"Xia Lian is looking for me?" Shi Feng felt a vague sense of unease.
He knew Xia Lian's personality all too well.
She was absolutely the type who never made a move without profit in mind. He wondered what she had her eye on this time.
"Forget it, I'll go see her anyway." Shi Feng thought it over. Even though Xia Lian was the kind of person who'd do anything for money, he'd always come away with decent rewards whenever he dealt with her. She might have another high-level quest to offer, and if the rewards were good, it would be worth doing.
But hearing that she was at the Stargazing Tower in Black Wing City left Shi Feng puzzled. When had Xia Lian gone to Black Wing City?
If he hadn't known where the Stargazing Tower was, he would've searched all of White River City without finding her. And getting to Black Wing City wasn't easy either—you couldn't go there without a Black Wing Pass.
In other words, meeting Xia Lian wasn't exactly simple.
But for Shi Feng, getting to Black Wing City was actually quite easy. Although his own Black Wing Pass had run out of uses, Shuise Qiangwei still had a Black Wing Pass.
"I'll hold off on going to see Xia Lian for now," Shi Feng decided. With years of experience playing Divine Realm, he knew that any quest happening in Black Wing City was bound to be complicated. He still had plenty of things to take care of, so it could wait.
After leaving the City Hall, Shi Feng called Shuise Qiangwei and Huo Wu to head to the Ziyang Ancient Mansion in White River City's Trade District.
The Ziyang Ancient Mansion had originally been the estate of a baron. However, this baron had mysteriously vanished from the mansion fifty years ago. Over the following decade or more, every successive owner of the estate had also disappeared without a trace overnight. The matter was never resolved, no answers were ever found, and it was eventually swept under the rug. Over ten years ago, the mansion had been sealed off and guarded by the defense corps as a precaution.
Being a baron's estate, its land area went without saying—it was one of the largest private properties in White River City's Trade District. Even as a viscount of White River City, the private land Shi Feng could purchase was probably less than a third of the Ziyang Ancient Mansion's area.
"Guild Leader, why did you bring us to this abandoned mansion?" Shuise Qiangwei looked at the run-down estate, watched over by eight members of the defense corps in the distance, and felt quite perplexed.
The guild had just achieved the first clear of Hell Difficulty for the Demon Castle dungeon, and countless players had been flocking to the guild wanting to join. Shuise Qiangwei had been swamped.
Although Hei Zi was also a manager, he mainly handled the studio side of things. The guild itself was run by Shuise Qiangwei, while Huo Wu led the main raid team—each person had their role. But guild management was by far the most troublesome.
Zero Wing Guild had only been established recently. There were tons of management issues, and their welfare system wasn't nearly complete enough to take in a huge influx of members. So they had to be selective. And being selective meant it wasn't just about having a high level—they had to judge people based on their actual skill. The selection process was incredibly time-consuming and labor-intensive. On top of that, there was the day-to-day management of guild affairs. All of it had kept Shuise Qiangwei busy to the breaking point.
If Shi Feng hadn't called her over, she would still be buried in recruitment work right now.
"What do you think of this mansion?" Shi Feng asked with a smile.
"Think of it?" Shuise Qiangwei looked the Ziyang Ancient Mansion over carefully.
It was still broad daylight in Divine Realm, with the sun blazing overhead, yet the Ziyang Ancient Mansion radiated an oppressive aura of gloom, which felt very strange. But the estate's land area was enormous, and it sat right in the heart of White River City's Trade District. It was absolutely a prime location.
"It's run-down, but the location is excellent. Just two streets to the west is the White River City Bank and the Auction House. Three streets to the east is the Adventurer's Association. There are only five spots in all of White River City this good, and four of them are occupied by major nobles. This is the only one that's vacant. And among those five estates, this one has the largest land area. The pity is it's been guarded by the defense corps all along and was never put on the market."
"If we could establish our guild stronghold here, it would be enormously beneficial for the guild's future development."
Shuise Qiangwei spoke at length. She was extremely familiar with White River City's real estate, and seeing this estate had filled her with envy—but without the means to actually obtain it, it was all useless.
Forget about this piece of private land in the Trade District. Even the private land on the outermost edges of White River City was beyond their reach.