Chapter 856 - Basic Control
Star-Moon City, Teleportation Hall:
A group of cloaked players suddenly appeared inside the building. Standing at the head of this group were an uncloaked young man and woman. The instant these two appeared, they immediately attracted the attention of many players.
"Aren’t they Hell Fiend and Praying Lotus, experts of King’s Return?"
"Why would they appear here?"
"As expected of a Super Guild. Their levels and equipment are simply too amazing. Both of them are fully equipped in Level 35 Dark-Gold Equipment. That staff Hell Fiend is carrying is actually Epic ranked. The difference between us is just too massive. I wonder when I’ll be able to wear a full set of Level 35 Secret-Silver Equipment?"
"Could King’s Return be looking to develop in Star-Moon Kingdom?"
Experts of King’s Return were practically bigtime celebrities in the virtual gaming world. Not to mention, neither Hell Fiend nor Praying Lotus had bothered to hide the special effects of their equipment. Hence, many players quickly managed to determine the ranks of the two’s equipment, which immediately prompted a discussion among the onlookers as they cast envious gazes at the two experts.
Currently, mainstream players had yet to reach even Level 35. Only the elite players of large Guilds had mostly attained this level. Being able to have a complete set of Secret-Silver Equipment was also a very amazing achievement already, yet these two experts from King’s Return, a Super Guild, had already reached Level 39. They even sported the current best weapons and equipment from head to toe.
An Epic Weapon. This was definitely the first time these ordinary players had seen such an item. There had been no news of such a weapon appearing in the entire Star-Moon Kingdom. One could just imagine how frighteningly powerful a Super Guild was.
Hell Fiend and Praying Lotus paid no attention to the looks they were receiving as they walked directly towards an outgoing teleportation array.
"Hah, look who it is." Hell Fiend came to an abrupt halt, his gaze shifting towards an Elementalist waiting to use a teleportation array.
"Hell Fiend? Why are you here?" The Elementalist youth also noticed Hell Fiend. Suddenly, as if something occurred to him, his expression immediately darkened as he asked, "Could you be trying to threaten Zero Wing?"
"Sinned, it seems your luck is quite good. You actually managed to find a trustworthy ally. However, don’t celebrate too soon. Your fate has long since been determined. Nothing will change no matter how much you struggle," Hell Fiend sneered in disdain. He then turned away and left.
"A trustworthy ally?" Sinned Heart hid his confusion as he looked at Hell Fiend’s departing figure. "Could Zero Wing have rejected Hell Fiend’s offer?"
He had never seen Hell Fiend lose his composure to such an extent before.
Inwardly, he breathed out a sigh of relief. The goodwill he felt towards Zero Wing also increased significantly. Not many people would dare to resist King’s Return, much less offend the Super Guild, just for a stranger.
"Hell Fiend, are you really going to use the ancient book?" Seeing Hell Fiend’s hurried steps, Praying Lotus anxiously advised, "Don’t let your anger get to your head. Even if you utilize the ancient book’s power, Sinned Heart will still get that sum of money. At that time, you will have wasted the true value of the ancient book."
"Of course, I know this. Lotus, do you actually think I’ve let my anger overwhelm me? I haven’t forgotten our primary goal in coming here. Although I said I was going to utilize the ancient book’s power, when did I say that I was going to use it on Stone Forest Town?" Hell Fiend’s mouth hooked up into an evil smile. "At that time, whether it is Black Flame or Sinned Heart, both of them will suffer."
"You’re not using it on Stone Forest Town?" While Praying Lotus was happy that Hell Fiend was not letting his anger get the better of him, his words also confused her.
Stone Forest Town was Zero Wing’s treasure trove. If they destroyed the town, they could undoubtedly deal Zero Wing a severe blow, wiping away one of the Guild’s major advantages in Star-Moon Kingdom.
But if Hell Fiend was not planning on using the ancient book on Stone Forest Town, just what was his intended target?
"You’ll see when the time comes." Hell Fiend smirked.
---
Inside White River City’s Library, Shi Feng continued to try to fuse the Ice-Blue Devil Flame and the Soul Fire. However, the difficulty of merging two Mysterious Flames was extremely high. Despite numerous attempts, Shi Feng still ended up with only failure.
The first step of wrapping the Ice-Blue Devil Flame around the small bundle of Soul Fire was no problem for Shi Feng. At this point, Shi Feng could control the Ice-Blue Devil Flame like an extension of his arms and legs. Shi Feng had already reached the Void Realm, so his perception towards his surroundings was already flawless. Hence, completely containing the Soul Fire was a walk in the park for him.
However, the second step, which was the fusion of Mysterious Flames, was extremely difficult.
Fusing the flames in the correct ratio was many times more challenging than threading a string through a needle hole.
It was meaningless if Shi Feng fused too little Soul Fire with the Ice-Blue Devil Flame. However, if the proportion of Soul Fire was even a tiny bit too much, it would scorch him. At that time, not only did he suffer excruciating pain, but he also fell into a Weakened Soul state, causing his Basic Attributes to decrease. Each time he got burned by the Soul Fire, he would lose 1% of his Basic Attributes. Although 1% was not much, after numerous failures, the accumulated amount was still very frightening. Currently, he had already failed 34 times in a row, which diminished his Basic Attributes by 34%. Fortunately, this reduction was not permanent, only temporary.
Even so, he would have to wait two natural days to recover fully.
This really is difficult. After experiencing many failures, Shi Feng had more or less identified the ratio required to maintain a balance. However, knowing the fusion ratio was one thing. Accurately fusing the flames in correct proportion was another thing altogether. In the future, if he had to go through a similar process to utilize the Soul Fire without the assistance of the fusion magic array, the difficulty would be more than ten times higher.
For example, if his permitted margin of error with the magic fusion array was at 0.1%, then without it, his margin of error would only be 0.01%. It would be significantly more difficult for him to utilize the Soul Fire’s power. After all, players were not machines. They couldn’t achieve such precision. It was the same even if Shi Feng’s brain activity had already improved substantially.
Only now did Shi Feng understand why, even after a decade had passed in God’s Domain, despite there having been a few God-ranked experts who had managed to obtain Soul Fires, not a single one of them had managed to truly control the Soul Fire they had. If he was already having so much trouble controlling just a strand of the Soul Fire’s power, just how difficult was it to completely control the Soul Fire?
However, after going through so many attempts, Shi Feng had also gained something else.
And that was control!
Before this, Shi Feng had only been focused on improving his control over his own body and the surrounding environment, always thinking of ways to push his five senses to their very limits. However, he had always done so through actual life-and-death battles. He had never truly calmed his heart.
He had never noticed before, but now that he was paying attention he realized that his previous way of controlling his body and the surrounding environment seemed somewhat barbaric. Previously, he had been just like a sprinter, constantly placing an ultra-high load on his body while he fought. His control had no smoothness or flexibility whatsoever. However, after experiencing the fusion process multiple times, his control over his body had subtly improved. He could now extend and retract his power much more smoothly and naturally than before.
This unexpected benefit overjoyed Shi Feng.
He had never imagined that he would gain such a bonus from combining two Mysterious Flames.
With the continuous improvement of his control, Shi Feng finally succeeded in merging the Ice-Blue Devil Flame and Soul Fire on his 45th try.
System: Congratulations! You have gained basic control over the Soul Fire. You are now able to utilize the basic abilities of the Soul Fire.