Chapter 646 - Killing Multiple Birds with One Stone

Shortly after Shi Feng used a Return Scroll and returned to White River City, the Shelter of District One hummed with activity.

Now that the Shelter’s population potential had increased so drastically, many players in the Evil Ghost Domain planned to migrate to District One to enjoy the benefits of a Large Shelter.

Hence, reviewing the invitations demanded a considerable amount of work.

In addition, the promotion to a Large Shelter did not mean that players could purchase Mounts immediately. There was a need to construct a Taming Facility first, and the construction of a Taming Facility required a massive amount of Soul Crystals.

Meanwhile, after District One’s Shelter became a Large Shelter, many Guild Forces based in the Evil Ghost Domain began to consider it a target. They all wished to conquer the Large Shelter.

In the past, although District One occupied valuable land, and the Shelter was relatively strong, to Guild Forces, it had been a trivial opponent. After all, independent players ran District One. It was of no threat to Guild Forces. Now, however, things had changed. District One had become the first District to own a Large Shelter in the Evil Ghost Domain. This would greatly affect the situation in the Evil Ghost Domain. The Medium Shelters under their control held no advantage against a Large Shelter.

If they could take control of District One, not only could they extinguish any looming threats, but they could also increase their own strength. They also wouldn’t have to waste effort collecting and pooling their Guild’s resources to obtain a Large Shelter for themselves. Most importantly, District One’s Large Shelter had not been promoted by a Guild Force. As far as they were concerned, District One was like a heap of loose sand; its residents were not united. They could take advantage of this and take the Shelter by storm.

With this, they could kill two birds with one stone. Why wouldn’t they do it?

For a time, the many Guild Forces in the Evil Ghost Domain secretly plotted to insert their own men into District One’s Shelter.

Meanwhile, although Blue Frost and the others had predicted these Guild Forces’ intentions, not only did they not attempt to stop them, but they also actively encouraged it.

After all, they were not afraid of anyone trying to replace them.

They earnestly wished the various Guild Forces would come and offer them more resources.

The matter of District One joining Zero Wing was only known by a few of District One’s upper echelons. In the eyes of outsiders, District One had only obtained a Large Shelter due to its managers being very united, powerful, and lucky.

Moreover, there were only so many Guild Forces in the Evil Ghost Domain. Everyone knew which Shelters belonged to which Guild Forces. Hence, everyone believed that District One’s Shelter had yet to ally themselves with a Guild.

Normally, if players wished to join a Shelter, the Shelter’s managers would welcome them with open arms. After all, more players would strengthen the Shelter itself and increase the number of Soul Crystals the Shelter could obtain. For District One, however, other than those who had been recruited by the Shelter’s upper echelons, any player who wished to join District One was required to pay a fee of one Soul Crystal.

Although the price was high, current players were much higher leveled than before. As a result, the difficulty of obtaining Soul Crystals and the price of Soul Crystals had decreased. Compared to Shi Feng’s initial arrival in the Dark Den, Soul Crystals’ prices had fallen by two to three times. Currently, every elite party had at least one Soul Crystal on hand at all times. If they worked hard for a week or so, they could collect six Soul Crystals. Obviously, Guild Forces’ elite teams had a far easier time of collecting the Crystals.

Even after Blue Frost and the others recruited some players, there should still be 50,000 spots remaining. Charging one Soul Crystal per person, if they managed to fill all 50,000 slots, they would receive an additional 50,000 Soul Crystals. A player’s ownership of 50,000 Soul Crystals was vastly different from a Shelter’s ownership.

Take the Lions Bar’s promotion for example. If Blue Frost and the others funded the promotion themselves, they would only have to spend 500 Soul Crystals to promote the bar to 3-stars. However, if they used the Shelter’s cumulative resources, they would have to spend 10,000 crystals.

With 50,000 Soul Crystals, not only could they easily construct a Taming Facility, but they could also construct two more buildings that supplied Specialities and upgrade both buildings to 2-stars. In addition, they would have enough leftovers to upgrade the Lions Bar to 3-stars, increasing the production volume of the Hundred Berry Wine once more.

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Meanwhile, Shi Feng had returned with a large stock of Gemstones and Hundred Berry Wine to White River City.

Gemstones were extremely rare. Ordinary players would be reluctant to embed the Gemstones they had obtained into their equipment; if the item were destroyed, the Gemstones would similarly be destroyed. Players would generally only embed Gemstones in top-tier equipment as it was a safer option. When the need arose, they could simply remove the Gemstones and reuse them with other top-tier equipment.

Currently, Tier 1 Gemstones were very cheap in the Evil Ghost Domain. Each crystal only cost 3 Silver. In Star-Moon Kingdom, however, each Tier 1 Gemstone sold for 9 Silver. As for Tier 2 Gemstones, each sold for 30 Silver in the Evil Ghost Domain, while prices in Star-Moon Kingdom fluctuated around 1 Gold. Star-Moon Kingdom’s prices were at least three times higher.

Shi Feng had obtained 30,000 Tier 1 Gemstones from Blue Frost. These Gemstones had either been secretly purchased from the various Shelters in the Evil Ghost Domain or traded for Light Stones. A single stack contained 20 Gemstones. Shi Feng had returned with a total of 1,500 stacks of Tier 1 Gemstones, valued at a total of 900 Gold, which practically filled his entire bag. As for Tier 2 Gemstones, he had not bothered taking any as he had the Philosopher’s Stone. Through Alchemy Synthesis, he could produce Tier 2 Gemstones from Tier 1 Gemstones.

After returning to White River City, Shi Feng first headed towards the Candlelight Trading Firm.

At this point, the Candlelight Trading Firm was the most lively location in White River City. It could be considered the business center of all of Star-Moon Kingdom. The Trading Firm was the organization with the highest number of forgers and other Lifestyle classes in the entire kingdom. There were all sorts of player-made advanced products for sale on its shelves. If it were available in Star-Moon Kingdom, the Candlelight Trading Firm would almost certainly have it. Only certain exclusive items such as the Overwhelming Trading Firm’s Fire Dragon Potion were not available, as not even Zero Wing could obtain the designs and recipes for these items. Even so, the wide variety of products they offered was enough to overwhelm players.

Other than Star-Moon Kingdom, thanks to Phoenix Rain’s help, the Candlelight Trading Firm had also set up Branch Shops in the major cities of neighboring kingdoms and empires. The Trading Firm’s daily profits reached several thousand Gold. However, this placed a heavy burden on the Firm’s manager, Melancholic Smile.

The Candlelight Trading Firm’s ability to earn money far surpassed even first-rate Guilds. Only super-first-rate Guilds and Super Guilds could rival the Trading Firm now. However, as time progressed, super-first-rate Guilds and Super Guilds would definitely surpass the Candlelight Trading Firm due to their massive range of influence in God’s Domain. The resources and contacts they possess far surpassed the Candlelight Trading Firm.

Although the Candlelight Trading Firm could continue to expand, Zero Wing simply did not possess the required strength and manpower to keep up with it.

Fortunately, Shi Feng had long since prepared for this situation. He had not been the Guild Leader of a second-rate Guild in the past for nothing. Since the first day he logged into God’s Domain in this life, he had been thinking of ways to improve his Guild’s background and had come up with a series of plans. At this point, his plans had finally produced some results.

Shi Feng retrieved the Philosopher’s Stone from his Personal Warehouse and arrived at his exclusive Advanced Forging Room in the Candlelight Trading Firm. He then began to synthesize the Tier 2 Gemstones.

If he sought out the aid of NPC Alchemists to synthesize high-tiered Gemstones, not only would he have to foot an exorbitant labor fee, but the success rate was also not particularly high. For Tier 2 Gemstones, NPCs only had a 30% success rate. Synthesizing a Tier 2 Gemstone required four Tier 1 Gemstones. With acceptable luck, he might obtain one Tier 2 Gemstone for every twelve Tier 1 Gemstones. However, the Tier 2 Gemstones was only ten times more valuable than Tier 1 Gemstones. Hence, it was not profitable to synthesize high-tiered Gemstones.

On the other hand, the Philosopher’s Stone in Shi Feng’s possession had a 100% success rate for synthesizing Tier 2 Gemstones. If he synthesized Tier 2 Gemstones using the Philosopher’s Stone, he could easily multiply his profit. Naturally, Shi Feng could not let this opportunity escape him.

Only, Shi Feng’s goal was not to earn money.

Tier 2 Gemstones have already become a mainstream item among large Guilds. If I want Zero Wing’s main force to clear a 100-man Dungeon even a day sooner, I will have to set Tier 3 Gemstones as the standard. Shi Feng took out his Tier 1 Gemstones and began the Alchemy Synthesis.