Mysterious Stone Sculpture
[First update delivered~]
The first item was quickly auctioned off, with each Qing Xu Pill fetching a final price of over 1 billion Universe Crystal. The ten pills together sold for a high price of 10.7 billion Universe Crystal. Gu Ding's actual cost was only 30 million Merit Points, equivalent to 3 billion Universe Crystal, meaning the auction price more than tripled.
As more items were added to the collection, they were brought out one by one and sold off one by one.
The first day of the Auction House passed uneventfully, with almost no highlights. The highest bid of the entire day was only for the bottle of Qing Xu Pill that Gu Ding had consigned at the beginning of the auction.
After the first day of the Auction House ended, there was a knock on the door of Elizabeth's VIP box. A young girl next to Elizabeth went to open the door, where an Old Woman with a cane stood, followed by a boy.
Upon seeing this group, Elizabeth was visibly taken aback, but she quickly recognized the Granny before her. This Granny's name was Jane, a legendary figure in the Universe Sea, whose cultivation had reached the level of Peak-rank God many years ago. She was one of the strongest participants in this Or Auction House, according to Congressional statistics.
"Senior, is there anything I can help you with?" Although Elizabeth was the ruler of a five-star Universe Country, in front of Peak-rank God, such a status was nothing but a joke.
"Little girl, do you recognize me?" Granny Jian asked.
"I've heard some things about the senior," Elizabeth, without denying it.
"It seems I can save myself some trouble." Granny Jian looked at Elizabeth. "Now that you know who I am, would you be willing to become my disciple?"
Elizabeth was taken aback at first, but then hesitated. "But I am the ruler of the Fei Me Universe Country."
"You've already ascended to godhood. Shouldn't you be stepping down soon?" Granny Jian was no stranger to the internal workings of the Federal Government. "Moreover, as far as I know, the ruler appointed by the Federal Government, after stepping down, will either remain in their original Universe Country or go to the Outer Domain Battlefield. To put it bluntly, with your current strength, young lady, going to the Outer Domain Battlefield would make you nothing more than cannon fodder. As for staying in your original Universe Country, are you truly content with that?"
Elizabeth was speechless. Granny Jian's words were spot on, and she couldn't find any reason to refute them.
"You should know that I am now a member of the Freedom Alliance. You don't need to worry about the Federal Government not releasing you. There are quite a few people at the Federal Government Headquarters who will still give me some face. If I want you, they can't refuse to release you. As for the resources they spent on you before, I'll just compensate them with some of them." Granny Jian had guessed some of Elizabeth's concerns.
"Senior, could you give me some time to think about it?" Elizabeth still didn't agree immediately.
"That's fine. I'll be here until the Auction House ends." Granny Jian didn't urge Elizabeth to make a decision immediately, but instead turned and left with the boy.
After walking a distance, the boy finally spoke, "Teacher, why did you choose her? I didn't see anything special about her."
"Don't ask that question again." After a moment of silence, Granny Jian finally spoke. Although there was no reproach in her tone, the boy was still slightly frightened and immediately shut his mouth.
The Auction House for the second day began soon after.
The quality of the auction items was similar to that of the first day. They were all two- or three-star divine artifacts, with the highest bid being only 4.6 billion for a Three-Star Divine Object artifact dagger.
After two days of Auction House, the members of the Gu Ding Team were somewhat disappointed, as almost none of the auctioned items were useful to them. Therefore, they hadn't placed a single bid in the two days.
On the third day, Gu Ding lost interest and didn't really want to go, but under the Sea Emperor's urging, he still went to the Auction House with the others.
The Auction House more than halfway through. Like the previous two days, it lacked any highlights, leaving Gu Ding with little interest.
Just as Gu Ding was getting bored, a new item was brought up for auction: a fist-sized stone carving. Gu Ding glanced at it casually, but before Caroline could even begin to describe it, his eyes were glued to it.
"Gu Ding, what's wrong with you?" The Sea Emperor also noticed Gu Ding's abnormality, but after scanning the stone carving, he found nothing unusual.
"My Old Dad once left behind an identical stone carving." Gu Ding stared intently at the stone carving on the auction stage. No matter the price, he was determined to buy it.
The auctioneer finally spoke, "This item was sent by a Peak-rank God after the Auction House started the day before yesterday. We consulted many appraisers, but none of them could identify it. The powerful figure didn't say what kind of treasure it was, only that he was entrusted to do something and required us to display it at this Auction House. He also said that the destined person would naturally know what it was, and it would be useless for others to have it."
The auctioneer's words puzzled many, but also piqued the interest of others.
"Teacher, I don't think this stone carving is anything special." In Granny Jian's private room in the VIP area, the boy gave his opinion with some doubt.
"This thing should just be an ordinary token, perhaps a special communication method used by some powerful being. Peak-rank God- level deities often have great opportunities. They might acquire some special methods from ancient civilizations, which other powerful beings of similar cultivation might not be able to detect." Although Granny Jian said this, she was somewhat doubtful, because she always felt a strange sensation about the stone carving. However, her soul power had penetrated it completely, examining it countless times inside and out, but she found nothing wrong.
"Because the appraisers cannot determine the grade of the treasure, in order to maintain fairness, this Auction House only start with the lowest starting price of One-Star Divine Object. The starting price is 10 million units of Universe Crystal, and each bid must be at least 1 million units."
"One hundred million!" A voice rang out from the crowd as soon as the auctioneer's voice fell.
The one who called out the price was a young man sitting in the first row of the Auction House, just like Gu Ding and the others. His bid drew the attention of many people. He chuckled to himself, thinking, "With my bid, everyone else will definitely be intimidated, thinking this thing was left to me by some powerful figure. But spending a hundred million might bring some kind of opportunity. Even if I don't get any, at least it'll let that Peak-rank God know that I bought his stone sculpture, which is a good thing."
Sure enough, after the young man called out his bid, everyone else was stunned, and many of them lost their confidence to bid.
"This gentleman has raised the price to 100 million, seemingly determined to get this stone carving. Could someone else offer an even higher price?" the auctioneer immediately realized.
"Two hundred million!" Gu Ding waited a moment, and seeing that no one was bidding, he immediately spoke up.
Seeing that Gu Ding had participated in the bidding, many people felt that things had become interesting, because the fact that Gu Ding Team possessed enormous wealth was already common knowledge on Ju Fu Star.
The young man frowned upon seeing that it was Gu Ding bidding. He guessed that Gu Ding shared the same thought as him. If that was the case, he probably wouldn't participate in the bidding once the price reached a certain level. After hesitating for a moment, he made up his mind and bid again, "Ten billion!"
"Two billion!" Gu Ding didn't even frown, and immediately followed up with his bid.
"Three billion!" Granny Jian didn't care about the money. She wanted to see which of the two younger people was the true owner of the token. If both of them were fake, then she could use the token to study it without any guilt.
Seeing that someone had made a bid in the VIP area, many people immediately felt that this must be a treasure, and they all started bidding against each other.
"Thirty-one billion!"
"Thirty-three billion!"
"Fifty billion!" The young man gritted his teeth and pushed the price to a new high.
This price increase immediately deterred others.
"Ten billion!" Gu Ding barely blinked, his bid instantly winning over the entire room.
Ten billion is already the price of Four-Star Divine Object item. No one would spend such a high price to buy something useless.
The young man suddenly stood up and shouted at Gu Ding in front of everyone, "Gu Ding, we know you have money, but do you know that this is a keepsake left to me by a senior? There's no point in you bidding for it."
"Do you really know what this is?" Gu Ding couldn't understand why there were people with such thick skin.
Gu Ding's words immediately made people suspect that the young man's motives were impure from the very beginning.
"I don't know, do you?" the young man retorted, somewhat exasperated.
"Of course I know." Gu Ding flipped his hand, and an identical stone carving appeared in his hand. Only then did everyone in the Auction House realize that Gu Ding was the rightful owner of this stone carving.
The young man, having been publicly humiliated, could only sit down dejectedly, offering no further rebuttal.
The moment Gu Ding took out the stone carving, Gu Ding Granny Jian's soul power enveloped it again, scanning it but finding nothing particularly special. However, she was also sensible; she knew the carving wouldn't be of much use to her, since the other half was with Gu Ding. If there were any secrets, only Gu Ding could likely uncover them, so she immediately gave up the contest. Nevertheless, she became somewhat curious about Gu Ding's identity. What kind of person could have Peak-rank God running errands for them? Even she found it difficult to fathom.
Seeing that Gu Ding had taken out that stone carving, and that the stone carving on the auction stage had already been raised to the price of Four-Star Divine Object, most people couldn't afford to join in the fun and could only watch helplessly as Gu Ding took the stone carving into his possession.
After obtaining the stone carving, Gu Ding left alone, eager to see if his Old Dad had left him any message... (To be continued...)