Chapter 988 – Flame God Set

Primordial Dragon Sanctuary, Flame Dragon God’s Treasury:

When Shi Feng arrived at the treasury’s plaza, he found it packed with members of the Primordial Dragon Sanctuary’s pseudo-apex powers. These players were either normal members trading Undying Souls with each other or executives collecting Undying Souls from their respective guild members.

“All of you, stop holding on to your Undying Souls. If you turn in all your Undying Souls to the Guild now, you can still get a considerable amount of contribution points. You can even ask for Stardew if you prefer that option. But if you wait until the treasury is almost out of items, your Undying Souls will become worthless,” a Level 240 old man from Red-Tailed Dragon advised as he swept his gaze across the Red-Tailed Dragon members who had come to turn in their daily quota of Undying Souls.

However, none of the Red-Tailed Dragon members bought into the old man’s words. They turned in no more than the required number of Undying Souls, which had the old man shaking his head.

“How many more Undying Souls do we need to reach 50 million?” Tarnished Wind, a Giant player and the designated successor of Red-Tailed Dragon, asked the old man quietly.

“We’re still a little over eight million short,” the old man replied, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“That’s about the same as Holy Dragon Spear,” Tarnished Wind said, gritting his teeth. “Those cunning bastards! If they hadn’t banded together to force us to buy everything they own, we would have collected enough Undying Souls long ago!”

Currently, the various pseudo-apex powers had their sights set on one thing and one thing only in the Flame Dragon God’s Treasury—the Flame God Set!

Originally, the various pseudo-apex powers had already given up on redeeming the Flame God Set after the Flame Dragon God’s Nest’s Access Key fell into Shi Feng’s hands.

However, following the Nebula Consortium’s intervention, the various pseudo-apex powers again had designs on the Flame God Set. As Red-Tailed Dragon and Holy Dragon Spear happened to have the most Undying Souls out of the eight pseudo-apex powers operating in the Flame Dragon God’s Nest, they ended up in fierce competition.

Red-Tailed Dragon and Holy Dragon Spear had gradually increased their purchase prices to obtain the Undying Souls in the possession of the six other pseudo-apex powers’ members. Initially, they bought Undying Souls for only one Mental Strength Potion or one Life Potion (30,000 Star Coins) per ten Undying Souls. Now, they were paying 20,000 Star Coins per Undying Soul.

However, while this price increase might have allowed Red-Tailed Dragon and Holy Dragon Spear to collect many Undying Souls within a short period, it also inspired more and more players to hold on to their Undying Souls as time passed in the hope of getting a better price.

As for the six other pseudo-apex powers, they took things a step further. Although they had given up on competing for the Flame God Set after realizing they couldn’t win against Red-Tailed Dragon and Holy Dragon Spear, they did not immediately try to sell their Undying Souls to either of the two powers. Instead, they banded together and declared that if Red-Tailed Dragon or Holy Dragon Spear wanted their Undying Souls, either power would have to buy everything they owned at the going rate.

The six other pseudo-apex powers held nearly 200 million Undying Souls in total. If bought at 20,000 Star Coins per Undying Soul, that would cost nearly four trillion Star Coins altogether. Red-Tailed Dragon could never accept such an astronomical price. Not to mention, Red-Tailed Dragon didn’t need that many Undying Souls.

“Announce to the other powers’ members that Red-Tailed Dragon will buy their Undying Souls for 30,000 Star Coins each! Make sure they know that this is their only chance to sell their Undying Souls for this price!” Tarnished Wind said after much consideration.

“Are we really going to do this?” the old man asked worriedly. “If we raise the price to 30,000, Holy Dragon Spear will most likely follow suit. Once that happens, we’d be fortunate to collect 100,000 Undying Souls before those opportunists switch to waiting for the price to increase again. And should the other powers realize we might never collect enough Undying Souls, they’ll demand we buy their Undying Souls for an even more ridiculous price.”

Red-Tailed Dragon and Holy Dragon Spear were in a stalemate only because they still had self-restraint. Both sides had tacitly agreed to keep the price of Undying Souls at 20,000 Star Coins. After all, should either side dare to raise the price any further, they might end up spending several hundred billion Star Coins for the Flame God Set. Even if Red-Tailed Dragon was wealthy, it couldn’t afford such extravagance.

“I must have the Flame God Set!” Tarnished Wind said definitively. “So long as I can get the Flame God Set, it’ll be worthwhile even if Red-Tailed Dragon has to tighten its belt for an entire year!”

Divine Sets were of great significance to the Greater God’s Domain’s powers. It was especially so for pseudo-apex powers. If Red-Tailed Dragon owned a Divine Set, apex powers would no longer regard it as an ant. Even if it accidentally offended an apex power, the apex power in question would only respond with a token retaliation, at most. So long as Red-Tailed Dragon paid some compensation, the apex power wouldn’t try to take things too far.

The old man fell silent at Tarnished Wind’s words. He similarly understood the significance of a Divine Set to Red-Tailed Dragon. After pondering for a moment, the old man instructed his subordinates to purchase Undying Souls for 30,000 Star Coins each.

…

Shortly after Red-Tailed Dragon increased its purchase price, news of it reached Holy Dragon Spear.

“Dammit! Is Tarnished Wind out of his mind?! Thirty thousand Star Coins?! Does he want mutual destruction?!” South Lake nearly exploded when he read the latest report from his subordinate.

Due to the recent incident with the Nebula Consortium, Holy Hymn City’s various powers and corporations had put a lot of pressure on Holy Dragon Spear. This situation forced South Lake to sever Holy Dragon Spear’s ties with Zero Wing and put his grand ambitions on hold.

In a last-ditch effort to revive his ambitions, South Lake decided to risk it all on the Flame God Set. However, with Red-Tailed Dragon’s latest price increase, Holy Dragon Spear might lose much of its shares to Holy Hymn City should it continue competing with Red-Tailed Dragon. At that time, Holy Dragon Spear would no longer be the same as before.

“Great Commander, why don’t we give up? With our current finances, we can’t afford to pay 30,000 Star Coins per Undying Soul,” Apocalypse advised. “The six other powers are also banking on the fact that we need their Undying Souls to redeem the Flame God Set, so they will only sell their Undying Souls to us if we agree to buy everything they have.”

South Lake similarly understood the other pseudo-apex powers’ intentions, and he couldn’t help feeling frustrated.

“Do we give up?” South Lake muttered and fell into thought. About ten seconds later, he sighed, “So be it. Tell the other powers that Holy Dragon Spear is giving up the competition. However, they must help dispose of Holy Dragon Spear’s Undying Souls! Otherwise, I will tell Tarnished Wind my decision, and no one will have it easy!”

Originally, after seeing Red Frost reach the sixth-floor standard, South Lake thought Holy Dragon Spear could rely on its partnership with Zero Wing to steadily improve the strength of its members. If the Tower of the Abyss was as amazing as Red Frost described, Holy Dragon Spear could even become an apex power. However, before he could turn his dreams into reality, Zero Wing had somehow offended the Nebula Consortium, foiling his plans and forcing him to depend on the Flame God Set.

The Flame God Set was Holy Dragon Spear’s last hope at becoming an overlord in the Greater God’s Domain. But now, even that hope was lost.

Just as Apocalypse was about to contact the six other pseudo-apex powers, a surprised outcry arose from the treasury plaza. At the same time, horrified expressions appeared on the faces of the players in the plaza.

“Quick! Look at the exchange list! The Flame God Set is gone!”

…