In the elegant and refined reception hall, Shi Feng swiftly drew up contracts with the representatives of the various guilds.
As long as they joined the Candlelight Trading Company, every three days they could participate in the Azure Light auctions. Guilds that had already won an auction could not bid again. The quantity on offer ranged from three to five sets per item, and there were other rare goods available as well—stamina elixirs, stamina gems, high-grade magic armor plates, rare master-tier potions, and more. Depending on one's contribution to the Candlelight Trading Company, there were even small bolt-action ballistae for sale.
This left every guild present beside themselves with joy, especially the small and mid-sized ones. At this point, whether they could secure a temporary foothold in Stone Forest City no longer mattered nearly as much as obtaining these items from Zero Wing.
In just three short hours, nearly two hundred guilds had signed contracts with Zero Wing and become members of the Candlelight Trading Company. Among them, the two major superpowers—Tiger Shine and Unyielding War Soul—promptly signed on as high-tier members, because both organizations had offered prices that even Shi Feng could not refuse.
Tiger Shine not only opened up markets across two full kingdoms, but also provided an entire set of Minute Truth inheritance materials along with a large quantity of exclusive resources. On top of that, they agreed to jointly defend Stone Forest City.
Unyielding War Soul, while only opening one kingdom and a portion of the Dark Night Empire's market, offered partial data on the Flowing Realm and relevant energy equipment. They also provided ten unrestricted training slots, allowing Minute Truth masters to freely spar against simulated opponents, accumulating experience in the fastest possible way to break through to the Flowing Realm.
These unrestricted training slots were nothing like the ones offered by the Heavenly Secret Pavilion. Trainees could fight whatever kind of Minute Truth or Flowing Realm opponent they wanted, unlike at the Heavenly Secret Pavilion, where they had to earn their own points.
The reason the Heavenly Secret Pavilion didn't operate the same way was simple—doing so would consume far too much energy.
High-grade energy was rare to begin with, and its uses were extremely wide-ranging. It was also strictly controlled, and even major conglomerates could only obtain limited quantities. The energy required to power simulated opponents was far from trivial, and the stronger the opponent, the more energy was consumed. Not even the Heavenly Secret Pavilion dared let all of its training members fight without restriction, so it had adopted an elite strategy instead, funneling the greatest resources toward true geniuses.
If Unyielding War Soul hadn't desperately needed a temporary foothold in Stone Forest City this time, they never would have offered these ten unrestricted slots, allowing Minute Truth masters to grind experience freely and ascend to the Flowing Realm.
Of course, Unyielding War Soul had also recognized that Zero Wing currently had far too few capable experts on hand, especially when it came to Flowing Realm and Void Realm masters. Compared to an ordinary superpower, Zero Wing's roster was practically embarrassing.
Naturally, Shi Feng was more than willing. Right now, a great number of experts in his guild were stuck at the Minute Truth stage. It wasn't that people like Waterless Rose, Bai Qingxue, Fire Dance, Ziyan Liuyun, Sword Shadow, Flying Shadow, Midsummer Citytopple, Ke Le, and the others lacked talent—it was that they simply hadn't accumulated enough combat experience. Unlike Shi Feng, who had built up vast experience in the Divine Realm and could therefore advance smoothly from Minute Truth to Flowing Realm without obstacle.
With Unyielding War Soul's training support, Waterless Rose and the others would surely become Flowing Realm masters in short order. The benefit this would bring to Zero Wing was enormous—arguably even greater than the complete Minute Truth inheritance that Tiger Shine had provided.
But in this round of cooperation, the greatest gain for Zero Wing wasn't any of these things. It was the influx of small guilds, which suddenly expanded the Candlelight Trading Company's channels to twelve kingdoms and three great empires. Perhaps these channels weren't as comprehensive as what Tiger Shine and Unyielding War Soul offered—only a portion of each territory—but for Zero Wing, that was more than sufficient.
One could say that the sheer scope of channel coverage alone already surpassed that of an ordinary superpower. The major superpowers would no longer be able to blockade Zero Wing's economy in the slightest.
The only reason the superpowers had been able to strangle Zero Wing's economy before was because Zero Wing's coverage had been so limited, making it easy to target. But now, with channels spanning over a dozen kingdoms and three great empires, even if the superpowers wanted to, they would lack both the means and the will.
Moreover, material procurement had become far easier. They were no longer at anyone's mercy. As long as a material wasn't ultra-rare, a single request could secure a massive supply. This was an enormous boost for the Candlelight Trading Company.
Once the contracts were signed, Shi Feng handed off all follow-up coordination to Waterless Rose and Bai Qingxue, while he himself threw himself into the construction of Stone Forest City and the recruitment of NPCs.
Although Stone Forest City had been open for less than a day, over a million players had already flooded in. If not for the harsh environment and difficulty of the Abyssal Barrier, the city would likely have swelled to five or six million residents by now.
Still, the arrival of over a million players made Shi Feng understand firsthand what it meant to count money until your hands cramped.
"No wonder guilds that owned cities in the Abyssal Barrier grew so fast in my previous life. This money-making speed is faster than robbery." Shi Feng stared at Stone Forest City's revenue to date, his heart filled with astonishment.
At four silver coins per person, entry fees alone brought in 51,204 gold—not to mention the players joining the arena and the Auction House. Without even factoring in shop revenues, the net daily income exceeded one hundred thousand gold. That was something even top-tier first-rate guilds couldn't dream of matching, and only the superpowers could rival it.
And this was only the beginning. As more and more players made their way to Stone Forest City, even after deducting the Heavenly Secret Pavilion's share, daily earnings would likely surpass two hundred thousand gold.
Keep in mind that an ordinary superpower being able to produce two hundred thousand gold in one go was considered impressive. Accumulating five or sixty thousand gold took quite some time for them. Yet Stone Forest City's future net daily income would exceed two hundred thousand gold—five or sixty thousand gold in just three days. If it came to a war of attrition against an ordinary superpower, the sheer financial pressure alone would bring them to tears.
As for the debts owed for the airship and other facilities, those were no longer a problem.
Suddenly having this much money on hand set Shi Feng's mind racing, filling it with plans he hadn't dared entertain before.
Previously, without adequate funds, many plans had been impossible to attempt—even the guild's growth had been stymied. But now, with the income from Stone Forest City, he could not only push into the Dark Night Empire but finally begin investing seriously in Silverwing Town and Lost Town as well.
For the development of a guild city, the biggest constraints were usually population and popularity. But for Zero Wing, the bottleneck had always been the one thing superpowers had in abundance—money.
Before long, Shi Feng poured the freshly acquired gold into Stone Forest City's construction. Shops, inns, restaurants, taverns, blacksmith workshops, and private residences rose up one after another. Recruiting NPC guards was effortless as well, and the equipment he issued them was Gold Essence-tier, meaning even a basic Tier 2 guard could easily dispatch any current Tier 2 expert, making even the best players today think twice before engaging head-on.
Dark Gold equipment, however, was far too expensive at fifteen hundred gold per set. Shi Feng equipped only the ten most promising Tier 2 NPCs with it. With that gear, even monster-tier experts would have to flee if they encountered one of them in a one-on-one situation. And if three or four such Tier 2 NPC guards surrounded you, there was no escape.
As Shi Feng devoted himself fully to developing and constructing Stone Forest City, news of the Candlelight Trading Company's establishment spread to the ears of the major powers across every kingdom and empire—especially the superpowers—sending shockwaves through them all.