Motherfcker, she’s going straight to five million?
A Demi-Divine Artifact might be priceless, but the zero Boundary Staff’s value was, at most, three to four hundred thousand gold coins… Five million… Was this woman brain-damaged or did she literally own a mine?
“Big Brother, don’t fight it! Don’t fight her anymore! I feel like even if we bankrupt ourselves, we can’t outbid this woman!”
The Third Prince, Wu Song, was so panicked he was about to cry. He finally understood why, earlier, Weilin had been able to spend two hundred thousand gold coins on a hair ribbon without batting an eye. This damn woman had superpowered wealth!!
And of course, there was another layer to it…
In order to follow Wu Yin in surrendering to The Federation, and to ensure a sure win at this auction, Wu Song and the Fourth Prince, Wu Xi, had each saved up a million gold coins. That money was currently in Wu Yin’s hands.
“Third Brother, calm down! Big Brother must have his considerations. And even if we can’t outbid her, the money won’t vanish,” the Fourth Prince urged.
Calm down?
Speaking of calm, Wu Song was far calmer than Wu Yin, whose face was clouded with gloom and whose eyes were practically bursting from rage.
Five million, huh?
If they pooled the savings of the three brothers, plus the money from selling the White Mice, they could just barely scrape it together. If only they could win this Demi-Divine Artifact, he, Wu Yin, would grit his teeth and accept this monumental loss today!
But he was truly terrified that Weilin could raise the bid again…
Finally, as if his mind had cracked, Wu Yin let out a loud, crazed laugh. He staked everything, making one final, desperate gamble.
“Five million, three hundred and thirty-nine thousand!!”
He believed that as long as he won this Demi-Divine Artifact, as long as The Federation was willing to accept him and grant him territory and population, he could rise again and start a new life for himself in that prosperous, divinely blessed land of The Federation.
Instead of… trembling in this barren wasteland of perpetual wind and snow, living in daily fear of his nation’s ruin and enduring Huan Xuezhi’s cold stare.
“Five million, three hundred thirty-nine thousand…” Reki murmured, then drew a deep breath. Her gaze, trembling, turned towards Weilin’s room.
However, all of Reki’s worries were unnecessary.
Since this item was consigned for auction by the Illusory Snow Queen, the proceeds would naturally go to Huan Xuezhi.
…And Huan Xuezhi was the only person Weilin was willing to “gift money” to.
Therefore, no matter how outrageous Weilin’s next bid was, it was entirely of her own volition, not simply a result of momentary spite.
“Five million, three hundred thirty-nine thousand? …Ah, I understand now. This is your absolute limit, isn’t it, Your Highness the First Prince?”
“If your bidding opponent wasn’t me, this price could even buy two slightly weaker Demi-Divine Artifacts. But in my eyes… you are truly, too weak.”
Weilin chuckled faintly, her tone a mix of pity and scorn.
“…But I’m willing to give you one more chance. I’ll make one final bid. If you can match it, I will absolutely not bid again.”
“…Is that… true?” Wu Yin asked, his voice trembling.
“Couldn’t be truer.” After speaking, Weilin’s lips curved slightly, and she issued a soft, cold shout: “Ten million!”
In the vast merchant guild hall, it was as if everyone collectively held their breath. Not a single sound was made, allowing the girl’s clear, ringing voice to echo for a long time.
Ten million gold coins…
Most people hadn’t seen that much money in their entire lifetime combined. Wu Yin was completely dumbstruck.
A long moment later, the girl’s voice, laced with utter contempt, broke the silence again.
“Out of money? Can’t keep up?”
On the other side, though Wu Yin was shocked and furious, At the thought that Weilin had actually bid ten million—three times the price of the Zero Boundary Staff!—Wu Yin found a sense of balance, as if a leveling scale. He revealed a sickly, twisted… miserable and pathetic smile. He had basically gone mad.
…Because even he, a prince above the common masses, could no longer comprehend the true extent of Lega Weilin’s wealth.
And right then, Weilin’s gaze abruptly turned icy. Her sneer, full of undisguised anger and hatred, slowly spoke:
“Is Your Highness the First Prince thinking, if only the White Mice hadn’t gone extinct so quickly, if you could have caught a hundred or two hundred of them, then today, even if you had to take a loss, you’d absolutely slap my face into the ground?”
A chilling sensation shot down Wu Yin’s spine, and an even more terrible premonition surged within him.
“Sigh, what a pity, only the last fifty-odd are left… But they still sold for over five million. So, you thought this gave you a hundred percent certainty to win the Demi-Divine Artifact, to present it to The Federation, then obediently crawl into the dog collar The Federation had long prepared for you, and relying on your intimate knowledge of the Snow Kingdom’s many secrets, join The Federation in biting back at the Snow Kingdom?”
“Truly… the style of His Highness the First Prince! A perfectly good prince, refusing to be one, preferring to be a dog. Such clarity of thought, such a level of shamelessness, it’s truly unparalleled throughout history, hahaha…”
Among the many uninformed attendees, before they could even digest Weilin’s words, a hysterical, maniacal roar erupted first from Room 313.
“DESPICABLE WOMAN, DON’T YOU SLANDER ME WITH YOUR BLOODIED MOUTH!!!”
Then the entire room shook violently. Inch by inch, a layer of ice crawled out from the window seams. The interior was likely already transformed into an icy prison.
The refined and gentle Wu Yin had changed. He even spat out vulgar curses!!
It wasn’t his fault. After all, Weilin had been incredibly unfair. There were clearly only 24 White Mice, yet she insisted on saying there were over 50? And sold for five million?!
For Wu Yin, whose mental state was already unstable, the fact that he could detect this trap was nothing short of a miracle. Who wouldn’t go crazy under such circumstances?
“Me, slandering you with a bloodied mouth?”
Weilin let out a playful, cold laugh and called out: “Miss Reki, I must trouble you to bring out that victim!”
Reki hadn’t expected things to ultimately reach this point. She sighed lowly, then with a similarly sharp, icy gaze, shouted an order: “Master Lei, bring that man out!”
?
White Mice…
Weilin’s accusations weren’t hard to piece together. A White Mouse that could sell for one hundred thousand gold coins a piece, other than the national treasure, the Crystal Companion White Mouse, there was no other possibility.
Ever since the Illusory Snow Queen took power, although the nation hadn’t seen rapid development, it was still peaceful, prosperous, and strictly law-abiding. Unless one had a death wish, no one would dare target the Crystal Companion White Mice.
And Wu Yin had actually…?!
Not only committing treason and colluding with the enemy, but also such a heinous crime. The people of the Snow Kingdom, feeling a fury shared by both gods and men, stared towards Room 313 with gazes wishing they could flay him alive.
In the merchant guild hall, where the atmosphere had become utterly stifling and oppressive, Master Lei finally brought a middle-aged man with a frightened, cowering expression to the center of the scene.
“I don’t know this man!”
Before the victim could even speak, Wu Yin let out a cold laugh of denial, adding a venomous threat. “Grabbing some random person to frame me? You’ve got some nerve!! Just wait until I get out. Your branch can prepare to close down for good!”
“Is Your Highness the First Prince so eager to deny it?”
Disregarding the disparity in their status, Reki pulled the middle-aged man forward, grabbed the fabric on his shoulder, revealing a Snowflake Epaulet still stained with blood.
“This bears the crest of your Prince Yin’s Mansion!”
Separated by a wall, no one could see Wu Yin, whose face was now ashen yet still trying to deny it.
“So what if it is! Just getting some crest proves he’s my man? And… hey, why don’t you just ask the man himself!!”
The man shuddered violently. His head hung low, and his eyes were completely swallowed by abyssal fear and agony. He stammered, “…I… I don’t know him………!”
Wu Yin let out a triumphant, breath-of-relief laugh: “And you think you can frame me? I hope everyone here trusts their eyes over rumors, and won’t be led astray by this mercenary, profiteering merchant!”
Reki suddenly smiled mysteriously, her voice flat. “Mercenary isn’t a quality only merchants possess…”
“Though I don’t know where you’ve imprisoned his wife and children, but… Your Highness the First Prince, let me be direct. I never expected him to make you confess.”
“What do you mean—?!”
“Because this witness is merely a ‘bonus’…” Reki extended her palm. In it lay a prismatic crystal releasing a faint blue light.
A 3rd-Tier ‘Mirror Crystal’ — one of the most common crystals on the continent used for storing images and sound.
“This is the real evidence!”
Wu Yin’s heart hammered wildly. Cold sweat beaded on his forehead, but the drops fell far slower than they formed.
Reki raised her head towards Room 313, her gaze mocking, her lips curving into a half-smile. “…Your Highness the First Prince, you’d never guess, would you? Your most trusted assassin, because he couldn’t stomach your actions, not only left a survivor but also specifically kept a recording of your transaction. And he sold it to the Cloudstride Merchant Guild at a very reasonable price… Your Highness, tell me… shall we play it now, in front of everyone?!”
“Crack—BOOM!!!!!!!!!!”
In an instant, it wasn’t just the windows of Room 313. The entire room exploded in a catastrophic eruption of flying ice shards!
It was an enormous, dazzling dragon’s head, carved entirely of ice crystal, lunging towards the first floor where Reki stood. It came bearing sky-obscuring frigid might and raging, murderous intent!
Wu Yin’s desperation-fuelled outburst was within her expectations. Master Lei had also been on high alert, ready to act at any moment.
But no one had expected Wu Yin would not hesitate to kill everyone present, directly unleashing a single-use magic scroll—’Ice Dragon’s Roar’ (8th-Tier)!
“Heavenly Thunder Barrier!!! …Lady Reki, run!”
Master Lei was only a Legendary Mage; he couldn’t cast 8th-Tier magic, let alone 9th. He could only use his most confident 7th-Tier defensive magic to block it.
He wasn’t even sure he’d survive this strike… As the massive lightning barrier unfurled in mid-air, Master Lei, his eyes nearly bursting from his skull, roared back at Reki.
His loyalty could rival the sun and moon…
And then he saw Reki also pull out a magic scroll. The moment she opened it, she swiftly grabbed the hands of her maid, Black Bell, and the male victim. As a Warp Array rapidly formed, a flash of light appeared, and the three of them vanished together.
?
“LADY REKI, DON’T LEAVE MEEEEEEE!!!!”
The gigantic ice-carved dragon head crashed down upon the merchant guild hall, packed with over a thousand people, with insane, murderous intent.
What Wu Yin wanted to destroy was the ‘witness’ and the ‘evidence.’ So only those in the vicinity of the auction stage were truly in mortal danger…
The ice dragon descended, slamming into the Heavenly Thunder Barrier stretched across mid-air. Accompanied by a deafening tremor and roar, countless ice crystals shattered, raining down like a hailstorm.
The first floor erupted into screams and desperate scrambles for survival. Master Lei struggled bitterly to maintain the Heavenly Thunder Barrier, its lightning glow weakening within seconds to a state of utter dimness and powerlessness. Perhaps in the very next moment, the despairing shadow of the dragon would swallow the lightning along with Master Lei, and countless more…
On the third floor, Weilin looked down at the crisis unfolding below. Her eyes, flashing with anger and darkness, turned incredibly grim. In her hand appeared a three-foot shortsword emanating an absolutely terrifying high temperature…
The heat was so intense that even the moisture in her skin was evaporating at an alarming rate. This was the might of a Divine Artifact, something even the Strongest Mage would struggle to control.
Just as Weilin prepared to act…
A sudden, strange development from below interrupted her intention.
From the sky, a dense cascade of snowflakes suddenly descended. Four figures of “Snow Maidens” materialized amidst a swirling blizzard. They were positioned precisely at the four cardinal directions—east, south, west, and north—of the ice dragon.
And at the final moment before the ice dragon could devour the lightning, the four Snow Maidens spun as if in a dance. Ice and snow whirled fiercely with them. From the ground, countless ice crystal pillars erupted upwards at astonishing speed!
The longest of these ice pillars reached five zhang high, directly piercing through the ceiling of the merchant guild hall. In the same instant, the four Snow Maidens created nearly a hundred ice pillars, physically “locking” or rather “wedging” the plummeting ice dragon in mid-air…!
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