The moment Shi Feng's words fell before the gates of Demon City, a deathly silence blanketed the entire area.
Provocation!
An absolute provocation!
"This man must be insane — actually daring to stand against the Demon Heart!"
"He even has the audacity to slap the Demon Heart in the face?"
"He's as good as dead! Even if the Demon Heart lets him go, I bet Rebellious Thunder won't!"
Shi Feng's refusal to back down even a single step left every demon player present utterly dumbfounded. None of them had expected things to turn out like this.
In their eyes, the fact that Shi Feng and his group had made it to the gates of Demon City was already impressive enough. It had even dealt a significant blow to the Demon Heart's prestige. They should have quit while they were ahead — after all, the Demon Heart was not something the three great adventure parties could hold a candle to. The guild's strength was such that even the superpowers of the Ten Saints Empire wouldn't dare provoke it.
Moreover, from the very moment Shi Feng and his group had set foot toward Demon City, the outcome had been sealed: there was no way they could do anything to Zhutian Luanshi.
Even though Demon City appeared to be a player-built city, it was in fact a semi-NPC settlement. Not only did players defend the city, but many NPC Great Demons resided within its walls, and even a Demon Lord presided over it. That Demon Lord was a genuine Marquis, one of the seventy-two Great Demons of the entire Divine Realm, ranking second only to the highest nobility, the Dukes. Players could absolutely not run amok within Demon City, let alone conquer it—that was nothing short of a joke.
After Shi Feng finished speaking, the expression of Rebel Thunder, standing before him, changed dramatically.
"Guild Master Black Flame, it seems you intend to provoke our Demon Heart, even going so far as to challenge our bottom line!" Rebel Thunder stared at Shi Feng, his gaze filled with frigid coldness. "Since you desire a battle, then I will grant your wish!"
As soon as Rebel Thunder finished, dense dark energy surged from his body. His stature didn't just double in size; pitch-black demonic patterns emerged all over his skin, making his entire being exude an exceptionally chilling aura.
Compared to this cold and dark demeanor, the oppressive aura radiating from Rebel Thunder caused every demon player present to gasp.
Because the feeling he gave off at this moment was no longer that of a third-tier Class player, but of a fourth-tier Great Demon.
"Incredible! That's too incredible! Is this the power after advancing to Marquis?"
"This dark energy is too powerful! It's far denser than those fourth-tier Great Demons in the city! If he uses demon skills, just how devastating will the power be?"
"Now that Black Flame is finished..."
...
The demon players on the city wall watched the demonified Rebellious Thunder, and couldn't help but marvel in astonishment.
Although they had long known that both guilds in Demon City had Baron-tier experts, they had never truly seen a Baron-class demon player before. They only knew it was incredibly powerful and represented a massive watershed among demon ranks—one that required terrifying strength and resources to achieve.
Now that they saw it with their own eyes, this was far more than just a watershed. It was a qualitative leap across entire tiers.
At this moment, Rebellious Thunder wasn't hiding any of his data. With just a basic observation skill, anyone could see that Rebellious Thunder was no longer human.
His HP alone had reached a staggering six million—his previous HP had only been around one million or so. On top of that, his defense had increased dramatically after transforming into a demon. With his current HP, even a squad of Tier 3 experts would need a long time to whittle him down, after all, the damage players dealt to other players was completely different from the damage they dealt to monsters.
Players had armor defense, and even critical hits would go through a layer of damage reduction. That was why in player-versus-player combat in the Divine Realm, the damage dealt was generally far lower than the damage players could inflict on monsters.
And this was only the improvement in HP. The boosts to Constitution and other basic stats were likely not far behind.
Meanwhile, far away in the high-end bar of Demon City, Wind's Regret and the others who were spectating were equally astonished when they witnessed this scene.
"Ascending to Baron is truly terrifyingly powerful! No wonder those two big guilds always kept it secret—they wouldn't even let us sniff out a single piece of intel." Naihe Yixiao gazed at Rebellious Thunder, whose power now rivaled that of a Tier 4 Great Demon, with undisguised envy. "Now that Rebellious Thunder has become a Demon Baron, and on top of that wields the Dark Shattered Blade—one of the sixteen Magic Artifacts of the demon race—along with the stat bonuses Demon City grants to demon players, I'm afraid there's no one in the entire Demon City who can match him, except those three people."
Rebellious Thunder had originally been a monster-level player in a super guild, but after entering the Divine Realm, he had been poached at a high price by Demon Heart. On top of that, Demon Heart had obtained the Dark Shattered Blade, granting Rebellious Thunder nearly invincible strength. He could even take on three monster-level experts at once when battling the super guild War Wolf.