THE STRONGEST THUNDER SWORD, VOLUME 8 - Season 15 Episode 26

After unfurling the treasure map, Shi Feng inspected its Attribute Panel.

“This….” The information displayed confused Shi Feng.

Aside from the words ‘Dragon’s Graveyard,’ the treasure map didn’t have any information to display. There wasn’t even a general map for the Dragon’s Graveyard.

“Guild Leader, is there a problem with the treasure map?” Gentle Snow asked curiously when she noticed the strange expression on Shi Feng’s face.

“There is indeed a problem,” Shi Feng said, chuckling. “This treasure map requires a Master ranked appraisal.”

When he tried to inspect the treasure map forcefully, the system notified him of the requirement.

“Master ranked?” Gentle Snow was astonished.

Although one could easily find appraisal shops in NPC cities, the NPCs working in these stores were, at best, Advanced Appraisers. It was impossible to find a Master Appraiser in these shops.

Although a lot of players had taken on the Appraiser subclass, their progress was extremely slow. After all, players had to appraise a large number of top-tier items to gain Proficiency. Even the various large Guilds had only nurtured a few Advanced Appraisers.

As for Master Appraisers…

It was very difficult for every subclass in God’s Domain to reach the Master rank.

However, what truly surprised Shi Feng was not the fact that the treasure map needed a Master Appraiser, but that it had to be appraised to begin with. Based on what he had heard in the past, the maps leading to the Dragon’s Graveyard’s Three Great Treasures hadn’t needed appraisals; one could just inspect them.

Could this treasure map lead to something other than the Three Great Treasures? Shi Feng’s curiosity grew. Immediately, he activated Omniscient Eyes to inspect the treasure map.

Fortunately, Omniscient Eyes could rival a Master ranked appraisal.

After 20 seconds, the treasure map’s information began to reveal itself.

What!? Shi Feng was dumbfounded when he saw the displayed information.

As he had guessed, the treasure map Yan Tianxing had given him didn’t lead to one of the Three Great Treasures.

This map wasn’t even a treasure map…

It was a map to the Dragon’s Graveyard’s secret land, the Dragon’s Nest!

This secret land was far more valuable than the Three Great Treasures. Unlike the treasures, which would disappear once someone claimed them, players could periodically enter the secret land an indefinite number of times. Like the Sea Dragon Secret Land, one could obtain all sorts of precious items in the Dragon’s Nest.

Yet, funny enough, Yan Tianxing had treated this item like a typical treasure map.

After giving the matter some thought, Shi Feng realized that it was to be expected. After all, secret lands were incredibly rare. On the other hand, treasure was common in large maps like the Dragon’s Graveyard. If a player obtained a map with the words ‘Dragon’s Graveyard,’ it wouldn’t be unusual for them to assume it was just a treasure map.

“Guild Leader, it couldn’t be a fake, could it?” Gentle Snow thought of a possibility when she saw Shi Feng’s surprise.

There were many treasures in God’s Domain. However, there was also a large number of fakes. In fact, a large majority of the treasure maps players obtained weren’t real.

“It is.” Shi Feng nodded.

“I knew Yan Tianxing couldn’t be that generous.” Gentle Snow sighed, somewhat disappointed.

If Zero Wing could obtain the Dragon’s Graveyard’s treasures, it would significantly help the Guild’s development. If an adventurer team like FFF used the treasure, it might even elevate the team’s overall strength to a whole new level. How could he have been willing to gamble such a precious item?

“This isn’t a treasure map. It’s a map to a secret land in the Dragon’s Graveyard,” Shi Feng said, smiling when he saw Gentle Snow’s dejected expression.

“What?! It’s a map to the Dragon’s Graveyard’s secret land?! How is that possible?!” Gentle Snow’s eyes widened in shock. For a moment, she even thought Shi Feng was playing a trick.

“Take a look for yourself,” Shi Feng said, chuckling. He then passed the secret land map to Gentle Snow.

“It’s real! If Yan Tianxing finds this out, he’ll lose his mind.” Gentle Snow’s eyes sparkled as she looked at the map.

Needless to say, a secret land in a forbidden area like the Dragon’s Graveyard would be high-quality. Moreover, the reward for clearing a secret land for the first time would most likely rival, or even surpass, the Dragon’s Graveyard’s treasure. Although subsequent visits wouldn’t yield as many benefits as the first, the secret land could be raided indefinitely. In the long term, the income from exploring the secret land would exceed the Three Great Treasures.

However, this map had a flaw; the secret land would be very challenging to reach. The Dragon’s Nest was located in the Dragon’s Graveyard’s inner region. Moreover, it was very close to its core. Currently, the Black Dragon Empire’s various large Guilds were struggling to explore the outer region, much less the inner area.

Before they could reach the secret land, the monsters in the inner region would likely wipe them out.

However, Gentle Snow did not know that Shi Feng had already prepared to visit the Dragon’s Nest.

While the other large Guilds might have trouble reaching the inner region, the same could not be said for Shi Feng. After all, he had the All-rounded Device. He didn’t need to worry about the low Mana density in the Dragon’s Graveyard. Moreover, the Dragon’s Nest only opened once a week. They still had two days until the next reset. It would be a huge waste not to visit the secret land.

The only problem was that he needed more All-rounded Devices.

…

After Zhao Yueru’s match with Yan Tianxing, the competition proceeded as usual. With each match, the audience’s passion grew. After all, aside from Zhao Yueru, the weakest players who made it to the quarter-finals had reached the Flowing Water Realm.

However, faced with Zhao Yueru’s unreasonable Frostflame Space, even peak experts would succumb to death.

In this competition, players’ Cooldowns would reset upon finishing a match, and this included their weapons and equipment’s Skills. As a result, Zhao Yueru could use Frostflame Space and Frostflame Oblivion in every one of her matches. If her main body remained alive, she could use Frostflame Hell as well. With the stage’s limited amount of space to move around, her opponents had no hope of dodging both of her large-scale destruction Spells.

In the end, Zhao Yueru had won the championship, becoming the greatest dark horse in the competition this time around. At the same time, the Flame Witch’s name resounded throughout the Black Dragon Empire as Zhao Yueru became the empire’s number one Elementalist.

As for this uproar’s main perpetrator, Zhao Yueru found this situation somewhat unbelievable. If this had been a competition of combat standards, she wouldn’t have made it into the top 30, yet she had won the competition with the help of the Frostflame’s Wrath.

The strength of a Fragmented Legendary Weapon had her mesmerized.

Unsurprisingly, Zero Wing had become the number one Guild in this ranking competition and obtained the invitation to participate in the Secret Pavilion’s upcoming internal auction.

The Black Dragon Empire’s official forums were ablaze with activity. Nobody could’ve imagined that a previously unknown Guild would rise to become the competition’s top Guild. Zhao Yueru’s astonishing prowess fascinated the empire’s players. She was the perfect combination of beauty and violence.

“Zero Wing will definitely rise in the Black Dragon Empire now!”

“I heard that Zero Wing has been recruiting members in Lake Heart City. I’m going to apply when I have time.”

For a time, players swarmed Zero Wing’s Residence in Lake Heart City.

Far more players wanted to join the Guild than Gentle Snow had anticipated. To accommodate more members in the Branch Guild, she began her preparations to capture Hidden Fog Town, using this opportunity to develop her corner of Zero Wing.

“Big Sis Snow, over 10,000 third-rate Guild members, who are allied with Crimson Castle, have secretly gathered at the Guild’s residence in Lake Heart City. Moreover, this number is rapidly climbing. By the looks of it, it seems as if they intend to rush towards Hidden Fog Town. Unknown players have also ambushed many of our members grinding near the town. I suspect that this is Crimson Castle’s doing.”

“Crimson Fox is quite persistent. Since he can’t take action openly, he’s moving against us in secret?” Gentle Snow frowned as she listened to her subordinate’s report. Clearly, their previous agreement with Crimson Castle had been a farce.

“They’re moving in secret?” Revealing a faint smile, Shi Feng reasoned, “It seems that if we don’t teach these Guilds a proper lesson, they’ll assume that Zero Wing is easy to bully. Since Crimson Fox has gone back on his word, he can’t blame me for refusing to show mercy.”