Heroes' Prison

Chapter 903 - 853: A Mysterious Tear

"I can’t tell whether Dongfeng is a friend or foe. The situation is becoming increasingly complicated," Dao Feng said softly, tilting his head back and downing the wine in his glass.

Once considered the world’s top master, Dao Feng now felt a bit powerless in this moment. As the Yangtze River pushes forward its waves, every generation sees new masters emerge to steal the spotlight from those of the old guard.

The night grew deeper. The celebration was winding down, and everyone gradually dispersed to tend to their own affairs.

Huang Yi and Dao Feng transformed into a different appearance, strolling through the bustling streets of Xuanyuan City’s prosperity. Using private chat mode, only their voices reached each other’s ears, shielded from outsiders.

The streets were lively and crowded, and passionate shouts of vendors echoed from roadside shops, brimming with the spirit of everyday life.

"God of Slaughter, have you ever thought about how you’d live if one day you were released from prison?" Dao Feng asked suddenly, turning to Huang Yi.

Huang Yi pursed his lips and responded, "If that day ever came, I’d probably want to find a small village amidst green mountains and clear waters, watch the sun rise and set, and live a life akin to seclusion."

"Seeking solitude? Then you’d need to abandon everything from before entirely, or you’ll inevitably return," Dao Feng said softly. "I’ve retired for some time now and lived a reclusive life, but even with the gentleman identity as an addition, I still couldn’t fully immerse myself in peace. In the end, both identities got drawn into this crisis."

"By the way, when do you plan to disclose your identity as the gentleman?" Huang Yi turned to Dao Feng with a smile. "Right now, outsiders think that the world’s top master is either Dragon Spike or the Pope. No one knows that the gentleman, this super-first-class master, is actually you. Once you merge with the gentleman, becoming the world’s top master won’t leave any room for doubt. You’ve been keeping this hidden for quite some time now!"

"I’ll play it by ear," Dao Feng said after some consideration. "The gentleman’s Divine Embryo, once merged with my main body, can drastically boost my power. However, if the combination were to split again, the Divine Embryo would need to be redeveloped. At that point, I wouldn’t know if I’d still have the energy to rebuild it. For now, I’m trying to enhance its abilities further, so when the merge happens, my power will spike even higher."

"What’s the gentleman’s current level?" Huang Yi pressed on.

"Publicly displayed as level 186, but actually level 193. I’ve deliberately adjusted it lower. I’ve been using advanced Demon Cores quite frequently lately, so its level is increasing rapidly," Dao Feng explained.

"By comparison, my incarnation pales in strength against your Divine Embryo! Its sole advantage seems to be that it can revive without loss after death," Huang Yi remarked with emotion.

From the Harbinger of Doomsday, Huang Yi had learned that the White Dragon Clan’s incarnation ability was essentially a mimic of the Divine Embryo ability, but far from comparable.

The Divine Embryo truly served as a second identity, highly concealed and multifunctional. Huang Yi’s incarnation initially lacked these qualities. It was only after using Little Dragon’s Blood of the Golden Holy Dragon and deeply evolving his Dragon Clan form that his incarnation began to take on varied capabilities, resulting in the emergence of the "Big Baddie" as his second identity.

Compared to the Divine Embryo, the incarnation’s sole advantage was the ability for risk-free revival, usable once daily, refreshing at midnight. The Divine Embryo, on the other hand, had no such functionality—once killed, it required complete redevelopment, amounting to wasted effort.

Nonetheless, Huang Yi clung to one slender hope. He evolved every 20 levels, and if he focused exclusively on deeply evolving his Dragon Clan form, improving the incarnation’s abilities with every evolution, could he one day obtain the combined advantages of both the Divine Embryo and the incarnation?

...

Elsewhere, the Pope, newly elevated as a hero, was conversing with T.N.T and Miyamoto Musashi.

"Pope, you’re now both a Heavenly Domain Expert and a hero; you can rival Dragon Spike. Dao Feng can be left to the Heavenly Dao to deal with. This stabilizes our situation," T.N.T remarked, turning toward the Pope.

"Stabilizing is not winning. True victory requires at least one showstopper figure," the Pope replied, his gaze sweeping over T.N.T and Miyamoto Musashi. "Do you have any news from the Demon Clan? They’ve lost a Fallen Messenger. Have they reacted?"

"Naturally!" Miyamoto Musashi replied with a nod and a grin. "The Fallen Messenger, while not among the most prominent under the Seven Archdemons, was the one most knowledgeable about Hero’s Continent among the Heavenly Domain experts. His death has drawn attention from higher up. When we reported the intelligence, the Fallen General expressed intent to intervene to suppress the Hero Legion and wipe out the Demon Clan’s greatest obstacle on Hero’s Continent."

"Oh? The Fallen General?" the Pope repeated the name thoughtfully, as if it stirred some memory. "Isn’t that the same ultra-powerful Demon Clan member who fought the Harbinger of Doomsday during the battle in Xuanyuan City?"

"Exactly!" T.N.T nodded. "The Fallen General clashed with the Harbinger of Doomsday outside Xuanyuan City last time. Their strength rivals each other’s. This time, the Fallen General will act again, targeting the Hero Legion’s expedition. As long as they’re outside Hero Empire’s territory, God of Slaughter’s super guardians won’t be able to be deployed. The Fallen General, at level 272, is an advanced Heavenly Domain Expert, just a bit shy of reaching the Divine Domain. Being of the Demon Clan, his strength far surpasses other Heavenly Domain experts of the same level. The Hero Legion’s strongest member is Dragon Emperor, barely over level 200—a hero by rank but nowhere near the Fallen General’s match. If they dare step outside Hero Empire’s borders, it will be their demise."

"Then let the Fallen General act swiftly! God of Slaughter’s Reincarnation is about to end. To prevent him from turning the tables, we must end this national war before then. This way, our collaboration with the World Federation can achieve a stage victory," the Pope said with a faint smile.

"Pope," T.N.T remarked playfully, looking at the Pope, "Why haven’t you joined the Demon Clan yet? We’ve collaborated for so long—Miyamoto Musashi and I have already joined, but you continue to hold back. You benefit from our connections within the Demon Clan without bearing the risks of membership—that’s rather unfair, isn’t it?"

"We can discuss this later. I have things to attend to," the Pope said dismissively, immediately turning away and departing.

T.N.T gazed in the direction of the Pope’s departure, his face darkening. He turned to Miyamoto Musashi and asked, "How’s the research going on those ultra-powerful potions we’ve been developing?"

"We’ve made significant progress. It won’t be long now before they’re ready," Miyamoto Musashi replied, his eyes steely. "Since the Pope has risen as a hero, you and I need to find ways to further boost our strength during this period by leveraging benefits from the Demon Clan. By the way, when will Unbeaten and his group re-emerge?"

"Fallen General mentioned during our last meeting that Unbeaten and his team have already been trained by the King of Annihilation. They’ll reappear under the Fallen General’s command but won’t use their original identities. Unbeaten carries considerable goodwill among Chinese players, so he can’t openly side with us. He’s been given a new identity. You’ll find out when the time comes."

...

Before anyone realized it, dawn had arrived.

The next day, Huang Yi finished breakfast, exercised briefly, and went online immediately.

His main body remained inside the house within the Hero Trial Secret Realm. Turning to look at the lounge chair, Gibit had yet to wake up.

Huang Yi had no choice but to keep waiting, anticipating the next challenge to arise in the Hero Trial.

Yesterday alone saw two direct advancements to hero status—far quicker than his progress, even bypassing the steps of the Hero Trial itself. Yet he felt no envy; while completing the Hero Trial was taxing, it offered a considerable advantage: automatic level boosts.

Typically, completing the Hero Trial resulted in an instant increase of 15 levels!

Using the Hero’s Command for the Hero Trial, however, raised levels by 20!

Once Huang Yi completed his Hero Trial and became a hero, his post-Reincarnation level would spike by another 20 levels.

Seated in the lone chair in the room, Huang Yi flipped his hand, producing his medicine bottle.

Every day he logged in, he checked the bottle to see what sort of potion it had bred.

This medicine bottle’s process of breeding top-level potions was exceptionally demanding. From the time he acquired the bottle over a year and half ago, it had only produced two drops of S-grade instant-kill potion; the rest were capped at A-grade.

Today, as he pulled out the bottle, he bore little expectation, as always.

But as soon as he saw inside the bottle, his eyelid twitched sharply, almost startling him!

Within the medicine bottle lay a bizarre eye!

Trapped inside, the eye stared at him intently, its gaze profound, as though piercing through to his very soul!

Huang Yi froze in horror. No matter how he pondered, he could not fathom how an eye had appeared inside the medicine bottle.

He had never lent this bottle to anyone; it had remained strictly in his possession. There was no opportunity for foul play, yet here was a disembodied eye—how had it come about?

The room fell into dead silence as Huang Yi fixated on the bottle. From within it, the eye returned his gaze just as unyieldingly.

Thus unfolded their eerie standoff—

Moments later, Huang Yi gave the bottle a shake. The eye inside swayed with the bottle’s motion.

Soon after, the eye began to shed a single crystal-blue tear.

Once the tear fell, the eye seemed to instantly fulfill some unknown purpose and rapidly dissipated within the bottle.

In an instant, only a solitary blue tear remained inside the bottle.

Clearly, today’s potion was that tear.