As Shi Feng's words faded, the colossal gate towering within the Flame Mountains suddenly blazed to life. The divine runes carved across its surface ignited, radiating a purple-gold brilliance so intense that it was clearly visible even from outside the mountain range. A pillar of light shot skyward and then expanded outward in every direction.
"No!"
The Flame Demon King, who had painstakingly closed the distance to within fifty yards of Shi Feng, cried out in terror and spun around to flee.
But the pillar of light expanded far faster than the Flame Demon King could run. In the blink of an eye, it swallowed him whole. Consumed by the purple-gold radiance, the Flame Demon King screamed wildly as his titanic, mountain-sized body began to shrink. The searing flames surrounding him sputtered and died as if starved of fuel.
Once the World Gate opened with a thunderous roar, every flame within the Flame Mountains surged toward the gate, drawn in as though sucked through a vacuum. The Flame Demon King shrank faster and faster — from forty or fifty meters to thirty or forty… twenty or thirty… ten or so…
Finally, as the World Gate opened completely, the black void within devoured every last trace of fire from the Flame Mountains, and the Flame Demon King could no longer resist its overwhelming gravitational pull.
"No! This is my power!" the Flame Demon King roared in panic, straining with everything he had to resist the void's attraction.
Shi Feng let out a long breath of relief at the sight.
A Flame Demon King of the Ancient Demon tier was not something he could hope to fight head-on. Fortunately, the opening of the World Gate could send back anything that did not belong to the Divine Realm's continent.
And as the World Gate opened, the Sage's Hand began to undergo a transformation as well.
The object that had previously radiated an aura of foreboding suddenly shifted, converting directly into a blood-red orb — no longer a transparent crystal.
"What incredibly pure mana!" Shi Feng stared at the crimson orb in his hand, sensing energy of unparalleled purity. Even the Seven Luminaries Crystals paled in comparison.
At that moment, a system notification chimed in his ear.
System: Congratulations! Having completed the epic main quest "Sage's Wish" before reaching Level 80, you are rewarded with the Sage's Hand, 40% bonus experience, 5 Heritage Skill Points, 30 Free Mastery Points, 30,000 bonus proficiency in your sub-class, and one Dark Gold-grade sub-class design schematic.
When the system notification ended, Shi Feng's experience surged by a staggering 30%, bringing him to Level 68 with 52% progress. That leveling speed could only be described as breakneck.
But compared to the lavish experience, what pleased Shi Feng even more was the complete Sage's Hand from the quest rewards. This was a genuine Legendary item — enough to drive any of the Divine Realm's superpowers into a frenzy.
What surprised him, though, was that the quest had a level-based condition. Completing it before Level 80 granted additional bonuses.
Five Heritage Skill Points was no small matter. On top of that, 30,000 sub-class proficiency points meant he could save a tremendous amount of time advancing his crafting ranks. Once a sub-class reached the Master tier, pushing from Junior Master to Intermediate Master required a huge amount of proficiency. For ordinary Master crafters that was manageable enough, but Shi Feng was constantly on the move, and the time he actually spent crafting was minimal — his proficiency growth had been painfully slow.
However, the most valuable bonus of all was the Dark Gold-grade sub-class design schematic.
This schematic was unlike any other. It could upgrade any existing sub-class design below Dark Gold grade up to Dark Gold level. Moreover, a schematic of this caliber essentially counted as something the player had created themselves.
Everyone knew that advancing a sub-class to the Master tier was excruciatingly difficult — like scaling an insurmountable mountain. The core obstacle was creation: you had to design your own original item and have it reach a certain quality. That required an extraordinarily deep understanding of materials and crafting.
The same held true for advancing from Junior Master to Intermediate Master.
And the jump to Intermediate Master was even harder. Among its requirements was the ability to produce a single Dark Gold-grade item or three Gold-grade items — a threshold that had turned away countless Master-tier life-skill players.
In the previous iteration of the Divine Realm, the vast majority of so-called Master life-skill players were Junior Masters. The number who reached Intermediate Master plummeted even further. For second-rate guilds, even a Junior Master was treated as an honored guest. First-rate guilds gave them a polite nod at best — only Intermediate Masters commanded genuine respect.
Now, a single Dark Gold-grade sub-class schematic essentially paved a well-lit road straight to the Intermediate Master tier.
Of course, an Intermediate Master raised through this shortcut could never match one who had earned the rank through genuine skill. The two were worlds apart: one lacked the foundation, while the other possessed rock-solid fundamentals. The latter could go on to create even more Dark Gold items and had a real shot at Advanced Master. For the former, reaching that level was exponentially harder — their advantage over a Junior Master was really just a somewhat higher success rate when crafting.
Even so, there were plenty of Junior Masters who would gladly spend the better part of their fortune for a schematic like this. After all, once any sub-class reached the Master tier, making money became trivially easy — every single one of them was flush with wealth. The fact that they were willing to part with half their assets told you exactly how valuable a Dark Gold-grade sub-class schematic truly was.
Just as Shi Feng was savoring the surprise of his quest rewards, the World Gate began to close. As it sealed shut, the mountain range that had once been engulfed in a sea of flames was left without so much as a spark — only scorched earth trailing plumes of black smoke.