William was on his way to the Auction when he spotted a group of four Cultivators he recognized walking down the street with a few guard Captains leading the way, including the one that William had met when he entered the Capital City.
In the group was Supreme Left, Hun Dao, Brackley, and Wentor, while the others were nowhere to be seen. He wondered if the others had given up on chasing him, or if they were searching somewhere else.
Wait a minute...I thought Supreme Left was dead!
William felt that something was up, he clearly saw Supreme Left die at the hands of that Cultivator hidden in the shadows.
He activated the invisibility function of the Stealth Talent and approached the group carefully. The invisibility function required 1 Spirit Qi per second instead of Mana, so William only planned to commit a few minutes to tailing the group.
Once he was within earshot of the Cultivators, William maintained the current distance and listened in on their conversation.
"Guard Captain Revley, have you seen any suspicious Cultivators recently? Perhaps one that you hadn't seen before?" Hun Dao asked.
The Captain looked back at the white-haired Cultivator who emitted the aura of a Space Mage, "Sir, thousands of people go in and out of our Capital each day, many of whom I've never seen before. Do you have any distinguishing features you could give me to help narrow your search?"
"Hmm..." Hun Dao scratched his chin and thought for a moment. "Ah yes, perhaps one with a ten-meter purple snake and a Flame Dragon?"
The guard Captain wanted to laugh but he restrained himself. He coughed as he said with a straight face, "We don't allow Magical Beasts in the City. Anyone like that would have been turned away."
Hun Dao nodded, but he didn't have any other way to describe William. He looked at Supreme Left, who produced a piece of paper and injected some Mana into it.
The Arrays on the paper lit up, and a holographic image of William showed up in the air. It was a description of him before he left the Five Element's Sect to enter the Gravitas Ruins, so there was no presence of a beard, nor was his build exactly the same.
With how many Artifacts William had under his clothing, he now looked nothing like the man whom Supreme Left had produced. Even the guard Captain that had accompanied William to the City Hall shook his head, as he had never seen anyone like that before.
The group of Cultivators could only shake their heads in disappointment and continue discussing other matters with the guard Captains. It seemed they didn't intend to waste precious time on William, who was only a single Cultivator and not worth so much of their attention.
Having understood the general situation, William got some distance from the group and disabled his invisibility. He adjusted the appearance of his clothing to appear different from the person that Hun Dao chased, then took a roundabout path to the Auction to avoid the group.
When William entered the door to the Auction, he was pleasantly surprised to see it was the same Night Market he had been to before, although it was still the middle of the day. The door was actually a portal, which led to one of the many that were side by side in the lobby.
"Hey buddy, the Night Market isn't open yet. Only those who plan to Auction an item can come in at this time." a young man wearing a modern-style tuxedo and emitting the aura of a Soul Formation Cultivator said as he walked over.
Rather than walked, the man crossed the entire distance in a single step, surprising William for a moment. Just as the man reached out to touch William, he sidestepped and quickly said, "I'm here to auction an item."
William didn't want to risk his Attack Reflection Talent triggering in this place, since he might accidentally hurt the man.
The man was surprised that a Golden Core Cultivator could react to his move, but he set aside his interest when he heard what William said.
"An item? Let me see it first. Only high-quality items can be auctioned here." he said flatly. Plenty of people came in from time to time wanting to auction an item at the Night Market, but only a few were accepted. Fresh chapters posted on novel✶fire.net
William nodded and produced a different set of Twin Starmetal Shortswords than what he had revealed before with a light smirk, "Do these fit your requirements?"
Seeing the lustrous metallic shortswords, the man furrowed his brows and dialed a number on his communicator. No words were said, but the other party seemed to know what it meant and automatically hung up.
Moments later, a door to the side unlocked and a familiar man in a modern-style business suit and wearing a black fedora stepped out. He spotted the shortswords and caressed his goatee before flying through the air to reach their positions in an instant.
"Hello, I'm Rodger, the auctioneer of this facility. You seem to have already met my son, Rodney, who has only been here for a little while. Forgive him if he was a bit rude earlier."
William waved his hand in dismissal, "No problem."
"Judging by the sheen of those shortswords, these must be made of Starmetal...where did you find this?"
"I made them," William said, which wasn't a lie. He had forged these last night, using the bonus effects from his Artificer Title to produce a set at even higher quality than the other shortswords.
"You...made them?" Rodger asked with a hint of suspicion, to which William nodded.
Seeing that William truly wasn't lying, Rodger was impressed. "It's not every day that I meet a talented blacksmith, what's your name? Also, how old are you?"
"Yuming, I'm forty-one." William decided to go with the age on his status rather than his bone age, since it would be more believable for a talented blacksmith to be in his forties than one that was only twenty years old.
"Talented indeed..." Rodger trailed off. He smiled and inspected the Twin Starmetal Shortswords further. He noted a symbol of a purple snake that was inscribed in the hilt of the blade, which William had come up with on the spot based on Atticus.
After a few minutes, he raised his head and looked at William, "Mr. Yuming, we would be honored to auction this item for you. If you can forge more pieces, we would gladly auction those as well."
Rodger was trying to fish for information about the Starmetal from William on his last sentence, since even if William forged it, he would have needed to acquire the metal first.
William saw through Rodger's attempt and shook his head, "Sorry, this was the only bit of Starmetal that I could find. Perhaps if I get some more in the future."
Rodger nodded, expecting as much. He only wondered why William was interested in auctioning such a rare item. Is he short of money, perhaps?
"Is there anything else you would like to auction with us?" he asked.
William thought for a moment and nodded his head. He produced two Element Roots that he hadn't used yet of the Lightning and Space Affinities.
They were Silver-Ranked, but according to the System it would be more beneficial to him if he only consumed Gold-Ranked Element Roots or rarer. It was better to auction them off and earn some money than to collect dust in his Space Ring.