Chapter 616: Aqua Auction Begins
The Aqua Palace was nearly three thousand miles away from Yaserius where the Voldigard castle was located. Normally it would take three to four days for a cultivator to reach the Aqua Palace. Since Eve was accompanying Michael with the four Soul Refining stage protectors, Michael, Gaya, and Nightmare flew to the Aqua Palace instead of simply teleporting. During these three days, Michael had a very peaceful life. He talked to Eve about the elves, how they operated, and the power dynamic in Awor. Michael brewed the cures to stockpile them whenever they stopped flying and erupted camps to rest. In order to avoid raising the empress's attention, the rival families simply chose to ignore the Voldigards until the auction ends.
Eventually, when the clouds covered the morning sun, hardly letting pass any sunrays, Michael and the rest arrived at the Aqua Palace. The people on the island gradually increased as more and more people arrived at the island by luxurious ships, airships, and simply flying like Michael. At the island, dozens of soldiers clad in metal armor along with cultivators wearing simple mage robes stood vigilantly to maintain order. Anyone who entered the city had to hand over ten thousand coins as the entry fee. Only in this way could they enter the Aqua Palace without being thrown out by the guards.
The Aqua Palace didn't offer VIP cards to many but only to prestigious and powerful people. Every time an auction begins, the soldiers were informed about the VIP card holders so they could provide the utmost respect and excellent service. Because of that, the soldiers instantly recognized Eve and allowed them to fly directly to the entrance instead of walking like the rest.
Although the nobles who witnessed the special treatment felt annoyed, they didn't dare to question the guards which was equivalent to questioning the Aqua Palace itself. It wasn't an understatement to say that Aqua Palace ran the auction with an iron fist. Any hiccups to the auction would directly result in the guards' termination. Sometimes they would lose jobs and sometimes they would lose their lives. Hence, the guards watched everyone like hawks.
After entering the Palace, they saw glowing arrows in the air, leading the VIP guests towards their allocated rooms. A few people threw shocked glances at Eve but she ignored everyone. Michael noticed there wasn't a single one who greeted Eve with a friendly smile. In fact, they didn't even bother to glance at Nightmare or Michael. Since Michael and the group arrived at the palace early, they didn't meet other VIP guests on their way to the second floor.
Because of Eve and her connection, the auction token he received from the Alchemy guild became a waste. Instead of using his token, he could now use Eve's VIP card to bid on the items. After taking their seats on the comfy sofas, Michael stared at the stadium outside. It reminded him of the football stadiums on the earth. Only this was several times bigger and grander than them.
They all witnessed the stadium getting filled with people rapidly in silence. Michael was actually shocked to see the thousands of nobles in one place. He knew the Aqua Palace must have earned millions just by the entry fee alone. It took the stadium an hour to get completely packed with people. The atmosphere outside was like a beehive but inside, they didn't hear a word. The VIP rooms had special runes that filtered most of the undistinguishable chit-chatter to prove a serene environment for the VIPs.
Looking at the auction house, a sense of nostalgia hit Michael. It wasn't long ago when he visited the Phoenix manor to attend an auction. At that time, he wasn't even a Core Formation cultivator. He remembered how he bought a teleportation scroll to escape Lord Julius. But now that he thought about everything, he couldn't help smiling. In just eighteen months, he went from running away from an auction to getting VIP treatment from the biggest auction houses in the world.
Outside the Aqua Palace, many nobles gathered outside in a long line to enter the auction house. As time went by, several luxurious airships appeared above the island. One of them was painted in crimson red and black. If Michael was outside, he would compare the airship with the zeppelin. But again, he would be more furious than curious. Because the ship had the emblem of Kingdom Thusia. Several figures clad in fiery robes flew out of the zeppelin and directly entered the palace from above. Just like Michael and his group, they followed the arrows to reach their VIP rooms. Without having an idea that his sworn enemies were sitting next to his room, Michael sat on the sofa, enjoying the orange juice offered by the Aqua Palace with Eve, Gaya, and Nightmare.
At the moment, the stadium was completely packed with people including the VIP rooms. The Aqua Palace's marketing caused the auction to be one of the biggest auctions in the last decade. Because Michael spent his time brewing potions and Gaya spent her time cultivating, they didn't know much about the items which were to appear in the auction.
They would have bothered to care if they had enough coins to afford the items. But, as far as they were concerned, they would be lucky to buy something in the auction for the coins they had. After all, twenty million was pocket change for the nobles and VIPs in Awor.
"How much do you think we will make by auctioning the cure?" asked Nightmare, breaking the silence in the room.
"Zero coins," Gaya sighed. Although they traded the cure for promotion, she still felt terrible about losing all those coins.
"Okay let me rephrase my question. How much do you think our cure will go for?" asked Nightmare.
"Five million, simple," Gaya didn't even take a few seconds to think about it. She could bet on her life that the cure would go for at least five million gold coins. There was not a shred of doubt in her mind the nobles would buy the cure just to study it so they could mass produce it for themselves.
"Five million? I think it would go for more. Especially now the molten plague has spread to the nearby kingdoms," said Eve.
Eve still was in shock at what Filvendor and his family had done to her. So unlike Jennefer, Eve couldn't care less about a few nobles in the nearby kingdoms succumbing to the plague. To be honest, Eve's mind was a boggle as she couldn't figure out her feelings. A part of her sought revenge on the elves, but the other wanted to forgive and forget.
Because of this, she occupied her mind with other things such as training, cultivating, and of course, spending time with her new best friends. With Michael and Gaya's guidance, Eve had already begun to come up with ideas to lead the Voldigards better than her father.
However, almost sixty percent of the remaining elders supported Jennifer, but fortunately, she rejected the offer to lead the family without a single thought. Moreover, she named Eve as the better suited to lead the family, not her. Michael was glad Jennifer didn't turn out to be yet another cringe girl who would eventually end up as his enemy. Although Jennifer disliked the idea of waiting till the molten plague spread across the continent, she didn't question Michael or Gaya. On the contrary, despite everything, Jennifer felt grateful to them. If it wasn't for Ghost, she wouldn't be alive to complain.
"Good," Gaya grinned.
"I would be more glad if the empress herself got sick with the plague," Gaya thought to herself but didn't dare to speak these words out loud.
On the other hand, Michael wondered whether the Thusians would attend the auction or not. After all, they were at war with many kingdoms at once. To this moment, he had no idea that several elders and a minister in Thusia were sitting just next door, having quite a chat with some elders.
"What's taking them so long?" Nightmare couldn't help asking after looking at the crowded stadium. There wasn't a single seat left empty but still, they didn't start the auction. So Nightmare wondered what was keeping the Aqua Palace from starting the auction.
He particularly looked at Eve for an answer, but she had none. But when she was about to say she didn't know the reason, they all had a thunderclap resonating throughout the arena. The entire stadium became death silent following the thunderclap. They all looked around to see what was happening. Some thought the auction was about to begin but people like Eve who attended auctions before knew it wasn't the case.
A few seconds later, a bright golden light appeared from the sky and landed right in the stadium's center. The bright golden light radiated a warmth that everyone in the stadium, including Michael felt. Because of his X-ray vision, Michael was able to see a man standing in the golden light.
To Michael's surprise, the man was also a Fusion Stage cultivator who was just one level away from reaching the Half Immortal Stage. Michael slightly moved forward, focusing on the man. Whoever it was, the man loved theatrics. He could have entered the place through the VIP channel, but he chose to enter through the open space above the stadium. The man loved heroic entrances.
The golden light enveloped the man for another minute or two until it gradually faded away. Only then could everyone see the man who had just arrived.
"It's the golden prince!" someone from the crowd shouted without realizing the stadium had grown silent.
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