After Shi Feng confirmed the start of the restoration, the Dark Bible suddenly flew out of his backpack space and hovered before him, displaying a torn page within the book. In an instant, the torn page dissolved into black mist and merged back into the book. In less than three seconds, the torn page of the Dark Bible had been restored, as though it had never been missing at all.
With the torn page restored, the Dark Bible's ambient power of darkness suddenly grew far denser, causing faint black mist to swirl around it, lending it an air of mystery and deathly stillness.
"The power of darkness increased this much?"
Shi Feng took the restored Dark Bible and could clearly feel that it was far more powerful than before. This strength did not come from the pressure it exerted on others, but from its mastery over the power of darkness—even the suppression the Dark World applied to him had lessened somewhat.
The baseline suppression on his basic attributes had dropped from 30% to just 25%, and his perception penalty had fallen from 50% to 40%, though the experience gain was still reduced by 95%.
Unable to resist, Shi Feng opened the restored Dark Bible to inspect it.
Dark Bible — Legendary Item Fragment. Destroyed during the Great Destruction, its internal core magic array has been repaired through the Origin of Space-Time. Once the remaining scattered fragments are gathered, all of its power can be restored, granting command over all demonic creatures and the title of Lord of Ten Thousand Demons.
Skill One — Demon Summoning. Channel the power of darkness to manifest a Demon Gate, summoning a demon no more than one tier and fifteen levels above the holder (maximum tier capped at fifth). The summoned demon can be commanded for six hours. Cooldown: 150 minutes.
Skill Two — Dark Gate. Teleport to the Dark Cavern, or from the Dark Cavern to the outside world. Up to thirty people can be teleported at once. Cooldown: one day.
Skill Three — Power of Darkness. Use the power of darkness to empower players, granting them dark power. Maximum number of recipients: 1,500. For each person empowered, the holder gains one point of Dark Source.
Skill Four — Dark Radiance. Flood the body with the power of darkness, boosting all attributes by 120%, reducing all skill cooldowns by 30%, and increasing damage by 50%. Duration equals the number of Dark Source points multiplied by 0.5 seconds. Cooldown: five hours. (Power of darkness does not stack; maximum empowerment capped at fifth-tier classes.)
Skill Five — Demon Sovereign. Passive: Demonic creatures under command have their basic attributes increased by 35%, while all hostile demonic creatures have their basic attributes forcibly reduced by 30%. Active: 12% chance to control a demonic creature no more than 30 levels or two tiers above the holder. Maximum of three controlled simultaneously. Duration: two hours. Cooldown: five minutes.
Skill Six — Dark Armament. Sacrifice Dark Source points to transform the Dark Bible into a weapon suited to the holder. Duration equals the number of Dark Source points multiplied by 3 seconds. The Dark Bible cannot use any other skills during this period. Cooldown: six hours.
"Dark Armament?" Shi Feng stared at the new skill, astonished. "Is this what was recorded on that torn page?"
After fusing one of the torn pages, the Dark Bible had received an overall enhancement — but he never expected to gain a new skill like Dark Armament.
Weapons were the foundation of a player's combat power. Only a powerful weapon could deliver truly powerful offensive output.
Burst skills were inherently unstable, but weapons provided reliable, consistent fighting strength. Moreover, after transforming into a weapon, the Dark Bible's maximum duration would be 75 minutes — more than enough to conclude any major battle.
After examining the Dark Bible for a while longer, Shi Feng put it away and continued appraising the other items dropped by Baphomet.
Among the remaining 34 items were one Dark Crystal and six Dark Crystal Fragments. The rest were all weapons and equipment. Among them was a pair of epic-grade leather leggings — the Deceiver's Greaves — which greatly boosted movement and reaction speed upon equipping, requiring the wearer to be at least level 50. Additionally, five pieces of level 60 Dark Gold equipment had dropped, along with twelve pieces of level 60 Gold-grade equipment. The remainder were all level 60 Mythril Rank gear.
Among the level 60 Gold-grade equipment, there happened to be the helmet and gauntlets from the Phantom Demons set that he had never been able to find, completing the set for magic-oriented classes. Two complete sets of level 60 Dark Devourer gear were also assembled.
After organizing the loot, Shi Feng did not rest for long. He simply drank a vial of Life Essence, then continued along the narrow canyon path toward the next Dark World map.
After riding his mount for over ten minutes, Shi Feng arrived at the new map. Unlike the desolate Dark Sin Canyon he had just left, this area was a tranquil forest with far better visibility — one could see up to 50 yards with the naked eye.
"Why are the levels so low?" After pulling out a Detection Crystal Ball to scout the area, Shi Feng found that the highest-level monsters detected were only level 60, noticeably lower than the Dark Sin Canyon. "Did I go the wrong way?"
The Dark Sin Canyon had only two entrances. One was completely sealed off, and the other was guarded by a boss. The sealed passage was entirely impassable, which was why he had chosen to kill Baphomet instead — yet now he had arrived at a map with even lower-level content...
"Well, no matter. This works too. I'm just farming Dark Crystals anyway, and killing level 60 High Grand Lords is a lot easier." Shi Feng was quite content with this outcome. Compared to the level 70–80 High Grand Lords, level 60 ones were far simpler to deal with. Not to mention that after using his double burst, he had fallen into a weakened state and couldn't fight for the time being anyway.
Shi Feng then led Anna in a charge toward a locked-on High Grand Lord.
An 80-third-tier demon and an 80-level Golden Giant with the strength of a High Grand Lord could handle a level 60 High Grand Lord without any trouble. Combined with Anna and the three Ancient Hero Spirits, Shi Feng only needed to stand on the sidelines and watch — he didn't have to lift a finger.
The boss farming speed was far faster here than in the Dark Sin Canyon.
Time passed. Before he knew it, after spending just over a day, Shi Feng had finished farming every High Grand Lord in the forest, bringing his total to 93 Dark Crystals and 847 Dark Crystal Fragments. With the Philosopher's Stone's 100% success rate, gathering one hundred Dark Crystals would be no problem at all.
Over a day of relentless grinding had also pushed Shi Feng's level to 65, at 84%. Had it not been for the abysmally low experience yield, he would have already hit level 66. Even so, the speed of his leveling was already remarkable.
But compared to his level gains, the loot from the bosses was the real prize. Although he hadn't obtained any more epic-grade items, he had picked up seventeen pieces of level 50 Dark Gold weapons and equipment, fifty-two pieces of level 50 Gold-grade weapons and equipment, and two hundred and seventy-six pieces of level 50 Mythril Rank weapons and equipment. The vast majority of those Mythril Rank items had dropped from the Grand Lords and High Grand Lords he had incidentally killed along the way.
The haul from a single person over just one day surpassed what an entire first-rate guild could obtain in level 50 top-tier gear.
Of course, the main reasons were the Icarus Heart, that small divine artifact; the monster-like Anna; and the Dark Bible. Without them, amassing such a haul of premium equipment in the Dark World would have been utterly impossible.
"Now that I have enough Dark Crystals, it's time to head back." Shi Feng glanced at the Dark Crystals in his backpack and smiled. The Lost Town quest was essentially complete.
He then pulled out a White River City Return Scroll and began reading it.
Twenty seconds later, Shi Feng dissolved into a streak of white light and vanished from the Dark World's great forest.