Chapter 443 – Abnormal Upgrade

Pharos Town, Alchemy Association:

A continuous stream of players could be seen entering the Alchemy Association. As soon as these players entered the building, they would either wait in line before a counter to turn in or pick up quests. Very few would bother to approach the commission board.

Among the few people loitering in front of the commission board, a slovenly man wearing a simple robe looked through the new commissions on the board. However, after looking through a few listings, the slovenly man couldn’t help but sigh.

“Sure enough, all of these commissions are looking for Grandmaster Potions or above…”

Cigarette Life had long gotten used to seeing only commissions for Grandmaster Potions and above. Although Alchemy Associations did not exist during the Holy World era, players would often post alchemy commissions in Saint Camps. It was just that the commission system back then wasn’t as formal. Everyone simply wrote an advert stating their requests and published it on the notice board of the various Saint Camps’ central plazas. Back then, players would have to look for a commission that suited them to earn God Crystal Fragments.

Now that the Holy World had evolved into the Eternal Realm, what Cigarette Life needed to do to earn money remained the same. It wasn’t by engaging in combat. Instead, it was by practicing the art of alchemy that he wasn’t particularly proficient in.

Before entering the Holy World, Cigarette Life was one of the Greater God’s Domain’s rare titled experts. If put in the average hegemonic power, he could easily receive the position of commander of a trump card legion. However, after entering the Holy World, he became a mediocre existence. If it weren’t for his not-so-good alchemy skills, he might not even be able to make a living in the Holy World.

Unfortunately, his alchemy skills weren’t enough for him to thrive in the Holy World. This was because any decent expert in the Holy World could make enough money that they didn’t have to care about their finances. To protect their lives and complete commissions, these experts would typically purchase potions at the Grandmaster rank or above. Hence, demand for potions at the Master rank was pitifully low. Meanwhile, as someone who could only make Master Potions, Cigarette Life could only make a living by selling niche Master Potions.

Hm?! A commission for Earthen Magic Flowers? When Cigarette life read an inconspicuous commission pasted at the corner of the commission board, he couldn’t help but rub his eyes to check if he was hallucinating.

As an alchemist, Cigarette Life had long looked into the various alchemy materials available in the Eternal Realm, so he knew it was widely available out in the wilderness. Players wouldn’t even need to be an alchemist to be able to harvest Earthen Magic Flowers.

However, as it was an auxiliary material for many kinds of Mana Recovery Potions, demand for Earthen Magic Flowers had always been quite significant. So, even though the flowers were widely available, twenty Earthen Magic Flowers could be exchanged for one Eternal Copper. Many teams would typically harvest some to turn in for money while hunting or doing quests.

But now that someone was purchasing Earthen Magic Flowers for one Eternal Copper per ten flowers, simply harvesting Earthen Magic Flowers had become much more lucrative than killing monsters and doing quests.

It should be known that players could, at most, earn thirty to forty Eternal Copper when doing quests for an entire day. However, if players spent an entire day harvesting only Earthen Magic Flowers, it was possible to collect over a thousand flowers. In other words, it was possible to earn one Eternal Silver a day, which was more than double what players could typically earn from doing quests.

Immediately, Cigarette Life ran out of the Alchemy Association and began going around purchasing Earthen Magic Flowers for one Eternal Copper per twenty flowers.

“What’s wrong with that guy? Why is he buying so many Earthen Magic Flowers? He’s bought several hundred already. Even if he’s buying it for his Guild, there shouldn’t be a need for this many Earthen Magic Flowers.”

“I know, right? Earthen Magic Flowers are merely a kind of auxiliary material. Not a lot is needed for potion-making. Something is fishy with this guy.”

In less than an hour, some observant players started to notice the strangeness in Cigarette Life’s behavior. Moreover, Cigarette Life wasn’t the only player behaving this way. As time passed, more and more players also started to purchase Earthen Magic Flowers in bulk, with some even buying the flowers for one Eternal Copper per fifteen flowers.

Eventually, some players turned their attention to the town’s inconspicuous Alchemy Association.

“What?! Someone’s buying Earthen Magic Flowers for one Eternal Copper per ten flowers?! Those bulk buyers must have made a killing!”

“Ten Earthen Magic Flowers for one Eternal Copper?! I’m definitely draining all of the commissioner’s capital!”

“Dammit! This is discrimination! Why was this commission posted only at the Alchemy Association?!”

Upon discovering the commission issued via the Alchemy Association, even players who weren’t alchemists had started to group up to harvest Earthen Magic Flowers.

…

While Pharos Town had fallen into a craze of harvesting Earthen Magic Flowers, Shi Feng rented a room in a hotel to recover his Stamina and Concentration.

“Who is this Northlight person?” Shi Feng muttered in shock as he looked at the petrified tree branch in his hand.

The Holy Tree’s Main Branch!

The Holy Tree’s existence to the Holy Race was akin to the Tree of Life’s existence to the human race. It could only grow by gathering the power of a world.

Meanwhile, the main branch of the Holy Tree was a bona fide Inferior Divine Artifact-ranked material. For Holy Race players, its value was no less than that of a Legendary Weapon. Even if a Holy Race player simply carried the tree branch on them, they could greatly benefit from it as the tree branch would continuously gather Holy Power around them, which would, in turn, strengthen their Holy Power.

Previously, Shi Feng hadn’t paid close attention to the petrified tree branch and only assumed it was some kind of rare material. He never thought he would get his hands on such valuable material.

Meanwhile, after Shi Feng appraised the petrified tree branch, the Winter of Eternal Night hanging on his waist suddenly trembled.

…

System: The Winter of Eternal Night has detected a World Source. Do you wish to let it devour this World Source to evolve?

…

Shi Feng was stunned by the system notification.

Honestly, the part where the Winter of Eternal Night needed to devour World Sources to evolve had given him a considerable headache. After all, World Sources were the foundations of a world. They weren’t things that could be obtained on a whim.

The fact that the Holy Tree’s Main Branch could be treated and absorbed like a World Source was completely outside of his expectations.

However, despite his surprise, Shi Feng didn’t hesitate to let the Winter of Eternal Night devour the Holy Tree’s Main Branch.

Immediately, the Winter of Eternal Night spontaneously transformed into an illusory wolf and devoured the arm-sized tree branch in one bite. Then, space in the room seemingly froze. Whether it was Shi Feng or the dust falling in the room, everything stagnated. The only things that did not stop moving completely were Shi Feng’s thoughts.

Once the space in the room came to a standstill, boundless mana began pouring out from the void and into the Winter of Eternal Night. After this phenomenon continued for over ten seconds, Shi Feng suddenly felt a resplendent energy coming out from the void, the mere presence of this energy causing his heart to palpitate. This energy was different from mana, and it had the power to strengthen all creatures.

Holy Power!

A type of energy that weapons originally shouldn’t be able to absorb was now being devoured by the illusory wolf that the Winter of Eternal Night had transformed into. Moreover, as the illusory wolf devoured this resplendent energy, glowing white sacred patterns started to appear all over its body.

After this situation continued for around ten minutes, the illusory wolf reverted into the shape of a sword and hovered in front of Shi Feng. At the same time, the space in the room started to unfreeze.