"Even though you're an expert personally invited by Weiyang, there are still nine other members on this team, and every single one of them is an expert. If we gave you priority selection rights, it would be very unfair to the other experts. Besides, we're only commissioning your help — you won't be entitled to any of the drops," Zhuohai explained. "That's why our captain declined your offer. Of course, I can assure you, Chairman Black Flame, that the compensation for your help will be more than satisfactory."
"Our captain knows that Zero Wing recently recruited a number of newcomers from the outside world, and on top of that, Star Ring has been targeting you in reality. You must be urgently trying to cultivate a batch of strong fighters through the Tiandou Training Hall. Our captain is willing to offer thirty bottles of S-rank nutrient solution as compensation to help the Tiandou Training Hall develop strong fighters as quickly as possible."
"Thirty bottles of S-rank nutrient solution?" Water Rouge looked at Zhuohai, unable to hide the stirring in her heart.
She was no longer an ordinary guild executive who knew nothing of value — she was a core member of Zero Wing who fully understood the worth of S-rank nutrient solution.
Originally, S-rank nutrient solution had been the premier potion for healing and recovery, ideal for cultivating combat experts. But now, S-rank solution served a far broader purpose: through the intense battles within the Divine Realm, it was also an essential supplement to ensure the brain received the nutrition it needed for development.
She knew this from personal experience. Her rapid progress was in large part thanks to S-rank nutrient solution, and she was far from the only one. Fire Dance, Ziyan Liuyun, Ke Le, Jian Ying, Banxia Qingcheng, Wusheng Daoke, and others in the guild had all benefited in the same way.
S-rank nutrient solution was perpetually scarce — generally, one could only obtain it through internal connections. With her own background combined with Bai Qingxue's, they had managed to procure just over a dozen bottles between them. And those dozen-plus bottles, along with the ones provided by the White Tiger Martial Arts Hall, had long since been used up. That was why their rate of improvement had gradually slowed down recently.
If she could get her hands on another thirty bottles of S-rank nutrient solution, combined with the training slots granted by the War Soul League, she was confident that within ten days to two weeks she could step into the Flowing Water Realm. And she wouldn't be the only one — Bai Qingxue would likely reach the Flowing Water Realm as well, instantly adding multiple Flowing Water Realm experts to Zero Wing's roster.
"Chairman Black Flame, this is our sincerest offer. What is your decision?" Bingying turned to Shi Feng and asked.
Finding an expert who had reached the Consummate realm was no easy feat. Even they had only recently entered that domain, let alone other experts.
Now that she knew Shi Feng had reached the Consummate realm, she naturally wanted to bring him on board. However, the team had ultimately been assembled by the captain, and the captain was determined to claim whatever lay within the Mystic Thunder Ruins — he would not allow anyone else to lay hands on it. There was nothing she could do about that.
Still, thirty bottles of S-rank nutrient solution was an exceptionally generous price. Even inviting the old monsters from the superpowers wouldn't command that kind of fee.
Of course, inviting those old monsters would mean alerting the superpowers to the existence of the Mystic Thunder Ruins, which was far from ideal.
Naturally, if Shi Feng refused, they would have no choice but to resort to Plan B and seek help from those old monsters of the superpowers. By then, they would have already claimed whatever they needed from the Mystic Thunder Ruins, so they wouldn't care as much about the superpowers gaining entry.
"An offer that's truly hard to refuse. Fine, I accept," Shi Feng nodded with a wry smile.
At the same time, he found himself deeply curious about the captain Zhuohai kept mentioning. Producing thirty bottles of S-rank nutrient solution at once — that level of spending was staggeringly generous. And their intelligence network was remarkably sharp. He had only just resolved the Tiandou Training Hall situation, yet this person already knew about his predicament and understood exactly what he needed most. Impressive, to say the least.
As for the guild's advanced alchemy lab, he would have to find another solution for that later. Besides, there was no guarantee that going to the Mystic Thunder Ruins would actually yield a design blueprint — the drop rate for such items was extremely low. The Mystic Thunder Ruins merely had a chance of dropping one, not a one-hundred-percent guarantee. His earlier claim had just been a precaution.
Shortly after, Shi Feng signed a contract with Zhuohai and the others. If he completed the mission, he would receive thirty bottles of S-rank nutrient solution. Even if the mission ended in failure, he was guaranteed a minimum of ten bottles.
After the contract was signed, Zhuohai produced a crystal stone crackling with electric arcs from his inventory. The crystal was covered in golden divine runes, radiating a faint aura of divine might.
Zhuohai hurled the crystal stone to the ground, and the space within the great hall immediately convulsed with violent fluctuations. The space shattered, forming a black void large enough for a person to walk through.
"This is your pass. Let's go," Zhuohai said, producing a token crafted from magic crystals and handing it to Shi Feng before leading the way into the black void.
Shi Feng took the pass to the Mystic Thunder Ruins and followed without hesitation. As for Zero Wing's affairs and the arrangements ahead, he left everything in Water Rouge and Bai Qingxue's hands.
The moment he stepped through the black void, Shi Feng felt his vision blur, and he suddenly found himself standing on a desolate wasteland ravaged by a maelstrom of lightning and fire. The barren plain stretched endlessly in every direction. Terrific bolts of thunder periodically crashed down from the sky, blasting massive craters into the ground, while pillars of fire erupted from below without warning. The entire landscape looked like the end of the world.
Whether it was the lightning or the fire pillars, even a completely ordinary person would understand at a glance that being struck by either one meant certain death.