Long Xue's report left Jiulong Huang stunned on the spot.
"Impossible!" Jiulong Huang rejected it outright. "I know Feng Qianyu's level all too well. Reaching the central area by now would already be impressive enough—how could she possibly claim the First Clear of the Twilight Forest?"
They were in the same guild, so they knew each other inside and out. Even if Feng Qianyu had some hidden cards up her sleeve, the gap between her and the ability to kill the Twilight Forest's final boss, the King of Ten Thousand Trees, wasn't just a small one. He himself only had the confidence to attempt it because he'd obtained a set of high-grade magic arrays plus the assistance of Blood Radiance Paradise.
And from what he'd gathered, Feng Qianyu didn't have any high-grade magic arrays.
"Long Kui was skeptical too, so she verified the information several times. There's even video footage—confirmed, no mistake." Long Xue explained. "Moreover, the reason Feng Qianyu was able to clear the Twilight Forest this time was thanks to a consumable called the Flame Potion, which drastically reduced the boss's stats. On top of that, the Shura Adventuring Team has an incredibly strong main tank who could hold the weakened boss, and finally Zero Wing's people used a Tier 4 magic scroll to finish it off."
"Those lucky bastards, actually finding a way to weaken a boss." Jiulong Huang watched the combat video that had been sent over, his eyelids twitching involuntarily, a hint of envy flickering in his eyes. He then sneered coldly, "Just you wait. All they've done is grab the First Clear of the Twilight Forest. I'll show you that this is nothing but a death struggle. Go notify Long Kui—tell her the plan can proceed. And while you're at it, inform that old Beast Emperor that I've run out of patience. I don't want to see Zero Wing prancing around under my nose any longer."
"Yes, sir!" Long Xue couldn't help but shudder at Jiulong Huang's cold, resolute tone.
Meanwhile, Shi Feng had arrived at Wanghai Town through a teleportation magic array.
Compared to his first visit, Wanghai Town now had far more players. On the main streets, groups could be seen everywhere as players called out for teammates to head to the islands to level up.
Beyond the surge in player numbers, merchant players had also begun running sea trade routes.
"Shipping from Wanghai Town to Shawan Town—special deal right now! Only 15 silver coins per person. Items in your bag under a thousand slots are free; for every thousand slots of storable items beyond that, it's an extra 5 silver coins. Each non-storable item is 3 silver coins!"
"Shipping from Wanghai Town to Coral Harbor—only 20 silver coins per person. Items under a thousand slots, free. Every thousand slots of storable items beyond that, an extra 7 silver coins. Each non-storable item, 5 silver coins!"
…
Thanks to the shouts of these sea trading companies, quite a few solo merchant players and adventuring team members gathered around, hoping to haggle over prices.
Using sea transport was, in plain terms, a way to save on the expensive teleportation fees—especially cross-kingdom teleportation, which was incredibly costly. Even between neighboring kingdoms, the fees were calculated in gold coins, and for distant ones, two or three gold coins was normal. But sea transport was much cheaper, especially for the non-storable items that gave players such a headache.
Although the sea trade in Wanghai Town hadn't yet reached full scale, it had at least begun to take shape.
"These people sure move fast." Shi Feng swept his gaze over the sea trading companies on the streets and spotted more than five at a glance. He smiled faintly. "Looks like I need to start producing the new cargo ships sooner."
In his previous life, sea transport had been highly developed, and the profits were enormous. Every major guild had established sea trading companies, fighting over maritime territories.
Shi Feng thought his own pace had been fast enough, but the Divine Realm was full of talented people, and quite a few had already discovered the business opportunity here early on.
Currently, these trading companies were all renting ordinary cargo ships provided by NPCs. Their capacity was quite limited—only 35 passengers, and they couldn't carry many items either. The non-storable item capacity was a mere 30 pieces.
On top of that, they had to pay steep rental fees and provide enough escort ships for protection—otherwise, the cargo ships would be destroyed by sea beasts before even reaching the halfway point, since cargo ships had absolutely zero offensive capability. Even a basic speedboat had at least some attack power.