It had only been a day since Shi Feng had left District Five.

However, when Shi Feng arrived at District Five's Shelter once more, a massive change had occurred.

"What happened to the Shelter?" Shi Feng was shocked when he saw the sight before him.

The originally flourishing Shelter of District Five had become a pile of ruins. The tall walls which had surrounded the Shelter were no more, and collapsed houses littered the area within what little walls remained. He could find no sign of anyone inside the Shelter.

The rotting corpses of various monsters decorated the spacious streets. Moreover, these monsters were all Level 40 or above, far exceeding the level of this region. Among these monsters, a majority were Elites. There were also plenty of Special Elites and Chieftains as well.

A Lord! After entering District Five's Shelter, on the second street Shi Feng crossed, he discovered the corpse of a three-story-tall black bear.

[Nightmare Bear] (Demonic Creature, Lord Rank)

Level 40

HP 0/2,800,000

Even in the Evil Ghost Domain, Lord ranked monsters were extremely rare. Based on Shi Feng's understanding, the monster armies that assaulted Shelters every night almost never had any Lords. The strongest monsters in these assaults were usually Chieftains.

Yet, right before him, Shi Feng could see the corpses of four Lords on the street. One could just imagine how intense this monster assault on District Five had been.

"Just what happened here?" Even after running down several streets, Shi Feng still failed to discover any other players. It was as if District Five had become a ghost city overnight.

Normally, even when a Shelter had been invaded, players would not retreat from the region so quickly.

When Shi Feng arrived at District Five's central street, players' screams reached his ears.

This was not the first time Shi Feng had heard such screams of pain. However, he had only heard them in the past. This was his first time hearing such a desperate and painful wail in this life.

Shi Feng then activated Windwalk and dashed towards the source of the cries.

However, when Shi Feng was 200 yards away from the source, his body suddenly felt extremely heavy. It was as if he had just jumped into a quagmire.

Crap! This is a Domain! Shi Feng immediately jumped backward, retreating from the Domain's range.

Domain… It was something only high-tiered creatures were capable of using. Take Weissman, who was the Magistrate of White River City and a Tier 4 Great Wizard, for example. He was capable of summoning a Magic Domain that would empower himself and suppress his enemies. If someone without a Domain faced someone with one, unless they were far stronger than the latter, escape and death were the only available options.

Meanwhile, one had to be at least Tier 4 to use a Domain. In other words, there was at least a Tier 4 monster at the heart of this screaming.

Since it was a player screaming, one could easily conclude that the Tier 4 creature was an enemy.

"Why would a Tier 4 creature be here?" Shi Feng was greatly surprised.

Based on players' current levels, encountering such a creature should be impossible, not to mention in such a low-level region.

Shi Feng hurriedly jumped onto a collapsed rooftop and looked towards the origin of the screams.

At this moment, three players were still alive on the central street. Discipline Paradise, someone Shi Feng was familiar with, stood in the lead. The other two were a Level 28 Assassin and a Level 28 Berserker. At this moment, however, all three of their HPs were very low. All sorts of Level 40 monsters surrounded them, making escape impossible. Worst of all, a pitch-black Demon with bat-like wings and blood-red eyes hovered high above them.

[Knettel] (Demonic Creature, Great Demon)

Level 60

HP 50,000,000/50,000,000

"What is a Tier 4 Great Demon doing here?" Shi Feng was astonished when he saw Knettel.

Demons were enemies to the human race. As long as a Demon appeared within God's Domain, the armies of various countries throughout the continent would set out to exterminate them immediately. Hence, encountering a Demon was rare, not to mention a Great Demon.

Although Knettel was only a Level 60 Great Demon, to current players, he was invincible. He was something players simply could not afford to provoke.

"Despicable human, I'll give you one last chance to live. Surrender the Moloch's Ring that you stole and submit!" Knettel glared down at Discipline Paradise and said coldly, "Otherwise, I will give you a taste of Soul Fire, destroying your soul just like your companions."

Shi Feng immediately sucked in a breath of cold air when he heard Knettel's words.

To players, their souls were very important, and damage would bring about severe consequences. It was just like when Shi Feng collected the Immortal Souls of players he killed, and as a result, said players were unable to log into God's Domain for a short time. However, what he collected was only a small portion of a player's Immortal Soul. If Soul Fire burned a player's soul completely, the consequences would be unimaginable.

This penalty would not be limited to being unable to play the game for a few days. If a player's soul were burned by Soul Fire, their account would be crippled. They would have no choice but to restart an account and obtain a new Immortal Soul.

"Just what kind of quest did Discipline Paradise take on for it to have such a frightening penalty?" Shi Feng's heart skipped a beat when he saw the black flame in the Great Demon's hand.

Tier 4 creatures, particularly a Tier 4 Great Demon like Knettel, would not come here for no good reason. The only explanation Shi Feng could come up with was a quest. Meanwhile, Discipline Paradise must have failed to complete this quest on time, and as a result, incurred such a punishment. This penalty was similar to the penalty of Shi Feng's Epic Quest, Darkness Descends.

"You want me to submit? Not in a million years! I'll fight you to the end!" Discipline Paradise shouted as he threw his shield at the Great Demon Knettel.

Before the golden shield hit Knettel, however, the Great Demon effortlessly caught the flying shield with a single hand. Knettle lightly clenched his fist.

Peng!

With just a squeeze, a Level 25 Fine-Gold Shield was crushed…

To a Tier 4 creature, it was an easy task to destroy Fine-Gold Equipment. Only Dark-Gold Equipment could withstand its power for some time.

The two players standing by Discipline Paradise's sides were immediately terrified.

"Since you aren't willing to become my servant, you can die!" Knettel sneered. With a light wave of his hand, black flames rained down on Discipline Paradise.

Discipline Paradise's group of three had no hope of defending against the rain of Soul Fire.

Not only did their HPs rapidly deplete, but they also released agonizing wails due to the burning pain. The black flames devoured the trio for over a dozen seconds. Only when all three had turned to ash did the black flames disappear.

"This is going to be troublesome." A headache began to plague Shi Feng.

He had only managed to obtain the Chapter of Darkness after much difficulty. Yet, now, Discipline Paradise had accepted a horrible quest that was impossible to complete and was even forced to recreate his account. How was he supposed to go to the Dark Den right now?

"Huh? What's that?" With his extraordinary vision, Shi Feng discovered a flashing black light amidst Discipline Paradise's ashes. "A ring?"

Suddenly, Shi Feng recalled the Morlock's Ring that the Great Demon Knettel had previously mentioned.

That ring should be an item that would trigger a quest. Since it was a quest item, it naturally would not disappear with Discipline Paradise. Instead, it would remain and wait for the next player to come along.

"Is that ring somehow related to the Dark Den?" Shi Feng could not help but wonder.

Before this, he had asked Blue Frost about the Dark Den. However, Blue Frost did not know anything. He had not known that the Chapter of Darkness could open the gate leading to the Dark Den either.

No matter how one looked at it, it was impossible for the leading figure of District One to possess less information than Discipline Paradise. The only explanation was that Discipline Paradise had obtained this information through some special means.

Moreover, Discipline Paradise had been very eager to get his hands on the Chapter of Darkness.

Now, a Great Demon had appeared to retrieve a ring.

If one were to claim that the ring and the Chapter of Darkness were unrelated, who would believe it?

"I can only give it a try."

Shi Feng gritted his teeth. He then dashed forward towards the ring with intense speed.