Chapter 15: Spirit Weapon Valley

Emperor Tomb Village, before the Primordial Containment Wall.

Qi Sheng stood with his eyes closed, his consciousness traversing the Real-Net World as he searched for suitable recruits.

Without exception, in every player group he joined, the members treated him like a scammer.

Most would choose to delete the links he sent, then kick him out of the group chat.

Regarding this, Qi Sheng had absolutely no desire to explain; he decisively switched recruitment targets, adopting a wide-net strategy.

The fifty slots were filled quickly, divided among players from three groups.

Just then, the Guidance Water Orb suddenly appeared:

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

"How ruthless?" Qi Sheng turned to look at the Guidance Water Orb and asked irritably.

【Last time players reported issues with the pain settings, didn't you adjust the initial pain perception for players entering the game for the first time to the minimum 10%?】

Qi Sheng had personally made this adjustment last time, so naturally, he hadn't forgotten.

Back then, Li Zheng and the other first-batch players recruited had complained in-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 were powerful was their fearlessness; overly realistic pain feedback ran counter to this philosophy.

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

The reason it wasn't 0% was that pain is essentially a feedback mechanism for the body's condition; having pain allows players to detect changes in themselves in time and can also hone combat skills during hunting, rather than encouraging only reckless behavior.

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

"That is indeed a ruthless person."

Driven by curiosity, Qi Sheng's head suddenly transformed into a mass of scarlet flames; the fire spread from the top of his head to envelop his entire body, wrapping him in raging flames.

After switching to the Emperor Omen form, his vision jumped to the Guidance clone following the "ruthless player" mentioned by Guidance.

The sky seemed dyed with thick ink, losing its former brightness, with only an eerie waning moon hanging in the heavens, casting mottled shadows.

Black wind howled across the land, whipping up ash clusters resembling willow catkins that danced wildly through the air.

Crack!

A crisp sound of breaking bones rang out; Li Tie snapped the arm of the Cursed Soldier before him, then decisively activated his Petrification form. A layer of pitch-black substance instantly plated his surface, allowing him to withstand the attacks coming from two other Cursed Soldiers on his left and right.

Along the way, Li Tie was immensely satisfied with the realism of this game.

Consecutive battles also allowed him to comprehend the correct way to use the Gargoyle's "Petrification" ability.

He discovered that there were no so-called skill cooldown limits in the game; the Petrification skill could be activated and deactivated at will.

Guidance explained that there were two energy bars in the game: Health Points and Mental Energy.

Using active skills required consuming one of these two energies.

For example, the Gargoyle's Petrification ability consumed Health Points each time it was used, while the Eagle-Headed Demon's Resentful Chant and the Bone Fire's Ink Flame ability consumed Mental Energy when used.

Without skill cooldown limits, choosing the reasonable timing to release skills became especially important.

The Cursed Soldiers became Li Tie's training dummies for honing his techniques.

Petrify, dispel, counterattack... Whenever a Cursed Soldier attacked, Li Tie would activate his Petrification state to tank the damage hard, then retract the Petrification during the gaps between the Cursed Soldier's attacks to counter, quickly mastering the rhythm of using the Petrification ability.

After a few rounds of offense, the three Cursed Soldiers blocking his path were dismantled by his heavy fists into a pile of shattered bones.

After absorbing the energy condensed upon the Cursed Soldiers' death, he successfully leveled up to 4, clearly feeling his physical attributes significantly improve once again.

Picking up the damaged warhammer left behind by the Cursed Soldiers on the ground, Li Tie continued heading east.

Half an hour later.

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

What surprised him was that several weapons floated suspended in mid-air before the valley, wandering about as if they possessed life.

Advancing down the slope, as he entered the valley, a line of text drifted before his eyes.

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

Accompanying the notification, the map automatically popped up; the mist at his location dispersed, revealing the three golden characters marking "Spirit Weapon Valley."

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

【Force Barbarian (First-Generation Primordial)】:

Hunting Level: 10

Guidance Analysis: A special monster controlling Primordial Power, evolved from a portion of Emperor Omen's Killing Power; it has birthed rudimentary wisdom and craves combat and slaughter.

Shifting his gaze to the cyan battle-sword floating beside the battle-axe, analysis information appeared once more:

【Shattered (First-Generation Primordial)】

Hunting Level: 10

Guidance Analysis: A special monster controlling Primordial Power, evolved from a portion of Emperor Omen's Killing Power; it has birthed rudimentary wisdom and craves combat and slaughter.

After consecutively checking the attributes of the floating weapons ahead, Li Tie was surprised to discover that these weapons were actually the extremely precious First-Generation Primordials mentioned by Guidance.

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

The floating Spirit Weapons reacted at this moment, shooting toward him one after another; after surrounding him, they hovered in place.

Expecting to be besieged, Li Tie found that these Spirit Weapons did not do so.

The leading crimson battle-axe floated before him and trembled slightly; 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 to have a 1v1 collision of true men with you.】

"Interesting!"

At this moment, Li Tie gripped the broken iron hammer in his hand, stepped forward, and suddenly swung the warhammer down heavily onto the battle-axe.

After the sound of metal clashing, sparks flew in all directions; the warhammer in Li Tie's hand shattered, metal fragments scattering wildly, yet the surface of the Spirit Weapon battle-axe remained undamaged.

Boom!

The battle-axe's offensive also erupted at this moment; a violent crimson current rushed toward his Iron Face as the battle-axe lifted high, chopping down heavily toward Li Tie's head.

Crack!

The half-raised warhammer in Li Tie's hand was instantly shattered, leaving only the handle; the battle-axe's momentum did not diminish as it continued to fall.

Petrify!

Li Tie shifted his body to the right, decisively activating his Petrification ability.

Ding!

Turning sideways, he used his shoulder to tank the battle-axe's chop hard; domineering energy seeped into his body, and the intense pain made a ferocious smile float onto Li Tie's Iron Face, excitement undeniable in his eyes.

The pain instead aroused the ferocity in the depths of his heart.

He released the warhammer, which now consisted only of a broken handle, dispelled his Petrification ability, and then slammed his fist fiercely at the battle-axe.

But what Li Tie did not expect was that the other four weapons, which had been watching the fight, shot over at this moment, instantly piercing through his body.

【Challenger Notification: Player died, deducting 10 points of Sacrificial Power, entering a one-hour resurrection cooldown!】

The notification message appeared, and the scene before Li Tie's eyes morphed and shifted into grayscale tones.

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

"Guidance, wasn't it agreed to be a duel? Why did the other Spirit Weapons suddenly attack me?"

Facing the inquiry, Guidance fell silent briefly before offering an analysis:

【The situation at the time was that you dropped the broken warhammer in your hand, and subsequently came under attack from the remaining Spirit Weapons; therefore, the duel likely requires you to be holding a weapon. Once you discarded your weapon, you were no longer the target of the Spirit Weapons' challenge.】

"So that's how it is."

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

But the weapons on the ancient battlefield were all extremely broken and simply couldn't withstand a single round of offense from the Spirit Weapons; he now needed a high-quality weapon.

(End of Chapter)