THE STRONGEST THUNDER SWORD, VOLUME 5 - Season 8 Episode 19

Ruins of the Imperial Capital:

On the streets filled with wandering undead, Shi Feng controlled the Tier 3 Demon to slaughter Ghouls.

However, the presence of Ghouls was quite rare, and after clearing several streets surrounding the Palace, Shi Feng had only obtained four Bronze Mastery Books. His EXP bar, on the other hand, had risen significantly. Currently, he was at 53% of Level 37. At most, he would need to grind for another day or so to reach Level 38.

Just after Shi Feng killed the last Ghoul within the 200-yard restricted area…

Golden light escaped from this Ghoul’s body and flew towards the sky. After the golden light dissipated, a golden beam shot into Shi Feng’s body.

The sound of a system notification suddenly rang by Shi Feng’s ears.

System: You have liberated a bound soul and have received the blessing of the dead. For each Ghoul you kill, you will increase your Thunder Beast Empire Reputation by 1 point.

Killing Ghouls increases my Reputation with the empire? Shi Feng suddenly understood how he could enter the Palace.

One could not casually approach a kingdom’s or empire’s Palace. One first needed a certain amount of Reputation.

Unfortunately, neither a kingdom’s nor an empire’s Reputation was easy to obtain. Generally, one had to complete special quests or obtain the First Clear of Team Dungeons to gain Reputation for a kingdom or empire.

These Thunder Beast Guards were mechanical puppets. They would only carry out the commands they had been given. Hence, if Shi Feng had sufficient Reputation with the empire, he could walk into the Palace unhindered.

Meanwhile, if one wanted to enter a kingdom’s Palace, they needed to become a Count first. As for an empire’s Palace, one had to become a Marquis.

Becoming a Marquis required 5,000 Reputation Points.

Normally, it would be exceedingly difficult to accumulate so much Reputation. Now, however, Shi Feng only needed to kill Ghouls. With this, it would be much easier to rise to the rank of Marquis.

No wonder this quest has a time limit of ten days. It turns out that I need to kill 5,000 Ghouls. Shi Feng began to understand the quest’s time limit.

Ghouls were Level 60 Special Elites. Moreover, there were also many Suffering Souls getting in the way. Shi Feng would have no choice but to kill the Elite monsters while hunting for Ghouls. Even a Level 60 ordinary expert would have to spend quite a long time killing a Level 60 Special Elite Ghoul. Each one could take anywhere from seven to over a dozen minutes depending on the expert’s strength. At that pace, even with ten days, they would not be able to kill 5,000 Ghouls.

To Shi Feng, though, this was not a problem.

One Level 52 Tier 3 Demon took less time to kill a Ghoul than a 20-man team. Fortunately, Shi Feng could control two Tier 3 Demons simultaneously.

Following which, Shi Feng began sweeping through the city for Ghouls.

Previously, as he had to wait for the Ghouls in the restricted area to wander out, Shi Feng’s range of activity had been limited. Hence, his grinding efficiency had been very low. Now that this restriction was gone, he could move from one end of a street to the other, slaughtering everything without pause.

As one Ghoul after another fell, Shi Feng’s Reputation rose.

System: You have killed a Ghoul. Reputation in Thunder Beast Empire +1.

System: You have killed a Ghoul. Reputation in Thunder Beast Empire +1.

System: You have killed a Ghoul. Reputation in Thunder Beast Empire +1.

…

After three hours, Shi Feng’s Reputation had increased to 207 points. He gained Reputation far slower than he had expected.

Although he killed the Special Elites very quickly, there were only so many Ghouls that appeared on a single street. He had to waste a lot of time moving from one Ghoul to another, which significantly reduced his efficiency.

At this rate, I will only complete this part of the quest if I grind nonstop for two days. The remaining time should be enough to lift the curse on the city and complete the quest. Just as Shi Feng was lost in thought, he heard a warning from the system.

This warning was a notification telling him that someone was calling from the real world. Normally, the game would only warn players when communication with the outside world had been severed, and players were unable to accept real world calls from inside God’s Domain.

“Did something happen?” Shi Feng didn’t think too much about it as he immediately swiped his fingers, calling up the system interface and clicking the “Logout” button.

Previously, he had told Fire Dance and the others that he was working on a quest in a special area and that contact with the outside world was unavailable. Hence, they would not call him unless it was urgent.

It was 3 am in the real world. Normal people would not call at this time of night.

For Blackie and the others to contact him in the dead of night, the only possibility was that something had happened to Zero Wing.

Darkness surrounded Shi Feng as he stepped out of his virtual gaming cabin.

The ringing from the quantum watch Shi Feng wore on his wrist echoed throughout the silent bedroom. Taking a look at the watch’s display, Shi Feng discovered that it was Blackie.

“Blackie, what’s so urgent? Has something happened in God’s Domain?” Shi Feng asked after answering the call.

“Brother Feng, the Stoneclaw Mountains… something has happened! Blackie said in a panic after the call connected. “Of the 300 members in the Dark Gods Legion, nearly all of them have been wiped out. Only a dozen or so managed to return to Stone Forest Town.”

“Impossible!” Shi Feng was dumbfounded. “Could it be the Star Alliance? That shouldn’t be possible!”

Although the Dark Gods Legion only had 300 members, their equipment was first-class. Their combat techniques were also top-notch. Furthermore, the Dark Gods Legion had a Berserk Skill like the Power of Darkness. Even if the Star Alliance sent out its best fighters, they could never annihilate the Legion.

“Initially, I wondered the same thing. However, based on what the survivors told us, the people who attacked them did not seem like members of the Star Alliance. They weren’t Red Names either. They were a group of independent players. The instant they appeared, they killed off a few dozen members of the Legion. Even after everyone activated the Power of Darkness, they couldn’t hold their ground against those independent players.

“Some of the more powerful players even killed Legion members in just a few moves. Before they could even react, they were dead…”

The news had also shocked Blackie. Hence, he had contacted Shi Feng immediately.

Aside from Zero Wing’s main force, the Dark Gods Legion was the most powerful team in Zero Wing. Even throughout Star-Moon Kingdom, the Legion ranked at the very top in terms of combat power. The Legion also had the Power of Darkness.

Yet, they had been massacred…

News of this incident had already spread throughout Star-Moon Kingdom. If they did not deal with this matter properly, Zero Wing’s reputation would plunge to the darkest pits of the abyss.

“A group of independent experts with top-tier equipment and skills? Could it be the Flower of Seven Sins?” Of all of Shi Feng’s possible enemies, only the Flower of Seven Sins was capable of such a feat. “However, wasn’t the organization’s target Zero Wing’s main force and upper echelon?”

Hearing Shi Feng suggest that it was the Flower of Seven Sins’ doing, Blackie was momentarily stunned.

Blackie agreed with Shi Feng’s deduction. Only, he never imagined that the Flower of Seven Sins would be so powerful.

Initially, he had doubted that any power could easily defeat Zero Wing’s Dark Gods Legion. Even if the Flower of Seven Sins took action, the organization would have to expend a lot of effort to take the Legion down. In the end, however, he had been sorely mistaken.

If the Dark Gods Legion had already suffered such a fate, Zero Wing’s main force was in trouble.

“Brother Feng, what should we do?” Blackie asked, panicking.