Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Although others could not tell anything from the mageweath, Harquess was a newly minted Master of Inscription who was also from the Octopus Clan, which had a strong foundation and rich heritage in inscription. Even though he couldn’t understand the mysteries contained in the mageweath, he could also tell that it definitely wasn’t a simple Gravity Mageweath, as it had, in fact, transcended the common theory of the field of inscription in many aspects.
However, when Harquess wanted to study it carefully, he suddenly thought of his mageweath that had been stained with ink and gave off an alluring power that made him suffer a ton back then. The thought of it made him dispel his idea immediately as he called one of the subordinates behind him to immediately go back and invite his father or any of the elders here.
Although Harquess did not have a good impression of Lin Li, he remembered the admonishments that his father and the grand elder had given him previously. At this moment, he naturally didn’t dare to act presumptuously when faced with the mageweath Lin Li had created. Hence, regardless of the quality of the magic scroll and whether it was authentic or not, Harquess thought that it would be better to wait for his father and the grand elder to come over before making a decision.
The magic scroll in Grand Duke Vidi’s hand was already almost halfway unrolled, and everyone could see clearly that the Eight-Ocean Dragon God Barrier had begun showing signs of crumbling under the suppression of an invisible force. Despite refusing to believe it, the people couldn’t stop themselves from developing terrifying thoughts. They reckoned that maybe the Eight-Ocean Dragon God Barrier would really crumble once the magic scroll was completely unrolled.
However, Grand Duke Vidi did not stop what he was doing; in fact, he even seemed somewhat maniacal. No one would be able to remain collected and composed when holding an item that possessed such a terrifying force. Grand Duke Vidi even felt an impulse to pocket the scroll instead of putting it up for auction. In fact, simply put, Grand Duke Vidi was enthralled because he had never been in control of such a massive power before.
However, at this moment, King Bradlor suddenly stood in front of the window of the private room, and yelled at the people below, “Grand Duke Vidi, stop, we’d better start the auction formally!”
Bradlor had no other choice. If this went on, the crumbling magic defense in the hall might really be crushed and destroyed. The destruction was not what he was worried about; if anything happened to the guests here, the Gilded Kingdom would definitely be in trouble. Although there were very few guests who could contend with the Gilded Kingdom, the kingdom’s reputation would still be greatly affected even if an insignificant nobody was to get injured here.
Grand Duke Vidi finally snapped back to his senses after hearing Bradlor’s words, and remembered where he was now. After sobering up, Grand Duke Vidi looked at the magic defense that was crumbling because of the oppressive mageweath, and couldn’t help but break out in a cold sweat. He hurriedly rolled up the magic scroll.
When the magic scroll was put away, the terrifying power, too, vanished without a trace, while the stimulated Eight-Ocean Dragon God Barrier naturally began to converge again. Once everything was calm again and peace was restored, Grand Duke Vidi cleared his throat, raised the magic scroll in his hand, and said, “Everyone, you should have witnessed the power of this magic scroll just now. The auction for this scroll will officially begin now with a starting bid of 5,000,000 gold coins!”
If Grand Duke Vidi had said at the beginning that the minimum bid price of the magic scroll was 5,000,000 gold coins, he would have definitely been mocked and slammed by the crowd. However, now that they had experienced what just happened, everyone in the auction hall stayed silent after hearing Grand Duke Vidi’s words. No one stood out to question the price, either.
Even Grina, who hated Lin Li to the core, and wished he could make the scroll go unsold to put Lin Li to shame, couldn’t bring himself to offer a price of a few gold coins at this time. If he continued to do that again, he’d be the one getting embarrassed.
“Wait, Grand Duke Vidi, before the bidding starts, can you tell us the name of this magic scroll!?” Harquess was a bit anxious when he saw that Grand Duke Vidi was about to announce the start of the auction, and thus decided to ask that question in order to buy some time. After all, his father and the elders had yet to arrive, and he couldn’t make a good judgment or evaluation of the scroll.
Of course, Harquess asked a very reasonable question because every item had a name, regardless of what it was. Since it was a magic scroll, the audience had the right to know what it was called and what the name of the mageweath on it was, as well as its level. The so-called mystery auction items were only kept confidential just before the start of the auction. When the auction was about to begin, the information regarding the item would definitely be told to the crowd in all clarity.
Hence, the people who had previously treated the roll as a piece of junk began clamoring at Grand Duke Vidi at this moment as they demanded a proper introduction of the scroll from him. Even though they might not be willing to spend money to buy such a magic scroll, they were still curious out of human nature.
However, Grand Duke Vidi was stumped by the question. He had previously called it a mysterious auction item precisely because he wanted to avoid having to give them an explanation. If he said that they couldn’t even identify the level of the magic scroll, the reputation of his auctions would be severely tarnished.
“Um.” Grand Duke Vidi hesitated and thought about the power that this magic scroll had just exerted before biting the bullet, and saying, “This magic scroll is called Mount Tai, which is derived from the meaning of Titan Holy Mountain. It is a masterpiece that definitely isn’t inferior to most Guru-level creations. More information will be revealed to the person who wins the auction of this item by President Felic of the Tower of Dusk, whom you may approach to find out more. I shall not go further into detail about this item for now.”
The magic scroll was named “Mount Tai”. That was the only information about it that had been revealed, but Grand Duke Vidi, too, could not figure out which mountain it referred to. However, in order to make the item fetch a better price, he decided to just mention the Titan Holy Mountain. As for the level of the magic scroll, the auctioneers had consulted many Inscribers, but none of them could identify it. Hence, Grand Duke Vidi simply said that it was a Master-level mageweath1, which he thought would be apt considering Lin Li’s young age.
In Grand Duke Vidi’s opinion, having Master-level attainments in inscription at Lin Li’s age was already unbelievable enough, and he didn’t think that Lin Li would be able to become a Guru of Inscription. In Anril, Gurus of Inscription were few and far between. Even the Octopus Clan that was naturally highly talented in inscription had very few Gurus of Inscription.
In the field of inscription, a Guru of Inscription was the equivalent of a Sanctuary powerhouse or even an existence that was closer to the gods than Sanctuary powerhouses. Grand Duke Vidi didn’t believe that Lin Li could have the same level of attainment in the field of inscription, even though he had reached the Sanctuary-realm in magic.
However, Harquess was a bit skeptical about Grand Duke Vidi’s explanation because he still remembered clearly Grand Elder Hayes’ evaluation of the stained mageweath that earned the awe and respect of the elders of the Octopus Clan even though all Lin Li did was spill a bottle of ink onto it. In that case, Harquess thought that it was impossible for a mageweath drawn by Lin Li to be only at the Master-level.
However, Harquess thought for a second, and guessed the reason that Grand Duke Vidi said that. Since the mageweath had been drawn by someone whom even Grand Elder Hayes had spoken highly of, ordinary inscribers obviously wouldn’t be able to identify its level. Not to mention the human inscribers, there were probably very few or even none who could accurately identify the mageweath even in the Octopus Clan.
“10,000,000 gold coins!” exclaimed Bradlor. He had been waiting for Grand Duke Vidi to announce the start of the auctioning of the scroll for a long time. Hence, he immediately placed his bid. He initially thought of buying it at a decent price to do Lin Li a favor, but after seeing the power of that magic scroll, he developed a strong desire to acquire it.
If he could buy a magic scroll that could shake the Eight-Ocean Dragon God Barrier with just 10,000,000 gold coins, it would be akin to finding a treasure without much effort. However, Bradlor knew that it probably wouldn’t be possible for him to acquire the magic scroll easily now that everyone had seen its power during the showcase just now.
As expected, as soon as Bradlor placed his bid, another four or five people did so too, and the bid price was raised to more than 20,000,000 gold coins in the blink of an eye. That was just the price offered by the people on the first floor, and those of the more powerful forces in the private rooms of the second floor had yet to place their bids.
Among the people present, Grina of the Giant Shark Clan was probably the one with the strongest financial power. In order to compete for the Heart of All Evil, he’d even agreed to exchange the mineral mining rights for the funds of the Sea Serpent Clan. Although they did not manage to win the auction for the Heart of All Evil in the end, the deal between him and the Sea Serpent Clan was still valid; hence, he didn’t return the funds to the Sea Serpent Clan.
However, how could Grina be willing to spend a large amount of money on something created by his enemy? Even if it was a Guru-level magic scroll, he wouldn’t be willing to fork out a single gold coin for it, not to mention when it was a Master-level one. Hence, Grina was excluded from the list of competitors.
At this juncture, Queen Halleleah and Prince Cleve of the Siren Queen looked somewhat regretful, for they had already invested all the funds they had prepared, coupled with the financial support from Lin Li, to acquire the Heart of All Evil. Although they were also interested in that magic scroll, they didn’t have the means to acquire it.
“I didn’t expect President Felic to have such a high attainment in the field of inscription too. He’s really unpredictable!” Queen Halleleah exclaimed emotionally as she looked at the scene below.
“Yeah, I’m afraid Grina has offended someone he shouldn’t have, and formed a feud with the wrong person for the Giant Shark Clan.” Prince Cleve also nodded in agreement. Suddenly reminded of something, he said, “Since President Felic has such high attainments in inscription, I wonder if he can draw a powerful mageweath for the Heart of All Evil?”
Although the Heart of All Evil contained a very powerful force, the use of it alone would not allow much power to be exerted, so there had to be a mageweath to match it in order to stimulate and control its power. Prince Cleve had initially intended for the Octopus Clan’s elders to help draw a mageweath to complement the Heart of All Evil. However, although the Octopus Clan and Siren Clan were on good terms with each other, they were still competing forces of the Endless Ocean, and weren’t exactly extremely close. Hence, they weren’t sure if the Octopus Clan would help.
Unlike them, Lin Li’s Tower of Dusk was not a force that belonged to the Endless Ocean, and thus would not have a conflict of interests with the Siren Clan. Besides, Prince Cleve had also managed to get closer to Lin Li when he approached Lin Li for help previously. In fact, forging closer relations was not just about giving each other benefits. Asking for help and making some deals was also one of the ways to become closer to someone else. People tended to get closer with increased interactions, and sometimes offending the other party to a small extent might also become an opportunity to deepen the ties between both parties.
Prince Cleve had not known that Lin Li had had such high attainments in inscription in the beginning, but now that he had seen how powerful the magic scroll was, he immediately thought of asking Lin Li to help draw the complementary mageweath for the Heart of All Evil. Of course, he would give Lin Li something in return for his effort. Since Lin Li needed the Siren’s Tears, they could give them to him as a form of remuneration.
“Okay.” Queen Halleleah nodded elegantly, and took her eyes off the scroll to turn to look at Prince Cleve, who was beside her. She said, “After the auction is over, go contact President Felic again.”
During Queen Halleleah and Prince Cleve’s conversation, the price of the magic scroll Lin Li had created was already pushed to 50,000,000 gold coins by the crowd. Such a high amount could be considered the limit of the price that a magic scroll at the peak of the Master-level could fetch. As long as it was still below the Guru-level, the final transacted price shouldn’t be too far off from 50,000,000 gold coins.
The person who placed the bid of 53,000,000 gold coins, which was the highest bid so far, was Harquess of the Octopus Clan. However, even so, Harquess still seemed a little anxious because his father and elders had yet to arrive. Hence, he could not tell if the magic scroll was worth a higher price, and didn’t know if he should continue to compete for it if there were higher bids for it.
Unfortunately, things did not always go according to one’s wishes. Just as Harquess was being worried that someone would offer a higher price, he heard a new offer coming from someone in another private room.
“55,000,000 gold coins!”
The person who placed that bid was Manson, the prodigy of the Thunder Eel Clan. Although he did not have much knowledge of inscriptions, he was obviously interested in the great power displayed by the magic scroll, just as anyone would be. Besides, Manson and Harquess weren’t on good terms in the first place. Thus, when Manson saw that Harquess was interested in the magic scroll, he naturally had to make things hard for Harquess.