Torey's harsh words sent a chill through everyone in the hall. Even the ambient magic seemed to respond to his fury, growing icy cold. In an instant, everyone present felt as though a massive mountain had been placed on their shoulders — an indescribable heaviness bearing down on their entire bodies. Some of the newer players who had only just entered the Detail stage couldn't even move...
The third-rank assassin who had come to report also felt a wave of pressure, an instinctive fear rising from the depths of his heart. If he hadn't been certain that Coach Torey's anger wasn't directed at him, he would have turned and fled on the spot.
"Coach Torey actually thinks that highly of Gu Han and the others?" Silent Red Star, standing to the side, watched Coach Torey's icy expression with considerable surprise.
Coach Torey had stopped teaching years ago — a full decade, in fact. The last batch of newcomers he had mentored included their squad leader from that era, who had also been Torey's most prized disciple. He had even gone to great lengths to find the Torchbearer back then, hoping to have the Torchbearer provide some guidance to the squad leader.
Now, suddenly being willing to teach both Gu Han and Yan Xiaoqian — this had shocked the entire guild's upper echelon.
She had originally assumed that Coach Torey was doing it as a courtesy to the Zeus Financial Group, but it seemed he genuinely wanted to teach the two of them. Otherwise, the perpetually composed Coach Torey would never have taken his anger out on others.
"Coach Torey, driving them off just like that might not sit well. That Zero Wing guild may not have much of a presence on the Western Continent, but on the Eastern Continent, they can go toe-to-toe with quite a few superpowers. They even control the teleportation gate to the Dark World. Their guild master came here in person — at least meeting with them would be the proper thing to do." Wild Fire Berserker hurriedly tried to persuade the seething Coach Torey.
Even though Zero Wing didn't operate on the Western Continent, as a veteran superguild, Sword of Violet had at least done their research on Zero Wing. And even if they hadn't wanted to, it would have been difficult to avoid — after all, Zero Wing had been making enormous waves on the Eastern Continent lately, and quite a few superpowers had been talking about them.
"Is the Zero Wing guild master the only one who came?" Silent Red Star asked the third-rank assassin.
"No, there are over a dozen of them. Among them are Pang Wushang and others from the Pang family of the Azure Trading Company," the third-rank assassin said.
"The Pang family? They've gotten here quickly." Wild Fire Berserker furrowed his brow slightly.
When he had learned that Miao Wuyin of the Pang family had claimed first place, he'd already understood that getting the Pang family to fall in line this time would be difficult. After all, the standout talent of the younger generation belonged to the Pang family. The Zeus Financial Group was ultimately just a shareholder in the Azure Trading Company — not the dominant one. Once the other shareholders saw the Pang family's potential, they would likely rally to the Pang family's side. That would make it very hard to challenge the Pang family's leading position within the Azure Trading Company.
Which meant the Pang family now had leverage to negotiate with their Sword of Violet. Coming to talk was simply a matter of when, not if.
"It seems the Pang family is feeling quite confident this time. Otherwise, they wouldn't have come so quickly," Silent Red Star said.
"Most likely because of Zero Wing. After all, Zero Wing previously cooperated with the Underworld Empire, and on top of that, they helped Miao Wuyin win first place in the family tournament. You can see they're quite skilled at talent cultivation. That's probably why the Pang family feels they don't need the resources and support from either the Zeus Financial Group or our Sword of Violet." Wild Fire Berserker thought for a moment before speaking.
For any guild looking to grow, the two most critical factors were talent and resources. The Azure Trading Company had no shortage of talent, but when it came to resources, they were far behind veteran superguilds like themselves. To take the next step, they had no choice but to cooperate — that was what the various families and founding elders of the Azure Trading Company had originally hoped for.
If talent cultivation was taken care of, neither the Pang family nor the Azure Trading Company would care much about whether they cooperated with the Sword of Violet or not. After all, partnering with the Sword of Violet came at an enormous cost — they might even end up as vassals. Combined with the considerable pressure coming from the Zeus Financial Group, they had been forced into the arrangement.
"Now that's interesting. Have them wait in the reception room first," Torey suddenly said. "I'd like to see what this Zero Wing guild is capable of — the one that helped Miao Wuyin beat Gu Han. What ability could they possibly have to give the Pang family such confidence!"
"Yes, sir!"
The third-rank assassin let out a sigh of relief upon seeing Coach Torey calm down, and hurried off toward the guild headquarters' entrance.
Meanwhile, at the entrance of Sword of Violet's headquarters, a crowd of players had already gathered, buzzing with discussion about Zero Wing's arrival.
Because standing right in front of the Sword of Violet's main gate, Zero Wing's group was simply too eye-catching.
A massive eagle with a wingspan of over twenty meters, its entire body wreathed in crackling arcs of electricity, looked explosively cool. On the other side, a gigantic bone dragon radiated waves of frigid cold. Both creatures possessed an oppressive aura approaching that of a high-level great lord of the same rank. The two appearing together was nothing short of a visual assault on everyone's eyes.
"Holy crap! Who are these people? Both of those flying mounts are on par with the Sword of Violet's Phantom Dark Eagle — and they actually have two of them!"
"Look at the guild emblems on them — they must be from the same guild."
"This guild is insane! I remember the Sword of Violet has only managed to get two transcendent mounts so far, and these guys already have two."
...
Flying mounts remained an unattainable dream for current Divine Realm players. Even the major guilds had only a handful of flying mounts at most, and those were the most basic variety. Yet even so, they remained a source of bragging rights for any guild, because flying mounts represented a guild's mobility — allowing main raid team members to save a great deal of time on travel.