Chapter 2889 – Astonishing Ancient Rock City

Orc Empire, Ancient Rock City:

When Shi Feng appeared before Ancient Rock City’s entrance, the city had already taken on a new look. It now had much taller walls covered with magic runes. Even though the city’s core magic array was currently inactive, the magic runes naturally absorbed Mana from the environment and generated a magic barrier.

The magic barrier was so powerful that even a Tier 5 existence’s full-powered attack might not break it. So long as there was Mana within and around the city, this magic barrier would always exist. It would even automatically repair itself for free.

Tall buildings had replaced the ruins inside the city, and a thin layer of fog surrounded this forest of buildings. The city’s Mana density practically rivaled Zero Wing City’s already.

When Shi Feng took to the skies to get a better view of the city, the sight that greeted him gave him a burst of ecstasy. Did it get automatically promoted to Main City?

The current Ancient Rock City was slightly larger than even Zero Wing City. What used to be Saint’s Hand’s Residence had been converted into a gigantic City Lord’s Mansion. The City Lord’s Mansion was well over 300 meters in height, and glowing divine runes surrounded the building. These divine runes didn’t look manmade. Instead, the various elements of Mana around the building formed them spontaneously. If players had a sufficiently high perception of the operating principles of Mana, they could even learn the essence of the various elements of Mana through these naturally occurring divine runes.

No wonder cities with secret lands as their cores are of significant help to players in their tier promotions. Just these naturally occurring divine runes can already provide a significant boost to Tier 4 players. When you factor in the environment inside the Evil God’s Secret Land as well, a Tier 4 player’s chances of getting promoted to Tier 5 here should be 20 to 30 percent higher than in the outside world. Shi Feng fell into a daze as he looked at the majestic City Lord’s Mansion.

While Shi Feng was quietly observing Ancient Rock City, the number of players around the city continuously increased. When these players laid their eyes on the city, they, too, were stupefied.

What had originally been a ruined city was now a magnificent city much larger than even royal capitals. The Mana density within the city was at a level where the Mana was visible to the naked eye. Coupled with the city’s proximity to the Orc Empire’s inner region, it made for the perfect resting place for players seeking to raid the Orc Capital City. Since more and more people were gathering, Shi Feng promptly entered the city and flew toward the City Lord’s Mansion.

Now that cities no longer received protection from the system after undergoing an upgrade, Ancient Rock City was currently at its weakest. If hostile forces attacked the city now, defending it would be incredibly difficult.

Hence, the first thing he needed to do was activate the City Lord’s Mansion’s core magic array and generate the city’s defensive magic array. Now that Ancient Rock City had become a Main City, so long as its defensive magic array was active and had a sufficient supply of Magic Crystals, the city could take on even two Tier 5 existences without trouble.

After Shi Feng entered the City Lord’s Mansion, he was surprised once more.

Not only did the City Lord’s Mansion possess an environment rivaling that of the ancient God’s Domain, but the clarity of the operating principles of Mana’s various elements in this place surpassed even that of the secret underground room in Zero Wing City.

Zero Wing City’s secret underground room only managed to gain such an environment thanks to the Ancient Beast Sculpture and the expenditure of a ton of Magic Crystals. Even then, the secret room could accommodate only several dozen people at a time. On the other hand, Ancient Rock City’s City Lord’s Mansion possessed an even better environment and could allow more than 10,000 players to train in this environment simultaneously.

When Shi Feng arrived inside the core control room, he saw a fully opened set of pitch-black doors. The Evil God’s Secret Land’s Mana continuously flowed out of the open doors and into the City Lord’s Mansion. The secret land itself had also undergone significant changes. Previously, the Evil God’s Secret Land prevented all outsiders from approaching. Now, there was a flight of stairs with 49 steps leading into the secret land. These steps tested players on their ability to stabilize their surroundings. The higher one climbed on this staircase, the higher the requirement would become. By the time players reached the top, they would’ve gained basic mastery over the various elements of Mana.

Another staircase from the control room’s second floor led directly into the Evil God’s Secret Land. However, players needed to be at least Level 150, Tier 4 to use this entry method. They also had to pay 1,000 Mana Stones per player to enter.

In other words, there were two methods to enter the Evil God’s Secret Land.

One method was free but required players to have basic mastery over the various elements of Mana.

The other method had much more lenient entry requirements, but players had to pay 1,000 Mana Stones. This method was a huge benefit for Tier 4 players. After all, Tier 4 players could obtain significant help in their Tier 5 promotion from a Level 150-plus God Mode Secret Land. Not to mention, monsters inside a God Mode Secret Land were filthy rich.

According to the rumors Shi Feng had heard, the Mythic monsters inside Level 150-plus God Mode Secret Lands provided at least five times more EXP and three times better loot than Mythic monsters in the outside world. They were walking treasure troves.

Of course, securing these walking treasure troves wouldn’t be easy, either. This was because even the weakest monster inside these secret lands rivaled Refinement Realm experts in combat standards, with the more powerful ones on par with Void Realm experts. And worse, all of these monsters moved in groups. If an ordinary Tier 4 expert entered a God Mode Secret Land by themselves, they wouldn’t even know how they died.

And while Tier 5 players could survive in a God Mode Secret Land by themselves, they would still die if they came across a Tier 5 Legendary monster.

All Legendary monsters in a God Mode Secret Land possessed combat standards rivaling peak experts at the very minimum, as well as powerful Basic Attributes. The average Tier 5 player would have difficulty facing a Legendary monster by themself; normally, raiding a Legendary monster would need three Tier 5 players. Moreover, these three players needed to fill the roles of MT, healer, and damage dealer. Only with all three roles filled would they have a chance at killing a Legendary monster. If players wished to guarantee a kill on a Legendary monster, they would need to add two more Tier 5 damage dealers to their party formation.

Shi Feng felt a little tempted as he looked at the Evil God’s Secret Land’s entrance.

This was because the monsters inside Level 150-plus God Mode Secret Lands had a chance of dropping God Crystals, materials essential to upgrading many Fragmented Legendary items, as well as Tier 5 Skill and Spell Books, which all Tier 5 players needed to raise their combat power.

However, Shi Feng quickly calmed himself. He knew full well that he couldn’t take on a Level 150-plus God Mode Secret Land by himself. Even if he brought Fire Dance and the others with him, they could, at best, kill a bunch of Tier 4 Superior Mythic monsters-a Tier 5 Legendary monster was out of the question.

Afterward, Shi Feng spent 300,000 Magic Crystals to activate the control room’s core magic array, which created a barrier of divine runes around Ancient Rock City. The city’s defensive magic array was significantly stronger than before.

With the core magic array’s activation, Ancient Rock City woke up like a slumbering beast. The city drew all Mana within a 20,000-yard radius toward itself, depleting the Mana in the vicinity. Now, only Tier 3 players who had activated their Mana Bodies could survive in the surroundings, and Tier 4 players in the area saw their flight speed plummeting.

If a Tier 5 existence attacked Ancient Rock City now, they would also find the power of their attacks diminished by a significant margin.

Inside the City Lord’s Mansion, Shi Feng was dumbfounded by the sight before him. What a powerful core magic array! Initially, he had thought to strengthen Ancient Rock City’s core magic array using the Twelve-array Magic World. However, he dared not interfere with it now. This was because countless divine runes made up the core magic array. He could tell at a glance that it was no ordinary core magic array, and even the slightest of modifications could have catastrophic consequences.

Meanwhile, with this core magic array, Ancient Rock City’s defensive standard was probably close to that of Zero Wing City, which had the protection of a World Mirror.

And this was when the core magic array was operating in normal mode, not at maximum capacity. After activating the core magic array, Shi Feng contacted Fire Dance and had her begin transferring the manpower gathered in Silverwing City to Ancient Rock City.

In less than 20 minutes, over 200,000 Tier 3 members and over 30 Tier 4 members from Zero Wing arrived at Ancient Rock City’s empty streets. As an added precaution, Fire Dance also mobilized three Crimson Dragon Flying Ships, six Tier 4 Fine-Gold Guards, and two Tier 4 Dark-Gold Guards.

The assembled combat power in Ancient Rock City could already rival that in the various superpowers’ headquarters.

After reading an update from her subordinate, Fire Dance asked Shi Feng, “Guild Leader, we’ve completed the basic setup. Should we open Ancient Rock City now?”

“Open it,” Shi Feng replied without hesitation. “Set the entrance fee to one Magic Crystal or 40 Silver Coins.”

Only after a Guild City had opened its doors to the public could it recruit NPC soldiers and strengthen its defenses at a much faster rate. Moreover, if Zero Wing wished to keep Ancient Rock City operating normally, it would have to spend at least 100,000 Magic Crystals per day. If the Guild tried to operate the city privately, it would eventually run out of Magic Crystals.

When Ancient Rock City opened, many scouts from Guilds and adventurer teams flooded in. Adventurer teams that made a living from raiding the Orc Capital City even entered the city in full despite the high entrance fee.

The Orc Capital City was a huge treasure trove. Moreover, all players raiding the Orc Capital City were frontline experts in the current God’s Domain. Even the weakest among them possessed peak Tier 3 combat power. Currently, these players could reap a significant harvest just by farming the monsters in the Orc Capital City’s outer and inner regions. With luck, they could even get their hands on Level 150 Epic Equipment. Meanwhile, as Ancient Rock City was the closest Guild City to the Orc Capital City, it was only natural these players would choose it as their base of operations even if they had to pay an exorbitant entrance fee.

Over 600,000 players flooded into Ancient Rock City in less than two hours, and every one of these players was a Tier 3 expert.

Upon entering Ancient Rock City, all of these experts were stunned by the city’s splendorous view and wonderful environment. Not only could they recover from the corrosion of foreign energies extremely quickly here, but they could even store up to two whole levels’ worth of the Double EXP buff just by resting in the city. The accumulation rate for the buff was even a staggering 30% per 24 hours. While 30% might not seem like much, Tier 3 players couldn’t even earn 30% worth of EXP by grinding nonstop for 24 hours. Players who had reached Level 140 would be considered grinding freaks if they could gain even 20% per day.

Meanwhile, by resting on the streets of Ancient Rock City, not only could players avoid delaying their leveling progress, but they could even level up faster than normal. The effect would be even better if they rested in hotels.

News regarding Ancient Rock City spread throughout the entire eastern continent. When the superpowers that were planning on attacking Ancient Rock City heard about the city’s defensive standard, they gnashed their teeth and abandoned their notions. Now, they had no choice but to wait for the Outerworld forces to take revenge for them.

While the vast number of Tier 3 experts were exclaiming over Ancient Rock City’s environment, Shi Feng brought Beast Emperor to Star-Moon City’s War God’s Temple.

Previously, because the system prevented Shi Feng from leaving Ancient Rock City’s vicinity, he could only imprison Beast Emperor temporarily. Now that he had settled Ancient Rock City’s matters, he naturally couldn’t spare Beast Emperor. Not to mention, because the War God’s Temple abhorred the Evil God’s Temple, it offered extremely generous bounties for the capture of high-ranking Evil God Envoys like Beast Emperor. After Shi Feng entered the War God’s Temple’s lobby with Beast Emperor in tow, a Level 180 senior administrator promptly approached him.

“Greetings, sir. You are here to collect a bounty, right? Please follow me. The Temple Lord is currently present in the War God’s Hall,” the Level 180, Tier 3 senior administrator said respectfully as he looked at Shi Feng “Okay, lead the way.” Shi Feng nodded.