A Hundred and Thirty Billion for Junk? Interesting.

Azure Dragon was soon taken away, but Du Ke remained in his seat.

Though he had less than ten billion left, it was more than enough to bid on a few ordinary auction items.

Of course, the most important reason he stayed was to give Xin Lan a hard time.

That bitch had made him waste ten billion star coins, and he was determined to make her bleed money too.

But he waited and waited, until the auction had reached its final showpiece, and Xin Lan still hadn't placed another bid.

It was as though she had shown up for no other reason than to give him a hard time.

The thought made Du Ke's face twist with rage.

Unfortunately, buyers were forbidden from harming one another at the auction, so no matter how angry he was, he could only swallow it.

"Today's auction is almost over, but I'm sure everyone still wants more, and some of you haven't managed to bid on the goods you had your eye on. So now, let's bring out our final showpiece!"

The man in the tailcoat was grinning from ear to ear. As he excitedly ordered the last cage to be pushed onto the stage, he offered a mysterious warning.

"However, before we lift the red cloth, I must remind everyone that its power is not to be underestimated. If any sentinels present have an excessively high Rampage Level or a mental power level below S-rank, please be sure to close your eyes or leave the venue, because if you happen to meet its eyes, you might die..."

He gave the buyers below plenty of time to think, while the ominous warning made the final item even more enticing.

Everyone was curious, and these psychopaths were especially so.

Thus, even knowing they might die, only a handful of people left. Everyone else shouted at the stage to hurry up and begin, their faces flushed.

The man in the tailcoat wasted no more time. Smiling, he pulled off the red cloth in one swift motion, revealing a nine-tailed fox lying asleep in the cage. Its body was pure white, without a trace of another color.

"!"

A creature so pure and white didn't look like an aberrant species at all. It looked more like...

The buyers' fanatical expressions froze for an instant. The next second, the clamor that erupted was louder than ever before.

The man in the tailcoat hadn't even announced the starting price, and the nine-tailed fox hadn't opened its eyes, but they were already impatiently shouting out the highest prices they could afford, each trying to beat the others.

Before the bidding had officially begun, the nine-tailed fox's price had already soared to twenty billion.

Xin Lan thought with a blank face, Fucking idiots.

That was no way to spend money, even if they were rich. Weren't they just letting the man in the tailcoat play them?

He would definitely seize the opportunity to set an even higher price!

Sure enough, once everyone had more or less finished competing, the man in the tailcoat took the highest price he'd heard as the starting bid, then listened with a smile as they competed to raise it.

Heh, was this the power of a nine-tailed demon fox?

It could make people lose themselves without even using its ability. Choosing it as the final showpiece really was the best decision he had made today.

At last, the fanatical buyers, completely unaware that their minds had been bewitched, drove the price up to a record high of nearly fifty billion, even though some of them didn't actually have that much money.

By then, the buyers who couldn't afford it had finally shut up, and the few big shots left also seemed to have noticed that something was wrong.

They stopped bidding, but the nine-tailed fox's price had already soared to fifty billion.

Even though the nine-tailed fox's price was already twice Azure Dragon's, the man in the tailcoat still wasn't quite satisfied.

He pressed a button.

The nine-tailed fox, which had been sleeping in the cage all this time, woke instantly.

It slowly raised its head, and its tightly closed eyes quietly opened.

They were a pair of orange-red, vertical pupils, bewitching and seductive. After meeting those eyes for just one second, the crowd below went mad once again.

Some became infatuated for a brief moment before losing control of their Rampage Levels, undergoing mutations, and being carried away. Others fell completely into illusions, running around in a frenzy as though floating on air. Only a small number of people who had kept their Rampage Levels low and whose levels were relatively high had yet to be drawn into an illusion, but their increasingly heavy breathing and bloodshot eyes showed that they too had been bewitched.

"Fifty billion. Any more bids? The nine-tailed fox will belong to the highest bidder~"

At some point, the man in the tailcoat had put on a pair of sunglasses. Smiling at the chaotic scene of unrestrained madness below, he continued to egg them on.

Before long, the bewitched buyers doubled the price again. Several even declared that they would take the nine-tailed fox home, even if it meant losing everything they owned or going into debt.

Xin Lan watched it all calmly. Only when the price soared to a hundred and twenty billion did she finally manage to muster a little interest in the nine-tailed fox.

A demon fox that could bewitch people's minds?

Interesting.

Surely it couldn't be more powerful than her Mental Manipulation Interference Technique? She kind of wanted to test it.

"One hundred and thirty billion."

After hours of silence, the mysterious young woman finally made another move.

This time, instead of raising the bid by a hundred million at a time, she raised it by ten billion in one go.

That showed she really had been bidding on Azure Dragon just for fun, or had simply been targeting a certain someone.

Du Ke was furious. Though he didn't have anywhere near that much money, his mind was affected, and he couldn't think about any of that. He was going to go up against Xin Lan.

He would make Xin Lan bleed a fortune! She had to spend at least twice as much as he had!

"One hundred and thirty billion, one hundred million!"

Copying Xin Lan, he deliberately targeted her.

But Xin Lan merely glanced at him and fell silent.

The other buyers present really couldn't come up with that much money either, so they had no choice but to stop bidding.

And so Du Ke won the nine-tailed fox as well.

Du Ke: ?!

Wait, he hadn't wanted it! How had he ended up winning the bid?!

He didn't have the money to pay for it!

"Sir, please present your wristband for payment, and the nine-tailed fox can go home with you immediately."

With the auction successfully concluded, the man in the tailcoat came down to collect the payment himself.

But before the smile on his face had fully bloomed, he saw Du Ke collapse back into his chair, his face full of terror.

"I... I don't have that much money."

"Sir, you must be joking?"

A vein throbbed on the man in the tailcoat's forehead. Though he managed to keep smiling, a hint of killing intent had already appeared in his eyes.

Du Ke trembled at the sight of him and the high-level sentinels gathering around him. He hurriedly raised a hand and pointed at Xin Lan, who had left her seat and was preparing to depart.

"Give it to her! Give it to her! I didn't mean to bid on the nine-tailed fox! I was only bidding against her on purpose to make her pay more! I really didn't mean to win it! Go to her. She definitely wants the nine-tailed fox! She's rich, she can definitely afford a hundred and thirty billion."

He truly didn't dare offend the Freedom Auction House. After a moment's thought, he shamelessly added in a fawning tone,

"Don't worry, she'll definitely take the nine-tailed fox. Once she's paid, I'm willing to pay the auction house another billion star coins as compensation for my reckless bidding. What do you think... would that be all right?"

He kept rubbing his hands together, his body shaking so badly that he was almost on his knees.

Ulysses narrowed his eyes and looked at him for a while. After some thought, he went over and called out to Xin Lan, who was about to leave.

"Ma'am, please wait. You seemed very interested in the nine-tailed fox just now. The gentleman over there says he's willing to transfer it to you and pay you an additional billion star coins as compensation for his malicious bidding. Would you be willing to accept?"

For the sake of a hundred and thirty billion, Ulysses was willing to hand a billion star coins over to Xin Lan.

He could always get that money back from Du Ke.

Provided Xin Lan was willing to accept.

Du Ke thought the same.

Even if Xin Lan asked him for several billion more star coins, that would be fine, as long as she paid for the nine-tailed fox and took it away.

But Xin Lan had little interest. She walked straight on without even looking back.

"No. If someone else doesn't want it, neither do I. I'm not a junk collector."

Ulysses's smile froze at those words, and Du Ke's pupils trembled violently.

What did she mean, a junk collector?

How could a nine-tailed fox worth a hundred and thirty billion be called junk?!

He wanted to rush over and call Xin Lan back, but before he could open his mouth, the sentinels beside him pinned him face down on the ground.

"Very well. Take care, and we hope to see you again."

Ulysses smiled and bowed slightly to Xin Lan, but when he turned back to Du Ke, his formerly amiable gaze was instantly filled with killing intent.

He walked closer, smiling, and planted an expensive leather shoe directly on Du Ke's face. His tone was calm, but laced with extreme madness.

"Mr. Du Ke, surely you know what happens to buyers who bid maliciously and then can't pay?"

Remembering the scenes the auction house had shown in the past, Du Ke couldn't spare a thought for the shoe on his face. His whole body shook like a leaf.

"I... I can pay! I can sell my property and borrow money from friends. Give me some time, and I'll borrow it from them right away!"