“303, two million.”
A faint, indifferent young girl’s voice rang out without any warning.
Reki’s hand, hovering mid-air, froze in place. A sharp, intense light flickered in her eyes.
A second ago, Wu Yin had been utterly confident, arrogant beyond measure, secretly laughing at the thought of securing the Zero Boundary Staff for just 1.05 million gold coins.
But Weilin had cut in at the last moment… and nearly doubled the price!
Hurled from heaven down to the earth, Wu Yin was completely stunned. Then, the corner of his mouth twitched uncontrollably. His handsome, gentle face began to contort, bit by bit.
“…Miss Lega Weilin, what is the meaning of this?!”
That incredibly cold, teeth-gnashing tone was undeniable proof of just how foul Wu Yin’s mood was right now.
“No particular meaning. I’ve taken a liking to this treasure,” Weilin said flatly.
“It seems… you and I can no longer be friends?” The First Prince tore away all pretense, his sneer laced with viciousness. “You really have guts… Are you not afraid that outside this auction house, all the people there are ours?”
After all, even if Weilin backed down now, she had already caused Wu Yin to lose a full 950,000 gold coins!
…Nine hundred and fifty thousand gold coins! As a city lord, it would take him two or three years of tax revenue to accumulate that much. With a single sentence, Weilin had wasted two years of his efforts. Even if Wu Yin had the patience of a saint, it would be impossible for him not to explode with rage.
“Ever heard a saying?” Weilin smiled. “Fake brothers, surface-level friends! Everyone feared your power or was threatened by you, so they flattered and fawned. But the moment you lose everything… or even drop dead, believe me, not a single person would come to collect your corpse!”
Weilin’s words voiced the innermost thoughts of every Snow Kingdom commoner present. Those who had been trembling in fear just moments ago now couldn’t help but lift their heads, gazing toward Room 303 with a mix of worry and excitement.
“Heh… heh heh.”
The chilling laughter echoing from Room 313 was accompanied by a rapid, freezing “crack-crack-crack” sound.
“Whether someone collects my corpse… is none of your concern. Perhaps you should first find someone to prepare to collect your own, how about that?!”
Weilin couldn’t even be bothered to sneer at that.
The air was thick with the smell of gunpowder, on the verge of igniting an explosion. The clash between these two voices made everyone in the hall so tense they barely dared to breathe. It took Reki a long moment to snap out of it. She quickly brought down her gavel and shouted:
“Two million gold coins going twice! A-are there any higher bids?!”
After scheming for so long, Wu Yin had no reason to stop because of one Lega Weilin.
Even if Lega Weilin was rich, surely her wealth had a limit?
“Two million fifty thousand!”
Indeed, everything in the world has its limit, but…
How could the limit of the Master of the Eternal Mine be tested by a treasonous prince of the Snow Kingdom colluding with the enemy?!
“Another fifty thousand… Tsk, so the pathetic courage of you maggots is as tiny as your manhood? …Three million gold coins!”
While each mocking, sarcastic remark brought immense satisfaction to the listeners, Reki’s beautiful eyes widened slightly. She could hardly believe such venomous mockery had come from Weilin’s mouth.
Reki suddenly realized she had never truly understood her…
“Y-you… do you really have that much money?”
Wu Yin’s face was twisted with rage, yet he still forced himself to stay calm, sneering, “…If you’re just putting on a show and can’t pay the three million gold coins upfront, you’ll have to compensate a full 300,000 gold coins as a penalty! (Ten percent)”
“Whether I have that much money… what business is it of yours? Even if I break the contract and pay the fine, that’s my affair. Why are you more anxious about it than I am?” Weilin feigned sudden realization. “…There’s a saying… The Emperor isn’t worried, but the eunuch is. Wu Yin, never knew you were that kind of person?”
“ENOUGH!!”
“Don’t ‘enough’ me,” Weilin shot back with a sneer. “…You’re already planning to ambush me, so why are you competing with me over this? Why not just let me win it, then kill me and take the loot? Wouldn’t that save you a few million gold coins? Or is it… you don’t even have the confidence to catch me?”
“……”
Everything about Weilin was a mystery.
But with such presence, boldness, and wealth—and someone Wu Yin had never heard of—Weilin was highly likely not a native of the Snow Domain.
He had even started to suspect that Lega Weilin was some princess, noble lady, knight, or battle maiden from The Empire.
If that were truly the case, Wu Yin wouldn’t dare to do anything to her…
“…Three million, fifty thousand!”
Therefore, if something could be bought with money, it was best to buy it with money.
Wu Yin had gone to great lengths to demonstrate his sincerity to The Federation. If he offended a major figure from The Empire, The Federation, just to maintain a superficial peace with The Empire, would probably casually kill off a minor prince of the Snow Kingdom to dissolve the grudge… Even if Wu Yin had already surrendered and become an “ally” of The Federation, it would be useless.
Such was the power of The Empire and The Federation!
Thus, after his fury peaked, Wu Yin began to calm down, bit by bit.
This was also largely due to the Fourth Prince, Wu Xi, constantly warning him. If Weilin really was some high-ranking figure from The Empire, insignificant beings like them… likely didn’t even have the courage to be angry.
“Huh… what’s going on…”
Weilin also seemed to notice the sudden shift in their aura and tone.
But she racked her brains and couldn’t figure out why Wu Yin had suddenly chickened out. She was completely unaware that she’d been labeled as someone from ‘The Empire.’
Regardless, the Demi-Divine Artifact was something Weilin was determined to win.
The young girl narrowed her eyes slightly and, with a voice as calm as ever, raised the bid again: “Five million!”
…………
Unnoticed by anyone, in the highest corner of the ceiling of the merchant guild’s hall, a fracture of deep blue ice split open in the void.
A faint “Crack—”
Then, that icy crack snapped open like a human eye, a crystalline orb rotating flexibly within it just like a human eyeball.
Demi-Divine Artifact — ‘Corne Ice Eye’
That eerily swiveling ice eye spied on the grand auction scene. In a matter of moments, it stopped rotating and stared fixedly at one room on the third floor.
Inside Room 303, the delicate, graceful figure of a young girl was reflected as a blue silhouette within the ice eye.
The blue silhouette gradually dissolved, like smoke parting to reveal the sun. Within the ice eye appeared a resolute young girl with deep, bright black eyes, her features clear. The image quality, comparable to 30 megapixels of blue light, made every fine pore on the girl’s face clearly visible.
And at the same time…
Illusory Snow City, Cold Dove Hall.
Glazed bricks and jade tiles, icy mists swirled within the hall, weaving through ice-flower bonsai that seemed to shake snow and shed jade. The frigid mist was hazy, like a dreamlike fairyland.
Within the grand hall, in the mist that partially obscured the view, stood a figure draped in a slightly oversized pure white snow robe… yet still appearing cold, lonely, and delicate.
Her stunning, ice-blue hair cascaded down her back like a waterfall. Her skin was more delicate and flawless than the purest ice and snow in the world, her snowy neck jade-white, her waist narrow. Even her supple, smooth legs presented an irreproachably perfect proportion… Her figure alone, viewed from the back, monopolized all the elegance of Cold Dove Hall, reducing the hall itself to mere background accompaniment.
In the Snow Domain, the Snow Kingdom, a girl who possessed such breathtaking grace, as if blessed with all of the Snow God’s favor and love, like a spirit born of ice and snow… there could only be one person…
And ten meters in front of this girl, a screen of mana light displayed the real-time feed from the Corne Ice Eye — the image of Weilin calmly calling out “Five million.”
After a moment, this illusory, dreamlike peerless beauty, facing the empty void, parted her glistening, water-like lips with indifference and spoke, her voice a heavenly, ethereal melody as dreamlike as her figure:
“Three minutes. I want to know everything about her.”
Inside Cold Dove Hall, the mist surged, and countless snowflakes suddenly swirled.
Icy-blue mana light spun at the center where the wind and snow converged. A thousand petals of snowflakes fell from the sky—the omen of the descent of a being of the race known as “Snow Maiden.”
Behind the girl, where there had been only emptiness, a “Snow Maiden” appeared, possessing the figure of a human woman yet distinctly different. Her skin and cheeks were painted with strange snowflake markings. Her snowy feet did not touch the ground; she floated thirty centimeters above the floor.
“Yes.”
The Snow Maiden answered, and with a twist of her form, immediately vanished into the hall like snow mist.
Because the monarch’s word is law. Huan Xuezhi said three minutes—not a single second more would be tolerated.
