Walking down the central avenue of White River City, Shi Feng had already used the Devil's Mask to transform back into his Night's Edge appearance. His ID had returned to its original white color.
Shi Feng had been using the false ID Black Flame for a rather long time now, and hadn't used his real ID in ages. In a game like Divine Realm, where massive numbers of players poured in every day and new experts emerged constantly, that was more than enough time for the people of White River City to forget all about Night's Edge.
Shi Feng walked all the way to the White River City bank entrance without a single player recognizing him. A few did glance his way from time to time, but not because of his identity — it was his equipment that caught their attention.
At his waist hung the Magic Artifact Abyssal, along with the Dark Gold-rank Hell's Shadow. Even though Shi Feng had suppressed the glow effects, the intricate engravings along the blades and the shimmering light that played across their edges made it obvious these were far from ordinary weapons.
"White River City really has changed a lot. The average player levels are nearly on par with the royal capital of Star Moon now."
After a casual survey, Shi Feng noticed that after just a short absence, the streets were full of players at levels fifteen and six. Most of them had several pieces of Bronze Equipment on, and he could even spot level seventeen and eighteen solo players clad in mixed Bronze and Black Iron gear — something that would have been completely unheard of before.
At the sight of this, a sudden idea sparked in Shi Feng's mind.
Turn White River City into the center of the Star Moon Kingdom.
Originally, his plan had been to wait until the Zero Wing guild was strong enough to establish a branch in Star Moon Royal Capital and compete for human resources. After all, the royal capital was the heart of the Star Moon Kingdom — a must-contest territory for every first-rate guild and the place where the kingdom's elites converged. The player population there was enormous, dwarfing any other city. Controlling Star Moon Royal Capital meant having access to a vast pool of elite players, and for mid-term expansion it would surely outpace any other city by a wide margin.
But now, looking at White River City as it stood, Shi Feng suddenly wondered — why bother with Zero Wing fighting tooth and nail against those first-rate guilds?
Most players went to Star Moon Royal Capital because it offered more opportunities, more chances, and advantages that other cities simply couldn't match.
But what about now?
Because Zero Wing was based in White River City and wasn't recruiting in any other city, players had been flocking here on their own. Why had they come?
Wasn't it precisely because Zero Wing offered advantages that no other guild could?
As long as Zero Wing continued to showcase even more unique advantages, more and more players would keep pouring into White River City. And as player levels rose and incomes grew, the teleportation fees between cities would stop being an issue. When that day came, it wasn't impossible for White River City to develop into a city that surpassed even Star Moon Royal Capital.
"Hmm, is this from Underworld's internal files?" Shi Feng suddenly heard a notification chime. A message prompt flashed repeatedly before his eyes — the sender was Jue Tian.
The information Jue Tian had sent was, for Shi Feng right now, exactly like coal in the dead of winter — precisely what he wanted most.
Underworld had already seized control over several cities surrounding White River City. To what extent, and which cities they controlled — Shi Feng had no idea. Without that knowledge, he had no way to respond effectively. Wasting enormous amounts of time tracking down and disrupting Underworld's operations was exactly the outcome he wanted to avoid.
If he could get his hands on detailed information on Underworld, dealing with them would become far easier.
"There's quite a lot here. Did Jue Tian kidnap Feng Xuanyang or something? How else could he get such detailed intel?" Shi Feng opened the files and was stunned to discover they spanned dozens of pages. The level of detail far exceeded anything he'd expected — this definitely wasn't information an outer member could have obtained. Only someone at Feng Xuanyang's level would have access to something like this.
With such comprehensive Underworld files in hand, Shi Feng immediately found a quiet spot in the bank and sat down to read through everything carefully.
More than two hours later, Shi Feng finally finished the last page and let out a long breath.
"I already had a high opinion of Underworld's reach, but I never imagined they'd be this terrifying. In the eastern region of the Star Moon Kingdom alone, they secretly control three hundred and sixteen guilds. No wonder even Bai Qingxue is wary of them." After a rough estimate, Shi Feng found that Underworld controlled over a million players in the eastern region of the Star Moon Kingdom alone — and the east was actually their weakest area, with most of their power concentrated around the central royal capital.
Zero Wing's total membership was only around five thousand. Compared to Underworld's million, they might as well have been ants.
And that wasn't even counting Underworld's own secretly cultivated elite force — the Nether Gods' Guard. Though their numbers were small, only a little over four hundred, every single one of them was a top-tier expert. A hundred-man squad from that force could wipe out a hundred-man elite party grinding mobs in the open world without breaking a sweat. And there were four hundred such experts. The thought was chilling.
On top of that, five major cities near White River City — Blue Frost City, Maple Leaf City, Gale Wind City, Twin Lion City, and Cold Star City — had already been dominated by guilds secretly controlled by Underworld. And these guilds were no weaker than Dark Star. Growth was swift when there was no strong opposition — the guild leading Maple Leaf City, called One Smile Captivating City, was far stronger than Dark Star at its peak.
If left unchecked, these Underworld-controlled powerhouses would inevitably become the dominant forces in their respective cities.
"Underworld really is a headache. This situation is even worse than I imagined." Shi Feng furrowed his brow and scratched his head, falling deep into thought.
With Zero Wing's current strength, going all-out against a single guild across city lines would already be a struggle. Taking on all five at once was simply impossible. Cross-city battles meant fighting on someone else's turf, which was a massive disadvantage. To cause any real disruption required serious combat power — too few people wouldn't even make a dent. And on top of everything, they'd need to pay enormous teleportation fees and burn through manpower and resources that Zero Wing simply couldn't afford.
Moreover, at his current level of strength, his impact on any single guild was minimal.
"I need to speed up the job change." Shi Feng glanced at the Stone Sword in his backpack, and the urge to complete his class advancement grew even more urgent.
After turning the problem over and over in his mind, Shi Feng realized he had no real options. The only thing he could do was raise his own power.
A first-tier player's combat strength was vastly different from an ordinary player's, let alone when it came to hidden classes. If he could successfully advance and become a first-tier class player, causing trouble for these guilds and buying Zero Wing more time to develop was not out of the question.
With that resolved, Shi Feng headed straight for the bank counter. From his personal vault he withdrew the two Philosopher's Stones he had been storing, and from the guild vault he pulled out a massive quantity of Magic Crystals.
These Magic Crystals had been farmed by guild members running dungeons and killing mobs and bosses. They were materials used for crafting equipment, but since there had been no immediate need, they had been piling up in the guild vault for some time. Now Shi Feng took every last one.
He then returned to the Star Trace Trading Company's Forging Room, laid out the Philosopher's Stones and all the Magic Crystals.
Magic Origin Stone was a mineral that naturally formed within Magic Crystals. Refining Magic Crystals carried a certain chance of producing Magic Origin Stone, so Shi Feng intended to use the Philosopher's Stones to refine the Magic Crystals in hopes of obtaining one.
But Magic Origin Stone was extraordinarily rare and precious. The odds of extracting one from Magic Crystals through refining had to be incredibly, absurdly low. Shi Feng had no confidence whatsoever.
"Hopefully it works."
Shi Feng picked up a transparent Magic Crystal in one hand and a Philosopher's Stone in the other, silently praying in his heart as he initiated the refining process. (To be continued...)