The moment Flames of War Everywhere’s words fell, Barzel launched his counterattack.
After some time adapting, he had already familiarized himself with Xiaoyue’s fighting style and turned the tables from passive to aggressive.
“Quick! Help!”
At Sleepless’s command, the group assault began.
They weren’t just one person—they numbered in the thousands.
With Xiaoyue at the forefront, a unique boss battle unfolded.
But the same problem persisted: when dealing with a small, humanoid boss, numerical superiority was hard to leverage.
With so many people crammed together, they couldn’t spread out or deal effective damage.
The current situation wasn’t quite the same as the earlier Kingdom of Ruins dungeon.
Here, friendly fire exists.
When a crowd swarmed in, were they attacking the boss, or attacking each other?
Xu Xiaoyue wasn’t like God Feng; she couldn’t single-handedly kite the boss.
The players hesitated in their attacks, while Barzel fought without restraint.
This wasn’t working—it was only adding unnecessary casualties.
“Little Moon, can you hold him off for a while? We’ll deal with the other knights first!”
“Alright! I’ll do my best!”
Aside from Barzel, nearly a hundred knights still had combat capabilities.
In fact, the outcome was already decided—the knight order couldn’t turn the tide now.
But how to wrap things up neatly and end this perfectly was the real question.
Flames of War Everywhere came up with an idea—force this troublesome commander to surrender.
With thousands besieging the weakened knights, the battle ended swiftly.
They tied up all the survivors and dragged them before Barzel.
Those already blown to near-death were left alone—no need to risk finishing them off accidentally.
“Commander, you’ve already lost. Give up.”
Seeing Barzel still hesitating, Flames of War Everywhere gritted his teeth and signaled WZC to bring out the big treasure.
The moment Barzel saw that familiar little box, his heart clenched.
That thing!
If not for this, how could he and two thousand elite knights have been defeated?
“Honestly, if we wanted to crush you, it would be easy—just one more shot of this.”
“The battle’s over. Your resistance is meaningless. Surrender. Swear on your knight’s honor, and we’ll let all of you go. Those wounded brothers on the ground still need treatment, don’t they?”
This was the final nuke that broke the camel’s back.
Barzel lowered his head in resignation.
“I swear on my knight’s honor—we will advance no further. We admit defeat!”
At this, everyone finally let out a sigh of relief.
Xu Xiaoyue sheathed her weapon, reflecting on the battle.
Compared to Xiaoya’s training, this fight hadn’t been as overwhelming, but the opponent’s conviction and combat style were worthy of respect.
Xiaoya had treated their spars like play—effective guidance, but lacking the life-or-death intensity.
This opponent, however, had pressured her while displaying true ferocity.
This was the difference between training and real combat.
And so, the interception battle against the Radiant Knight Order ended in the players’ victory.
Jade City’s Imperial District, behind the Imperial Palace.
By the time the Imperial Trial Realm fully opened, Isaac had received no response from any of his supporters.
He had long prepared himself for this.
Now that the realm was accessible, he glanced back at Aria before stepping alone into the spatial rift.
Aria patted Yulia’s head.
“I’m going in. Wait for me.”
“Mm. Good luck, Sister.”
The two shared a brief hug before Aria followed into the rift.
Observing the peculiar spatial rift, Yulia—highly sensitive to space—felt an odd familiarity.
She couldn’t help but inch closer.
Emilie panicked and grabbed her.
“Miss! What are you doing?!”
“Just curious. I’ll only look, I won’t go in.”
Yulia moved closer.
The closer she got, the stronger the sensation of something calling to her.
This wasn’t the first time she had felt this—and every previous instance had led to something good.
As the bearer of the Golden Eye, the only one who could glimpse fate, Yulia trusted her extraordinary intuition.
She sneaked a glance at Emilie, then muttered in her mind:
“I’ll just take a peek. I won’t do anything bad.”
Then, seizing the moment Emilie looked away, she Teleported straight in.
By the time Emilie realized, Yulia was already gone.
“Oh no! She said she wouldn’t go in!”
The Imperial Trial Realm was said to be extremely dangerous. While Prince Isaac and Princess Aria, both Jade Rank powerhouses, would be fine, Yulia was only at Silver Rank!
Emilie paced anxiously.
Please be safe, please be safe!
Another equally panicked observer lurked nearby—an enchantment shop uncle hiding in the shadows.
After Isaac and Aria entered, he had been scheming a way to slip in unnoticed.
With that sharp-eyed girl lingering near the entrance, sneaking past her would’ve been tough.
But now that she was gone, he could enter.
Except—this was the Imperial Trial Realm, a space only those of imperial bloodline could enter!
“So that girl really has imperial blood…”
Edward sighed.
Then, effortlessly evading the guards and Emilie’s notice, he stepped into the rift.
The entrance slowly sealed shut behind him.
In the secret realm, the group that had entered one after another opened their eyes almost simultaneously.
They had been scattered to different locations.
The moment they took in their surroundings, all four froze in confusion.
Wasn’t this realm supposed to be so complex that even navigating was a challenge?
Then why did everything look so… monotonous?
Especially Edward, who was utterly baffled.
He had entered the Myriad Phenomena Realm before—and it lived up to its name by encompassing infinite variations.
But now? Forget myriad phenomena—this place felt like it couldn’t even bother with basic decorations.
It wasn’t completely barren, at least. There was terrain.
But with everything laid out so plainly, the end goal glaringly obvious—was this even a proper realm?
It was like a flat-chested little girl—looking down from above, one could see straight to her feet. Utterly barren.
“Achoo!”
Yulia sneezed.
Is someone thinking about me?
She glanced around.
“This place is way too plain. Is there even anything here?”
“If there was, it’d probably have been discovered already.”
But since she was already inside, she might as well explore.
Sister Aria mentioned summoning others for help—I’m here now, so helping her shouldn’t be a problem, right?