The news about Black Flame spread quickly through Maple Leaf City.
Yixiao Qingcheng and Zero Wing were already in an all-out war. Black Flame showing up to deal damage seemed perfectly reasonable, and many were actually rooting for Zero Wing.
Normally, Yixiao Qingcheng dominated the high-resource zones in Maple Leaf City, which frustrated a great many players — though none dared to voice their displeasure. Now that someone had appeared to put Yixiao Qingcheng in its place, everyone was naturally thrilled.
But while this major event was playing out, something else had the players of Maple Leaf City buzzing with excitement.
A new player-run shop had opened in Maple Leaf City — Candlelight Trading Company.
Inside Candlelight Trading Company, all manner of goods were available, with a remarkably comprehensive selection. The most valuable item was the Basic Reinforced Armor Plate, something most players had never even seen before. The moment they laid eyes on it, a frenzy of buying erupted. It was leagues ahead of the competition, and even the Qingcheng Trading Company couldn't hold a candle to it.
The opening of Candlelight Trading Company naturally made some happy and others anxious.
The players of Maple Leaf City were delighted, but You Lan inside the Qingcheng Trading Company was seething with rage.
"Candlelight Trading Company!" You Lan ground her teeth in fury.
She had never expected Candlelight Trading Company to be so well-prepared — they had somehow secured a plot of land in the central district of Maple Leaf City. But that wasn't even the most infuriating part. What truly drove her up the wall was that Candlelight Trading Company had opened its doors barely a stone's throw from the Qingcheng Trading Company.
Thanks to Candlelight's product advantage, many players who would have normally visited the Qingcheng Trading Company had flocked there instead.
"Boss, what do we do now? If this keeps up, we're going to lose all our customers to Candlelight Trading Company," one of the shop's managers said worriedly.
"There's nothing we can do except fight them on price. Drop the prices on everything — across the board." You Lan let out a helpless sigh. She had no better solution. Unless she could get her hands on some exclusive merchandise, there was simply no way to compete with Candlelight. However, compared to White River City, the Qingcheng Trading Company still had some capital to work with. They were essentially on equal footing with Candlelight, and with the home-court advantage, their material acquisition costs were significantly lower — which meant production costs were lower too. They still had a fighting chance.
In the Divine Realm's shop system, while the items sold across various city shops were shared, player-listed goods in a local shop were not subject to cross-city fees. Purchasing items from a shop in another city, however, carried a cross-city fee — a modest 8%, but it served as a form of protection for the local player economy.
This meant that Candlelight Trading Company's manufacturing headquarters was in White River City, and everything sold in Maple Leaf City carried additional invisible costs. This gave the Qingcheng Trading Company a clear advantage.
Sure enough, once the Qingcheng Trading Company lowered its prices, players who didn't specifically want items only available at Candlelight all came running back to the Qingcheng shop.
Meanwhile, in Giant Dragon Ridge, Shi Feng was having the time of his life.
The Yixiao Qingcheng players were feeding him kills wave after wave, and the Heart of Icarus had finally advanced to the Dark-Gold grade. It was just one step away from Epic.
Heart of Icarus — Necklace, Dark-Gold grade (Evolvable), Equipment Requirement: All Attributes 120 points. Equipment Level 20 to 80.
All Attributes +27, Luck +14. (Current attribute level: 30) Innate Skill: Divine Blessing — temporarily increases the user's Luck by 32 points. Duration: 30 seconds. Cooldown: 40 minutes. The Luck bonus, duration, and cooldown are modified based on the amount of Life Force sacrificed. Up to 100 points of Life Force may be sacrificed in a single use.
Evolution Condition: Must absorb the Life Force of 5,000 players to advance to Epic grade. Current count: 748 / 5,000.
The base Luck value alone was 14 points — a massive improvement over the original 5. But what Shi Feng valued most wasn't the stat boost; it was the transformation of the Divine Blessing skill itself.
It had evolved from an ordinary skill into a Special Trait skill.
Special Trait skills were fundamentally different from regular skills. Their effects changed dynamically based on certain conditions. Right now, Divine Blessing had become a Special Trait skill.
Its power varied depending on how much Life Force was sacrificed, with a maximum of 100 points.