Chapter 108

【Challenger Notification (All Channels): Full-Event Triggered — "Celestial Fire Descends".】

Celestial Fire Descends (Emperor's Tomb Mountain Range Scenario — Full Event)

Mission Briefing: Eliminate the Celestial Fire Clan that has descended, and retrieve the energy core stored within Celestial Fire City.

Mission Reward: Players receive a 20% increase in hunting feedback for killing Celestial Fire Clan warriors, and these kills count toward campaign contribution; final rewards are distributed based on campaign contribution ranking.

Guidance Note: Campaign contribution is divided into Output Contribution, Damage Taken Contribution, Buff Contribution, etc., and is updated in real time according to battle conditions; contribution rewards cannot be fraudulently obtained by deliberately taking damage or similar means.

……

The sudden full-event drew the attention of every player.

Players still in the Rainbow Mist Coast region quickly turned back toward Emperor's Tomb Village.

Including many Exploration Faction players.

Even Exploration Faction players understood that their own strength was the foundation of outward exploration; a senior's tragic experience proved that poetry and distant horizons without sufficient power would inevitably face roadside retribution.

This mission's reward was also extremely generous.

In addition to the 20% extra hunting feedback, players could earn contribution rewards similar to those from Domain Node Purification missions.

More importantly, the reward distribution model had been modified.

Functional players could now earn contribution and ranking rewards through supportive actions during combat.

Instantly, Emperor's Tomb Village was packed to capacity.

The local voice channel flooded with chatter:

"Seven-man squad needs one more solo player — missing a Stone Golem. Join now, we leave immediately, no waiting."

"Anyone need a Fire Mage? I've unlocked two Star Vein slots — my DPS is insane."

"Come on, a Beast-Trafficking player — preferably one willing to be a mount. We'll cover all your potion costs during battle. Apply to join now — we're waiting for you."

"Need a Shadow Clone Technique user — 15-man solo squad, efficiency departure."

……

Solo squads, lone wolves, guild teams — vast numbers of players gathered in Emperor's Tomb Village, then advanced toward the Ancient Battlefield.

At the far end of the Ancient Battlefield, a city constructed entirely of flame had appeared.

To the north of the city, the Black Tide raged, locked in brutal combat with countless Flame Giants.

It was clear the Flame Giants in battle were fiercely motivated, forming battle formations that pushed the Black Tide steadily northward, appearing to hold overwhelming advantage.

But Qi Sheng saw deeper shifts in the battle.

Every time a Flame Giant fell, it was engulfed and consumed by surging black mist, becoming energy that strengthened the Black Tide.

Yet when a Hei Chao Xie Sui died, it simply reabsorbed into the black mist, requiring minimal energy to reform into a new Hei Chao Xie Sui.

What looked like a one-sided war was, in truth, feeding the Black Tide.

If this battle continued as it was, he suspected the Earth-Nourishing Evil Spirit controlling the Black Tide would be laughing out loud.

He wouldn't let the Black Tide enjoy such benefits alone.

As the player army neared the southern gate of the Flame City, massive numbers of Flame Giants surged out to meet them.

The average hunting level of Celestial Fire Clan warriors was around Level 43; initial engagements showed players were no better off than the Black Tide — they were being overwhelmingly outmatched.

But players had long grown accustomed to such disadvantages.

Some even felt the pressure from Flame Giants was far less intense than that from the Insect Tide or the Black Tide.

Meanwhile, voice channel players who loved to brag updated their earnings, making others envious.

Unlike the Insect Tide and the Black Tide, Celestial Fire warriors always dropped two materials upon death:

【Celestial Fire Rune Essence】:

Item Description: A rune mark etched into the body since childhood by Celestial Fire Clan warriors, refined and compressed into essence — can be sacrificed beneath Di Zhao to obtain Shou Shou Jili rewards.

【Celestial Fire Spirit Pattern】:

Item Description: The spiritual pattern etched onto Celestial Fire Clan warriors, the key component linking to the Celestial Fire Rune — can be sacrificed beneath Di Zhao to obtain Shou Shou Jili rewards.

……

These two guaranteed-drop materials were more valuable than the Shou Shou Jili reward obtained from refining the flesh and blood of a slain Celestial Fire warrior.

In other words, killing a Celestial Fire warrior yielded far higher returns than killing an Insect Clan warrior or a Hei Chao Xie Sui.

Since the Rainbow Mist Coast front was opened, players on forums had dubbed the Insect Tide and the Black Tide "poor bastards."

Monsters in the Rainbow Mist Coast region sometimes dropped materials, but Insect Clan warriors dropped items with low market value; the Hei Chao Xie Sui dropped nothing at all — they were downright stingy.

The appearance of Celestial Fire warriors showed players what a "wealthy monster" truly was.

Not only did they always drop two materials, but some even dropped Flame Weapons — combined with the 20% extra reward and contribution bonus, Celestial Fire warriors were seen by players as walking treasures.

At this moment, the local voice channel:

"So satisfying — one kill equals forty Hei Chao Xie Sui! Everyone, kill faster!"

"Who the hell picked up that material? How could you be so despicable? I f***ing —"

"Guys, watch out — dirty players are stealing dropped materials on the battlefield. See one, kill them immediately."

"Guys, let me explain — I forgot to turn off auto-pickup. Look, my hand is involuntarily grabbing dropped materials — I can't control it… I'm turning it off now, don't hit me!"

……

Since materials dropped directly, players had to manually pick them up.

This led to players always trying to sneak in and snatch loot after others finished fighting.

Such players usually met grim fates — surrounded by others, they were locked in the "black room" for an hour, completely cut off from subsequent rewards.

Half an hour later.

The Insect Tide army arrived, attacking from the west of the Flame City.

The war became a three-way alliance against the Celestial Fire Clan, with all sides sharing the same goal: the energy core stored within the Flame City.

At this moment, in the center of Flame City.

The Tian Huo Fa Wang transformed into a flame giant dozens of meters tall, gazing from afar at the battle situations in three directions, and a smile appeared on his face.

When besieged by three forces, he had felt a slight tension.

But soon the tension turned to joy; he discovered that even combined, these three forces were no match for the Tian Huo Clan warriors under his command.

Fighting simultaneously in three directions, the Tian Huo Clan still held an absolute advantage.

The only thing that gave him a headache was that the forces attacking from the north and west were so vast in number that they seemed endless to kill.

In contrast, the forces attacking from the south were higher in individual strength, but their numbers were negligible.

After scanning the changes in the battle situations in the three directions again, the Tian Huo Fa Wang decided to accelerate the progress of the campaign, then suddenly raised the flame giant sword in his hand.

Immediately, the Shou Shou Jili within the city raised their hands, chanting ancient incantations to gather the floating fire element energy between heaven and earth; instantly, a flame-red hue appeared above the city.

Like the faint glow emitted by a bonfire in the distance, it swayed gently under the light of the Evil Moon.

But in an instant, this red light began to expand, as if pulled violently by an invisible hand, rapidly growing into a massive flame formation, like the suddenly opened eyes of the Flame God looking down upon the earth, and its area continued to expand.

At the center of the flame formation, a huge vortex quickly formed, spinning and emitting intense heat and dazzling light.

As the flame vortex accelerated its spin, the surrounding air seemed to be ignited, forming layers of high-temperature heat waves spreading outward.

Just then, flame meteors broke free from the constraints of the flame formation, slashed through the long sky, and crashed down upon the earth, trailing tails of fire.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The battlefield instantly turned into a sea of fire; after the flame meteors landed, they would explode instantly, turning into countless tiny sparks that scattered in all directions, like brilliant fireworks, illuminating the earth as if it were day; a large number of Hei Chao Xie Sui, players, and Insect Clan warriors died under the super-large-scale elemental attack.

Until the flame formation vanished, the area outside Flame City had turned into scorched earth.

The battle ended in an unexpected way.

All participating players were locked in a small dark room, beginning to discuss this campaign on the forum.

But the players all clearly knew that this battle had only just begun, far from being over.

Whether it was they, the players, or the Hei Chao Xie Sui, or the Insect Clan warriors, they would all return to the battlefield after reorganizing.

To explain it in the words of a certain player on the forum: "This is nothing; we have fought at least dozens of times at a Yun Tian Realm node, and we have only charged this Flame City once; this doesn't even count as a warm-up."

One hour later.

The resurrection cooldown ended; a large number of players gathered in Di Zhai Village and set out for Flame City again.

At this moment, the reorganized Insect Tide and Hei Chao had joined the battle twenty minutes ahead of the players.

The great war began again.

In the statistical data in Qi Sheng's eyes, the real-time Shou Shou Jili income also skyrocketed.

Inside Flame City.

The Tian Huo Fa Wang's face grew solemn; the Shou Shou Jili team's combined strike had completely crushed the three forces attacking from outside, instantly achieving victory in the war.

He had originally planned to organize the clan's strength to launch a plundering war outward.

He did not expect that the three forces that had been crushed would attack again very soon.

This made him feel very puzzled.

According to reason, the attacking three forces should have understood their own strength through contact in battle; one could say they possessed combat power that completely overwhelmed these three forces.

But he did not understand why these three forces still dared to invade.

Without thinking deeply about this question, he immediately organized the Tian Huo warriors to go out of the city to meet them in battle.

He then issued an order for the Shou Shou Jili within the city to absorb the floating spiritual particles in the air to restore their state, preparing to activate the next round of the Tian Huo Great Formation.

During the progress of the war, clan members continued to perish.

But the Tian Huo Fa Wang always remained expressionless.

Because he had long prepared himself mentally; from the moment he chose war, he knew his clan members would inevitably continue to perish during the progress of the war.

The resources of the Heavenly Fire World were gradually depleting; he had laid out a cross-realm war plan one hundred years in advance, continuously optimizing the population structure and following an elite development path.

Those who followed him across the realms were extremely excellent warriors.

He believed that relying on the combat power of the Tian Huo Clan, they would surely easily crush the attacking three forces.

Just as the Tian Huo Fa Wang had envisioned, even facing enemies on three sides, the Tian Huo Clan always held an absolute war advantage.

But there was one thing that made him feel very confused.

Among the dense insect swarm in the west direction, there appeared a new type of combat unit with flame spirit patterns branded on their bodies.

These newly appeared combat units possessed very high flame resistance; clan members could no longer easily wipe out a whole area with a casual strike as before.

While feeling surprised, he did not pay too much attention to this detail.

He only needed to know that his side held an absolute advantage in the war; next, after the Shou Shou Jili team prepared the Tian Huo Great Formation, they could clear the field again and slaughter all the attacking three forces.

Time passed; receiving feedback from the Shou Shou Jili team, the Tian Huo Fa Wang transformed into a flame giant dozens of meters tall, raised his sword, and pointed it toward the sky.

Immediately, the power of the Shou Shou Jili gathered from all directions and flew toward the sky from the sword tip.

A super-large-scale Tian Huo formation generated in the sky; a new round of falling fire rain began, and the earth was once again swept and covered by dense flames.

When the Tian Huo Great Formation dissipated, the Tian Huo Fa Wang dispersed his Fire Demon body, his figure hovering in the high sky as he scanned the battlefield.

Wherever his gaze fell, the combat units of the three forces had all vanished.

The corner of the Tian Huo Fa Wang's mouth curled upward, his expression unable to hide his pride.

Three days later.

The confidence in the Tian Huo Fa Wang's eyes vanished completely.

They fought fiercely for three days and three nights.

He could no longer remember how many times the three local forces had swept in.

The battle had lasted three days; nearly one-fifth of the clan members had died in the war, but the war showed no sign of stopping.

It seemed as though the reinforcement forces of these three factions were endless.

Each time they were driven back, they could quickly regroup new combat units and throw them back into the battlefield.

Gazing at the waning moon hanging high in the sky, a hint of confusion appeared in Tian Huo Fa Wang's eyes, but it was soon replaced by determination.

"The peak combat power of this world is indeed strong... but I will not lose; this is only the beginning."

Just then, the earth trembled.

Tian Huo Fa Wang's gaze immediately swept toward the direction from which the disturbance came.

Under the light of the Evil Moon, the ground shook continuously, as if countless lives were stirring restlessly beneath the earth.

Suddenly, the pitch-black thin mist was pierced; tens of thousands of insect warriors, like a black tide, rapidly covered the entire plain. These insect warriors had undergone obvious changes in form compared to their first encounter; some were Cloaked in Heavy Armor, others wielded sharp mouthparts, and some massive insect types were mixed in, converging into an impenetrable net as they advanced.

Most importantly, the insect warriors at the very front of the charge all bore flame spirit patterns on their bodies.

Tian Huo Fa Wang was very familiar with this spirit pattern.

All insect warriors possessing this spirit pattern possessed extremely strong fire element resistance.

From the initial few scattered insect warriors having it, to now, the majority of the insect warriors within sight were enhanced by flame spirit patterns.

This caused a conjecture to rise in Tian Huo Fa Wang's heart, but he quickly suppressed this thought, believing he was merely indulging in wild speculation; how could such a terrifying racial innate ability possibly exist in this world?

Gazing at the insect tide, a hint of killing intent appeared in Tian Huo Fa Wang's weary eyes, and he immediately issued combat orders.

Upon receiving the command, the clan members who had long been prepared for battle rushed out of the city to meet the incoming insect tide army.

Tian Huo Fa Wang withdrew his gaze, then looked toward the direction.

At the end of his line of sight was a black wave slowly spreading out, as if ink had been splashed by an invisible hand, coalescing into a vast and boundless sea of darkness, rolling in with extreme clamor; countless grotesque monsters were born within the darkness, only to dissolve into the black mist again in the blink of an eye.

A new round of combat orders was issued, and the Tian Huo Warriors located in the direction of the North Gate rushed out of the city to prepare for battle.

Tian Huo Fa Wang's gaze finally turned toward the south of Flame City.

His focus settled on the faction currently attacking.

This was the faction he understood the least.

Compared to the ferocity and grotesqueness displayed on the surface by the other two factions, and their battle mode that seemed to block out the sky and sun, the faction attacking from the south behaved the strangest.

Along the way, they talked and laughed, slung arms around each other's shoulders, and some even kept jumping several meters high while advancing, seemingly enjoying the sensation of weightlessness brought about by the jumps.

Scanning his gaze, apart from a small portion organized into clusters, the overall battle formation structure of the faction was incredibly scattered.

The feeling he got was that this faction seemed to have never thought war would bring death; this was merely a game.

Besides this, this faction was also the weakest of the three factions.

It could be seen that the three factions were not in an alliance.

When launching an attack on Flame City, he discovered that if the three factions met after spreading out their battle lines, they would unhesitatingly deal lethal blows to the other faction; thus, the three factions were all in an enemy relationship.

This was also the strangest part.

Their comprehensive strength was the weakest, and in terms of numbers, they were completely suppressed by the insect tide and the black tide.

He did not understand how this faction had managed to survive on this land without being swallowed by the other two extremely evil factions.

He had no way to answer this question.

But while observing the battle situation, he did discover an extremely bizarre scene.

At that time, the sacrificial group had not yet prepared to activate the Great Tian Huo Array, and the clan members fighting in all three directions appeared exceptionally exhausted; at that moment, he had issued the order to enter the city.

He intended to lure these three factions into the city and fight through Flame City's defense system.

As a result, after these three factions met within the city, they unhesitatingly fought fiercely, consuming each other; this was a surprise beyond Tian Huo Fa Wang's expectations.

But during this process, it could be clearly seen that the black tide was more willing to engage the insect tide, and the insect tide was also more willing to engage the black tide.

As for the other mysterious faction, they killed whoever they saw.

This seemed very strange.

The three factions were enemies of one another; among them, two factions seemed to extremely detest the faction attacking from the south and were unwilling to have too much entanglement with them.

Logically speaking, the faction attacking from the south was the weakest of the three factions.

The pressure it brought him was also the weakest of the three factions.

Yet, it was precisely this faction, which seemed incapable of withstanding a single blow, that made the other two factions extremely wary.

Especially the black tide faction; they avoided it whenever possible, seemingly unwilling to engage this faction at all.

Tian Huo Fa Wang could not figure out this question.

With the war continuing until now, a strong sense of exhaustion had already taken hold in his heart.

The peak-level combat power of this world was far stronger than he had imagined.

What was even more hateful was that these three factions could always summon endless reinforcement forces from other regions, making them impossible to kill off completely.

He could only hope now that the subsequent reinforcement forces would gradually weaken.

At that time, he would launch a counterattack, venting the anger accumulated over these days and bringing despair to these three factions.

As an invader, Tian Huo Fa Wang had never thought the opening would be so frustrating.

He even felt this was not the treatment an invading faction should receive.

Compared to the lofty ambitions he had when he first arrived, his self-esteem had been challenged on this land.

In his original conception, this was merely the first world war before the Tian Huo Clan swept across multiple worlds and became a terrifying calamity.

But since his arrival, the war had always been unfolding on this small patch of land, with reinforcement armies from the three factions arriving endlessly.

The first battle, which held important significance in his eyes, had stubbornly transformed from an invasion war into a city defense.

Throughout the entire process, he had been defending against the attacks of the three factions near Flame City, unable to take a single step toward expansion and plunder.

But he believed that the suppressed anger would eventually be released.

The reinforcement forces of the three factions would eventually run out; they were destined to prostrate themselves at his feet, becoming stepping stones for him and his clan to plunder other worlds.

Perhaps in the future, looking back from the peak, this would be a past event worth remembering.

Thinking of this, Tian Huo Fa Wang's mindset shifted slightly, and a smile returned to his face.

Ten thousand characters, finished.

Also recommending a friend's work:

My Girlfriend Died in the Past

Synopsis: "You say you have a girlfriend?"

"Yes."

"She is beautiful with a great figure, perfect temperament, and comes from a wealthy family; she doesn't ask for a car or a house, and doesn't even ask for a bride price?"

"That's right."

"Besides that, she does your laundry and cooking, and even boils foot-washing water for you?"

"That's how it is; I don't even know what good fortune from how many lifetimes I cultivated to deserve this."

"Then you truly have good luck; I'm even a bit envious of you."

The doctor recorded in the medical chart while turning back to instruct the nurse:

"The condition has worsened again; remember to increase the dosage."





(End of this chapter)