"Your speed is incredible!" Shi Feng looked at the smiling Bai Qingxue with some surprise.
He had only notified Bai Qingxue and the others to return a few hours ago, and he hadn't expected that she would have already gathered everyone back at Dragon Heart City.
The Tidal Vortex was located in the central region of the Sea of Death — even flying mounts would need a long time to make the trip, let alone bringing a hundred-person team back to Dragon Heart City.
"It would have taken a few more hours, but on our way out, we killed a level 95 Legendary boss. That boss dropped a two-headed wyvern, and Ke Le ended up snatching it. That let us get back much faster," Bai Qingxue said with some excitement.
She had already experienced firsthand the power and benefits of flying mounts.
Now having gained another flying mount, it was a tremendous boost to the team.
"A two-headed wyvern? Your luck is insane — hitting even that one percent chance," Shi Feng said, genuinely surprised.
The Legendary bosses inside the Tidal Vortex could indeed drop flying mounts, and it was one of the rare ways to obtain a Transcendent-rank flying mount. But that one percent drop rate was something ordinary people could never count on.
He hadn't expected that Bai Qingxue's group would manage to get one from just a single trip to the Tidal Vortex.
"That's all thanks to Hei Zi's lucky hands — he opened the loot and got the flying mount right away," Bai Qingxue said with a smile. "Guild Master, I heard the Blood Battle Adventurer Team has declared all-out war on us at Zero Wing. Are we getting ready to move?"
If they had encountered the Blood Battle Adventurer Team before heading to the Tidal Vortex, it would have given her a serious headache. But now that Ke Le had a two-headed wyvern, and with Shi Feng's Thunder Eagle, that made three flying mounts.
Flying mounts already held an enormous advantage at sea. If all three were deployed together, they could even take on a fleet — after all, three flying mounts could carry sixty people. A single raid could easily wipe out the players aboard three Bronze-grade speedboats.
Currently, there weren't many Bronze-grade speedboats in the Sea of Death's fleets. A few more raids like that could cripple the core fighting strength of an entire fleet.
Even if Zero Wing might not be able to establish a permanent foothold in the Sea of Death, the Blood Battle Adventurer Team would certainly suffer greatly.
"No — our current target is to first capture the Northern Fortress in the Core Mountain Range," Shi Feng understood what Bai Qingxue meant, but shook his head. "Go to the entrance inside the Tower of Worlds first. I'll head over shortly."
Using the high mobility of flying mounts against the Blood Battle Adventurer Team could indeed cause them significant trouble, but it would also slow down their own development. The trade-off simply wasn't worth it.
Battles between factions always came down to resources and top players, so securing the Northern Fortress first was the way to go.
"Capturing a fortress?" Bai Qingxue paused in surprise, then broke into a smile. She, Ke Le, and the others had been dying to show Shi Feng how strong they had become. "Alright, we'll head over right away."
Shi Feng ended the communication and set off directly for the Tower of Worlds.
Tower of Worlds, Underground Level One.
Thanks to Feng Qianyu's summons, the entrance hall on the underground level of the Tower of Worlds was packed with experts from the Dragon Phoenix Pavilion. Players who had come to the Core Mountain Range couldn't help but stare in shock.
"Why are there so many Dragon Phoenix Pavilion experts?"
"The Dragon Phoenix Pavilion is terrifying — the lowest level among these people is 86. Our thousand-person adventurer team doesn't even have ten people at level 86, and there are seven or eight thousand from the Dragon Phoenix Pavilion here!"
"That's nothing. Look at their equipment — every single piece is level 85 Mythril-rank gear. Some are even wearing level 85 Dark Gold equipment. I'm considered a pretty solid expert in my own guild, and I only have a few pieces of level 85 Mythril. Everything else I have is level 80. It's just not fair."
"Gathering this many people — what do you think the Dragon Phoenix Pavilion is planning? A quest?"
The various faction experts and free players present buzzed with discussion as they watched the Dragon Phoenix Pavilion elites converge. It was rare to see elites of this caliber gathered together, and the sudden assembly had everyone's imaginations running wild.
"Sister Qianyu, we've reached nine thousand so far. The rest should arrive in two or three hours," Qing Huang approached Feng Qianyu, who was organizing supplies, and said with some concern. "But the Nine Dragons Emperor's side has already gotten wind of this."
"If they know, they know. Something this big could never escape their notice," Feng Qianyu nodded, not the least bit surprised. "As long as we capture the Northern Fortress before the Nine Dragons Emperor can mobilize his forces, that's all that matters."
Information leaks were common among the major factions. With so many people involved in the operation, keeping everything under wraps was simply impossible. All they could do was race against time.
At the Thirteen Royal Courts Guild headquarters in Dragon Heart City, the news that Zero Wing and Feng Qianyu had joined forces to capture the Northern Fortress now sat on the guild master's desk.
"This Black Flame never fails to do something unexpected," Guild Master Li Hen looked at the document in his hand and asked with a smile, "Yi Yun, what do you think about this?"
Back then, he had seen great potential in Shi Feng and had specifically invited Zero Wing to join the plan to capture the fortress. Unfortunately, things hadn't gone as planned.