Staring at the three treasures of the Star Moon Kingdom,
Any one of the three was enough to elevate a kingdom to prominence or propel a guild to the pinnacle of the Divine Realm in an instant. Moreover, each treasure had its own distinct advantages, with none being strictly superior to the others.
"Is it really only possible to redeem one?" Shi Feng couldn't help but ask the elder.
"Only one," the elder confirmed with a confident smile. "Of course, that doesn't mean there's no other way. If you can elevate the Star Moon Kingdom to an empire, you may redeem all three as you please."
"Elevate to an empire?" Shi Feng shook his head with a bitter smile.
There were indeed several methods for a kingdom to ascend to empire status, but none of them could be accomplished easily. Every path required an immense stretch of time.
As that thought crossed his mind, a sudden spark of inspiration struck Shi Feng. He looked directly at the elder and asked, "I'd like to know — am I eligible to exchange for the treasures?"
Treasures like these were divided into two categories: kingdom treasures and empire treasures.
In his previous life, players fortunate enough to obtain a kingdom treasure or an empire treasure would invariably set out to search for the corresponding ruins on their own, because these treasures were relics left behind by kingdoms and empires that had long since fallen in the history of the Divine Realm. Possessing one meant the potential to rebuild an entire kingdom or even an empire.
However, locating those vanished kingdoms and empires within the vast expanse of the Divine Realm was no simple matter. The difficulty was comparable to a Legendary-tier quest.
Take the empire treasure he had obtained early on, for instance. He had dispatched many guild members to investigate it, yet even now there were no leads whatsoever. He had no idea where the ancient empire that had long disappeared from the Divine Realm had once existed — and that was on top of the fact that the total explored map of the entire Divine Realm barely exceeded twenty percent.
That was right. To date, the combined exploration of all Divine Realm players covered less than fifteen percent of the world.
On the Divine Realm's continent, human kingdoms and empires occupied only a small fraction of the land. The vast majority consisted of level-150-and-above neutral zones. More than forty percent of the continent's map could only be tentatively explored by third-tier players at level 180 and above.
And that was to say nothing of the far more expansive ocean territories, dotted with countless islands — some as large as an entire empire. Finding a fallen empire that had vanished from the Divine Realm's history was an incredibly, monumentally difficult task.
In fact, one of the Divine Realm's top ten Rising Star guilds had spent a fortune to purchase an empire treasure at auction, then used that treasure to exchange for an already assembled kingdom treasure. The move vastly bolstered the guild's foundation, making it one of the Divine Realm's twelve candidate power guilds at the time.
Though Shi Feng didn't know the exact mechanism that guild had used to carry out the exchange, it would be a tremendous waste not to at least try now.
"Exchange?" The elder showed a flicker of surprise. After pondering for a moment, he said, "An exchange isn't impossible, but are you prepared to pay such a steep price?"
"What kind of price?" Shi Feng asked.
"The first requirement is to locate a lost empire treasure. The second is to pay twice the price of a kingdom treasure," the elder replied with a smile.
"Twice the price?" Shi Feng clicked his tongue.
A kingdom treasure was anything but cheap. Setting aside the millions of gold coins, simply acquiring millions of
"That's correct. But the most important thing is that you must find an empire treasure first. Without that, everything else is moot." The elder nodded.
"Deal. I'll exchange my empire treasure for the Iron Rank Airship blueprint, and I'll redeem the Mythril Rank War Golem separately!" Shi Feng gritted his teeth and produced the empire treasure from his inventory.
Before coming here, he had brought along
The elder glanced at the empire treasure in Shi Feng's hand, a note of surprise crossing his features. "You actually have one!"
"Of course. Let's get this done quickly," Shi Feng nodded.
"Very well. The total comes to five million gold coins and three million Magic Crystals." The elder extended his hand with a smile.
"Count them out."
Shi Feng transferred the gold coins and Magic Crystals from his inventory space directly into the elder's spatial bag. After the elder confirmed the amounts were correct, he waved his hand, and two ancient, weathered blueprints materialized before Shi Feng's eyes.
Shi Feng stared at the two blueprints, his heart surging with excitement.
Though the purchase had instantly drained him of every last resource, the value these two blueprints represented was simply immeasurable.