by Zhuang Bifan
The powerful healing ability didn't mean that Rebirth didn't possess any offensive properties. For opponents, the life-control Rebirth was undoubtedly a deadly weapon. A single strike from Rebirth could immediately take vitality away from any ferocious Legendary beast. Even the High Elves known for their longevity would age rapidly under the power of Rebirth.
Rebirth not only possessed the ability of giving, but also forceful exploitation. How could Lin Li let anyone else get this powerful life-maneuvering ability?
"The base price of this Elven treasure is 1,000,000 gold coins. The auction begins now!"
William again didn't give much of an introduction. After all, the more he said, the more mistakes he would make under the circ.u.mstances. It was better to let the guests estimate the value of this item themselves.
Just like the Myth Potion auctioned earlier, William had wanted to set the base price for this branch higher. However, since the Myth Potion had been auctioned at a whopping 10,000,000 gold coins, it was enough to show the rich and powerful families' interest in President Felic's potion. William didn't want to displease this young mage because of such a trivial matter.
"5,000,000 gold coins!"
Immediately after William announced the start of this auction, a loud and clear voice rang in the rather noisy hall. Everyone couldn't react at the moment, but the hall was completely silenced after two to three seconds. However, the crowd erupted into chatter just seconds after the silence.
Everyone had the same thoughts in their mind. This auction was too damn fake! How could the much reputed William do something like that? With William's reputation and esteem acc.u.mulated from managing the Time Consignment Store for so many years, did he even need to do such lowly things to increase his influence?
It couldn't be helped that people thought this way. After all, the things that happened during this auction were too ridiculous to be true. It was still acceptable that the Origin Potion had fetched a price of 3,000,000 gold coins, since everyone knew that a potion that could allow a mage to learn five magic powers would be worth this price. However, what about the others? Who could imagine that a potion whose name and effects nobody knew could fetch a sky-high price of 10,000,000 gold coins?
Now, William had played the same trick for a branch of unknown origin and properties. Without any introduction, he had set the base price at 1,000,000 gold coins. Even the Twilight Dragon Armor of Duke Hedrick which could increase a person's power by one level was sold at 500,000 gold coins.
What about this branch? Even if it contained pure magical energy, even if it'd once belonged to the Elven Legendary-mage Legolas, and even if a Legendary-mage was more powerful than a Legendary-realm Sword Sage, it was probably only worth 1,000,000 gold coins. How daring did William have to be to start the auction at 1,000,000 gold coins? How much did William want it to be sold at? Another 10,000,000 gold coins?
The most fake thing about it was that somebody answered and directly raised the price to 5,000,000 gold coins. Could this capper have some professional integrity? Did he think the audience were all fools? How arrogant to start with 5,000,000 gold coins! Let's see how William will deal with him if nobody else places a bid!
Chapter 550 - Sky-high Price
Unlike the people downstairs, Wilkinson and his companions had given up upon knowing that Master Felic was determined to get the branch—it was clear as he had bid at such a high price. In fact, if even they could think of putting this branch in their herb farms, how would Master Felic not know given his expertise in pharmaceutics?
Though Wilkinson didn't get Master Felic's reply for the earlier question, this bid of 5,000,000 gold coins had proved the problem sufficiently. Given their understanding of Master Felic's personality, he wasn't someone who would waste even a bronze coin on useless things. Now that he had bid, it only meant that this branch was worth more than 5,000,000 gold coins no matter what its origin was. In other words, they perceived Master Felic as someone who wouldn't do a losing business.
However, Wilkinson and his companions wouldn't be sad if this branch landed in Master Felic's hands. After all, they could be considered students of Master Felic, although Master Felic wasn't their real teacher. This relationship was much closer to friends or companions, so they could certainly get some benefits from this.
Meanwhile, in the other guest room, Tedya of the Dark Blade shut his mouth with resentment. His bid was stopped by the sky-high 5,000,000 gold coins just as he had wanted to respond.
As a Necromancer, Tedya resented the vitality from this branch. The so-called natural fragrance made him feel like vomiting. However, the branch was still very useful for him.
Necromancers faced dead creatures on a daily basis, so it was inevitable that death aura would intrude their bodies. Thus, most necromancers looked very peculiar. To say it nicely, they looked extremely thin. To say it not so nicely, they looked like a skeleton wrapped in a layer of skin, and definitely scarier than real skeletons.
Image was only secondary since this world admired the strong and powerful, and didn't care about appearance much. After all, who dared to say that Sendros looked ugly? The real problem was, the acc.u.mulated corrosion by death aura day and night was detrimental to health. This wouldn't be a problem if one reached Legendary-realm. However, if one wasn't able to become a Legendary necromancer like Sendros, then he'd have to make a choice.
One of the choices was to wait for death, which nobody would choose. The other was to turn himself into an Undead creature such as a Lich like Ujfalusi. This transformation, however, had a very low success rate. If Tedya possessed this treasure filled with vitality, he could use it to dispel the death aura in his body frequently. This would largely increase his lifespan.
Moreover, such a powerful treasure rich in vitality wasn't only useful for extending lifespan of a necromancer. Although life and death were conflicting kinds of energy, the understanding of such vitality would help with the understanding of necromagic.
However well Tedya thought it through, the reality gave him a slap in the face again. His hopes were killed off completely when Lin Li raised the bid directly to 5,000,000 gold coins. The Dark Blade had the ability to take out 5,000,000 gold coins. However, he didn't have so much money to bid for it himself. After all, he couldn't make decisions for the Dark Blade now.
The one who had given up on the bid because of Lin Li wasn't just Tedya. Prince Hilary of the Ledin Kingdom had originally been interested in this branch. Despite not knowing its use, 1,000,000 gold coins were nothing to him. However, just as he wanted to bid, he was stunned by Lin Li's bid of 5,000,000 gold coins.
"He's still too young!" Hilary sighed and shook his head. His good friend Englos admired this Mage Felic very much. However, that was just for his talent in pharmaceutics. In Hilary's eyes, this young mage was still too young and impulsive.
To raise the bidding price from 1,000,000 gold coins to 5,000,000 was an extremely unwise move. Even if Lin Li had wanted the branch urgently, he shouldn't have been so quick to raise the price by so much. This was a taboo during auctions. Not only did it tell others about your strong d.e.s.i.r.e to possess this object, it might also spark the competitiveness in some people and push the final transaction price to an uncontrollable high.
This young mage, pharmacist, and President of the Guild of Magic might have spent all his efforts on learning magic and pharmaceutics such that he wasn't equipped with basic common knowledge. A young genius couldn't be a genius in everything. Some things still needed acc.u.mulation of time, and not just knowledge from books.
This was not only Hilary's opinion. Others who knew Lin Li, including Robbio who had bought the Myth Potion just now, and even William who was hosting the auction, laughed bitterly at Lin Li's bid. It wasn't because they had anything against Lin Li, but rather that they felt that it was a wrong move to bid 5,000,000 gold coins.
"What? He's the one who made that potion?"
"Did they gang up to deceive us? I don't believe that poti
on was worth 10,000,000 gold coins. Now, there's even this 5,000,000-gold-coins branch!"
After a potion had been sold at a sky-high price, the people downstairs were curious what its effect was. They couldn't imagine what kind of potion would be worth 10,000,000 gold coins.
Although these people were sitting downstairs, all of them were influential in their own fields and knew one another. Hence, it wasn't difficult for them to find out about this.
The Glittergold Trade Union had won the bidding for the potion, so some people immediately approached Robbio to see what exactly he had spent 10,000,000 gold coins on.
How could Robbio tell the truth? How could he say that he had spent 10,000,000 gold coins on a potion that hadn't even been tried and tested? He could say this to his boss Hoffman, as Hoffman was a pharmaceutics Master himself and respected President Felic's pharmaceutics abilities very much. However, he would be viewed as a fool if he had told the truth to other people. Therefore, he had told everyone who came to ask the effect of the potion with much certainty, not mentioning a word about the fact that it was still in an experimental stage.
After the people returned from Robbio, everyone gasped. A potion that allowed a mage to reach the realm of an Archmage without suffering from the side effect of depletion of potential meant that the possibility of reaching the Legendary-realm wasn't cut off. In other words, 10,000,000 gold coins were extremely worth it. Of course, the precondition was that only a wealthy organization like the Glittergold Trade Union could afford to fork out 10,000,000 gold coins. Others wouldn't make up their minds to pay so much.
What was more surprising was that Mage Felic, the one who had concocted the Myth Potion and who was currently sitting in the VIP guest room, had just bid for the branch at 5,000,000 gold coins.
Just then, some people recalled that William had led the way for a group of people back at the front hall before the start of the auction. They had never seen William so respectful to anyone before.
"Wait, the Tower of Dusk? Isn't that the Guild of Magic we were trying to poach the pharmacists from?" The fact that they only thought of this now showed their attitude towards the Tower of Dusk. Much as they valued its pharmacists, they couldn't have cared less about the Tower of Dusk itself.
"That little brat is the President? No wonder he bid for that branch at 5,000,000 like a nouveau riche just after he earned 10,000,000 gold coins," someone commented sourly.
Although these people were green with envy towards the Tower of Dusk, they couldn't help but reevaluate the value of this seemingly typical branch on stage. Nobody doubted William upon knowing the real identities of the bidders anymore. Mage Felic aside, at least Master Wilkinson wouldn't do something that would damage his own reputation.
Even though these people didn't trust that this young President of the Tower of Dusk would be an esteemed pharmaceutics Master deep in their hearts, at least Wilkinson was in that guest room too. Maybe Wilkinson had recognized the identity of that branch? Unfortunately, most of them were blocked by the barrier of 5,000,000 gold coins even though they had realized the extraordinariness of that branch by now.
The price of 5,000,000 gold coins was beyond the imagination of everyone. After all, this branch wasn't an astonishing potion, precious material, or even magical equipment. Though everyone knew how valuable the natural magical energy it radiated was, wasn't 5,000,000 gold coins still too much?
Theoretically, every faction would be quite anxious about the things they did to the Tower of Dusk after knowing more about it and its young President. After all, even someone as reputable as William could lower his attitude while hosting President Felic and lead the way for him personally. Moreover, the Glittergold Trade Union, the Dark Blade, Castellan Arathor of Roland City, and even Prince Hilary of the Ledin Kingdom had shown much interest in the Myth Potion during the previous auction.
However, thinking of the nouveau-riche-like bid just now, people immediately relaxed, and exclaimed that Lin Li was still just a kid. In the eyes of many, Lin Li was just an immature child too young to intimidate them. The reason why he would be treated with so much respect by Master William was probably because of the accompanying Master Wilkinson and the other high-level pharmacists.
Chapter 551 - Castellan of Roland City
By immediately calling out such an unreasonable and astonishing price, he thought that it would make him look more powerful. However, he didn't know that he had already committed the big taboo of auction. All of these people were people of status in the Breezy Plains. Which one was easily frightened? To show such urgency over this item only told other people how badly he wanted it. At the very most, it could make some bidders who had close relationship with him give up bidding.
However, he didn't have to raise the price so high if he had wanted to dissuade close friends from bidding; just adding to the base price by a little would achieve the same effect. If it was something not so important, close friends would certainly give him some face by not bidding for it. If it was something very necessary, then 5,000,000 wouldn't be able to scare those rich families off.
As the people downstairs kept looking in his direction, how could they hide their expressions from Lin Li? However, Lin Li didn't care about others' opinions, and wouldn't tell them his true thoughts. After all, how could he tell them that he didn't want to waste time? That would be too hurtful…
Of course, Lin Li definitely wouldn't tell them that this seemingly ordinary branch was actually a piece of debris of the stars which possessed the power to manipulate life. Getting hold of it was equivalent to having an undying body, so nobody would be able to resist this temptation. If anyone else knew about this, Lin Li didn't have the confidence to win the bid over Glittergold Trade Union. Any kind of relationship was nothing compared to this. Those unscrupulous merchants didn't care about relationsh.i.p.s. To them, money was their closest friend.
"Mage Felic from the Tower of Dusk bid 5,000,000 gold coins…"
William was rather disappointed. He had high hopes for the branch, but it didn't induce any waves in the audience. If Mage Felic hadn't raised the bid to 5,000,000 directly, the outcome would've been even worse.
"Going once, going twice…" William raised his gravel, ready to seal the deal after asking for the third time. However, just then, another bid came from upstairs and made him withdraw his gravel.
"6,000,000 gold coins!"
This voice caused an uproar in the auction hall. Nobody could imagine who would be interested in this ordinary branch other than the nouveau riche who had just earned 10,000,000 gold coins.
However, Lin Li could clearly hear that the bidding voice had come from outside his door. He instructed Norfeller to open the door.
Outside the door, Castellan Arathor of Roland City was about to knock. He put down his arm and smiled apologetically. "President Felic, I seek your understanding. This item is very important to me."
"Please come in, Castellan Arathor." Lin Li looked very composed. He wasn't at all angry that someone was competing with him for the item. Whoever with the highest bid would get the lot. Nobody had the right to snatch another's freedom to bid.
Wilkinson and his companions, however, didn't seem as calm as Lin Li. Although the castellan of Roland City held considerable power and reputation, Wilkinson and his companions didn't think he was anyone important. Seeing that Arathor had come in with his two attendants, Wilkinson and his companions didn't hide the disp.l.e.a.s.u.r.e on their faces, though they didn't doubt Lin Li's decision.
Arathor didn't dare to show any negligence to Wilkinson and his companions. Although they didn't look pleased with his visit, Arathor still put on a smile and greeted every pharmacist respectfully. Of course, Arathor's attitude wasn't reciprocated. He wasn't bothered by this, though. After all, it was universally acknowledged in the Anril World that every capable pharmacist had a bad temper.
"Seems like Castellan Arathor is also interested in this treasure."
Lin Li raised his bid to 7,000,00
0 before turning to Arathor with keen interests, making William put down his gravel again.
Lin Li wasn't angry with Arathor's sudden participation in the bid, but he couldn't help feeling very curious. This was because he hadn't called for 5,000,000 gold coins randomly. He had made this decision only after thorough contemplation.
Lin Li was very clear about what this branch was for. However, other people probably didn't know its use until now. Even the sharper ones only knew that the natural fragrance of this branch contained powerful vitality.
How could Lin Li as a pharmaceutics Guru not know that Wilkinson had wanted the branch for his herb farm? Maybe a lot of other high-level pharmacists or pharmaceutics Masters would have the same idea.
Hence, Lin Li had raised the bid to 5,000,000 as it was the highest price this branch could take if it had only this effect. If the price was any higher, it would be over the presumed value in people's eyes. So, this 5,000,000 was to dissuade these so-called sharp-eyed people from bidding and save some time.
This was why Lin Li was curious. Why would Arathor participate in this bidding? He wanted to raise the production of crops? 5,000,000 was already the most any pharmacists would be willing to pay if they wanted to put the branch in their herb farms. Arathor, however, had started with 6,000,000 gold coins. If he wasn't a fool, he most likely knew something about the branch.
"This…" Arathor turned around and peered at his attendants inadvertently. He then sat on an empty chair, and said to Lin Li, "I'm terribly sorry, Mage Felic. This treasure is really very important to me, so can you…"
Although Arathor's cheap shot didn't catch the eye of others, it didn't escape Lin Li's eyes. After Arathor had sat down, Lin Li scanned Arathor's attendants while he listened to Arathor.
