Spirit Artifact Valley

Chapter 15: Spirit Artifact Valley

Emperor's Tomb Village, before the Origin Containment Wall.

Qi Sheng stood with his eyes closed, his consciousness traversing the reality network, searching for suitable recruits.

Unsurprisingly, in the player groups he joined, the members all took him for a scammer.

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

Qi Sheng had no desire to explain. He decisively switched recruitment targets, adopting a broad-casting strategy.

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

Just then, the Guiding Water Orb suddenly appeared:

[Boss, there's a real tough one among the players recruited this time!]

"How tough?" Qi Sheng turned to the Guiding Water Orb, speaking with annoyance.

[Last time, you adjusted the pain feedback setting based on player feedback, lowering the initial pain for players entering the game to 10%.]

This adjustment was personally made by Qi Sheng, so he naturally wouldn't forget.

The first batch of players recruited at that time, like Li Zheng, had complained in-game about the pain feedback being too realistic, making him realize this issue needed addressing.

After all, one of the main reasons for player strength was fearlessness, and overly realistic pain feedback ran counter to this concept.

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

It wasn't 0% because pain is essentially feedback on the body's state. Having pain allows players to discover their own changes in time and also hone their combat skills during hunts, rather than just acting like brutes.

[A player recruited this time, after reviewing the game's functions, voluntarily increased their pain feedback to 100%.]

"That is indeed a tough one."

With curiosity, Qi Sheng's head suddenly transformed into a ball of scarlet flames. The flames spread from his head to his entire body, engulfing him in a blazing inferno.

Switching to the Di Zhao form, his vision shifted to the Guider avatar accompanying the "tough player" mentioned by the Guider.

The sky seemed dyed with thick ink, losing its usual brightness, with only a bizarre Waning Crescent hanging in the sky, casting mottled shadows.

A black wind howled across the land, carrying willow-fluff-like ash clumps that danced in the air.

Crack!

A crisp bone-cracking sound echoed. Li Tie broke the arm of a Cursed Soldier in front of him, then decisively activated his petrification form. His body was instantly coated in a layer of pitch-black material, allowing him to withstand the attacks from two other Cursed Soldiers that assaulted him from the sides.

All the way here, Li Tie was immensely satisfied with the game's realism.

The continuous battles had also allowed him to grasp the correct way to use the Stone Gargoyle's "Petrification" ability.

He discovered that there were no skill cooldowns in the game; the Petrification skill could be activated and deactivated at will.

The Guider's explanation was that there were two types of energy bars in the game: Vitality and Spirit Power.

The use of active skills required the consumption of one of these energies.

For example, the Stone Gargoyle's Petrification ability consumed Vitality each time it was used, while the Eagle Head Demon's Wailing and the Bone Fire's Ink Flame abilities consumed Spirit Power.

Without skill cooldowns, the timing of skill usage became particularly important.

The Cursed Soldiers became the object of Li Tie's skill-training.

Petrify, release, counterattack... Every time the Cursed Soldiers attacked, Li Tie would activate his petrification state to tank the damage, then deactivate it during the Cursed Soldiers' attack intervals to counterattack. He quickly familiarized himself with the rhythm of using the Petrification ability.

After several rounds of attacks, the three Cursed Soldiers blocking his path were dismantled into piles of broken bones by his heavy fists.

After absorbing the energy condensed by the Cursed Soldiers upon their death, he successfully leveled up to 4, clearly feeling another significant improvement in his physical fitness.

Picking up the broken war hammer left by the Cursed Soldiers 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 in a thick layer of black ash, and the smell of scorched earth in the air became pungent.

To his surprise, several weapons floated in the air in front of the valley, drifting around as if they were alive.

As he moved down the slope and entered the valley, a line of text floated before his eyes.

[Challenger Hint: Discovered Domain Node scene "Spirit Artifact Valley".]

Along with the hint, the map automatically popped up. The fog in his current location dissipated, revealing the three golden characters "Spirit Artifact Valley".

Continuing forward for a short distance, his gaze focused on a battle axe with flowing scarlet energy on its surface.

[Force Barbarian (First Generation Origin)]:

Hunting Level: 10

Guider Analysis: A special monster that controls Origin power, evolved from a portion of Di Zhao's killing intent. It has developed rudimentary intelligence and craves combat and slaughter.

His gaze shifted to the cyan saber floating beside the battle axe, and parsing information reappeared:

[Broken (First Generation Origin)]

Hunting Level: 10

Guider Analysis: A special monster that controls Origin power, evolved from a portion of Di Zhao's killing intent. It has developed rudimentary intelligence and craves combat and slaughter.

After consecutively examining the properties of the floating weapons ahead, Li Tie was surprised to discover that they were all First Generation Origin, the very precious items mentioned by Guider.

Although their hunting level reached 10, Li Tie did not retreat. Instead, he actively walked towards Spirit Artifact Valley.

The floating artifact spirits reacted at this moment, shooting towards him and surrounding him before hovering.

Expecting to be attacked, Li Tie found that these artifact spirits did not do so.

The crimson battle axe at the forefront trembled as it floated before him. Immediately, the other four artifact spirits surrounding Li Tie retreated, leaving an open space.

"Guider, what does this mean?"

[My analysis is that it is challenging you, wanting to have a true man's 1v1 collision.]

"Interesting!"

Li Tie tightened the broken Iron Hammer in his hand at this moment, took a step forward, and swung the hammer fiercely at the battle axe.

After the sound of metal clashing, sparks flew. The hammer in Li Tie's hand shattered, metal fragments flying everywhere, while the battle axe artifact spirit's surface remained undamaged.

BOOM!

The battle axe's attack also struck at this moment, with a ferocious crimson airflow hitting him. The battle axe was raised high and chopped down heavily towards Li Tie's head.

CRACK!

The half-raised battle hammer in Li Tie's hand was instantly smashed, leaving only the handle. The battle axe continued its descent unabated.

Petrify!

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

Ding!

Sidestepping, he took the battle axe's chop head-on with his shoulder. The overbearing energy seeped into his body, and the intense pain caused a ferocious grin to appear on Li Tie's face, his eyes unable to hide his excitement.

The pain instead ignited the ferocity in his heart.

He let go of the battle hammer, which was now just a broken handle. After deactivating his Petrify ability, he punched the battle axe fiercely.

But to Li Tie's surprise, the other four weapons, which had been watching, shot forward at this moment, instantly piercing his body.

[Challenger Prompt: Player death. 10 Sacrificial Power deducted. Entering one-hour resurrection cooldown!]

The prompt appeared, and the scene before Li Tie turned into a grayscale hue.

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

"Guider, wasn't this supposed to be a one-on-one duel? Why did the other artifact spirits suddenly attack me?"

Facing the question, Guider was silent for a moment before providing an analysis:

[The situation at the time was that you dropped the Broken battle hammer in your hand, and then you were attacked by the other artifact spirits. Therefore, the one-on-one duel likely needs to be conducted while you are holding a weapon. With your weapon discarded, you were no longer the object of the artifact spirit's challenge.]

"So that's how it is."

Understanding the reason, Li Tie had the idea of returning to Spirit Artifact Valley to fight again.

However, the weapons on the Ancient Battlefield were all severely damaged and couldn't withstand even one round of attack from the artifact spirits. He now needed a high-quality weapon.

(End of this chapter)