Flying Up The Divine Staircase

Point out any errors I made in the chapters, as I'm very lazy and sometimes can't be bothered to reread them. Also give your opinions on something I should change or add.

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As soon as Feng set foot into the pitch-black shrine, his environment transformed. It felt as if he had just stepped through a teleportation gate and arrived in an entirely different space.

A dark forest loomed before him, and the howling of wolves occasionally echoed in his ears. In the darkness of night, he faintly saw pairs of crimson eyes flicker in the treetops.

Wasting no time, Feng disappeared from his spot, beginning the first speedrun of the Divine Staircase in this timeline.

Although it was night here, his vision was unaffected. He could see around him as clearly as if the sun hung above him.

Feng spotted over a dozen Werewolves armed with crossbows and in excellent equipment standing in the trees around him as he dashed through the forest. In addition, he spotted another dozen or so Werewolves with spears and greatswords beneath the trees' cover, radiating an intense killing intent.

All of these Werewolves were Level 55 or above, with the highest at Level 58. They ranged between Elites and Special Elites. If an ordinary player attempted to take all of these monsters on by themselves, they'd definitely be torn apart.

Ignoring the Werewolves in the treetops who attempted to attack him, the triple-loaded crossbows releasing their bolts at him simultaneously, while the Werewolves on the ground chased after him, Feng looked at the system map that had appeared in the corner of his vision after a system notification telling him to clear the Divine Shrine in order to obtain a reward had sounded in his ears.

A teleportation point, towards which Feng was already making his way to, had been marked on the map in the heart of the forest. It was obvious that he had to reach said teleportation point to leave the Divine Shrine.

Although he'd love to just teleport over to the target, the system had banned Teleportation Skills, so Feng had no choice but to run.

With his speed after recovering from the Heavily Weakened state during the time he was chilling with Serena, Feng reached the teleportation array in the heart of the forest within only a few seconds.

In front of the teleportation array, a one-eyed Werewolf with a massive greatsword stood on guard for any intruders.

[Specter Werewolf (Realm Lord)] (Humanoid Creature, Special Elite)

Level 58

HP 4,200,000/4,200,000

In God's Domain, the title of Realm Lord did not represent a monster's rank or Bloodline. Rather, it was a buff that greatly enhanced the monster's Skills and Spells. Monsters with this title also had strengthened Physiques and HPs. Basically, they were Boss-like existences among monsters of the same level and rank.

Realm Lords were not particularly rare in God's Domain, but they were usually only found in Level 50-plus, resource-rich maps. They protected these resource maps, and as long as they remained in their designated maps, they could display far more combat power than monsters of the same level and rank.

Normally, player teams avoided Realm Lords as much as possible.

Fighting these monsters simply wasn't worthwhile. Despite being so much stronger than monsters of the same level and rank, Realm Lords didn't offer additional or better loot.

When players had first discovered Realm Lords in the past, they had avoided these monsters as much as possible. Unfortunately, some battles were unavoidable, and players had been forced to kill certain Realm Lords.

As players had killed more Realm Lords, they discovered something astonishing.

The Mana Barrier Crystal Fragment!

Only Realm Lords dropped this item, and there was no way to obtain the crystal fragments from other monsters.

On its own, the Mana Barrier Crystal Fragment did not possess much of a function. At most, it could be used as a support material when crafting weapons and equipment, but when players synthesized the Mana Barrier Crystal Fragments into Mana Barrier Crystals, their value rose by over a hundredfold.

The Mana Barrier Crystals were the various NPC cities' main power source for their Teleportation Magic Arrays. Not only did the Mana Barrier Crystal contain a frightening amount of Mana, but it could also replenish itself by absorbing the Mana around it.

Only, the Mana Barrier Crystal required a considerably long time to replenish itself. However, this replenishment time would vary depending on the Mana density around it. In an ordinary environment, for example, an empty Mana Barrier Crystal would require 48 hours to recover fully.

To put it simply, a Mana Barrier Crystal was akin to an everlasting Magic Crystal. It was the perfect power source for teleportation arrays. With enough Mana Barrier Crystals, one could operate a teleportation array for no cost.

It was easy to imagine how valuable these Mana Barrier Crystals were.

After all, Mana Barrier Crystals were not that easy to obtain, yet the various large Guilds and players were in dire need of them.

Meanwhile, the Special Elite ranked Realm Lord before Feng was a walking Mana source.

And this entire Divine Staircase was filled with such creatures.

Divine Providence!

Appearing next to the Teleportation Array, Feng began to activate it.

As for the Werewolf, when it attempted to turn towards him, the wolf standing on two feet suddenly collapsed, transforming into a dark mist and scattering in the wind. The berserk Mana, which had surrounded the Specter Werewolf, calmed as a result.

At the same time, several Level 50 Bronze and two Level 50 Mysterious-Iron rank items, five dark crystal shards, and enough Copper Coins to form a Silver Coin appeared on the ground.

Although, the loot wasn't all that impressive, one of the most valuable parts of the Divine Staircase were the few shards dropped by the Spectral Werewolf.

These shards were none other than the Mana Barrier Crystal Fragment.

His hands turning into afterimages, Feng quickly collected the Mana Barrier Crystal Fragments as he turned into light particles and left the forest.

When he opened his eyes again, he had arrived at the first Divine Shrine's exit, and the staircase leading to the second shrine stretched before him.

As Feng left the first Divine Shrine, the sound of system notifications reached his ears.

System: Congratulations! You have passed the Divine Shrine. Rewarding 10 Shrine Points.

System: Congratulations! You have passed the Divine Shrine within the time limit. Rewarding 10 Shrine Points.

System: Congratulations! You have killed the Guardian Boss within the time limit. Rewarding 50 Shrine Points.

While going through the Divine Shrines, the most common source of gaining Shrine Points for players was simply passing the Shrine and managing to get out with their lives, being rewarded the minimal amount, which increased over time with every Divine Shrine.

Passing the Divine Shrine within a designated time limit would double that amount by giving the player more Shrine Points, encouraging participants to get through the Shrines as quickly as possible.

The most Shrine Points, however, could be obtained by defeating the Divine Shrines' Guardian Bosses.

Passing the first Divine Shrine had only earned him 10 Shrine Points, yet killing the Special Elite ranked Specter Werewolf had awarded 50.

Even the cheapest item available for purchase in the Divine Shrine costs 500 Shrine Points. If one cleared the first Divine Shrine quickly and ignored killing the Guardian Boss, they would only receive 20 Shrine Points. With that method, who knew how many Divine Shrines one would have to clear to accumulate 500 Shrine Points? Moreover, as players climbed the Divine Staircase, the Divine Shrines would become more challenging. If players did not earn as many points as possible early on, it would only become more difficult to earn the points they needed later.

Without pausing for a moment, Feng proceeded towards the second Divine Shrine.

The second shrine contained a gravel ridge, and its monsters ranged between Level 55 and 58. However, the second shrine had far fewer Elite monsters, and nearly half the shrine's monsters were Special Elites. Next to the Realm Lord, a few Level 58 Elites guarded the teleportation array.

To Feng, however, this slight increase in difficulty was no issue. Now that he was going at his fastest speed in order to make the most use out of Divine Providence's duration after sacrificing the maximum amount of Life Force to power it, Feng had slain the second Shrine's Guardian Boss in less than three seconds of entering. This time, apart from a few Mana Barrier Crystal Fragments, he had also obtained multiple pieces of Level 55 Bronze ranked equipment and a few Level 55 Mysterious-Iron items, along with some Coins.

Upon clearing the second Divine Shrine, Feng earned 15 Shrine Points. He also received 15 Shrine Points for clearing the shrine within the time limit, and 70 Shrine Points for killing the Guardian Boss.

Continuing up at a fast pace, Feng cleared one after another during the one minute and thirty-five seconds that he had of high Luck.

Each Divine Shrine was a little more challenging than the last and awarded 5 more Shrine Points when cleared.

When Feng entered the fifth Divine Shrine, the test's difficulty visibly increased. Now, every monster he faced was a Special Elite. In terms of Attributes, the monsters were on par with well-equipped, Tier 1 players of the same level. When facing a dozen or so of these monsters at once, even elite players would be in a bind. Even the Guardian Boss was now a Chieftain ranked Realm Lord. Not only did the Chieftain possess 10,000,000 HP, but its Skills also carried great destructive power.

Its abilities were irrelevant, though, and Feng had killed the Guardian Boss in a single hit before the poor thing could even realize what was going on. Meanwhile, as a Chieftain ranked Realm Lord, the Boss had been very generous. It had dropped several Mana Barrier Crystal Fragments, instantly increasing Feng's haul.

When Feng had cleared the fifth Divine Shrine, the Shrine Points he earned also underwent a qualitative transformation. The clear reward alone rose to 100 Shrine Points, while clearing the shrine within the time limit awarded another 100 Shrine Points, and killing the Guardian Boss within the time limit awarded 500 Shrine Points.

Within a little over half a minute since he activated Divine Providence, Feng put down the tenth Divine Shrine's Guardian Boss, a Level 60, Lord ranked Five-headed Demon Snake.

A jackpot was triggered upon the snake's instantaneous death, but Feng merely pocketed the drops without checking his gains and proceeded to the next Shrine, gaining 600 Shrine Points for clearing the Divine Shrine and it being done within the time limit, along with 2,000 Shrine Points for killing the Guardian Boss, increasing his total by over a third as he now possessed 8,960 points.

Seemingly unstoppable, Feng steamrolled his way through the following Divine Shrines, and although their difficulty increased with each Shrine, the change wasn't noticeable enough as they couldn't delay him by even an extra second.

Only, after he reached the twentieth Divine Shrine did it become a small challenge, his opponent being a Level 60 Great Lord ranked five-tailed lion Guardian Boss.

But since he only had a little over two seconds left before Divine Providence expires, Feng didn't give the Great Lord a chance to show off its might, directly using Flame Burst to take away all of the HP it possessed.

A bright light erupted from the lion's corpse, signifying that another jackpot had been triggered, which was a very common occurrence for Feng while Divine Providence is in effect.

Seeing his Luck go back to normal after the god-like skill's duration ended, Feng didn't immediately rush to climb further up the Divine Shrines, taking a moment of breather while picking up the Great Lord's loot.

While in the midst of gathering up all the items dropped by the Great Lord, a golden light suddenly shone down on him.

A pleasant feeling filled Feng's body as he was enveloped in this golden light. He also fully recovered all the Stamina and Concentration that he had yet to recover.

System: Congratulations! You have exceeded your own limits and achieved an Exploit acknowledged by the Gods.

System: Congratulations! You are the first player to have achieved an Exploit on the Divine Staircase. Rewarding 15,000 Shrine Points.

Feng wasn't surprised by him receiving an Exploit upon killing the twentieth Shrine's Guardian Boss, knowing that the conditions for whether a player earns an Exploit or not were fairly simple.

When achieving the feat of slaying a Guardian Boss, as long as the player is one tier lower than the monster, from a minimum of it being a Tier 3 creature, and possesses combat power below it, they would receive what's known on the Divine Staircase as an Exploit.

If the monster is two tiers higher than the player, an Exploit would be granted to the player regardless of other circumstances.

The cases of this happening were practically nonexistent, though, as although experts could put up a fight against creatures two tiers higher than them, soloing them was an entirely different matter; the monsters' HP being too high for players to drain on their own, while summoning any assistance at all was completely banned on the Divine Staircase by the system.

Only by using items and tools like Magic Scrolls and suppression means to reduce the Guardian Bosses' might is such a feat usually achieved.

Of course, there were also other methods through which players could obtain Exploits, but killing the Guardian Bosses was the most effective and surefire way of farming them.

Hence, even though the Great Lord was much weaker than Feng, to the point of dying to him in a single second, he still received an Exploit for killing the lion.

However, once an enemy is defeated, players won't receive an Exploit from another one of the same rank unless a major threshold in strength gets passed, so Feng won't be receiving any more Exploits from Great Lord rank monsters.

Finished with collecting the drops, Feng checked his current gains.

Having killed twenty consecutive Guardian Bosses from the first to the twentieth Divine Shrine, nearly all of the deaths resulting in a jackpot triggering, Feng's profits were quite large.

He had earned around two hundred Level 55 Bronze items, over a hundred Level 55 Mysterious-Iron items, around twenty Level 55 Secret-Silver items and four Level 55 Fine-Gold items, along with a huge number of materials, a total of 93 Magic Barrier Crystal Fragments, and nine tattered sheets of parchment.

[Mana Barrier Crystal Fragment] (Consumable)

Can be used to increase Mana. A support tool for crafting items.

Obtaining Mana Barrier Crystal Fragments wasn't easy, and although the item had a high drop-rate, it didn't drop from every Realm Lord.

Meanwhile, Realm Lords were even rarer than Field Bosses. High-resource leveling maps only had two or three Realm Lords. In addition, these Realm Lords' respawn time was much longer than ordinary Field Bosses.

Obtaining a few Mana Barrier Crystal Fragments after killing a single Special Elite ranked Realm Lord like Feng had was a huge boon from the system.

Each Mana Barrier Crystal Fragment had sold for around 30 Gold in the past. Of course, most Guilds that had obtained these crystal shards had refused to sell them.

When players collected ten crystal fragments, they could seek out an NPC Master Alchemist to synthesize the Mana Barrier Crystal with a 40% success rate. If the synthesis were successful, one would have an everlasting Magic Crystal. The Mana Barrier Crystal was a priceless treasure, useful in multiple aspects, such as powering teleportation arrays, Magic Towers, and other such constructions.

With Feng possessing the Philosopher's Stone, he already had enough to synthesize nine whole Magic Barrier Crystals with a 100% success rate, yet he has only reached the twentieth Divine Shrine, before which were weak Realm Lords that dropped the smallest amounts of Magic Barrier Crystal Fragments.

Depending on who you ask, though, the nine tattered parchments he had gathered between the tenth and twentieth Shrine were far more valuable than the potential Magic Barrier Crystal Fragments.

As the parchments themselves were very high-quality, they still radiated faint pulses of Mana despite the ravages of time.

These parchments were all Advanced Forging Designs.

In God's Domain, every Advanced Design was extremely rare and valuable. This was because Advanced Designs contained techniques unknown to the general public. For example, an Advanced Forging Design would contain a few different kinds of Advanced Forging Techniques. If players learned these techniques, they'd increase their chances of creating a new item in the future.

The various large Guilds had cherished their Advanced Designs in the past. They had all refused to sell these designs. At the same time, the large Guilds' trading firms had fought over these items.

Moreover, the Designs in his bag were not just any ordinary Advanced Forging Designs, but fragments for a Fine-Gold piece of equipment with a Battle Array, one of the Divine Staircase's greatest drops.

[Conqueror's Armor Forging Design Fragment] (Advanced Design, Fine-Gold Rank)

When learned, you will be able to produce the Level 50 Magic Rune Armor. Every piece of crafted armor contains a Magic Array. Five pieces can be used to form the Basic Strength Battle Array.

(Current fragment count 9/9)

A well-equipped peak expert in God's Domain wasn't a force to be reckoned with. In fact, despite being an individual, they were capable of playing a significant role in a Guild war. However, that did not mean ordinary players were utterly helpless against peak experts. Ordinary players still had a method they could use to fight peak experts.

Battle Arrays!

If a certain number of players wore equipment with the same Battle Array, they could trigger the Battle Array's effects, significantly increasing their combat power.

Battle Arrays provided more than just a boost to Basic Attributes; they also improved players' Physiques. Most importantly, it allowed players with the same array to share their perception. This helped players remove defensive blind spots, visibly improving their combat standards.

Although a Basic Battle Array only allowed players to share a limited degree of their perception, it still elevated players' combat standards to a whole new level.

Many of God's Domain's small Guilds in the past had survived and thrived precisely because of Battle Arrays.

Even without peak experts, Guilds with powerful battle arrays could take down a peak expert with just a few players or a dozen or so working together. Some small Guilds had even stood toe-to-toe with large Guilds by relying on these arrays.

Of course, Battle Arrays were not without weaknesses.

In exchange for the huge boost in strength, players' Stamina and Concentration consumption increased massively. When players activated a Battle Array, their Stamina and Concentration would deplete several times faster than normal. This limited the amount of time that players had when using Battle Arrays.

However, despite such a glaring flaw, battle arrays had been highly sought after by many Guilds.

Equipment with Battle Arrays was extremely rare, and usually only dropped from super-large-scale Team Dungeons. Monsters in the fields had no chance of dropping such items. Moreover, the higher-quality a piece of Battle Array equipment was, the more valuable it was. A piece of Battle Array equipment could easily sell for several times more than a piece of equipment of the same rank.

With all these design fragments, Feng will have Level 50 Fine-Gold equipment with a Battle Array added in it available to forge after he gives the complete Design to one of Candlelight's Forgers.

He then combined the nine design fragments, forming a complete Forging Design.

[Conqueror's Armor Forging Design] (Advanced Design, Fine-Gold Rank)

When learned, you will be able to produce the Level 50 Magic Rune Armor. Every piece of armor produced will have a Magic Array carved on it. Five pieces of armor can be used to form a Basic Strength Battle Array.

[Conqueror's Armor] (Chest Piece, Plate Armor, Fine-Gold Rank)

Level 50

Equipment Requirement: Strength 700 and Agility 700

Defense +2,150

Strength +64, Endurance +72, Agility +60

Additional Passive Skill: Life Sacrifice 

The lower the wearer's HP, the greater the power they will receive. Increases to a maximum of 10% Strength and 20% Attack Speed.

Additional Active Skill: Basic Strength Battle Array 

Requires five or more players wearing the Conqueror's Armor to activate. Upon activation, increases the wearer's Strength by 25%, Agility by 15%, Endurance by 15%, and physique by 10%. Grants Basic Perception Sharing buff. Stamina and Concentration consumption rates are also increased by 400%. Maintaining the Battle Array costs one Magic Crystal every five minutes.

The effects of this Basic Strength Battle Array were decent, and Feng confirmed after reading through the Conqueror's Armor's introduction that it's the same.

He had seen many Basic Battle Arrays before. Meanwhile, a Basic Battle Array would be considered excellent if it increased the Attribute it specialized in by 20%. Normally, though, most Basic Battle Arrays only increased their specialized Attributes by 15%. The Conqueror's Armor's Basic Strength Battle Array, however, actually increased Strength by 25% and two other Basic Attributes by 15%. There was also the 10% improvement to Physique.

After all, the Battle Array's Perception Sharing buff allowed players to eliminate their defensive blind spots. This, in turn, would improve a player's combat standards significantly. Moreover, coordination between players wearing the Conqueror's Armor would also become much better, and they would be able to execute much more frightening attacks.

If a party of five elite players was equipped with the Conqueror's Armor, they might be able to defeat even a party of five ordinary experts.

This was the reason the various large Guilds had been extremely desperate to obtain equipment with Battle Arrays in the past. Moreover, the Basic Strength Battle Array was only a Basic Battle Array. If the Conqueror's Armor had an Intermediate or Advanced Battle Array instead, it could provide even more frightening improvements to a player's combat power.

In the past, it was also because of some special Battle Arrays that many insignificant small Guilds had managed to survive despite not subordinating themselves to a large Guild.

Currently, the value of the Conqueror's Armor Design was worth even more than Fragmented Legendary items.

To Feng, though, the Conqueror's Armor wasn't all that useful, since Fine-Gold equipment was too weak, while his own senses could supplement the effects of the Basic Battle Array.

None of the restored combat players would have a need for it either, as not only are they all fully geared in Epic items, but any one of them already has combat standards at the peak of the Refinement Realm and Truth Realm, so the Conqueror's Armor's Battle Array's sense sharing wouldn't be all that useful.

For the unrestored members with potential who Feng was planning to train and help grow stronger, however, the benefits of the armor would be of some value, so Feng still intended to have the Conqueror's Armor be manufactured.

And it could also be sold through the Chambers of Commerce to not make the Candlelight Chamber of Commerce's members regret joining it too much after the last system update made them realize how much Candlelight had screwed them over.

Afterwards, Feng stepped through the Teleportation Array and left the twentieth Divine Shrine, appearing on the path for going higher, while system notifications sounded in his ears.

System: Congratulations! You have passed the Divine Shrine. Rewarding 700 Shrine Points.

System: Congratulations! You have passed the Divine Shrine within the time limit. Rewarding 700 Shrine Points.

System: Congratulations! You have killed the Guardian Boss within the time limit. Rewarding 3,000 Shrine Points.

Unlike for the first ten Shrines, where the reward increased for each subsequent Divine Shrine that he cleared, the Shrine Points only increased once every five Divine Shrines after the tenth Divine Shrine, yet these Shrines' difficulty constantly increased as he cleared the last.

Still, having killed all the Guardian Bosses, the Shrines from fifteen to nineteen giving 500 Shrine Points for passing the Divine Shrine and an extra 500 for doing it within the time limit as well as 2,500 points for killing the Lord ranked Realm Lord Guardian Boss with a special Bloodline, along with the additional 4,800 Shrine Points from the twentieth Divine Shrine, Feng now had a total of 56,260 points. [1]

Though, he was just getting started with his journey up the Divine Staircase, and Feng planned on going much higher than this at a fast pace.

Immediately going into the twenty-first Divine Shrine, Feng ignored the patrolling monsters and their attacks, along with the numerous traps laid out to thwart any invaders, running straight towards the Teleportation Array marked on his map.

There, a Level 60 Great Lord ranked Realm Lord stood as it guarded the Teleportation Array, but Feng didn't mind its presence as much of an obstacle, slashing at it with the Pandemonium Lashblade and another Fragmented Legendary One-handed Sword that he had replaced the Abyssal Blade with due to the Magic Weapon being too low level and tier to show its power against Feng's current opponents.

Chop!

Double Chop!

Divine Providence!

Executing the two skills at an extremely high Completion Rate, the three Chops struck the Great Lord ranked Guardian Boss at the same time, sending the Realm Lord flying into the Teleportation Array as its HP bar nearly got completely emptied, with Feng taking away the remaining portion in the next moment by stabbing the Great Lord with his Demon Sword.

Activating the Teleportation Array as he looted all of the items dropped by the Guardian Boss, Feng quickly left the twenty-first Divine Shrine, going into the next one, dashing past all the hindrances, reaching the Shrine's Teleportation Array in a matter of seconds and using Earth Splitter on the Guardian Boss before following up with several other attacks in order to finish it off.

Feng continued like this as he ascended the Divine Staircase by repeatedly alternating his skills to quickly kill the monsters serving as guardians, the difficulty of proceeding in such a way increasing slightly after the 25th Divine Shrine, which possessed a much larger map, more monsters and traps, along with a Great Lord ranked Guardian Boss whose strength was significantly greater than the ones before as it possessed a special Bloodline.

Using Thundering Flash, Feng instantly finished it off, picking up its drops and teleporting out of there.

With it then being on cooldown afterwards, Feng resorted to Thunder Flame Explosion and Flame Burst to deal huge amounts of damage to the Guardian Bosses, wasting more time on reducing all of their HPs to zero than before due to the increased strength and limited damage dealing methods.

When only around ten seconds of Divine Providence's duration remained, Feng reached the thirtieth Divine Shrine.

Currently, he faced a dark cavern. The cavern was very large, as large as a sports arena. Moreover, many tunnels led out of it. From time to time, one or two Lizardman patrol squads could be seen moving in and out of these tunnels.

Previously, even the strongest non-Boss monster in the 29th Divine Shrine was only a Level 60 Chieftain, but now, even the weakest Lizardman in these patrol squads was a Level 58 Special Elite, while the strongest was a Level 60 Lord.

The nearby Lizardmen released roars of anger as Feng dashed past them, unable to react until he was already a distance away from them and in the process of entering the cave's core tunnel.

As soon as Feng stepped into the tunnel, however, dozens of small Magic Arrays appeared along the tunnel walls. In the next moment, these Magic Arrays launched magical bolts of various elements. Although these magical bolts did not seem very powerful, each one contained enough power to rival a Tier 3 Spell.

They were still too slow, though, and Feng remained unfazed as he practically flew passed them all, rendering both the traps and two Lizardman patrol squads useless.

The path leading towards the core of the cave system was replete with various kinds of traps. From time to time, Feng would also come across other Lizardman patrol squads.

Regardless of the attempts to stop him, nothing could slow Feng down, and he soon arrived at a spacious cavern with a stone altar sitting in the middle of it. Stone pillars carved with magic runes surrounded the altar. Meanwhile, above the altar was the Teleportation Array leading out of the Divine Shrine.

At this moment, however, Lizardmen were kneeling around the altar. At a glance, Feng spotted over 300 Lizardmen. Although the majority of these Lizardmen were only Elite ranked, there were nine Lord ranked Lizardmen in the mix. However, the Lord ranked Lizardmen were no longer the strongest monsters present, which was instead the staff-wielding Lizardman standing at the stone altar. Currently, the staff-wielding Lizardman appeared to be offering a prayer of sorts.

Feng paused his movements at the cavern's entrance as soon as he saw the staff-wielding Lizardman standing on the altar.

[Lizardman Chief (Realm Lord)] (Humanoid Creature, Grand Lord)

Level 60 HP

42,000,000/42,000,000

The Guardian Boss of the 29th Divine Shrine had only been a Level 60 Great Lord. Yet, in the 30th Divine Shrine, the Guardian Boss had actually become a Grand Lord.

Although the Lizardman Chief did not possess the HP of an ordinary Grand Lord of the same level, the enhanced Spells of a Grand Lord ranked Realm Lord were no laughing matter.

Naturally, the Lizardman Chief's strength wasn't the reason Feng had stopped, and he was instead waiting to see if the scenario he expects to happen would be occurring this time around.

And, although it had cost Feng most of the time he had remaining with Divine Providence boosting his Luck, his patience paid off.

Suddenly, the Lizardman Chief started chanting an incantation. The runes carved on the stone altar then lit up with a dark blue glow. The space above the Lizardman Chief also collapsed, forming a tunnel of sorts into the dark void.

Immediately after, a golden tablet slowly descended from this shattered space.

The moment this golden tablet appeared, the Mana inside the entire cavern stirred. The tablet itself also released a powerful Divine Might that put immense pressure on the living creatures around it.

To anyone experienced, the golden tablet's identity as a Legacy Tablet was clear. Meanwhile, every tablet was a treasure that allowed players to learn combat techniques, with most of them being merely Bronze and Silver ranked. Gold ranked Secret Technique Tablets were extremely rare and valuable, even in the Greater God's Domain, as they gave players the opportunity to learn Gold ranked Combat Techniques.

As the Gold Legacy Tablet descended, the Lizardman Chief extended his hands towards it, planning to receive the tablet.

Just as his fingers were about to grasp it, however, a sea of thunderbolts erupted from behind the gathered Lizardmen, devouring all of the monsters who were preoccupied with the emergence of the Legacy Tablet in an instant.

When the arcs of lightning dissipated, only piles of items and a golden tablet remained.

Divine Providence also simultaneously ended, and Feng leisurely strolled across the mountain of loot which had formed, collecting the drops resulting from Thundering Flash.

When he was finally done picking up all of the items dropped by the Lizardman Chief and other Lizardmen after several minutes of hard labor, Feng's earnings had vastly increased.

Though, it was mostly the same as before, just many more Level 55 Secret-Silver and Fine-Gold items, rare materials, and a bunch of Magic Barrier Crystal Fragments. The only difference from his previous gains was a design fragment for some Advanced Forging Design.

Curious, Feng inspected the sheet of parchment.

[Ruler's Armor Forging Design Fragment] (Advanced Design, Dark-Gold Rank)

When learned, you will be able to produce the Level 60 Magic Rune Armor. Every piece of crafted armor contains a Magic Array. Five pieces can be used to form the Intermediate Strength Battle Array.

(Current fragment count 6/13)

A bit surprised at the Design Fragment's information, Feng checked his Spatial Bag for other pieces after seeing from the system that he had six of the Advanced Design's parts.

The Ruler's Armor wasn't unfamiliar to Feng, and he knew it existed as a possible drop on the Divine Staircase. Except, from the info he had, it could only drop up from the fiftieth Divine Shrine and onwards, yet the Guardian Boss of the thirtieth Shrine had just dropped it.

Aside from the Conqueror's Armor, the Divine Staircase had two more Advanced Designs that could be obtained by slaying the Divine Shrines' Guardian Bosses, but they could only drop from the minimum of the 10th, 50th and 80th Divine Shrine respectively, and any Shrine after those.

However, the fragments for a Design could only drop after the player had already completed the Design before it.

Under normal circumstances, the chances of a fragment for any of the Designs appearing were abysmal, and unless one was pioneering the Divine Staircase, being the first to kill the Guardian Bosses and obtain the Design Fragments, one would be incredibly lucky to get a single fragment every four to five trips to the World Summit.

With Feng being the first to kill the bosses along with his high Luck, he was able to complete the Conqueror's Armor by the thirtieth Divine Shrine during his previous life.

Now, he had completed it by the twentieth Shrine, and Feng was already halfway to finishing the Ruler's Armor, which could form an Intermediate Battle Array far more powerful than the Conqueror's Armor's Basic one, due to him being the first to gather all of the first Design's fragments and kill the following Guardian Bosses while Divine Providence was in effect.

If he continued like this, it wouldn't be difficult to complete the Ruler's Armor Advanced Forging Design. Though, he wasn't as sure about the Design after it.

After going through the Lizardman Chief's loot, Feng approached the stone altar and picked up the Gold Tablet which had fallen on top of it, using the Eyes of Truth on the Legacy Tablet.

To all players, Secret Technique Tablets were precious treasures that they could use to learn combat techniques from. Moreover, the higher the rank of a Secret Technique Tablet, the more powerful the combat technique one could learn from it.

In fact, in order to obtain a Gold Tablet, powers had often waged huge wars for them, and even NPCs would try their hand at obtaining one if an opportunity were to arise, regardless of the risks such a venture may entail.

[Secret Body Technique]

The pattern engraved on this tablet is too vague and incomplete, and no information can be deciphered. However, some kind of divine power hides within this pattern. If one gathers all of the stone tablets, this vague and incomplete pattern can be restored.

Current tablet count (1/3)

Upon the inspection, this Gold Secret Technique Tablet was the exact same one as what Feng had taken from the Lizardman Chief during the previous timeline when he had first killed the thirtieth Divine Shrine's Guardian Boss, with even the patterns on the tablet being identical to what he remembers.

Although it was unfortunate that this was the same one to what Zero Wing had in the previous timeline and not a new one that they could learn more from, at least, it's a Body Combat Technique that could be of some use.

It was common knowledge that among the various combat techniques available in God's Domain, combat techniques focused on the physical body were the most valuable. Moreover, just like Void Steps, such techniques were suitable for both physically and magically oriented classes. Even if one failed to grasp the combat technique completely, they would still be able to improve their control over their own bodies.

Thus, the Gold Legacy Tablet could help the unrestored members in growing stronger. But before Feng could store it away, a golden light shone down on him once again, a pleasant feeling filling Feng's body as he was enveloped in this golden light; resulting in him recovering any Stamina and Concentration that he had expended.

System: Congratulations! You have exceeded your own limits and achieved an Exploit acknowledged by the Gods.

Feng's Exploit count grew to two, giving him a much wider range of things that he could purchase from the Divine Hall once he left the Divine Staircase.

Following which, Feng left the thirtieth Divine Shrine, appearing on the Divine Staircase and proceeding to the next one as a series of system notifications echoed in his ears.

System: Congratulations! You have passed the Divine Shrine. Rewarding 1,500 Shrine Points.

System: Congratulations! You have passed the Divine Shrine within the time limit. Rewarding 1,500 Shrine Points.

System: Congratulations! You have killed the Guardian Boss within the time limit. Rewarding 4,000 Shrine Points.

After including these rewards, Feng's total Shrine Points reached 108,360[2].

This amount continued to greatly increase with each following Divine Shrine Feng cleared after activating Divine Providence with five hundred units of Life Force sacrificed once he reached the 31st Divine Shrine's Guardian Boss, killing the Grand Lord with a Thundering Flash before going back to sprinting up the Divine Staircase.

From the 35th[3] Divine Shrine, the monsters Feng came across were mostly Chieftains. Meanwhile, the monster patrol squads he encountered were mainly led by Level 60 Lords, with a few led by High Lords.

Even an expert player would not dare to pick a fight if they came across such monster patrol squads; their only option would be to run away.

In addition, the traps found inside the Divine Shrine had increased in both quantity and quality. Now, every trap was more than capable of killing a player instantly. If players lacked the strength to cope with the traps and patrol squads simultaneously, it was basically game over for them.

Of course, there was no threat to Feng, with the only inconvenience being that the monsters now serving as the Guardian Bosses were no longer just Grand Lords, but also an Archaic Species.

Due to them becoming creatures with a higher Life Rating, the Guardian Bosses' combat power had drastically increased, not only boosting their attributes, making even Feng have to put in effort and focus on landing good attacks along with their HPs and intelligence growing substantially larger, Feng needing more time to take care of them as a result, the monsters' skills had also become more varied.

With the increase in strength, however, the rewards greatly increased as well, and now Feng received 2,000 Shrine Points for passing the Divine Shrine, 2,000 for passing it within the time limit and 5,000 Shrine Points for killing the Guardian Boss.

By the time Divine Providence ran out, Feng had reached the 36th Divine Shrine, reactivating the heaven-defying skill once he made his way through the huge map within the Shrine and arrived at the Teleportation Array right as he was about to finish off the Grand Lord ranked Archaic Species Guardian Boss.

Within that time frame of a minute and thirty-five seconds that Divine Providence is in play and Feng's Luck was enhanced, he climbed from the 36th to the 39th Divine Shrine, managing to finish off the Guardian Boss just before the duration ended.

Going through the Teleportation Array and appearing on the path leading further up the Divine Staircase, Feng paused for a moment to inspect his gains, while the system notified him that his Shrine Points had been increased by another 9,000 points; his total reaching 181,360 Shrine Points.

Upon looking through his Spatial Bag in which he had been dumping all of the loot he acquired from killing the Guardian Bosses, Feng found that apart from the number of Level 55 equipment increasing by a large margin and the appearance of some Level 60 items, as well as the Magic Barrier Crystal Fragments and materials, the Ruler's Armor Advanced Forging Design had also been completed as a result of him killing all of the Guardian Bosses from the 31st to the 39th Shrine.

Taking out all of the thirteen sheets of parchment, Feng completed the Forging Design.

[Ruler's Armor Forging Design Fragment] (Advanced Design, Dark-Gold Rank)

When learned, you will be able to produce the Level 60 Magic Rune Armor. Every piece of crafted armor contains a Magic Array. Five pieces can be used to form the Intermediate Strength Battle Array.

[Ruler's Armor] (Chest Piece, Plate Armor, Dark-Gold Rank)

Level 60

Equipment Requirement: Strength 1,500 and Agility 1,500

Defense +5,000

Strength +199, Endurance +220, Agility +185

Additional Passive Skill 1: Life Sacrifice

The lower the wearer's HP, the greater the power they will receive. Increases to a maximum of 30% Strength and 45% Attack Speed.

Additional Passive Skill 2: Together Strong

Whenever another wearer of the Ruler's Armor is within a twenty-yard radius, Strength increased by 7%, Agility increased by 5%, Endurance increased by 10%, and gains immunity to the Fear effect. (Stacks up to a maximum of ten times)

Additional Active Skill: Intermediate Strength Battle Array

Requires five or more players wearing the Ruler's Armor to activate. Upon activation, increases the wearer's Strength by 75%, Agility by 50%, Endurance by 70%, and Physique by 40%. Grants Intermediate Perception Sharing buff. Stamina and Concentration consumption rates are also increased by 650%. Maintaining the Battle Array costs ten Magic Crystals every five minutes.

Compared to the Conqueror's Armor and its Basic Battle Array, the Ruler's Armor was far more powerful and provided a very large increase in the overall combat power players would gain from it.

The materials necessary to manufacture the Ruler's Armor also weren't much rarer or more expensive than for the Conqueror's Armor, except the requirement for being capable of successively forging it was that one could correctly draw and integrate the Intermediate Battle Array into the armor.

Though, that won't be a problem for Candlelight's forgers who had spent their previous lives creating much more complicated and difficult-to-produce items.

Feng then headed into the fortieth Divine Shrine.

Entering the Shrine, Feng's surroundings changed as he appeared in a run-down castle. His presence instantly attracted the attention of several nearby creatures in heavy armor, through whose thick helmets pairs of golden eyes glowed with a deep malice as the creatures' piercing gaze landed on him.

Not paying any mind to all of that, Feng rushed straight ahead, dodging and weaving between any obstacles that attempted to block his way as he ran towards the Teleportation Array.

In this Shrine, the traps have grown to be far more complex and dangerous than before, while there weren't any monsters below Chieftain rank anymore, with each patrol squad consisting of a dozen Chieftains and at the very least one Lord in them.

But none of that posed a problem for Feng, and aside from it taking him longer to maneuver through all of the hindrances, he didn't have any issues with traversing the 40th Divine Shrine, quickly arriving at the Teleportation Array which was being guarded by an armored Level 60 Mythic monster.

[Bouncing Knight (Realm lord)] (Mythic Monster)

Level 60

HP 105,000,000/105,000,000

Whether it was in terms of Strength, speed, or combat standards, a Mythic monster surpassed a Grand Lord ranked Archaic Species by a wide margin.

Hence, Feng wouldn't have as easy of a time getting past the Guardian Bosses from now onwards.

The moment Feng began to approach it, the Mythic ranked Bouncing Knight immediately sensed his presence, and with a mighty leap, the monster's spear stabbed down onto Feng.

Undeterred by its attack, Feng side-stepped just out of the spear's trajectory and easily dodged it.

As the Bouncing Knight landed, its spear brushing just past him, Feng slashed the Pandemonium Lashblade at its armored abdomen, using what was his go-to move that he always relies on when faced with opponents of a much higher tier nowadays.

Thundering Flash.

The Mythic monster sensed danger, but before it could react, countless bolts of lightning devoured it, doing large amounts of damage to the Bouncing Knight. In spite of the armored creature doing its best to defend itself, over 50% of the Bouncing Knight's HP disappeared in an instant.

However, Thundering Flash was, after all, still a Tier 3 skill whose power was upgraded to the Tier 4 Peak standard nearing Tier 5, and it didn't possess the true strength of a Tier 4 skill containing such power, so it couldn't one-shot a powerful Mythic monster like the Bouncing Knight even when caught off guard.

Still, it did a huge amount of damage to Feng's target nonetheless, along with putting the Bouncing Knight under the Damage Amplification effect that would increase the damage it received by several times from now on.

Seeing that the Mythic monster remained standing and was regaining its bearings, Feng followed up with Thunder Flame Explosion.

His opponent reacted quickly as well the moment Feng slashed at it, spinning around its spear that erupted with golden flames, the two attacks collided, causing an explosion that shook the entire castle and attracted the attention of several nearby patrolling squads.

Ignoring the dangerous flames still raging about, the two creatures fighting within the explosion's epicenter didn't stop moving, as Feng used Ethereal Blitz to instantly appear in front of the Bouncing Knight and followed up with Earth Splitter.

Although the Mythic managed to react to Feng's strike and placed its spear within the trajectory it had predicted Earth Splitter to go, Feng landed the hit from an impossible angle thanks to his far superior combat standards.

He could only reap away a bit over 1% of the Bouncing Knight's HP, though, which was far from ideal considering he had very few high damage dealing skills in his arsenal that could achieve something against a Mythic monster like the one he was currently facing.

From their previous exchange where he used Thunder Flame Explosion pushed to the Tier 4 standard and the Bouncing knight a Tier 4 skill to counter his attack, Feng could tell that the Mythic monster's strength was greater than his own, and Feng had only managed to be equal with it due to his high execution of Thunder Flame Explosion.

Its Defense would also be considered powerful among Mythic rank monsters, with only the Bouncing Knight's speed being average.

Regardless, it was still capable of mostly keeping up with Feng, so he could only use means which relied on combat techniques and Attack Speed like Earth Splitter or Chop to do damage to the Bouncing Knight, while AoE skills like Thunder Flame Explosion and large-scale destruction skills like Flame Domain that had the power to take away large amounts of HP from the Mythic monster would get blocked or defended against.

Even Thundering Flash was no longer guaranteed to be as effective as before now that the Bouncing Knight was prepared for it, not to mention that Feng couldn't use the skill repeatedly with it being boosted to near Tier 5 power, so he couldn't just spam it whenever it came off cooldown in order to kill one Mythic ranked Guardian Boss when he also had other Divine Shrines and their bosses to get through.

Feng's inability to do proper damage that could sufficiently offset the natural recovery of a Mythic monster possessing Defense like the Bouncing Knight was quickly made apparent, the Guardian Boss's HP bar beginning to fill up bit by bit as time passed.

Though, it wasn't making any progress towards defeating Feng either due to not being able to land a single hit on him, or even push the human back in spite of all its efforts after the intelligence of high-ranking monsters like the Bouncing Knight got greatly enhanced after the latest system update.

Realizing that this stalemate could not go on like this, both the human and Mythic monster made their move, but Feng was faster.

Imperial Ascendance!

Internal Shock!

The Blood Emperor's Armor transformed into a full body armor that covered Feng completely, giving him two pairs of bat-like wings, while another pair of much larger wings with a feathery look spread out from his back and became enveloped by the blood armor as well.

With a flap of his four wings, Feng appeared above the Bouncing Knight's head at a speed far faster than what it was capable of keeping up with, and before the Mythic monster could react, Feng slashed downwards with the power of thunder and flames surrounding the Demon Sword he was wielding.

Boom!

With another thunderous explosion that rocked the run-down castle, flames spread out, destroying everything in their path.

Flipping in mid-air to face the Bouncing Knight's previous position with his now mastered aerial maneuverability using the appendages coming out of his back, Feng shot forward after a mighty flap and flew towards the epicenter of his Thunder Flame Explosion.

After activating Imperial Ascendance, Feng's strength could compare to that of the Bouncing Knight's, his damage reaching a level where it could most likely combat the Mythic monster's natural recovery.

Meanwhile, thanks to Internal Shock, the Bouncing Knight's powerful defense was rendered useless, the skill allowing him to ignore 95% of it while also increasing his damage by 200%.

Coupled with the Tier 4 standard Thunder Flame Explosion which Feng had executed with a Completion Rate of over 200% and his opponent being unlucky enough for it to be a triple critical hit that increased the damage by another 300%, the resulting effect of Feng's strike proved to be devastating to the Bouncing Knight once its previously tough armor couldn't endure his attack.

As the dust cleared, the scene of a pair of armored legs and a lower torso with nothing above it was revealed. Even the armor that still remained was scorched by the flames Feng had launched at the Bouncing Knight.

However, despite missing an upper half, the Mythic monster was still alive

Well, as alive as you could call someone who was in this state, with less than 2% of the Bouncing Knight's HP currently remaining.

Creatures in God's Domain wouldn't die no matter how badly they get injured as long as even on point of their HP continues to linger, persisting to stay in the realm of the living regardless of the crippling injuries covering their body, or a lack of body like the Bouncing Knight; especially those among higher tiers.

Of course, receiving a fatal injury would do extreme amounts of damage to the recipient that would normally be enough to kill if the attack could do so much physical damage in the first place, and players usually wouldn't survive getting more than half of their bodies destroyed even at Tier 6 unless they possessed some special means.

And nearly nothing could survive having its entire body completely destroyed, with the only exceptions being beings who had mastered the Law of Life or nearly any Peak Law.

Feng's attack had almost completely ignored the Bouncing Knight's defense and did both external and internal damage to its body, resulting in his Thunder Flame Explosion destroying its upper half and taking away most of the HP it still had.

Being a Mythic monster, the Bouncing Knight had barely managed to survive his strike, but it had lost most of its combat power, having no head, arms or torso making it difficult to fight, while it also wouldn't naturally recover its HP anymore, and it was now wide open for another attack.

Feng immediately followed up with another slash to finish off the Mythic monster as he activated Divine Providence powered with five hundred Life Force, not wanting to waste any of Imperial Ascendance's duration since the Berserk Skill allowed him to have a decent shot at quickly eliminating the other Mythic ranked Guardian Bosses in the next Divine Shrines.

Its remaining HP disappeared in the next moment, the Bouncing Knight's lower half turning into dark mist while the light of a jackpot shrouded the pile of loot which had dropped from the Mythic monster.

Picking up all the items in one second, Feng stuffed all the drops in his bag, not bothering to immediately appraise his gains for killing the Mythic ranked Realm Lord Guardian Boss even after noticing a sheet of parchment among the loot, and proceeded to use the Teleportation Array to leave the 40th Divine Shrine.

As Feng rushed to enter the 41st Divine Shrine, a golden light shone down on him and recovered all the burden Feng had endured from using the upgraded Thundering Flash, while a series of system notifications rang in his ears.

System: Congratulations! You have exceeded your own limits and achieved a feat acknowledged by the Gods. Rewarding two Exploits.

System: Congratulations! You have passed the Divine Shrine. Rewarding 3,000 Shrine Points.

System: Congratulations! You have passed the Divine Shrine within the time limit. Rewarding 3,000 Shrine Points.

System: Congratulations! You have killed the Guardian Boss within the time limit. Rewarding 7,000 Shrine Points.

After soloing a Guardian Boss three tiers higher than himself, the system naturally had to make sure Feng was appropriately rewarded, granting him two Exploits for the incredible achievement, and he was even placed in an Energized state after receiving the reward.

Feng, although surprised at the revelation since he hadn't heard of anyone ever defeating a Guardian Boss that was three tiers higher than them on the Divine Staircase in the past and hadn't known the rewards increased with the Bosses' tier, didn't pay much attention to the system announcements and flew towards the entrance of the forty-first Divine Shrine.

Upon entering it, Feng ignored all the hostiles in the area and flew higher with his wings, going at a speed far surpassing his normal fastest movement capabilities when running on land.

The patrolling monsters and traps were mostly powerless against him as only a few had anti-flying measures, such a thing normally not being necessary for players below Tier 4 since the methods that could allow them to fly and are available to be used in Divine Staircase were fairly limited in both quantity, usage and duration; while those at Tier 4 and above wouldn't be in danger when faced with attacks and traps of this level.

Someone at Tier 1 having the ability to continuously fly without any limits except for their Stamina was definitely an unexpected anomaly, so Feng had the option of simply avoiding all the obstacles and inconveniences by flying through the air.

While in mid-air, Feng chose to replace his other Fragmented Legendary sword with the Abyssal Blade, reequipping his Magic Weapon once again, and then activated Black Emperor on the spot.

In around ten seconds, Feng had already arrived at the center of the Shrine, the Teleportation Array and the Level 61 Mythic monster guarding it coming into view straightaway.

He gave the Guardian Boss no opportunity to show off its might, getting all up in its face the moment he spotted the Mythic monster and sending a Thundering Flash its way.

Taking into account him now having his attributes increased by the Berserk Skill and that Internal Shock was activated, the Mythic monster stood no chance at surviving the blow.

In an instant, all of its HP was erased, and the Mythic monster collapsed to the floor.

Repeating the process, Feng collected everything and rushed out, speeding to the next Divine Shrine and quickly flying through it until he reached the center and attacked the Mythic ranked Guardian Boss without hesitation.

This time, he didn't abuse Thundering Flash, but Feng instead decided to use some of the Death Aura he had gathered from using Thundering Flash on the previous Mythic ranked Guardian Boss, who had been struck by tens of thousands of lightning bolts and allowed Feng to accumulate fifty Death Aura from the attack, to reduce Thunder Flame Explosion's cooldown to zero.

With a loud boom, the Mythic monster was blasted apart, getting finished off with a Chop and Double Chop.

After picking up all the loot, Feng left the 42nd Divine Shrine and proceeded to do the same thing in the 43rd and 44th Shrine, but Internal Shock's duration ended at that point, making repeating the feat he had achieved in the last five Shrines impossible.

Nonetheless, he rushed into the 45th Divine Shrine and flew across its map to get to the Teleportation Array, soon arriving at his destination and beginning another fight.

It didn't end quickly like before, though, as not only was the 45th Divine Shrine's Guardian Boss a Mythic ranked monster with a special Bloodline, possessing higher attributes, better skills and combat standards, but Feng was no longer able to blow them into smithereens like before without Internal Shock.

Hence, he could only repeatedly bash them with Thunder Flame Explosion by consuming Death Auras and make use of an opening to hit the Mythic monster with Thundering Flash whenever he is about to run out of the cooldown-decreasing hacks in order to refill them, as well as rely on skills with short cooldowns like Earth Splitter, Chop and Double Chop, or Flame Burst if needed, to fill in for other attacks and to counter the Guardian Boss's.

Thankfully, he had the Pandemonium Lashblade's Passive Profound Inheritance Reaper, which continuously increased his strength the more he absorbed portions of his defeated enemies' souls, making Feng's attributes higher the more he climbed by killing the Guardian Bosses; especially those at Mythic rank, who give a much larger boost.

Still, the time he took to clear the 45th Divine Shrine was much longer as a result of no longer having his damage increased by Internal Shock, and despite Feng not pausing his ascent, Imperial Ascension's duration ended just as he finished off the 46th Divine Shrine's Guardian Boss.

But since he still had over a minute of Divine Providence with five hundred units of Life Force put into it remaining after reactivating it while climbing up to the 46th Divine Shrine, Feng continued to the 47th Shrine.

As soon as Feng reopened his eyes and took in the change in environment, he unequipped the Blood Emperor's Armor and spread his wings, flying past anything that might slow him down and arriving at the Teleportation Array.

With a strong flap from above, Feng dive-bombed in a quick descent towards the 47th Divine Shrine's Guardian Boss, retracting his wings halfway and putting his Fragmented Legendary Chestplate back on.

At the same time, Feng activated Heavenly Dragon's Power.

Causing such a commotion had inevitably attracted the Mythic ranked monster's attention. The Level 65 Naga which served as the Guardian Boss hissed at Feng when she saw him rapidly falling towards her, pulling out a silver trident and stabbing it at Feng with a speed impossible to avoid when he was three yards above her.

She only struck air, though, and just as the Naga sensed the human's presence behind her, Feng had already attacked, sending tens of thousands of thunderbolts coursing throughout the Mythic monster's body.

Not letting up, Feng followed up with Thunder Flame Explosion without hesitation.

A scaly tail suddenly appeared from the side, however, threatening to send Feng flying as it moved towards him at a speed that would be very difficult for him to dodge without giving up on landing the blow.

Once more, the Guardian Boss's efforts were useless, Feng disappearing from his spot and slashing at the Naga's side after utilizing Blinkstep to avoid the Mythic monster's attack for the second time.

A repeat of what had happened in the previous Divine Shrines occurred afterwards, and then in the 48th Shrine, and then in the 49th Shrine as well, until Feng reached the 50th Divine Shrine with a minute of Heavenly Dragon's Power remaining.

Throughout his ascent, although the tactic of constantly using Thundering Flash and Thunder Flame Explosion to deal with the Guardian Bosses was extremely effective and allowed Feng to reach the 50th Divine Shrine without much hardship, it put a heavy strain on him both physically and mentally wise; having spent a large portion of his Stamina and Concentration in the process.

In his current state, continuing on like this would be very difficult, and Feng's body won't be able to endure using Thundering Flash pushed to near Tier 5 standard many more times.

His next opponent didn't leave him with many options, however.

A familiar scene of a bunch of creatures kneeling in front of an altar, with a far more powerful one standing at the altar and offering prayers, greeted Feng, reminding him of the 30th Divine Shrine's ritualistic happenings.

As the Guardian Boss of the 50th Divine Shrine, the monster guarding the Teleportation Array and offering prayers was no longer a Mythic ranked monster with a special Bloodline, but a Level 66 Mythic ranked Archaic Species.

When a golden tablet appeared and came near the Mythic rank Archaic Species Realm Lord, Feng naturally got to stealing it, resulting in a fierce battle erupting.

Within only a few exchanges, it was obvious that Feng was having trouble keeping up with the creature, and draining its HP like this would also not be possible.

Coming to such a conclusion, Feng stopped holding back and activated Blade Liberation, going into Twofold Berserk, while the Pandemonium Lashblade erupted with Destruction Soul Fire.

Feng's following Thundering Flashes were far more impactful than before, and his other strikes would severely damage the Archaic Species, the Guardian Boss's soul getting damaged in the process.

When Feng broke open the Mythic monster's defenses and executed Sword Orbit around fifteen seconds later, the end to this fight was brought, and the Mythic ranked Archaic Species was eradicated by Soul Fire, while a pile of items appeared in the wake of its vanquishing.

Twofold Berserk ended as Feng stopped to catch his breath, putting him in a Heavily Weakened state and decreasing his attributes by 80%.

However, a golden light from the heavens suddenly shined down on him, relieving most of the stress on his body, while his Stamina and Concentration recovered completely. His Heavily Weakened state also improved to just a Weakened state as well.

System: Congratulations! You have exceeded your own limits and achieved a feat acknowledged by the Gods. Rewarding two Exploits.

Feeling better after receiving the two Exploits, Feng took his time to pick up all of the loot dropped by the Mythic ranked Archaic Species, checking the Gold Legacy Tablet and noticing it was the second tablet meant for the Secret Body Technique that he had already obtained a tablet for from the 30th Divine Shrine, before leaving the 50th Divine Shrine, system notifications that announced his rewards resounding in Feng's ears.

He didn't continue going any further up anymore, though, and instead decisively chose to leave the Divine Staircase.

Fighting the 50th Divine Shrine's Guardian Boss had shown that Feng would struggle to kill the following bosses without Twofold Berserk, while he won't be achieving any more Exploits by killing Mythic rank Archaic Species level monsters, so he'll end up drained and in a Heavily Weakened state every time he left one of the following Shrines.

Waiting to recover from the Heavily Weakened state for every Shrine and for the Berserk Skills' cooldown to end would take too much time, while he had less than 5,000 minutes remaining, and not to mention, from the 60th Shrine onwards, the Guardian Bosses would become Superior Mythic monsters.

Feng stood no chance at killing such creatures in his current state, but now that he knew how many Exploits it was possible to get from slaying monsters of a much higher tier, he definitely couldn't give up on defeating the Superior Mythic monsters.

Since summoning helpers wasn't allowed, though, Feng could only work on improving his own strength, and the best way available to him at the moment was to purchase a Peak Bloodline, which costs 3 Exploits and around 350,000 Shrine Points, of which he both had enough, from the Divine Hall and absorb it.

It wasn't like he had to go all the way up the Divine Staircase in one try after all, while Feng had plenty of chances to enter the Divine Staircase thanks to his Legendary Key, so he might as well make the most out of them.

However, as Feng was half-listening to the Main God's System's voice while calling up the System Panel to leave the Divine Staircase, the fourth system notification that he received shocked Feng.

System: Congratulations! You have passed the Divine Shrine. Rewarding 6,000 Shrine Points.

System: Congratulations! You have passed the Divine Shrine within the time limit. Rewarding 6,000 Shrine Points.

System: Congratulations! You have killed the Guardian Boss within the time limit. Rewarding 15,000 Shrine Points.

System: Congratulations! You are the first player to have passed the 50th Divine Shrine. Player has been upgraded to an Advanced Member of the Divine Trial.

System: Congratulations! You are the first player to have become an Advanced Member of the Divine Trial. Rewarding 1,000,000 Shrine Points and three Exploits.

"Huh?" Looking at the system notification as he disappeared from the Divine Staircase and arrived at the Divine Hall, Feng couldn't help but slightly doubt his eyes, while also simultaneously cursing his weak-ass past self and the lucky motherfucker who was the first to pass the 50th Divine Shrine in the previous timeline.

Confirming that he was seeing things correctly and that his membership had indeed been elevated to Advanced rank, Feng settled down and simply decided to enjoy the opportunities he had now.

Currently, save for him, the Divine Hall was completely empty, with no sign of the bustling crowd or Demon Players trying to do business like what he had seen in his previous life.

When Feng switched his gaze to the exchange counter, where a lone female Demon NPC sat with a bored expression, a glint appeared in his eyes.

'I suppose it's about time to test out my new Subclass.' Thinking of so, Feng smiled and approached the exchange counter.

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1. LOC never exactly stated the rewards, but going by the amounts he had mentioned in the chapters, I've deduced that this arrangement is one of the possibilities.

Though, since we already know from chapter 1574 that for the 10-14 Shrines you get 300 for passing and 2,000 for killing the Guardian Boss while for Shrines 30-34 you get 1,500 for passing and 4,000 for killing the boss, I would have preferred it all gets raised in equal portions, so that it's 600 for passing and 2,500 for killing the Guardian Boss in Shrines 15-19, 900 and 3,000 for Shrines 20-24, and 1,200 for passing and 3,500 for Shrines 25-29, it being always raised by 300 and 500 up until the 35th Shrine.

But that wouldn't be accurate, as it was stated that Shi Feng had 8,960 Shrine Points in chapter 1,574 after receiving 2,600 Shrine Points for clearing the 10th Divine Shrine, meaning Shrine's 1-9 give a total of 6,360, with the next confirmation being that he possessed 86,360 in chapter 1,575, which doesn't line up with my initial amounts, since Shrines 1-9=6,360 + 10-14=13,000 + 15-19=18,500 + 20-24=24,000 + 25-29=29,500 === 91,360.

So I settled for it being Shrines 15-19 giving 500 for passing and 2,500 for killing the Guardian Boss, Shrines 20-24 giving 700 for passing and 3,000 for killing the boss, and Shrines 25-29 giving 1,000 for passing and 3,500 for killing the Guardian Boss, the uneven increases being due to the difficulty becoming greater by a much larger margin.

This also goes along with LOC later on saying that Shi Feng got a total of 4,000 Shrine Points for just passing, which is 2,000 for passing and 2,000 for managing to do it within the time limit.

2. In the OG novel, chapter 1578, it was said that Shi Feng's Shrine Points had reached 109,360 after receiving 15,000 Shrine Points for being the first to get an Exploits and the 1,500 points for clearing the Divine Shrine, 1,500 for clearing it in the time limit and 4,000 for killing the Guardian Boss after leaving the 30th Divine Shrine, but just before he had entered the 30th Divine Shrine it was said that he had 86,360 at the time.

86,360 + 15,000 + 1,500 + 1,500 + 4,000 = 108,360 Not 109,360.

Probably just LOC not knowing how to do math.

3. Most of this info was what was being said about the 36th Divine Shrine, but that didn't make much sense to me since it was said the difficulty increases to that extent only every five Shrines, so this should logically be narrated for the 35th Shrine, which Shi Feng had already passed at that point.

I suppose LOC could have just been talking about those Shrines in general with the 36th simply being what Shi Feng was on at the time and used as an example, but the way it was phrased gave me the impression that this was something new which had changed and was a level harder than any of the previous Divine Shrines.

It doesn't really make much sense to me, and it messes up the way I thought the Divine Staircase functioned, so I'm just going to replace what was said about the 36th Divine Shrine to the 35th.