Standing before the city lord's mansion, the members of Watercolor Rose's party gazed in awe at the Golden Gate that had materialized before them.
Towering walls and spires that pierced the sky — they had seen such things before.
Yet the sight before them now left them with an indescribable sense of awe and sanctity.
Though the Golden Gate stood only seven or eight meters tall, the holy aura it radiated softened the ambient mana to an almost indescribable gentleness, seeping all the way into their very bones. The divine runes and patterns inscribed upon its surface seemed to be telling a story of some kind, but whenever anyone tried to focus on them closely, the runes and patterns would blur and shift, making it impossible to discern any real details.
And yet those blurred fragments gave everyone the unmistakable feeling that something of tremendous importance lay within — a tantalizing urge to understand, forever just beyond reach.
Caught between seeing and not seeing, the Golden Gate seemed to become the only thing in the world, eclipsing everything else.
"What exactly is written on this Golden Gate? I only looked for a moment, and I already feel more exhausted than if I'd used a high-tier combat skill several times in a row!" After staring at the Golden Gate for a short while, Watercolor Rose hastily averted her gaze, her heart filled with shock.
She had seen terrifying and powerful things before.
But merely looking at the Golden Gate had drained her mental strength to such an extent — she had never even heard of such a thing happening in the Divine Realm.
If she kept staring, she would very likely fall into a state of mental exhaustion.
At that moment, it wasn't just Watercolor Rose. Ke Le, Fire Dance, and the others had all looked away as well, terrified that continued exposure would cause them to pass out on the spot.
Passing out inside the Divine Realm was an exceedingly rare occurrence, but when it did happen, it was far more troublesome than simply running out of stamina.
Running out of stamina meant a player couldn't move — that was all. But if mental strength was fully depleted, a player would be forcibly logged out and forced into a dormant state, from which recovery was agonizingly slow.
For players stationed on the front lines, this was practically a death sentence.
"That's perfectly normal," Shi Feng said with a bitter smile, observing the group's curiosity. "What's recorded on those gates are legacies passed down from ancient times — and fairly complete ones at that. These legacies are far more complex and intricate than ordinary combat skills. They're not something players can just casually observe. If you stare too long, forget resting for a day or two — even three to five days might not be enough to recover."
The Legacy Gates left behind by ancient fortresses came in only three tiers.
The Bronze Gate, the Silver Gate, and the Golden Gate.
Each tier's legacy was more powerful and more complete than the last, and the difficulty of passing through grew proportionally. The pass rate for the Bronze Gate — which only appeared in Normal and Hard difficulties — was already enough to leave most Tier 3 experts feeling utterly hopeless.
As for the Golden Gate, which only appeared in Asura and Deity difficulties, it was enough to make even the very top echelon of experts despair.
He had originally expected the best they would encounter was a Silver Gate. He never imagined that the Legacy Gate inside the Star Bastion city lord's mansion would turn out to be a Golden Gate — its difficulty of mastery was no less than that of the large-scale ancient fortresses…
"Could it be because we're the first to attempt mastering an ancient fortress, so the difficulty has been bumped up?" Shi Feng glanced at the Golden Gate, his mind filled with doubts.
Normally, the Legacy Gate of a small ancient fortress would be, at most, a Silver Gate. Only medium-sized fortresses had a small chance of producing a Golden Gate. A Golden Gate appearing in a small fortress — he had never even heard of such a thing.
"Oh well. One step at a time!"