"This Astral Stone — starting price: two hundred million Magic Stones! Minimum bid increase of one million, with equivalent-value resources accepted as payment! Let the auction begin!!!"
The host waved a hand, and the screen before
Watching those numbers climb ever higher, a bitter smile crept onto Leylin's lips.
He had suspected as much, and now it seemed he was right — this Astral Stone was actually one of the three great treasures of this auction. Its value was absolutely staggering.
It was clear now that his Magic Stones were far from enough. He would have to sell off some of his resources.
Fortunately, he had plenty of valuable items on hand. If he sold off a significant quantity, he could still qualify to compete in the bidding.
"One billion Magic Stones!" Leylin immediately called out a high bid through the bidding device, hoping to intimidate the opposition.
"One point one billion Magic Stones!" Another bid appeared at once — from VIP Room One. Though the other party hadn't transmitted their voice again, who didn't know by now that the person inside that room was the Demon Hunter, Morning Star
Leylin stroked his chin, a dangerous glint flickering in his eyes.
"Hee hee! Galiel, and you actually have the nerve to bid with so little?"
Another voice drifted from VIP Room Two, immediately topping the bid: "Two billion Magic Stones!"
"Hmm? That tone... another Morning Star Wizard?"
A bitter smile appeared at the corner of Leylin's mouth. "This is going to be trouble..."
While he was confident in his financial resources, he wasn't so arrogant as to think he could compete with a Morning Star Wizard.
Moreover, with two Morning Star Wizards going at each other, would he dare jump in? Was he looking for death?
Though the Astral Stone was incredibly precious and it would be a great pity to lose it this time, when it came to his own life — Leylin could still tell which mattered more.
And so, he wisely gave up on the bidding, not following through.
Besides, there was still the anonymous exchange meeting after the auction to pin his hopes on. Leylin hadn't lost all hope yet.
Meanwhile, in VIP Room One, upon hearing that voice, Galiel's expression darkened. "That voice... it's that filthy wench Aima..."
Although he said as much, a look of unmistakable wariness surfaced on Galiel's face.
Blood Duke Aima was famously insane and utterly ruthless, and she was also a Morning Star Wizard. How could she possibly give him any face?
"Three billion Magic Stones!" Unfortunately, his Astral Gate experiment had already entered the most critical phase. Given a little more time, he might be able to discover the coordinates of that devil plane, and the Astral Stones were a resource he desperately needed. Even at a high price, he had to acquire them.
And so, Galiel gritted his teeth and shouted out this price, his heart bleeding all the while.
"Hehe… Galiel, your purse is as barren as the City of Sin. I bid four billion!"
Aima, on the opposite side, had apparently received some word and refused to let up.
This price had clearly exceeded the original value of the Astral Stone, making Galiel hesitate despite himself.
But Aima's earlier mockery had truly stung, and his pride wouldn't let him back down so easily.
"Four and a half billion Magic Stones!" Galiel shouted out directly. At the same time, he steeled his resolve—if she dared to continue, he would immediately give up and let her suffer the loss.
"Haha… Galiel, did you really think I'd keep bidding? How wrong you are. This Astral Stone isn't anything particularly remarkable. What does it matter if I let you have it?"
To Galiel's surprise, Aima suddenly withdrew, leaving him stifled with frustration.
"To be honest—spending four and a half billion Magic Stones on a single Astral Stone… Galiel, where has all your shrewdness gone?" Aima continued to taunt from across the hall, each word landing like salt rubbed into his wounds.
"That bitch… One day, one day…"
Galiel clenched his teeth, threads of crimson veins spreading through his silver pupils.
The terrifying aura radiating from his body was so oppressive that even several of the surrounding VIP rooms felt uneasy.
"Aima, you just wait…" After hurling those words, Galiel rose quickly and swept out of the room, unwilling to linger a moment longer.
As for Leylin, upon hearing the name, he was slightly startled. "Blood Duke? Isn't that
Blood Duke Aima—a fourth-level Morning Star warlock, and the Second Elder of the Ring of Serpents.
"So it's her. No wonder she has it in for Galiel…"
Leylin let out a long breath. "I didn't expect this lady to appear here as well, and she must have only arrived today. Otherwise, yesterday's Sun Child bloodline would never have been yielded to anyone else…"
Ever since their bountiful haul from the Quicksand Secret Realm last time, Leylin and the others had immediately passed the detailed intelligence on to Grand Duke
Leylin in particular — given Galiel's existence, they would never get another chance to set foot in the Land of Forgetting, so he had laid everything bare: the specific route, and even the speculation that the Quicksand Castle might be the core secret realm.
His plan was simple: make the Ring of Serpents covet the Quicksand Secret Realm enough to seize it from Galiel's hands. If that happened, he might still get a chance to explore it more deeply.
A single secret realm might not be enough to spark the Ring of Serpents' greed — but what about an ancient secret realm with a core domain?
Especially one built by ancient warlords, brimming with rare resources that warlords desperately lacked?
Beyond the intelligence itself, the bloodline crystals Leylin had surrendered, the blood vulture egg, and
So, upon their return, Gilbert had immediately invited the other two Elders and together they pressured Galiel.
Word had it that the Ring of Serpents had gone all out this time — not only thoroughly defeating and humiliating Galiel, but also carving out a share of the Quicksand Secret Realm's spoils, along with priority purchasing rights and the like.
As a result, the relationship between Galiel and the three Giant Kemoyin Serpent warlords had naturally soured considerably.
Back then, the three of them had joined forces and very nearly killed Galiel outright.
It was precisely because of this that Galiel had never stopped thinking about Leylin and his companions, even going so far as to issue a secret bounty on their heads.
This was the root cause that had forced Leylin to hole up in his territory, not daring to step outside for a full century, barely hanging on.
Now that he knew the higher-ups from his own organization were present, Leylin quietly breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed he could attend tomorrow's auction after all, and the private trading sessions that would follow.
Otherwise, he had been half-ready to give up on the private exchange entirely.
A Morning Star Wizard's detection abilities were far too terrifying. If Galiel was still lurking here, Leylin couldn't be confident that he could keep fooling him forever.
If Galiel spotted him, the man certainly wouldn't hesitate to crush him like a tiny ant.
However, even knowing that Aima was here, Leylin had absolutely no intention of going up to make her acquaintance.
If Grand Duke Gilbert were present, of course he would go say a few words — maybe even ask him to help collect Astral Plane stones and whatnot.
But Aima? Forget it.
She might be an Elder of the Ring of Serpents, but she clearly belonged to a different faction. Approaching her would only make things awkward for no reason.
Thinking of Aima, Ralin's thoughts drifted to Furi.
This female wizard had been quite fortunate. Through her dealings with Ralin, she had obtained a
Once a Komoin Giant Serpent wizard advanced to the Morning Star realm, they would also gain a bloodline purification effect. This method was naturally far more difficult than finding some pure-blooded wizard to marry into the family, but at least it was a sliver of hope.
Come to think of it, among female wizards, Furi was considered quite virtuous — keeping herself pure and well-regarded — though unfortunately she had a rather headstrong temperament.
Ralin stroked his chin. According to the rumors, the reason this woman had gone into seclusion seemed partly motivated by the shock of his own breakthrough in liquefaction.
With this added factor, Ralin was even less inclined to show himself before Aima. Otherwise, if she decided to use her status as a Morning Star wizard to pressure him into marrying into her family or something along those lines — wouldn't he be asking for trouble?
Of course, if Ganliel were to discover his identity first, then forget about all that — he would definitely try to attract Aima's attention and plead for help, even if it meant paying the price of something like marrying into her family. That was still far better than losing his life.
Life came only once; once lost, you truly had nothing left.
When faced with choices of such gravity, Ralin's moral backbone had always been rather flexible.
Due to these concerns, Ralin kept an even lower profile, and his Spiritual Power compression technique and Mimicry Spell operated at full capacity, ensuring his aura would not be detected by those two wizards.
Fortunately, that very evening, Ralin and several other high-ranking wizards felt powerful fluctuations traveling from far outside Blue Mountain City.
Even from that great distance, the fluctuations were terrifying enough to make Ralin feel suffocated.
Some of the lower-ranking wizards, meanwhile, hadn't noticed a thing.
Only those closer to the Morning Star realm had a clearer understanding of just how terrifying that level truly was.
Shortly after, Ralin received word that the Demon Hunter Ganliel and Blood Duke Aima had already departed Blue Mountain City, which quietly put his mind at ease.
Uncontrollable factors like these — the fewer, the better.
Presumably the other wizards shared the same view as Ralin. In an environment where a Morning Star wizard was constantly present, there was simply no way they could freely spend their Magic Stones to purchase the materials they wanted.
What if some item they had their eye on happened to catch that person's fancy? What would they do then?
As a result, the auction atmosphere over the past two days had been rather subdued. The most displeased party was the Ocket family — with Ganliel, that rule-breaking scoundrel, barging in, their revenue had plummeted by several notches.
It was as though all the pent-up enthusiasm and pressure erupted at once — the third day's auction was far more heated than Ralin had anticipated.