Chapter 1757: Astronomical Wealth

Translator:

Exodus Tales

Editor:

Exodus Tales

Chapter 1757 – Astronomical Wealth

Black Dragon Empire, Lake Heart City:

As soon as Shi Feng walked out of the Teleportation Hall, he was greeted by the sight of a crowded street. The liveliness of the city was not the slightest bit inferior to White River City’s; in fact, it might even be livelier.

Meanwhile, shortly after he exited the Teleportation Hall, players’ shouts entered his ears.

“Seeking a powerful team to enter the Underground Maze’s inner area! I’m a Level 51 Shield Warrior with over 30,000 Defense, 34% Block Rate, and combat standard at the late stage of the Trial Tower’s fifth floor!”

“Underground Maze team looking for Level 50-plus powerful MTs and DPS! Thirty-two waiting on eighteen! Noobs not welcomed!”

“Purchasing Ice Jade for 30 Silver each! Buying as many as you have!”

...

At this moment, both sides of the street Shi Feng was on were teeming with players either hawking their wares or forming teams.

Moreover, the players thronging the street were all very high-leveled, with the lowest-leveled player being Level 49 and the majority being 50 and 51. Shi Feng also spotted quite a few Level 52 experts. Normally, such a scene could be found only in places like the Ice Crystal World, where the average level of players was slightly higher than that of the continent of God’s Domain. Yet, now, the players in Lake Heart City could actually rival the players of Cold Wind City in terms of levels.

Looking at this scene, Shi Feng even thought that he was still in Cold Wind City right now.

Aside from the large number of independent experts, Shi Feng also noticed plenty of Guild elite and expert teams coming out from the Teleportation Hall from time to time. As soon as these Guild teams arrived, they would dash out of the city.

Did these Guilds finally notice it?

Shi Feng did not feel particularly surprised to see the various Guild teams riding their Mounts out of the city. Rather, this situation was within his expectations.

Back then, the reason why he had chosen to set up Zero Wing’s Branch Guild in the Black Dragon Empire’s Lake Heart City was the resources in the vicinity.

During the early stages of the game, the various large Guilds and players disregarded a backwater like Lake Heart City. However, past Level 50, the Dungeon environments would become increasingly severe, and players would need all kinds of Resistances if they wished to survive and raid Team Dungeons. Meanwhile, among the items that provided Resistances, the Ice Jade found within the Lake Heart City region was one of the most well-known of those produced in the Black Dragon Empire.

Ice Jades could be turned into Ice Resistance Gemstones, which could then be inlaid into equipment to increase one’s Ice Resistance. What made Ice Jade so popular was the flexibility of Ice Resistance Gemstones, which were different from weapons and equipment that had innate Ice Resistance.

For weapons and equipment that had innate Resistances, these Resistances usually came at the cost of sacrificing some of their Basic Attributes. Moreover, most weapons and equipment with Resistance increased only one type of Resistance, in addition to having level restrictions, and would become obsolete as players reached higher levels. Players would also have to prepare different types of Resistance equipment, depending on what kind of Dungeon they were raiding; this was a great extravagance that even expert players could not afford.

On the other hand, Resistance Gemstones could be freely equipped and removed at the cost of a little money. When raiding Dungeons with different environments, players simply needed to switch to the appropriate Resistance Gemstones.

Due to these reasons, Lake Heart City gained sudden popularity in the Black Dragon Empire, thanks to the resource known as Ice Jade. In Shi Feng’s previous life, Lake Heart City had managed to grow into the empire’s sixth most populated city at its peak.

For comparison, since the player population in an empire far exceeded that of a kingdom, even an empire’s sixth ranking city would have a higher player population than the capital city of a kingdom.

Finally, Shi Feng’s previous plans and investments were coming to fruition.

With the increased number of players attracted to Lake Heart City, Zero Wing’s Branch Guild would undoubtedly be able to recruit plenty of elite and expert players. Soon, it would be able to truly contend against the first-rate Guilds of the Black Dragon Empire.

After Shi Feng was done observing the situation of Lake Heart City, he rode an advanced horse carriage to Countess Katie Green’s mansion.

Having nothing better to do while seated inside the carriage, Shi Feng contacted Gentle Snow.

Back when he sent Gentle Snow to develop in Lake Heart City, he had her continuously collect Ice Jades. Now, the perfect time to let the Ice Jades display their true value had come.

“Guild Leader, you’re done with your quest already?” Gentle Snow asked, feeling slightly surprised to receive a call from Shi Feng.

Before he had left, he had informed Zero Wing’s core upper echelon that he was going to do a quest and would be incommunicado for a short period. He had also instructed them to handle the Guild’s affairs at their discretion and to contact him only for extremely important matters.

“My quest is still ongoing. It’ll most likely take a while longer to complete it,” Shi Feng replied, shaking his head. Collecting Soul Dissolving Flowers was easier said than done. It had been over half a day since he established the Adventurer Alliance, yet the alliance had managed to collect only five Soul Dissolving Flowers thus far. It would be quite some time before he would have all twenty Soul Dissolving Flowers he needed.

“Do you have some business with me, then?” Gentle Snow asked.

“Mhm. How is the collection of Ice Jade coming along?” Shi Feng said, nodding.

“Ice Jade?” When Gentle Snow heard Shi Feng’s question, her lips curled into a contented smile. She then raised four of her jade-white fingers to the screen.

“Forty thousand? That’s quite a lot.” Shi Feng was slightly surprised.

Although Lake Heart City produced Ice Jade, it was not available in large quantities. Back when Ice Jade became very popular, even Super Guilds had needed to invest a lot of time and effort to collect as many as 40,000 Ice Jades. Meanwhile, 40,000 Ice Jades were enough to fully equip several thousand players with Ice Resistance Gemstones.

“Guild Leader, you guessed wrong this time,” Gentle Snow said, smiling as she shook her head. “Thus far, we’ve collected 400,000 Ice Jades already! Roughly 60% of the Ice Jades available in Lake Heart City right now is in our hands.”

“Four hundred thousand?!” Shi Feng could not help but be stunned.

Although he had asked Gentle Snow to collect Ice Jades, he had never imagined she could collect so many.

Four hundred thousand Ice Jades!

If converted to Coins right now, they would be worth 120,000 Gold. Meanwhile, this price was only the beginning; in the future, it could easily reach 40-plus Silver per piece.

Moreover, before Ice Jades became popular, they sold for only four or five Silver Coins each. If the price grew to 34 or 35 Silver, then they could make a net profit of 30 Silver per piece. If they sold all 400,000 of their stockpiled Ice Jades at that time, their net profit would be 120,000 Gold.

With that kind of money, they could complete all the development and fortification works of Silverwing Town in one go. There would be no need to rely on the income of Zero Wing City and the Candlelight Trading Firm to gradually furnish the town.

“Good. Have some people transfer these Ice Jades to the warehouse of Lake Heart City’s Candlelight Trading Firm immediately. I’ll go collect them afterward,” Shi Feng said. “Right, make sure to keep this matter a secret.”

While Ice Jade was indeed very important to the various large Guilds, so much so that they would be willing to purchase it at a high price, its value in the Ice Crystal World would be even higher. After all, players were already snatching up even weapons and equipment with innate Ice Resistance like crazy. One could easily imagine how popular Ice Jades would be there.

“Guild Leader, rest assured, back when we collected these Ice Jades, I had specifically sent my closest aides to handle the purchases. Only a few people in the entire Guild know about our stockpile.” Although Gentle Snow was curious about what Shi Feng intended to do with so many Ice Jades, she simply nodded her head and had some of her trusted aides deliver the Ice Jades to the Candlelight Trading Firm’s warehouse.

By the time Shi Feng was done conversing with Gentle Snow, he had also arrived before Countess Katie Green’s mansion.