Chapter 15: Spirit Weapon Valley

In Di Zhao Village, before the Source Initial Containment Wall.

Qi Sheng stood with eyes closed, his consciousness shuttling through the real-world network, searching for suitable recruits.

Without exception, the player groups he joined all treated him as a scammer.

Most chose to delete the links he sent, then kicked him out of the group chat.

For this, Qi Sheng had absolutely no desire to explain; he decisively changed his recruitment targets and adopted a broad-net strategy.

The 50 slots were quickly distributed, divided among players from three groups.

Just then, a Guidance Water Sphere suddenly appeared:

【Boss, among the players recruited this time, there's a ruthless one!】

"How ruthless?" Qi Sheng turned his head to look at the Guidance Water Sphere and asked impatiently.

【Last time, players gave feedback on the pain setting issue. Didn't you adjust the pain feedback for players entering the game for the first time to the minimum 10%?】

This adjustment was performed by Qi Sheng personally, so naturally he would not forget.

At that time, the first batch of players recruited, including Li Zheng, complained in the game that the pain feedback was too realistic, making him realize this issue had to be addressed.

After all, one of the main reasons players are powerful is fearlessness; overly realistic pain feedback goes against this concept.

After careful consideration, he set the initial pain feedback to 10%.

The reason it wasn't 0% is that pain is essentially a feedback of physical state; having pain allows players to detect changes in themselves in time, and also hone combat skills during the hunting process, rather than just acting as reckless brutes.

【One of the players recruited this time, after checking the game functions, voluntarily raised the pain feedback to 100%.】

"That is indeed a ruthless person."

With curiosity, Qi Sheng's head suddenly transformed into a mass of scarlet flames; the flames spread from his head to his entire body, enveloping him in Xiong Xiong flames.

After switching to the Beneath Di Zhao form, his vision shifted to the Guidance Clone accompanying the "ruthless player" mentioned by the Guidance.

The sky seemed dyed by thick black ink, losing its former brightness, with only a single eerie crescent moon hanging in the sky, casting mottled shadows.

Black wind howled across the earth, stirring up willow-catkin-like ash clouds that danced wildly in the sky.

Crack!

A crisp sound of bones breaking rang out; Li Tie snapped the arm of the cursed soldier in front of him, then decisively activated his Gargoyle form. His body surface was instantly coated with a layer of pitch-black substance, hard-blocking the attacks from the other two cursed soldiers coming from both sides.

Having come this far, Li Tie was extremely satisfied with the realism of this game.

The consecutive battles also allowed him to comprehend the correct way to use the Gargoyle's "Stone" ability.

He discovered that the game had no so-called skill cooldown limits; the use of the Stone skill could be activated and deactivated at will.

The Guidance's explanation was that there are two energy bars in the game: Health Points and Spirit Power.

Using active skills consumes one of these energies.

For example, the Gargoyle's Stone ability consumes Health Points each time it is used, while the Eagle-Head Demon's Wail and Bone Fire's Ink Flame ability consume Spirit Power when used.

Without skill cooldown limits, the reasonable timing of skill release becomes especially important.

The cursed soldiers became Li Tie's objects for training skills.

Stone, deactivate, counterattack... Whenever a cursed soldier attacked, Li Tie would activate the Stone state to hard-block the damage, then deactivate Stone during the gaps in the cursed soldier's attacks to counterattack, quickly familiarizing himself with the rhythm of using the Stone ability.

After several rounds of attacks, the three cursed soldiers blocking the way were dismantled by his heavy fists into a pile of broken bones.

After absorbing the energy condensed upon the cursed soldiers' deaths, he successfully leveled up to 4, clearly feeling his physical attributes had significantly improved again.

Picking up the damaged warhammer left by the cursed soldier on the ground, Li Tie continued eastward.

Half an hour later.

Crossing a hillside, a valley appeared before Li Tie's eyes; the ground was covered with a thick layer of black ash, and the smell of scorched earth in the air became pungent.

What surprised him was that several weapons were floating in mid-air before the valley, wandering around as if they had life.

Moving forward along the downward slope, a line of text floated past his eyes as he entered the valley.

【Challenger Notice: Domain Node Scene "Spirit Weapon Valley" discovered.】

Accompanying the notice, the map automatically popped up; the fog around his location dispersed, revealing the three golden characters "Spirit Weapon Valley."

Continuing forward for a distance, his gaze focused on a war axe ahead, its surface flowing with crimson energy.

【Forceful Barbarian (First Generation Source Initial)】:

Hunting Level: 10

Guidance Analysis: A special monster controlling Source Initial power, evolved from part of Beneath Di Zhao's killing power, possessing basic intelligence, and craving battle and slaughter.

Shifting his gaze to the cyan war blade floating beside the war axe, analysis information appeared again:

【Shattered (First Generation Source Initial)】

Hunting Level: 10

Guidance Analysis: A special monster controlling Source Initial power, evolved from part of Beneath Di Zhao's killing power, possessing basic intelligence, and craving battle and slaughter.

After consecutively checking the attributes of the floating weapons ahead, Li Tie was surprised to discover that these weapons were all First Generation Source Initials, extremely precious as the Guidance had said.

Although their Hunting Levels reached 10, Li Tie did not retreat; instead, he actively walked toward Spirit Weapon Valley.

The floating Spirit Weapons reacted then, shooting toward him one after another, surrounding him before hovering in place.

Expecting to be besieged, Li Tie discovered these Spirit Weapons were not doing so.

The crimson war axe at the forefront, upon floating before him, trembled lightly; immediately, the other four Spirit Weapons surrounding Li Tie scattered, clearing an open space.

"Guidance, what does this mean?"

【My analysis is that it is challenging you, wanting a 1v1 true man collision with you.】

"Interesting!"

At this moment, Li Tie gripped the broken iron hammer in his hand, stepped forward, and swung the warhammer down heavily toward the war axe.

After the clash of metal, sparks flew in all directions; the warhammer in Li Tie's hand shattered, sending metal fragments flying, while the surface of the Weapon Spirit's battleaxe remained undamaged.

Boom!

At that moment, the battleaxe's assault unleashed a violent crimson airflow rushing toward the face; the axe was raised high and came crashing down heavily upon Li Tie's head.

Crack!

The half-raised warhammer was instantly shattered, leaving only the handle, yet the battleaxe's momentum did not wane as it continued its descent.

Petrification!

Li Tie shifted his body to the right and decisively activated the Petrification ability.

Ding!

He turned sideways and took the axe's slash squarely on his shoulder; domineering energy seeped into his body, and the intense pain brought a ferocious grin to Li Tie's face, his eyes unable to hide their excitement.

The pain instead stirred the ferocity deep within his heart.

He released the warhammer, now reduced to a broken handle, and after withdrawing the Petrification ability, he smashed his fist hard against the battleaxe.

But to Li Tie's surprise, the other four weapons watching the battle suddenly shot forth at that moment, instantly piercing his body.

【Challenger Notice: Player deceased, deducting 10 points of Shou Shou Jili, entering a one-hour resurrection cooldown!】

As the notice appeared, the scene before Li Tie's eyes transformed into a grayscale hue.

One hour later, Li Tie appeared at the resurrection point in Emperor's Tomb Village.

"Guide, didn't we agree on a one-on-one duel? Why did the other Weapon Spirits suddenly attack me?"

Facing the question, the Guide fell silent briefly before offering an analysis:

【The situation at that time was that you dropped the shattered warhammer in your hand, and were subsequently attacked by the remaining Weapon Spirits; therefore, the one-on-one duel likely requires you to be holding a weapon. Dropping your weapon means you are no longer the target of the Weapon Spirit's challenge.】

"I see."

After understanding the reason, Li Tie formed the thought of returning to the Weapon Spirit Valley to fight again.

However, the weapons on the Ancient Battlefield were all severely damaged and could not withstand even a single round of assault from the Weapon Spirits; he now needed a high-quality weapon.

(End of Chapter)