"Dead?"
"That was way too close! I really thought we were all going to be blown to smithereens!"
"An Upper Legendary monster! Before I've changed classes to a fourth-tier class, there's no way I'm touching one of those again. That power is absolutely terrifying—it's simply not something us third-tier players can hope to fight."
The group stared at Todelia, now split cleanly in two, and one by one collapsed to the ground, letting out long sighs of relief. The thrill of cheating death was beyond words.
But most of them were simply glad to be alive, breaking into hearty laughter.
By now, Huan Yu and Bumie Zhanxin were both completely exhausted, too drained to even spare Todelia another glance. All they wanted was to sit down and rest, letting their minds finally unwind.
But before anyone could catch their breath, sacred voices rang out from the sky, echoing throughout the entire valley. The beautiful melody was so enchanting that everyone present couldn't help but be intoxicated.
"As expected of the first clear of the Destruction Mountain Range. Even without the Divine Blessing, it still reached the level of a Sacred Hymn Echo." Lying on the ground and gazing up at the sky, Shi Feng was mildly surprised. He hadn't expected a first kill of a Regional Lord to reach this level.
He had originally planned to use the Divine Blessing to personally finish off Todelia, but the situation hadn't allowed it in the end. He could only rely on Frobelo's hand to deliver the final blow.
As the Sacred Hymn echoed through the valley, radiant light burst from the bodies of every surviving member. Even Shi Feng, whose level was nearly at 126, saw two streaks of light surge from him—his level jumped by two straight to 127, rocketing from 125 at 78% all the way to 127 at 4%.
Everyone else gained at least three levels, with some jumping up by four. The sheer volume of experience left everyone stunned.
"An Upper Legendary boss can give this much experience?"
"That's probably more experience than killing twenty or thirty Upper Legendary bosses in the past. This alone saved us at least half a month of grinding."
"It's a shame about the others. If they hadn't died, they could have saved a lot of grinding time too."
The group sighed over the enormous experience Todelia had dropped—partly in relief at how much time it saved, and partly in lament for those who had died. Not only had they missed out on the experience, but they would also lose a level. Even if Huan Yu and the other healers revived them afterward, they'd still lose nearly half their progress.
Shi Feng was the only one who wasn't particularly surprised.
Setting aside the fact that after the system upgrade, Upper Legendary Regional Lords already gave extremely generous experience, the Sacred Hymn Echo further amplified the rewards.
Not to mention that Todelia was level 128—compared to a team where most members were below level 120, the bonus from fighting above their level was incredibly generous.
But leveling this fast in the future would be nearly impossible. Regional Lords in the Destruction Mountain Range weren't exactly common. Each area only had one, and the refresh time for the Destruction Mountain Range's Regional Lord was at least five real-world days. Moreover, the Regional Lord wasn't fixed.
So even if some fourth-tier teams had obtained information about Todelia as a Regional Lord, it would be useless. After the next refresh, the area's Regional Lord would be a different Upper Legendary monster entirely.
In a place like the Life Forbidden Zone, it was nearly impossible to encounter the same Regional Lord twice. Every one was a new boss, and player teams couldn't specifically farm them. The only path was to rely on strength or items to defeat them head-on.
"Revive everyone you can. Wuming, take a patrol around the area and keep watch for any other monsters." Shi Feng slowly rose to his feet and began directing the group.
Although Frobelo's presence had scared off the surrounding monsters—making another attack unlikely—they still had to be cautious. After all, whether it was the Life Forbidden Zone or the Human Forbidden Zone, even with a bodyguard like Frobelo, one careless moment could still mean death.
"Leave it to me."
Jing Wuming nodded and led Mu Xiaoxiao and the others to take up positions around the perimeter, just in case.
Meanwhile, Yan Ya, Huan Yu, and the other healers hurried to revive the team members who had been killed by the Soul Devourers.
Though these people had died from having their spirits drained, their souls hadn't been fundamentally damaged. They could all be revived after death—the only cost was several hours of weakness, during which they couldn't immediately rejoin the fight.
As everyone busied themselves, Shi Feng slowly walked toward where Todelia's corpse lay, waiting for the loot to appear.
As for Todelia's drops, neither the War Soul Unfallen guild nor the Scarlet Emperor guild had much in the way of expectations.
It wasn't that they weren't interested in Todelia's loot, but that this team had been organized by Shi Feng. And before the expedition, it had been agreed that everything discovered and all loot obtained during the operation would belong to Shi Feng personally. This was the foundation of the three-guild cooperation.
Moreover, the top players from both War Soul Unfallen and Scarlet Emperor would have felt embarrassed to even ask for a share.
Throughout the entire battle, they had only provided pure support and hadn't made much of an impact. In fact, if Shi Feng hadn't delivered that desperate final strike, they would have had no chance of survival—let alone gaining three to four levels and jumping ahead of the top players on the outside by more than fifteen days of grinding.
Just this one gain alone meant the trip to the Destruction Mountain Range hadn't been for nothing. On top of that, they had witnessed the true Destruction Mountain Range and learned just how dangerous it was—knowledge that would be invaluable for both guilds' future expeditions into the area.
"Please let the drops be decent. As long as I get one or two fourth-tier magic Skill Books, or even a Heritage Guide Fragment, that'll be enough." Shi Feng watched the dark clouds gradually dispersing across the sky, silently praying in his heart.
Compared to the outside world, a Human Forbidden Zone like the Destruction Mountain Range was a barren wasteland—not the treasure trove that people outside imagined, where you could earn a fortune just by killing a few random monsters.