Chapter 519: The Trial of the Eight Desire Kings

“Shengzai, what other secrets are you hiding? Why, when you’re already this strong, are you still desperately striving to become even stronger?”

After hesitating for a moment, Lahuosi finally voiced her greatest inner doubt.

Shengzai possesses talent and potential that even the entire kingdom—and indeed the whole continent—would envy.

Even if he trained steadily and methodically, Lahuosi was certain Shengzai would one day become one of the strongest on the entire continent.

Yet what puzzled Lahuosi was that, having known Shengzai since childhood, she had always sensed from him a constant sense of anxiety and urgency to grow stronger.

If Shengzai were an ambitious man, his actions might be somewhat understandable to her.

But she knew well that Shengzai had no ambition at all—not even the slightest interest in the throne he might one day inherit.

Then why, if this was the case, did Shengzai feel such urgency to grow stronger? Why had he once collapsed from overtraining?

Wasn’t his strength already far beyond that of the kingdom’s strongest warrior captain?

“Is it because of the hundred-year aftershock he mentioned before? The fact that he knows so clearly about the ‘Six Gods,’ the ‘Eight Desire Kings,’ and the ‘Thirteen Heroes’ proves he deliberately investigated them.”

“Combined with the sense of urgency you described, it suggests he already knows something—and is certain this enemy is immensely powerful, placing immense pressure on him?”

To be fair, after meeting the Bone King, Iblis had turned into a love-struck fool, her intelligence plummeting to zero.

But when she wasn’t in love-struck mode, her two-hundred-year experience and sharp observational skills still made her intellect superior to most in this group.

The mystery was nearly unraveled, and his scheming sister Lana likely already knew much as well, so Shengzai ceased his concealment.

“As Iblis said, the hundred-year aftershock has returned—and the entity descending upon this world this time will bring death and destruction to countless lives.”

“As for how I know these things, I can only repeat what I’ve always said: I have my own intelligence sources, and they are absolutely reliable.”

The capital city of the Eight Desire Kings, “Eliuentio,” was later found by Shengzai and his group only after days of searching through the desert.

Even with Nigen, the traitorous priest, providing intelligence, finding Eliuentio would have been nearly impossible—given the vastness of the southern desert, they would have been like flies without a head.

Within Eliuentio, the Eight Desire Kings left thirty City Guardians, each equipped with magical weapons and armor beyond reason.

To obtain the magical artifacts left by the Eight Desire Kings, one must pass their trials and earn their approval.

The Thirteen Heroes once succeeded and took away several magical items; the Empire’s Chief Magical Chanting Master, however, failed to gain approval and returned empty-handed.

Before facing the City Guardians, Shengzai first used “Evolutionary Power” to strengthen Cang Qiangwei and the others.

Cang Qiangwei and the others were profoundly astonished by Shengzai’s possession of such power.

Especially Lahuosi, who had always believed that as Shengzai’s childhood friend, she was among the few who understood him best in this world.

Now, she was stunned to realize Shengzai had concealed so many secrets from her.

The hundred-year aftershock and the Eight Desire Kings were one thing—but the power he had just granted them made her feel Shengzai was practically a god.

Even Lahuosi, with her exceptional talent, had begun to hit a plateau in her growth due to racial limitations.

Yet after Shengzai’s actions, she was shocked to find her life tier had seemingly ascended—her previously unbreakable bottleneck now dissolved as naturally as water flowing downhill.

Not just Lahuosi, but the rest of Cang Qiangwei were experiencing nearly the same transformation.

They had all been accumulating potential, but racial limits had blocked their progress; now that the barrier vanished, their strength surged dramatically in a short time.

If previously Cang Qiangwei’s members—aside from Iblis—had been around level 25 to 30, they were now all at approximately level 35.

This was the absolute limit achievable by ordinary humans; beyond that lay the level of the Demon Gods, as Nigen had described.

Moreover, Cang Qiangwei could sense that even their current strength was not their limit—if they trained further, they could still grow stronger.

How Shengzai had acquired such power remained unknown to Cang Qiangwei, but having received such a tremendous boon, all of them—including even the usually stubborn Iblis—now felt profound gratitude toward Shengzai.

With their newfound strength and broken limits, Lahuosi and the others now felt greater confidence in facing the Eight Desire Kings’ trials.

But when they finally found the legendary Eliuentio and met the City Guardians, they truly understood just how weak they were.

The City Guardians before Shengzai and his group included dragons, demons, elves, and angels—in total, thirty champions from the most elite races.

Even Shengzai, upon seeing these thirty guardians—ranging from level 35 to 100—finally grasped just how powerful the Eight Desire Kings had once been.

When the group appeared, one of the elven knights surveyed them briefly before speaking: “You all qualify for the trial. But since your strengths vary greatly, you may choose your own trial difficulty.”

“By passing our trials, you may claim the magical artifacts and equipment stored in this city.”

“The level of the artifacts and equipment you receive depends on the level of the trial you complete.”

Through the elven knight’s words, Shengzai and his group understood: not everyone who came to Eliuentio was eligible for the trial.

To undergo the trial and gain the Guardians’ approval, one must at least reach the threshold of the “Hero Domain”—a minimum level of 25.

Those below level 25 did not even qualify to attempt the trial.

The trial levels ranged from 1 to 10, designed to help Shengzai’s group better understand their own capabilities.

The elven knight guardian kindly added that the Thirteen Heroes had chosen level 5, while the Empire’s Fuluda had chosen level 4.

(End of Chapter)