In the conference hall, after the two highest-ranked Fallen Angels finished speaking, they saw that Shi Feng and Iron Hand Black Soul showed no intention of handing over the Seven Treasures. The two Fallen Angels attacked without hesitation. Deep crimson thunder lances materialized in their hands, and the flickering arcs of lightning annihilated the very space around them.
"Die!"
Both Fallen Angels hurled their thunder lances at Shi Feng and Iron Hand Black Soul almost simultaneously.
Fifth-order Forbidden Spell — Heavenly Thunder Punishment!
The speed of the thunder lances was so fast they seemed to vanish in the blink of an eye, tearing straight through space and leaving behind only a streak of red light. Any fourth-order experts caught in their path were instantly reduced to ash—not even dust remained. They never even registered their own deaths; a flash of red light flickered across their vision, and they were simply logged off...
Only the fifth-order experts present could barely react in time.
"Infinite Barrier!"
The instant the Fallen Angels launched their thunder lances, Iron Hand Black Soul raised a shield of black mist before him, instantly forming layer upon layer of spatial barriers. If one counted carefully, a full thirty layers of barriers had formed in front of the black mist shield.
This was Iron Hand Black Soul's signature skill.
Magic Battle Technique — Infinite Barrier!
Even as a fourth-order Class, he had been able to use Infinite Barrier to withstand a single blow from a fifth-order Sacred Domain monster. Now, having advanced to the fifth order, his defensive power had undergone a qualitative transformation.
Boom!
The thunder lance pierced through the spatial barriers one by one, but with each layer it shattered, its power weakened further. By the time it broke through them all and struck the black mist shield, the shield acted like a black hole, absorbing every ounce of the lance's impact and force.
Iron Hand Black Soul was forced back half a step, losing less than ten million hit points.
Ten million hit points was nothing to a level-186 fifth-order Guardian Knight. Any level-180 fifth-order Guardian Knight would have over two hundred million hit points, and someone like Iron Hand Black Soul, who had gained numerous opportunities, had a staggering three hundred million.
This was because Iron Hand Black Soul was not only a fifth-order Guardian Knight but also wielded a legendary-grade shield.
In terms of offensive power, he might not rank first among fifth-order Classes, but in defense, he was absolutely number one.
This was the foundation of Iron Hand Black Soul's confidence to challenge any expert under heaven.
The female magic caster beside him was about to shout that their guild master was truly incredible—able to block a fifth-order Fallen Angel's attack so easily—while the experts from the various major guilds were still marveling at Iron Hand Black Soul's defense, when— —the thunder lance aimed at Shi Feng seemed to strike something the instant it drew near him, veering off course and slamming straight into the hall's ceiling. It pierced clean through the ceiling's defensive magic array, revealing the sky outside...
For a moment, everyone in the hall was stunned into silence.
"How did he do that?"
"That was a fifth-order Forbidden Spell!"
Not only the fourth-order experts, but even the fifth-order powerhouses from the five great super guilds had failed to see what Shi Feng had just done. He had forcibly deflected a fifth-order Forbidden Spell while remaining completely unscathed. Compared to Iron Hand Black Soul, he was more than a cut above.
However, after deflecting the Fallen Angel's attack, Shi Feng showed no sign of relief. Instead, he raised his voice and shouted to everyone: "Everyone, evacuate the hall immediately! This is Black Wing City—once the NPCs arrive, these two Fallen Angels should withdraw!"
Upon hearing this, everyone sprang into action, not daring to linger for even a moment.
Though Shi Feng and Iron Hand Black Soul had blocked the Fallen Angels' attacks with apparent ease, everyone understood clearly that those attacks had been nothing more than casual strikes.
Any fifth-order expert present aside, anyone else who was even slightly caught in the crossfire would have been reduced to ash. After all, these two highest-ranked fifth-order Fallen Angels were beings on par with sixth-order Divine beings.
And what did a sixth-order Divine being represent?
It was a foe that required multiple sixth-order Divine experts working together just to challenge!
Ordinary fifth-order powerhouses facing such a being were nothing more than lambs to the slaughter.
Immediately, the experts from the various major factions inside the venue began evacuating, while the fifth-order experts present surrounded the two Fallen Angels.
"I never imagined that my first major battle after advancing to the fifth-order Class would be against monsters like these—and that I'd have to team up with you old geezers." Odin, clad in a white cloak that completely concealed his features within the ranks of Mirage Mythology, glanced at the fifth-order experts beside him and sighed.
"If you don't want to team up, you don't have to. You can go at them alone—I won't stop you." An elder from the Underworld Empire, clad in dark gray armor, shot Odin a look.
As for the fifth-order elders from the other three super guilds, they simply watched in silence. They all knew that the armored elder from the Underworld Empire had been Odin's bitter rival for years. Had this not been a matter of the Divine Realm's very survival, he never would have shown up to this meeting.
And the fifth-order Fallen Angels before them were beings that even these experts who had transcended the realm boundary had to treat with utmost caution.
Silvar, Highest-Ranked Fallen Angel, Sacred Domain, Level 200, HP: 900,000,000,000.
Garudika, Highest-Ranked Fallen Angel, Sacred Domain, Level 200, HP: 900,000,000,000.
Nine hundred billion hit points—even if all the fifth-order experts attacked together, they could never whittle that down, let alone two of them...
"A bunch of overreaching ants who have no idea what happens when you oppose our master!" Fallen Angel Silvar swept his gaze over the fifth-order experts closing in, his eyes dripping with contempt, and began chanting incantations.
In an instant, three fifth-order Forbidden Spell-grade magic arrays formed around Fallen Angel Silvar, draining every last trace of magical energy from the entire hall. The aura they radiated was visibly far more powerful than the previous incantation-less fifth-order Forbidden Spell.
However, the numerous fifth-order experts had no intention of letting Fallen Angel Silvar finish his chant. The moment Silvar began chanting, Odin—still in his white cloak—appeared behind the Fallen Angel. A completely transparent spatial blade struck Silvar's chest without a sound.
-41,564,786!
A damage figure exceeding forty million popped above Fallen Angel Silvar's head, but Odin showed no excitement. On the contrary, his brow furrowed deeply.
"Such high defense!"
In the distance, the armored elder gripping a battle blade couldn't help but click his tongue as he watched Fallen Angel Silvar.
He knew full well how devastating Odin's attacks were. That strike had been a full-power blow—everything short of Odin's trump card. It was a fifth-order skill fused with a Silver-grade combat technique, Heart's Edge. Any fifth-order Class struck by it would be instant-killed.
And in terms of raw offensive power, Odin ranked in the top three among all these old monsters.
Yet even Odin's terrifying strike had only cost Fallen Angel Silvar forty million hit points...
"Ants! Your struggles are utterly meaningless!" Fallen Angel Silvar paid Odin's attack no heed whatsoever and continued chanting the final verses of his incantation.
In an instant, the three fifth-order Forbidden Spell magic arrays completed their formation. Countless pitch-black feathers materialized in the air above the hall, each feather transforming into a crow wreathed in crimson thunder. Thousands of them—all surging toward Odin and the others present.
"Triple-fused magic?"
The old monsters from the five great super guilds were momentarily stunned.
In the Divine Realm, magic fusion worked much like skill fusion, only far more difficult. The resulting power of two fused magics was already enormous—now three fifth-order Forbidden Spells fused together was something utterly unheard of.
The fifth-order old monsters immediately activated their life-saving skills, dodging and fleeing in every direction while trying to fend off the thunder crows. They were simply no match for Fallen Angel Silvar.
Facing Fallen Angel Garudika, Iron Hand Black Soul's expression grew grave as he witnessed the scene.
He could sense that every single one of those thunder crows carried power equivalent to early sixth-order. While individually they didn't match the thunder lances, their sheer number made them impossible to block.
Only Shi Feng remained unsurprised.
A level-200 fifth-order highest-ranked Fallen Angel was virtually no different from a sixth-order Divine being. A sixth-order Divine being wanting to kill fifth-order Class players would be as easy as child's play.
Generally speaking, challenging a highest-ranked fifth-order Fallen Angel required a sixth-order Divine expert. These fifth-order players had only recently advanced. Putting aside their command of magical energy and elemental forces, their weapons and equipment alone didn't meet the standard. Even with astonishing combat skill, the gap in raw stats was simply too vast to bridge with technique alone.
Just as Fallen Angel Silvar completely suppressed the five super guilds' fifth-order old monsters, Fallen Angel Garudika struck as well. She too channeled a triple-fused magic, but what formed were hundreds of thunder swords—each carrying mid sixth-order power, far faster than the thunder crows, though less agile. A fifth-order Class struck by one would die without question.
Over five hundred thunder swords surged toward Shi Feng and three other fifth-order experts, while more than a hundred targeted Iron Hand Black Soul.
Shi Feng's group of four and Iron Hand Black Soul were forced into desperate evasion and defense.
Against the thunder swords, Shi Feng managed reasonably well. Thanks to the Sword of Solomon, his soul had been strengthened and his world perception had advanced a tier, allowing him to clearly track every thunder sword. And since each one carried mid sixth-order power, he could block them all.
As for Fire Dance, Ziyan Liuyun, and Yan Tianxing, their coordination—combined with Ziyan Liuyun's healing and various shields, plus Shi Feng providing cover—meant that even their excellent teamwork couldn't truly threaten them. Iron Hand Black Soul, however, saw his hit points steadily dropping. Even with Ziyan Liuyun healing him periodically, the relentless barrage of thunder swords was overwhelming.
"Guild Master, this isn't sustainable. He can't hold on much longer." Ziyan Liuyun struggled to maintain her healing on Iron Hand Black Soul and called out to Shi Feng. "My healing is being constantly suppressed by those thunder swords' interference. At most ten seconds, and he'll be killed by them."
With Fallen Angel Garudika's frenzied assault, Iron Hand Black Soul couldn't get close to them at all, nor could they reach him. With him bearing the thunder swords alone, death was certain.
"I'll hold her off—use the chance to regroup!"
Shi Feng glanced at Iron Hand Black Soul, whose HP had fallen below half, and decided to stop holding back. He activated the World of Swords.
In an instant, ninety-nine intangible swords materialized around Shi Feng, each carrying top-tier sixth-order power. Under his command, they surged toward Fallen Angel Garudika.
Sword Trajectory!
Fallen Angel Garudika was forced to recall all her thunder swords to intercept the intangible blades, leaving her no ability to target anyone else.
"How is he so strong?!"
Iron Hand Black Soul stared at Shi Feng, who had gained the upper hand, and was momentarily stunned.
In terms of sword control, Shi Feng was inferior to Fallen Angel Garudika. His control of each sword had only reached the Intimate level, while Garudika's control of each thunder sword rivaled the Flowing Water stage. But the intangible swords' individual power was superior, which compensated for Garudika's advantage in both numbers and control precision.
Even so, it was utterly astonishing. Every other fifth-order Class present was being chased and slaughtered by the Fallen Angels, their deaths merely a matter of time. None of them could fight a Fallen Angel head-on the way Shi Feng was doing.
While Shi Feng held off Fallen Angel Garudika, Iron Hand Black Soul finally regrouped with Ziyan Liuyun and the others. Together they flanked Garudika, and for a brief moment, the Fallen Angel's HP began to slowly decline.
Though the drop was negligible relative to Garudika's total HP—battle recovery alone could replenish it all without a single healing spell—it was enough to amaze the five super guilds' old monsters who were fighting Silvar.
As time passed, within a little over ten seconds, Fallen Angel Silvar's side killed two fifth-order experts, enraging the remaining fifth-order fighters but leaving them powerless to do anything about it.
Then, twenty-six seconds after Shi Feng activated the World of Swords, the conference hall's space shattered abruptly. A woman in pristine white robes, wearing a golden holy crown and holding a seven-colored scepter, stepped through.
Her arrival seemed to freeze time itself for a heartbeat. An ineffable aura of divinity radiated across the hall, and every fifth-order expert present felt a surge of dread in their hearts.
Both Fallen Angels halted their assault and stared fixedly at the holy woman who had entered, their eyes filled with deep wariness.
This holy woman was none other than Xia Lian, who had been cultivating in seclusion in Black Wing City. She was completely different from the Xia Lian Shi Feng had last seen. At this moment, she was the very embodiment of a divine being descending to the mortal world—every movement she made seemed to ripple across the entire world, inspiring involuntary reverence in all who beheld her.
"Damn it! Those worthless fools actually let this priestess escape!"
Fallen Angel Silvar's deep eyes fixed on the twenty-something wounded or dead fifth-order NPCs from the outer world at another point in space, and he cursed.
"You scholars really are growing more unhinged—summoning even you two." Xia Lian glanced at Shi Feng and the others, then turned her gaze to Silvar and Garudika. "But since you've come, you'll all stay here!"
"Keep us here?" Fallen Angel Silvar studied Xia Lian for a moment more and then laughed. "You've only just awakened. Did you really think we're no match for you?"
The moment Silvar finished speaking, Xia Lian raised her seven-colored scepter.
Instantly, every fifth-order Class present—even Shi Feng himself—felt time slow to a crawl. One by one, their minds continued to function, but their bodies had become completely immobile.
"Temporal Stasis?"
Shi Feng watched as even the people in this gray world could not move, and was genuinely shocked.
This kind of magic was simply heaven-defying!
But before long, both Fallen Angels broke free of time's restraint. They moved—slowly, far slower than before, so slowly that even a first-order player could easily track their motions—and thrust their thunder lances at Xia Lian.
Xia Lian simply raised a hand, and the surrounding space shattered into countless fragments that transformed into razor-sharp blades and flew at the two Fallen Angels.
Both Fallen Angels swung their thunder lances to block, but they clearly couldn't block every spatial blade.
Damage figures of two hundred to three hundred million each popped above the two Fallen Angels' heads. In a single wave of attacks, over five billion of their HP was stripped away in an instant.
But against a total HP pool of nine hundred billion, five billion in damage was barely a scratch.
After more than twenty seconds of fighting, the two Fallen Angels' HP had dropped to 80%—clear proof that Xia Lian had the power to kill them both.
"Damn it! She's awakened to this extent!" Fallen Angel Silvar stared at Xia Lian, his face twisted with frustration.
"If this continues, we'll die here." Fallen Angel Garudika's expression was equally grave. "We need to retreat. If the City Lord of Black Wing returns, we won't be able to leave at all."
"We have no choice. We'll have to use that." Fallen Angel Silvar gritted his teeth and reluctantly produced a dark stone.
When the dark stone appeared, even Xia Lian—who had maintained a calm composure until now—shot a wary glance at it, which left all the fifth-order experts in the hall puzzled.
The dark stone Fallen Angel Silvar had taken out emanated no aura or pressure whatsoever—it looked like nothing more than an ordinary piece of black rock.
But before anyone could react, the dark stone in Silvar's hand crumbled to dust. An unprecedented surge of tremendous power gathered in his hand, so intense that it shattered the frozen time completely, and Fallen Angel Silvar fully recovered his mobility.
"World Blade!"