Star Moon Royal City, Black Water base.
The Black Water Guild was a shadow of its former self. Barely any new players showed up at the guild's main gate to join. If it weren't for the Black Water Consortium backing them, even those newcomers who had only recently entered the Divine Realm probably wouldn't have bothered.
The massive death toll among Black Water's elite members meant not only a level drop for each of them, but also a desperate need to replace weapons and equipment. In the short term, there was simply no time to guide other members through content.
The whole reason free players joined guilds was to have guild experts carry them through levels and dungeons to improve their gear. With even that basic benefit gone, no new players were willing to come. The guild's regular members had also stalled out, stuck farming small dungeons and minor team dungeons—large fifty-person raids were completely out of reach.
Inside the Black Water Guild Master's office,
"Guild Master, here are the latest guild reports you requested." Qin Muyun placed a spreadsheet on the desk with a grim expression.
The numbers told a bleak story. Elite members who had left the guild now numbered a staggering twenty thousand—a figure approaching the total elite roster of a second-rate guild. As for ordinary members, over a hundred thousand had departed, though that was almost expected given the exodus of elites.
But after Qi Yitao finished reviewing the data, he didn't seem to care in the slightest. His gaze shifted to Liefeng Duanhun. "How's the Black Water Trading House doing?"
"Candlelight Trading House's new Stamina Secret Potion has been a massive hit with regular players. Even though we've cut prices to ten silver coins per bottle for our mana mixtures, players are still choosing the Stamina Secret Potion. Our daily foot traffic is down to a third of what it used to be..." Liefeng Duanhun shook his head. "We've already had our mole inside Candlelight gather intelligence on the Stamina Secret Potion, but apparently only a handful of their senior leadership knows the details. We still can't figure out where it comes from."
The appearance of the Stamina Secret Potion had dealt a devastating blow to the market.
Setting aside its affordable price, the fact that it sustained a player for ten hours was something no mana mixture could match. Moreover, mana mixtures were only useful in dungeons, while the Stamina Secret Potion was equally effective for grinding in the open world.
Many players would skip recovery potions and mana restoratives entirely just to buy a Stamina Secret Potion, because with it they could grind and level up much faster. Even traveling across maps required no rest, drastically cutting down downtime.
Even he himself couldn't resist buying three bottles—and he had to admit, they were genuinely useful, boosting his leveling speed by twenty to thirty percent. No wonder players were selling everything they owned just to get their hands on one.
Based on intelligence from Candlelight Trading House alone, Stamina Secret Potions were already sold out the moment they appeared on shelves, with players sweeping them clean instantly. Executives from other major guilds had also made the trip to Candlelight, hoping to negotiate partnership deals.
The
"Excellent! Very excellent!" Far from showing any anger at the news, Qi Yitao actually burst out laughing.
"Guild Master?" Qin Muyun and Liefeng Duanhun exchanged puzzled looks.
Young Master Jing was already furious with them. At this rate, orders from above would come down within days, and none of them would escape blame—especially Qi Yitao. Yet here he was, laughing. It was completely incomprehensible.
Had the blow been too much for him?
"Zui Xiaoke, did you handle the task I gave you?" Qi Yitao ignored their confusion, turning to Zui Xiaoke with a calm voice.
"Guild Master, when have I ever let you down? I've already sent detailed profiles on all of Zero Wing's top players to the Divine Miracle Guild. They've confirmed it—tomorrow at the Dark Arena, Zero Wing won't stand a chance." Zui Xiaoke spoke with absolute certainty.
He hadn't been optimistic about the Dark Arena match initially, but after visiting the Divine Miracle Guild and providing them with detailed intelligence, he was now completely confident that Zero Wing would lose tomorrow.
The internal odds for the next Dark Arena match had already been set—one to three, overwhelmingly favoring the Shura Team. Very few people knew that the Evil Flood Dragon Team was backed by the Divine Miracle Guild; they had only learned about it because the Black Water Consortium had some internal dealings with Divine Miracle.
Odds of one to three were extremely rare in the Dark Arena, where one-and-a-half to one was the norm.
Seeing such favorable odds, the Divine Miracle Guild was naturally going all-out, and their goal was a clean sweep.
Because the odds for a complete victory were a staggering one to seven—a number that would make even super-guilds salivate. Divine Miracle certainly wouldn't pass up an opportunity like that.
The top experts of the Divine Miracle Guild needed no introduction—they were every bit as formidable as those of a super-guild. Furthermore, to guarantee a clean sweep, Divine Miracle had secretly borrowed Epic-grade items from other major guilds. Even Zero Wing's members, whose base stats were absurdly high, wouldn't be able to compete.
Zero Wing's strength lay entirely in their base attributes. As for those who had reached the Perfection realm, there were only five—and
"Good. You three go organize the guild's resources. When the time comes, we'll go watch the Dark Arena match ourselves." Far from being devastated as Qin Muyun and Liefeng Duanhun had expected, Qi Yitao was perfectly calm, already scheming ways to turn the situation around.
First priority was restoring the guild's foundation—replenishing the lost weapons, equipment, and gold. And the Dark Arena presented exactly the opportunity he needed.
Their defeat at Zero Wing's hands hadn't been entirely meaningless. At the very least, it had exposed the true capabilities of Zero Wing's top players, allowing Divine Miracle to counter them more effectively.
...
Inside a towering, magnificent temple, Shi Feng led the group as they activated Concealment
With less than twenty minutes remaining, reaching the inner zone of the Fallen Ark was no easy task—especially with the Abyssal old monsters having just awakened and still lingering inside.
In the outer corridors of the Fallen Ark, patrol guards from the original vessel still roamed occasionally, but for Shi Feng, who possessed a map and highly sharpened senses, they were virtually invisible. He could avoid both the patrols and the hidden trap arrays without breaking stride.
"Hm, so the War Arsenal is in here."
After infiltrating for nearly ten minutes, Shi Feng suddenly discovered a sealed vault door marked "War Arsenal," and his heartbeat quickened.
The War Arsenal was a storage facility specifically designed for wartime armaments.
And this particular vault had never been opened by any player before!