Frederick Solaris presented the murky color bottle of Water of Absolute Nothingness and the crowd got rowdy immediately.
"Oh my god! Very nice. The Solaris even managed to get their hands on the forbidden items."
The Water of Absolute Nothingness was a forbidden item and shouldn't have existed outside of the palace possession, but here it did.
No one knew how the Solaris family did it, but they do not care. What they do care is that they have to get it!
"I bid 2,000,000 Craws!" A noble roared immediately.
"3,000,000!"
"5,000,000!"
7,000,000... 9,000,000...
Very quickly, the bid price soon jumped to 21,000,000 Craws.
With 5,000,000 Craws, one can already buy a steam powered vehicle for themselves and yet here, they were willing to pay 4 steam powered vehicles worth for a small bottle of water! The word extravagance wasn't enough to describe these nobles.
Leon eyes bulged in shock. These nobles are either too rich or they have simply gone insane!
No! Take a step back, the Water of Absolute Nothingness was such an insidious poison. In the wrong hands, it was like hold a deadly weapon of mass destruction. One would be able to threaten and blackmail everyone with it.
These nobles are mostly like thinking if they get it, others would be afraid of them, but if they don't get it, they will have to be afraid of the one that gets it!
He, who has it, has the power! That is the true worth of the poison. Too bad none of the noble will be able to enjoy anything they buy tonight, and they will even lose their wealth and status. This was going to be a typical case of going for wool and come home shorn.
Leon locked eyes with the shadow guards and signaled them. They began to surround the underground auction and lockdown all possible escape.
One bottle of Water of Absolute Nothingness was enough to doom all these nobles present, but Leon and the shadow guards did not take action immediately. He wanted to know what other goods the auction has as it will all end up in the royal family's hands eventually.
"33,000,000 Craws! Going once... twice... and sold! To the gentlemen in Booth No.2!" Frederick Solaris said excitedly, before sending a servant to deliver the bottle to Booth No.2.
The auction continues to proceed, but the next few items weren't as exciting as the first items. However, they were indeed rare, nonetheless. There were rare herbs and metal not found anywhere on the market, but the items were basically useless, unless it was transformed by a grandmaster alchemist or blacksmith.
There weren't much problem requesting from an alchemist with the right price but asking a blacksmith from the Lancaster family was just plain suicide with their ill-gotten rare metal.
After the herbs and metal, were some slaves. The slaves were mainly young pretty girls of commoner background. They must have been captured during the chaos.
"Old Frederick, if you don't have any more good stuff, I will just head home early. You're even selling slaves now. How base." A nobleman said from one of the front seats.
"Hahaha, don't be impatient. There is only one item left and it doesn't have much practical use, but I promise it will definitely pique your interest!" Frederick Solaris said with a genial expression, but he was disdainful inwardly. That person was one of the few that bought a slave.
'Hmph! A manwhore posing as a saint!' He thought inwardly.
"Oh? Then I will stay and see. Hurry up and bring it out so we can see." The noblemen said with interest, unaware of the other party's thoughts.
Without further ado, Frederick Solaris clapped his hands to signal the servants to bring out the last item.
"This... is this a fallen angel!?"
Many noblemen and noblewomen stood up from their seats in astonishment, when the final item came out. Fallen angels... the servants of gods that fell from grace. They've the read stories about them, but they never expect to see one in the flesh.
On the stage, the servants had pushed a steel cage. Inside the cage was a young girl with one black feathered wing on her back. She was chained tightly to steel cage and had a pale complexion. There were bloodstains everywhere on her body, making her seem especially wretched and near-death. But even so, it was not enough to hide her beauty.
"This is a beastkin of the black crow lineage. How she ended up in the Human Domain and the Capital no less, no one knows. My family found her among the rubbles of the lower district, passed out. She is very strong, stronger than a 9th step Awakener. If you can bring her home and train her into an obedient slave, it is equivalent to having a peak powerhouse in the family. There is no starting price. You may begin bidding."
"So, it's not a fallen angel... no matter. I must still get her!"
The underground auction immediately erupted into a new fervor of bidding. The price quickly soared and broke past the 50,000,000 Craws threshold, but it did not stop there. Whether as a slave or for other purposes, these nobles were hellbent on obtaining the beastkin.
By coincidence or not, Leon and Lilith locked eyes with each other. He stared straight into her deep starry eyes and hers into his.
"Haih... this is no way to treat beautiful lady." Leon sighed inwardly at the tragic sight. Beautiful women were like heaven's gift that needed to be treasured.
Leon signaled the shadow guards to begin suppressing the nobles nearest to them.
"Nobody moves! You have all been caught redhandedly, engaging in the dealings of illegal goods. Surrender yourself or face the consequences!"
"Who the hell are you people? Which hole did you crawl out from, kid? How dare you ruin my auction!" Frederick Solaris roared, unaware of how powerful these intruders were. They had so many noble elites of their side. How can they lose?
"Resisting arrest is punishable by death!" Leon warned.
"Nonsense! Who said so!?" Frederick Solaris refuted. He knew if the authorities did come, the Solaris family won't have a good ending.
Leon flashed on stage like a phantom and lifted Frederick the same way he did with Marquis Wyatt, his son and coldly said, "I did."
"Y-You! How dare you! Die!" Frederick was enraged and tried to lash out a vicious kick at Leon's head.
"Courting death!"
CRACK
Leon snapped his neck with his powerful grip, before Frederick could achieve his aim. Of course, he didn't forget to devour the fire seed and elevate himself to the peak 7th step Awakener Realm afterwards.
There were too many unrepentant and ignorant fools even when death stared them in the face. But it was these types of death seeking fools he needed to quickly increase his cultivation.
Leon faced the crowd and smacked his lips like he was not looking at people, but cultivation resources and asked, "Who else wants to resist?"
The nobles felt a chill run down their spines. Their life was as good as gone, if they surrender to this fiend. They still intended to resist.
Suddenly a noble from the Upper West District recognized him and exclaimed, "Y-Your... highness!"
When these two words were uttered, those who intended to resist, quickly gave up the thought and let it die in their stomachs with pale faces.
After seeing the strength of the palace guards previously, they don't have that kind of courage to oppose royalty.
Mark came forward and asked, "What are your orders, your highness?"
"Needless to say, take them all away and loot- confiscate everything." Leon said bluntly.
"Yes, your highness."
The nobles stared with wide eyes at the money they brought being slowly taken away. That's my money!
"Don't try anything funny. There are fifty palace guards waiting outside." Mark warned before pulling the nobles away with his men.
The amount of cash pooled together reached a staggering 800,000,000 Craws. The number was simply mind boggling. Their combined wealth was even higher than what Leon got from the Four Great Family, which only amount to 300,000,000 Craws. But to be fair, the comparison of wealth was between four and forty. It was clear which one was wealthier individually.
Leon suddenly drawn his black spear and sliced apart the steel cage and binding chains, before crouching down towards the young girl.
"What do you want?" Lilith said weakly with her guard up. She was startled by his actions.
"Don't worry, I'm not a bad person." Leon said with a gentle smile. He fetched a healing pill from his world space and tried to feed it to her.
However, Lilith had become very distrustful of humans after the torture she suffered by the Solaris family. Also, from what she had seen, this was a really bad person!
Lilith immediately bit his hands and made him wince in pain, but also unable to retract his hand.
"Argh! What are you, are dog? I'm trying to help you!" Leon barked irritably.
Startled, Lilith studied the pill and noticed it had healing properties. She swallowed the pill but didn't feel grateful for his help. In fact, she was angry at his first part and said with a pout, "Don't you dare insult my king!"
Leon wanted to faint. He wanted to say, 'What does it have to do with your king? Is your king a dog? How unreasonable.'
However, he just stomped his feet, ready to leave and said, "Whatever. I won't bother with you since you don't how to appreciate my kindness."
"Wait." Lilith gazed at the four new healing pills in front of her, before asking, "Why are you helping me? Aren't you afraid I will go around killing humans?"
Leon looked back and said, "Do I need a reason to help a beautiful woman in need? Have you ever killed any humans?"
"Well... no...not yet-"
"That's good enough to know." Leon cut her off and began walking away. He only took a few steps, when he picked up the sound of her struggling movements.
"Why are you trying to follow me?"
Lilith barely recovered even after swallowing all the pills given due to her strong physique and one-star equivalent cultivation. Thus, she wasn't able to move much.
"Are you just going to leave a helpless person like me here? If you're going to help someone, shouldn't you help them all the way?" Lilith complained.
Leon speechlessly walked back and picked her up in a princess hold. He secretly felt relieved however that his efforts weren't in vain.
"Don't get the wrong idea. I still think you are a really bad person."
Her words made him freeze briefly and break a sweat. Is this a beast's instincts or a woman's instinct? It was terrifying. He did have ulterior motives for helping her.
If he could befriend a beastkin, wouldn't he be able to get free information on the Wildlands?