Star Valley, Star Bastion.
As a spatial rift materialized in midair before the magic circle inscribed on the front gates of the City Lord's Manor, Shi Feng teleported through it and appeared on the other side.
Several figures were already seated outside the manor gates, resting. Each one looked utterly exhausted — as though they had fought through days and nights of relentless battle. Their eyes were bloodshot, and their entire bearing radiated weakness and numbness.
"Guild Leader?" Ke Le stared at Shi Feng emerging from the spatial rift, a trace of surprise in his eyes.
It wasn't just Ke Le who was startled. Jian Ying, Ban Jiu, Banxia Qingcheng, and Yi Luofei — the four resting nearby — were all equally stunned.
They knew full well what conditions inside the Golden Holy Mountain were like. Among the ten of them, if anyone had a shot at reaching the first floor, it should have been Shi Feng and no one else.
And yet Shi Feng was the sixth one out of ten. No matter how you looked at it, that shouldn't be possible.
After all, whether it was technical skill, base attributes, or even the Body of Magic, not a single one among the ten could rival him. If he were to come out at all, he should have been the very last.
"Are you five the only ones who've come out so far?" Shi Feng ignored the stunned looks on Ke Le and the others' faces and asked directly.
"Mm, right now it's just the five of us. Fire Dance and the Vice Guild Leader haven't come out yet." Ke Le nodded numbly.
"Have they improved that much?" Shi Feng felt a flicker of surprise himself.
Still being inside at this point meant they were approaching the first floor of the Holy Mountain.
The first floor of the Golden Holy Mountain!
He had experienced that difficulty firsthand.
Truthfully, aside from Yan Tianxing who had somewhat better odds, everyone else fell considerably short — the Golden Holy Mountain's trials placed far more emphasis on a player's own skill level, with attributes being secondary.
No matter how strong their stats were, their attack power could never surpass those NPC knights who had fully unleashed their Bodies of Magic.
This time, coming to the Western Continent, aside from Vice Guild Leader Bai Qingxue who stayed behind to manage the guild in the Black Dragon Empire, the three top guild experts who had entered the Four Gods Tower — Watercolor Rose, Fire Dance, and Ziyan Liuyun — had all come along.
He hadn't expected that Watercolor Rose, Fire Dance, and Ziyan Liuyun would be able to hold on this long.
He had already been aware of the progress the three of them had made. Each one had not only reached the state of True Void but had also made enormous improvements in combat techniques. Ziyan Liuyun had even learned a Bronze-rank combat technique.
But that still shouldn't have been enough for the three of them to hold on until now.
"By the way, how were your gains in there? How much of the Body of Magic have you unlocked?" Shi Feng didn't dwell on it further — the stronger Watercolor Rose and the others were, the better — and turned to ask Ke Le and the others.
The most important thing about the Ancient Bastion was the Body of Magic inheritance inside. Whether you could pass wasn't the key point — what mattered was how much you could learn. If you focused only on clearing it but learned nothing, that would be a true waste.
"I've unlocked seventy-five percent!" Ke Le's face lit up with a hint of pride the moment the Body of Magic came up. "I was the first one out this time, but among the four of us, I've unlocked the most. If I'd been able to push through one more stage in there, my unlock rate would have broken past eighty percent."