Chapter 1 The Scorpion's Departure

As the Scorpion quietly left, Uncle Li's gaze turned to the ranger beside him.

The ranger carried a light gray, double-stringed ancient bow. Although his exact appearance was obscured by a black cloak, his tall figure made him hard to ignore. If not for the ancient bow, he would definitely be mistaken for a shield warrior or guardian knight.

"Ogre, you'll make the first move," Uncle Li said in a low voice. "Remember to use all your black arrows. I know you're usually stingy, but there's no room for carelessness this time. You have to use them all."

"Uncle Li, I still have four black arrows. Do we really need to use them all on that kid?" the ranger, known as Ogre, asked with heartache.

Black arrows were no ordinary arrows. They were arrows passed down from ancient times, impossible for current players and NPCs to make. Each one used was one less, and the only way to obtain them was from ancient ruins. Each arrow possessed power comparable to a Tier 4 skill, truly the best of the best among arrows.

"No, we have to do it this way," Uncle Li shook his head, glancing at Shi Feng sitting quietly in the distance. He smiled and said, "Although he doesn't have a Domain like Bai Ye said, he's not far off. Plus, he has amazing basic attributes and various powerful skills. Killing him will be even harder than killing those Domain experts."

"No wonder Bai Ye asked the guild leader for help. Using him as my experimental guinea pig isn't bad," Ogre said, showing some interest after hearing Uncle Li's words.

"He hasn't even mastered a Domain, yet he's harder to kill than a Domain expert?" The petite female elementalist looked at Shi Feng in the distance, giving him a second glance and licking her lips. "Looks like he has a lot of Epic-rank weapons and equipment. This will be a big payday."

"Uncle Li, are you rating him that highly? Are you going to take action yourself?" The shield warrior beside them asked excitedly after hearing Uncle Li.

Each time Uncle Li took action, they could learn a lot. However, they usually assassinated only high-level experts, and Uncle Li rarely intervened, usually letting them handle it. It was difficult to even get a glimpse of his skills. If Uncle Li took action, their trip to this faraway place wouldn't be in vain.

"Yes, although the success rate of you guys working together isn't low, this mission is very important. To ensure its success, I must take action as well," Uncle Li nodded.

Hearing that Uncle Li would personally take action, everyone couldn't help but look at Shi Feng, casting sympathetic glances his way.

If they were to take action, Shi Feng might still have a chance to survive. But with Uncle Li taking action, Shi Feng had no hope at all.

While Uncle Li's team was quietly talking, the number of players in the hall continued to increase. Some had rushed over from other places, while others had emerged from the Sea Dragon Secret Realm. By the time the Sea Dragon Secret Realm completely closed, the entire hall was filled with players.

"As expected of one of the overlords of the End Sea, their foundation is truly powerful," Shi Feng scanned the crowd, sighing inwardly.

Every player present was at least Level 42, and their weapons and equipment were at least Level 40 Fine-Gold rank. There were over 2,500 such players. Currently, even top-tier guilds wouldn't have more than 1,000 players at this level, possibly not even 700 or 800.

One could imagine why the Freedom Alliance was one of the sea's overlords in the previous life.

They were already this strong now. Coupled with the growing three NPC cities, their player count and income would only become more terrifying. This multiplicative effect was something no top-tier guild could compare to.

Just as Shi Feng was quietly observing, the clamor in the hall suddenly stopped. The commander of the First Fleet, Shang Buyan, slowly walked onto the high platform.

"Now that everyone is here, let's begin," Shang Buyan said loudly. "According to the usual rules, based on the performance and losses of each fleet in the secret realm, we will redistribute the upgrade regions. Now, I will announce the results."

Everyone in the Freedom Alliance couldn't help but become nervous.

Although the Freedom Alliance's upgrade regions were all high-resource areas, there were significant differences between them.

"The Third Fleet performed the best this time, as everyone should know. So from now on, the Raging Wind Shelter and the Silent Logging Camp will be taken over by the Third Fleet."

"Ranking second is the Eighth Fleet, which will take over Echo Canyon and Reef Sea."

"Ranking third is our First Fleet, which will take over Locke's Graveyard and the Black Marsh Altar."

...

As Shang Buyan announced the rankings of each fleet one by one, the hall was silent. No one had expected such a big change.

Everyone knew that the Third Fleet was ranked first, but it was unbelievable that the Eighth Fleet could rank second, while the First Fleet could only rank third.

The members of the Third Fleet were ecstatic.

Shi Feng also breathed a sigh of relief. Now his plan could be implemented.

In the previous life, the key reason why the Raging Wind Shelter could become a small holy ground was because there was a Sea God Temple in Raging Wind Town.

The Sea God Temple was like the War God Temple on land. It not only issued quests, but also allowed players to exchange points for items. The Sea God Temple in Raging Wind Town was somewhat special.

Not only could players exchange points for rare items, but they could also exchange points for laboratories.

Laboratories were worthless to ordinary adventure and combat players, but they were treasures to lifestyle players. They allowed lifestyle players to improve themselves to their heart's content. Although laboratories weren't as good as the research rooms in the holy ground Titan City, they were much better than the basic meditation rooms in three-star shops.

Laboratories not only had a rich concentration of mana, but players could also view related information. Although this information was basic, it saved players a lot of time from slowly groping and allowed them to quickly familiarize themselves with various materials and crafting methods, thereby creating new products and becoming lifestyle masters.

It was because of this laboratory that the level of lifestyle players in the sea domain improved by leaps and bounds, gradually catching up with the lifestyle players on land.

Although the laboratory had many benefits, it wasn't easy to enter. Players had to use Sea God Temple points, and the price was very high.

One hundred points for only one day.

One had to know that Sea God Temple points weren't gold coins that could be easily obtained. They could only be obtained through quests or exchanged for other rare items, such as magic rune crystals. One magic rune crystal was worth 10 points, and the drop rate of magic rune crystals in the sea domain was very, very low. Usually, only Boss-level sea beasts had a chance to drop them.

However, it took ten magic rune crystals to exchange for one hundred points, so very few lifestyle players could enter the Sea God Temple laboratory. But as players' levels increased, the number of magic rune crystals increased, and more quests became available, more and more lifestyle players would enter the laboratory.

And he had the Philosopher's Stone. As long as he had enough magic rune shards, he could synthesize magic rune crystals at will.

Plus, with the Raging Wind Badge, players with high authority in the town could get a 20% discount on the points required to exchange at the Sea God Temple. The most important thing was that they could buy land in Raging Wind Town. With these things, it would be difficult for the Candlelight Trading Firm to not grow strong.

"Commander, the Raging Wind Shelter has been taken over by Jun Wuchang, which will greatly affect our subsequent competition for seats. Should we create some trouble for Jun Wuchang?" An oracle wearing a black cloak asked Shang Buyan in a low voice.

"No need. Even if we don't take action, the Raging Wind Shelter itself has a lot of trouble. With Jun Wuchang's fleet strength, it won't be easy to even protect it. There's no need for us to waste manpower. It's more important to find other upgrade regions now," Shang Buyan glanced at Jun Wuchang and Shi Feng, smiling.

Although the Raging Wind Shelter was the best resource map, there were many forces vying for it. Competing with these forces would require a lot of manpower and resources.

In his opinion, giving this map to Jun Wuchang would not only not make Jun Wuchang's Third Fleet stronger, but would constantly weaken it.

"Commander, should we still give the Raging Wind Badge to Jun Wuchang?"

Thanks to Jiang Di for the 50,000 reward! Three updates tomorrow!