Chapter 1 The Barren Ridge

The Barren Ridge was a wasteland within Maple Leaf City's region, barren and desolate, with cracked earth and constant yellow sandstorms. Yet, at this moment, many players were leveling up here.

As a leveling map for levels 25 to 32, the Barren Ridge, despite its desolation, was home to various stone beasts. Stone beasts were elemental creatures, an excellent source of stone materials. Defeating them had an almost 20% chance of dropping high-grade stone, and even a certain probability of dropping rare ores.

The forging profession was currently very popular. Many lifestyle players who disliked combat chose to learn forging. As a result, all kinds of forging materials were in high demand in the market. Even though there were no treasures or high-level quests, many players still liked to come here to level up and farm stone and ore.

The high-resource areas of each city were almost entirely occupied by the major guilds. Ordinary players had no way to enter. If they were discovered, they would be driven away if they were lucky, or killed if they were not.

Naturally, ordinary players would not go to these areas to level up, and could only come to ordinary maps like this.

However, after Shi Feng's last visit to Dragon Mountain Ridge, Alluring Smile's people didn't go there much anymore, and instead came here to level up and grind monsters. This made many ordinary players happy to run to Dragon Mountain Ridge. The name Black Flame immediately became an object of worship for the ordinary players of Maple Leaf City.

One person was able to make a guild retreat; this powerful strength was simply unimaginable!

In response, Alluring Smile's guild leader, Xiao Cangtian, wished he could tear Shi Feng into a thousand pieces.

But there was nothing Xiao Cangtian could do about it.

According to Canglang Zhantian's report, Shi Feng's basic attributes were too high, completely exceeding theirs by several levels. To compete with him, they first needed to improve their equipment and their basic attributes. Before that, it was best to avoid him.

Of course, it wasn't like there was no way to deal with him. A few hundred people were out of the question; just one Grand Destruction magic spell could wipe them out. At least a thousand-man legion would be possible, but Shi Feng's whereabouts were unpredictable. Trying to surround Shi Feng with thousands of people was almost impossible, so they could only endure, until they could contend with a strategic expert like Black Flame.

"Damn it, how long are we going to grind here?" An Alluring Smile summoner, level 24, said unhappily, "When has Alluring Smile ever suffered such a loss? We're actually running to this godforsaken place to level up. He's just one expert, I don't believe that if a hundred people surround him, they can't take him down."

"Shh, keep it down. What if your big mouth really summons that person?" The 25-level elementium master who was the团长 (tuánzhǎng, squad leader) frowned and carefully looked around, softly saying, "You're lucky that you didn't come to level up that night. If you had personally felt that intense, volcano-like aura, you would know that a hundred people are just ants in that person's eyes. Even the shield warriors and guardian knights with the highest defense and health points couldn't block one of his sword strikes."

Many people in the squad nodded. Although it was daytime, thinking about the madness of that night still felt like it was yesterday.

"Squad leader, are you exaggerating too much? Although our equipment isn't top-notch now, even a set of level 25 Fine-Gold equipment wouldn't be able to kill our squad's shield warriors and guardian knights with one sword strike, right?" The summoner didn't believe it at all.

Not long after this summoner finished speaking, a black shadow flew down from the sky.

"Don't believe it?"

"Then experience it for yourself."

The one flying down from the sky was Shi Feng. Because the Barren Ridge was too big, and Alluring Smile's people were especially scattered, Shi Feng had to activate Wind Rider to find people efficiently. Seeing a hundred-man squad from Alluring Smile, Shi Feng directly charged over.

The instant he charged down, Shi Feng replaced the Wind Ring with the Fire Ring, and directly cast Flame Spirit Storm from the sky, covering a radius of 30 yards.

Flames soared into the sky, immediately burning everything within range to ashes. Even level 27 stone beasts with high magic resistance and 5,000 health points turned into dust in the first wave of damage, not to mention many players who had no magic resistance and less than 5,000 health points.

In an instant, Alluring Smile's hundred-man squad was reduced to just over twenty people.

"Their positioning is really spread out," Shi Feng frowned slightly after landing, seeing that many people were not covered by the spell.

But one Flame Spirit Storm had already stunned Alluring Smile's players.

"Not good, the great demon king is here! We should quickly retreat in all directions, and immediately contact the guild leader to notify the others!" The elementium master, who was the squad leader, reacted quickly, and immediately roared in the squad chat.

"Squad leader, what are we afraid of? He's just one person, watch how I take care of him." Although the summoner was shocked, he quickly chanted an incantation, summoning a Flame Spirit Beast to attack Shi Feng.

The Flame Spirit Beast was a fire-elemental creature with very high fire damage, and it also had a very powerful skill.

Self-Destruct!

It could deal 300% damage to everyone within a 10-yard radius, which could be considered a very powerful group damage skill. However, after activating Self-Destruct, you would have to wait four hours before summoning another Flame Spirit Beast, so it couldn't be used as a monster-farming skill.

"Die!"

The summoner controlled the Flame Spirit Beast to charge towards Shi Feng.

Just as the Flame Spirit Beast was 10 yards away from Shi Feng, a flash of silver light suddenly appeared, piercing through the Flame Spirit Beast's fiery body. The Flame Spirit Beast immediately began to disintegrate and dissipate uncontrollably.

"How is that possible!" The summoner was shocked.

The Flame Spirit Beast was his strongest summoned creature, with 10,000 health points. But before it could even get close, it was killed. He didn't even see how the Flame Spirit Beast died...

In order to end the battle as quickly as possible, Shi Feng directly activated御剑回天 (Yù jiàn huí tiān, Sword Return to Heaven) and Purgatory Power, greatly increasing his attack range and damage. A 10-yard attack distance and 10,000 health points were nothing to Shi Feng.

By the time the summoner came back to his senses, he suddenly felt that his entire body was unable to move. Because there was a person standing in front of him, although he was wearing a black cloak and could not see his appearance, the aura he exuded, and the terrifying chill and killing intent that he had never felt before, instantly crushed his will to resist.

He was completely frightened.

"Is this a human?"

At this moment, he understood why the squad leader spoke so mysteriously, and was so afraid to even mention the name Black Flame.

In the blink of an eye, Shi Feng's figure disappeared.

"Was that my hallucination?" The summoner wanted to say something, but suddenly found that everything in front of him turned gray, and then he fell to the ground. "When did he attack?"

In just a short while, Alluring Smile's hundred-man squad was completely wiped out.

"It took so long. They probably already notified the others in the guild. Next, it will probably be difficult for me to find Alluring Smile's people again." Shi Feng looked at the drops on the ground and sighed helplessly. The distance to collecting 5,000 points of life force was really a long way to go.

Just as Shi Feng finished collecting the dropped items and was preparing to find the next batch of life force, Melancholic Smile suddenly contacted him.