The Lost Glass Marbles — Quest requirement: None. Quest type: Ordinary. Quest reward: 3,000 experience, 5 gold, 2 Renown, city lord favorability +3, and a 10% chance to obtain a Level 10 Bronze item suited to your class. A few days ago, while fleeing in tears from the detestable Ugly Freak King, the city lord’s son carelessly dropped three glass marbles — playthings he’d had since he was small — somewhere in the Black Forest. Brave ones are asked to help recover them.
Having read these three quests, Ye Tianxie had no interest whatsoever in the fourth, likewise written in white letters, and turned instead to the last one… the quest written in blue.
White meant the most ordinary sort of quest, one anyone could accept. And blue…
Investigate the Whereabouts of the City Guards — Quest requirement: Renown 200. Quest type: Unique. Quest reward: Unknown, to be determined by degree of completion. For details, please consult the city lord in person.
A Unique quest!
A Unique quest was one that, once taken by a single player, could never again be accepted by any other. Such quests carried extraordinarily harsh requirements, and their difficulty far exceeded that of ordinary quests… while their rewards, likewise, far exceeded them. So when this Unique quest appeared on the city lord’s manor’s notice board, no telling how many players’ hearts had begun to race… But that requirement of 200 Renown loomed like an uncrossable chasm, killing off every last hope they had.
Whoever first reached 200 Renown was without question the player most likely to take this Unique quest — and the very moment the Renown Rankings opened, every player who knew of this quest turned their eyes to first place. That glaringly conspicuous “220,” and the name in front of it, extinguished their final hopes.
Compared with the razor-thin gaps on the Level Rankings, on the Renown Rankings that lofty three-digit figure stood out like a crane among chickens, crushing every trace of light from the nine below. Never mind those further down — even second place, only one rank behind him, trailed his Renown by nearly tenfold.
And that name, Xietian… this was the name that had set all Huaxia, indeed the entire World of Fate, trembling from yesterday into today. One man — one man alone — had passed the Abyss trial! By now there was scarcely a soul in the Huaxia battle zone who didn’t know the name Xietian, and other nations were beginning to take notice of this name from the Huaxia region as well: the name that had forged a legend — one might even say an inconceivable myth.
Ye Tianxie held his patience and threaded swiftly through the packed crowd like a fish through water, and before long stood before an NPC dressed as an official. He let out a light breath and said, “I’m here to take the quest investigating the whereabouts of the city guards.”
The official, busy for hours on end, stared blankly. He was about to explain that taking this quest required 200 Renown when Ye Tianxie voluntarily displayed his attribute panel — where, beside Renown, the figure “220” was marked.
The official was visibly stunned. In his understanding, these humans from another world could not possibly have accumulated more than 100 Renown at this stage, and 200 was flatly impossible. Ye Tianxie’s appearance had caught him entirely off guard; he even wondered whether something had gone wrong with his eyes. Only after confirming it several times over did he say to Ye Tianxie, “…You do indeed have the standing to take this quest. Please follow me — I’ll take you to see the city lord.”
The city lord’s manor.
The manor was astonishingly large, larger than Ye Tianxie had expected. From the quiet here, he could be fairly certain he was the first player to enter it. Following the official through a winding series of turns, he at last arrived at the study where the city lord conducted his daily business.
“Lord City Lord, a brave one from another world wishes to help you investigate the city guards who vanished last month.” The official led Ye Tianxie before a middle-aged man bent over his desk reading, brows tightly knit, and spoke respectfully.
The lord of the City of Heaven’s Stars looked to be around forty, his face as fine as polished jade — plainly a man accustomed to a life of comfort and privilege. Hearing the official’s report, he looked up in surprise. “What? Someone already has over two hundred Renown?”
He spotted Ye Tianxie at a glance, his gaze traveling over him, then shook his head. “Young man from another world, you’re far too weak at present — you have no ability whatsoever to complete this quest. Come back when your level reaches 18 or above.”
Though this Unique quest set no explicit level threshold, the Renown requirement amounted to one in practice… because by the city lord’s reckoning, to possess more than two hundred Renown, a player’s level ought to be approaching 20 at the very least.
But he had never imagined a freak like Ye Tianxie — only Level 11, yet with Renown over two hundred. The strength of a Level 11… Going there would be no different in essence from courting death.
Ye Tianxie didn’t leave. Unhurried, he pinched the Hero’s Badge at his chest between his fingers and said, “City lord, level isn’t an absolute measure of strength. I wonder whether this might serve to prove mine.”
“The… the Hero’s Badge?!”
The lord of the City of Heaven’s Stars, composed until this moment, shot to his feet in astonishment, staring at the bronze-colored badge on Ye Tianxie’s chest, his face full of shock. The official who had brought him wore an expression of equal shock and fervor at the words “Hero’s Badge,” and the look he turned on Ye Tianxie changed entirely in an instant.
Ye Tianxie nodded coolly. The city lord’s reaction — more exaggerated even than the item shop proprietor’s or the warehouse proprietor’s — told him something… This was going to work out.
The Hero’s Badge really was a far greater thing than he had imagined.
“Anyone who can obtain the Hero’s Badge is a true hero… and such a hero’s strength is beyond question.” The lord’s expression eased, and he sat quietly back down. “No wonder you could gain over 200 Renown in so short a time. Heh heh, a remarkable young man indeed… So then, would you be willing to do me a great favor?”
Ye Tianxie nodded. “City lord, please speak.”
The lord nodded, then let out a soft sigh, a shadow of worry surfacing between his brows. “It is like this… My City of Heaven’s Stars lies in the east of the Lost Continent. This is, one might say, the most comfortable place on the continent in climate and environment; we lack neither resources nor food, and so there has never been strife here, and the wild beasts beyond our walls never leave their territories to enter the city. Even after the Hour of Fate vanished and the demonic energy spilling from the Tower of Fate began to affect the whole of the Lost Continent, the City of Heaven’s Stars remained at peace.
“Then, three years ago, an enormous bird’s cry rang out above the city… It was a great bird, and later we learned it was a phoenix — one that had no business being here. The phoenix, like the dragon, is a noble beast of the Lost Continent: beautiful, sacred, a symbol of nobility and good fortune, deeply revered by our people. The phoenix is said to dwell in the hottest lands far to the south, and no one has ever seen one appear here… But that day, it truly was a phoenix. A phoenix whose entire body was the color of blood!”
“A blood-colored phoenix?” Ye Tianxie was taken aback. In the legends of Huaxia, the phoenix was originally many-colored; later there was talk of the noble golden phoenix, and in myth there was the fiery-red fire phoenix… but a blood-colored phoenix had never existed.
(End of Chapter 84)