The Spine of Desolation was a barren wasteland within the Maple Leaf City region — a place where not a single blade of grass grew, the earth was cracked and dry, and yellow sand filled the air year-round. Yet at this moment, numerous players had gathered here to grind levels.
As a leveling zone for levels 25 to 32, the Spine of Desolation was indeed desolate, but it was home to various Stone Beasts. Stone Beasts were elemental creatures and excellent sources of stone materials. Kill a Stone Beast and there was roughly a twenty percent chance of a high-grade stone drop, with a certain probability of rare ores as well.
Nowadays, the forging trade was all the rage. Many casual players who didn't care for combat chose to study blacksmithing, so all kinds of forging materials were highly sought after on the market. Even though there were no treasure caches or high-level quests here, plenty of players still loved coming to this area to grind for stone and ores.
High-resource zones in every city were almost entirely claimed by major guilds — ordinary players had no way in. If they snuck in and got caught, the lucky ones would be chased out. The unlucky ones were as good as dead.
Naturally, most ordinary players avoided these zones and had to settle for run-of-the-mill maps like this one.
However, ever since Shi Feng's last visit to the Dragon Ridge, the members of Smile of the City had more or less stopped going there, instead flooding the Spine of Desolation to grind. That, in turn, sent plenty of ordinary players happily running off to the Dragon Ridge. And the name Black Flame instantly became an object of worship among Maple Leaf City's regular players.
One man forcing an entire guild to back down — that kind of overwhelming power was simply beyond imagination!
The Smile of the City guild master, Smile Sky, wished he could carve Shi Feng into a thousand pieces.
But there was nothing he could do about it.
According to Canglang Zhantian's report, Shi Feng's base stats were absurdly high — completely outclassing their top players by several tiers. To match him, they would first need to upgrade their gear and raise their own base stats. Until then, avoidance was the only option.
Of course, it wasn't as if there were no way to deal with him. A few hundred people were out of the question — a single Great Destruction spell would wipe them out. You'd need at least a thousand-strong army to stand a chance. But Shi Feng's movements were unpredictable, so surrounding him with thousands was virtually impossible. All they could do was endure. Endure until they had the strength to face a strategic-level powerhouse like Black Flame.
"Damn it, how long are we supposed to grind here?" a level 24 Summoner from Smile of the City grumbled unhappily. "When has Smile of the City ever taken a loss like this before? Dragging all the way out to this godforsaken wasteland just because of one player? I don't buy it — send a hundred people at him and he'll drop, no question."
"Shh, keep it down. What if your big mouth actually draws him here?" the level 25 Elementalist serving as their squad leader said with a frown, glancing cautiously around. "You're lucky you weren't there that night. If you'd felt that aura of his firsthand — fierce as a volcano — you'd know that a hundred people are nothing but ants in his eyes. Even our Shield Warriors and Guardian Knights, with the highest defense and HP, couldn't withstand a single strike from him."
Several members of the squad nodded. Even though it was broad daylight, the memory of that night's madness still felt like it had happened just last evening.
"Squad Leader, you're exaggerating, aren't you? Our gear isn't exactly top-tier, but even if he had a full set of level 25 Mythril-grade equipment, there's no way he could one-shot our Shield Warriors and Guardian Knights," the Summoner said flatly, not buying a word of it.
Moments after those words left his mouth, a dark shadow descended from the sky.
"Don't believe me?"
"Then feel it for yourself."
The one diving from above was none other than Shi Feng. The Spine of Desolation was vast, and Smile of the City's members were spread far and wide, so for efficiency he had activated Wind Walk to fly and search. Spotting a hundred-strong squad from Smile of the City, he dove straight in.
In the instant he plunged downward, Shi Feng swapped the Ring of Wind for the Ring of Fire and unleashed Flame Spirit Storm from the heavens, blanketing a thirty-yard radius.
Flames erupted skyward, instantly incinerating everything within range. Even the level 27 Stone Beasts — with respectable magic resistance and five thousand HP — turned to ash in the first wave of damage, let alone the many players who had no magic resistance at all and less than five thousand HP.
In the blink of an eye, Smile of the City's hundred-man squad was reduced to a little over twenty.