Chapter 164: West Capital City

Although having spent the entire night in vain left Zhang Shan slightly disappointed, he quickly adjusted his mindset.

Divine artifacts were not something that could be easily acquired; otherwise, a second artifact would not have remained undiscovered for so long.

It was worth noting that since the opening of the New World, total registered players were approaching the two hundred million mark.

Excluding casual gamers who only logged in occasionally for a bit of fun, the number of frequently active players still reached several tens of millions.

With so many players bustling about for over a month, stubbornly not a single person had managed to produce a second divine artifact.

One could easily imagine the sheer difficulty involved just by thinking about it.

His previous acquisition of Aglu's Hand Cannon was purely a stroke of sheer dumb luck, dropping a strange metallic tube from a minor mob.

The quest direction had been explicitly clear—all he had to do was find Master Lu in East Capital, which required zero difficulty, save for spending a bit of gold coins.

Reflecting on it now, the exchange rate for gold coins at that time was extremely high, and virtually no one else could have casually produced that many coins at once.

To repair the strange tube, aside from spending ten thousand gold coins to teleport to East Capital, he had also spent nearly one hundred thousand gold coins purchasing materials. At the launch of the game, that was an immense sum of money.

It was a chain of incredible strokes of luck that allowed Zhang Shan to accumulate enough gold coins to finally reach East Capital, locate Master Lu, and have the strange tube repaired, earning him the very first divine artifact in the New World.

However, this damaged ring was nowhere near that simple. Leaving aside the daunting requirements for its repair, he currently had no clue how to proceed, as he didn't even know whom to seek out for the repairs.

Just as Zhang Shan was preparing to log off and rest, he received a call from Boss Wu.

Well, how did this buddy manage to stay online so late today? Did his wife grant him some freedom tonight?

"Boss Zhang, I heard you went hunting for a divine artifact again? How's the progress?"

"Not a shred of progress. The shadow of a divine artifact is nowhere to be found."

"You actually have a divine artifact quest item?"

"Yeah, as long as I can find the NPC who triggers the quest, it should be repairable into a divine artifact."

Zhang Shan linked the damaged ring in chat to show Boss Wu.

Ever since he sniped this item as a bargain in the auction house, he hadn't mentioned it to anyone else.

When he parted ways with Wind and Cloud Blade and the others previously, they hadn't asked, so Zhang Shan naturally didn't bring it up proactively.

Everyone had their own secrets. Wind and Cloud Hegemony was certainly curious about the details of how Zhang Shan obtained his divine artifact.

Yet they had never once asked, just as Zhang Shan knew that the high-ranking figures within the Wind and Cloud Guild all had extraordinary backgrounds.

Even so, he never thought of prying into their origins—there was simply no need.

Divine artifacts were premium items, potentially the highest-tier equipment obtainable by players.

As long as he kept the information to himself, anyone else wanting a divine artifact would have to figure it out entirely on their own, slowly discovering the pathways to obtain one through trial and error.

For Zhang Shan, naturally, the later others obtained divine artifacts, the more advantageous it would be for him.

That way, he could leverage the advantage of his divine artifact to widen the gap between himself and other players.

As for Boss Wu, keeping secrets was unnecessary.

Boss Wu took a look at the damaged ring displayed by Zhang Shan and said skeptically, "This piece of junk can be turned into a divine artifact? I honestly can't see it at all."

"It should be possible. I believe any item with the word 'Mysterious' in its description is likely tied to a divine artifact; that's how I got my hand cannon."

"Then I should go check the auction house too to see if there are any similar items. Maybe I can snag a bargain as well."

Zhang Shan was left speechless. Snagging a bargain in the auction house was no easy feat.

"It's not that simple. Every time I return to the city, I check the auction house, and after all this time, this is the only piece I've managed to secure."

"No worries, I'll just take a look. What if I get lucky, hehe."

"Fine, go ahead then. Oh right, if you see any materials radiating a mysterious aura, remember to bid on them too; those are essential for repairing divine artifacts."

"Got it, I understand."

"Also, remember not to talk about this with others for now. People still don't know how to obtain divine artifacts, and I haven't breathed a word to anyone else."

"Rest assured, I'm not an idiot; I won't go blabbing to others."

Over the next three days, Zhang Shan scoured the entirety of East Capital City. Aside from Emperor Zhou, who remained sequestered within the imperial palace and out of reach, he was certain he hadn't missed a single stationary NPC.

Yet, he still failed to spot a single NPC with a question mark floating above their head.

Damn it, three days wasted for nothing. Repairing this damaged ring probably required tracking down some kind of wandering, mobile NPC.

If that were the case, there was simply no point in running around blindly. Wandering NPCs weren't something you could encounter just by putting in more mileage; that genuinely required pure luck.

How on earth was he supposed to handle this? Since East Capital yielded nothing, should he go try his luck in West Capital?

That was the real question.

He had already wasted three days, and though Zhang Shan had never been to West Capital before, he figured both capital cities were likely comparable in scale, which meant spending another three days there?

If he could trigger the quest in West Capital, that would be fine, but he feared it might just be another three days of fruitless searching with zero gains, which truly would be a massive waste of time.

If he hadn't gone out chasing this quest, he would have been close to reaching level thirty-one by now.

Zhang Shan felt deeply conflicted inside. What should he do? Should he continue onward to West Capital?

After pondering for a while, he ultimately decided to head to West Capital. If he still couldn't find the quest-triggering NPC there, he would simply treat this damaged ring as a collectible. Spending one million gold coins to buy a virtual game collectible was the height of extravagance.

Since he had already wasted three days, what harm was there in wasting three more?

In any case, over the next three days, no one would be able to catch up to his level; he still had time to spare.

Zhang Shan mounted his horse, rode to the teleportation hall in East Capital, and spent another ten thousand gold coins to teleport to West Capital City.

Before even catching a glimpse of a divine artifact's shadow, he had already shelled out twenty thousand gold coins.

This was only feasible because he was currently earning good money; otherwise, he truly couldn't afford to toss cash around like this.

Upon arriving in West Capital City, Zhang Shan found that it felt completely different from East Capital, being thoroughly permeated with an aura of arcane magic.

In the northern section of the city, a colossal mage tower soared straight into the sky.

That must be the domain of Grand Preceptor Jiang.

Zhang Shan had previously heard Master Lu mention that Emperor Zhou of East Capital wielded the Emperor's Sword, while Grand Preceptor Jiang of West Capital wielded the Demon-Extinguishing Staff.

Does that mean Emperor Zhou was a Magic Swordsman, and Grand Preceptor Jiang a Mage?

He wondered just how devastating the power of the holy artifacts in the hands of these two big shots truly was, and whether they could one-shot the demon god outside the city walls with a single move.

Pfft, why even bother thinking about such things? NPCs in the New World were nothing more than wooden puppets anyway.

No matter how overpowered those two big shots' holy artifacts were, they weren't going to lend them to him for a spin.

He needed to hurry up and sweep the streets; divine artifacts were what actually mattered, being equipment that players could realistically obtain.

As for holy artifacts, they were probably just pieces of lore background for the game.

Zhang Shan rode his horse through West Capital City, sweeping street by street. This time, he didn't plan on exclusively seeking out accessory-type NPCs first.

He decided against trying to take shortcuts and would honestly examine every single NPC one by one.

If he still couldn't trigger the quest after that, he would simply go back to farming mobs.