The Thunder Axe City Hall.
Shi Feng rode an Earth Dragon carriage to a stop before the magnificent castle. Though other players were present throughout Thunder Axe City, the NPCs bustling in and out of this particular castle were remarkably numerous — not only Giant NPCs, but NPCs of many other races as well.
This majestic castle was none other than the City Hall at the very heart of Thunder Axe City.
The entire fortress was enclosed by towering walls, their surfaces etched with divine runes and magic arrays. Its defenses were so formidable that even a Tier 5 Class NPC would be unable to breach them, making it arguably the safest place in all of Thunder Axe City.
Before Shi Feng even reached the main entrance, the level 180 Tier 3 NPC guards at the gate stopped him.
"Ireetings, Honored Bronze Legacy Holder. This is a restricted area of Thunder Axe City. If you wish to enter, you must first register your information." The Tier 3 NPC guard produced a magic crystal and addressed Shi Feng with a respectful tone.
"Understood. Go ahead and register me." Shi Feng nodded.
The City Hall of Thunder Axe City was unlike that of any other NPC city. In other human cities, players could walk right in. But in Thunder Axe City, a player had to first become a noble of the city, then complete the registration process before being granted entry.
The reason for this was the magic array installed around the City Hall. If one's life signature had not been recorded in the array, merely stepping inside would trigger a violent magical assault and suppression.
And that was entirely because the City Hall of Thunder Axe City was simply too important. Rather than calling it a city hall, it was more accurate to think of it as a treasure vault or a trading hub, housing the vast collection of treasures the Giant race had gathered over countless ages — even Legendary-tier items among them.
Any player who became a noble of Thunder Axe City could freely trade with the Giants here.
The Giant race had lived in Thunder Axe City since the primordial era, accumulating untold riches. As long as a player had the ability and the resources, even exchanging for Legendary-tier items was possible.
This was precisely the main reason why players and major powers across the Divine Realm were so drawn to Thunder Axe City.
In his previous life, several experts from superpowers had managed to exchange for Legendary-tier items from the Giants here, and even more players had obtained Legendary-tier item fragments.
Of course, it wasn't as though no superpower had tried to seize the goods by force. But those who succeeded could be counted on one hand, and every last one of them was a Tier 6 God-ranked expert who had mobilized enormous manpower and resources just to barely escape alive with one or two Legendary-tier item fragments. Afterward, they had earned the lasting enmity of Thunder Axe City — a net loss by any measure.
Before long, the NPC guard had recorded Shi Feng's life signature, and he walked straight inside.
The entire first floor of the castle's main hall was filled with NPCs of various races trading with the Giants. Though Shi Feng was interested in trading with the Giants himself, with his current strength and resources, he probably couldn't even exchange for a single Epic-tier item. So he merely glanced around before heading directly to the second floor.
Upon entering the second-floor hall, the number of NPCs had dropped significantly — only a few dozen NPC merchants remained, browsing plots of land for sale in Thunder Axe City.
"Honored Bronze Legacy Holder, how may I be of assistance?" A beautiful elven woman in a tailor's outfit approached Shi Feng with a smile.
"A Senior Steward?" Shi Feng couldn't help but glance at her with mild surprise, though he quickly composed himself. "I'd like to purchase some plots of land and premium shops in Thunder Axe City. Could you recommend a few?"
Normally, players in the City Hall were attended to by ordinary stewards. Having a Senior Steward greet him was quite unexpected.
Though this beautiful elf was only a level 200 Tier 3 Senior Steward, the invisible pressure she radiated was immense — not at all inferior to Whitman, the Tier 4 Archmage administrator of White River City. That was the terrifying thing about elves: a Tier 3 could casually wield Tier 4 magic.
"Of course, please follow me." The elf nodded and led Shi Feng up to the reception room on the third floor.
Inside the reception room, the elf promptly produced two lists for Shi Feng — one cataloging available plots of land in Thunder Axe City, the other listing premium shops. Both contained very little information; combined, there were fewer than fifty entries.
Any other player would have been stunned, because any typical NPC city offered hundreds of plots at minimum. Being shown fewer than fifty hardly seemed befitting a neutral mega-city of this caliber.
But Shi Feng was actually quite pleased.
Fifty was already a generous number. Thunder Axe City was special — you couldn't simply buy land whenever you pleased. This system went a long way toward preventing any single superpower from monopolizing everything, giving other factions and players at least a fighting chance.
"The status of a Bronze Legacy Holder in Thunder Axe City really is substantial," Shi Feng remarked with a touch of wonderment as he perused the list. "They're offering as many as nineteen premium shops at once?"
In his previous life, even after becoming a Baron of Thunder Axe City, the NPC had only presented him with twelve choices for premium shops.
Premium shops were a common fixture in neutral cities — essentially various establishments that NPCs had opened in Thunder Axe City, such as general stores, restaurants, blacksmithing workshops, and bars. They were also sold in the Sea of Trees, but no faction had been willing to buy them.
For one, the price of these premium shops was exorbitant.
For another, they weren't particularly useful, since they were designed to conduct business with NPCs, not players. The income earned through NPC transactions was a far cry from what could be made through player-to-player commerce.
However, Thunder Axe City was different. As a resource hub, it attracted a massive influx of neutral-race NPC merchants, and the local Giants themselves brought back ore and herbs from the Icefire Mountain Range. The assortment of rare items available here was extraordinary, and prices were considerably lower than on the player market. This made the premium shops in Thunder Axe City highly sought after — arguably the primary channel for acquiring resources from the city.
The reason factions were willing to pay the premium purchase price was that leased shops only generated gold and nothing else. All the major powers and individual players had no choice but to grit their teeth and buy, even though a premium shop in the outer district of Thunder Axe City started at a base price of twenty thousand gold…
"Every time I come to Thunder Axe City's City Hall, no matter how many times it's been, I can't help but feel like a pauper," Shi Feng sighed inwardly as he scanned the prices on the list.
Every single shop was over twenty thousand gold. A general store in the inner district ran forty thousand gold. A more broadly useful blacksmithing workshop cost fifty-three thousand gold. And these were all one-star shops. As far as he knew, two-star shops in Thunder Axe City started at a minimum of seventy thousand gold, with those in the inner district beginning at one hundred thousand gold. But in Thunder Axe City, shops rated two stars or above were rarely offered for sale at all.
Then, as Shi Feng's eyes reached the final entry on the premium shop list, the expression on his face froze in shock.
"No way! A two-star shop?!"