Chapter 512 - 510:One hundred million

Chapter 512: Chapter 510:One hundred million

"We’ll pick this up later, my dear, I promise..." I had to give Sana a heads-up lest I come off as insincere.

"Haa... go. Focus on your auction. You’ve been clamoring about it all this while, might as well enjoy it, no?" She smiled—a peaceful one, not her usual sadistic and scornful grin—and I couldn’t help but mutter, "Beautiful."

For at that moment, she truly was stunning.

"You should smile more, my love. It looks perfect on you."

"Ack... are you going to focus on your auction, or should I get my fist ready again?"

"Ahh, aye-aye, Captain. Hehehehe... spending spree, here we come!" I rubbed my hands in greedy excitement.

Who knew I was a such money grubbing Gerry fuck? I guess one learns new things about themselves all the time.

"Hehehehe... big brother, Lucien is going to bid too! Hehehe... auction, here Lucien comes!"

The little man appeared on my lap, as I’d placed Elira aside to focus. Yet the little fella had decided to take up land on free space, and to my absolute shock, rubbed his hands in the exact same greedy motion I had just used.

"Ehh?" I could only look on in dumbfounded confusion as I turned to the girls around me—and what would you know? I was already receiving death glares.

"You know what? Fuck it!"

"Alright, little man, the rule is to annoy everybody. If you see someone bidding voraciously for an item, up the bid by no more than a hundred. You understand?"

"Yes, big brother! Lucien is going to be a menace!"

"That’s my boy." I ignored the threatening glares behind me as I ruffled the kid’s hair. If I was going to get into trouble anyway, I might as well have fun doing it.

"Hehehehe!!"

...

...

"Everyone, the auction is about to begin!" The auctioneer’s voice reached through the various private rooms as she introduced herself. "I am Xue Bing, head hostess of the Spirit Blossom Court, and it is my esteemed honor to host you all today. I do hope that everyone leaves here today satisfied and happy."

"Head hostess?" I turned to Xuan.

"She owns the entire Spirit Blossom Court. Well, her family does, but she’s the current family head, so you get my point."

"Ahh... I see. I guess with the caliber of guests here today, there could only have been one person worthy enough to host this event."

"Indeed. Especially after the spectacle Malachi and that Wordless elder put on. The tense atmosphere within this place can only be handled by someone of her caliber. After all, although she might only be of the Half-Step Dao Emperor realm, she has experiences and connections that power alone can’t overcome. Why else would someone dare entrust a divine beast’s egg to her Spirit Blossom Court, without minding the countless other powers they could’ve given it to?"

"Well, when you put it like that, then I guess it does make some sense."

I wasn’t really sure about what he said, since it all sounded like a bunch of nonsense, but...

"Big brother!!! The auction!!! The auction!! I see something."

Onto other, more important issues.

...

...

"The first items on the list are these..."

A stage girl pushed a covered trolley up the dais as Xue Bing lifted a red drape, revealing one of the items beneath to everyone.

"Woah!!! Cool!!! Big brother, let’s bid!!"

"Hold your horses, little man. Let’s at least hear what it does."

"This, ladies and gentlemen, is the Presence Nullification Ring. I know, it may not sound like much considering the prowess of everyone here, but the fact that I dared present it before you means this little ring is more than meets the eye."

The woman smiled before slipping the ring onto her finger, and then...

"Huh?"

I couldn’t feel her presence, but... "She’s standing right there."

Intriguing.

Naturally, If I truly wished to feel her out—it would’ve been an effortless task, after all, I had Absence herself as my woman and by extension could become absent if I needed to. But I was currently still playing the role of a young master, so I held back.

"I know most of you might have noticed it by now, but the Presence Nullification Ring doesn’t just mask your presence—it completely nullifies it, making you essentially nonexistent within any specific region you find yourself in. And should one pair it with this..."

She lifted a second cloth, revealing another ring, "...the Vanishing Ring, then you all can already guess what would happen..."

I didn’t need to be a visionary to see what many were thinking at this exact moment.

"The war," Xuan muttered quietly as he leaned forward, his eyes twinkling.

Yes. The war currently raging within the Phoenix-Dragoverse—a war that seemed to have become the center of the entire cosmos, so much so that Sana even suspected a Pillar getting involved to stop any further escalation. A war where divine beasts were falling by the thousands, their treasured bodies just waiting for someone brave enough to claim them.

The rings—both the Presence Nullification and the Vanishing Ring—provided one with the ultimate courage to fish in such troubled waters. The type of courage that came with the knowledge that you couldn’t be seen, felt, or even sensed.

Naturally, nobody here was foolish enough to believe the rings were foolproof with zero faults. The cosmos was wide enough for anything to be possible, and even if it weren’t, the rings’ effectiveness might be limited to a certain power level.

But that was insignificant to the people here. If none of them could feel her presence, then many in the wider cosmos wouldn’t feel theirs either. And so, the rings became an opening act.

"They are a pair, and the bidding for them shall begin at one million high-grade spirit stones."

"Seems the owner of this one wants money, heh!" I laughed internally as the bidding began swiftly.

"Ten million spirit stones!"

Right off the bat, someone raised the stakes through the roof. But wait...

"We can hear each other’s bids?"

"Hmm? Of course. How did you think this was going to work?" Xuan asked, seemingly confused as to why I’d ask such an obvious thing.

"Well, I thought we’d be punching in the amount we wanted to bid like some classy douchebags, but this development changes a lot of things, hehehehe..."

"Twenty million stones!"

"Forty million stones!"

The rings had already shot up to forty million high-grade spirit stones in the blink of an eye.

"Damn! Do these guys even know what they’re bidding on? What are these numbers?"

"Well, they must be outsiders who have no idea how significant what they’re calling out is, and are just tossing whatever figures they believe will secure the rings," Xuan reasoned.

"Damn... there are this many rich folks outside? Why do I suddenly feel poor?"

I realized I hadn’t truly bothered gathering wealth or money this entire time, and yet here these guys were, burning through resources.

"Enjoy it while you can, then, I guess."

I could only let them have their fun for now, as soon enough, I’d be relocating all those riches to where they belonged. But first...

"ONE HUNDRED MILLION SPIRIT STONES! BOW TO THIS YOUNG MASTER, YOU FUCKERS!!!"

Time to show them what spending big really looks like.

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A/N: Haa... writing this auction is going to be a major pain in my behind, I can already feel it. Hopefully Lucien makes it easier on me, see what I did there? Hehehehehe, anyways...

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Thanks for reading...