Inside Maple Leaf City's municipal hall.
Liang Chen, the man Bai Qingxue had dispatched, was completely dumbfounded.
Without a single word of hesitation, Shi Feng had just purchased a central plot of land worth over two thousand gold, then immediately built a luxurious shop on it for another thousand gold, spending more than three thousand gold in one go.
Liang Chen was one of Bai Qingxue's most trusted subordinates, and she had already told him everything about Shi Feng.
He knew that Shi Feng had previously sold three thousand gold worth of goods to Bai Qingxue — otherwise, his baronet reputation in Maple Leaf City would never have been exposed.
Although Maple Leaf City wasn't as good as White River City, a baronet reputation was extraordinarily rare. Across all of Maple Leaf City, only two or three people had ever reached that level.
He'd spent three thousand gold before, and now he'd blown through another three thousand-plus. His wealth far surpassed even the Snake of the Body.
That kind of financial power alone commanded reverence. If an all-out war broke out, who could possibly outlast the Zero Wing Guild?
Only now did Liang Chen finally understand why Smile Flower, who had once dominated Maple Leaf City with an iron grip, had been unable to beat Zero Wing in White River City. Zero Wing was the undisputed top guild there — and even though Smile Flower had the massive Underworld organization backing them, with this kind of resources, how could Smile Flower possibly compete?
In truth, among the upper echelons of first-tier guilds, most believed that while Smile Flower couldn't match Zero Wing in the short term — especially when it came to elite players — they would ultimately win. Smile Flower had deep pockets and could afford to play the long game. A guild like Zero Wing, with no established foundation and chronic funding shortages, could only dominate for a brief moment.
But now, looking at this...
Even three Smile Flowers combined couldn't outlast Zero Wing.
"It seems the heavens over Maple Leaf City are about to change," Liang Chen thought with a silent sigh.
After their initial exploration of the Divine Realm, all the major guilds had figured out the basic rules. To dominate the Divine Realm, you needed three things: first, powerful players. Second, financial strength — primarily in gold coins. Third, sheer numbers.
And of those three, numbers were the least important. Member count was the easiest thing to expand — with enough financial resources, there was effectively no upper limit.
The Divine Realm was nothing like previous virtual games, where guild member count had been king. In old games, individual differences between players were minimal; numbers won fights. One person couldn't handle it, send a squad. A squad couldn't handle it, send a hundred. They'd eventually grind the enemy down through sheer attrition.
But the Divine Realm was different. A single top-tier expert could dominate an entire region — and these elite players couldn't be mass-produced the way they could in other virtual games. Before, you just needed strong enough gear. Now, combat skill mattered above all else.
When it came to both powerful players and financial resources, Smile Flower was now thoroughly outclassed by Zero Wing. The outcome was self-evident.
In fact, Smile Flower still had one chance — rapidly establish their commercial operations and earn massive amounts of gold. But with Shi Feng now in the picture, how could their handful of life-skill players possibly compete with the Star Moon Kingdom's foremost Blacksmith? And Candlelight Trading Company already had three genuine Blacksmiths, far superior to any advanced apprentice blacksmith.
Let alone the existence of something like the Basic Reinforced Armor Plates — a devastating competitive weapon. Smile Flower didn't have a prayer.
Afterward, Shi Feng collected some intelligence on Smile Flower's presence in Maple Leaf City from Liang Chen, then headed for the teleportation hall.
From the data Liang Chen provided, Shi Feng had a rough idea of where Smile Flower's elite members liked to farm. He would use them as blood sacrifices for the Icarus Heart.
The elites of major guilds were nothing like ordinary players. Regular players would return to town to rest or log off once night fell. But guild elites kept grinding, because with their superior gear and combat skills, the nighttime monsters posed no real threat. Their leveling speed would slow somewhat, but while everyone else was stuck unable to level, even a small gap would snowball — which was why guild elites ended up so far ahead of ordinary players in level.
Smile Flower's main gathering spot was the Dragon Ridge.
Dragon Ridge was a level 25–30 farming zone. Every monster there was a drake — creatures born with thick scales and the peerless strength inherited from true dragons, natural-born warriors. As a minor offshoot of the dragon race, drakes also had an instinctive love for hoarding treasure, so their drop rates were generous. Plenty of quests involving drakes could be found there, making it a popular leveling destination.
The problem was that all the high-resource zones within Dragon Ridge were monopolized by Smile Flower. Other players couldn't even dream of setting foot there — at best, they could grind drake-killing quests in areas with sparse spawns.
No sooner had Shi Feng arrived via teleportation and started hunting for Smile Flower members than Youyu Weixiao suddenly contacted him.
"Guild Leader, the thing you asked me to handle is done. They really did try every trick in the book to poach the advanced apprentice blacksmiths who'd learned the Design of Light — and sure enough, all three were taken," Youyu Weixiao said excitedly.
Three people poached meant three copies of the Design of Light had to be paid out as compensation. That was nearly fifty million Credit Points in one stroke — an absolutely insane profit margin. As for losing the apprentice blacksmiths, Youyu Weixiao genuinely didn't care. Once Candlelight Trading Company had grown large enough, the benefits were excellent, and there was a limitless supply of materials. As long as you put in the effort, you could earn serious money. As a result, plenty of apprentice blacksmiths were lining up to apply — including intermediate ones. With just a little training, they'd become advanced apprentice blacksmiths.
From the time Candlelight Trading Company had been established until now, even though Smile Flower had poached quite a few people, their number of advanced apprentice blacksmiths hadn't decreased — it had actually grown.
"Good." Shi Feng smiled as well. Was there any easier way to make money? With this windfall on top of what he'd gotten from Bai Qingxue, his expert training plan could finally be put into motion. "By the way, how many Stones of Light have been produced so far?"
"I've privately had the dozens of advanced apprentice blacksmiths we recruited from other cities working around the clock. They're all in the Blacksmithing Association right now, frantically mass-producing. They're still not entirely familiar with the process, so production is a bit slow, but we've already got several hundred. Give it another day or two, and we'll definitely have accumulated twenty thousand," Youyu Weixiao said with full confidence. "Once that happens, we'll make Candlelight Trading Company's name ring across the Star Moon Kingdom — guaranteed to become the number one trading firm."
Youyu Weixiao wasn't being arrogant. The value of the Stone of Light was extraordinary — elites needed them, and ordinary players could afford them too. Combined with their production capacity, they could easily supply players across multiple cities.
After Youyu Weixiao finished his report, Shi Feng quietly made his way into the interior region of Dragon Ridge.
In the silent, shadowy forest, bursts of light and thunderous explosions periodically lit up the darkness — Smile Flower's elites farming drakes.
These Smile Flower elites operated with impressive discipline. Groups of twenty engaged the drake hordes in rotating shifts, farming with ruthless efficiency. The players currently off-duty kept watch over the surroundings, guarding against surprise attacks from other monsters.
"You'll do," Shi Feng said with a faint smile.