"Establish an adventuring party?"
"Brother Yefeng, are you serious?"
The people inside the luxury carriage all stared at Shi Feng in stunned silence, thinking they had misheard.
Previously, Shi Feng had clearly shown little interest in building his own force. He had only come to Cold Wind City from another region to complete quests.
And now Shi Feng was saying he wanted to establish an adventuring party — it left them both shocked and excited.
An adventuring party with a powerhouse like Shi Feng holding things together would have no trouble growing.
On top of that, after the great battle in Cold Wind City, Shi Feng's reputation was known to everyone in the city. Forget founding an adventuring party — he could have started a guild without any issues.
They could already imagine it: the line of players wanting to join would stretch from the commercial boulevard all the way to the city gates.
"Is there anything we can do to help?" Gu Jiuji's eyes lit up as he asked.
He had already thought about it before — if Shi Feng ever decided to build his own force, he would join in a heartbeat. Shi Feng's strength and skill level far surpassed his own; it was like a whole new world had been opened up. But since Shi Feng hadn't been interested, he hadn't asked, only hoping to get closer and find a chance to seek guidance.
Now, though, that hassle was saved.
His original reason for founding an adventuring party was purely to improve his own skills, immersing himself in the ruins and dungeons across the Divine Realm. He had never liked getting involved in guild politics.
Most importantly, he couldn't stand the way the Gaishi Family and the Hundred Dynasty operated, so he'd established an adventuring party. He had originally planned to join Cold Wind City's top adventuring party, Langxin, if things got too tough — but now it looked like all of that could be set aside.
"I'd like you all to help me spread the word and organize the recruitment process," Shi Feng said after a moment's thought. "The adventuring party I'm building won't need too many people — three to five thousand will be enough. The minimum requirement to officially join is reaching the fifth floor of the Trial Tower, and that threshold will gradually be raised over time."
Cold Wind City also had its own God's Demonic Arena, though it wasn't connected to arenas in other cities. That didn't affect players' ability to use the Trial Tower, however.
"The fifth floor?" Yan Ya's jaw dropped. "Brother Yefeng, I'm afraid hardly anyone in all of Cold Wind City meets that requirement. Average experts only make it to the fourth floor at best."
She was already ranked among the top players in the Aurora Sword guild, and even she had barely managed to reach the fifth floor.
"Quality over quantity. Of course, besides that test, anyone who meets an alternative set of criteria can also join," Shi Feng said, producing a set of testing standards from the Zero Wing guild and displaying them directly for Gu Jiuji and the others.
In the Divine Realm, the strong were the strong, and the talented were the talented.
Naturally, some opportunities had to be left for players with potential.
That was where the probationary member system came in. There would be a probation period, and based on the rate of progress during that time, those who met the standard could join. Those who didn't would have to pass the first test — reaching the fifth floor of the Trial Tower. It was a bit more complicated this way, but it maximized the chances of retaining promising newcomers.
Of course, even becoming a probationary member had a minimum standard — reaching the fourth floor of the Trial Tower.
The fourth floor was still a fairly high bar at this point, but as players' skill levels continued to rise, it would become a rather common benchmark. If someone couldn't even reach the fourth floor, there was no point in taking the assessment.
Even so, Gu Jiuji and the others were left dumbfounded, clicking their tongues in disbelief.
A player who could reach the fourth floor of the Trial Tower in Cold Wind City would be considered an elite in either of the two major guilds — yet here, in this adventuring party, they could only qualify as probationary members. If the players of Cold Wind City knew about this, they would say the whole lot of them had gone mad.
It was just an adventuring party, after all. How could its benefits compare to a guild's? In terms of prestige alone, it was already a tier below a guild — and yet the entry requirements were set even higher than a guild's.