Star Moon Kingdom, White River City.
The bustling teleportation hall saw dozens of flashes of light as Fenxiao and his Cihian team stepped out of the teleportation magic circle.
"So this is Zero Wing's turf?"
Fenxiao's gaze swept across the teleportation hall, a flicker of surprise passing through his heart.
The liveliness of a teleportation hall could, to a certain extent, reflect how prosperous an NPC city was, and the average player level in the area gave a rough indication of the overall strength of the players there.
Right now, White River City's teleportation hall was absolutely bustling. It might not rival an empire's capital, but it could easily hold its own against the top cities of any empire.
That might not sound like much, but one had to remember that a Divine Realm empire was enormous — its player population several times that of a kingdom. Even a city ranked among the top few within an empire would leave most kingdom capitals in the dust. In Fenxiao's memory, very few kingdom cities could match this level of bustle.
What truly caught Fenxiao off guard was the player levels.
The vast majority of players here were Level 96 or above, with no shortage of Level 98+ experts. In terms of levels, they were barely behind an empire's capital.
Just as Fenxiao was surveying the teleportation hall, hundreds more flashes of light descended from the teleportation magic circle. As the hundreds of figures materialized in the hall, every single player inside couldn't help but turn their attention — or rather, they couldn't have looked away even if they'd wanted to.
The moment these people stepped out, a bone-deep chill swept through the teleportation hall. An overwhelming wave of oppressive pressure crashed over everyone present, making their instincts scream to flee.
"No way — Star Ring actually sent their newly formed Hellfire Legion?" Fenxiao muttered, brow furrowing deeply.
After the planar passages had opened, Star Ring had established contact with the Demonic Abyss World — one of the six major planar territories in the Eastern Continent. The Demonic Abyss World was essentially a world built entirely on slaughter, dangerously close to the kind of environment dark players called home. Moreover, many of the Demonic Abyss World's players possessed exceptional bloodline inheritances, and an individual player's combat strength from that world could surpass even those from the Divine Ocean Plane.
Star Ring had leveraged those unique bloodline inheritances to assemble the Hellfire Legion — their most powerful military force to date. The minimum standard for joining was at least a basic grasp of Insight, and paired with the Demonic Abyss World's inheritances, even a top-tier expert would find it exceedingly difficult to kill a single member.
A single member was that dangerous, and the Hellfire Legion numbered a full thousand strong. The sheer magnitude of that power was terrifying, which was exactly why every major superpower had grown considerably more wary of Star Ring.
Now, with Star Ring deploying a full three hundred Hellfire Legion members here — even Fenxiao's Cihian team would face the threat of total annihilation if they crossed paths.
"Vice Chairman, the Elder just sent word — he wants us to be careful and avoid conflict with Star Ring if at all possible," a Level 100 black-clad assassin whispered from beside him. "It's not just the Hellfire Legion they've sent. Star Ring has also posted bounties with the Adventurer Alliances across several major kingdoms and empires. Killing a single Zero Wing Elite member earns a hundred Contribution Points. Killing a Core member nets a thousand. Even confirmed experts who've assisted Zero Wing — killing them gets you half the points. They say this bounty will stay active until Zero Wing is completely wiped from the Divine Realm."
"Those rates are absurd — even I'm a little tempted," Fenxiao let out a low whistle after hearing Star Ring's offer. He hadn't expected them to be this ruthless.
Star Ring's Adventurer Alliance, formed jointly with several major planar powers, had attracted a massive number of free players, including quite a few solitary powerhouses capable of going toe-to-toe with the top experts of any superpower.
The Contribution Points within Star Ring's Adventurer Alliance were incredibly valuable — they could be exchanged for all manner of combat techniques, weapons, equipment, ultra-rare materials, even inheritances, or used to hire top-tier teams for quests and Dungeons. One Contribution Point was roughly equivalent to three silver coins in the outside world, yet three silver coins couldn't buy a single point. The allure of Alliance Contribution Points for any serious expert was staggering.
Now, killing a single Zero Wing Elite member would earn a hundred points, and killing a Core member would fetch a thousand. This was practically free money — even the most elite experts would struggle to resist such a temptation.