Chapter 1 The Tremor

Shi Feng looked at the golden stone disc in his backpack, his entire body trembling uncontrollably.

The God Domain was vast, containing numerous kingdoms and empires, each with its own rise and fall.

Many of these kingdoms and empires had already vanished into the river of history.

Although forgotten, some kingdoms and empires left behind astonishing treasures, unknown to the world.

In God Domain, these were known as Secret Treasures.

Secret Treasures were divided into four levels.

Kingdom Secret Treasures, as the name suggested, were secret treasures left behind by a kingdom of the past. They were enough to ignite a deadly struggle between any first-rate guilds. In the previous life, a super guild even offered a city with a population of a million in exchange for one. The value was unimaginable.

The Youying Guild in the previous life, though a top second-rate guild with ten city-states, simply wasn't qualified to compete for such treasures.

One level higher were Empire Secret Treasures.

Empire Secret Treasures were secret treasures left behind by an empire of the past. The wealth possessed by an average empire surpassed that of three to five kingdoms combined. The value was self-evident.

In the previous life, an insignificant guild called Leiming Family rose to become a top first-rate guild in less than a year, shocking the entire God Domain.

The guild had no experts, no financial resources, basically nothing, yet it soared to the top tier. This astonished everyone. After investigations, the truth came to light.

The Leiming Family had accidentally obtained an Empire Secret Treasure, using it to secretly and rapidly develop, finally becoming a hegemon in God Domain in under a year.

From then on, Secret Treasures entered the public eye, sparking countless wars and leading to the annihilation of many guilds…

Besides Empire Secret Treasures, there were even higher-level Continental Secret Treasures and the highest-level World Secret Treasures, but these were only mentioned in the God Domain library. As far as Shi Feng knew, none had ever appeared.

The item in Shi Feng's backpack was an Empire Secret Treasure. How could he not be excited?

Even Shi Feng, a reborn player, would need careful planning, extensive preparations, numerous fortuitous encounters, and the cultivation of many experts to establish a virtual empire. Yet, an Empire Secret Treasure could propel a small guild to a top first-rate guild in under a year, allowing it to become a true empire. It truly lived up to its name, enabling an empire to rise.

As for what was hidden within the Empire Secret Treasure, Shi Feng had no idea. After the Leiming Family incident in the previous life, anyone who obtained one kept the information tightly sealed.

Shi Feng naturally wouldn't reveal anything either. He suppressed his excitement, planning to find a secluded place to study the Empire Secret Treasure.

After organizing his backpack, Shi Feng quietly slipped into the forging room on the fourth floor of the Starstreak Trading Firm.

The Starstreak Trading Firm was now the top trading firm in White River City, offering an incredibly comprehensive selection of goods. Anything that players could currently craft was available there. Coming to the Starstreak Trading Firm meant there was no need to go anywhere else. Business was booming every day, raking in gold. Countless large guilds had sought collaboration, but Anna, the manager of Starstreak Trading Firm, had rejected them all.

Shi Feng found an empty forging room.

"Let's see what secrets this Empire Secret Treasure holds." Shi Feng carefully took out the Empire Secret Treasure and placed it on the stone table.

Apart from its name, "Empire Secret Treasure," the golden stone disc displayed no other information. Shi Feng had no idea how to use it, and could only explore it slowly on his own.

The stone disc was engraved with various patterns and magic纹 (mowen), but none were familiar to Shi Feng.

After spending over half an hour and trying every method he could think of, Shi Feng failed to find any clues.

It was like having a mountain of gold right in front of him, but lacking the key to unlock it.

"Why was the Leiming Family able to discover the secrets of the Empire Secret Treasure, while I can't find anything?" Shi Feng wondered, playing with the golden stone disc. "Could it be that the Empire Secret Treasure has other secrets?"

It made sense.

A treasure capable of enabling an empire to rise wouldn't be so easily obtained. If it were a quest, the difficulty would be at least Legend rank.

Legend-rank quests were not something players could easily complete. Even he was currently struggling with Epic-rank quests, let alone Legend-rank ones.

"I'll have to put it aside for now. Maybe I'll encounter some clues in the future," Shi Feng thought optimistically.

Everything was difficult at the beginning. Now that he had the Empire Secret Treasure in hand, he could gather information and find a solution in the future.

Putting away the Empire Secret Treasure, Shi Feng piled a large quantity of Starlight Ore on the ground.

He had collected over twenty thousand pieces of Starlight Ore during this time. Selling them for one silver coin each would be worth over 200 gold coins, but Shi Feng wanted to refine them into Starlight Essence.

Originally, refining Starlight Ore required spending money at an alchemist's. Each refining cost one silver coin, and there was no guarantee of obtaining Starlight Essence. However, there was a high probability of getting one essence for every two ores, so the price of a Starlight Essence was four silver coins.

But Shi Feng didn't need to do that.

With the Philosopher's Stone, a sacred alchemy artifact, he was stronger than any alchemist and didn't need to spend any money. The probability of refining Starlight Essence would certainly be higher than even that of a top NPC alchemy master.

Shi Feng then began refining the Starlight Ore.

One piece… two pieces…

The Philosopher's Stone refined quickly. Before long, he had refined over a hundred pieces and obtained 83 Starlight Essence.

Starlight Essence, a consumable. Adding it to forging could increase the success rate. The more added, the higher the success rate.

"The refining rate is indeed good." Shi Feng looked at the shimmering, bright red gemstones on the stone table, feeling indescribably pleased.

The Philosopher's Stone was indeed a sacred alchemy artifact. Just refining these Starlight Ore saved him over 200 gold coins.

Time passed bit by bit.

Before he knew it, Shi Feng had spent over seven hours, finally refining all the Starlight Ore. He obtained a total of over eighteen thousand Starlight Essence, which could be exchanged for 720 gold coins.

In just seven hours, he had more than tripled 200 gold coins…

"Finally, I can start forging." Although Shi Feng had been doing repetitive work for seven consecutive hours, he didn't feel tired or bored. Instead, he grew increasingly excited. Just imagining the sight of the guild members wearing the Dragonscale Set, marching around White River City in their uniform equipment, made his heart soar. It would definitely be the envy of all the players in White River City.