The buff is permanent, and you start the game with a fountain of water.

In the Divine Realm, every 10 levels is a significant hurdle. Even among bronze-level bosses, the level 22 Thief Leader is far more powerful than the level 10+ bosses in the Dark Forest.

Three arrows fired in quick succession took away nearly five thousand lives from Huan Cheng.

However, Huan Cheng is no longer the same person he once was.

With a level of 19, a set of top-tier bronze armor, and nearly 18,000 health, the bandit leader's attacks posed little threat to his safety, especially with the blessing of Endless Resurrection.

"Wind Slash!"

With a signature move, Huan Cheng slammed into an elite thief blocking his path, heading straight for the Bronze Leader's face.

With three precise strikes to the leader's chest, Huan Cheng saw that the leader was about to retreat and create distance, so he decisively unleashed the Dark Breath.

With a 30% speed reduction, the bandit leader has no chance of escape.

For archers, being caught in close combat, especially by a powerful warrior like Huan Cheng, the fate is self-evident.

Five minutes later, the battle ended, and the bandit leader left behind a bronze longbow, a pair of bronze boots, and a book on archer scattering skills.

The reason there were so many drops was because Huan Cheng had once again activated the Ring of Greed.

The thief was clearly a humanoid creature, falling within the range of the Ring of Greed's forced looting effect.

Considering that there were still many bronze and even silver-level bosses in the camp, Huan Cheng reluctantly put on the Ring of Greed, hoping to reap even greater rewards.

I glanced at the progress of [Slaying Gods and Demons], and sure enough, the Bronze-level kill progress had increased to 65.

"Sigh, a level 22 bronze boss, giving 18 experience points in one go, I can't keep up with the level!"

To level up from 19 to 20, you need a whopping 73.8 experience points, which is an astronomical number that would drive ordinary players to despair. However, the experience points given by the BOSS are just too much.

Looking at the experience bar that was almost full again, Huan Cheng felt a mix of emotions.

Just a few days ago, he was on the verge of tears because of the difficulty in leveling up, but now he has to find ways to suppress his level, which is really frustrating.

Shaking his head to put these worries behind him, he continued exploring the camp.

He then killed three more bronze-level bandit leaders, and in his utter desperation, he finally received the system notification.

"Ding! Your level has increased to 20. All attributes +2, free attributes +10, health +200, mana +20."

"Ding! Congratulations, player Chengfeng! You have become the first player to reach level 20 and successfully unlock the level leaderboard. As the leaderboard unlocker, you are rewarded with 10 free attribute points and the privilege of entering the Ancient Battlefield."

"Ding! Server-wide announcement: Player 'Riding the Wind' has reached level 20, opening the server-wide level rankings. Player 'Riding the Wind' will be rewarded with 10 free attribute points and access to the Ancient Battlefield dungeon. This is hereby announced!"

"Ding, server-wide announcement: Player Riding the Wind..."

…………

The three consecutive system notifications shocked all the players on the server.

"What the hell? I'm only level 14, and this guy is already level 20? Aren't they saying that the higher the level, the harder it is to level up?"

"As expected of Chengfeng, he's still as fierce as ever!"

"Sigh, students can only play for four hours a day, and they've only just left the beginner's village."

"Damn, this game is so hard! I'm deleting my account and starting over. Anyone who picks a mage again is a dog!"

…………

Despite the criticism, players immediately checked the leaderboard:

The leaderboard displays the ranking, ID, level, main city, and profession in that order.

First place: Chengfeng, level 20, Qingyang City, Lord of the Abyss.

Second place: Han Feng, level 19, Yunmeng City, Berserker.

Third place: Starfall Without Trace, Level 16, Wanghai City, Star Mage.

Fourth place: God Emperor, Level 16, Youlan City, Holy Warrior.

Fifth place: Changfeng Yinuo, level 16, Qingyang City, Shadow Assassin.

Sixth place: Qianyu Cangmang, level 16, Guyang City, Lieyang Warrior.

7th place: Jiajia, level 16, Qingyang City, Qingyang Cavalry.

8th place: Wang Chuan, level 16, Yunmeng City, Phantom Archer.

Ninth place: War God Fearless, Level 16, Lingbo City, Thorn Warrior.

10th place: Frost Moon Linglong, Level 16, Shadowmoon City, Extreme Cold Mage.

…………

Note: Within the same level, those with higher percentage of experience progress will be ranked first.

On the leaderboard, Huan Cheng was at the top, followed closely by Han Feng at level 19. After that, there was a gap, with the third to tenth positions all held by players at level 16.

Han Feng and Huan Cheng remembered that he was the one with the [Peerless Genius] talent, who could gain five times the experience.

Han Feng had also reached level 10 quite early and received the mission to activate the teleportation array, but his talent did not significantly benefit him in combat, so he ultimately failed to complete the mission and was beaten to it by Huan Cheng.

As for the rest, Huan Cheng didn't recognize any of them.

As a game for everyone, God Realm has hundreds of millions of logged-in players, so the leaderboard naturally can't only have 10 people.

Clicking on the next page reveals the complete ranking list, which goes up to the 10,000th place, and the list continues to change.

In addition to the overall ranking, each of the twenty-four main cities in the Huaxia region has a sub-ranking, with each sub-ranking listing one thousand individuals.

In the early stages, mages and summoners lack skills, archers and assassins require too much skill to master, and priests, as support classes, have never been on this list. Only warriors, with their balanced offense and defense, are easy to learn and have high efficiency in clearing jungle camps in the early stages, occupying most of the level rankings.

However, as the game progresses and all classes develop, it becomes impossible for warriors to dominate the game.

"Wait, something's not right. Why is Qingyang City so significantly stronger than the other major cities?"

Besides the excessively high proportion of warriors, players quickly noticed another anomaly.

Of the top ten on the overall list, Qingyang City occupies three spots, including Huan Cheng.

Further down the list, Qingyang City accounts for more than one-tenth of the top 10,000. With the population evenly distributed across all 24 main cities in the region, this proportion is clearly abnormal.

"What's so strange about that? In Qingyang City, Chengfeng is the only one in the entire region who has completed the task of activating the teleportation array. Player number 23333 from the newbie village has a full three days of priority development time compared to players from other regions."

A closer look at the list reveals that one-third of the players from Qingyang City are from starting village number 23333.

Players quickly analyzed the root cause of the problem.

For a long time, the players were speechless, while the players of Qingyang City felt as if one person's success had brought prosperity to their entire family.

After glancing at the rankings, Huan Cheng quickly lost interest.

Level is only one aspect of strength; the level ranking is not the same as the strength ranking.

After spending several days in the Trial Grounds, and then getting so engrossed in sword practice that she neglected leveling up, Yunxi hasn't even caught the tail end of the overall rankings yet. But Huan Cheng believes she's no weaker than any other player on the leaderboard except him!

The combination of the [Sword Intent] talent and the Sword Dancer skill means that even if Huan Cheng were to come, without using the two killer moves, Abyss Descent and Abyss Judgment, he could only win by dragging things out until Yun Xi's stamina gave out.

After closing the ranking leaderboard, Huan Cheng turned his attention to the system rewards for enabling the leaderboard.

He was very satisfied with the ten points of freedom attribute.

Under the growth coefficients of Lord of the Abyss 2.0, any basic attribute can greatly enhance his foundation.

Ideally, these 10 free attribute points can be converted into a maximum of 10240 combat attribute points, which is far more valuable than any silver or gold artifacts.

19级时，桓承力、体、敏、智、精五项属性分别为200、148、148、73、73。

升到20级，职业成长係数调整，五大属性飙升至249、185、185、90、90，涨幅明显。

In addition to its freedom of movement, it also has an antique-looking bronze key.

【Secret Realm Key】: The key to open the Ancient Battlefield Secret Realm. Use it to enter the Ancient Battlefield. Available at level 50.

Huan Cheng glanced at it only once before tossing the key into his backpack.

I really don't know what this crazy system was thinking, giving out special items that can only be used at level 50 when you reach level 20!