As Shi Feng chanted the incantation in the core chamber of the City Lord's Mansion, the divine runes on the Legacy Scroll in his hands gradually lit up, radiating a dazzling five-colored glow that instantly illuminated the entire dark chamber.
As the light enveloped the chamber, the five-colored divine runes on the scroll flowed into midair under the guidance of the incantation. Before long, an impossibly dark vortex of blackness materialized in the air.
The dark vortex stood roughly three meters tall, and its mere presence siphoned away the mana in the already mana-rich core chamber until it became incredibly thin, as though it were a voracious beast that could never be satiated.
"What terrifying mana absorption... Just how harsh are the conditions inside this Legacy Land?" Shi Feng clicked his tongue in astonishment as he watched the mana in the chamber grow exceedingly thin.
He had originally planned to attempt the Tier 4 class transition after breaking through the limits of his Mana Body, which would have given him a much greater chance of success. After all, once you reached Tier 4, the class transition tasks offered no difficulty selection—it all depended entirely on how far a player could push.
This was precisely why the first three tiers required massive amounts of accumulation. By the time you reached the Tier 4 class transition, it was no longer a question of whether you could complete the task, but rather how far you could get.
Only players with deeper reserves could endure longer and, consequently, progress further.
Of course, different Legacy Lands still had some variations. The harsher the environment, the harder it was to obtain a Legacy. However, Tier 4 Legacy Lands were exceedingly rare to find. During the Tier 4 class transition, players spent eighty or ninety percent of their time simply searching for a Legacy Land.
Truth be told, merely finding one was already incredibly lucky. There was no opportunity to be picky, which was why luck played a considerable role in the Tier 4 class transition.
If you were fortunate enough to find a Legacy Land with decent conditions, it would be much easier to obtain the Legacy. If you were unlucky enough to find one with terrible conditions, you might fail the moment you entered. It wasn't as though he hadn't encountered such a situation before—after all, he had accumulated a considerable amount of experience in failing the Tier 4 class transition task...
The teleportation channel opened by the Legacy Scroll couldn't directly reveal the conditions inside the Legacy Land, but from the way it was frantically devouring the chamber's mana, he could tell that the mana density inside was extremely low—even lower than what remained in the nearly depleted chamber.
Before Shi Feng could study it much longer, a system notification chimed in his ear.
System: A teleportation channel to the Legacy Land has been opened. Please enter the channel within three minutes, or it will close automatically.
System: You have initiated the Tier 4 Sword Emperor class transition task. Task objective: Enter the Legacy Land and obtain the power of the ancient Legacy. Reward: Unknown.
System: Once inside the Legacy Land, you will be unable to communicate with the outside world. If you die within the Legacy Land, you will be immediately teleported out. Penalty: Level decrease of five levels, Soul Weakened for three natural days. Please consider your decision carefully.
"Five levels? This Legacy Land really doesn't hold back." Shi Feng's brows furrowed slightly.
Most Legacy Lands only imposed a level decrease of two or three levels upon failure. A penalty as steep as five levels was, without a doubt, the harshest he had ever heard of.
But Shi Feng didn't hesitate for long. Without a second word, he stepped straight into the pitch-black vortex.
If he had a choice, he wouldn't want to enter a Legacy Land like this. But if he refused to enter, it would be counted as a failure of his Tier 4 class transition task, and he would have to wait an extended period before attempting it again—something he absolutely could not afford.
After all, besides the upcoming secret operation with Frostbound Sword, the Sacred Dragon's trial was no joke either. If he gave up on entering the Legacy Land, he would have to face the Sacred Dragon's trial with nothing but a Tier 3 body for however long remained. Forget about using a Tier 4 class transition to challenge the trial—that was out of the question.
So he had no real choice but to grit his teeth and push through. The only silver lining was that an Epic-tier Legacy Scroll granted him three attempts, a full two more than a Dark Gold–tier Legacy Scroll, which significantly improved his odds of success.
The moment Shi Feng stepped into the dark vortex, his vision went black and a sensation of spinning dizziness washed over him. By the time his sight returned, the scenery before him had completely transformed.
He was suspended in midair. The sky was dim and gloomy, and spatial rifts riddled the surroundings, as though the entire world were collapsing. Below his feet lay a bottomless abyss, and the mana in the air was so thin it was virtually zero.
"This..." Shi Feng was momentarily stunned.
He had visited numerous Legacy Lands before, but he had never seen anything like this one. Or rather, this was no Legacy Land at all—it was a world on the verge of annihilation.
Had he not possessed an Epic-tier Mana Body that allowed him to survive in environments with extremely low mana, he would have already lost consciousness.
As he hurtled toward the bottomless abyss below, Shi Feng held nothing back. He immediately activated Gale Domain to fly through the air.
But before he could fly for more than a brief moment, an immense suction force erupted from the bottomless abyss beneath him, making his entire body feel impossibly heavy—and with each passing second, the weight only grew.
"Can't sustain prolonged flight?"
Shi Feng watched the abyss relentlessly pulling him downward and vaguely began to understand the rules of this place. Without hesitation, he turned and flew toward the nearest cliff face.