The terrifying wave of mana generated by the NPC knights' sword swings was nothing Shi Feng could afford to take lightly. He immediately drew his twin swords to meet them head-on.
If it were only Tier 3 NPCs who had only recently advanced, or Tier 3 NPCs below Level 100, that would be one thing. But facing Tier 3 NPCs whose Mana Body had already been unlocked — even a single moment of carelessness on his part could mean death.
In the Divine Realm, the greatest difference between Tier 2 and Tier 3 was the Mana Body.
Possessing a Mana Body versus not possessing one was entirely different, and having one's Mana Body unlocked versus not unlocked was likewise entirely different.
The gap between the two was like the chasm between an ordinary player and a Domain Realm expert — perhaps even wider than that.
This was precisely why, among the NPCs in Kingdom and Empire towns, some Tier 3 NPCs could serve as city governors while others could only hold the post of town squad leaders, and some could do nothing but stand guard at the palace gates. It all came down to the disparity created by Mana Body unlocking.
Those Tier 3 NPCs who had unlocked their Mana Body were all Elites of their tier and could no longer be treated as ordinary NPCs. They could be called masters among NPCs.
These Tier 3 NPC masters could dominate other Tier 3 NPCs the same way expert players dominated ordinary players…
The three NPC knights lunged at Shi Feng simultaneously from three different directions.
Their movements were perfectly synchronized, as if they had been partners for over a decade. Two of them provided support while the third struck at Shi Feng's blind spot — the combined force was enough to effortlessly send a Great Lord of the same rank flying, let alone make short work of a Tier 3 player.
However, this flawless coordination among the three NPC knights held no secrets whatsoever for Shi Feng, who had already mastered Domain. He could see every trajectory of their attacks with crystal clarity.
"Break!"
Shi Feng swung his blade and struck the sword of the NPC knight targeting his visual blind spot, forcibly deflecting its trajectory. The knight's blade, guided by the impact, then collided into the attack paths of the other two knights.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The sound of metal striking metal rang out as all three NPC knights were knocked back. Yet after that exchange, Shi Feng couldn't help but retreat half a step, his arms trembling slightly.
"So this is what the Golden Gate's trial looks like?" Shi Feng glanced at the low hum emanating from his blades and inwardly clicked his tongue, a flicker of worry creeping in for Watercolor Rose and the others.
In an environment with virtually no mana to speak of, even possessing a Mana Body meant you'd be lucky to bring out half your true strength.
He had only had a brief exchange, but he could already tell that these three NPCs possessed combat power on par with the fifth floor of the Trial Tower. Their fighting skills weren't particularly high, but their Mana Body had definitely reached Silver Rank — otherwise, given his stats, even with a significant reduction in effective strength, his arm shouldn't have gone numb from the impact.
If it was this bad for him, one could only imagine how it would be for anyone else.
And this was still at the bottom of the mountain. He hadn't even started the climb yet…
The Legacy Gate's trial was to ascend the mountain, and the higher you went, the more powerful your opponents became. The only saving grace was that these opponents didn't need to be killed — you just had to survive against them, meaning lasting thirty minutes counted as passing.
But between players, fights rarely lasted even ten minutes, let alone thirty minutes against NPCs.
Still, this brief exchange had given Shi Feng a clear sense of the mana flow pathways within these three NPC knights and how they utilized their mana.
This kind of insight was nearly impossible to gain in the outside world, where vast quantities of mana saturated everything. But here, with almost no ambient mana, the mana within these NPCs became strikingly visible — even someone like him, who wasn't a magic class, could perceive it with perfect clarity.
That said, the Mana Bodies possessed by these three NPC knights were only Silver Rank, and the mana constructs involved were far simpler than those of his own Epic-rank Mana Body. What he could learn from them was quite limited.
Of course, even so, this was far better than his previous experience unlocking the Bronze-rank Mana Body.
After Shi Feng had knocked the three NPC knights back with his single strike, they quickly charged at him once more, leaving him no room to catch his breath.
This time, one knight took the lead on offense while the other two hung back, seizing opportunities to gather mana and crush Shi Feng with raw power. They were smart enough not to try matching his technique — they simply went for brute-force collisions, which made the fight considerably uncomfortable for Shi Feng.