize a furnace someday.

Which furnace to take can be left for later consideration.

In aerial combat he'd grab the sky furnace, on land the earth furnace, and when invading foreign races he'd take the living‑beings furnace—whatever he desires is his, and no rival can match him.

"Let's check out those statues again."

All three furnaces rank top‑tier in competitiveness, serving as strategic assets that can heavily sway any individual battle zone.

However, that isn't the whole story.

Xiao Feng went down the mountain trail and reached the vicinity of the statues.

The statues tower over the landscape, each standing tens of meters tall and featuring unique forms.

The nearest statue is humanoid, holding a large hammer in a striking motion.

【Forge

King of Forging】

Affiliation: None

Introduction: Forging Law Substitute, after occupation can allow all forging-type life profession players in the war zone to increase their forging skill level by +10 levels (can exceed the limit), base success rate +20%

Occupation Conditions: Forging level reaches Divine Blacksmith 100 (highest realm Divine Blacksmith, Divine Blacksmith includes levels 1-100); defeat all challengers (rules same as Forge)

Occupation Duration: None