After activating the Ancient God Key, Shi Feng felt the world blur before his eyes. In an instant, he found himself hurtling through what seemed like an ocean of spacetime currents. All around him, countless images flickered past — scenes from the history of the Divine Realm. The rise of kingdoms, the wars of empires, the triumphant returns of heroes.
He didn't know how long he traveled through this void before a massive spacetime black hole suddenly appeared before him. Countless pitch-black arcs of lightning blanketed the entire vortex, and Shi Feng could clearly sense their overwhelming power. The feeling they gave off was terrifying — even a Tier 5 expert would probably be instantly reduced to ash before those arcs.
Yet when Shi Feng entered the spacetime black hole and the pitch-black lightning bolts came crashing toward him, the magical barrier enveloping his body effortlessly deflected them. Unaffected in the slightest, he plunged deep into the black hole.
By the time Shi Feng came back to his senses, he was standing inside an ancient, dilapidated palace.
System: Player has discovered the Ancient God Maze.
System: Inside the Ancient God Maze, players cannot contact the outside world. Time flows at the same rate as reality. Upon death, players will be automatically teleported out of the Ancient God Maze.
"Is this the trial ground?"
Shi Feng wasn't surprised by the system notifications. After all, this was a place left behind by the ancient gods. Being cut off from the outside world and having a different time flow from the Divine Realm's continent were all perfectly normal. If anything, he was far more interested in the environment of the Ancient God Maze.
The entire hall had no other exit apart from the tightly sealed stone gate before him. However, the mana density here was incredibly rich — far denser than even Zero Wing City.
This was a tremendous benefit for players.
In a high-mana environment, players could not only display their strength more effectively but also recover their mental and stamina far more quickly. In other words, in an environment like this, players could fight continuously without worrying about mental fatigue or stamina depletion.
Shi Feng then walked toward the sealed gate.
The massive door, forged entirely from obsidian, was inscribed with numerous divine runes. The closer he got, the greater the oppressive pressure became. Standing before the gate, the pressure was no less than facing a Tier 5 NPC head-on.
System: Player has discovered the Gate of the Ancient God. Four difficulty levels are available: Normal, Hard, Hell, and Asura. Once a selection is made, it cannot be changed. Please choose carefully.
"Four difficulty levels?" Shi Feng was momentarily stunned by the system notification.
In his memory, the Ancient God Key's trial only had three difficulty levels — Normal, Hard, and Hell. These names were the same as the dungeon difficulty settings, and many players hadn't thought much of it, only to waste what should have been a golden opportunity.
For ordinary experts, Normal difficulty might not seem like much, so they would usually choose Hard. As for many top-tier experts, Hell was their baseline.
But the end result was that ordinary experts couldn't even clear Normal, and top-tier experts were utterly helpless against Hard…
That was why so many players who obtained the Ancient God Key ended up squandering their chance.
Normal difficulty already carried a reasonable chance of obtaining epic-grade items. Hard difficulty could yield several epic-grade items and even a slim chance at a fragment of a legendary-grade item. Hell difficulty, meanwhile, offered a significant chance of obtaining a legendary-grade item fragment.
And now, beyond Hell, there was Asura. How could anyone not be surprised?
Shi Feng found himself at a loss over which difficulty to choose.
In the Ancient God Key's trial, having a higher player level wasn't necessarily better, since the difficulty scaled to match the player's level. Compared to raising one's level, improving one's own actual strength was far more important.