Looking at the Defensive Puppet blueprint in his hands, Shi Feng carefully examined it once more and took a deep breath.
Defensive Puppets were essentially the exclusive products of the major superpowers and a select handful of great guilds. Every single one was a prized possession, a symbol of a guild's deep reserves—and none were sold lightly. Whenever one did appear on the market, it would trigger a frenzy among countless factions.
The reason was simple: this was lost ancient technology. Without a blueprint, production was impossible. Defensive Puppets involved far too many fields—alchemy, forging, engineering, and more—and the minimum requirement for each profession was master rank. Only by gathering masters across all these crafting professions was there even a chance of producing one.
Just the rumored material costs alone exceeded two thousand gold, making it more expensive than some lower-stat Epic equipment, to say nothing of its value once actually crafted.
The reason for such exorbitant cost was that Defensive Puppets possessed terrifying combat power. Even a Level Zero common player wielding one could instantly become a monster-like existence. They were war weapons that no Epic item or fragment of a Legendary item could compare to—true guild treasures.
In his previous life, top-tier guilds had been able to challenge the superpowers and actually survive precisely because they possessed Defensive Puppets.
A standard Defensive Puppet already possessed Tier 3 combat power, and the blueprint in his hands could produce a Bronze-rank Defensive Puppet, which would wield peak Tier 3 combat strength the moment it was completed. Any player could control this power, and unlike summoned beasts, a crafted Defensive Puppet wouldn't disappear after a set period. The only way to lose one was to have it destroyed in battle, like any other war weapon.
Peak Tier 3 combat power would never go out of style, because even now, many players in the Divine Realm couldn't advance to Tier 3 Classes, let alone Tier 4. Any expert who reached Tier 4 was already a VIP guest of top-tier guilds, and even the superpowers wanted to recruit them. As for Tier 5 Classes, they were household names throughout the Divine Realm—beings standing at the pinnacle, with only the rare Tier 6 god-level players able to overshadow them. But such god-level experts were extraordinarily scarce; meeting one was as rare as winning the lottery.
"Truly worthy of being a Bronze-rank Defensive Puppet. Just the material costs alone run over three thousand gold, and the Blacksmith's success rate is only about thirty percent. Whether it can even be completed is anyone's guess. No wonder every major superpower treats them like sacred relics." Shi Feng clicked his tongue inwardly at the materials list on the blueprint.
Then again, it made sense. It was peak Tier 3 combat power that could be used permanently. If he could produce several hundred now, he'd be virtually invincible. Controlling these Defensive Puppets required no levels—players only needed sufficient skill. It would be equivalent to creating an entire force of peak Tier 3 monster-class experts.
"It looks like I need to push Zhuhuo Commercial Firm even harder." Shi Feng's eyes burned with desire for the Bronze-rank Defensive Puppet before him.
The materials for crafting a Bronze-rank Defensive Puppet were rare, but aside from the main material—Titan Refined Iron Ingots—gathering the rest in large quantities was actually quite feasible. The real problem was finding master-rank crafters across all the necessary sub-professions. Without them, production was simply impossible.
If he could mass-produce Bronze-rank Defensive Puppets, they would become a formidable asset in both team battles and city sieges—both offensive and defensive. Defensive Puppets dealt double damage to magical formations and structures, and they were far more powerful than any Tier 3 summoned beast.
Just as Shi Feng was contemplating how to further raise the crafting level of his Zhuhuo Commercial Firm's life-skill players, a system communication alert chimed. The caller was Bai Qingxue.
"Guild Master, I just received some good news. Inside Heaven's Burial Guild, Yi Xiao Du Zang and Lei Jingyang have fallen out. The entire Heaven's Burial Guild has been dissolved. However, Yi Xiao Du Zang has taken his loyalists and guild subordinates to join the Black Water Guild. Right now, he's leading a team toward the Ancient Divine Ruins—it looks like he intends to use the ruins to supply the Black Water Guild with all manner of resources," Bai Qingxue said with a smile.
The collapse of Heaven's Burial had been expected, but its dissolution happening so quickly was somewhat beyond their predictions. They were now scrambling to take over Heaven's Burial's shopfronts across various cities, and quite a few had already been snatched up by rival guilds.
Still, Heaven's Burial's sudden dissolution also saved Zero Wing quite a bit of trouble. At the very least, they wouldn't need to wage a price war to clear out and acquire Heaven's Burial's shops throughout the Star Moon Kingdom, nor send an army to seize their towns.
"So they've abandoned their development in the Star Moon Kingdom and plan to pour everything into the Ancient City within the Ancient Divine Ruins?" Shi Feng smiled faintly and looked at Bai Qingxue on the video feed. "How is your team coming along?"
"Per your instructions, I've been contacting them one by one, having each person assemble secretly in Zero Wing City. We're still a few dozen short of the full roster," Bai Qingxue replied.
"Good. Have them gather at the Zhuhuo Commercial Firm in Zero Wing City. I'll head back right away. It's time to give Beast Emperor and Yi Xiao Du Zang a nice surprise." Shi Feng nodded and ended the communication.
Bai Qingxue was completely baffled, unsure what Shi Feng intended to do by gathering fifteen hundred guild experts, but she began notifying each arriving expert to assemble at the Zhuhuo Commercial Firm in Zero Wing City.
Meanwhile, Shi Feng directly spent three thousand gold to have the NPC that appeared construct a guild outpost in Lost Town. He also hired one hundred Level 150 Tier 2 NPC guards and one thousand Level 150 Tier 1 NPC guards to patrol the surroundings of Lost Town. With that, there would be no problem fending off monster attacks in the short term.
He then took out a guild return scroll and teleported back to the guild outpost in Zero Wing City.
After the earth-shaking battle outside Stone Forest Town, the daily influx of players into Zero Wing City had surged dramatically, surpassing four million. That meant roughly twenty-two thousand gold per day in pure entry-fee revenue—a pace of counting money until your hands went numb.
Previously, the bounty war with Heaven's Burial had eaten up a considerable amount of funds, but with that expenditure gone, the income was more than enough to sustain the guild's expansion. That was before accounting for the revenue from Stone Forest Town, Zhuhuo Commercial Firm, and other sources.
After stripping away guild expansion costs, various expenses, and guild welfare, Zero Wing could still save fifteen thousand gold per day. Any top-tier guild would be driven mad with jealousy seeing that figure—they could barely keep their massive operations running, and their guild welfare packages couldn't compare to Zero Wing's. Factoring it all in, saving one or two thousand gold a day would already make them ecstatic.
Truthfully, no top-tier guild currently had more money than Zero Wing.
Back at the Zero Wing outpost, Shi Feng immediately withdrew the raid dungeon materials he'd accumulated over this period, along with materials traded from various top-tier guilds, and began crafting Divine Beast Descent.
After producing two complete sets, seeing that the time was about right, Shi Feng pulled out the last of his Elemental Sources from his inventory and fused them into the Divine Beast Descent magic formations in one go. Instantly, the two sets of magic scrolls began a transformation—the intermediate-grade magic formations now radiated an aura that surpassed even high-grade ones. Shi Feng then stored the scrolls and headed straight for Zhuhuo Commercial Firm.
Arriving at the Zhuhuo Commercial Firm in Zero Wing City, Bai Qingxue and the others had been waiting for quite some time. The entire second-floor lounge was packed with players, every one of them curious about why Vice Guild Master Bai Qingxue had summoned them.
But the moment Shi Feng walked in disguised as Black Flame, the entire lounge fell silent. Every pair of eyes locked onto him, filled with indescribable reverence and admiration.
"The Guild Master?"
"Why is the Guild Master here? Was this assembly his idea?"
Everyone buzzed with excitement upon seeing Shi Feng.
"I'm sure you've all heard by now. The brothers stationed at the Ancient Divine Ruins were surrounded and slaughtered by Evil Beasts and Evil Demons. The Beast Emperor, who controls those Evil Beasts and Evil Demons, has even publicly declared that Zero Wing members are forbidden from entering the Ancient Divine Ruins—any found will be killed on sight."
"Although that territory isn't ours, I believe we should make a statement. That's why I've gathered you here. We're going to give Beast Emperor a nice surprise—wipe out every Evil Beast and Evil Demon near the Ancient Divine Ruins! Let all the major forces watching us know that Zero Wing is not to be trifled with!"
As soon as Shi Feng finished speaking, the entire room went dead silent. A collective gasp swept through the crowd. Even Bai Qingxue and Shuise Qiangwei stared at Shi Feng in disbelief, thinking he had gone insane.
Wipe out every Evil Beast and Evil Demon near the Ancient Divine Ruins?
How could such a thing possibly be done?