Chapter 2329 – Times Have Changed Apocalypse Empire, Blue Bay City:

After teleporting to Apocalypse City, Shi Feng continued toward Blue Bay City, one of the empire’s port cities. Although Blue Bay City wasn’t a particularly large NPC city, its player traffic was intense.

Shi Feng saw an endless stream of players entering and leaving the city’s Teleportation Hall. Moreover, many of these players wore exquisite clothing and the 2-star Merchant’s Insignia. Some even had the 3-star insignia.

The Merchant’s Insignia was proof of a merchant player’s ability. The higher a merchant player’s star-rank was, the greater their ability. Normally, 3-star merchant players were supported by a large Guild, and they possessed significant resources and sales connections. Hence, they were known as Great Merchants and were even rare in imperial capitals.

And yet, Shi Feng encountered quite a few Great Merchants in Blue Bay City. Based on the bland reactions to these merchant players, their presence in the city didn’t seem to be unusual.

So many Great Merchants gathered in Blue Bay City because it was a trading port. Countless players came into port each day with resources from the various neutral powers out at sea, which allowed the merchant players in the area to earn huge profits.

This city’s development speed is amazing. I doubt it’ll be long before Blue Bay City is promoted to a large-scale city and gains a Tier 4 NPC Magistrate manager. As he watched the various horse and transport carriages rolling down the streets, Shi Feng had to admit that Sinned Heart had impressed him.

When Sinned Heart had wanted to move Immortal Light to a new city, Shi Feng had suggested that he develop near the sea. The various first-rate Guilds hadn’t been paying much attention to the ocean at that time, after all.

By relying on the few resources Zero Wing had provided, Sinned Heart had established Immortal Light in one of the Apocalypse Empire’s port towns, eventually expanding the Guild to occupy all of Blue Bay City. Now, Blue Bay City was almost ready for its promotion into a large-scale NPC city, and Immortal Light’s naval prowess had grown powerful enough that the Guild didn’t need to fear first-rate Guilds. Sinned Heart’s management was even more impressive than Gentle Snow or Aqua Rose’s.

Not only would Blue Bay City grow larger once it became a large-scale NPC city, but the conveniences it offered would also improve. The city would have no trouble accommodating a large number of players, and Immortal Light would even qualify to contend with the Apocalypse Empire’s first-rate Guilds.

As Shi Feng left the Teleportation Hall, he headed toward a nearby Advanced Restaurant. A Level 96 man approached him as he arrived. The Elementalist wore five pieces of Epic Equipment, and the weakest piece on him was Level 95 Dark-Gold rank.

Two more Level 96 players followed the Elementalist, one of which was a Cleric, while the other was a Berserker. Both wore three pieces of Epic Equipment.

Seeing these three greet Shi Feng, the rest of the players in the restaurant were surprised.

“Who is that guy? Immortal Light’s Guild Leader and two of its great experts are actually welcoming him.”

“Could he be some bigshot?”

Every player in Blue Bay City knew of Immortal Light’s Guild Leader, Sinned Heart, as well as the two great experts that accompanied him. To secure control of the city, Immortal Light had challenged and defeated many of the large Guilds that had occupied Blue Bay City. It had even sunk a first-rate Guild’s fleet, which had spread its fame across the Apocalypse Empire.

Moreover, Sinned Heart was even one of the top 10 Elementalists in the empire. Even first-rate Guilds’ Guild Leaders treated him with respect.

Yet now, Sinned Heart had been waiting to greet an ordinary-looking player. Why wouldn’t this surprise them?

Hearing the hushed discussions around him, Sinned Heart had Immortal Light’s members clear out the restaurant. The spectators obediently stopped talking and scattered.

“I hadn’t expected you to make the trip here, Brother Ye Feng. With you, we’ll stand a much better chance in Sea’s End,” Sinned Heart said as he greeted Shi Feng.

“Brother Sinned Heart, you jest. May I know what happened with the Freedom Alliance? Why is it calling in its allies for a meeting?” Shi Feng asked, getting straight to the point.

“I’ve just received some information regarding the situation. Let’s head inside to continue our conversation,” Sinned Heart insisted, his expression becoming disheartened at the mention of the Freedom Alliance. He led Shi Feng into the Advanced Restaurant he had fully reserved earlier.

As Shi Feng and Sinned Heart entered the restaurant, the Cleric and Berserker gave each other disgruntled looks behind Shi Feng’s back.

“This guy doesn’t think much of our Guild, does he? He started demanding answers as soon as the boss walked up to him.”

“Our boss is too mild-tempered. If I were in his position, I would’ve given this guy a piece of my mind. I don’t want him thinking that Immortal Light is the same small Guild it had been in the past.”

“Forget it. He’ll see how powerful Immortal Light has become once we get to Sea’s End.”

The two experts weren’t pleased with Shi Feng’s behavior.

Immortal Light might have received a lot of resources from Zero Wing and shared half of its shares with the Guild, but Immortal Light had changed. Now, it was only slightly weaker than the empire’s first-rate Guilds, and on the water, it was even stronger than some of them.

Not only was Sinned Heart Immortal Light’s Guild Leader, but he was also an extraordinary expert who had successfully repelled the peak experts King’s Return had sent. Even superpowers were wary of his strength at sea, yet Shi Feng treated the man so casually.

Once they had taken their seats in the restaurant, Sinned Heart filled Shi Feng in on the details regarding the Freedom Alliance’s recent actions.

A new power had joined the Freedom Alliance, and now, the alliance had 12 major fleets, not 11.

This new power was exceptionally powerful. It had started out as the last-ranked Twelfth Fleet, but it had soon taken the top position in the Freedom Alliance.

This had significantly changed the status quo in the Freedom Alliance.

The alliance had only controlled three of the major cities in Sea’s End, but now, it controlled five. Naturally, this had caused a qualitative improvement regarding its resource income.

Normally, this development would be a good thing, but the newly-minted First Fleet wanted to reorganize the Freedom Alliance’s partnerships with the various powers, including disqualifying some of them. Hence, the alliance had invited the various powers to visit Starfall Island for this meeting.

Starfall Island was a particularly dangerous location in Sea’s End. Ordinary ships wouldn’t make it into the sea zone, torn apart by the area’s powerful sea monsters. One could only get through with a sufficiently strong fleet.

A new power has joined the Freedom Alliance? Realization dawned upon Shi Feng when he heard Sinned Heart’s explanation.

A commotion had occurred in the Freedom Alliance during Shi Feng’s previous life, but Silent Entropy, the original First Fleet’s commander, had eventually suppressed it. Unfortunately, Silent Entropy and his fleet had suffered a massive setback thanks to Shi Feng, which must have prevented him from controlling the situation. This resulted in a new power taking over the Freedom Alliance.

“Since the Freedom Alliance has grown stronger, they want to see whether their partners still qualify to participate in their alliance. While I can understand its reasoning, I had never thought something like this would happen so suddenly,” Sinned Heart said, smiling bitterly. “I’ve recalled all of Immortal Light’s best ships, but it’ll probably be another three or four hours before they return. If we wait until then to leave, we’ll likely be a little late to the Freedom Alliance’s meeting.”

They would need a small fleet of Bronze Speedboats just to get to Starfall Island. Without sufficient strength, they’d only find death waiting for them.

“How many Bronze Speedboats and stronger have you gathered so far, Brother Heart?” Shi Feng asked.

“We currently have eight Bronze Speedboats and one Mysterious-Iron Speedboat ready to depart,” Sinned Heart said, shaking his head. “It won’t be enough to make it to Starfall Island. We’ll need at least 20 Bronze Speedboats and a sailboat.”

“Eight Bronze Speedboats and one Mysterious-Iron Speedboat? That’ll be enough. We should set out right away,” Shi Feng declared.