Inside the City-Toppling Smile guild headquarters in White River City.
"What did you say?" Feng Xuanyang slammed the table in fury. "Those people suddenly raised their prices? Do they think we're suckers?"
"Young Master Feng, please calm down." A slightly portly middle-aged man urged. "They didn't raise the price without reason. They do have certain leverage."
"Leverage? With just those two advanced apprentice blacksmiths? The City-Toppling Smile has plenty of those — we don't need them!" Feng Xuanyang's brows furrowed, a hint of killing intent simmering beneath.
Although his family was large and powerful, he wasn't the only one competing for the position of family heir. He had joined the Underworld specifically to secure his future, and through their internal resources had learned about the special nature of the Divine Realm, which was why he had thrown himself into it so obsessively. If he could make a name for himself in the Divine Realm, the position of family heir would be his without question.
He had spent enormous sums poaching these people with the sole aim of crippling Torchfire Firm. Now that he was in an all-out war with the Zero Wings Guild, the daily expenditures were astronomical. Fighting Torchfire Firm was coming entirely out of his own pocket, and his current liquid assets amounted to only a few hundred million Credit Points — he certainly couldn't afford to waste them.
Advanced apprentice blacksmiths were indeed scarce, but with that kind of money he could easily recruit more than ten from the Blacksmith's Association. That would be far better than poaching people who demanded exorbitant salaries and sky-high severance fees, only to turn out to be useless with zero life skills.
"Young Master Feng, these two are somewhat special."
"Special? Special enough to triple the agreed-upon price? Do they think they're actual Blacksmiths?"
"Young Master Feng. They aren't Blacksmiths, but they recently learned a rare blueprint. They can craft Stones of Light — Stones of Light allow players to grind mobs and level up at night without time restrictions. The production cost is low, making it an incredibly profitable item. And among Torchfire Firm's advanced apprentice blacksmiths, only three can learn it. Naturally, they're raising their price."
"Stones of Light? Something like that actually exists? Did you find out how they got it?"
Just hearing about the uses of the Stone of Light, Feng Xuanyang immediately grasped its enormous value. If he could get his hands on the blueprint, he wouldn't even need to keep poaching from Torchfire Firm — he could use the Stones of Light to crush them outright and dominate the entire Star Moon Kingdom market.
"That's Torchfire Firm's secret, so naturally they wouldn't tell these people. But I've already dispatched people to investigate everything about the Stones of Light. However, it seems Torchfire Firm's blueprint is quite limited — otherwise they wouldn't only have three advanced apprentice blacksmiths learning it."
"Also, I've heard that Torchfire Firm's three actual Blacksmiths haven't been making Stones of Light at all. They're only producing Basic Reinforced Armor Plates. It's very likely that Torchfire Firm is swamped and had to have the advanced apprentices make the Stones of Light instead. This means Torchfire Firm probably only has three copies of the blueprint. If we can poach two of them, the blow to Torchfire Firm would be devastating."
"You're right. If we let Torchfire Firm flood the market with Stones of Light, dealing with them later would be even harder. But man proposes, God disposes." Feng Xuanyang thought of Jimo Ruxue's haughty attitude and couldn't help but laugh. "That damn woman Jimo Ruxue tried to make a fool of me earlier. Now I'll show her what real pain feels like. No matter what, we have to poach those two — and ideally the third as well."
"Young Master Feng, rest assured. The two are essentially secured. But the third one is quite stubborn — the price will be much higher than for the other two. Add Torchfire Firm's newly revised contracts, and the total could exceed fifty million." The middle-aged man spoke cautiously. After all, this was no small sum. Fifty million Credit Points just to poach three people — the vast majority would go toward severance fees. Given that the initial valuation of the Stone of Light blueprint was close to one hundred gold coins, the severance for all three at twenty times that rate came to six thousand gold coins. That was a hefty price indeed.
"Go ahead with it. If we can poach all three from Torchfire Firm, it'll be worth it." Feng Xuanyang's brows knitted tightly as he spoke through gritted teeth. If spending fifty million could bring both the people and the blueprint along, he'd be overjoyed. But Torchfire Firm was not that foolish — even an idiot knew how valuable a unique product could be and how much competitive edge it added to a business.
The middle-aged man then left the meeting room to negotiate the price.
Meanwhile, at the bank vault, Shi Feng had already rented a private storage unit.
In the Divine Realm's bank vaults, if a player stored extremely valuable items and didn't want them seen by prying eyes in a public area, they could rent a private storage unit. These came with a private room, and without the owner's permission, no one could observe anything inside. However, the rental fees were steep — not cheap like public storage, and calculated daily in copper coins.
A small private unit could hold thirty thousand item slots at thirty silver coins per day. The minimum rental was one month, costing nine gold coins. Only three-month rentals came with a discount, but still cost twenty-five gold.
A medium unit held a hundred thousand slots at one gold per day — thirty gold per month, eighty-five for three months.
A large unit held five hundred thousand slots at four gold per day — one hundred and twenty gold per month, three hundred and fifty for three months.
Ordinary players rarely rented private storage, but as player levels rose and gold coins became easier to earn, many merchant players started renting them.
Without hesitation, Shi Feng rented two large units, both for three-month terms — one for personal use, one for the guild.
That way, when Watery Rose and the others needed to store or retrieve valuable items, they wouldn't have to worry about rival guilds spying on them. Such incidents were not uncommon in the Divine Realm — many guilds had suffered because they hadn't rented private storage, allowing their secrets to be discovered by competitors.
Just to be safe, Shi Feng wanted one regardless.
After entering the private storage, the interior was lined with various cabinets arranged in neat rows — orderly and methodical.
Shi Feng transferred everything from his public storage into the private unit in one go. The private storage was remarkably user-friendly, automatically sorting all items intelligently without the player needing to organize them manually.
He then opened one of the cabinets. Inside sat a deep blue crystal ball — the very one he had obtained from the Eternal Temple. However, this crystal ball was so powerful that even with his high resistance, touching it would drain one thousand HP per second. An ordinary player would likely die the instant they made contact.
"Die on contact?" Shi Feng suddenly recalled the circumstances under which he had obtained the deep blue crystal ball and realized — wasn't the Divine Crystal he had snatched from the Beast King the same way?
The only difference was that the Divine Crystal hadn't been sealed back then, which was why the fourth-tier Sky Knight had been killed instantly upon touching it.
"I wonder if this will work." Shi Feng nervously took out the Divine Crystal and carefully placed it in the cabinet alongside the crystal ball, wanting to see what would happen when the two were brought together.
The instant he placed it inside, both crystal balls erupted with a blinding radiance that illuminated the entire private storage with an almost unbearable brilliance. A tremendous pressure bore down on Shi Feng, making his body feel impossibly heavy.
"This is Divine Might!" Shi Feng was stunned.
Just then, a system notification chimed in his ear.
System: Would you like to break the seal and allow the two to merge? (To be continued.)