Chapter 1096: The Competition
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
A calm voice resonated from within the loft. “Six million drops of Sovereign Spiritual Liquid.” Shocked gazes scanned the crowd for the source and finally fixed themselves on a black-eyed youth three floors above them.
“Who is this person? Could he be a failed Spiritual Array Master auctioning his Spiritual Array Map?”
“I don’t know. Currently, many supreme talents of the Tianluo Continent have gathered in the far west. I can’t recognize them all, but he looks very unfamiliar, so he shouldn’t be among the cream of the crop of Tianluo Continent’s younger generation.”
“But the spiritual energy fluctuations around him are a half step to Grade Nine Sovereign, which is considered extraordinary among the younger generation.”
“…”
The sound of many curious voices filled the pavilion. They clearly did not know who Mu Chen was.
Similarly, above the loft, several gazes were fixed on Mu Chen, one of them belonging to Xia Hong, the Fourth Prince. He narrowed his fox-like gaze slightly, and scanned Mu Chen coldly with a glint in his eyes.
At the balcony, after a glance at Mu Chen, Han Fei turned his gaze to the crowd with a smile and asked, “Haha, this friend is offering 6,000,000 drops of Sovereign Spiritual Liquid. Will anyone else bid?”
The crowd was silent, but there were other Spiritual Array Masters present who were also very interested in the Nine Dragon Devouring Fairy Array, so after a brief silence, one of them spoke up. “Six million and five hundred thousand.” A long-haired man stood. He was wearing a broad, remarkable-looking robe decorated with many glowing spiritual symbols.
“That is Mubai, a disciple of the Celestial Array Sect. Rumor has it that he is a Spiritual Array Grandmaster who can perform the Heavenly Grade Middle Rank Spiritual Array. He is indeed extraordinary.” The loft was filled with discerning people who could immediately identify the man, and cries of surprise rose thereafter.
The long-haired man called Mubai was extremely amiable. He greeted Mu Chen with a smile and clasped hands. Mu Chen returned his friendly smile. While the man’s modesty left him with a good impression, he nonetheless didn’t plan to give up on this highly interesting ancient scroll, and he immediately raised his price. “Seven million.”
Mubai was taken aback, but he immediately recovered his smile. “Eight million.”
Both of them were obviously very interested in the ancient array scroll. This object was useless to ordinary men, but to spiritual array masters like them, the object was a treasure. Even if they failed to master the array, they could still learn a lot from it, thereby enriching their own spiritual array attainments.
The competition between the two gradually heated up, attracting everyone’s attention. However, they could tell that the atmosphere between the two was very amiable, and there were no hostile sparks between them, despite the continuously increasing bids.
Both were unwilling to give up, and their competition attracted other spiritual array masters to bid as well. After a while, the price of the ancient scroll had already increased to 11,000,000 drops of Sovereign Spiritual Liquid. Such a figure was almost equivalent to the price of the previous quasi-divine artifact. Fewer and fewer people were bidding, so it returned to a competition between Mu Chen and Mubai.
Mu Chen calmly placed his bid. “Twelve million.” This figure was not a small sum. Although times had changed for Nine Nether Palace, 12,000,000 drops of Sovereign Spiritual Liquid was still a painful sum. If Mandela had not contributed most of the Sovereign Spiritual Liquid, he would have had no choice but to admit defeat by now.
The loft was in an uproar over the price of 12,000,000. They clearly did not expect that the competition for the ancient scroll would go to such an extent. Mubai’s gaze turned serious. He hesitated. After all, 12,000,000 drops of Sovereign Spiritual Liquid was pretty much his income for the whole year.
Mubai mulled over the matter, and finally, with an internal sigh and an impatient shake of his head, was about to sit down and give up on his contest with Mu Chen. Sensing that Mubai was about to surrender, Mu Chen quietly heaved a sigh of relief. Had the opposing party persisted, he would have had no choice but to capitulate within the next few rounds.
However, just as Mu Chen was heaving a sigh of relief over Mubai’s surrender, an impassive voice rang out abruptly, causing a commotion within the loft. “Fourteen million!”
Countless gazes jerked upwards, locking onto the direction of the voice, and they immediately began to look excited. On the third floor of the pavilion, the Fourth Prince of the Great Xia Dynasty, Xia Hong, was toying with a black stone pearl with an expressionless look on his face. The black stone pearl was clearly the Broken Sea Pearl he had won the bid for previously, and once he had gotten the stone pearl at such a high price, he had stared at it without looking at anything else, oblivious to the strange looks being thrown his way.
He had not even looked at Mu Chen once despite having disrupted Mu Chen’s flow. It was as if Mu Chen was not even worthy of his notice. His attitude shocked many masters in the loft. He and Mu Chen clearly had a past together.
“This b*stard!” Nine Nether’s beautiful eyes were furious and steely cold. Xia Hong was clearly against Mu Chen. He obviously did not want Mu Chen to get what he wanted too easily.
Compared to Nine Nether’s fury, Mu Chen’s expression was calm. He had clearly already predicted the worst case scenario, and he merely looked at Xia Hong calmly, then smiled and said, “Fifteen million.”
The stone pearl in Xia Hong’s hand rolled slightly, and without raising his head, he said, “Sixteen million.”
The pavilion was in an uproar. If the previous contest between Mu Chen and Mubai had been considered friendly, then this contest between Mu Chen and Xia Hong was carnage.
Wearing a cold expression, Nine Nether clenched her jade-like hands, and a scary spiritual energy fluctuation surrounded her like an aura. Behind her, Bai Lao, Shi Wang, and Tan Qiu were wearing similarly bleak expressions.
“Seventeen million.” Mu Chen’s tone remained calm, and his face, expressionless.
The figure he gave shocked the entire crowd, and even the revolving black pearl in Xia Hong’s hand paused. He raised his head, finally looking at Mu Chen, and with a thoughtful expression, said, “Our friend is indeed wealthy and overbearing. If that’s the case, I’ll concede today and stop contesting for the ancient scroll.”
The people listening smacked their lips. They could clearly tell that Xia Hong had no interest in the scroll and merely raised the price so that Mu Chen would have to pay more. Indeed, his plan worked well, since he got Mu Chen to pay 5,000,000 more drops of Sovereign Spiritual Liquid.
“Many thanks to the Fourth Prince, then.” Mu Chen was seemingly indifferent towards the sympathizing gazes of the crowd, and he even smiled at Xia Hong, saying, “I do hope the Fourth Prince will not regret letting me have it later on, or this 10,000,000 drops of Sovereign Spiritual Liquid will seem a small price to pay.”
Mu Chen’s words raised eyebrows. The masters in the crowd clearly thought he was being arrogant. Xia Hong’s eyes narrowed slightly, and he felt a little uneasy, but he quickly pushed down that tiny niggling feeling. Even with this ancient scroll, what could a fellow who was a mere Half Grade Nine do to him? When the Great Xia Dynasty’s army arrived, this fellow could be crushed to death at any time. So he merely chuckled, and the edges of his lips curled in contempt. “If that’s the case, I’ll be waiting, so don’t disappoint me.”
Mu Chen merely smiled without saying anything, letting him have the last word.
“What an annoying fellow!” Nine Nether said coldly. While 5,000,000 drops of Sovereign Spiritual Liquid wasn’t a small amount, what really made her furious was Xia Hong’s underhanded tactic.
“Does he really think our Daluo Territory is a pushover?” Tan Qiu was also enraged. Daluo Territory was not like before, and while their foundations were lacking compared to the Great Xia Dynasty, in a fight, the Great Xia Dynasty would not have the upper hand, either.
Faced with their fury, Mu Chen just waved his hand dismissively and smiled. “No big deal. As I said, there will come a day when the Fourth Prince regrets allowing me to have the ancient scroll.” He spoke with confidence, as he could vaguely sense that the Nine Dragon Devouring Fairy Array was extraordinary, and if he managed to comprehend it, its value would be incomparable to over 10,000,000 drops of Sovereign Spiritual Liquid.
Mu Chen’s confidence made Nine Nether and the rest heave a sigh of relief. While they weren’t too clear about the potential of the Nine Dragon Celestial Devourer Array, Mu Chen’s words made them believe it would be extraordinary. As they were talking, Han Fei, who was on the balcony, had already ended the auction for the Nine Dragon Celestial Devourer Array, and after ordering someone to hand it over to Mu Chen, had started the auction for the third item.
It was a slightly defective and extremely ancient Super Power Art of extraordinary power, but Mu Chen was not interested in bidding, as he didn’t want to bite off more than he could chew. He didn’t have enough free time to collect so many defective items to peruse and research one by one.
The defective super power was finally auctioned off at the price of 18,000,000 drops of Sovereign Spiritual Liquid to Miss Qin Ya of Tianya House. The atmosphere in the pavilion suddenly turned tense after the defective super power was auctioned off, and countless gazes fixed on the fourth silver plate.
Most of the powers who came here were not interested in the first three items, but rather were aiming for the item which had been the subject of hot debate in the city over the past few days.
On the balcony, Han Fei turned solemn upon noticing the interested gazes on him. He personally held up the silver plate, and with a glow, gradually revealed the item within.
A mottled gold token amulet was lying on the silver plate, and the blurred outlines of two archaic words could vaguely be seen. On closer inspection, those two blurred outlines sharpened into the words, “the second.”
Mu Chen’s eyes flashed. It was the second hall master’s token amulet!