After studying the item for a moment, Shi Feng walked over and picked it up to examine it more closely.
He had seen it at an auction in his previous life, but without confirming it firsthand, it was still hard to believe.
"It really is the Fire Spirit! The Miracle Guild is truly impressive — actually managing to get their hands on this." Shi Feng tapped on the deep crimson orb, and his heart surged with elation.
The Fire Spirit was something virtually unknown to current Divine Realm players. Even those who managed to obtain one had no idea of its true value.
Based on the attributes the Fire Spirit displayed, it appeared to be a subpar epic-grade item with only a single spell — a Tier 2 Fire Spirit summon. It could conjure a Tier 2 Fire Spirit of equivalent level, essentially granting the user an additional summoning skill. At that level, the Fire Spirit offered some help to Tier 1 players, but for Tier 2 experts, it was practically useless.
Every time the Fire Spirit was summoned, it cost five Magic Crystals. There was no time limit, but for Tier 2 expert players, five Magic Crystals was still a steep price. Summoning a fire spirit weaker than oneself was pointless — with a tank holding the line, there was no need for an additional meat shield.
Because of this, the Fire Spirit had never received any real attention from the major guilds.
However, the Fire Spirit possessed a passive skill called Strange Fire Devour. This skill allowed the Fire Spirit to consume Strange Fire to empower itself. Unfortunately, no guild had ever dared to actually use it.
Strange Fire was extraordinarily precious in the Divine Realm and served as a critical guarantee for Life Skill players to boost their crafting success rates. First-tier Strange Fire was one thing, but second-tier Strange Fire and above — only a fool would let the Fire Spirit devour those. A single second-tier Strange Fire was already worth as much as an epic-grade item.
Wasting a second-tier Strange Fire to strengthen the Fire Spirit was simply not worth the cost. After all, what good was a stronger Fire Spirit?
As a result, every faction that obtained the Fire Spirit epic-grade item regarded it as a throwaway piece. What was even more intolerable was the Fire Spirit's death-drop attribute — if you actually invested precious Strange Fire to raise it, and it happened to die, you'd have nowhere to cry.
But there was something no one knew: after devouring Strange Fire, the Fire Spirit's growth rate was astonishingly high. When it consumed high-tier Strange Fire, not only would its rank increase, but its life form would also evolve.
The most famous case in his previous life was the first-rate guild Thunderclap Clan. They had risen to prominence in the Divine Realm entirely because of a desperate battle against a super-first-rate guild. At the time, the super-first-rate guild had been fighting in earnest.
Thunderclap Clan had been reduced to a single city — their main city. Everyone assumed Thunderclap Clan was finished. But no one had expected that at the critical moment, they summoned the Fire Spirit. At that time, the highest rank in the Divine Realm was only Tier 3, yet Thunderclap Clan summoned a Tier 4 Fire Spirit — and not just any Tier 4, but a Primordial-species Fire Spirit.
The Fire Spirit might not have the overwhelming vitality of a monster, but as the favored child of flame, it commanded numerous Tier 4 fire-type Forbidden Spells. A Tier 4 Legendary Primordial species was already incredibly difficult to deal with, let alone one wielding multiple Tier 4 Forbidden Spells. The impact on the war was self-evident. In the end, Thunderclap Clan won.
After that, every major power began paying attention to the Fire Spirit epic-grade item. Though Thunderclap Clan remained a first-rate guild ten years later, no superpower dared underestimate them — by that point, they had cultivated the Fire Spirit into a Tier 5 entity. Its life form hadn't reached dragon-level yet, but it had attained Fallen Angel status, making it virtually invincible among its rank. A Tier 6 god-tier expert in a prolonged one-on-one fight would eventually be forced to flee. Coupled with the numerous Tier 5 fire-type Forbidden Spells it wielded, fighting it in earnest was an enormous hassle.
In short, having a Fire Spirit was like gaining a future Tier 5 invincible bodyguard. Its value was incalculable.
However, cultivating the Fire Spirit was no easy task — it required a large amount of Strange Fire to consume. The process had nearly bankrupted Thunderclap Clan. First-tier and second-tier Strange Fire were relatively obtainable, but third-tier and fourth-tier Strange Fire were resources even superpowers treasured highly. Unless you obtained them secretly, the trouble would never end.
Even so, it was absolutely worth it.
Moreover, the Fire Spirit epic-grade item had one more extraordinary trait: after devouring enough Strange Fire, it would advance. Once it reached Legendary item fragment status, it would acquire a Flame Refinement skill that could grant up to ten players the ability to wield the Fire Spirit's flame. The tier of the flame depended entirely on the Fire Spirit's own level — the stronger the Fire Spirit, the more powerful the flame its wielders could command.
In his previous life, the superpowers and first-rate guilds had paid handsomely to rent that flame, making Thunderclap Clan a fortune.
"I had Watercolor Rose and Bai Qingxue gathering intelligence and leads on Strange Fire everywhere. We didn't manage to get any second-tier or third-tier Strange Fire, but we did manage to find a good amount of first-tier Strange Fire. It's perfect for the Fire Spirit to devour." Shi Feng gazed at the Fire Spirit in his hand, thoroughly satisfied.
First-tier Strange Fire might not offer much of a boost for the Fire Spirit individually, but accumulated in sufficient quantity, it would trigger a qualitative transformation.
After sorting through all the dropped loot, Shi Feng returned to the entrance of the Source Iron ore vein. There, he set up an Abyssal Barrier and a teleportation coordinate. That way, Zero Wing members could come and go as they pleased without worrying about Abyssal monsters.
Most importantly, the Source Iron ore vein would become Zero Wing's exclusive private mine. They wouldn't need to worry about other superpowers — even if they had obtained a mine elsewhere, they'd normally have to station massive numbers of people to defend it against rival factions trying to seize it. On Garna Island, the Abyssal monsters served as a natural fortress and sentinels. For the current player base, anyone who came here would die, allowing Zero Wing to mine in peace.
Afterward, Shi Feng led Watercolor Rose and the others to continue clearing the Source Iron ore vein. Along the way, they eliminated demonkin squads and pushed ever deeper into the demonkin nest.
The demonkin nest was enormous, with labyrinthine passages that twisted and turned in bewildering complexity. The difficulty of exploration far exceeded Shi Feng's expectations.
"Guild Master, I've found the nest boss over here!" Fire Dance suddenly called out, a note of excitement in her voice.
To mine Magic Crystals within the Source Iron ore vein, they had to defeat the boss that ruled this place. Otherwise, the demonkin would keep respawning endlessly inside the nest. Only after killing the boss would the demonkin stop reappearing — until the next boss respawn. Bosses in the mine took a very long time to respawn, and when they did, their strength and level would rise accordingly. But by then, the players would have long since outgrown the challenge.
"Good, I'm heading over with the team right now." Shi Feng's face brightened at the news, and he immediately ordered everyone to converge on Fire Dance's position.
However, when Shi Feng and the others arrived at the deep cavern where Fire Dance was, they froze. Standing silently in the center of the cavern was a demonkin over six meters tall, eyes shut, clad head to toe in dark gray armor and bristling with longswords strapped across its entire body.
"A Floor Lord?!"