Imperial Tomb Village, in front of the Primordial Containment Wall.
Qi Sheng stood with his eyes closed, his consciousness weaving through the networked world of reality, looking for suitable candidates to recruit.
Without exception, the members of several player groups he entered regarded him as a scam artist.
Most would choose to delete the link he sent, then kick him out of the group chat.
Qi Sheng had absolutely no desire to explain. He decisively switched to find new targets to recruit, adopting a scattergun approach.
The 50 spots were quickly distributed, snapped up by players across three groups.
At that moment, the Guiding Water Ball suddenly appeared:
[Big Boss, among the players recruited this time, there's a tough one!]
"How tough?" Qi Sheng turned to the Guiding Water Ball and asked with a tinge of annoyance.
[Last time, when players reported issues with the pain sensitivity setting, didn't you set the initial pain response for first-time players in the game to the lowest at 10%?]
Qi Sheng personally made these adjustments and naturally would not forget.
Originally recruited players like Li Zheng had complained about the game's pain feedback being too realistic, prompting him to realize the issue must be addressed.
One of the main reasons players feel empowered is their fearlessness, and excessively realistic pain feedback runs counter to this concept.
After careful consideration, he set the initial pain feedback at 10%.
The reason for not setting it at 0% was that pain is fundamentally a feedback from the body's condition, and having some pain feedback allows players to timely notice changes in their condition, and hone their combat skills during the hunt, rather than acting merely as brutes.
[One of the players recruited this time, after checking the game's functions, voluntarily increased the pain feedback to 100%.]
"Then that truly is a tough one."
Curious, Qi Sheng's head suddenly turned into a mass of scarlet flames, with fire spreading from the top and enveloping him in a blaze.
After switching to the Emperor's Omen Form, his perspective shifted to the Guiding Avatar that followed the "tough player" mentioned by the Guiding Water Ball.
The sky seemed stained with thick ink, having lost its usual brightness, leaving only an eerie Waning Moon hanging in the sky, casting mottled shadows.
A black wind howled across the earth, lifting clumps of ash resembling willow catkins into the air.
The crisp sound of bone breaking could be heard as Li Tie broke the arm of the Curse Soldier in front of him, then decisively activated his Petrification Form. A layer of pitch-black substance immediately coated his body, allowing him to withstand the attacks from two more Curse Soldiers from the left and right.
Throughout his journey, Li Tie was extremely satisfied with the realism of this game.
The successive battles also allowed him to comprehend the proper use of the stone-statue ghost's Petrification Ability.
He discovered that in the game, there were no so-called skill cooldown limitations, and the use of the Petrification Ability could be activated or deactivated at will.
The Guidance's explanation was that the game had two types of energy bars, namely Life Force and spiritual power.
The use of active skills required the consumption of one of these energies.
For example, every use of the stone-statue ghost's Petrification Ability consumed Life Force, while abilities like the Eagle-Headed Demon's Resentful Chant and Bone Fire's Ink Flame ability consumed spiritual power.
Without skill cooldown limitations, the appropriate timing for skill deployment became especially critical.
Curse Soldiers became the targets for Li Tie to train his skills on.
Petrification, release, counterattack... Every time a Curse Soldier attacked, Li Tie would activate Petrification to endure the damage, then withdraw it during their attack intervals to counterattack, quickly becoming familiar with the rhythm of using the Petrification Ability.
After several rounds of attacks, the three Curse Soldiers that blocked his path were broken down into a pile of bones by his heavy fists.
After absorbing the energy condensed from the Curse Soldiers upon their death, he successfully leveled up to 4, clearly feeling a significant improvement in his physical fitness.
Picking up a broken Battle Axe left by the Curse Soldiers from the ground, Li Tie continued eastward.
Crossing over a hillside, the sight that unfolded before Li Tie's eyes was a valley covered with a thick layer of black ash, and the air carried an acrid smell of burnt earth.
What surprised him was that several floating weapons were hanging in the air in front of the valley, wandering around as if they had a life of their own.
As he continued downhill, entering the valley, a string of text floated before him.
[Challenger Tips: Domain Node scene "Artifact Spirit Valley" discovered.]
With the prompt, the map popped up automatically, dispersing the fog at his location and revealing the golden lettering "Artifact Spirit Valley."
Continuing forward for a distance, his gaze focused on a battle axe ahead with a flow of crimson energy on its surface.
[Power Barbarian (First Generation Origin)]:
Guidance Analysis: A special monster that holds Primordial Power, evolved from a portion of Emperor Zhao's power of slaughter, it has gained rudimentary intelligence and craves for battle and killing.
His gaze turned to the cyan sword floating beside the battle axe, and the analysis information surfaced again:
[Shattering (First Generation Origin)]
Guidance Analysis: A special monster that holds Primordial Power, evolved from a portion of Emperor Zhao's power of slaughter, it has gained rudimentary intelligence and craves for battle and killing.
Having checked the attributes of the weapons floating ahead, Li Tie was surprised to find that these weapons were all highly prized First Generation Origin as mentioned by the Guidance.
Although their hunting level had reached level 10, Li Tie did not retreat. Instead, he advanced towards Artifact Spirit Valley.
The floating Artifact Spirits reacted at this time, shooting towards him rapidly and surrounding him, then hovering in place.
Li Tie thought he would be attacked, but he found that the Artifact Spirits did not do so.
The leading crimson battle axe trembled lightly as it floated in front of him, and the other four Artifact Spirits surrounding Li Tie scattered, clearing an open space.
"What does this mean, Guidance?"
[My analysis is, it's challenging you, wanting to have a one-on-one true man's collision with you.]
At that moment, Li Tie gripped the broken Tie Chui in his hand, stepped forward, and swung the warhammer down heavily towards the battle axe.
After the clashing of metals, sparks flew, Li Tie's warhammer in hand shattered, metal fragments flying everywhere, while the surface of the Artifact Spirit's battle axe remained unblemished.
The offensive of the battle axe also unfolded at this time, a violent crimson airflow rushing forth, the battle axe raised high, and chopping down heavily towards Li Tie's head.
The half of the warhammer that Li Tie had raised was instantly shattered, leaving only the handle, and the battle axe continued its descent without losing momentum.
Li Tie shifted his body to the right, decisively activating his Petrification Ability.
He sidestepped with his shoulder to take the strike of the axe, domineering energy permeating his body, causing intense pain which brought a ferocious smile to Li Tie's face and an undeniable excitement to his eyes.
The pain instead roused the fierceness in his heart.
He released the broken hammer handle and, after deactivating the Petrification Ability, he punched the battle axe with all his might.
But to Li Tie's surprise, the other four weapons that had been observing suddenly shot towards him, piercing through his body in an instant.
[Challenger Tips: Player death, 10 points of sacrificial power deducted, entering one-hour Resurrection Cooldown!]
The prompt information appeared, and the scene before Li Tie turned into a grayscale hue.
An hour later, Li Tie reappeared at the Resurrection Point in Imperial Tomb Village.
"Guidance, wasn't it supposed to be a one-on-one duel? Why did the other Artifact Spirits suddenly attack me?"
In response to his inquiry, after a short silence, Guidance provided an analysis:
[At the time, you had dropped the shattered warhammer in your hand, and then you were attacked by the other Artifact Spirits. Therefore, the one-on-one duel likely requires you to be armed. Once you discarded your weapon, you were no longer the target of the Artifact Spirit's challenge.]
Understanding the reason, Li Tie had the idea of returning to Artifact Spirit Valley for another battle.
But the weapons on the Ancient Battlefield were all in a state of disrepair, not able to withstand a single onslaught from the Artifact Spirits. He now needed a high-quality weapon.