Chapter 564 – Frightening Wealth

“Are you sure you aren’t joking with me, Guild Leader Shi Feng?” Xia Qingying couldn’t help but ask when she saw the Basic Divine Pattern displayed above Shi Feng’s watch. “Silver Frost City is just a second-tier city. I doubt anybody would believe you would share the complete Divine Engraver Legacy with them just to deal with Silver Frost City.”

The Divine Engraver subclass had long become extinct in the Greater God’s Domain. Although there were some players capable of creating divine patterns, they could only create a couple of incomplete varieties, and they weren’t actually recognized as Divine Engravers.

Even so, the various upper-ranking hegemonic powers still highly sought these faux Divine Engravers. If a true Divine Engraver appeared in such a situation, even the various apex powers would probably have difficulties sitting still. Not to mention, they were talking about a Legacy capable of mass-producing Divine Engravers here.

So long as Shi Feng gave the word, he could easily get his hands on even a first-tier mobile city, let alone a second-tier mobile city like Silver Frost City. Meanwhile, all Shi Feng needed to do was give his helpers one opportunity to learn the Divine Engraver Legacy.

!!

Yet, now, Shi Feng intended to share the complete Divine Engraver Legacy with her just so she could take control of Silver Frost City.

If Silver Frost City’s City Lord were to learn of this, he would probably have a heart attack. This was bullying of the highest order!

“You have misunderstood, Miss Xia,” Shi Feng said, chuckling when he saw the shocked look on Xia Qingying’s face. “If we are only talking about Silver Frost City, it naturally wouldn’t be worthwhile for me to take out the Divine Engraver Legacy. My goal is to establish a partnership with you, Miss Xia. Taking control of Silver Frost City is only the first step of this partnership.

The Divine Engraver Legacy recorded in the Book of Eternity was no trivial matter. Even if he revealed only a small portion of it, it would be enough to cause an uproar throughout the entire Greater God’s Domain.

If it were only to get payback for Xia Qingying, Shi Feng wouldn’t need to share the Divine Engraver Legacy.

“Establish a partnership with me?” Xia Qingying blinked her eyes in confusion, her mind having difficulties processing Shi Feng’s words.

She was only one of the Green God Corporation’s Senior Vice Presidents. Even though she had previously shown strong support for Shi Feng, that was only because she deemed Zero Wing to have great potential. Even if Shi Feng sought to repay her gesture, she highly doubted he would use the Divine Engraver Legacy to establish a partnership with her. After all, that was something incredibly tempting, even to the various apex powers.

“As an advanced member of the Eternal Chamber of Commerce, your connections vastly surpass the average corporation, Miss Xia. The Green God Corporation is also established in quite a number of mobile cities,” Shi Feng calmly explained. “I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you how precious the Divine Engraver Legacy is. If information about it were to leak, it would result in a calamity of epic proportions for Zero Wing.

“Zero Wing is currently looking to nurture a large batch of Divine Engravers, but it is rather difficult for players to become one. If we wish to conduct this large-scale operation in secret, we will require your help to select a group of trustworthy talents from the various mobile cities. In exchange for your help, we can give you 10% of all profits generated by the Divine Engravers you recruit. What do you think?”

The cultivation of Divine Engravers was a challenging task. Not only did it require a large amount of resources, but it also required talent.

If Zero Wing were to openly recruit Lifestyle players, the Guild would cease to exist in both the Greater God’s Domain and the Greater World before it could even finish nurturing its first batch of Divine Engravers. Hence, this cultivation process must be conducted secretly.

Meanwhile, by having Xia Qingying help in the recruitment process, not only could Zero Wing recruit more talents, but it would also ensure the secrecy of the entire operation. In addition, Xia Qingying could also handle the sale of the divine patterns produced later on using her connections with the Eternal Chamber of Commerce.

Out of everyone Shi Feng knew, Xia Qingying was the best partner candidate he could think of at present.

Furthermore, Silver Frost City had a large population, ranking near the top among the surrounding second-tier cities. The region it occupied was even home to the Frost Spring, which produced water capable of clearing and calming the drinker’s mind.

During Shi Feng’s previous life, many Lifestyle players migrated to Silver Frost City because of the Frost Spring, as drinking the spring’s water helped with their research and growth both inside and outside God’s Domain.

One could say that Silver Frost City was the most suitable mobile city for developing Lifestyle players.

“You seem to have a lot of trust in me, Guild Leader Shi Feng. Are you not worried I will leak this astonishing information?” Xia Qingying asked, a playful smile appearing as she scrutinized the man before her. “You might be in for heavy losses should that happen.”

“I believe you aren’t that foolish, Miss Xia,” Shi Feng calmly said with a smile.

“Alright, then. I admit I am very tempted.” When Xia Qingying failed to see any changes in Shi Feng’s expression, she helplessly sighed and asked, “How many people do you want to recruit for the starting batch? A thousand? Two thousand?” The future prospects of the Divine Engraver subclass were limitless, and there was no lack of demand for the divine patterns they produced. If they capitalized on the Divine Engraver Legacy properly, even 1% of the generated profits would exceed the total income of any conglomerate, let alone 10%.

At this point, Xia Qingying couldn’t help but be grateful to Xiao Quan and Silver Frost City’s City Lord. If not for them, she would have never received such an opportunity.

“We’ll start by recruiting 10,000 people first,” Shi Feng said after giving the matter some thought. “I will hand you the Basic Divine Pattern Designs as soon as possible.”

So long as players successfully learned how to create a divine pattern, they could produce as many designs for it as they wanted. Previously, he had already become an Apprentice Divine Engraver. So, he would have no difficulties producing Basic Divine Pattern Designs.

As for letting others learn using the Book of Eternity, he dared not do such a thing.

It might be easier for players to become a Divine Engraver if they learned through the Book of Eternity, but each learning attempt using it cost one God Crystal. It simply wasn’t a cost the average power could afford. Not to mention, the Book of Eternity didn’t only contain the knowledge necessary to start on the path of a Divine Engraver. Instead, it contained a complete Divine Engraver Legacy that could potentially help players develop into a Famed Craftsman or even a Divine Craftsman. He naturally wouldn’t let others gain access to such a precious Legacy.

For this reason, he decided to recruit 10,000 individuals to nurture in the first batch.

Without the Book of Eternity’s assistance, players would face much greater difficulty learning to become a Divine Engraver. With such circumstances, the difficulty of grasping a Basic Divine Pattern would be no different than becoming a Master Magician, and their chances of becoming a Divine Engraver were probably 1% or less.

In other words, if they recruited 10,000 talents to nurture, at most, 100 of them would become Apprentice Divine Engravers capable of producing Basic Divine Patterns that could be used to strengthen Epic Weapons and Equipment.

And as it was even more challenging to graduate from being an Apprentice Divine Engraver, out of these 100 Apprentice Divine Engravers, it would be fortunate if even three to five of them could become an official Divine Engraver. Meanwhile, three to five Divine Engravers were barely enough to execute his plan.

“Ten thousand?” Xia Qingying’s mouth twitched when she heard Shi Feng’s answer. “Do you know how much it would cost to recruit so many players, Guild Leader Shi Feng? Aside from material expenses, we will also have to cover their salaries, which will vary depending on the confidentiality agreement we sign with them. If we go by the highest-level confidentiality agreement, we will need to pay every person at least 10,000 Star Coins a month.

“Should any of them succeed in becoming an Apprentice Divine Engraver or Divine Engraver, we will have to further increase their benefits. Not to mention, we will also have to pay for the contribution points needed for them to remain in a mobile city. And if we are going to recruit 10,000 people, we will have to split them across several dozen cities.

“Every city’s contribution points are independent of each other. If we were to purchase contribution points on such a large scale, even if we have everyone stay in only third-tier cities, it would still be a significant expenditure. After adding everything together, we will have to spend a minimum of 500 million Star Coins a month. Are you sure you want to recruit so many people?”

A monthly expenditure of half a billion Star Coins was a huge burden even to the Green God Corporation.

This was why few corporations could afford to nurture their members in mobile cities on a large scale. Not to mention, Zero Wing was only a Guild that had recently set foot into the Greater World.

…