The top floor of the Dragon Phoenix Hall's manor originally had enough space to seat fifty or sixty people. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, one could take in the entirety of Twilight City's skyline — a luxurious reception hall in every respect. Yet at this moment, only three people sat inside.
Aside from Feng Qianyu and Shi Feng, there was only Qing Huang, Feng Qianyu's most trusted confidant. In terms of privacy and security, this arrangement surpassed even the Dragon Phoenix Hall's council of elders.
The elders who had followed them earlier had all made themselves scarce, with no intention of interfering in the two's transaction. Moreover, with Ke Le, Yan Tianxing, and three other third-tier experts with exceptionally sharp senses standing guard outside the hall, even if some people in the Dragon Phoenix Hall wanted to eavesdrop on what was happening inside, they were powerless to do so.
"Guild Leader Black Flame, I really have to thank you for your support this time. Otherwise, all those elders in the guild would have sided with the Nine Dragons Emperor." Feng Qianyu glanced at the ten sets of Twelve Elemental Pillars arranged on the table and said, "You should put away these precious ancient magic scrolls quickly. Normally, storing magic scrolls properly won't cause them any harm, but these scrolls are extremely old. If they're not carefully preserved, the magic formations inscribed inside could be damaged, and then the losses would far outweigh the gains."
In the Divine Realm, magic scrolls generally wouldn't deteriorate as long as they weren't used. But some ancient scrolls were a different matter entirely.
Over time, once the durability of certain ancient magic scrolls fell below a certain threshold, their effects would begin to degrade. Carrying them around, moving them from place to place — all of that could cause their durability to drop to some degree.
Earlier, Shi Feng had tossed these ancient scrolls casually on the ground to slap the Nine Dragons Emperor in the face. Now he had left them sitting out in the open again, which could easily cause further durability loss.
As for Shi Feng's claim that he intended to sell these magic scrolls, in her view, he had only said so to maintain control of the situation. After all, advanced ancient magic scrolls were no ordinary scrolls. They were relics passed down from antiquity. Assembling even a single complete set was extraordinarily difficult. Even the Dragon Phoenix Hall had never managed to collect a full set, let alone ten.
Right now, every major superpower was frantically pushing into the hundred-level neutral zones. Ten sets of Twelve Elemental Pillars would be an enormous boost to any faction. If Zero Wing really did sell these scrolls to her, the loss to Zero Wing would be staggering.
"I won't be taking them back," Shi Feng shook his head. "These ten sets of Twelve Elemental Pillars were what I originally intended to sell to you, Pavilion Master Feng."
"You really do intend to sell them?" Feng Qianyu looked at Shi Feng's serious expression, feeling a small jolt of surprise. She couldn't help but try to dissuade him. "These are ten sets of advanced ancient magic barrier scrolls. At a minimum, they can handle ten hundred-level Legendary monsters. If you find the right bosses, they could massively boost the strength of your main raid team. If you're worried about the Nine Dragons Emperor's side, you can rest easy — I still have a few sets of advanced magic barrier scrolls in reserve. Dealing with anything from the Nine Dragons Emperor won't be a problem."
The entire Dragon Phoenix Hall knew that this transaction was only happening because Shi Feng was willing to sell advanced magic barrier scrolls on her personal account. As for how many she purchased and how she personally used them, no outsider had any right to interfere. Worst case, she could sell the few sets of advanced magic barrier scrolls she had been hoarding to the guild, buy some breathing room, and raise her flying mount. Once that was done, she could venture into the hundred-level neutral zones to gather even more resources.
Whether she actually used the ten sets of Twelve Elemental Pillars or not would be difficult for anyone to verify. After all, the members of her team were all absolutely loyal to her. Coupled with the resources obtained through the flying mount, handling those guild elders would be entirely manageable.
Qing Huang, standing nearby, also nodded in firm agreement. Shi Feng had already done them an enormous favor this time. There was no way they could let him take an even greater loss.
"You're really overthinking this, Pavilion Master Feng. I came here this time purely to do business." Seeing the two of them wearing expressions that clearly said "Don't worry about it," Shi Feng didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
When it came to something like the Twelve Elemental Pillars, he had planned from the very beginning to sell them to outside parties. He just didn't intend to sell them on a large scale — he would only select a handful of allied factions to deal with.
This way, he could ensure to the greatest extent that the Twelve Elemental Pillars wouldn't leak out and become assets for enemy forces, while simultaneously generating massive amounts of resources and gold for Zero Wing.
The truth was, crafting the Twelve Elemental Pillars required enormous quantities of elemental crystals and magic cores. Both of these materials were strategic assets for the guild and generally not sold externally — only a small portion could be purchased on the market, and acquiring them in bulk was simply impossible.
So to produce the Twelve Elemental Pillars in large quantities, he would have to trade for the materials from other factions. And right now, he was desperately short on magic crystals and gold. Magic crystals in particular — even though he had a vein that could be mined, his current demand far outstripped what both the mine and Zero Wing's income could provide.
The teleportation gates between the eastern and western continents consumed a staggering number of magic crystals. And on the western continent, magic crystals were far more precious and scarce than they were in the east. They were absolute hard currency. If he wanted to obtain the rare materials needed to forge hundred-level advanced weapons and equipment on the western continent, doing so without a massive supply of magic crystals was utterly impossible.
Of course, he could take some materials unique to the eastern continent and sell them on the western side. But those exclusive materials were equally precious in the east, and the major superpowers controlled most of them. He could only get his hands on a limited amount, since the superpowers that operated across both continents routinely used these materials as the foundation of their trade with one another.
After weighing every option, magic crystals were the only viable path.
"Guild Leader Black Flame, you really can provide these Twelve Elemental Pillars in large quantities?" Qing Huang looked at Shi Feng's somewhat helpless expression and still couldn't quite believe what she was hearing.