The Sea of Illusions, Bihu City.
Shi Feng, disguised as a level-61 Swordsman, strolled along the city's main streets. The Sea of Illusions was nothing like the kingdoms and empires of the Divine Realm — it was a neutral zone governed by a Merchant Alliance, dominated mostly by ocean territory, with only a handful of cities dotting the land. The vast majority of its towns and settlements were scattered across islands in the sea.
Because of this, the players who willingly came to the Sea of Illusions were almost exclusively merchant players and freelancers. Guild powers had no interest in coming here. The major cities were all controlled by adventurer teams.
And Bihu City ranked first among all the cities in the Sea of Illusions.
Any merchant player or freeloader visiting for the first time would be stunned by the scenery.
The streets were overwhelmingly populated by merchant players, with freelancers making up the rest. Players wearing guild emblems were exceedingly rare.
"Bulk purchasing Sea Race weapons! Fifty silver coins per piece! Also selling Purple Fire Crystals!"
"Bulk sale of Ocean Pearls! Five percent off for purchases of a hundred or more!"
"Urgent sale — three Sea Race weapons, one gold and seventy silver, take them now!"
……
Stalls lined both sides of the street, their hawkers calling out in a cacophony. The variety of goods on display was staggering, nothing at all like the cities of the kingdoms and empires.
"Sea Race weapons?" Shi Feng heard the shouts from the stalls on either side and came to a halt.
He vaguely remembered that in his previous life, Sea Race weapons had been wildly popular in the Divine Realm for a time — they were once the single most sought-after weapons for players who ventured onto the seas.
The reason was simple: Sea Race weapons were special. Players could commission an NPC Blacksmith in the Sea of Illusions to convert Sea Race weapons into player-usable weapons that were far more powerful in maritime combat. Generally speaking, for weapons of the same quality, a weapon crafted from Sea Race materials could boost a player's combat power by fifteen to twenty percent — an enormous advantage.
However, crafting high-quality maritime weapons was no easy task. The process had only a chance of success. For instance, crafting a level-60 Mithril-grade weapon required three Sea Race weapons and carried only a fifty percent success rate. Crafting a level-60 Gold-grade weapon required five level-60 Sea Race weapons, and the success rate dropped to just thirty percent — and for Adamantite-grade, it was even worse. Moreover, the higher the level of the weapon being crafted, the lower the success rate for the same quality tier. Since Sea Race weapons only had a chance of dropping from level-50-plus Sea Race creatures, finished weapons on the market were extremely expensive.
Beyond crafting maritime weapons, Sea Race weapons had another known use in Shi Feng's knowledge.
Exchanging for Secret Arts!
Secret Arts were extraordinarily rare in the Divine Realm — even rarer than Combat Techniques. They provided players with a significant boost, functioning as a form of ability burst. However, unlike burst skills that could only be used in limited circumstances, the nature of a Secret Art was very close to a Combat Technique — it could be used freely at will, even while under magic-sealing conditions.
The only cost was the player's stamina and mental strength, and the more powerful the Secret Art, the greater the consumption. Additionally, unlike Combat Techniques that a player had to master before use, a Secret Art could be employed immediately upon acquisition, though the energy expenditure was far greater.
There was also one major drawback: if a player was killed, their Secret Art was guaranteed to drop!
Even so, Secret Arts remained the coveted prize of countless experts across the Divine Realm, because the advantages they granted were immense.
The boost from a Secret Art was fundamentally different from a stat increase — it was a qualitative transformation of the body, an explosive release of a player's potential. It made them not only stronger but also allowed them to perceive their own weaknesses far more clearly.
For all these reasons, Secret Arts were something countless players desperately desired, their value far exceeding that of Combat Techniques.
And Sea Race weapons could be exchanged for Secret Arts — though the quantity was very limited and the exchange process was a complicated matter.