127: Central City, Tower of Gods

The leveling speed of the Forbidden City core members was extremely fast.

Huang Chen assigned them according to their attributes; those who were Fire Element Users led teams to attack the nests of Metal Element Users, while the Wood Elementals went to attack the nests of Earth Element Users...

They utilized the damage bonuses from elemental counters.

It took less than 18 hours to complete the leveling assistance missions.

The final auction results for the other three horns were also released, with the three factions—Emperor's World, Proud World, and Mythical Heaven—winning the bids respectively.

The auction price was 6 million gold coins, with a down payment of 1 million, and the remainder split into 5 installments, paying 1.2 million gold to Forbidden City each month.

During this period, Forbidden City's dumping of some low-to-mid-level equipment also brought in over 3 million gold coins, in addition to 8 million in accounts receivable.

As for the loans issued, Xie Chunyan was not at all worried about their recovery.

After all, Forbidden City was so powerful now that no one dared to default on their debts. As for those who died after taking out loans, that was simply unavoidable.

After Huang Chen finished his meeting with the Harem and gave instructions on how to obtain opportunities after arriving in Central City, he summoned the reserves.

It had to be said that the quality of the reserves recruited from all of Huaxia this time was quite good.

There were all sorts of original celebrities, models, and campus beauties—everything one could ask for.

Among them, there were as many as 33 people who scored above 95 points.

However, time was tight, and Huang Chen could not recruit them all.

In the end, he privately took the two 97-point superstars, Hani and Reba, to the Gold-attribute dungeon to level them up to 50.

After all, Huang Chen had long coveted these two before the Star Abyss descended; if he didn't take them in, how could he face the system lord and his little brother?

The 24-hour time limit was fast approaching.

At this moment, Huang Chen, the Harem Legion, and ten thousand core members were already waiting by the teleportation altar.

In the Huaxia Clan base camp, only 100,000 inner-circle members were left behind to lead and manage the entire Forbidden City Guild.

Teleportation to Central City was not like the Novice Village, which only allowed one-way transfers.

Once you go, as long as you have money, you can return at any time.

The teleportation fee is 1 gold.

Moreover, when the barriers of the hundred nations open, Trial Takers can walk on their own two feet from the Satellite City to other major cities, or even to Central City.

It's just that the journey is extremely long.

Furthermore, the wilderness between the various major cities and Central City is a high-level monster zone.

The monster levels range from 55 to 150.

The monsters here are not like those in the dungeon instances; instead, different monsters occupy different territories. The monsters have a very strong sense of territory and will attack any invading creatures.

Generally speaking, the more people you have, the harder it is to pass through this dangerous monster zone.

Therefore, Huang Chen had always been curious about how the tens of millions of little japanese managed to pass through that dangerous monster zone in his previous life to reach Satellite City No. 21 of Huaxia.

...

After waiting for a while in the Satellite City, a series of announcements rang out in District 49101.

"The Central City teleportation channel has been opened. Trial Takers in this district who reach level 50 can teleport directly to Central City through the major city or Satellite City altars."

"After entering Central City, Trial Takers will no longer be able to view each other's information."

"Starting today, the system is removing the store panel section; Trial Takers must solve their own food and clothing problems."

As soon as the announcement rang out, all clans other than the Huaxia Clan were completely dumbfounded.

If the store panel is removed, where will we eat in the future? Do we have to go to NPC hotels and buy that outrageously expensive food?

You must know that even if you just order three dishes and a soup at a restaurant, it costs 50 silver.

50 silver—given the current strength of the Huaxia Clan, that is almost two days' worth of income from hunting monsters.

However, at the moment the 24-hour countdown began, Huang Chen had already used Tie Weiguo to remind all Huaxia clansmen to hoard as much system food as possible within these 24 hours.

As for whether they hoard it or not, that is not something Huang Chen can control.

In fact, after the Hundred Clans Map opens, NPC hotels are not the only way to obtain food.

In the wild areas above level 50, everything is no longer just data; wild vegetables, wild fruits, game, and even the monsters are real.

Among them, many are edible.

It just depends on whether you have the strength to obtain them.

Huang Chen had already given all the necessary instructions, and the moment the announcement appeared, everyone lit up the altar.

Central City is just a general term; it is a place where all hundred clans can enter.

It is actually composed of five cities: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth.

The five cities are connected on the map like a Five Elements diagram.

Outside the cities correspond to monsters with different attributes.

For example, in Blazing Fire City, within a thousand kilometers outside the tens of thousands of city gates, it is all desert, corresponding to Fire-attribute monsters.

For example, in Zeshui City, outside the city gates are rivers, lakes, swamps, and glaciers, corresponding to Water-attribute monsters.

When Trial Takers teleport for the first time, they often choose the city that matches their own attribute based on the name they see.

In fact, this is a huge mistake; if you are of the Water attribute, the most suitable place for you is Blazing Fire City.

After Huang Chen activated the teleportation, he directly chose Jinling City.

This is the place he is most familiar with.

After all, in his previous life, he was a blank slate, and outside Jinling City, there were Metal-attribute melee monsters, which were more suitable for him.

A flash of white light passed, and his vision suddenly blurred for two seconds—this was a full second longer than the teleportation time between the major city and the Satellite City.

When his vision cleared again, Huang Chen had already arrived at District 9999 of Jinling City.

Before his eyes, all sorts of ancient-style buildings stood in rows, roads stretched in all directions, and not far away, there was a city wall over a hundred meters high, making one feel as if they were in a fairyland.

"Long time no see!" Huang Chen felt a sense of emotion looking at the scene before him.

He looked at the NPCs coming and going on the street, and the city guard teams passing by from time to time, feeling infinite emotion in his heart.

Although these people are NPCs, they are also living, breathing human beings.

It is just that their clans were defeated in past hegemonies and were eventually abandoned in this cruel world.

From this moment on, all the trial clans of this session not only need to compete with other trial clans, but also with these NPCs.

After all, every opening of the Star Abyss is the last chance for these clans to leave the Star Abyss.

"Let's go challenge the God Sealing Tower first." Huang Chen walked towards the center of the area.

The God Sealing Tower is one of the opportunities for Low Martial Race Groups in the Star Abyss to defy the heavens and change their fate.

After entering Central City, you can challenge the God Sealing Tower once a day, and a successful challenge will provide a very good bone structure boost.

Even if you fail, it can provide good training for your combat experience and skill realm.

Walking on the familiar streets, the shops on both sides sold daily necessities, such as clothing stores, jewelry stores, grocery stores, and even firewood, rice, oil, and salt were sold here.

After all, NPCs are also people; NPCs were also born of mothers, and they also need to live.

Huang Chen walked into a grocery store, spent 10 gold to buy a monster distribution map for the area within a thousand kilometers outside Jinling City, and then read it directly onto his system panel.

This map recorded all the monster distributions and resource distributions within a thousand kilometers.

However, those resources are currently basically all occupied by the NPCs of the various legacy clans.

And in principle, NPCs cannot leave Central City for more than a thousand kilometers, so Trial Takers must explore beyond a thousand kilometers on their own.

As he approached the outer perimeter of the central area where the God Sealing Tower is located, these daily grocery stores began to slowly decrease.

They were replaced by some trading firms, potion shops, weapon shops, equipment stores, and so on.

In these places, you can buy corresponding equipment; if you have talent and the other party takes a liking to you, they might even take you as an apprentice and teach you life skills.

However, Huang Chen didn't have much interest in these things, and he walked straight into the central area.

Various NPC clans lived here, and sometimes, these clans would issue tasks to Trial Takers in the central mission hall.

There were also auction houses, Trial Taker trading zones, arenas, restaurants, and so on.

As Huang Chen walked, he arrived at the side of a nine-story giant tower, with the three large characters "God Sealing Tower" written on the main entrance of the tower.

The God Sealing Tower was incomparably huge, and the footprint of the first floor almost exceeded 10 football fields.

The tower walls were densely packed with small doors.

Huang Chen walked straight into the nearest small door.

After entering, there was a passageway lined with lifelike statues on both sides, and at the end of the passage stood a statue twice the height of the others.

Huang Chen arrived in front of the statue, and a system prompt sounded:

"Ding, as this is your first time at the God Sealing Tower, please read the rules carefully."

【Every Trial Taker has one opportunity to challenge the God Sealing Tower per day.】

【Inside the God Sealing Tower, the Trial Taker's attributes will be standardized to a bone structure template of 100, and all equipment will lose its original effects. If the Trial Taker defeats the phantom, the challenge is successful. Upon success, the God Sealing Tower will reward the Trial Taker with corresponding bone structure. For each challenge, you have ten seconds to reset your potential points.】

"Do you wish to begin the challenge?"

"Yes!"

"Entering the first level challenge, matching phantom attributes..."

"Matching complete. You will face a Black Iron grade phantom, and all of the phantom's skills have reached the Minor Success realm. Challenge countdown: 10 seconds."

Huang Chen was already very familiar with this process.

This potential point reset was designed to allow Trial Takers to continuously adjust their potential allocation to achieve optimal results.

Before arriving, Huang Chen had already decided: Metal Element Users should prioritize HP and offense.

Therefore, out of his 4900 potential points, he allocated 100 to resistance, 1100 to Movement Skill, 1800 to physical fitness, and 1900 to strength.

"10, 9, 8... 2, 1."

As the countdown ended, the statue in front of Huang Chen emitted a multi-colored beam of light that shone upon him, and he was teleported into an empty space.

Shortly after, a blurry phantom materialized before Huang Chen. It appeared to be a middle-aged man, though his features were indiscernible.

Once the phantom emerged, a prompt echoed in Huang Chen's mind:

【God Sealing Phantom Lv50】Black Iron grade, all combat techniques and skills have reached the Minor Success realm.

Huang Chen looked at the phantom and shook his head. In his previous life, he had possessed no attributes, yet the phantoms he matched against in Jinling City had all been Metal-attribute.

This meant that even though his basic techniques had reached the "Return to Simplicity" realm, he still couldn't clear the first level's Black Iron grade.

Now, although his attributes were suppressed, his realm remained. Fighting a phantom at the Minor Success realm should be relatively easy, right?

To test the effects, Huang Chen immediately unleashed Soul Severing Stab and charged toward the phantom.

Seeing Huang Chen charge, the phantom did not dodge immediately but instead activated Black and Yellow Body.

Just as Huang Chen's spear struck him, the phantom landed a Yang Guan Three Stacks on Huang Chen.

Huang Chen was knocked backward. Just as he was about to activate Black and Yellow Body, his move was interrupted by the opponent's Soul Severing Stab, which was then followed up by a Returning Wind Falling Goose.

After that combo, Huang Chen instantly lost a quarter of his HP.

Forced to act, Huang Chen immediately utilized top-tier Movement Skill to create distance, activated both Black and Yellow Body and Golden Bell Shield, and then lunged toward the phantom with another Soul Severing Stab.

This time, the moment Huang Chen moved, the phantom also executed Soul Severing Stab.

However, he moved in the opposite direction, away from Huang Chen.

In an instant, Huang Chen realized the opponent's intention: this crafty bastard was waiting for the effect of Huang Chen's Black and Yellow Body to wear off.

The moment Soul Severing Stab ended, Huang Chen immediately utilized his basic Movement Skill, taking advantage of the two seconds remaining on his Black and Yellow Body to rapidly close in on the phantom.

Seeing this, the phantom suddenly frowned and said: "Your Movement Skill has reached the 'Return to Simplicity' realm?"

The phantom's ability to speak startled Huang Chen; in his previous life, he had challenged it over two thousand times and had never seen a phantom speak.

For a moment, he forgot to attack and froze in place.

The phantom didn't take the opportunity to attack. Instead, it continued, "To reach the 'Return to Simplicity' realm with basic techniques at level 50 is truly the mark of a prodigy."

"If I am not mistaken, your basic spear techniques must also have reached the 'Return to Simplicity' realm, correct?"

"You executed that Soul Severing Stab using basic techniques, rather than relying on the skill itself to drive it."

"However, I must offer you a word of advice: while you might be able to defeat me by relying on the realm of your basic techniques, the true purpose of the God Sealing Tower is to allow you to experience the elemental applications of realms you have yet to attain through combat."

"By doing this, you are actually missing out on the best possible training for improvement."

"Are you still certain that you want to use your high-realm basic techniques to defeat me?"

Huang Chen's eyes widened as he listened.

All this time, he had believed that the challenge of the God Sealing Tower was merely to allow Trial Takers from the Low Martial World to obtain a bone structure that surpassed those of the High Martial World.

He hadn't expected that the true purpose of the God Sealing Tower was actually to help Trial Takers hone and comprehend the realms of their skills.

At this thought, Huang Chen looked back at the mist concealment spear in his hand.

His level 40 and 50 skills were both defensive techniques, and although he had been using them frequently during this period, he still hadn't grasped the method to elevate them to the Minor Success realm.

It seemed he would have to take it one step at a time, keeping his feet firmly on the ground.

With that thought in mind,

he directly activated Golden Bell Shield.

As he activated Golden Bell Shield, the phantom opposite him did the same.

Subsequently, both of them executed Soul Severing Stab and collided.

-2702.

-5412.

A flash of shock crossed Huang Chen's eyes as he looked at the damage difference, which was double.

Although the phantom's Golden Bell Shield was at the Minor Success realm, the damage reduction shouldn't be that vastly different.

Seeing the confusion in Huang Chen's eyes, the phantom spoke again: "When your HP is high, you should increase your resistance; when your resistance is high, you should increase your HP. Only then can you achieve the tankiest effect. As for you, your resistance ratio is too low."

After speaking, the phantom swept toward Huang Chen with a Returning Wind Falling Goose.

Unable to dodge, Huang Chen had no choice but to step forward and immediately execute Yang Guan Three Stacks.

As Yang Guan Three Stacks struck the phantom, Huang Chen clearly saw the Metal elements within the phantom's body continuously condensing into a web-like pattern at the point where his spear struck.

Suddenly, he seemed to have a flash of realization.

When the Metal element is used for offense, it is guided onto the weapon, utilizing its sharp and unstoppable attribute to augment the attack.

When used for defense, it seems to utilize the toughness of the Metal attribute.

When an attack lands on a specific point of the body, one needs to allow the Metal elements in all other parts of the body to autonomously condense toward the point of impact, thereby achieving the effect of reducing physical damage.

When Golden Bell Shield is activated, the Metal elements act like a net covering the entire body to achieve damage reduction.

However, to further reduce damage, you must allow the point of impact to autonomously draw in the condensation of Metal elements, achieving a higher level of damage reduction.

Huang Chen and the phantom continued to trade blows. To experience the defense of the Metal element, he even used his basic Movement Skill several times during the fight to dodge attacks.

The result was unsurprising; ten minutes later, Huang Chen fell to the ground, and the challenge was failed.

However, during those ten minutes, Huang Chen seemed to have touched the threshold of Black and Yellow Body and Golden Bell Shield.

As soon as he exited the God Sealing Tower, Huang Chen couldn't wait to head toward the nearby mission hall.

He remembered that in his previous life, there was a legend that the young master of the Titan Clan had accepted an S-grade mission at the mission hall in the 9999 area of Jinling City.

The mission required going to the level 70 Wyvern territory to retrieve a dragon egg.

Wyverns were creatures similar to Western dragons, belonging to the Epic Grade, and could be domesticated as mounts.

Domesticating them from a young age yielded the best results.

wyvern eggs were not difficult to obtain once Trial Takers generally reached level 90.

The value of this mission was actually not very high.

What truly made this mission famous was that while executing it, the young master of the Titan Clan discovered a real dragon egg in the Wyvern Abyss, which hatched into a young divine beast—the Golden Radiant Divine Dragon.

In the ninth year of the Star Abyss, during the conflict between the Titan Clan and the Vermilion Bird Clan, the young Titan master had relied on this young divine dragon to fight Feng Wu to a standstill.

Huang Chen already knew the general location of the dragon egg.

And currently, with his strength, if he was careful, there shouldn't be any danger in the level 70 Epic Grade Wyvern territory.

Soon, Huang Chen arrived in front of the mission hall.

To his surprise, inside the hall, a graceful figure with her back to the door was looking up, intently studying the missions on the mission board.