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The first item up for auction was an eighth-level soul tool crafted by the Mingde Hall.
The bidding for the "Dominant Tiger Soul Refining Blade" was intense, with Dai Yaoheng leading the bids with remarkable enthusiasm.
This blade was highly compatible with his Evil Eye White Tiger martial soul, making it an item he was determined to secure.
Before the auction, he had already informed Wang Yan that he intended to purchase it with his own funds.
Starting at 600,000 gold soul coins, the final price escalated to a staggering 1,560,000 gold soul coins.
"This blade is worth, at most, 1,300,000 gold soul coins. In the Sun Moon Empire, it would go for no more than 1,000,000," Xie Hongchen muttered, "I wonder which fool is driving up the price so much."
The auction house was set up with private rooms for each participant, so no one could see the others' identities. Bids were displayed only on the soul tool screens.
"The next item is a ranked engraving knife."
"A ranked engraving knife!"
Xie Hongchen's interest was piqued; he immediately sat up, focusing on the display.
"Wait, it's a Devourer Engraving Knife. Even a dog wouldn't want that."
At a glance, he identified the knife and, unimpressed, lay back down, dismissing it.
The Devourer Engraving Knife had a fierce backlash effect.
As for its value as a collector's item, it wasn't worth it. After all, it's a ranked engraving knife, and who could resist trying to use it if it were at home? Soul tool artisans are often stymied at a bottleneck in their craft and are tempted to try new tools to ease the process.
Just one time.
One last time.
This is the knife's fatal allure.
"The Devourer Engraving Knife, starting bid: 100,000 gold soul coins, with increments of no less than 5,000 gold soul coins."
The auction hall fell silent; no one bid on the item.
No soul master would touch it, and non-soul masters had no reason to buy such a dangerous object.
"Is there no one interested in this Devourer Engraving Knife? It seems destined to be a no-sale."
"100,000."
Su Yu placed a bid.
"What? Su Yu, don't—"
Xie Hongchen began to criticize Su Yu's judgment but stopped, recalling Su Yu's Ultimate Life attribute halfway through his sentence.
Aside from him and Meng Hongchen, however, no one else on the Sun Moon Royal Battle Team knew about Su Yu's Ultimate Life.
"Su Yu, don't get too confident.
Every owner of the Devourer Engraving Knife throughout history has tried to use it with similar confidence, but each met a tragic end."
"Elder Ma, don't worry. I wouldn't gamble with my life like that."
As he spoke, Su Yu quietly produced a token, showing it to Elder Ma.
Elder Ma saw the token and immediately understood.
"So that's it."
Su Yu was actually a student of Elder Kong.
With this revelation, Elder Ma ceased his objections.
The Devourer Engraving Knife was successfully acquired by Su Yu.
It was sealed in a specialized soul tool container that suppressed its malevolent energy.
Su Yu didn't rush to open it. He stored it in his storage soul tool and waited for the next item.
The auction featured a range of soul tools, all produced by Mingde Hall.
Items from Mingde Hall guaranteed high quality, whether in technology or power.
These items had all been brought by Elder Ma.
Partly, they were meant to demonstrate the Sun Moon Empire's soul tool prowess and intimidate the Star Luo Empire.
Additionally, they were for profit.
As Xie Hongchen noted, the Dominant Tiger Soul Refining Blade would fetch, at most, a million gold soul coins in the Sun Moon Empire and perhaps 1.3 million in the Star Luo Empire.
But the final price had soared to an astounding 1,560,000.
This was inevitable. Mingde Hall items, especially eighth-level soul tools, were rare in the rival Star Luo Empire, a once-in-a-lifetime chance to acquire.
When such items perfectly matched a buyer's needs, they'd spare no expense to win them.
The same principle applied to other soul tools.
In the Star Luo Empire, prices often ran about 30% higher.
As for the technology involved, Sun-Moon Hall wouldn't risk revealing anything exploitable.
These items were obsolete, after all.
Moreover, should anyone attempt to reverse-engineer them, any misstep would trigger Sun-Moon Hall's hidden countermeasures, potentially claiming the lives of a few skilled soul tool artisans.
"Up next is the final item of today's auction and also our most valuable one."
Su Yu's expression grew serious.
What could it be?
He had arrived full of anticipation, only to find that one item was still missing.
The Devourer Engraving Knife was secured, but was it the Ice Jade Scorpion soul bone or the Snow Emperor embryo that was missing?
The soul bone he could live without, but the Snow Emperor embryo—losing that would be disastrous.
And, as feared, disaster struck.
"Our final showcase item is a soul bone."
No Snow Emperor embryo.
What was the Star Luo Empire thinking?
Or perhaps, the soul master who originally captured and sealed the Snow Emperor chose not to turn over the Seal Platform to the Star Luo Royal Auction?
A flurry of thoughts raced through Su Yu's mind.
At the same time, Xu Jiujio had finished describing the properties of the Ice Jade Scorpion soul bone.
Meng Hongchen's eyes sparkled, clearly intrigued by the power of the Ice Jade Scorpion soul bone.
The only drawback was that it had an exclusively ice-based attribute, specifically the "Extreme Ice" attribute.
She worried that absorbing it could disrupt the balance between her internal ice and fire elements, especially the cold-fire poison.
If the poison were to spiral out of control, this soul bone could easily become her death warrant.
However, there was also a chance it could work.
Since it was Extreme Ice, it might aid her martial soul's evolution, transforming her ice attribute into Extreme Ice and driving out the fire element and cold-fire poison altogether.
This was an option as well.
Meng Hongchen was torn.
Yet, despite her hesitation, she was determined to win the soul bone.
Whether to absorb it or not could be decided later—first, she had to secure it.
"Elder Ma, could you help me bid on this soul bone?"
"Of course!"
Su Yu observed the entire exchange quietly.
He refrained from mentioning the potential issues with the Ice Jade Scorpion soul bone.
Firstly, it was a matter of trust, and secondly, his information source was difficult to explain.
"Now, we begin the auction for this left arm bone of the Ice Jade Scorpion, estimated to be at least 50,000 years old.
Starting bid: 12 million gold soul coins, with a minimum increment of 500,000!"
This was one of the highest starting prices ever recorded at the Star Luo Royal Auction.
And it was only the starting price.
The final sale could potentially rival the value of three ninth-level soul tools.
But given the intrinsic value of a soul bone, especially one well-suited to its bearer, even a Hyper Douluo would likely empty their coffers for a chance to claim it.
"Fifteen million!"
Elder Ma took the lead.
With the first bid, he raised the price to 15 million, as if declaring his unwavering intention to secure this soul bone.
And indeed, many others hesitated, intimidated by his boldness.
"Sixteen million!"
Still, there were others willing to challenge Elder Ma.
"Twenty million!"
Elder Ma upped the bid again, plunging the auction hall into silence.
In the room where Shrek's team was seated, Wang Yan stared at the dazzling 20 million figure on the screen, filled with conflicting thoughts.
(End of Chapter)