A boundless expanse of azure sea stretched endlessly beneath a clear sky without a single cloud.
Yet this tranquil place was suddenly torn apart by a violent gale. A rift tore open in midair—a spatial fissure over a thousand yards wide—shattering the calm in an instant.
Four figures burst forth from the rift and plummeted straight onto the sea's surface, sending columns of spray dozens of meters high into the air. The dozen or so ships sailing nearby all came to a halt, their crews turning to gawk at the spectacle.
"The mana here is so thin!"
"The repulsion is gone—it looks like we've made it back!"
Jing Wuming, Gu Jiuji, and Yuluo stood atop the sea's surface, drinking in the familiar low-mana environment and the complete absence of any spatial rejection. All three of them could barely contain their excitement.
The Ancient Divine Realm had its charms, certainly—there was no comparison with the Divine Realm Continent on paper. But the Divine Realm Continent was where they had spent their lives. Everything familiar, every person they cared about, was here.
The appearance of Shi Feng and the others left the players on the approaching ships utterly dumbfounded.
"Holy—who the hell are they? They're standing on the water!"
"They must be using some kind of levitation spell."
"No way—if they were using magic, there'd be a huge mana fluctuation. But there's nothing like that coming off any of the four of them."
At that moment, Shi Feng and his companions were all clad in black cloaks, concealing every trace of their information. There was nothing to discern—the only thing anyone could confirm was that all four were players.
Every last onlooker burned with curiosity about who they might be.
"We should get moving," urged the young Level 123 Tier 3 Ranger at the helm of the high-speed boat. "These waters haven't been safe lately. If we get caught in the crossfire between the adventure teams fighting over Dragon Heart Island again, we're done for!"
"Agreed, let's go. They've kicked up way too much commotion—if the Blood War team spots us here, they might mistake us for members of some rival team and come after our treasures. They'd wipe us out without a second thought." The Level 122 Shield Warrior with a shield strapped to his back nodded in agreement.
As the players on the high-speed boat chattered among themselves, Shi Feng and his group—barely over a hundred yards away—caught every word with perfect clarity.
"So we're near Dragon Heart Island," Shi Feng said with a faint smile after hearing their conversation. "Looks like our luck isn't bad. We weren't dumped somewhere dangerous and remote."
Spatial teleportation was wildly unpredictable. If you were sent to a forbidden zone teeming with lethal threats, or worse, to some isolated location where teleportation magic couldn't function at all, getting back would be an enormous headache.
Jing Wuming nodded. "Judging from what they're saying, though, it sounds like things are pretty heated around Dragon Heart Island."
"Naturally," Shi Feng replied, not the least bit surprised. "With more and more NPCs appearing—even out here at sea, where their numbers are still far less than on the mainland—NPCs are already far more numerous than players. With NPCs in the mix, the competition between major factions over scarce resources is bound to be even fiercer."
He had already received some intelligence from Liang Jing a few days ago. The Divine Realm Continent had descended into absolute chaos. NPC factions had even begun targeting player guild towns.
They hadn't gone so far as to actually seize guild towns, but they stirred up enough trouble inside them to force player factions into submission—demanding massive quantities of resources and gold coins as tribute. Refusal meant the disruption would continue until the entire guild town collapsed on its own.
In his previous life, no shortage of obscure guilds, third-rate guilds, and even first-rate guilds had been compelled to pay tribute to these NPC factions. After all, without the guild towns they had painstakingly built up, they were truly finished.
Now, with the system's grand upgrade arriving ahead of schedule and the NPCs on the move, it wouldn't just be first-rate guilds feeling the squeeze. Even the great superpowers would likely have to swallow their pride and pay tribute in exchange for breathing room. After all, across the entire Divine Realm, players were nothing more than a thin sliver of the population—arguably nothing more than outsiders.
Aside from the fact that they could respawn after death, they were no stronger than the people native to this world. And in terms of peak combat power, the Divine Realm's inhabitants outclassed players by a staggering margin. Even the god-tier experts who would emerge ten years from now couldn't act without restraint, let alone anyone around today.
Hearing this, Yuluo's expression tightened with anxiety. She took a single step forward and soared through the air, arriving directly in front of the high-speed boat. The six players aboard nearly jumped out of their skins, staring in terror at Yuluo hovering in midair before them.
Flight was a skill exclusive to Tier 4 and above.
Tier 4 was a realm that made even NPCs wary. Even now, Tier 4 powerhouses in the Divine Realm could be counted on one hand—every last one a figure of earth-shaking renown. They were not the sort of beings ordinary Tier 3 experts like themselves could hope to approach.
"Miss, may I ask if there's something we can help you with?" The Tier 3 young Ranger leading the group clasped his hands and addressed Yuluo with visible respect.
In the Divine Realm, might made right. That truth had always been present but was only truly driven home after the system's grand upgrade. Watching those impossibly arrogant NPCs strut about had taught them that quietly improving your strength was no easy task either—this world was at once simpler and more brutal than the real one.
Faced with a Tier 4 powerhouse, if the person was in a bad mood, a casual gesture could annihilate their entire group. They wouldn't even have a chance to cry about it.
"Do you know anything about what's been happening with Blazing Edge recently?" Yuluo couldn't help but ask.
Blazing Edge was her home—her heart had been aching over it ever since she left.
Even before she had entered the Ancient Divine Realm, the competition on Dragon Heart Island had already been fierce. Blazing Edge had clashed more than once with several other adventure teams, suffering thousands of casualties. If it hadn't been for that, she never would have gone off alone to train in such a dangerous zone, venturing into unexplored territory to seek her fortune.