THE STRONGEST THUNDER SWORD, VOLUME 5 - Season 8 Episode 78

Although Phoenix Rain had not been loud, her words had stunned Blue Phoenix.

Epic Weapons!

Currently, these items were practically legends. Even the Dragon-Phoenix Pavilion only had one Epic item thus far. However, it was not a weapon. Rather, they had a pair of cloth armor gloves.

This Epic ranked gloves had caused a fight between the Phoenix Pavilion and Heavenly Dragon Pavilion. Both Pavilions had tried to claim the gloves for themselves. In the end, however, the Great Pavilion Master had given the gloves to Phoenix Rain.

Due to this, Nine Dragons Emperor of the Heavenly Dragon Pavilion was furious.

However, Nine Dragons Emperor could not do anything about the decision because he wasn’t a magical class. On the other hand, Phoenix Rain was an Elementalist. The Epic ranked gloves were also perfectly suited for an Elementalist. To gain the greatest benefit, the gloves went to Phoenix Rain.

When Blue Phoenix saw the gloves’ Basic Attributes, she realized that the gloves were significantly stronger than Dark-Gold Equipment. Furthermore, the Epic Equipment increased certain Basic Attributes by a fixed percentage. Although the increase only ranged between 10% and 15%, to a top-tier expert with over 500 points in their main Attribute, a 10% increase was a significant jump. The Epic ranked gloves also had powerful Skills. The gloves alone increased Phoenix Rain’s combat power by nearly 30%.

If an Epic item was so effective, how powerful were Epic Weapons?

Just thinking about it made Blue Phoenix shiver in fear.

The fact that Shi Feng had sliced apart her Ice Walls with a single slash spoke volumes of his weapons’ strength.

However, this revelation also confused Blue Phoenix. Even the Dragon-Phoenix Pavilion had only managed to obtain a single piece of Epic Equipment after a lot of struggling. How did a small Guild like Zero Wing manage to obtain two Epic Weapons?

“It seems Zero Wing isn’t as simple as we thought. Neither the Star Alliance or the Flower of Seven Sins lost to Zero Wing without reason. In any case, have more people watch Zero Wing. I keep feeling that Black Flame is shrouded in mystery,” Phoenix Rain sternly commanded her subordinate after pondering for some time.

“I understand. I’ll have the intelligence department start a new, thorough investigation on Zero Wing.” This was the third time Blue Phoenix had seen Phoenix Rain so serious. She believed that Phoenix Rain overestimated Zero Wing.

The Dragon-Phoenix Pavilion was a super-first-rate Guild. Even if Zero Wing rose at a tremendous pace, it was still ten years too early for it to become anything more than a first-rate Guild.

The virtual gaming world had been around for hundreds of years. Throughout its history, many upstart Guilds had become first-rate Guilds through accomplishments in a single game. However, no upstart Guild had ever surpassed first-rate Guilds through just a single game.

Beyond that, Zero Wing had no particular backing.

—

A sea of people filled the Underground Arena’s Main Venue.

There were two modes of combat in the Underground Arena. The first was the system-acknowledged ranking matches held in the Basic, Advanced, and Special Areas. The second mode was a zero-restriction match.

For zero-restriction matches, players could fight Special Area experts without requiring combat results in the Underground Arena. However, the size of the venues and rules were different. Even the fees were different.

The Basic Venue for zero-restriction matches could hold far more people than that of the ranking matches. Each venue could hold roughly 500 people. If one wanted to reserve the venue, each day cost 3 Gold. Inside the venue, players could fight however they wished. There were no restrictions to the number of fights that could be held.

As for the Advanced Venue, it could hold 3,000 people. Reserving it for the day cost 10 Gold.

The Special Venue could hold 20,000 people, and reserving it for a day cost 100 Gold. Even large Guild could not afford to reserve the Special Venue.

The Main Venue towered above the Special Venue. The number of people the Main Venue could hold depended on the city’s rank. A kingdom’s Main Venue could hold roughly 50,000 people. An empire’s Main Venue could hold roughly 70,000 to 80,000 people. The Main Venue of the Four Great Empires’ Underground Arenas could hold roughly 100,000 people.

Aside from accommodating larger crowds, the greatest difference between zero-restriction matches and ranking matches was the size of the dueling rings.

In Basic Venues, the dueling rings there could support one-on-one matches.

The dueling rings of Advanced Venues could support three-on-three matches at most.

Special Venues could hold ten-on-ten matches.

Lastly, Main Venues could hold 100-on-100 matches.

In the Underground Arena, the spectator stands offered the full view of the dueling ring. One could observe the battlefield from whichever angle they desired.

Battles involving hundreds of players frequently occurred across God’s Domain. However, it was difficult to observe these battles without being dragged into the fray. However, that would not happen in the Underground Arena. Players could observe the battles in the dueling rings closely. Hence, players favored the Underground Arena. The various large Guilds would also often rehearse 100-man team battles here.

However, unlike the other venues, each Underground Arena only possessed one Main Venue. Moreover, the rental fee was very expensive. Renting out the Main Venue in White River City cost more than 300 Gold. As for the Four Great Empires, their Main Venues cost 600 Gold to rent each day.

Through Zero Wing and the Candlelight Trading Firm, Shi Feng only raked in roughly 1,000 Gold of profit each day. Yet, it cost 600 Gold to rent the Main Venue. Meanwhile, such competitions occurred in the Four Great Empires’ Underground Arenas every day. The wealth of the Dark Arena’s organizer was obvious.

Neither the participating players, nor the audience members needed to play an entry fee. Of course, they all required an invitation to enter. No one could enter the Main Venue without one.

However, even without charging an entrance fee, the Dark Arena’s organizer still made an immense profit.

The organizer charged a 1% processing fee for all winning bets in the Dark Arena. Although 1% might not seem much to whoever won the bet, only those of extraordinary status were invited to watch the battles. Even 1% was an extraordinary amount of money. Furthermore, there were a lot of people betting on the fights.

The organizer earned far more than just 600 Gold each day.

With so much profit at stake, it was natural that the position of the Dark Arena’s organizer was not permanent. Initially, one would secure the position by influence. Later, they secured it with strength.

Why were the various major corporations pushing their battle teams to secure victory with every match?

They pushed because only the top few ranking battle teams could qualify to challenge the Dark Arena’s organizer.

Hence, the qualifications to form a Dark Arena battle team were precious.

When Shi Feng learned that Phoenix Rain had qualified to send a battle team to the Dark Arena, he had been shocked.

“There are so many people here!” After Blackie entered the Main Venue, the scene had left him awestruck.

The competition venue, which could accommodate 100,000 players, was about 20% full.

“These people have extraordinary statuses. Most likely, even the most inferior among them are upper echelons of first-rate Guilds,” Aqua Rose stated. When she swept a glance over the audience members, she noticed several upper echelons from first-rate Guilds. She even spotted the Guild Leaders of several first-rate Guilds.

“It’s not just the upper echelons of the first-rate Guilds in God’s Domain. Many famous experts have been invited as well. In addition, the representatives from many major corporations have received invites. However, the Dark Arena is lively today,” Shi Feng explained slowly.

He had visited the Dark Arena many times in his previous life. Back then, however, he had been over Level 100. By then, many people had discovered the Dark Arena. Moreover, the battles he had watched had usually been between relatively skilled battle teams. Even then, the venues were only about 30% full. Currently, the Dark Arena was still new, only emerging recently. An occupancy rate of 20% was already considerably high.

As staff members guided Shi Feng and his team into the dueling ring, their appearance had elicited a small cry from a corner of the audience stands.

“Isn’t that Ye Feng?!” Zhao Yueru exclaimed as she rubbed her eyes, thinking they had fooled her. However, no matter how she stared, the man was undoubtedly Ye Feng. “Why is he here?!”