In the silent ancient hall, numerous stone pillars stood tall. Element Guardians of Level 70 and above patrolled the central area of the hall, preventing any player from approaching even a single step closer to the center. The closer one got to the central magic crystal pillars, the tighter the spacing between the Element Guardians became.
As soon as Shi Feng logged in, he resumed clearing out these Element Guardians.
The Black Water Guild's sudden trade offer and Zero Wing's explosive growth had made Shi Feng realize that the guild had already hit a bottleneck — pushing any further would be extremely difficult.
He had been laying the groundwork for Zero Wing all along, keeping recruitment standards extremely strict. But as Zero Wing's reputation grew, its territory expanded, and its membership swelled, the guild had inevitably reached the limit of what it could currently sustain.
Even an outsider like the Black Water Guild could see this clearly, which meant the other guilds almost certainly understood it too.
Generally, once a guild hit a development bottleneck, it would seek investment from major corporations and conglomerates — pumping in massive capital so that the rapid growth could continue unbroken.
The Shadow Guild from his previous life had followed exactly this path. Its breakneck expansion led to a severe funding shortage, and only after several large enterprises injected substantial capital was it able to keep developing, eventually becoming a second-tier guild at the time.
This was also the choice the vast majority of new guilds would make. The problem was that doing so meant surrendering slices of guild shares, diluting guild authority, and drastically weakening internal cohesion.
Of course, there was another option: maintain the status quo, or even reduce membership and slow down growth. Under normal circumstances, it wouldn't be the end of the world — you'd just get overtaken by other growing guilds. But now that the Auction House arena system had gone live, competition between factions had reached its absolute peak. It was literally a do-or-die situation; fall behind and you'd most likely be eliminated entirely.
Doing this now would amount to nothing more than a slow death for the guild.
So if he wanted to avoid scattering the guild's power and equity while still allowing Zero Wing to maintain its breakneck growth rate, there was only one path forward.
He had to earn massive funds through the Divine Realm!
In his previous life, Shi Feng hadn't possessed the ability or means to do this. Resources in the Divine Realm were hard-won; converting them into Credit Points would have been like killing the goose that laid the golden eggs.
But things were different now — especially after entering the Ancient God's Labyrinth. Shi Feng felt that generating massive revenue through the Divine Realm was no longer out of reach.
The answer lay in Element Cores!
Element Cores could be used to synthesize Element Crystals, but they could also be traded to the four-star traveling merchant in the Illusion Sea for Stamina Gems.
Stamina was critically important for every player, largely determining how long they could remain active in the field. Anything related to Stamina was therefore extremely valuable in the Divine Realm.
Stamina Gems could be embedded into a player's equipment to boost Stamina recovery speed. A single gem increased recovery by 7%, and the more you socketed, the faster the recovery. Unlike Stamina Potions that wore off after a set duration, these provided a permanent bonus.
They were arguably the single least depreciating commodity in the entire Divine Realm, because no matter what level a player reached, Stamina recovery was always needed — it would never become obsolete.
Stamina Gems couldn't simply be farmed as drops. They had to be redeemed from a traveling merchant of four-star rank or above. The required trade-in items varied depending on the merchant, and the four-star traveling merchant within the Illusion Sea — a secret realm in the Divine Realm — specifically accepted Element Cores as currency.
In his previous life, a handful of players had discovered this secret and struck it rich, hoovering up Element Cores across the Divine Realm, exchanging them for Stamina Gems in the Illusion Sea, and reselling them to other players. When later players caught on, the value of Element Cores skyrocketed.
Even apart from that, Element Cores were already highly valuable in their own right — they were extremely rare drops, never listed on the Auction House, and served as a strategic resource for all major guilds to convert into Element Crystals.
Now that he could obtain large quantities of Element Cores by killing Element Guardians, this was the perfect opportunity to make a fortune with Stamina Gems. After all, nobody had yet ventured into the Level 100 Illusion Sea, and Stamina Gems were something every player needed — especially expert players who would gladly pay any price for two or three gems, giving them a permanent 14% to 21% Stamina recovery advantage over other players and dramatically improving their field endurance.
With this in mind, Shi Feng furiously farmed the Element Guardians, activating Divine Blessing whenever he could. Killing a single Element Guardian took seven or eight minutes, and with Divine Blessing, an extra core or two might drop.
Though the process of killing Element Guardians was monotonous, for Shi Feng it also served as an excellent opportunity to hone his combat techniques.
High-mana environments were exceedingly rare in the Divine Realm, and one that surpassed Zero Wing City's was even harder to find. Here, he could use even Bronze Rank combat techniques and recover quickly without worrying about Stamina or mental energy failing to keep up.
Through continuous use of the Bronze Rank combat technique Sword Light Cycle, not only did his proficiency with it grow steadily, but the number of simultaneous attacks he could handle also increased.
Originally he could deal with three attacks at once. Gradually that became four, then five, and the power behind each use clearly improved dramatically.
After nearly two full days, he finally eliminated every last Element Guardian in the hall.
As he killed his way closer to the central magic crystal pillars, the spacing between Element Guardians grew tighter. A moment's carelessness would draw the aggro of two at once, drastically slowing his killing speed.
He had to dodge attacks from two Element Guardians simultaneously while striking back, which cut his efficiency sharply — the first one had taken over twenty minutes to bring down. But as his Sword Light Cycle improved, that time dropped to a mere thirteen or fourteen minutes, a remarkable gain.
All told, he killed over two hundred Element Guardians, obtaining 727 Element Cores along the way, plus 213 Epic-grade Armor Shards — enough to synthesize two full Epic-grade armor pieces.
Even Shi Feng was stunned by the haul.
Shura-grade was Shura-grade!
This was just a single hall within the Ancient God's Labyrinth, and he hadn't even dealt with the hall's guardian boss yet. Superpowers would be green with envy seeing these returns.
After organizing the loot, Shi Feng turned his gaze to the figure not far away — a towering form over five meters tall, sporting four arms, draped in a white robe, clutching a staff in one hand and a golden longsword in the other. An Element Praykeeper.
Before, Shi Feng hadn't felt confident about facing an Element Praykeeper. But now, with his Sword Light Cycle upgraded, he was filled with fighting spirit.
If he won, he'd obtain a bloodline comparable to a Legendary-grade item fragment!
Without hesitation, Shi Feng silently circled behind the Element Praykeeper, drew his dual swords, and unleashed Wind Chasing Sword — transforming into a black shadow that thrust straight at the Element Praykeeper's back.