"What terrifying killing intent!"
Shi Feng could clearly feel that his five senses were far worse than before. Both his vision and his instincts seemed shrouded in fog, making everything look hazy and indistinct.
But compared to the army of demonfolk before him, it was the system notifications ringing in Shi Feng's ears that truly shocked him.
System: Player has discovered the Dark Cavern.
System: All contact between the player and the outside world will be temporarily severed.
System: The player is affected by the power of darkness. All attributes reduced by 30%.
...
One system notification after another rang out, and Shi Feng was left speechless.
Being cut off from contact was something he could accept, but a 30% reduction in all his attributes? That was a bit too harsh.
The monsters here were already high-level to begin with, and there were an astonishing number of them. Now, with him weakened even further, the difficulty of obtaining the Dark Book had undoubtedly skyrocketed.
Watching a swarm of level 40 black-skinned demonfolk rush toward him like a tide, Shi Feng felt his scalp go numb.
His current level was 32, so the demonfolk's level didn't impose any suppression on him. But with so many of them, even if he could cast large-scale destruction magic, he wouldn't be able to wipe them all out. He had no choice but to turn and head down a narrow path.
Although Shi Feng's attributes had dropped by 30%—his HP falling from over ten thousand to just over eight thousand, and his strength and agility suffering significant cuts—his equipment was simply too good. Even with the reduction, his speed still far outstripped the demonfolk, leaving the ones in hot pursuit choking on his dust, completely unable to keep up.
Seeing a massive group of demonfolk blocking the narrow path ahead, Shi Feng immediately pulled a mid-tier Frost Grenade from his backpack.
This was a crowd-control weapon.
It was highly effective against monsters below level 70, easily freezing everyone within a 12-yard radius and dealing 800 points of damage with a 5-second freeze.
A single one cost 10 silver coins—enough for an ordinary player to live comfortably in the Divine Realm for quite a while.
Shi Feng had prepared all of this specifically to complete the mission and obtain the Dark Book. He'd been making various preparations beforehand, and the Frost Grenades were just one part of it. He'd even stocked up on quite a few high-tier Frost Grenades that cost 70 silver coins each.
The sheer number of demonfolk right now was overwhelming. This was no longer something that could be solved with technique alone—he needed brute force to break through. And this was the perfect moment to use the Frost Grenades.
One mid-tier Frost Grenade went off.
In an instant, a huge swath of demonfolk was frozen, columns of 800-point damage popping up everywhere. The pitch-black mass was suddenly adorned with a blooming ice flower, looking strikingly beautiful and almost sacred in the darkness of the cavern.
A dozen or more grenades followed in rapid succession, ice shattering in all directions. Nearly all the demonfolk blocking the path were frozen solid. The handful of stragglers that weren't posed no threat to Shi Feng—a few quick dodges and he slipped past them, leaping into the narrow path.
But the moment Shi Feng set foot on the path, he felt the unmistakable sensation of death bearing down on him. He immediately activated the Earth Ring's Absolute Defense, granting him immunity to all damage for 5 seconds—his strongest life-saving skill.
The instant the golden halo of sacred light began to circle around his body, a deafening clatter of impacts rang out.
Countless black threads struck his body. They were extremely fine—invisible to the naked eye in the darkness of the cavern. Had it not been for his death-defying instincts, Shi Feng would have been engulfed by this invisible onslaught of black threads.
"A trap! This Dark Cavern really doesn't give anyone a chance to survive!" Shi Feng glanced back at the demonfolk pursuing him, his heart clenching.
Every demonfolk hit by the black threads dissolved into a puff of black mist, dead beyond any hope of revival.