The auction for the Fountain of Life had drawn thousands of groups representing various races and factions. The reason it had ended with them joining forces into three sides was entirely because the alien races had made the first move.
The alien races had none of Humanity's tangled schemes. They only wanted to get the Fountain of Life, but none of them could afford it individually with the precious metals they had on hand, so they simply joined forces.
How could any single human faction possibly compete with the combined alien races? They had no choice. After countless secret exchanges in a short time, they reached a consensus, and the auction ended up with three competing sides.
By now, the side led by Empress Tianhou, a native faction of Tianyuan Star, had offered six hundred and eighty jin of Earth Mother Origin Magnetic Iron, six hundred and fifty jin of Void Divine Iron, seven hundred and ten jin of Illusion Extinguishing Gold Sand, six hundred and five jin of Great Virtue Dragon Pattern Gold, and a combined total of tens of millions of jin of dozens of other precious metals.
The side formed by Humanity's extraterritorial factions had offered a six-hundred-and-ninety-jin fragment of a Life Tree that had lost its vitality, seven hundred and twenty jin of God-Slaying Gold, and over a hundred million jin of other precious metals.
The alien races had offered eight hundred and thirty jin of Azure Water Flowing Iron, one thousand and fifty jin of Celestial Star Gold, and hundreds of other precious metals totaling more than a billion jin.
By now, the offers from all three sides had reached their limits. Raising them further would be extremely difficult and would truly wound them deeply. Only obtaining the Fountain of Life could make up for