Chapter 278 - The Great Catastrophe

“By no means can we continue like this. There might be hundreds of connection points in this magic array. By the time we locate the ones remaining, the other connection points might have repaired themselves already,” s.h.i.+ Feng said, his head aching.

A magic array that was capable of self-repair was simply unheard-of.

If they did not have a dozen or so players moving separately to destroy the connection points, it was simply impossible to destroy every single connection point in this magic array.

Destroying the connection points suddenly became a much harder task than s.h.i.+ Feng had imagined it to be.

“Guild Leader, I found something here. Come over and take a look,” Aqua Rose said through the party chat.

Hearing that there was a new discovery, s.h.i.+ Feng immediately hurried over to Aqua Rose’s location.

Aqua Rose was currently situated in the middle of this Seven Luminaries Mountain, inside an extremely obscure cave. If not for the indicator provided by the system map, s.h.i.+ Feng could not have found the cave Aqua Rose was in.

After entering the cave, s.h.i.+ Feng immediately observed his surroundings. He discovered that the walls of the cave were covered with engravings of divine runes, the golden glow these divine runes were giving off brightly illuminating the interior of the cave.

Looking at the cave’s central crystal pillar, s.h.i.+ Feng noticed a blood-red stone embedded in it. This piece of stone was just like a beating heart, only, instead of bright-red liquid, an endless amount of mana pa.s.sed through it. Meanwhile, the mana that pa.s.sed through this blood-red stone became much purer in quality.

“Aqua, how did you manage to find this place?” s.h.i.+ Feng asked, astonished by this scene before him.

“I just happened to discover a particularly thick mana vein and followed it here.” Aqua Rose beamed a proud smile at s.h.i.+ Feng.

If they demolished this place, then the magic array would definitely be finished.

“Guild Leader, I’ll start destroying this place, alright?” Aqua Rose could wait no longer.

She had been trapped in this G.o.dforsaken place for so many days now. During this period of time, she had no option but to keep contact with her subordinates through the phone in order to make arrangements for the daily affairs of the Guild. She had also instructed them to prepare for the establishment of their Guild Residence. Currently, most of the average players in White River City were already around Level 14 to Level 15, while the elite players of the various Guilds were already at Level 17.

The intensity of the compet.i.tion for the Three Great Dungeons had also reached its peak by now. Out of all the Guilds in White River City, Ouroboros shone the brightest. They had already managed to take down the second Boss of the Hard Mode Land of Death, and they were currently in the midst of challenging the third Boss of the Dungeon. Meanwhile, Dark Star, which ranked after Ouroboros, was still attempting to raid the second Boss. As for the other Guilds, they had also pa.s.sed through Normal Mode, and were currently preparing to raid Hard Mode.

Furthermore, as players started raiding the Hard Mode Bosses of the Three Great Dungeons, they soon discovered the astonis.h.i.+ng benefits they could obtain. Aside from dropping Level 15 Secret-Silver ranked Set Equipment, the Bosses also dropped plenty of recipes and designs. Players could also obtain the Guild Task Order that could not be obtained from 20-man Team Dungeons or lower. These Guild Task Orders could be used to accelerate the promotion of a Guild. Otherwise, it would take ages for Guilds to get promoted if they simply relied on the meager Guild Reputation their members obtained by completing Daily Quests.

Yet, as one of the top six Guilds in White River City, Zero Wing had actually remained inactive all this time. Not only had it accomplished nothing during this period of time, it did not even set foot in any of the Three Great Dungeons. It had simply focused its attention on raiding Level 15, 10- and 20-man Dungeons, and its decision to do so had greatly confused the ma.s.ses.

Even though Zero Wing clearly had the strength to challenge the Three Great Dungeons, it had chosen not to take action instead.

The Guild’s behavior had caused many of the new members to grow dissatisfied, and a majority of these players had chosen to leave the Guild one after another. Very quickly, Zero Wing’s member count that had originally exceeded 8,000 had quickly dwindled down to just slightly more than 6,000.

This situation had panicked Aqua Rose somewhat.

In reply to Aqua Rose’s panic, s.h.i.+ Feng had simply said, “If they wish to leave, then let them leave. You don’t need to stop them. The Guild is too bloated right now, so this is a good chance to rid ourselves of those that joined solely with the intention of taking advantage of us. The Guild would become much purer after those players are gone.”

Hearing s.h.i.+ Feng saying so, Aqua Rose had no choice but to turn a blind eye to all the players withdrawing from the Guild. However, she did make sure to record the names of those who left. In the future, they would no longer be welcomed into the Guild.

Meanwhile, the players that withdrew from the Guild simply reacted with contempt at Aqua Rose’s actions. They had even made a mockery of Zero Wing, declaring that they would never rejoin a lousy Guild like Zero Wing. Moreover, as if to rub salt into the wound, Dark Star had also been secretly killing many players from Zero Wing, causing even more players to withdraw from the Guild.

As of this moment, there were only around 4,000 members remaining in Zero Wing. Not to mention a third-rate Guild, they were not even comparable to a large unrated Guild right now.

Hence, Aqua Rose was in a rush to break out of this place. She wanted to quickly return and rectify the Guild.

“Hold on a minute,” s.h.i.+ Feng hurriedly said when he noticed a large fireball already appearing in Aqua Rose’s hand. “We don’t really need to destroy it.”

“But, how are we supposed to leave this place if we don’t destroy it, then?” Aqua Rose asked.

“I have my own ways.” s.h.i.+ Feng revealed a faint smile as he looked at the blood-red stone embedded inside the crystal pillar.

s.h.i.+ Feng truly had not expected to find this piece of blood-red stone here.

Instead of calling it a blood-red stone, it would be more appropriate to refer to it as the Philosopher’s Stone.

Previously, s.h.i.+ Feng had obtained a fragment of the Philosopher’s Stone back at the Sun Temple. Now, he had stumbled upon another fragment.

The Philosopher’s Stone was an alchemy treasure. Despite being fragmented into five pieces, each of these individual pieces still contained the strength of an Epic ranked item.

Also, when s.h.i.+ Feng discovered the Philosopher’s Stone at this place, he quickly understood just how the connection points of the magic array had managed to repair themselves. It turned out it was all because of the Philosopher’s Stone.

Although I can’t take away any of these Seven Luminaries Crystals, it is still not bad if I can return with this piece of the Philosopher’s Stone. s.h.i.+ Feng arrived before the crystal pillar. He then inserted the tip of the Abyssal Blade into the crevice in the crystal pillar where the Philosopher’s Stone was set. With a light tap on the pommel of the Abyssal Blade, the Philosopher’s Stone easily popped out from the crystal pillar. s.h.i.+ Feng promptly retrieved the item and stored it in his bag.

Shortly after the Philosopher’s Stone was removed from the crystal pillar, the cave started fading away. Moreover, the rate at which it disappeared was visible to the naked eye. The dense Elemental Mana that filled the air and land also gradually dispersed, becoming thinner and thinner. As for the incomparably hard Seven Luminaries Crystals, they, too, had began turning into ash.

“Not good! This place is about to collapse! We need to leave immediately!” s.h.i.+ Feng shouted through the party chat as soon as he noticed this change.

s.h.i.+ Feng’s group of three rushed down the Seven Luminaries Mountain, and before long the entire mountain started imploding. The magic array that sealed the Forgotten Lands also lost its effectiveness.

As for the monolith that had previously been standing on the mountaintop, it remained floating high up in the sky. Gradually, the monolith rose higher and higher, before suddenly releasing a rainbow brilliance. The monolith was like a miniature sun at this moment. Soon after, the dazzling glow disappeared, along with the gigantic monolith itself.

After the Seven Luminaries Mountain collapsed, a bottomless pit appeared in its place. The pit was just like a black hole, devouring everything that entered it.

At the deepest reaches of this bottomless pit, there was actually a boundless aura of destruction, and any object that came into contact with this pressure instantly turned into ash.

Surprisingly, s.h.i.+ Feng felt signs of life at the very bottom of this immeasurably deep pit, and his entire body instinctively shuddered at this discovery.

“Guild Leader, did we do something bad?” Fire Dance asked s.h.i.+ Feng in a careful tone. She, too, could feel the immensely frightening pressure that came from the bottomless pit.

“I don’t know, either,” s.h.i.+ Feng said, a bitter smile on his face.

At this moment, a notification from the system sounded.

System: Unique Quest “Miracles Unsealed” completed.

Quest rewards: 1,000,000 EXP, 40 Free Attribute Points, and 40 Free Mastery Points.

System: The Endless Abyss has come into existence. Activating new expansion pack, “The Great Catastrophe.”

System: Legendary ranked Main Storyline Quest “Seven Treasures” activated.

Quest details: The Endless Abyss has already opened. You are required to immediately notify the War G.o.d’s Temple in order to have them reseal the Endless Abyss.

After reading these notifications, s.h.i.+ Feng finally had an inkling of what was going on.

Inadvertently, they had actually opened the door of taboos. According to s.h.i.+ Feng’s memories, the new expansion pack “The Great Catastrophe” had only appeared three months after G.o.d’s Domain’s launch in his previous life. Now, however, because of him, the Great Catastrophe had appeared in advance…