“Ding… You have obtained the quest item ‘Zhan Wugui’s Bones’ and have successfully completed the quest ‘Bones of the War God.'”

The War God’s bones appeared in Ye Tianxie’s pack of their own accord. He nodded and said, “Go in peace… Your body may be dead, but your valiant soul will never perish, and the Lost Continent will remember your name for generation after generation. I hope the Lost Continent produces more heroes like you in the years to come.”

“A hero? I… only did what a true man ought to do. That ambitious nation far away no longer has the nerve to set foot on my Lost Continent. There is no war and no peril on it now, and men like me are no longer needed. All I want now is to return to my native soil and sleep in the earth I left too long ago. Thank you… for setting me free.” Zhan Wugui’s voice came slowly out.

Ye Tianxie paused, thought a moment, and then said it. “You are wrong. The Lost Continent is not at peace now. It is facing enormous danger instead. You must know that the Eight Demon Kings of that age were sealed inside the Tower of Fate… but three years ago, through an upheaval, all eight of them escaped and hid themselves in unknown corners of the Lost Continent. Demonic energy is leaking out of the Tower of Fate and spreading fast, turning countless living creatures berserk as it corrupts them, and disaster after disaster is rising out of it… The Lost Continent now is not at peace at all. It stands in terrible danger at every moment.”

The War God’s Departed Spirit was silent. After a long while he murmured, “The Tower of Fate… the place I guarded in those years?”

Ye Tianxie: “……”

“A hundred years ago the Eight Demon Kings were sealed inside the Tower of Fate, which was raised to hold the whole horde of demons down. It is the greatest forbidden ground on the Lost Continent, and the most dangerous place on it. Before I came to this land, I was garrisoned at the foot of the Tower of Fate, keeping every man from approaching it and annihilating anything that might be aimed at the Tower… because if anything ever went wrong there, it stood every chance of bringing a truly terrible crisis down on the whole Lost Continent… I never imagined that day would actually come. Only… I no longer have the strength to guard this land.”

Zhan Wugui’s level voice turned desolate, and through the weariness of years came helplessness and grief. A man whose whole conviction for living was the guarding of his country’s soil — how could he be willing to see the land he had guarded thick with danger? It would keep his eyes from closing in death.

Zhan Wugui had guarded the Tower of Fate in life? That was the first Ye Tianxie had heard of it.

“Young man, could you do something for me… complete my last long-cherished wish? From beyond the grave, I will thank you with the last of my soul and my conviction.”

“If it is something I can do.” Ye Tianxie answered without hesitation.

Because he had cut down a woken War God’s soul and brought off an event that could not possibly have been brought off, that feat had generated a new event, and with it a new quest — “The War God’s Long-Cherished Wish.” This quest was not a branch of “Bones of the War God.” It was a quest that had, it is fair to say, come into being entirely because of Ye Tianxie.

“Please — bear my power!” The War God raised his head and said it slowly, his eagle’s gaze looking straight into Ye Tianxie’s eyes.

Ye Tianxie was speechless on the spot.

Bear the War God’s power… Calling that a quest hardly covers it. It was an enormous act of grace. A quest triggered by an impossible event really was several times more generous than an ordinary one.

“You were able to set my departed spirit free, and your strength has shown me hope for the Lost Continent’s future. I hope you will inherit the power of my ‘Soul of Guardianship,’ so that I may do one last thing for the land I guarded all my life… Are you willing?”

“Ding… The War God’s Departed Spirit requests that you bear his power. Quest attribute: Hidden Unique. Quest time limit: none. Quest reward: obtain the advanceable hidden class ‘Soul of Guardianship.’ Accept?”

The content of this quest turned out to be simply accepting a hidden class — the Soul of Guardianship!

And that counted as a quest?

Hidden classes are a subject that never once goes quiet in virtual game worlds, and a thing players long for above all else. In any virtual game world whatsoever, a hidden class is a rarity beyond price. Obtaining one takes not only strength enough but luck enough, and it is emphatically not something an ordinary player can come by.

In the Huaxia battle region, which had more players than any other, only one hidden class had appeared — Ye Tianxie’s Rebel-Boned Evil Dragon. Its appearance had been a subject of fierce discussion among players the world over, and its extreme power had, without anyone quite meaning it, deepened countless players’ hunger for a hidden class and quickened their search for one.

And now another hidden class stood in front of him… and his heart knocked at it.

Having used the Heaven-Severing scroll Divine Gift, he had gained the right to hold two classes at once. Which meant that… if he accepted this hidden class, the Soul of Guardianship, then he alone would hold two hidden classes at the same time.

“To inherit a War God’s power is an honor,” Ye Tianxie answered at once.

“Once you have borne my power, your original class will disappear. Even so, are you still willing to accept?” the War God’s Departed Spirit asked slowly.

When you obtain a hidden class, your original class disappears with it: that is a basic law of virtual game worlds. But the premise behind that law is that every player may hold only one class. For Ye Tianxie, who could hold two, it presented no problem at all.

“It doesn’t matter. I can hold two classes.” Ye Tianxie answered with a faint smile, and gave the War God’s Departed Spirit a true answer. Facing a genuine hero, he did not want to conceal anything.

The War God’s Departed Spirit was silent for a little while, seemingly startled by the answer. He did not press it. He only said slowly, “In that case…”

As the words fell away, a stroke of silver light kindled at the heart of the War God’s Departed Spirit and gathered slowly into the shape of a shield. The Soul of Guardianship: as the name says, a guarding class built primarily on defense.

Once formed, the silver shield came free of the departed body and moved slowly toward Ye Tianxie. As it approached, a heavy power that went by the name of guarding pressed in against him; and slowly the silver shield of light, carrying the War God’s power, came to a stop in front of Ye Tianxie…

Ping!

The change came without warning. In the instant the silver shield of light touched Ye Tianxie’s body, an enormous repelling force appeared, and under it the shield was flung back at greater speed than it had come, struck the War God’s Departed Spirit, and merged back into him.

Ye Tianxie: “……”

The scene brought back the class changes of years ago, and the failures that had come one after another… The circumstances were remarkably alike.

Because the latent power inside his body was instinctively rejecting a class too weak — a class unworthy to be borne by that power.

And now, at last, something moved in the face of the War God’s Departed Spirit… an astonishment that could not accept what stood in front of it. After several seconds of shock he slowly said two words: “Class rejection.”

The War God’s breadth of experience went far beyond an ordinary man’s. He knew perfectly well why a rejection like that occurred and what it meant. Rejection of a conferred class is exceedingly rare, and generally happens only in people with extremely powerful latent ability, whose bodies automatically block the power of any class unqualified to become theirs.

But while he had heard of prodigies who rejected ordinary classes… he had never heard of anyone whose instinct rejected the power of a hidden class. How great the Soul of Guardianship’s power was, and by how many times it exceeded an ordinary class, nobody knew better than he did. His shock could not have been greater.

This man… just how frightening was the latent power in him?

Small wonder that at a level in the low teens he had wiped out a thousand departed spirits alone, and beaten even the departed spirit that carried all the power he himself had held in life, and done it in a very short time.

In silence, he began to look this man over again… and if his eyes were not deceiving him, what the man wore on his face was the Hero’s Headguard that had belonged to a dear friend of his own youth — Gu Ping, who had become Chief Commander of the Imperial Guard of the City of the Lost while still a young man.

“It seems my power is not qualified to be borne by you. Young man, may I ask your name?” the War God’s Departed Spirit said slowly.

“Xietian,” Ye Tianxie answered.

“Xietian… Now, on the point of dispersing, I have one more regret. How I wish I were young now, so that some day I might see the extraordinary things you will accomplish. Your potential is the greatest I have seen in my life. That my power cannot be conferred on you is a very great pity. But your strength has shown me another kind of hope… That thing of mine, at last, need not be left to lie forgotten in this endless Ten Thousand Bone Ruins.”

That thing of his?

“In those years, my brothers and I garrisoned the foot of the Tower of Fate together, and I became Chief Commander over the several thousand guards there. And so that we could answer any accident that might arise, I was given an authority nobody else could possibly hold… That authority was a teleport stone, granted to me by the strongest Magic God of the City of the Lost at the direction of the supreme Emperor.”

“The existence of this teleport stone is far too special. What it does means it absolutely cannot fall into anyone else’s hands, or the consequences could be terrible past retrieving. It was because of my loyalty that the Emperor of the Lost City granted it to me. I kept it hidden on my person always, and it never left me — and even to my death, nobody knew I still carried a teleport stone that should not have existed. Eighty years ago I died, and that stone went into its long sleep with me in this endless Ten Thousand Bone Ruins, and has never come into the world since…”

“Now I give it to you… Though this fails the late Emperor’s trust and goes against his will, my eyes and my instinct tell me this decision of mine will not be a mistake. It ought to belong to you — the hope of saving the Tower of Fate!”

As the War God’s voice fell away, at his very feet, out of ground carpeted with bones and armor, a round grey stone the size of a ping-pong ball broke through the earth. It flew high into the air, then came down slowly under the pull of some power until it hung in front of Ye Tianxie, and he reached out and closed his hand on it.

By the look of it, an utterly ordinary stone; in the hand, slightly heavy. It had spent too long in the Ten Thousand Bone Ruins, and its whole surface had taken on a dull, darkened cast. A stone like that would not draw a passer-by’s notice even if he saw it, let alone tempt him to pick it up.

Tower of Fate Teleport Stone: A special teleport stone created a hundred years ago by the Ice-Flame Magic God of the City of the Lost. Hold the stone in your hand, close your eyes and say the words “Tower of Fate” silently, and you will be teleported to the first floor of the Tower of Fate. No limit on the number of uses. Cannot be used while not in a free state.

Ye Tianxie: “！！！！”

(End of Chapter 220)