The moment the system announcement went out across the Divine Realm, players everywhere erupted into excitement. Everyone was buzzing with curiosity about the Auction Arena system, and every major power immediately launched their own investigations.
The arrival of a new system was an opportunity for all players.
But for the great powers, its significance ran far deeper — it meant a massive reshuffling of the Divine Realm's power structure. Naturally, it commanded everyone's utmost attention.
"It's starting this soon?" Shi Feng frowned slightly as he read the system announcement.
After White River City's promotion, he had already known it wouldn't be long before the Auction Arena system went live, but he hadn't expected it to come this quickly.
Though the Auction Arena's launch didn't generate the same fanfare as a major Divine Realm system update, its influence far surpassed any ordinary patch.
The reason was simple: it concerned control over NPC cities. Players could now gain actual control of NPC cities — specifically, control over a city's economy.
Once a player faction seized control of an NPC city's economy, it became incredibly difficult for rival powers to challenge that city's standing. Moreover, obtaining a city's Auction House meant access to enormous revenue streams. The larger a city's player population, the greater the profits.
As a result, the Auction Arena's opening immediately sent shockwaves throughout the entire Divine Realm. One could even say it heralded the dawn of an entirely new era. At the same time, competition between the great powers only intensified.
And this was no ordinary intensification. Not only would the dark forces be joining the fray, but even the major adventurer teams would throw their hats in the ring. After all, controlling a city's Auction House required no guild qualification and no need to defend anything — even a single player could secure one and earn vast sums of money. Who wouldn't want a piece of that?
In past conflicts between major powers, each faction had always kept things within limits, avoiding anything that might cripple them fundamentally. But the Auction Arena's opening would drive these powers to fight with everything they had. Even those major guilds that had never dared to challenge a superpower would now strike without hesitation.
The true battle for dominance in the Divine Realm had only just begun!
After completing the shop ownership transfer paperwork with Hundred Blossoms Palace, Shi Feng used a Return Scroll to head straight back to White River City, not lingering in Silver Pine City for even a moment.
Star Moon Kingdom, White River City.
The instant Shi Feng stepped out of the teleportation magic array, he noticed that even more players had flooded into White River City. Despite the teleportation hall having already been expanded across several floors, every inch of visible space was packed with players. Merchant players and life-profession players in particular had increased significantly.
But more noteworthy than those were the players from various major powers who had come to White River City — they were the real majority.
"So they've all come to gather intelligence."
Shi Feng glanced across the hall at the numerous players clad in black cloaks. Under the All-Seeing Eye's observation, those black cloaks were as good as invisible — he could clearly make out the guild emblems pinned to their gear. Many of these guilds weren't even from the Star Moon Kingdom. They hailed from other kingdoms and empires, and some even belonged to superpowers or dark guilds.
Across the entire Divine Realm, only a hundred NPC cities had currently been promoted to the level required to open an Auction Arena. On average, each kingdom or empire didn't even get one.
White River City was one of them. If the major powers wanted to learn anything about the Auction Arena, they had no choice but to visit a promoted Auction House — and White River City naturally became their target of investigation.
Shi Feng then made his way to a high-end restaurant located inside the teleportation hall. In a VIP private room, Melancholic Smile had already been waiting for some time with over thirty merchant players in tow.
"Guild Master, every two-star merchant member you asked me to recruit is here," Melancholic Smile reported in a hushed voice as Shi Feng walked in.
"Good. Starting now, have them memorize every material on this list. Then use this Thunder Axe Crystal to send them all to Thunder Axe City. Tell them to acquire as many of these materials as they can from NPC merchants — buy everything available." Shi Feng nodded and handed Melancholic Smile a materials list along with a Thunder Axe Crystal.
The battle for the Auction Arena didn't rely solely on players' combat strength — resources played a massive role as well. Resources could be spent to boost a player's capabilities during the competition, starting with something as fundamental as equipment tier unlocks.
In the Auction Arena, players' equipment was subject to restrictions. Any gear above Gold-grade would be capped at Gold-grade. To unlock higher equipment tiers, players had to spend resources — and that was precisely why resource accumulation was so decisive to victory.
With enough elite players and resources, a faction could seize control of more NPC cities.
But not just any resources would do. Ordinary rare ores and materials were useless — the Auction Arena only accepted Epic-grade materials. This was exactly why the great superpowers held such an advantage in the Auction Arena.
Epic-grade materials generally only dropped from fifty-man team dungeons on Hard difficulty or above. However, hundred-man and two-hundred-man team dungeons guaranteed such drops.
Average major guilds could manage fifty-man team dungeons without too much trouble, but hundred-man Hard-difficulty dungeons were a different story — only a select few teams within a guild, typically the main raid force, could handle them. The superpowers, on the other hand, could field far more teams capable of such content. In terms of resource accumulation, ordinary guilds simply couldn't compete.
Zero Wing's top-tier field combat strength was formidable, but when it came to the number of teams that could clear hundred-man team dungeons, they trailed far behind the superpowers.
That said, there were other ways to obtain Epic-grade materials.
One such method involved merchant players trading with special NPC merchants. It was time-consuming and required the player merchants to have reached two-star status, but cities like Thunder Axe City — massive neutral metropolises — housed plenty of special NPC merchants, making them ideal venues for acquiring Epic-grade materials.
Originally, Shi Feng had planned to use two-star Blacksmithing Workshops to gradually accumulate Epic-grade materials from NPCs — a far easier approach than having merchant players negotiate with NPC merchants. But now that the Auction Arena had opened, every little bit counted. After all, once the Auction Arena went live, the battle for the Auction Houses wouldn't be far behind.
Shi Feng instructed Melancholic Smile to send people to various cities to collect Epic-grade materials. Although the major powers wouldn't sell their Epic-grade materials to outsiders, it was worth buying up as much as possible.
After sorting out the Thunder Axe City operation and the Epic-grade material collection, Shi Feng also had Water Crimson Rose and the others shift their focus toward clearing hundred-man team dungeons. He then returned to a Forging Room in the Eternal Flame Commerce Guild, retrieved the Ancient God's Key from his inventory, and examined it closely.
He hadn't used it before because he wanted to bring his combat strength to its absolute peak first. Using the Ancient God's Key prematurely would have been a waste of a precious opportunity — the kind that even the great superpowers in the Divine Realm rarely encountered more than a handful of times. Now, however, his strength had been raised to its limit, and the key's expiration window was nearly up.
After clicking on the Ancient God's Key crafted from Crimson Sunstone, a silver-white magic array materialized beneath Shi Feng's feet. The terrifying magical energy it condensed was so intense that space itself seemed to freeze. After persisting for several moments, Shi Feng's entire figure dissolved into a streak of black light and vanished from the Forging Room.