Chapter 378 - 169: Divine Soldiers Descend, Worlds Connected
Even if they wanted to leave some "last words" for their family outside, there was no way to communicate. The only thing they could do was break through the so-called Twelfth Ring gates and clear the stage to leave.
CRACK!
Seeing that half a minute had quickly passed, Father Shen’s eyes narrowed, and he nodded heavily. His four teammates beside him immediately unleashed their strongest attacks. Then, just as Father Shen had hoped, the combined power slammed into the great gate behind them—marked [South Celestial Gate] and covered in countless flowing, mystical runes—and it instantly cracked open.
"Huh?"
They had assumed that once the South Celestial Gate and its defensive runes were blasted open, the five of them could charge straight into the Immortal Palace. Their plan was to find the final boss—the Jade Emperor—kill him, and then bombard the special node to clear this stage of the Heaven-Opening Gate.
But Father Shen and his team never expected this. After breaking open the sealed gate, they didn’t find a passageway. Instead, there were three more gates! Moreover, one of them was a special, net-like gate woven from what looked like golden threads, shimmering with a strange light.
"Again!"
They hadn’t expected the target location for the Fifth Ring to have four defensive gates in total. After a brief moment of shock, Father Shen shouted, ordering his teammates to continue. As the team captain, he knew they couldn’t afford to lose their initial momentum. Otherwise, it could lead to big trouble.
So we break one gate, and there are three more waiting? Fine, I’ll just keep blasting!
"Uncle Shen!" a voice called out. "There are twelve rings in total! The first four rings are the first stage, the fifth through eighth are the second stage, and the final four are the third stage! We’re on the Fifth Ring now, so maybe there are other changes besides the increase in Combat Power!"
Following Father Shen’s orders, the team continued to fend off the surprise attacks from the wolf-headed and dog-headed creatures behind them while unleashing their ultimate skills to bombard the second gate. The warning came from a commanding, mature voice that could make one’s heart race just by hearing it. Although the speaker was only trying to share her guess and had no other intention, the unique quality of her voice was still incredibly distinct.
"Tear might be right!" Father Shen shouted immediately upon hearing his teammate, the inheritor of [Succubus’s Tear]. "Hurry! Don’t save your skills!"
Through the battles in the first four rings, the five teammates had already gotten to know each other’s abilities. Therefore, even though they initially thought [Succubus’s Tear] and [Young Master Void] were unreliable, the group had quickly learned to coordinate as the battles went on.
At the reminder from [Succubus’s Tear], Father Shen controlled his chessboard, sending ten [Pawn] and [Soldier] pieces charging out in a battle formation. At the same time, he subconsciously opened his inventory.
If it’s really as Tear guessed, then I might have to use the item my son gave me sooner rather than later.
He had originally thought the greatest difficulty of the so-called Heaven-Opening Gate mission was just the exponentially increased monster strength. Now, it seemed that other special mechanics were appearing, beyond just the basic increase in strength. These three gates that had suddenly appeared, for example, were something that hadn’t happened in the first four rings.
"Attack!"
No matter what, the fight couldn’t stop. While thinking quickly, Father Shen roared and directed his teammates to strike.
"Eh??"
"Ah!"
"Hah!"
Then, he froze. It wasn’t just him, either—his four teammates were stunned motionless.
As the five of them stared, dumbfounded, a massive pillar of light materialized out of thin air. Before their attacks could even land, it shot straight toward the three new gates and slammed into them. As the five watched in stunned silence, everything in the pillar’s path was instantly vaporized. The three new gates vanished without a trace.
The pillar of light continued forward, and everything in its path disappeared. Stunned, Father Shen and his team saw that the vast Immortal Palace had been pierced straight through.
Originally, they were supposed to break down the gate, charge into the Immortal Palace, kill the defending guards, and then slay the Jade Emperor deep inside. But with the appearance of the light pillar, everything in its path was obliterated. Along the pillar’s trajectory, a straight tunnel with a radius of over ten meters had appeared, running through the entire Immortal Palace. The tunnel started at the South Celestial Gate, pierced through the interior, and then punched straight out through the wall at the very back.
Looking down the tunnel of light, Father Shen could even see an emperor dressed in yellow robes and wearing a flat-topped ceremonial crown. His left hand had been cleanly melted off, and he was staring, dumbfounded, at the passage.
"Brother Chongtian!"
"Brother Chongtian!"
While Father Shen was still reeling in shock, wondering what was happening, Huang Yi and Zhao Li, using their Detection Tower and Divine Sense, were already shouting in excitement.
They might have doubted that the signature pillar of light belonged to Shen Fei, especially since they were in the Game World. But when his figure was revealed in mid-air as he controlled 100 Defense Towers for a Cluster Attack, they instantly spotted him with their Detection and Divine Sense. Huang Yi and Zhao Li were completely floored.
They knew, of course, that Shen Fei was capable of unleashing such a powerful attack. What was truly shocking was why Shen Fei was here.
This was the Game World, after all!
The five of them had only entered the Game World because of a mandatory quest from the version update. But they were certain Shen Fei hadn’t accepted that quest.