The instant Cao Mu Yi Qiu fell to the ground, the entire arena plunged into dead silence. The members of the Battle Blood Adventuring Party, who had been wearing smirks and looks of mockery just moments ago, were frozen in disbelief, each one staring at Cao Mu Yi Qiu's motionless body with wide eyes.
"Vice Party Leader?!"
The Four Seas Generals standing nearby, who had been preparing to act, were struck dumb—entirely rigid, as though they had been hit by petrification.
Dead!
The vice party leader Cao Mu Yi Qiu—known as the Blood Mage, who had consumed a Divinity Crystal to become a third-tier Class—was dead. And he had died so cleanly, without even a shred of resistance. It was absolutely unbelievable.
A third-tier Class!
This was a genuine third-tier Class. It was nothing like their pseudo-third-tier fighting strength—it was incomparably above. They couldn't even begin to imagine how Shi Feng had defeated Cao Mu Yi Qiu.
"Could that rumor actually be true?" Just as everyone was still reeling from the instant kill, the thought suddenly struck them—the rumor about the Storm King Snake's drop that had been circulating outside. "That's right! Black Flame must have gotten this strong because he possesses a Legendary-grade item fragment! That's how he was able to one-shot a third-tier Class vice party leader!"
"A Legendary-grade item fragment?"
At that moment, it wasn't only the Battle Blood Adventuring Party who thought so—even the distant Qing Huang couldn't help but entertain the same idea.
Even their Dragon Phoenix Pavilion had never laid eyes on a Legendary-grade item fragment. As a senior member of the Dragon Phoenix Pavilion, Qing Huang had been only half-suspicious of the rumors about the Storm King Snake dropping a Legendary-grade item fragment. After all, she had never heard of any superpower actually obtaining one.
But now, seeing Shi Feng one-shot the third-tier Cao Mu Yi Qiu, she had no choice but to think so—there was simply no other way to explain it.
Previously, most people had been unfamiliar with third-tier Classes. But as levels climbed higher and approached level one hundred, the terrifying power of third-tier Classes had become increasingly clear. This was no longer something a second-tier Class could hope to compare with—it was an entirely different level.
To bridge that gap, even wearing a full set of Epic-grade equipment wouldn't be enough. The only possibility was the rumored Legendary-grade item fragment—after all, according to the Divine Realm's records, it was an item that granted the power to fight above one's own tier.
"This Legendary-grade item fragment is way too powerful!" Qing Huang stared at Cao Mu Yi Qiu lying on the ground, her heart flooded with amazement and envy she couldn't put into words.
A Divinity Crystal was a consumable, and it only lasted a mere three hours. Obtaining even one was incredibly difficult. But a Legendary-grade item fragment could be held permanently. Most importantly, the fighting strength it granted was even greater than that of an ordinary third-tier Class.
In an instant, it wasn't just Qing Huang whose gaze toward Shi Feng changed—every single person present now looked at him differently.
Gone were the fear and dread. In their place: boundless envy and jealousy.
"It seems I struck a bit too hard." Shi Feng quickly grasped the sudden shift in atmosphere and couldn't help but laugh bitterly to himself.
He had originally intended to strike in order to intimidate the Battle Blood Adventuring Party, but he hadn't expected it to produce the opposite effect, causing everyone to completely misunderstand the situation.
His ability to one-shot Cao Mu Yi Qiu was indeed partly due to the Legendary-grade item fragment, but the greater reason was that he had reached level one hundred, completely removing his body's restrictions. His reaction speed was no longer something a level-87 Cao Mu Yi Qiu could hope to match. If Cao Mu Yi Qiu had also reached level one hundred, killing him wouldn't have been nearly so easy—at the very least, activating a skill to dodge the secret technique Lightning would have posed no problem whatsoever.