Chapter 2547 – Foundations Ready, Reconstructing Stone Forest City

“I already had my men make the necessary preparations. However, quite a few superpowers are selling the western continent’s materials right now, so we’ll have to wait awhile to get a better price,” Gentle Snow answered upon hearing Shi Feng’s question.

Although the western continent’s rare materials were very precious on the eastern continent, there were still some superpowers that sold them. To get a better price for the materials Shi Feng brought back and to avoid significant price fluctuations, they had to not only split the materials across numerous kingdoms and empires but also consider the timing and sell only the materials that were unavailable or in low supply. Only by doing so would they be able to get the best price for their materials. For the current Zero Wing, though, handling these matters wasn’t a problem at all.

“Stop waiting. Sell whatever you can right now,” Shi Feng said after giving the matter some thought.

“So soon?” Gentle Snow was a little confused by Shi Feng’s decision.

The price they could get from selling the materials quickly would be considerably different from what they would get if they sold the materials gradually. After all, not everybody had a use for the western continent’s rare materials. If they sold these materials in bulk, they would saturate the market very quickly, which would reduce their profits.

“Mhm. I’m in urgent need of money right now,” Shi Feng said, nodding.

If possible, he would prefer not to act precipitately, either. However, plans were always subject to change. He never thought that the Tree of Life’s branch he obtained would really turn out to be a Divine Artifact, albeit a fragmented one.

The density of the Mana that a Fragmented Divine Artifact ranked Tree of Life’s Sapling required was something even the Basic Meditation Room, the place with the highest ambient Mana in Stone Forest City, was incapable of supplying.

A Tree of Life’s Sapling was different from other items. Once it formed, it could not be stored inside a bag for however long players wanted. Instead, it would live for just two or three days. If players failed to provide it with an adequate living environment, then it would wilt and revert into a branch.

Moreover, ordinary bags couldn’t store a Tree of Life’s Sapling, as the sapling was a non-bag space item. Fortunately, Shi Feng had the Epic Spatial Bag, which was capable of storing non-bag space items. Otherwise, he would have no choice but to leave the sapling to die inside the Basic Meditation Room.

Meanwhile, in God’s Domain, there were only three methods to increase the Mana density of a city.

The first method was to build constructions that raised the density of Mana. However, aside from the Mana Tower, players had to find the designs for other similar constructions on their own. Moreover, designs for constructions capable of raising a city’s Mana density by a significant margin were incomparably valuable, easily surpassing Fragmented Legendary items in value. Any power that obtained such a design would definitely choose to use it themselves instead of selling or trading it away.

Zero Wing did not possess such a design at the moment, so this route was not viable.

The second method was just as difficult to fulfill as the first method, and that was to install a better power source in the city’s core magic array, which would raise the Mana density inside the city.

The third method was the one most used in the past, and that was to raise the rank of the city.

When a city’s rank increased, the standard of its core magic array would improve, as well. As a result, the city’s Mana density would increase significantly. The promotion of a Guild City required a sufficiently large player population and painstaking work. It wasn’t something that could be achieved swiftly. However, it was also the easiest way to raise the Mana density of a city.

Currently, in terms of prosperity and security standards, Stone Forest City already met the requirements of an Intermediate City. Its Popularity was now the only thing holding back the city’s promotion. Normally, the city would take a lot more time to accumulate the required Popularity. However, there was a shortcut to raising a city’s Popularity: erecting Advanced Constructions.

Building an Advanced Construction in a Guild City would instantly grant the city a large amount of City Popularity. In Stone Forest City’s current state, the addition of just one Advanced Construction would be sufficient to elevate the city to the Intermediate City standard. At that time, not only the city’s size but also the Mana density inside the city would increase by a large margin.

However, Shi Feng currently did not possess an Advanced Construction Design. All he had was the design for the Freedom Hotel, a Peak Construction. Although a Peak Construction would grant much more Popularity than an Advanced Construction would upon completion, its construction cost was also a lot higher. Building a Peak Construction required not only extremely rare materials but also a lot of Coins. Not to mention, the construction cost would differ, depending on the size of the Peak Construction.

As far as Shi Feng knew, the material costs aside, even the cheapest Peak Construction cost 1 million Gold.

Fortunately, all the materials necessary to construct the Freedom Hotel were already on hand. The only thing he lacked was funds.

Currently, Zero Wing had less than 150,000 Gold to spare. That was nowhere near the amount necessary. The only reliable way that Shi Feng could think of to earn a large sum within two or three days was selling the western continent’s materials.

“I understand. I’ll try to sell all the materials the various kingdoms and empires lack as soon as possible. If it’s still not enough, I can also sell materials that are already available on the market,” Gentle Snow said, nodding when she saw the serious look on Shi Feng’s face.

“I’ll leave it to you, then,” Shi Feng said before disconnecting the call. He then left the Candlelight Trading Firm and personally conducted the preparation work necessary to construct the Freedom Hotel.

As one of the few Peak Constructions available in God’s Domain, the Freedom Hotel was not easy to build. It required not only a large number of Master Architects but also a large number of Master Magicians. Without the technical expertise of a Master Magician, one shouldn’t even think of constructing the Freedom Hotel.

This was also the reason why Shi Feng had not been in a hurry to construct the Freedom Hotel even after obtaining its design.

Meanwhile, as Shi Feng was gathering the necessary workforce to construct the Freedom Hotel, the various superpowers’ members, who were keeping an eye on Zero Wing’s every action, were stupefied by this situation.

“What’s Black Flame trying to do? The Dark World’s invasion is about to start, yet instead of making preparations for battle, he’s having a bunch of architects run around the city?”

“Maybe he is going to construct additional defensive structures to reassure Stone Forest City’s players? I heard that this incident more than halved Stone Forest City’s profits. Once the Dark World’s players invade, instead of generating profits, Stone Forest City might end up a money pit instead.”

“If Black Flame knew something like this would happen, why did he provoke Demon’s Heart in the first place? Does he think a few defensive structures will be enough to stop the Dark World’s players? Let alone Zero Wing’s Guild City, even a Guild City operated by five superpowers wouldn’t be able to stop all of the Dark World’s players.”

The various superpowers secretly ridiculed Shi Feng when they saw him running around the city busily. The Dark World’s invasion was imminent, yet Shi Feng was actually doing something as futile as constructing a few additional defensive structures instead of trying to recruit superpowers to help him repulse this invasion.

In this situation, Zero Wing’s members also could not help panicking.

Previously, they had been very confident in Stone Forest City’s defenses. After all, no power had ever managed to break through the city’s defenses thus far. Now, however, their opponent was not a single power but an entire Otherworld instead. No one knew whether Stone Forest City could hold its ground against such a force.

Meanwhile, over in the Black Dragon Empire, Gentle Snow wore an ecstatic expression on her face as she oversaw the sales of materials.

System: The Demonheart Flower (1 stack) you placed at the Auction House has been sold. After deducting the procedural fees, 20 Gold 27 Silver have been deposited into your bag space.

System: The Magically Refined Iron (1 stack) you placed at the Auction House has been sold. After deducting the procedural fees, 55 Gold 21 Silver have been deposited into your bag space.

System: The Crimson Timber you placed at the Auction House has been sold. After deducting the procedural fees, 89 Gold 76 Silver have been deposited into your bag space.

It had only been half an hour since she gave the sell order to her subordinates, and the materials they put up for auction were already being hotly contested. She had expected to gain only 400,000 Gold from the first batch of materials they had prepared to sell. Now, despite having sold less than half of the first batch, they had already made over 350,000 Gold. The demand for the materials far surpassed her projections.

What Gentle Snow did not know was that, while superpowers were indeed selling the western continent’s materials, these superpowers were selling only a small portion of their stockpile; they had kept the majority for their own use. Meanwhile, these small amounts of materials might be useful for the individual player or adventurer team, but they were hardly of any use to a large Guild, which would rather ignore them than waste time bidding over scraps.

However, Gentle Snow was selling materials necessary for producing Master Potions and Level 100-plus weapons and equipment—and in impressive amounts. For the various large Guilds that were desperately trying to explore Level 100 neutral maps, these materials were a godsend.

Hence, for a time, the various large Guilds were crazily competing against each other over the materials Gentle Snow and her subordinates sold. And in less than half a day, they had sold half of their stockpile of materials, netting more than 4 million Gold—nearly double their expected profits.

This outcome astonished even Shi Feng.

It’s no wonder those first-rate powers that were capable of intercontinental travel eventually developed into superpowers! This is simply a jackpot! Shi Feng sighed ruefully when he received the 4.11 million Gold from Gentle Snow’s subordinate.

In Shi Feng’s opinion, even selling the materials for four or five times their original price would already have been plenty exaggerated. After all, ordinary players couldn’t afford the materials he brought back. Only the various major powers would have the means to purchase them. Now, however, he had earned more than ten times the original cost of these materials. If he could make a few more business trips like this, he would most likely have enough money to drown an entire superpower to death.

However, while Shi Feng was indeed surprised by this outcome, he did not stop working. After making sure the area he stood on was sealed off from the public, he took out a thick, ancient tome from his bag. This tome was none other than the Freedom Hotel Design.

System: You now possess all the necessary construction materials and land to construct the Freedom Hotel. Do you wish to start its construction?