In the second-floor VIP lounge of Zero Wing's headquarters, four people sat in silence. The arrival of Shi Feng and Shui Se Qiangwei drew their gazes toward the door.
"Sorry to keep you waiting," Shi Feng said.
Two of the four were people he had met before — Bu Mie Zhanxin and Mu Lingsha. As for the other two, he recognized them as well. Or rather, any expert from the major guilds in his previous life would have known these two.
One was a level 57, Tier 2 Elementalist dressed in crimson robes named Youjiu Zhihun. The other was a level 57, Tier 2 Guardian Knight carrying a water-blue scale shield named Lie Ren.
The first was known as the Red Mage, the second as the Iron Shield Giant. Though neither had made it onto the expert rankings, both held formal titles bestowed by the Celestial Secrets Pavilion.
The reason they hadn't made the rankings was simple — they had no desire to be listed. On top of that, every superpower had its own secrets and preferred not to display all of its experts like merchandise on a shelf. Under pressure from the major powers, the Celestial Secrets Pavilion had refrained from including every expert from the superpowers on its lists, though it did provide brief introductions for some.
Those who received official titles from the Pavilion had all demonstrated extraordinary battle records. In terms of raw strength, these two were every bit the equal of Bu Mie Zhanxin, even if their names weren't as widely known.
Of course, those titles had only been granted after the two reached Tier 3 in God's Domain. Before that, no one had imagined they were so powerful — they had dealt serious blows to the super guilds of that era.
"Guild Master Black Flame, you're here." Bu Mie Zhanxin stood up with a smile and gestured toward Youjiu Zhihun and Lie Ren. "Allow me to make introductions. This is Youjiu Zhihun, War Soul Unfallen's chief Elementalist, and this is our chief Guardian Knight, known as the Iron Arm Giant."
"Pleased to meet you." Both nodded, studying Shi Feng's every move with keen interest. They were deeply curious about him.
After all, much of Zero Wing's current success could be attributed to Shi Feng's existence. He had even carved out a foothold in the Beastman Empire, forcing every major superpower to abandon any plans of seizing Zero Wing.
He had even sold War Soul Unfallen a considerable number of level 55 Dark Gold weapons, enabling them to claim the First Clear and become the first three-star guild in the Dark Night Empire — giving them at least some leverage against the Star Ring Guild.
What surprised the two even more, however, was something Bu Mie Zhanxin had brought up during a guild meeting. It was genuinely hard to believe that Zero Wing had pulled it off.
After brief introductions on both sides, Bu Mie Zhanxin pulled a list from his bag and handed it directly to Shi Feng.
Shi Feng scanned the list and couldn't hide his surprise.
"I imagine Guild Master Black Flame finds these items rather interesting?" Bu Mie Zhanxin said with a smile.
"That's right. Zero Wing is indeed very interested in the items on this list." Shi Feng nodded.
The materials listed were precisely what Zero Wing had been publicly purchasing from outside sources. A significant portion of them were components needed to forge Hell Chariots.
Some of the Hell Chariot materials couldn't be obtained from team dungeons — they only dropped from certain special maps. These were critical resources that the major guilds never sold to outsiders, which was why Youyou Weixiao had been forced to buy them from free players across several neighboring countries.
There was nothing to hide about this. Any major guild could look into it with a little effort. The only thing they wouldn't know was what Zero Wing intended to do with these materials.
"War Soul Unfallen is willing to sell these materials to Zero Wing in large quantities at market price," Bu Mie Zhanxin said.
"You're willing to sell them to us?" Shi Feng smiled. "That's wonderful news. But I suspect Brother Bu Mie didn't come all this way just for this, did you?"