Cold Wind City, Hecate Guild Headquarters.
Thanks to Hecate suddenly lowering its recruitment standards and equipment exchange rates for the outside public, the guild hall was bustling with people coming and going.
Among them, independent players made up a significant proportion—all of them looking to exchange rare materials for level fifty weapons and equipment.
"Vice Guild Master, because we lowered the exchange rate, the number of players coming to trade in equipment has surged by more than double over this period. And all these players are at Elite level or above. They've signed contracts with us—they won't just avoid supporting the Shura side, they'll actively freeze out Shura's people. As for the other guilds, they've done pretty much the same thing. Right now, most of Cold Wind City's elite players have already taken a stand against the Shura Expedition Team."
"Even if the Shura Expedition Team sets up that so-called Adventurer Alliance later, they won't be able to pull any resources from it to boost their own strength."
"Good! Well done. All that's left is to figure out the reason those people in the Shura Expedition Team got stronger. After that, we take Cold Wind City."
Xue Guang listened to the report with great satisfaction.
When it came to competing for Cold Wind City, he had to admit that the Shura Expedition Team's competitiveness was formidable—far stronger than even the Eternal Dynasty.
But the Shura Expedition Team trying to wrest Cold Wind City away from guilds like theirs was nothing short of an overreach, a delusional act of self-destruction. The major guilds would absolutely not allow it. If word got out, it would become a laughingstock in every other city. So even at the cost of some guild interests, they had to put a stop to it.
Originally, their Hecate Guild alone couldn't have attracted the majority of Cold Wind City's elite players.
But thanks to the collective effort of the major guilds, most of Cold Wind City's elite players now stood on their side. The remaining elite and expert players either had no interest in trading, or had their own channels and wouldn't easily part with or sell the rare materials in their possession. In other words, the major guilds now controlled the primary source of rare materials in Cold Wind City.
The Shura Expedition Team might have quite a few top-tier experts, but controlling a city wasn't something that could be accomplished with just a handful of strong players. It required a large number of experts and top-quality equipment—only then would it be possible to complete the grueling city contribution requirements.
When it came to high-level players, the Shura Expedition Team was indeed quite capable. But acquiring top-quality equipment was a different story entirely. It required enormous quantities of rare materials to support the effort. After all, every piece of equipment in the Ice Crystal World was obtained through crafting—and crafting difficulty was extremely high on top of having a poor success rate. Without dumping a massive volume of rare materials into the process, it was absolutely impossible to arm a powerful team.
With the Shura Expedition Team's meager numbers, they couldn't possibly gather that many resources.
Moreover, an expedition team was different from a guild. A guild would specifically invest heavily in training a batch of life-skill players. But even if an expedition team had life-skill players, without heavy investment in their development, high-level crafters were extremely rare—some teams didn't have any at all. Getting good equipment was even harder.
Now that the major guilds had cut off the Shura Expedition Team's access to rare materials, the team had no way to compete for Cold Wind City.
"Vice Guild Master, after investigating over this period, none of the experts who returned to the Shura Expedition Team would say a word about how their strength improved. As for the team's original experts, they claimed to know nothing about it either. The information lockdown is extremely tight." The level fifty-two assassin making the report said helplessly.
"It doesn't matter. Keep digging," Xue Guang said with a faint smile. "Even if we never find out, that's fine. Once we've taken control of Cold Wind City, if they still don't want to talk, I'll make the Shura Expedition Team disappear from Cold Wind City for good!"
The assassin couldn't help but smile upon hearing Xue Guang's words.
The Shura Expedition Team might have built up a decent reputation in Cold Wind City, but an expedition team was still just an expedition team. Picking a fight with their Hecate Guild was simply asking for death.
Once they controlled Cold Wind City, they would gain a portion of its administrative power—and using that little bit of authority to deal with an expedition team would be child's play. No matter how powerful those few experts in the Shura Expedition Team were, it wouldn't make a difference.
"Oh, right—what happened with those experts I had you try to poach from the Shura Expedition Team?" Xue Guang suddenly remembered to ask.
He had genuinely taken a liking to the likes of Mu Xiaoxiao and the others who had previously taken down Xuancang. With that level of strength, if they joined the Hecate Guild, they would undoubtedly become a tremendous asset.
Hearing Xue Guang's question, the reporting assassin fell silent.
"What's wrong? Did they turn us down because the offer was too low?" Xue Guang asked, puzzled.