Chapter 2575: Enemy of Darkness, the Tower of Ancient Gods

Stone Forest City, top-floor reception room of the Freedom Inn.

The spacious, luxuriously appointed reception room was dead silent. The female knight from Dark Rhapsody and Elder Jin from the Divine Alliance sat on the sofas without saying a word, while their respective guilds' subordinates — Flash and Old Lin among them — stood off to the side, stunned. The atmosphere in the hall was indescribably awkward.

How humiliating!

They had been absolutely certain that their last encounter with Shi Feng would truly be their last — that they would never see him again, let alone have any opportunity to cooperate with their two great guilds. That had been nothing more than a pipe dream.

Yet here they were, having come to him of their own accord after what couldn't have been more than a day or two.

And both of their guilds had completely dismissed what Shi Feng had said at the time, thinking he must have gone mad to make such grandiose proclamations. But those grandiose proclamations had come true anyway.

Now Zero Wing controlled the Dark World's teleportation gate — it held the lifeline of every Dark World player's development. Any guild or player in the Dark World that wanted to progress faster had no choice but to enter the Cold Spring Great Forest.

But the teleportation fees Zero Wing had set were nothing short of highway robbery.

One Dark Magic Crystal per person — or a specialized-attribute Magic Crystal of equivalent value…

Specialized-attribute Magic Crystals were far rarer than ordinary ones, especially those of elements other than darkness. And Dark Magic Crystals were a consumable that Dark World players needed in massive quantities to advance — every major power and independent player already felt they never had enough. Being asked to hand them over as a teleportation fee was practically a death sentence.

But there was nothing they could do about it — they couldn't beat Zero Wing.

To properly manage the gate, Zero Wing had not only erected a permanent magic barrier around it, but stationed two Crimson Dragon airships and eight war golems there on a full-time basis. On top of that, six hundred Third Class NPC knights and two thousand Second Class NPC knights provided additional support. The defensive force was absolutely insane.

With that kind of power, sneaking through the gate was out of the question. Even sending an army of ten to twenty thousand Third Class experts to attack it would be useless, let alone whatever the Dark World's major powers could muster…

The only option was to meekly hand over the specialized-attribute Magic Crystals.

The group had not been waiting long when the reception room doors burst open, and a figure they all recognized appeared before them — Shi Feng, Guild Master of Zero Wing, the monster who had single-handedly intimidated millions of Dark World troops with one sword.

But seeing Shi Feng again now, whether it was the female knight or Flash and the others, every single one of them felt that he was an entirely different person.

The aura emanating from Shi Feng now was nothing like what he had projected before the teleportation gate. He seemed no different from an ordinary player — completely without imposing presence, utterly harmless at first glance. Exactly as he had seemed when they first met him.

Yet looking at him now, all they felt was a deep, instinctive wariness.

Because Shi Feng no longer felt like a person at all. He was more like a plant — as though he barely existed. They simply hadn't paid close enough attention before, dismissing him as just another face in the crowd.

"I hear you've conveyed my proposal quite thoroughly to your respective guild masters. So — how do the two guilds intend to cooperate with our Zero Wing?" Shi Feng looked at the female knight and Elder Jin as they rose to their feet, gestured for them to sit back down without standing on ceremony, and asked with a smile.

Flash and the others inwardly rolled their eyes.

Thoroughly conveyed? That was an understatement. It had been seared into their bones — something they would never forget for as long as they lived.