Appraiser Lilo
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The exit of the ruins leads directly to the starry sky. Except for Robert and Tagore, all of Gu Ding's group were enveloped in a semi-transparent light shield released by the Four-Star Divine Object Armor, and they did not encounter any obstruction to their breathing.
The group was carried by the transformed Tagore, and after exiting the exit, they appeared directly on a nearby uninhabited planet.
Although Tagore possessed spatial abilities, he was, after all, only Low-rank God, and could only perform short-distance interstellar communication within star systems.
On that uninhabited planet, Gu Ding retrieved the Titan Warship. With a thought, the warship automatically transformed and shrunk, becoming an ordinary War God, only one-tenth the size of its original vessel. This was one of the Titan Battleship's capabilities—simulation.
This simulation is not a simple visual deception, but a realistic simulation of size changes, which can be achieved simply by inputting the data of the simulated spaceship. Sea Emperor immediately injected data from many spaceships into the simulation.
Seeing the changes in the spaceship, Liliath and the others were also very surprised.
Once inside the spaceship, everyone discovered that the actual internal volume remained unchanged.
The simulated War God quickly docked at Ju Fu Star.
The Gu Ding Team was the first team to return to the Ju Fu Star from the ruins.
The others didn't have spaceships or strong spatial teleportation capabilities; they were all waiting for the Federal Government's spaceships to pick them up. The spaceships, however, wouldn't depart until the ruins closed and everyone had exited.
Gu Ding didn't choose to travel on the Federal Government's ship because his team possessed far too many valuable items. If Gatins were to covet them, it would cause significant trouble. After all, the Federal Government and Interstellar Pirate were adversaries, and it would be easy for the latter to fabricate charges and arrest them. Moreover, Gatins was incredibly powerful, and Gu Ding's sealing abilities were currently on cooldown. In a direct confrontation, Gu Ding Team would undoubtedly be at a disadvantage.
Another reason why Gu Ding chose to return earlier was that Gu Ding wanted to spread the news of the Auction House of the five-star divine artifact as soon as possible, so as to attract the participation of the Peak-rank God in the bidding.
According to the information Gu Ding Stda, the real large-scale Auction House wouldn't begin until three to five days after the ruins closed. That means there are still at least five to seven days until then.
Normally, Peak-rank God rarely appear at these Auction House, as a single Four-Star Divine Object requires at least 400 million Merit Points. The auction lasts for a month, and the number of people who can accumulate over 400 million Merit Points is extremely small. Those who can enter the Oul Ruins are all Low-rank God, and even if someone does accumulate over 400 million Merit Points, they are unlikely to go to the trouble of buying a Four-Star Divine Object divine artifact; they would instead choose to purchase items that directly increase their cultivation. Therefore, the probability of obtaining Four-Star Divine Object after the Oul Ruins open is not high; it's considered good to find one after about five or six openings.
However, for the Peak-rank God, each person already possesses several Four-Star Divine Object, so their need for them is not urgent. Only five-star divine artifacts are worth fighting for.
Upon returning to Ju Fu Star, Gu Ding immediately ordered everyone to clean up the Golden Eagle, preparing to sell the spaceship. Once outside the Fei Me Universe Country, the Golden Eagle's value would undoubtedly plummet. This was because spaceships of this caliber were practically nonexistent in the Universe Sea; the Golden Eagle was, after all, just an ordinary spaceship, easily destroyed by a casual strike from a demigod.
After everyone had finished packing, Gu Ding returned the spaceship to its Storage Space at the port. Then, he led Liliath and the others towards the Auction House.
Upon arriving at the Auction House, a young woman, clearly a staff member, greeted Gu Ding and his group with a professional smile and asked, "Are you here to participate in the live auction or to consign your items for auction?"
"It was submitted for auction."
"If you're consigning items for auction, please register them. Only with this registration information can we arrange for an appraiser to conduct an appraisal," the girl said, projecting a page directly onto the screen.
Gu Ding frowned as he looked at the page because there was just too much information to fill in. In addition to the item name, type, and grade, there was also a detailed description of its appearance, a 3D photo, and a whole bunch of other miscellaneous information.
"If the item you're bidding on is a three-star Three-Star Divine Object or higher, you don't need to fill out this form. I can take you directly to see the appraiser." Seeing Gu Ding's expression, the girl added, "But I need to remind you of something: if the item you're bidding on isn't at least Three-Star Divine Object artifact, the appraiser will scold you. And I'll get scolded too..."
"Then you can take us there." Gu Ding couldn't help but grin when he heard the other party say that.
Although the girl didn't say anything, her face showed a hint of disbelief, but she still obediently led Gu Ding and his group to the entrance of the appraisal room behind the Auction House.
"The appraiser doesn't like crowds, so it's best if you don't have anything to bid on, or she'll yell at you." The girl's words were clearly meant to tell Gu Ding and the others that the appraiser had a bad temper.
"I won't go in," Robert said, feeling there was no need for him to follow.
Dokter and Bigge also stayed behind.
Tagore seemed to have no intention of jumping off Gu Ding's shoulder, while Liliath, who never paid attention to any rules, naturally refused to leave, and Elsa followed her in.
Upon entering the testing room, Gu Ding and his companions saw a little girl even smaller than Liliath, probably only eleven or twelve years old, who was currently sleeping on the testing table. Saliva was constantly drooling from her mouth, as if she were dreaming of something delicious.
"She's always been the only one in this room," Sea Emperor whispered in Gu Ding's ear.
Before Gu Ding could react, Liliath stepped forward and tapped on the table.
The little girl suddenly sat up.
"Little girl, where are your parents?" Liliath asked in a rather condescending tone, as if she were much older than the other person.
"Who are you people?" the little girl asked instead, her tone tinged with dissatisfaction.
"We're here for an appraisal. Where is the appraiser?" Liliath asked.
"Show me the item, and I'll be the appraiser," the little girl said, extending her hand.
"You're an appraiser?" Liliath, somewhat skeptical.
"My name is Lilo, and I am the chief appraiser of the Fei Me Universe Country." The little girl had a very serious expression on her face.
"What she said is true." The Sea Emperor finally spoke. "Lilo is naturally petite, but she is actually over three thousand years old."
Gu Ding didn't say anything more. He first took out the Four-Star Divine Object Armor that Stda had given him and placed it on the appraisal table.
Lilo circled the armor once, her eyes suddenly turning silver-white before returning to normal after a long while. When she looked at the armor again, her eyes were filled with horror. "This is actually a Four-Star Divine Object from Near Ancient Era! Where did you get it?"
"Naturally, it came from the Oul Ruins." Gu Ding didn't want to explain too much.
"How is that possible? The Oul Ruins haven't ended yet. It's only been open for less than twenty days. How could someone have come out before the deadline?" Lilo was clearly no stranger to the Oul Ruins.
Gu Ding then realized that the news of the early end of the exploration of the Oul Ruins hadn't spread yet, so the people on Ju Fu Star were still unaware of it. He could only explain, "The exploration of the Oul Ruins ended completely yesterday. It will automatically shut down in two days."
Lilo seemed somewhat skeptical, but she knew that the armor before her was indeed an artifact from the Near Ancient Era. Moreover, its defensive capabilities far surpassed those of current four-star armor. She offered her initial estimate. "This armor is worth at least hundreds of billions of Universe Crystal, equivalent to tens of millions of source stones. This is just the starting price; the actual auction price will certainly be higher!"
"Then let's take a look at the others." Gu Ding had judged from Lilo's valuation that she was indeed a very skilled appraiser, so he confidently took out the other items.
With the remaining 10 billion Merit Points, Gu Ding used them to buy one five-star divine armor for Stda, and then proceeded to purchase the rest according to his original plan: one five-star Merit Points artifact, five Four-Star Divine Object, and seven Three-Star Divine Object.
However, this time Gu Ding did not take out the five-star divine artifact, but instead took out all the other items.
Lilo examined each item one by one, her mouth agape growing ever wider with each look. "Five Four-Star Divine Object and seven Three-Star Divine Object. My god, did you rob a lot of people in the ruins?"
"No, we obtained these with Merit Points." Gu Ding thought it was normal for the other party to have this idea, because normally, even a single Four-Star Divine Object was rare at this Auction House. This time, including the armor from before, there were six Four-Star Divine Object.
Lilo didn't believe Gu Ding's story. Having participated in two Auction House as an appraiser before, she'd heard many discussions about the events at the ruins, and the acquisition of Merit Points was definitely not as easy as Gu Ding made it out to be. However, she didn't expose Gu Ding's "lie." For her, the higher the total value of the items Auction House, the higher her reward. Therefore, she didn't care whether the source of the consigned items was questionable; she only cared about their authenticity and value.
She examined the twelve divine objects carefully again and then gave each one an estimated price.
Gu Ding simply nodded after listening. The starting bid given by Lilo matched the Merit Points of these items in the ruins; they were basically the same. Only then did he reach out and take out the five-star divine armor.
"Take another look at this armor," Gu Ding said with a smile.
The moment Lilo saw this armor, she couldn't take Lilo eyes off it. "This is..."
She immediately recognized it as a five-star divine artifact, but she wasn't entirely sure because she had never heard of a five-star divine artifact appearing in the Oul Ruins... (To be continued...)