Chapter 115: The First Faction

At the White Cloud Temple, Ye Rong handed over the “Green Peak Sword left behind by the Qingcheng Disciple” and the Snow Yeti Inner Core to Ji Deng—

The Green Peak Sword was just an ordinary item, a quest item with no use for players. The Snow Yeti Inner Core was different; consuming it permanently increased ice-type Dao Spell resistance by 1%. This effect only worked the first time it was consumed and could not be stacked.

“What a pity, I only got one Snow Yeti Inner Core. I woke up thousands of Snow Howlers on the Snow Ridge. Now, anyone who enters will surely die—there’s no other possibility. It doesn’t matter how skilled you are on the Far Shore.”

The scene of over a thousand Renwater Ice Thunders shooting out, covering the sky and earth, replayed in Ye Rong’s mind, making him deeply wary of the Snow Ridge.

System Notification: Completed the Golden Daily Quest. Obtained one Diligence Jade Talisman and 225,000 experience points.

Before turning in the quest, Ye Rong had set his Experience Distribution to 99:1. Now, with over two hundred thousand experience points gained at once, a white upgrade halo flashed over him, and he immediately leveled up.

When Ye Rong first accepted this Golden Daily Quest, the rewards seemed very generous. But he couldn’t complete it at the time, and later, he got caught up with the Golden Cabinet Water Manor, the Sect Minor Competition, and other matters. It kept getting delayed until now, making these rewards seem quite ordinary in his eyes, especially after he had just received the rewards for winning first place in the Sect Minor Competition.

Fortunately, that deep cyan belt did not disappoint him. After appraisal by Senior Brother Chen Taizhen, its specific attributes were revealed. It turned out to be one of the two Rainbow Set pieces he was missing—the Indigo Rainbow Belt.

Indigo Rainbow Belt, Sixth Tier, contains 100 slots of storage space.

“Great! Now I’m only missing the final purple piece of the Rainbow Set!”

The Rainbow Set consisted of seven pieces. Ye Rong had many guesses and was very curious about the set bonuses it would provide once completed.

The clothing-type equipment dropped by monsters on Snow Ridge were all low-tier, second or third-tier junk. It wasn’t worth wasting precious appraisal opportunities on them. He bundled them all up and cleared them out at the Hidden Sword Pool, selling them to the Crimson Red Ape.

Ye Rong now had two Diligence Jade Talismans. Using them consecutively would double the experience he gained within two days.

“I’ll go grind monsters in the Tuo River. Leveling up while familiarizing myself with the various Aquatic Demonic Creatures and their distribution in the river. Ideally, I’d collect information on all the high-level monsters in the Tuo River.”

Dong! Dong! Dong!

Three melodious bell chimes snapped Ye Rong out of his thoughts. The system bell—was the game about to update again?

“The first official Player Organization on the Far Shore, the Shushan Sword Alliance, has been established now. Founder: Ni Shui Han. Announced to the vast world and all beings of the Far Shore!”

“The first official Player Organization on the Far Shore, the Shushan Sword Alliance, has been established now. Founder: Ni Shui Han. Announced to the vast world and all beings of the Far Shore!””

The System Notification repeated three times, unblockable for all players, making Ye Rong stand still for a moment in shock before his eyes quickly cleared.

He wasn’t very surprised by this news, or perhaps no player on the Far Shore would be shocked. Once the various forces at Emei finished integrating, it was inevitable that they would create a Faction. The only question had been when they would succeed.

“Such ambition, directly naming it the Shushan Sword Alliance!”

Ye Rong immediately logged onto the official game Forum; he wanted to learn more details about Faction creation.

Sure enough, the Forum was in an uproar. After the Sect Minor Competition ended two days ago, a total of nine divisions from Emei, comprising over three hundred thousand players, set out to undertake the Guild Creation Quest.

Moreover, the Shushan Sword Alliance had taken on the highest difficulty Guild Creation Quest. Everyone was teleported by the System to the East Sea’s Evil Dragon Island. The quest required them to kill all the demonic and evil cultivators on the island.

The island lord of East Sea Evil Dragon Island was the Tiger-Head Monk. Compared to those demonic patriarchs and evil sect leaders, he was just a small fry, but he was still an Elite Tier NPC close to level 100, with several hundred disciples under him.

But just moments ago, news came out that the Shushan Sword Alliance successfully killed the Tiger-Head Monk, completed the quest, and officially established the Faction.

Ye Rong clicked open various posts, but most were just speculation from outsiders or old news. None contained the substantial information he was eagerly looking for.

“East Sea Evil Dragon Island Strength Analysis?”

The author’s ID for this post was Jiuyu Pavilion, who was also the author that regularly released the Heavenly Ranking on the Forum. The posts by this person piqued his interest, so he clicked it open—Jiuyu Pavilion wasn’t just one person but an intelligence organization, with dedicated people responsible for gathering, screening, and compiling information on all the top players. Now they even started recording and organizing major events on the Far Shore.

Many people speculated that behind this so-called Jiuyu Pavilion stood the Starlight Information Company.

Apart from this company specializing in game data statistics, it was almost impossible for other groups or organizations to achieve such a large, detailed scale and high accuracy.

East Sea Evil Dragon Island, strongest combatant: Level 98 Elite Tier NPC Tiger-Head Monk, suspected to possess one Eighth-Rank Flying Sword, Magic Treasures unknown, proficient Dao Spells unknown;

Over thirty Elite Tier NPCs above level 50, over five hundred Ordinary Tier NPCs above level 50; additionally, over a hundred exotic spirit beasts and birds;

Evil Dragon Island possesses one island-protecting grand formation, and the stronghold has all Four Guardian Spirits of the Stronghold.

…

Jiuyu Pavilion’s analysis of East Sea Evil Dragon Island spanned several thousand words, greatly widening Ye Rong’s horizons. He had no idea where these people got their information; it was possible even the Shushan Sword Alliance’s pre-quest intelligence wasn’t as complete as theirs.

“How terrifying, is the Shushan Sword Alliance’s strength really so powerful that they can easily kill an Elite Tier NPC close to level 100?”

The strength of a Level 98 Elite Tier NPC wasn’t something that could simply be overcome by numerical advantage. This was a humanoid NPC, not a monster. Moreover, the battle took place in their enemy’s lair, giving them a huge home-field advantage. Even with three hundred thousand players, it was unknown how much of their strength the Shushan Sword Alliance could actually bring to bear.

Not to mention the specific functions of the island-protecting grand formation or what Peerless Forbidden Arts were cast upon it, just the Four Guardian Spirits of the Stronghold alone could significantly negate a large numerical disadvantage. The Four Guardian Spirits were unique structures for a Faction’s Stronghold, obtainable by completing Faction quests.

Azure Dragon Spirit Pagoda: Nourishes all things, can restore members’ Qi and Blood.

White Tiger Spirit Pagoda: Stern and lethal, can increase members’ attack power.

Vermilion Bird Spirit Pagoda: Blazing flames, can burn all invading enemies.

Black Tortoise Spirit Pagoda: Majestic and steadfast, can suppress enemy members’ attack power.

Even Jiuyu Pavilion wrote at the end of the post that they weren’t very optimistic about the Shushan Sword Alliance’s chances of victory, estimating the success rate at forty percent.

This was only because the Tiger-Head Monk was a Level 98 NPC, two levels short of 100. Otherwise, the success probability would approach zero infinitely—

Once past level 100, both for players and NPCs, it was a huge leap, ten or even a hundred times more significant than the change at level fifty, because it meant passing the First Heavenly Tribulation.

If the Tiger-Head Monk were a level 100+ NPC who had passed the Heavenly Tribulation, ten Ni Shui Hans combined would be instantly killed by him. A single large-scale Dao Spell could likely kill thousands of players; even three hundred thousand ants couldn’t shake this giant tree.

But the Shushan Sword Alliance had no choice but to select the highest difficulty Guild Creation Quest. First, to demonstrate their absolute strength; second, only Factions created through the highest difficulty quest had a member limit of thirty thousand. Factions created through other Guild Creation Quests only had limits of ten or twenty thousand members.

Even so, the thirty-thousand member limit was far from enough for the Shushan Sword Alliance. They could only expand this limit in the future by increasing the Faction’s level.

“Oh, it’s the official spokesperson for the Shushan Sword Alliance. Finally, a post from them!”

Ye Rong returned to the Forum’s main page and spotted a prominent, red-highlighted post issued by the Shushan Sword Alliance’s official ID. Posted just two minutes ago, it already had thousands of replies.

He immediately clicked into the post. Its contents included over a hundred high-definition pictures from various angles, covering everything from landing on East Sea Evil Dragon Island to killing the Tiger-Head Monk. There were also two short videos: one showing the activation of the Peerless Forbidden Arts by the Evil Dragon Island’s protective formation, and the other capturing the final moment when the Tiger-Head Monk was slain. The camera work was steady and very clear, obviously done by professionals.

“Seriously? Such short videos—what do they show besides the island-protecting formation being really fierce and Ni Shui Han striking a pose after killing the Tiger-Head Monk!”

Following that were lengthy texts flaunting the Shushan Sword Alliance’s strength, introducing its nine divisions and high-level players, etc. It also stated that the Shushan Sword Alliance’s Guild Stronghold was set at a Wind and Thunder Immortal Manor not far from Emei.

“This Wind and Thunder Immortal Manor, I wonder what grade of Immortal Manor it is. But just hearing the name sounds impressive; it definitely won’t be bad. With such a Guild Stronghold and being located close to Emei, the Shushan Sword Alliance is almost impenetrable and unshakable.”

Ye Rong closed the post and exited the Forum. The Shushan Sword Alliance was currently immensely powerful, undoubtedly standing head and shoulders above everyone else, with no one able to compare.

But since this beginning had been made, other Factions would likely follow suit, succeeding in their creation, unwilling to fall behind.

Several Black Iron Orders, necessary for creating a Faction, had already appeared. It was said their transaction prices were all over two hundred thousand RMB.

“Time to level up, time to level up! That Ni Shui Han is already level fifty!”

Ye Rong was severely stimulated. In the Shushan Sword Alliance’s own post, the levels of their high-ranking players were all above forty. Blue Chariot, who had previously collaborated with Ye Rong, was now as high as level forty-six and served as the head of the Chariot Division, one of the nine Core Members of the Shushan Sword Alliance.

Because the Shushan Sword Alliance was formed by integrating multiple forces, even with Ni Shui Han’s capabilities, he couldn’t hold all the power entirely in his hands.

The leader of each Division was part of the Faction’s decision-making layer, a Core Member. Including Ni Shui Han, who also commanded a division, there were nine people in total.