Shi Feng's words left Juetian speechless.
Only now did Juetian finally understand.
The reason Shi Feng had been so insistent on making a bet with him — when he could have simply cut him down with a single sword strike, yet deliberately gave him a chance to fight back — was all for this very moment.
A terrifying thought suddenly surged through Juetian's mind.
Had Shi Feng planned from the very beginning to target the Underworld?
Even before he had joined the Underworld, Juetian had known that the organization was unfathomably deep and absolutely not to be provoked. After joining, he had come to understand even more viscerally that one must never make an enemy of them.
Now Shi Feng dared to set his sights on the Underworld? He was utterly courting death.
Shi Feng could go ahead and court death if he wanted — but he just had to drag Juetian down with him, leaving him with absolutely no way out, not even the ability to resist. That was more wicked than any demon.
"Fine." Juetian watched as Shi Feng's finger inched closer to the video upload button and had no choice but to bow his head in resignation. "But I have one condition. I'll give you the information on the Underworld, but what happened between us today must never get out."
"You can rest easy on that," Shi Feng nodded, guaranteeing it. "Since I'm asking you to do this, I naturally won't put you in a difficult position. I won't show the Underworld information to anyone else."
Juetian's worry was entirely unnecessary — Shi Feng himself was concerned that word might leak out and tip off the Underworld ahead of time.
"I'll have everything compiled and sent to you tomorrow." With that, Juetian turned to leave.
But Shi Feng stopped him before he could get away.
"What? Worried I'm going to trick you?" Juetian said with a bitter laugh. "I've already got leverage in your hands. What tricks could I possibly pull?"
"You're overthinking it. I'm just returning the weapons and equipment you dropped." As for the level loss, Shi Feng figured someone of Juetian's caliber would be able to recover quickly enough. He produced Juetian's previously dropped weapons and gear from his inventory and handed them back.
After a long moment of hesitation, Juetian ultimately chose to accept them before departing alone.
"Guild Leader, are we really going to go to war against that mysterious power — the Underworld?" Xue Yan asked.
From Juetian's words, Xue Yan could sense just how terrifying the Underworld truly was. Even a top-tier expert like him turned pale at the mention of it. A mighty guild like Dark Star was nothing more than a puppet toy of the Underworld. How could Zero Wing possibly stand a chance? It would be like throwing an egg against a rock.
"What's the matter?" Shi Feng asked with a smile. "Scared already?"
"Of course not! Our Zero Wing guild is invincible — there's no way we'd lose to the Underworld." Xue Yan's eyes blazed with fighting spirit.
She had left Twilight Echo alongside Shui Se Qiang Wei to carve out her own path in the Divine Realm. There was no way she was going to give up over something like the Underworld.
Time trickled on. Even after the Divine Realm had entered nighttime — equivalent to daytime in the real world — Shui Se Qiang Wei, Fire Dance, and the others were still tirelessly hunting down Blood Hand Society NPCs.
These NPCs didn't drop any items, but the experience rewards were extraordinarily generous. It was only with the help of level-50 first-tier guards that they could take them down so easily. Opportunities like this wouldn't come around again.
As the number of Blood Hand Society NPCs they killed continued to climb, everyone's levels surged upward at a staggering pace.
The level and honor leaderboard in White River City began to shift dramatically.
Zero Wing members were popping up throughout the top one hundred.
They had originally been unremarkable, lingering around ninety-something. But as time passed, the experience growth rate of Zero Wing's members showed no signs of slowing down.