Brewing Troubles
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Feng then recalled Celestina into the Spectral Animacell and logged out. Since Bloodlines were categorized as limited items, after players exchanged for a Bloodline, they could not use it immediately. They needed to wait three hours for the restriction to end.
Hence, Feng chose to log out and rest while waiting for the restriction on the Draconic-Voidling Bloodline to disappear and for the rest of his skills to come off their cooldowns in the meantime.
What Feng didn't know was that, while he was chilling with beauties in the World Summit and having a grand time, all hell was breaking loose on the Eastern Continent of God's Domain.
After God's Domain had undergone its third evolution, combat in the game had become more difficult for players.
The Divine Colosseum was a very good place to train their combat techniques.
Only, training there was too expensive.
Moreover, the Colosseum only accepted Magic Crystals as currency. This had caused the demand for Magic Crystals to skyrocket overnight. Since the third system upgrade, the price of Magic Crystals has increased by several times.
However, there were practically no spare Magic Crystals to sell.
All of the powers in God's Domain had previously nearly emptied their Warehouses of Magic Crystals while purchasing Intermediate Mana Armor Kits from the Candlelight Trading Firm like madmen, and now they couldn't even support their core members' expenditures in the Divine Colosseum, let alone of the lower-ranking guild members.
The various superpowers had a bit more stored up, since they hadn't gone as crazy as the First-rate and below guilds in trading away all of their Magic Crystals, leaving a portion of their stock, which had recovered slightly over the days as their guild members raided more dungeons.
Despite that, the superpowers were even more desperate for Magic Crystals than other powers, as not only did they have many more members, but also those that trained much more and had a greater need for continuous trips to the Divine Colosseum.
This caused the guilds to raise the price of Magic Crystals by multiple times than the one before the third system update, attempting to buy as many as possible from the independent players, since none of the other guilds had Magic Crystals to spare either, all the while having their members raid dungeons on masse, even stopping some of the important guild missions that they had been preparing for in order to increase their acquisition of Magic Crystals to the limit they could afford to expend their manpower.
It wasn't very profitable, though, as the independent players had been selling any Magic Crystals they obtained in their respective Cities' Auction Houses upon seeing that there were some people who were purchasing all of the Magic Crystals that were offered for prices much higher than the market value.
The independent players weren't willing to sell too many of their Magic Crystals now, both due to needing them as well to grow stronger in the Divine Colosseum, and due to now being suspicious of how valuable the Magic Crystals will become in the future after getting scammed out of their already small stocks.
As a result, the various powers of God's Domain on the Eastern Continent were facing a shortage of an essential resource that was now required for players to grow stronger that they could not overcome.
With no other option available, the powers could only turn towards the one responsible for them lacking Magic Crystals and the only entity that had profited immensely from the third system update, while everybody else suffered grave losses due to it.
Either contacting through the system, sending a representative to negotiate, or calling for support through the Chambers of Commerce, all of the various powers who had traded their Magic Crystals away for Intermediate Mana Armor Kits with the Candlelight Trading Firm a couple of days ago attempted to ask either for a refund or to trade for Magic Crystals with the Trading Firm.
After all, it wasn't a secret that the Candlelight Trading Firm had acquired a stupendous amount of Magic Crystals through the trade, and according to some investigation done by the powers, it should have more than one and a half billion Magic Crystals at the moment.
With such a huge amount, the Candlelight Trading Firm and Zero Wing would even have trouble storing and using up all of their Magic Crystals, so it shouldn't be a problem for the Candlelight Trading Firm to trade a large portion of its Magic Crystal stock.
Of course, except for a few arrogant powers, they didn't think that the Trading Firm would be willing to just hand back the Magic Crystals used in the transaction.
To begin with, it was them who had agreed to the deal and signed a contract, so the various powers could not force Candlelight to give them the Magic Crystals unless there was a breach of contract and Candlelight failed to keep its end of the deal for trading the Intermediate Mana Armor Kits.
Unfortunately, from what they could see, such a thing was unlikely to happen.
Candlelight had already completed its contract with all of the superpowers who had purchased the kits from it, as well as a portion of the amount the other powers had traded for.
With how fast the Trading Firm was managing to produce Intermediate Mana Armor Kits, fulfilling the trade seemed to be completely doable for Candlelight, and there was no way the powers will be able to use the penalties of the contracts signed to their advantage.
Not to mention, the powers who had obtained their promised Intermediate Mana Armor Kits had already distributed them to their guild members, meaning all of the kits have already been equipped and unable to be traded back.
Threatening the Trading Firm to give them the Magic Crystals back was unlikely to work out too well for either party as well, since Candlelight was backed by Zero Wing, which had displayed its might in the fight against the Heavenly Dragon Pavilion when it attempted to attack Zero Wing's Guild Residence.
Even though it was a newly established, small guild, Zero Wing possessed a large number of powerful experts in its arsenal, so it would be unwise to provoke it unless absolutely necessary.
Hence, although it would cause them to make another massive loss, the various powers had no choice but to purchase as many Magic Crystals as possible from the Candlelight Trading Firm through whatever means necessary.
To everyone's surprise, however, the Candlelight Trading Firm rejected all of their attempts to negotiate for purchasing the Magic Crystals from it.
This came as a shock to all of them, as the various powers had been under the impression Candlelight would want to capitalize on this opportunity to relieve itself from the huge amount of Magic Crystals obtained, earn an inconceivable profit, and potentially gain new partnerships through the deal.
In fact, after considering how much the Candlelight Trading Firm was trying to get its hands on all of the Magic Crystals it could with such zeal and even trading millions of Intermediate Mana Armor Kits for the crystals, the various powers even began suspecting that it had already known about the upcoming third system update and what changes it would bring about beforehand.
So, following its acquisition of most of the Magic Crystals on the Eastern Continent and the third evolution of God's Domain, it would only make sense for Candlelight to start selling off the Magic Crystals way above the market price.
It was what everyone had thought Candlelight has been planning to do while scheming in the shadows all this time and waiting for a chance to strike at them from a financial angle. This was the most logical course of action.
Yet, once again going against their expectations, Candlelight didn't seem to have any intentions of selling their Magic Crystals, putting the various powers in a bind and unsure how to proceed with this mysterious force that constantly took unexpected actions, having no idea about the Trading Firm's true background or what it was thinking.
What they didn't know, however, was that even if Candlelight was willing to sell the Magic Crystals it had obtained through the trade, it would be impossible.
After all, Feng had already used up around 1.4 billion of the 1.6 billion Magic Crystals that the Trading Firm had possessed, leaving them with only around two hundred million Magic Crystals in its Warehouses.
All these powers individually asked for hundreds of thousands of Magic Crystals on average, some even wanting millions of them. Naturally, Candlelight couldn't trade away resources that it didn't have.
Thus, the Candlelight Trading Firm and Chamber of Commerce could only reject the various powers' proposals for trading the Magic Crystals previously scammed out of them.
Though, even if it did still possess the Magic Crystals necessary, Candlelight wouldn't have been willing to sell its Magic Crystals in this situation.
The things offered by the various powers to trade for the Magic Crystals were mostly Gold Coins, while some brought out their Designs and Recipes, other items like valuable products from their own Trading Firms, materials, and some even offered plots of Land for a large number of Magic Crystals.
Nothing that Candlelight or Zero Wing actually needed all that much though.
Gold Coins were the thing they currently lacked the least, having no need for more than what the Candlelight Trading Firm has already obtained from selling its products across all of the Shops during these days.
Just on the first day of opening its Shops in the Empires' Imperial Capitals, the Candlelight Trading Firm had earned over a million Gold Coins. On the second day, although the hype around it had died down a little, Candlelight still sold enough products to gain around another one million Gold.
The following days, the Candlelight Trading Firm didn't rake in such humongous amounts, but still earned around 500,000 Gold a day, with the average daily revenue now being at around 400,000 Gold Coins.
Even after spending a decent portion of it on Candlelight's expenditures, like the materials necessary for producing the items sold at its Shops, the Trading Firm's earnings were stupefying for something at this stage of the game.
The one who profited the most after Candlelight and Zero Wing from the Trading Firm's massive success, however, was undoubtedly Phoenix Rain.
Having done very little to actually benefit the Candlelight Trading Firm aside from selling some materials to it slightly below the market price, Rain had received quite the steal from her deal with Feng.
Possessing 5% of Candlelight's shares, Rain received a twentieth of the Trading Firm's profits. She had earned herself over 50,000 Gold Coins just on the first day.
By now, Rain had obtained over 150,000 Gold Coins from Candlelight's sales.
Even some Super Guilds didn't have that type of money from their daily operations, let alone getting it from the side with minimum effort, manpower, and resources expended in the process on top of the money they were already earning from other sources.
Her deal with Feng had instantly made Rain into a very wealthy lady, gaining huge sums of Gold that others could only dream of every day as Candlelight continuously sold its amazing products.
As for the other things offered by the various powers to trade for the Magic Crystals, they weren't of much worth to the Candlelight Trading Firm, the Designs and Recipes being far inferior to anything it had, the items mundane compared to the things stored within Zero Wing's and Candlelight's Warehouses, while more Land was unnecessary for the Trading Firm since Feng had already previously purchased a plot nearly everywhere that they'd need.
With no significant benefit to the Trading Firm, it naturally wouldn't negotiate on selling any of its remaining magic Crystals.
The various powers didn't see it that way, though.
Candlelight's refusal to trade any Magic Crystals now put them in an even tighter spot than before, their need for a much larger amount of Magic Crystals than what they are currently obtaining pushing them towards desperation.
Some powers even began to voice out faint threats against the Candlelight Trading Firm, directed more towards Zero Wing since Candlelight is a non-combat power, while it was well known that the Trading Firm's owner was Zero Wing's Guild Leader.
Even if Zero Wing did have many powerful experts in it, those powers believed that in front of so many guilds banding together, its experts would be powerless against them, and the offending powers could simply gang up on Zero Wing to eradicate it along with its top combatants.
Oddly enough, however, only the First-rate Guilds and below spoke their threats out loud in an attempt to make Candlelight comply with their requests, while most of the superpowers stayed silent.
Despite everybody having seen what happened to the Heavenly Dragon Pavilion and its prided War Dragon Legion during the attack on Zero Wing's Guild Residence, guilds below Super-first-rate rank that had little or no knowledge pertaining to the Realms of Refinement still failed to realize the power of Zero Wing's experts.
Moreover, the Assassins who had been tasked with recording the siege were amateurs in this job when it came to capturing the important details of a fight between true experts to high-ranking powers.
Many of the Assassins had even been frozen in place from shock after seeing the Heavenly Dragon Pavilion's members getting massacred, while those whose head remained in the game couldn't completely keep up with Zero Wing's core members, only getting some decent shots at what was happening.
Enough to show Zero Wing's members were completely dominating the fight while the Heavenly Dragon Pavilion's top experts were helpless about it, but not enough to truly display the core members' might or give much important information to the people watching the videos later on.
As for the recordings taken from outside Zero Wing's Guild Residence, those only managed to take in the scene from afar and weren't too useful except for determining some of the core members' combat standards, which those lower-ranking powers weren't capable of interpreting properly.
Hence, the First-rate and below Guilds didn't understand how powerful Zero Wing truly is, and they attempted to forcefully persuade Candlelight into trading Magic Crystals to them.
The superpowers, on the other hand, didn't behave as rashly upon being rejected.
Aside from being cautious of Zero Wing's experts, knowing how dangerous a force of over two dozen Domain Realm experts is, the various superpowers also still had no idea what kind of organization was backing Candlelight and Zero Wing.
From their perspective, it was impossible for so many experts to appear out of nowhere, with many of them previously being noobs. The only explanation would be that the organization behind Zero Wing had some method of mass-producing experts; with even having someone reach the Domain Realm in a short period of time being possible.
No such power existed though as far as all of their gathered information could tell, so the entity backing Zero Wing was either some mysterious organization deeply hidden in the shadows that had somehow managed to leave not the slightest of signs or hints that could link it to anything and be untraceable to anyone who attempted to look into it;
Or, more likely, the power supporting Zero Wing and the origin of those experts' unexplainable growth was the world's number one organization, the Green God Corporation.
Although it didn't exactly make sense considering the Green God Corporation had never interfered in the matters of virtual reality gaming between guilds, some of the weird happenings would become more plausible.
If it really was the Green God Corporation backing Zero Wing, it would also possibly explain how it had known to gather Magic Crystals in advance before the third system update, as the more well-informed powers suspected that the Green God Corporation was responsible for a game ahead of its time like God's Domain suddenly appearing on the market, having vital knowledge like the changes which would happen upon a system update making sense in that case.
Since they had no proof, however, the powers couldn't accuse anyone in particular of anything.
They also wouldn't dare to question the Green God Corporation even if there was evidence for it being behind Zero Wing's rapid rise, as the corporation supplied precious resources like S-rank Nutrient Fluids and Life Potions to them, so arguing with the Green God Corporation over a mere speculation could very well earn its displeasure and get their supply of irreplaceable nurturing supplies cut off.
Nevertheless, the superpowers' Magic Crystal situation was quite dire, and they couldn't just sit back and accept Candlelight's rejection either. If it came to that, they'd have to resort to forceful measures in order to get a sufficient amount of Magic Crystals for them to continue their operations.
Thus, they once again proposed for trading, opting for a more peaceful approach where no one suffers immense losses one more time, before they had to switch to threatening Candlelight into compliance like the lower-ranking powers.
After some time, Candlelight came out with a response that wasn't to anyone's liking.
Although it didn't completely reject the idea of trading some of its Magic Crystals, Candlelight didn't offer a direct and reliable way to purchase the valuable crystals from it.
Instead, the Trading Firm simply offered to exchange some Magic Crystals through the Secret Chamber of Commerce and Candlelight Chamber of Commerce for rare or specialty materials.
This naturally wasn't what the various powers wanted, as not only was a limited number of Magic Crystals up for exchange, but they had to compete with other powers for them.
At the same time, new ranks were added to the Candlelight Chamber of Commerce, dividing its members in a way that allowed them to trade for more resources like the Magic Crystals, while the members needed to contribute a decent amount to the Chamber of Commerce in order to rise higher and have more options for trading in larger quantities.
A total of 15,000,000 Magic Crystals was taken out of Candlelight's Warehouse and put up for trade, five million in the Secret Chamber of Commerce's exchange system and ten million for members of the Candlelight Chamber of Commerce to have available to them depending on their rank.
None of the powers were pleased by this arrangement, the amounts of Magic Crystals they could gain this way nowhere near sufficient for their needs, while what was obtainable to trade for would greatly cost them.
Many powers voiced their complaints and wished to properly negotiate for a deal that was favorable for them, but Candlelight didn't budge on its conditions anymore, saying to take it or leave it.
In fact, the powers who had previously attempted to threaten the Candlelight Trading Firm and Zero Wing were entirely rejected from joining the Candlelight Chamber of Commerce and had no opportunity to even trade anymore, while those who had been in the Chamber had their ranks reduced to the lowest and made unable to purchase any Magic Crystals through the Candlelight Chamber of Commerce.
Faced with Candlelight's attitude towards everything and unwillingness to negotiate any further, the various powers had no choice but to settle for trading through the Chambers of Commerce.
Those who weren't a member of either one rushed to join the Candlelight Chamber of Commerce, and while most were accepted into the Chamber with some conditions, others like the Dragon-Phoenix Pavilion who were hostile towards Zero Wing got turned away, their membership not being accepted and losing the only source of a decent amount of Magic Crystals.
Nine Dragons Emperor suffered the most throughout this entire endeavor.
First, he got humiliated by Black Flame, then had some of his strongest fighters and his entire trump card legion annihilated with most losing their God's Domain accounts, before getting stomped on, humiliated once again, and dying himself while not being able to log in for a few days.
Upon finally getting back into the game, Nine Dragons Emperor, wanting to recover the strength of his Pavilion as quickly as possible and seeing Intermediate Mana Armor Kits being sold in masse, spent all of his personal and some of the guild's Magic Crystals to purchase a large amount of the kits.
In the beginning, Nine Dragons Emperor thought that Candlelight wouldn't allow him to purchase any due to his previous transgressions, and had been pondering on an alternative method to making a deal with the Trading Firm or getting his hands on the Intermediate Mana Armor Kits, but to the Pavilion Master's surprise, he was welcomed with open arms and had been treated the same as everybody else, trading for as many Mana Kits as he could afford.
Glad by the unexpected development, Nine Dragons Emperor began working towards regaining the strength he had lost.
And that's when God's Domain's third system update hit him like a brick to the head.
Only then did he understand why Candlelight had so happily accepted his patronage.
After all, the strength he could gain from the Intermediate Mana Armor Kits purchased was a far cry from the problems he now faces with a shortage of Magic Crystals.
As if to make things worse, the Dragon-Phoenix Pavilion was one of the few powers to be rejected from the Candlelight Chamber of Commerce due to the Heavenly Dragon Pavilion's Pavilion Master previously using his influence to rally together other guilds and threaten Candlelight into selling its Magic Crystals, believing there was no way it would be willing to offend so many powers once they united; even with the strength of Zero Wing's core members that the Pavilion Master was more than aware of.
Many of the guild's elders who had sided with Nine Dragons Emperor in the past had dropped their support for him as a result of the losses he has incurred and caused the Dragon-Phoenix Pavilion in just a few days, and even the Great Pavilion Master is displeased with him after the Pavilion had lost a great deal of its reputation due to his recent actions.
Meanwhile, Phoenix Rain, his opposing Pavilion Master who was vying for the position of Dragon-Phoenix Pavilion's Great Pavilion Master as well, was currently like a bright sun in the mid-day sky.
She had recently acquired an enormous amount of Gold from somewhere and used it to push the Dragon-Phoenix Pavilion's development forward by a large margin and made up for some of the setbacks Nine Dragons Emperor had caused.
Additionally, unlike most powers who had nearly used up their Magic Crystal stock while purchasing Intermediate Mana Armor Kits from Candlelight, Rain hadn't traded a single one of her Magic Crystals, and had even purchased a sizeable amount of the rocks.
Although she didn't know what purpose these items would have or how precious they'd become at the time, after meeting Black Flame, the vastness behind his actions had fascinated Rain, having obtained ownership over so many Imperial Capitals' Golden Lands right under the noses of all the powers who had been calling the Imperial Capitals their territory, without anyone even realizing it until Candlelight set up its Shops at the plots of Land.
Black Flame's following moves stunned her, and all of the other powers' upper echelons, into silence, as he organized the operations of a Trading Firm spanning on the Lands of over forty Empires and earned stupendous amounts of money from it all while bringing the Intermediate Mana Armor Kits to everyone's attention in the process, which forced the superpowers to seek out the Candlelight Trading Firm in order to purchase more of the kits and not fall behind the other powers.
The superpowers trading for huge amounts of Intermediate Mana Armor Kits had all of the lower-ranking powers following suit, creating more business for Candlelight than any of the other superpowers' Trading Firms could even hope to match up to.
What caught Rain's attention, however, was the thing Black Flame chose to trade the valuable and unique Intermediate Mana Armor Kits that could only be obtained from Candlelight for.
Magic Crystals.
Instead of earning himself another otherworldly sum of Coins, Black Flame sold the Mana Kits for Magic Crystals.
This served to intrigue Rain, having seen how deep Black Flame's forethought and machinations ran, and knowing that Black Flame wouldn't do something like gathering a continent's worth of Magic Crystals for no reason, the Phoenix Pavilion Master's gut told her there was more to these Magic Crystals than what anybody else had yet discovered.
Thus, in spite of all of the other powers spending their hard-earned Magic Crystals on trading for the Intermediate Mana Armor Kits, Rain went against the current and increased her stockpile even more using her connections.
However, even Rain had never thought the situation would develop to this extent, where Magic Crystals would become as essential to players as Coins, while the various powers nearly had none of the necessary resource remaining.
It resulted in her position in the Dragon-Phoenix Pavilion being propelled further after their consumption of Magic Crystals far outpaced the supply.
Nine Dragons Emperor getting the Dragon-Phoenix Pavilion banned from the Candlelight Chamber of Commerce worked out even better for Rain, since she had made a partnership with the Candlelight Trading Firm before its debut, something no other power has managed to achieve, and could trade for some Magic Crystals with it to support the Pavilion until it's able to earn enough Magic Crystals for its operations.
Thanks to Nine Dragons Emperor's arrogant and aggressive approach, Rain's status and chances of becoming the next Great Pavilion Master had greatly increased, while he now suffered all the consequences.
If not for the Heavenly Dragon Pavilion Master instigating the entire thing by using his position to bring all of the powers who were displeased by Candlelight together and threaten the Trading Firm as a group, forcing it to trade some of its Magic Crystals away while his own guild was ostracized, Rain wouldn't have had the opportunity to benefit like this on his expense.
When he realized that, Nine Dragons Emperor felt like killing himself for digging his own grave when the position he had fallen into was already plenty bad.
Though, he was greatly overestimating himself by thinking he had forced Candlelight to compromise.
In reality, Candlelight, more like Zero Wing and Feng, wasn't at all threatened by the powers who had attempted to pressure them into selling Magic Crystals, and instead simply wanted to avoid the extra trouble annoyances like them would cause to Zero Wing.
After all, it would be a simple enough matter to eradicate all of the players in God's Domain right now if necessary and if Zero Wing's restored members were willing.
Using their previous life's knowledge and experiences, by now, all of the restored players could have easily risen to Tier 3 and had great success in the process, with most completing their Tier 4 Promotions, and some even reaching Tier 5, if they had wanted to.
Once their tiers were high enough, taking over the Kingdoms and Empires of this God's Domain would be easy, and using their strength to wipe out or force the other guilds, even superpowers, to do Zero Wing's bidding could be accomplished.
But that would have its consequences as well.
Rushing through upgrading their tiers as fast as possible would actually be counterproductive, since, now that they have a second go at life with the skills they had honed in their previous lives intact and knowledge of the future as well as the things they will encounter, the restored members would be throwing away this incredible opportunity by not taking the time to built up their strength as much as possible and prepare a sturdy foundation in order to maximize their future gains.
In any case, it wasn't like any of them were in a hurry.
The powers in this God's Domain could hardly be considered threats, so there was no need to waste this chance and not grow as strong as possible before attempting to complete their Promotion Quests at the highest difficulty and to gain the most benefits.
Zero Wing's real enemies were the Apex Powers in the Universal God's Domain, not these pesky little guilds.
Hence, to avoid needing the restored members to quickly promote themselves to higher tiers due to a bunch of guilds annoying them out of desperation as a means for acquiring Magic Crystals, it was more worthwhile to simply give the powers an opportunity to obtain the crystals via trading, earning the Trading Firm some extra resources in the process.
Not to mention, if they did destroy all of the powers who were bothering the Candlelight Trading Firm, or anyone in general important to the structure of God's Domain, it could drastically change the timeline in a way they could no longer predict, making their future information unreliable.
It could also bring forth other problems if they hastened God's Domain's evolution and integration.
After all, in the first timeline, God's Domain had only been in the beginning stages of creating proper ways to the Greater God's Domain and Earth was only starting to become connected to the Greater World by the time Feng had reincarnated.
But in the previous one, it only took a few years for the integration progression to surpass the first timeline's due to Feng's meddling.
If all of the restored members were to heavily interfere with everything, the timeline would get sped up even more, and they'd have to face the invasion of the Greater God's Domain's powers once again.
Thus, Feng decided it was best to delay his home world's integration with the outside world for everyone to first prepare and grow stronger, strong enough to be capable of fighting off their enemies and competing for the Greater God's Domain's resources, while he located and restored more of Zero Wing's former members in the meantime, before revealing Zero Wing's true power to everyone and creating a storm that will be remembered for generations to come.
Either way, all those Magic Crystals that Candlelight trades to the various powers will pay themselves back by the powers, in one way or another, very soon, after they no longer have sufficient strength to pose any sort of danger to Zero Wing.
Finally finding a decent source of Magic Crystals, the various powers, who have been starved of the rocks necessary for entering the Divine Colosseum, immediately tried their best to raise through the ranks set up by the Candlelight Chamber of Commerce in spite of knowing they are making a loss in the resources they are trading compared to the actual price and worth of Magic Crystals by fiercely competing with each other.
Aside from the guilds' members needing Magic Crystals in order to have access to the Divine Colosseum and grow stronger in general, how many Magic Crystals each power obtained would also be an estimate of how much its experts would grow.
Depending on the amount of Magic Crystals they trade for, any power could either maintain its strength and position, surpass its previous rivals, or fall behind everybody else in development.
Therefore, all of the powers, regardless of rank, had no choice but to fight for the resources Candlelight was providing, just like before when the Intermediate Mana Armor Kits had appeared for sale in the Trading Firm's Shops.
Candlelight, and Feng who is behind everything that has been going on as he guided the proceedings and forced the powers to dance in the palm of his hand, had once again caused a shift in power between the powers that made them have to spend their resources lest they get overtopped by others, while the Candlelight Trading Firm reaped all of the benefits.
But the man himself wasn't aware of the massive changes happening in real-time to the power structure of the world.
If he took a moment to think about what has been happening on the Eastern Continent while he had journeyed away for the Darkness Descends Quest in the Dark Den, Feng would probably be able to give a pretty accurate guess.
At the moment, though, he was a bit preoccupied by the three pairs of judging eyes giving him mixed looks from the side as soon as he logged out.
---
"What have you been up to, Big Brother Feng?" Violet asked with a smiling expression, but eyes and tone that didn't have a hint of a smile or goodwill, as she stepped out of her Virtual Gaming Cabin.
Aqua and Ruoxi also gave Feng looks that demanded an answer, the blue-haired beauty having already stood from her own cabin as barely contained anger could be seen on her breathtaking face, while his class monitor, although evidently not in a good mood either, seemed more helpless than angry.
While logged into God's Domain, players' bodies in the real world wouldn't move around or react to any of the signals sent by their brains, and those signals would instead be sent into their game avatar through whatever they are using to log in, whether it be a Gaming Helmet or a Virtual Gaming Cabin, to control their movements.
However, the players' real bodies still leaked various hormones according to what they were experiencing and perceiving in God's Domain.
If a player is under extreme stress or in a situation where their fight or flight instinct is initiated, which is practically all the time, their system will reflect their mental state and adrenaline will course through them.
Similarly, if players become aroused or are in the midst of an intense love-making session, their bodies will react accordingly; as if they were having a wet dream.
Normally, this would be completely unnoticeable to anyone regardless of their acute perception even if they were paying close attention to the person logged in, as everything happening was internal without any of the player's actual intent being portrayed in the real world, with the only physical indicator perhaps being the reaction of the player's private parts.
In front of experts like the three of them who had all reached the Domain Realm, with Aqua and Violet even being in the Unthinking Realm, though, no matter how small, they'd still notice any changes happening inside of Feng as long as they were paying some amount of their attention to him.
Naturally, this meant they'd have a general idea of whatever Feng was doing if it was stimulating enough to cause a physical reaction in him.
Having hard-core, nonstop sex for several hours qualified for something they'd take notice of.
Hence, considering the long timeframe of Feng fucking Serena and Mariabelle during his time in the World Summit, there was a high chance one of them would know he was engaging in an exchange of passions with another woman other than them after she sees that none of the other three were displaying any signs of being a part of the lovemaking.
Although the girls were fine with Feng having sex with their fellow sisters who were a part of his recently formed harem as well, fine being a bit of an overstatement since it definitely wasn't something they were particularly pleased with but still accepted, they wouldn't just sit still and watch him brazenly screw any girl he wanted.
The time and attention they received from him was already getting stretched due to how busy they all were, and this was still with only four of them trying to get some.
They couldn't even imagine how bad the situation will be once more girls who had been a part of their agreement get their memories restored.
If more, unaccounted ladies were to join the mix, things were bound to become much more complicated and unfavorable.
Since the three of them didn't know if the girl Feng had been fucking was a one-time fling or someone who he'd start regularly banging, they had no choice but to assume the worst and try to prevent any further advancements in his other relationships.
Thus, along with their natural anger for Feng fucking other women behind their backs, Aqua, Violet, and Ruoxi have been planning on giving Feng an earful the moment he logged out.
However...
"Fucking a Tier 5 Fallen Angel." Casually answering as he stretched his back, Feng looked out the window to see the sun had already risen as it bathed the world with its bright light, signaling the beginning of the day and the time players logged out of God's Domain to train their bodies.
'He genuinely just doesn't give a shit.' Blank expressions appeared on each of the girls' faces upon hearing Feng's cutthroat response that didn't contain a single bit of remorse or guilt within it, and was void of any apologetic intent.
Feng's attitude towards the entire thing became clear to the three girls, who felt helpless after realizing he didn't particularly care if they were upset by him acting kind of unfaithfully, and that no amount of them trying to complain would do anything.
Originally, these three thought that even if them making a stance on this matter didn't exactly stop Feng from going around doing as he pleased, it would at least cause him to feel a bit of guilt and take their feelings into consideration from now on.
But seeing his casual attitude, it became clear Feng had no intentions of stopping his unsavory behavior.
As for trying to make him act in accordance to their wishes or prevent Feng from sleeping with other women by some forceful approach?
There wasn't a scenario where the result of their actions doesn't only backfire on them.
If someone attempted to tell Feng that he couldn't and wasn't allowed to do something, he would end up doing it regardless of the person's words, sometimes simply out of spite towards the one who thought they could decide what he does.
The thought of that not being the case for them due to their relationship with Feng had been entertained by the three girls, but that obviously wasn't plausible.
To begin with, Aqua and Violet didn't have any intention of trying to restrict Feng since they were aware that it wouldn't work out for them to try controlling Feng's actions.
Their hope had only been to plant the thought into his mind that he shouldn't go around fucking without thinking about their opinion and limit his actions a bit with their dissatisfaction being known.
Ruoxi, on the other hand, didn't believe their plan would work. She knew far more about how oblivious Feng could sometimes be when it came to these things, so she didn't think he would even catch on to how they were feeling, or pay it any mind if he did realize it, unless one of them outright said it directly to him.
Though, she still agreed to go along with the other two in hopes of it working out.
As she had predicted, however, Feng either didn't notice or didn't care if him having sex with someone who wasn't a part of their agreement in God's Domain bothered them.
A feeling of helplessness washed over the three girls as Feng stood up from his Virtual Gaming Cabin with his casual and composed attitude without addressing their disheveled moods.
"Feng, dear, could you please not cheat on us too much?" In the next moment, as the three of them were pondering on a way to make sure their positions in the harem remained stable, a fourth great beauty leisurely strolled into the bedroom.
Her red hair still soaked from a shower, Fire approached Feng from the door with only a towel wrapped around her waist as she asked in a casual manner.
Unlike the other three, she didn't care for what Feng does as long as they were together, and she had full trust in him knowing what he's doing, knowing that Feng would never do something to intentionally hurt any of their feelings too badly unless he finds it very necessary and doesn't think it mattered.
Moreover, Feng having sex with other women was something Fire had already mentally prepared herself for during the time she and he were the only ones in a relationship before Violet joined in, and was already as fine with it as a girl could be, not even minding if he was doing it with other girls who hadn't taken part in the agreement's formation as long as he spared the time to give her some regularly as well.
If it was something that Feng wanted to do and made him happy, then not only would Fire avoid interfering with his actions completely, but she would even help him with whatever it is regardless of how she feels about it.
This could be seen by how she had unhesitantly got down on her knees the moment Feng asked while Celestina was around, in spite of knowing he'd usually never initiate a session between them while someone who he didn't think would join the harem, or Feng could easily dispose of to keep things private, was around.
And going by his recent attitude that was a stark contrast to how he behaved around the Demon Empress in the previous timeline, Fire could guess that Feng was attempting to seduce, or something of that sort, Celestina in order to achieve some purpose and goal, meaning she'd have another beauty that she and the other girls would have to compete with vying for Feng's attention soon enough and that Fire's own interests would be hampered as a result.
Yet, she still chose to go along with it without any reservations in order to please Feng.
Seeing these three stress so much over the matter of Feng fucking some other girls in God's Domain, but unable to say it out loud due to their overthinking and unnecessarily complex thought process, though, Fire couldn't help saying something so Feng completely understands the situation as a means to help out her fellow sisters.
The looks Aqua, Violet, and Ruoxi gave her as she spoke out while half-naked and drawing closer to Feng were naturally ignored by the redhead.
Unstrapping the towel covering her lower half and letting it fall to the ground, revealing Fire's body in all its voluptuous beauty, the girl quickly made her way over and coiled around Feng in a clinging manner while pressing herself against him.
"Oh? Sure," Feng was at first slightly surprised by Fire's words, as he thought it was a given, but seemed to have realized something in the next moment as he nodded reassuringly while grabbing a hold of the naked beauty and enjoying her soft flesh "In either case, I'm mostly done with my business and have managed to acquire a Manager's Token. Aqua, once I come back from the World Summit, you should organize the first group of players who will head over through the gate so we can start looting the Shrines and Divine Staircase as efficiently as possible."
Being a Half-step Beyond Domain Realm expert himself, Feng naturally knew his women would be capable of sensing the chemical changes happening inside his body while he was busying himself with taking on the Fallen Angel and Demon Receptionist in their battle of passions.
Despite being aware of this fact, Feng didn't bother making any attempts at concealing what he was doing or preventing the four of them from finding out, as he found it unnecessary and redundant.
Originally, Feng hadn't thought what he was doing mattered much considering his current relationship with the girls and that he had no feelings invested into Serena while making love to the Fallen Angel.
But now Feng realized that he had been mistaken.
Unaware of how the three were truly feeling, it was his belief that they were simply upset about the fact he was banging other women when he already had them, and spending his limited time and energy on more sexual activities with other, uninvolved females who weren't members of their agreement.
In which case, Feng felt no reason or need to be remorseful for his actions.
From his perspective, he thought that there weren't any problems with what he was doing, as there were no feelings between him and Serena, at least not on his part, nor was he interested in the Fallen Angel as a possible romantic partner or lover.
The thing happening between the two of them was, as far as Feng was concerned, a purely business transaction, with Feng seducing her and giving Serena unimaginable pleasure while he, in turn, received the Manager's Token, while the follow-up sex he'll have with Serena was merely keeping his end of the deal.
As for Mariabelle, the Demon Receptionist, there was even less need to say anything about her, since she had simply been someone on who he could try out and experiment his new abilities as a Seducer to Feng, and he had no actual value from Mariabelle as a person; with her being able to bring out the Demon Empress's Horn so that he could check its identity being a lucky and unexpected stroke.
With those two merely being girls who he slept with for work and not his actual women, Feng saw nothing wrong with fucking them when it doesn't result in any interference within the arrangement between him and his four girls, and although Feng had noticed that there may be something else bothering the three of them by their expressions and downcast mood, he wasn't a mind reader.
Feng felt that, if it's not serious enough for them to say something out loud, then it's also most likely not that important.
After hearing Fire's straightforward request, though, Feng realized there was more to the situation than he realized, and that the other three, who weren't as laid back as Fire when it came to these matters, might be concerned with how his actions will affect the current, already kind of unstable, state of affairs between the five of them; along with everything becoming a lot more complicated once more girls start joining in.
It also made Feng bitter that after recently saying he'd be more careful about his actions and how they impact his women, he immediately made another lapse in judgment and failed to realize their internal troubles due to his usual state of mind not changing as easily as he thought it would, and inexperience in having a proper romantic relationship.
Thanks to Fire speaking out, he could still steer this in the right direction and reassure the girls that their worries were unnecessary, and he hadn't been planning on sleeping with any women for purposes other than business, while he had already mostly tested the Seducer Subclass and had a rough idea of how useful it was going to be to him, so he won't be having any more pointless sex.
Meanwhile, after hearing Feng say that, Violet, Ruoxi, and Aqua became relieved, being able to tell from Feng's words that he was only doing it with Serena for the Manager's Token and their underlined meaning addressing their concerns.
"Alright, I'll have everyone be prepared. But when will you-" Aqua nodded at Feng's command, instantly going into professional mode and putting all the other surplus thoughts to the side as she began preparing for Zero Wing to take advantage of the huge opportunity that is taking all of the World Summit's treasures and resources before any of God's Domain's Dark Players could even get a chance to try scaling the mountain.
However, before she could inquire about when Feng would be returning from the Dark Den with the Manager's Token so that they could start sending people through the Gate of Darkness, which has a limited duration and therefore a limited number of people who could make a trip to the World Summit a day, Aqua noticed that Fire didn't bother waiting for her to finish speaking and immediately got down to bedroom business.
Feng showed no signs of reprimanding the naked girl who tightly clung onto him and planted kisses on his lips, pushing the unimportant guild-related matters that could be discussed later aside and switching to his sexy times attitude as well now that he was already turned on as he reciprocated in Fire's passionate smooches.
Furrowing her brows at the two's unserious and unprofessional behaviors, the blue haired Vice Guild Leader was about to say something in frustration about how the theme immediately strayed off track and that things were starting to get out of hand with how often they now left important guild stuff for later while indulging in sex and pleasure.
But Aqua then noticed that Violet and Ruoxi weren't paying it any mind either, the two sex-deprived young girls immediately stripping as soon as the opportunity to finally do it Feng arose, and they quickly followed in Fire's footsteps.
'At least have some self-control.' Although she reprimanded them in her mind while shaking her head, Aqua didn't pause her own undressing as she hurried to snap up a spot for herself in the fray before the other two secured their positions.
Fire, showing her true nature as an experienced assassin of absolute professionalism and skill, had ever so casually and naturally stalked her way over to Feng, masterfully placing herself in a very favorable and prime position for having a turn first, without arousing a hint of suspicion from her competitors, all the while simultaneously defusing the situation their minds had been preoccupied with in a calm and dismissive manner like there were no problems, setting just the right mood for a passionate session of lovemaking that everyone could participate in with the move, and ensuring she'd be the first one to get Feng's mighty rod inserted into her by being the closest and the one to initiate the deed.
Her cunningness far surpassed what Aqua thought the red haired girl was capable of when it came to things outside of battle going by her usual demeanor, and she couldn't help but reevaluate her opinion of the normally meatheaded and straightforward Fire.
Now that she carefully thought about it, Aqua realized that this wasn't even the first time something like this had happened where Fire managed to get ahead of the three of them by grabbing ahold of an opportunity faster than they could.
Moreover, due to Aqua trying to preserve some form of her leftover pride and dignity, along with being a lot more concerned over getting the stuff for Zero Wing done and trying to prioritize work over her desires, like they've all been doing for years up until Fire broke the agreement and Feng stopped stressing out over everything being professional less and less, the blue haired noble lady usually doesn't immediately throw herself at Feng, unlike Violet and Ruoxi, not to mention the slave-like Fire, which results in her being the last one to get some meat in her private place most of the time.
By the time she finally gets a turn, Aqua already feels like crying from having to endure the torture of the itching coming from her lower lips that desperately drooled at the sight of Feng's tool plowing the other three's insides.
But it all gets erased in the end and Aqua forgets about the pain upon getting her cravings fulfilled.
Reassessing the current situation and everything that has been going on, however, Aqua became more cautious of how Fire conducted herself, especially with the drastic change in behavior patterns when Feng was present or involved.
With the way things were going, Fire constantly securing herself the first spot, the fact she had also been the first to have sex with Feng at all, without counting the first timeline in which Feng had lived and that they knew only a little about, not helping in the matter, while she usually gets the last place, her position in Feng's heart could very well be threatened, which caused Aqua to feel uneasy and quickly strategize on how to make herself an invaluable partner.
Only this time, Aqua wasn't thinking about how to show her worth to Feng through strength and abilities as a Vice Guild Leader, but as a woman and a lover, which wasn't exactly something Aqua was proficient at considering how she had lived her entire life focused on improving some of her capabilities that had nothing to do with such things.
She didn't get to ponder on it for long, though.
The short moment Aqua had spent distracted with her own thoughts ended up costing her heavily, Violet and Ruoxi having taken the chance to get a massive lead.
Their clothes had already been removed and the two girls were hastily rushing to take a spot near Feng and look for chances to partake in the activities between the duo who had been kissing all this time.
Feng was now rid of the clothing covering his muscular physique and officially beginning the session as he plunged his naked sword into the red haired beauty still clinging onto him and leaving passionate marks all over his upper body.
Seeing this, Aqua could only shove her complex emotions and assumptions to the back of her mind for later to analyze and plan out, quickly discarding the rest of her garments and moving towards the battlefield.
This was one of the reasons Feng had always avoided addressing the girls' feelings and sleeping with them in the previous timeline.
It was impossible to get shit done!
With such enticing beauties constantly offering themselves to him, he'd be distracted at all times daily, unable to concentrate on improving himself and Zero Wing.
Even the slightest distraction or misstep could have very well cost Feng his life and the lives of all of his guildmates during those times, so he naturally couldn't allow himself to fall into temptation; choosing to simply ignore everything and concentrate on keeping his guild up and running.
Now, however, Feng no longer had to concern himself with impossibly strong enemies breathing down his neck, since the only competition he had in this God's Domain were some weak powers who were only beginning to get into God's Domain and still had no idea how indispensable the game they were currently playing out of simple profit would become.
Having such weaklings as opponents naturally allowed Feng the leisure to relax and enjoy his time with the four of them as he pleased while also diligently accomplishing his goals and growing stronger in the meantime.
As a result, one man and four great beauties spent most of the morning frolicking in the sheets.
Only several hours later when they were all satisfied did Aqua start reporting to Feng with haggard breaths as she, Fire, Violet, and Ruoxi rested either next or on top of him with their stamina reserves drained and breathing disorganized, the bedroom in which it had all taken place permeating with the smell of sex, while the king sized bed they were laying on was dirtied with all kinds of liquids originating from five different people.
Hearing from Aqua what had been transpiring on the Eastern Continent while he was away, Feng summarized that everything was going on more or less according to his plans and expectations of how the situation would progress after God's Domain's latest evolution.
The price of Magic Crystals had already surpassed its peak from his previous life after Candlelight started selling some portions of its stock to the various powers, while more and more of them were joining the Candlelight Chamber of Commerce, or more like competing to join it at this point after too many had been attempting to get a spot and the commerce was unable to accommodate such a large number of powers even with them being divided in ranks, having no choice but to throw out those who were bringing less value to Candlelight, securing a huge source of materials for him and the Candlelight Trading Firm through the powers' generous donations.
He no longer had to worry about having a shortage of materials for the various Lifestyle Subclasses unless it was something the current players belonging to the superpowers were unable to obtain, in which case he had Zero Wing's restored members.
Gold Coins were also not something to be worried about at this point thanks to Candlelight's sales, while Feng already had another plan prepared for the next scheme to gain a sum of Gold many times larger than the current Candlelight was earning.
Many independent players were trying to join Zero Wing after its rise to fame, with a good deal of them being what was considered an expert by other forces at the moment, while many Guilds and Workshops, some having disbanded after the third system update due to lacking the resources needed to support the growth of their members, were also attempting to become a part of Zero Wing as a whole.
Zero Wing's entrance requirements had drastically increased as a result, greatly limiting the number of players who could pass and become official members.
There was also an increased number of guilds and powers popping up in Star-Moon Kingdom; specifically in White River City, but they were of no concern to neither Feng or Zero Wing, since none of the forces belonging to his home world could pose any kind of threat to them.
Done with getting an update on the situation and planning out their next courses of action, Feng got up from the bed, feeling only a little tired after going through the intense session with the four ladies, and logged back into God's Domain.
After fooling around for a bit with Mariabelle and his girls while waiting to recover from his Weakened state, along with the cooldowns of his skills to end, it was finally time to get back to business.
As soon as he reappeared, Feng wasted no time retrieving the Draconic-Voidling Bloodline from his Spatial Bag. The restriction period had already ended, and he could now use the Bloodline.
Removing the crystal bottle's lid, he consumed the pitch-black liquid and the golden sparkles contained within.
As Feng consumed the Draconic-Voidling Bloodline, all of the Mana within the Divine Hall began to gather around his body.
Suddenly, six fourfold Magic Arrays appeared above and below him. It looked as if the Magic Arrays had formed a barrier, enveloping Feng. The surrounding Mana then poured into the fourfold arrays above Feng, and golden, divine runes began to surround his body.
As more divine runes appeared around Feng, his aura intensified.
However, as all the Mana and Divine Power within the Divine Hall got absorbed by the Magic Arrays, a vacuum was formed, and Mana from everywhere in the surroundings, from both outside the hall and the Void, began to rush in towards the Magic Arrays like a whirlpool had appeared.
When the divine runes covered Feng entirely, a pillar of golden light emerged from Feng's body and shot into the sky.
A few seconds later, the light pillar began to dissipate and calm returned to the platform.
Once the Divine Hall returned to its original state, Feng opened his eyes.
His previously pitch-black pupils had somehow become even darker, as if there was nothing but an empty abyss that devoured all light behind them, but they now contained a trace of gold flashes that would flash ever so often like meteors across the starry sky.
Meanwhile, his aura, which he usually suppressed, overflowed.
Even Feng, who had seen many incredible increases to his and other players' strength throughout his career, could not help his shock upon inspecting the changes brought on by the Draconic-Voidling Bloodline.
The change in his Life Rating after absorbing the Apex Bloodline was astronomical, with him now practically rivaling a Higher Being like the Fallen Angel Serena.
When a player's Life Rating in God's Domain increased, every aspect of their being improved. Reaction Speed, Stamina, and Concentration were just a few of these aspects.
Just his Basic Attributes had nearly doubled after consuming the Draconic-Voidling Bloodline. With his current Strength, Feng was confident that he could take on even a strength-type Mythic ranked monster with a special Bloodline head-on in a frontal clash without any Berserk skills.
As for Feng's Hidden Attributes, the Apex Bloodline had truly done wonders. His Physique had directly shot up to the Tier 4 Basic standard, while his Concentration was close to the Tier 4 Advanced standard.
With his current Stamina, Physique, and Concentration, Feng wouldn't even have any trouble executing movements at the Transcendental standard of the Realms of Truth, where he integrated Bronze Combat Techniques into his every movement, for a very long time while fighting. Meanwhile, achieving the Ascension standard at all times was fairly easy.
Feng's Fortitude had also shot up by over three hundred points, so the consumption he'd face while using Combat Techniques, and Mana Techniques in the future, was minimal.
And this was all just the increase upon consumption, while Feng would still have his Basic Attributes and Hidden Attributes greatly boosted each time he leveled up.
Thinking of the possible effects he'd get for leveling up now that he had the Draconic-Voidling Bloodline, Feng took out a large number of his Levellume Capsules and started pouring his EXP into them.
Without stopping, Feng put all of his EXP into the experience point storages, dropping all the way down to Level 0.
This naturally caused all of his attributes to drop by a huge amount since he lost all of the Free Attribution Points gained through leveling and the Basic Attributes from his equipment.
In fact, if not for his already huge basic Attributes thanks to the Full Blessing he had received from Sharlyn, along with his newly integrated Apex Bloodline, the Abyssal Blade, and a few other things, the percentage boosts to his attributes coming from his items would not have been enough to meet the equipment requirements, which would have caused the equipment to forcefully unequip from Feng and leave him with no armor.
Due to his level dropping to zero, most of his Epic rank equipment would have also no longer been available to Feng, since they had level requirements, unlike Fragmented Legendary items.
But with the level reduction requirement on equipment from a few of his items, he still managed to keep most of his Epic equipment on.
Feng didn't spend a long time at Level 0, though, and he immediately started absorbing the EXP stored within the Levellume Capsules a moment later, going back up to Level 66 in an instant.
When he did, Feng's attributes, both Basic and Hidden, skyrocketed once again.
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