Maxwell felt like a doll as Orphelia made him change clothes continuously. He wore different suits, coats and even some regular pants and shirts. After a grueling 3 hours, Orphelia finally satisfied bought him 10 sets of clothes. It costed her 50 Earth Grade Spirit Stones.
"Take these 10 sets, you need good clothes for your handsome face."
"You don't want your fiancé to look poor in other's eyes?"
"Other's opinion does not matter but you would have a hard time getting in stores with those clothes and you would be treated poorly."
"So, you want me to look good for you to admire?" Maxwell said teasingly.
Orphelia turned away with a red tint in her cheeks.
"No wh- what a-are you saying." Orphelia said while stammering.
"Fine don't accept it."
"Let's go to the treasure pavilion, I heard there's an auction there tonight. We might find something good." Maxwell then said.
On the way to the treasure pavilion Maxwell learnt that Orphelia had reached the 10th stage of Foundation Establishment and was aiming for at least the 15th stage. She also told him that she had 5 element spirit roots which had all elements except lightning and fire. She had cultivated them to the peak of rank 3 with the resources she had received, and her sword intent had reached the level of Sword Heart which was a level higher than Maxwell's Spear embryo.
"I have also cultivated my elements as much as I could without qi and my Spear intent is now in the level of Spear Embryo. I'll show you that later."
The Treasure Pavilion main branch was a 5 storied building with each floor having higher requirements to enter and better items. It was very busy but not everyone could enter.
At the gate Maxwell and Orphelia were stopped and were asked to show a Treasure Pavilion card to gain access.
"Oh Shit, I forgot to get mine."
'Leonidas should be here nearby, I'll contact him quickly.'
"Oh, Ms. Chevalier is this your toy boy?"
"Ugh, it's you. This is my fiancé."
"Are you sure he's not trash, he's so weak. I heard that he could not cultivate. Were those excuses since he was so weak?"
Orphelia gave him a look as if he was the stupidest creature in existence.
"If he was trash then you are a grain of dust. Do you think I would be engaged to him if my family thought he was useless?"
"You would rather marry this poor country boy than me? He has not even sent you a single thing for the past 10 years with his letters, on the other hand I have given you gifts regularly."
Orphelia now very angry said, "Do you think I didn't know that all the gifts you gave me were taken from Maxwell's letters? I can easily recognize his work."
"His work? Those are the same as Treasure Pavilion's spatial rings. My family has their support, so I have seen many of them."
"Yes, it is his work"
Maxwell who had been silent the whole time, contacting Leonidas finally spoke.
"Do you think Treasure Pavilion will appreciate you using their name when they don't support any family? They have a neutral stance."
The arrogant youth who had blonde hair and black eyes realized his tricks had been exposed quickly said. "Do you think I can't stop you from entering The Treasure Pavilion? Maybe I'll forgive you and let you in if you bow to me."
'Oh, his family has a contact in a high position?'
"I would like to see you try, child of the Roger family." An angry but familiar voice came from behind. It was the voice of Leonidas.
The boy was now very frightened and begged for forgiveness.
"Your family only rose to one of the top 4 families because we removed the Smith family, do you think we can't wipe out your family if they spoil our name?" Leonidas threatened him
He prostrated in front of Leonidas and begged for forgiveness.
"You should not kowtow to me but the VIP you offended. If your family causes us to lose such an important supplier, you will see the consequences."
"VIP!" Both Orphelia and he exclaimed in surprise.
"I'm sorry, forgive me. I'll do anything."
"How about you stop irritating Orphelia, she doesn't like you at all."
"Okay, I will." He ran away with hatred in his eyes.
"He's going to try to cause trouble, but he doesn't have much influence in his family." Orphelia sighed but was happy she was rid of him.
"It's alright Orphelia. Thank you, Leonidas, before you go help me auction these items."
He handed Leonidas a spatial ring with the Lightning Lotuses he had obtained a little while ago along with some other Spiritual Herbs. Leonidas took it and gave Maxwell a VIP card. They then entered the building. Leonidas' appearance had caused a lot of noise outside among the people who recognized him.
"Who was that anyways?"
"That was Bruce Rogers, he tries to court me even though I dislike him using his position as a child of the Roger family. He does not have a good reputation in our sect either." Orphelia said disgusted while they looked around on the ground floor.
Inside both Maxwell and Orphelia browsed the wares but neither seemed to want anything on the lower floors. In the end they went all the way to the fifth floor without purchasing anything. The fifth floor had few but rare items of excellent quality. There were rank 8 Ores and a few Spirit Rank High Grade Artifacts, weapons and armor were present. Any better items would be auctioned and in the whole continent there were no Heaven rank Medium or High grade items.
'Wait what's that?' A miniature Pagoda that was on the verge of falling apart caught Maxwell's eyes. 'It looks to be the highest ranked item I have ever seen, there is probably nobody who can fix it in the continent.'
'I wonder if there even exists good enough materials to repair it.'
Maxwell had been walking towards the artifact and noticed Orphelia approaching it too.
"You want that too?"
"Of course, I do, although it's badly destroyed it is very powerful still."
"Well if you want that then I'll get that artifact, I sense the aura of space element coming from it." Maxwell said while pointing to a carriage that was also a miniature. Orphelia had not noticed the carriage since she was naturally drawn to the pagoda.
'It must be really small because someone has used spatial qi to compress its size. Arion can drive the carriage. Only someone with high rank spatial affinity and above would be able to understand that it's a valuable artifact.'
"Excuse me, are you sure you would like to buy it? Nobody has been able to form a bond with it or identify what it is till now." A female clerk who was made to guide them spoke up nervously since this was her first time interacting with VIPs.
"Yes, we are sure. We can even form a bond right now." Orphelia replied confidently.
"Before you do that, you should know that we only give back 95 percent of the amount you pay if you fail to form a bond."
"That is fine with us"
"The damaged pagoda costs a 1000 Earth Grade Spirit Stones while the carriage costs 5000 Earth Grade Spirit Stones since they are unusable."
'I don't have spirit stones right now, but those lotuses should sell for at least 2000 Earth Grade Spirit Stones each and with the other items in the spatial ring it should be another 1500 Earth Grade Spirit Stones.'
"Take the price from my earnings from the auction." Maxwell replied while Orphelia took out a bag of Earth Spirit Stones. They both had to put a lot of force to lift their items since their weight remained the same. As soon as Orphelia put her hand on the Pagoda it buzzed with excitement and glowed, as if it knew her.
"Artifact Spirit?!" Maxwell exclaimed not fully sure.
Orphelia didn't say anything but just smiled. They then dripped blood to make the artifacts recognize them as their owners. Since it was nearly time for the auction to start they both went to the auction house area of the Treasure Pavilion. There were many influential families and sects who sent their representatives to participate in it. The entrance was crowded but a lot of people were being filtered out. Maxwell showed his card to the guards at the entrance and was directed to the highest room in the auction house. A tall, grey haired man with a scar on his face noticed the card and eyed Maxwell greedily Maxwell noticed all of this but chose to act ignorant.
The room he was given was one of two at the highest point in the auction house, it was lavishly decorated and had the best protective formations to prevent prying eyes. There was also a formation to block noise from inside. They were also served luxurious dishes cost free in that room.
Maxwell was directed on how to use a device on a table that he would have to send qi into for it to work. It would distort his voice to prevent others from knowing who he is. It was not foolproof, but it worked.
Since there was an hour till the auction would start Maxwell and Orphelia discussed many things. They caught each other up on what they had done since their last letter, but Maxwell did not disclose the constitution he had, and Maxwell showed Orphelia the spear.
"Nice spear, does it have a name yet?"
"No not yet, but I should name it. Hmmm…"
"How about Gáe Dearg?"
"It's a little hard to pronounce but it suits the spear since it's red too."
'Should I tell her about my memories yet? I don't know if I can trust her. Those memories have made me not trust people as much.'
"Max, can I examine your body?"
"Huh? Sure, go ahead."
'Will she do anything to me now?'
Orphelia placed her smooth hands on Maxwell's back and sent qi through his body and examined him. Maxwell felt warm qi flowed through his body that felt soothing and healing. In Maxwell's dantian the dragons made of lightning that had increased to 2 in number once Maxwell reached Foundation Establishment started moving. They charged into Orphelia before Maxwell could do anything. They seemed to still be linked to Maxwell, but they were attracted to Orphelia too.
'What! They have moved into her body.'
Meanwhile Orphelia was surprised for a very different reason
'These dragons! He had them too from his constitution. It can't be a coincidence that the same constitution appeared when I reincarnated. He couldn't have reincarnated too as Maxwell, right? His soul should've taken the most impact.'
"You don't have a Lightning affinity, do you?"
"No, I don't have an affinity for Lightning or Fire but whatever these dragons are they seem to think I do."
They looked at each other suddenly as if they received an epiphany.
"Suppression by the constitution?" Maxwell said.
"It could be. Try taking the dragons back and let's see."
Maxwell took back the dragons and suddenly Orphelia could not use Lightning qi anymore.
"You might have all 7 affinities like me. We just need to see if Earth Fires will choose you."
Orphelia sighed. "That won't be easy to find, and I will be stuck at a bottleneck if I don't find one in time then."
'I can keep one dragon with Orphelia, then I can see if she is trustworthy.'
"Here keep one of the dragons, I need someone who can match me in cultivation speed and strength."
"Why? Your strength will get reduced drastically."
"It's a bride price." Maxwell said to tease Orphelia. "I can't have my wife being weak now, can I?"
"First you have to reach Core Formation realm."
"Well you have to wait a bit then, I have to reach Stage 15 minimum in Foundation Establishment."
"Let's make a bet to see who reaches the higher stage, the winner can get anything out of the loser."
"Okay, deal. You won't beat me."
"We will see who gets the last laugh."
Like this they talked through the hour and the auction was about to start.