As the Ancient Lich crashed to the ground on the altar, golden light erupted from each of the people present one after another. Their experience bars surged uncontrollably, the amount of experience far exceeding that of ordinary upper-tier Legendary monsters.
Even Shi Feng's level shot straight past the 120 barrier.
However, compared to the group's skyrocketing experience, the infinite magic power condensed on the altar also erupted with a deafening boom, having lost the Ancient Lich's control. A terrifying wave of magical energy spread across the entire altar, and those trial monsters still frantically attacking Aqua Rose and Banxia Qingcheng collapsed one after as if they had lost their souls—as though all their previous frenzy had been nothing but an illusion.
"Did we win?"
Aqua Rose looked at all the trial monsters lying motionless before her, her eyes filled with indescribable excitement and relief.
Although their health hadn't decreased much, both their stamina and mental energy had already reached critical levels. Given just two or three more minutes, they would have collapsed from complete exhaustion of body and mind.
But fortunately, the Ancient Lich had fallen first.
On the other side, though Shi Feng and the others were happy about defeating the Ancient Lich, everyone's stamina and mental energy were on the verge of collapse. With the Ancient Lich already dealt with, they couldn't help but collapse to the ground one by one.
"Hero difficulty trial! He actually pulled it off. If Illusion Myth found out about this, they'd probably go insane." Silent Red Star watched Shi Feng lying on the ground, her heart a mix of awe and amazement.
The Hero difficulty trial had originally been nothing more than a ploy by Coach Torei to buy time. They had never actually expected to succeed. After all, even the elite team assembled by Illusion Myth in conjunction with other superpowers had ultimately failed—and they had failed on Elite difficulty.
Let alone Hero difficulty?
While fighting the Ancient Lich, she had briefly entertained the possibility of victory, but in the end, reality made it clear that it was nothing more than a fantasy.
In the final phase, the Ancient Lich had started one-shotting people, capable of wiping everyone out in less than ten seconds. And dealing thirty to forty million points of damage in under ten seconds was simply impossible for a team of fewer than twenty people.
But in the end, no one had expected Shi Feng to actually pull it off. Right at the very end, he had erupted with terrifying output, forcibly draining the last sliver of the Ancient Lich's health and completing the impossible miracle.
"Guild Master, are you alright?" Fire Dance approached Shi Feng, whose face was as pale as snow, and asked with deep concern.
Though Shi Feng still had a fair amount of health remaining, his life force was abnormally weak. Combined with his pallid complexion, it was clear this wasn't simply the result of hitting his stamina or mental limits.
"I'm fine. I just forced a breakthrough past my mental limits. I'll probably need quite a bit of rest before I recover," Shi Feng said with a smile.
Though he was exceptionally weak from repeatedly using Light and Shadow, and would remain in this weakened state for quite some time, the breakthrough past his mental limits was an incredibly rare and fortunate occurrence.
Because such a breakthrough could further enhance his brain's activity level.
However, this kind of mental breakthrough also required appropriate equipment and nutritional supplements. Otherwise, it would only cause damage to the brain without providing any actual benefit.
Just as Shi Feng and Fire Dance were talking, a system notification chimed in his ears.
System: Congratulations on passing the Hero difficulty trial. Completion rating: S-rank. Reward: 500 Lightcast City Contribution Points. Permanent citizen privileges granted.
The system announcement rang three times in a row. Aqua Rose and Fire Dance were completely baffled, but Silent Red Star and Wildfire Rampage were thrilled beyond words.
"These rewards are insane! When we were investigating Lightcast City before, we had to complete at least seven or eight quests just to earn a hundred contribution points. Five hundred points—that's enough to buy three Tier-3 Magic Crystals directly in the city and attempt to push a Tier-3 magic skill's completion past 100%!" Fuguang stared blankly at the system notification, feeling as though he were dreaming.
Although neither of their two guilds had yet entered Lightcast City in the Ancient Secret Realm, they knew from gathered intelligence that earning city contribution points was extremely difficult. You could generally only earn them through quests, accepting one at a time, and the number of available quests in Lightcast City was limited each day. Accumulating a large amount of contribution points was incredibly hard.
City contribution points served as the sole currency in Lightcast City, exchangeable for various items, props, or other goods.
What attracted their two guilds to Lightcast City the most was the Magic Crystals.
These items could provide players with guidance for pushing magic skills past 100% completion, and Tier-3 Magic Crystals could guide Tier-3 magic skills—truly the ultimate treasure in the eyes of every top-tier player.
After all, magic skills were one's own—once mastered, they were permanently yours. In particular, Tier-3 magic skills were extremely difficult to push even past 90%. Achieving 100% completion alone could elevate a player's combat power by an entire tier, and breaking past 100%? The boost to combat power would be beyond imagination.
The current quest reward of contribution points was enough to exchange for three Tier-3 Magic Crystals. How could anyone not be excited?
At that moment, forget about Silent Red Star and the others—even Shi Feng himself was somewhat stunned.