Chapter 490 The Grand Auction (part-2)
First stage: Regular Auction
The auction starts with displaying items of platinum grade. Everyone should bid for the items and win them; very simple.
However, the key here is the fact that every time, exactly 250 items are displayed for the auction.
Hence, one should really focus on money management. As a matter of fact, every time, more than half of them end up being taken away.
Then, it goes into the second stage: Challenge. This is a stage where experts will get an opportunity to display their skills and win rewards.
The second stage of this auction has ten challenge rounds, with each round offering a different type of reward.
The bidders simply have to bid for the challenge and send out their fighters to win against the opponent. The final stage: Royal Auction
This one is also similar to the first stage, but the items displayed will be at least in semi-divine grade. And unlike in the first stage, there is no fixed number. It could be anywhere from a minimum of 10 to a maximum of 25. However, there is a guarantee of atleast three divine grade items.
Coming to the rules of the auction, it is as follows.
1) All bids and transactions will be conducted in gold coins.
2) If there is an insufficient number of gold coins, then, the winner could also make the transaction with high-quality ether crystals. The exchange rate is 500 gold coins per 1 gm (5 carat). Any crystal below 1 gm is not valid for the transaction.
3) The guests could also use items of platinum and above grade if there is an insufficient number of gold coins. However, their monetary value remains fixed regardless of their capabilities. The Exchange rate is:
Platinum grade: 100,000 gold coins. Semi-divine: 1,000,000 gold coins. Divine items:
Earth grade: 10,000,000 gold coins
Heaven grade: 100,000,000 gold coins
Void grade: 5 billion
4) After winning the bid, if the payment cannot be made within 5 minutes, the participant will receive a warning, and the bidding will continue. Those who receive two such warnings will no longer be allowed to participate in the auction. After a successful bid turns out to be a failure, if no bidders show interest further, then, the second highest bidder will automatically become the winner. If the second highest bidder also refuses to pay it, then, the item will be taken off from the auction.
5) There\'s a buyout price for every auctioned item, below divine items. It is 100 times whatever the listed price is. As long as the leading bid price doesn\'t exceed 20 times the listed price, any participant could call for the buyout and acquire the item directly.
6) All bidders are given a special bidding paddle with their room number engraved on them. One just needed to pour their ether energy into it and the engraved number will glow for three seconds. However, as all paddles are connected to each other, only one will glow at one time. This will show the spectators as well as the auctioneers who the leading bidder is.
7) The auctioneer has the right to withdraw any item from the auction at any moment as long as the leading bid price doesn\'t exceed 2 times its listed price.
8) The highest bidder will be declared the winner as long as no other bid happens during the next 60 seconds.
9) Last but not least, the one who won the item could either send one to the auction platform to pay money directly to the Auctioneer and collect it right away or pay it to the attendant and collect it after the auction has ended.
"A kind reminder for the spectators who are not part of the auction, please maintain silence while the auction rounds are going on.
Now that the rules are being made clear, without any further ado, let us proceed with the first stage of the auction." As Wang Zhongwei finished with the rules, Xin Rui poured her ether energy into the storage ring on her index finger and took out a statue of a 5ft tall and 9ft long dragon, placing it on the floor.
"The Statue of Dragon Deity, Agaros," Xin Rui took control of the auction as she introduced the item. "Made by the grandmaster craftsman Zhi Haoran, this platinum-grade item will grant an aura in ten meters of surroundings which will make you an ally of any beast of dragon species as long as they are king and below grade. As long as this statue stays in your vicinity, your chances of forming a contract with a dragon will also rise significantly. The listed price of this item is 100,000 gold coins. The bidding raise will be 1000 gold coins. Any bidders?"
Even when she wasn\'t giving any warnings and was merely introducing the items, her voice sounded so cold that it sent shivers down the spine for atleast 80% of the spectators.
For a moment, Mark felt as if the entire coliseum turned gloomy for a moment. He couldn\'t help but narrow his eyes, activating his Eyes of God and inspecting the product.
While the details are exactly how Xin Rui has described, Mark\'s attention was piqued by the person itself when he casually scanned her identity too.
Xin Rui
Age: 36
Species: Human/Dragon
Rank: 8-circle (elementary stage)
Attribute: Fire, Ice
Bloodline: Red Dragon
Spirit Path: Swordsman
Description: Xin Rui is the daughter of Lan Haoyu and the Dragon Empire\'s princess, Tang Yejin. After her parents were publicly executed by the imperial court on the grounds of a forbidden relationship between an imperial princess and the imperial preceptor (her teacher), the Void Temple took her in.
Note: She practices Void Temple\'s Art of Succubus and mastered it. Under certain conditions, she could entirely steal her partner\'s life force as well as ether particles and make it her own. n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om
**
"I guess I need to meet this lady after all," Mark muttered under his breath as he let out a smile.
"Hmm?" Everyone in the room abruptly turned their heads toward Mark.
"Seriously?" Sylvandria scoffed at him, looking at him in a bit of disgust. She was the first to react by scolding him right away without having any reservations, "You have three women waiting for the marriage. You are eyeing another one, already? Aren\'t you getting too lustful?"
"Woah, she\'s bold," thought Steve and James at the same time. They remembered how respectful she was with their father back in the Elven world. Even until a while ago, she was quite obedient. Why did her character suddenly change?
The teenage supreme beings from the future couldn\'t help but wonder.
As for the two ladies, they thought that she could be acting this way because of the long age gap and her peak-9-circle realm cultivation. Little did they know that she was referring to the third woman to herself, not Xie Mei.
Only Mark understood what she truly meant and why she was acting this way.
Since she is basically his fiancée, albeit a secret one, she still has the right to speak to him in such a way and he cannot dismiss her like some kind of patriarchal husband. Not to mention, they spent so many days as a husband and wife in the illusionary realm and those memories never disappeared from either of their minds.
Hence, he kept his calm and gave clarification, not only for her but also for the other two, "I\'m not interested in her that way, Ms. Silverleaf. She appears to have some relation with a former member of Lan Sect, I suspect. We\'ll get to know the details when we meet."
"Lan Sect?" Sylvandria wanted to ask what Mark had anything to do with this sect, but she kept her thoughts to herself for the moment and decided to ask him later on.
Meanwhile, a bidding war was started between the guests.
Even though the bidding raise was just 1000 gold coins for every bid, the highest running bid touched 1 million within a few minutes.
From there, the bidding raise was increased from 1000 to 10K per bid. Even then, the wealthy VIPs didn\'t stop. It wasn\'t until the leading bid price touched 2.8 million gold coins did the first bidding war slowed down and the bidders started to give up one after another. Mark never showed his interest in participating in the bid and Princess Shen Ling couldn\'t do it because of the intense bidding war. A platinum-grade item isn\'t worth of such value, or so she thought.
By the time it touched 4.1 million, only two remained. One is Rong Huang, the Lord of Reignar, the largest vassal state of the Dragon Empire, and the other is Tang Xin, a distant relative of the ruling dynasty but with the same surname and the leader of a mercenary group named Origin.
People thought that they would get to the next item, but didn\'t expect the war to get more intense between the two parties.