Chapter 1231: Not Considered A Lie
Besides, they both had Sanctuary powerhouses to preside over the team and provide support. Hence, the real deciding factor of victory was still their respective military teams that would go toe-to-toe against each other on the battlefield. Besides, even the most elite legion was at best composed of Legendary powerhouse. Hence, the Mirage Sphere would be a great lethal weapon against enemies below the Sanctuary-realm.
That was precisely the reason that the major forces were vying endlessly for the Mirage Sphere. No one hoped for their enemies to get something that was powerful enough to be a deciding factor of a battle’s outcome.
“Felic, why don’t you buy it, then? Surely you can afford it, right?” Connoris couldn’t help but ask Lin Li again after figuring it out.
The Tower of Dusk had now developed to the point of being an extremely powerful force, and if they fought at full strength, they might not be inferior to the Sea Clans or human kingdoms. Hence, if Lin Li could get hold of the Mirage Sphere, he would definitely be able to increase the strength of the Tower of Dusk by another notch.
“What can I use that thing for? I’m just the president of a Guild of Magic, I don’t plan to unify and rule Anril,” Lin Li said half-jokingly. Of course, that was also a fact because Lin Li’s top considerations at the moment were: one, to search for the Immortal King, and get a clear idea of the mysteries of his transmigration to this world; and two, to think of ways to deal with the great calamity that Geresco had predicted.
Hence, given the level of battles that Lin Li would likely face, the Mirage Sphere wouldn’t be of much use to him. On the other hand, the Mage Legion of the Tower of Dusk had the Magic Net Array that Geresco had left behind, as there was the Sky Castle, which was a powerful battle weapon. There was no need for an illusion-creating item like the Mirage Sphere at all.
Besides, if Lin Li wanted to create illusions, he was fully capable of coming up with hundreds of ways to do so by putting his attainments in inscription to use. Moreover, the power of the illusions he could create using inscription would only be higher, if not simply equal to that of the Mirage Sphere. The power of the Mirage Sphere contained only a wisp of Sanctuary-level power, but Lin Li’s mageweaths had already reached the point of containing some Divine Power. In that case, there was no reason for him to spend so much money on an item that wouldn’t be of any use to him at all.
However, while the Mirage Sphere might be useless to Lin Li, it boasted several benefits that would be of great use to the major Sea Clans and the human kingdoms. Perhaps one of their goals in partic.i.p.ating in this auction was to clinch the Mirage Sphere, which could decide the outcome of a battle. After all, there probably wasn’t another inscriber in Anril who had reached the terrifying level that Lin Li was at.
“50,000,000 gold coins!”
During the brief period of time that Lin Li spent talking to Connoris, several bids had been placed, and at this point, Prince Johnathan of the Felan Kingdom had even called a bid of 50,000,000 gold coins.
As he called his bid, everyone in the hall immediately fell silent, and all that could be heard was the heavy breathing of the people present. 50,000,000 gold coins for a single item was a staggering price that had rarely appeared even during the past auctions of the Sea Market over the years. For a kingdom, 50,000,000 gold coins was a few years’ worth of tax revenue, and a kingdom without a large pool of financial reserves would probably go bankrupt after spending so much money in one go.
“d.a.m.n it, 50,000,000 gold coins? Is the Felan Kingdom ready to go bankrupt?!” Grina of the Giant Shark Clan exclaimed while breathing heavily and panting. Even for the Giant Shark Clan, 50,000,000 gold coins was a ma.s.sive figure. Furthermore, he had come to the auction this time with the intention to buy more than just the Mirage Sphere.
In fact, 50,000,000 gold coins was supposedly also a rather large sum for the Felan Kingdom, but after they’d overthrown the High Elves, they had reaped plenty of benefits from them. Although the Supreme Council had the largest slice of the pie, the Felan Kingdom had received a large share of it too, especially in terms of money, which generally referred to gold coins and gemstones. Since those things were not of much use to the Supreme Council, most of them were given to the Felan Kingdom. Hence, 50,000,000 gold coins was just peanuts to them now.
Of course, the Felan Kingdom was not the only wealthy kingdom. The Ledin Kingdom and Rotterdam Kingdom, as well as several other Sea Clans, would all have no issue with coming up with 50,000,000 gold coins. However, at this point, they also had no choice but to choose between 50,000,000 gold coins and the Mirage Sphere.
Prince Tory of the Rotterdam Kingdom let out a long sigh, and decided to give up on bidding. Prince Jeremiah of the Ledin Kingdom hesitated for a long time, but in the end, he nevertheless shook his head, and put down the bidding sign that he was holding. Grina of the Giant Shark Clan had already crushed the wine gla.s.s he was holding into pieces with his hand, but he still hadn’t placed a higher bid.
“51,000,000 gold coins,” said Manson, the prince of the Thunder Eel Clan, who tried his luck by raising the price by a million gold coins. An auction wasn’t a simple compet.i.tion of who had more money. Instead, it also involved psychological warfare and mind games where lots of strategic thinking was involved when making purchases.
There were more than just one or two superb items to be sold at the auction. No matter how wealthy one might be, they couldn’t possibly buy all the good items. Besides, there was a stiff compet.i.tion going on, and the price wasn’t fixed, but entirely dependent on the bidders. Hence, it wasn’t a wise choice to blow all of one’s money on a single item unless they weren’t planning to buy anything else later on in the auction.
The price of 51,000,000 gold coins that Manson offered had already exceeded the amount of money that the Thunder Eel Clan had planned to spend on the Mirage Sphere. An extra million might not affect their plan much, but if the Felan Kingdom continued to increase the bid, they would have no choice but to give up.
Manson refused to give up. After all, the power of the Mirage Sphere was still very important for the Thunder Eel Clan. Although their clan was powerful, they had a fatal flaw: they would have a hard time retaliating once their battle formation was breached. If they could have the protection of the illusions created by the Mirage Sphere, their mages would enjoy an additional layer of protection. Even if the Giant Shark Knights invaded their battle formation, they could still deal with it with ease.
“51,000,000 gold coins… Is there anyone else who would like to offer a higher price? 51,000,000 gold coins, going once,” Grand Duke Vidi said as he looked around the venue. Seeing that there was complete silence, he began to prepare to close the bid.
However, before Grand Duke Vidi could call the second time, a voice came out from the private room where the people of the Felan Kingdom were in, causing a huge uproar in the venue again.
“53,000,000 gold coins!”
Prince Jonathan’s voice filled the air in the auction hall and immediately caused an uproar, just like a boulder thrown into water. Although he had only increased the bid price by another 2,000,000 gold coins, it showed his strong determination to get hold of the Mirage Sphere. From this point alone, the crowd could already predict that Johnathan would more likely than not continue to bid for it if someone placed a higher bid.
Manson of the Thunder Eel Clan was shaking his head slightly, thinking to himself that he had no choice but to give up the Mirage Sphere. Although the Mirage Sphere would be very useful to the Thunder Eel Clan, it wasn’t attractive enough for him to want to put everything he had on the line just to acquire it. However, the Felan Kingdom was obviously bent on seizing it. If they continued to bid against each other, the price might exceed 60 or even 70 million gold coins, which wouldn’t be cost-effective, and might even be a huge loss.
After calling thrice, Grand Duke Vidi lowered the wooden hammer in his hand with a loud thud to complete the auction for the exorbitantly expensive Mirage Sphere. Everyone watched with regret and other complex emotions in their eyes as the staff of the auction carried the ma.s.sive Mirage Sphere away. They could imagine that the Mirage Sphere would soon belong to the Felan Kingdom.
However, for the many Sea Clans, it wasn’t too terrible of a thing that the Felan Kingdom had won the auction for the Mirage Sphere. After all, the Felan Kingdom was not only a continental country, but also a kingdom with no forces at sea. Even if they had a powerful weapon like the Mirage Sphere, it wouldn’t have much of an impact on the Sea Clans.
The only ones who had to worry about the rise in the Felan Kingdom’s power were the Ledin Kingdom and the Rotterdam Kingdom, especially since there had always been a major conflict between the Felan Kingdom and the Ledin Kingdom. G.o.d knew when the two kingdoms would go to war. Although Prince Jeremiah was a spoiled n.o.ble, he could still think of the issues that would entail. Hence, he regretted not making up his mind to try bidding for the Mirage Sphere.
The Mirage Sphere was delivered away from the stage for the handover to be completed, while the auction continued to proceed under Grand Duke Vidi’s presidency. At this time, there was a knock on the door of the private room that Lin Li was in. After gaining Lin Li’s permission, Prince Jonathan walked in with two followers by his side.
“Prince Jonathan, congratulations on winning the Mirage Sphere and having your wishes fulfilled,” Lin Li said with a smile as he stood up and motioned Prince Jonathan to take his seat.
However, Prince Jonathan’s face did not seem to be elated. After taking his seat, Johnathan said, “President Felic, I know your character, so I won’t beat around the bush. I came here this time because I have a favor to ask of you.”
Although Prince Jonathan didn’t have much contact with Lin Li, they were both still from Anril, after all, and he had a good understanding of Lin Li’s character. Hence, after he entered, he didn’t bother saying any pleasantries, and simply cut straight to the chase about his purpose of visit.
“You’re being too polite, Prince Johnathan, we’ve been cooperating closely, and you’re making us seem distant by saying that. Feel free to let me know what I can help you with. If it’s within my means, I will naturally not decline,” Lin Li said. He wasn’t being polite. The Tower of Dusk and the Felan Kingdom had long been in a business relationship where the Felan Kingdom was one of the major customers of the Tower of Dusk for potions, weapons, and equipment. Although they weren’t on extremely good terms, there at least hadn’t been any obvious conflicts between them.
“Well, President Felic, I’m sure you’re aware that we’ve just bought the Mirage Sphere. In fact, this was one of my main goals when I decided to partic.i.p.ate in this auction. However, I still need to pair the Mirage Sphere with some special mageweaths in order to fully exert its power, otherwise this thing will only be a decorative ornament. President Felic, since you’re now the fourth arbitrator of the Supreme Council, I’d like to seek your help in inviting a few Masters of Inscription from the Supreme Council.” Prince Jonathan didn’t know how incredible Lin Li’s attainments in inscription were, so he just hoped that Lin Li could use his status as an arbitrator to help them invite a few Masters of Inscription from the Supreme Council.
“Oh?” Lin Li froze for a moment before saying with a smile, “Prince Jonathan, you should know that I’ve only recently become the fourth arbitrator, and given the characters of the Masters of Inscription, I doubt they’d do me the favor. However, I’ll take note of this and ask them for help, but if they do not wish to grant me the request, I can’t force them to do anything. Please don’t carry high hopes.”
Lin Li wasn’t lying, because inscribers held extremely high status in Anril. If Mages were compared to the cla.s.s of n.o.bles, inscribers would be the n.o.bles of the n.o.bles. In the Supreme Council, inscribers similarly enjoyed extremely high status, and even Andoine, the chairman of the Supreme Council, might not be able to demand that the elderly inscribers comply. Although they might not necessarily disobey the three arbitrators, the inscribers might not be willing to obey the commands of Lin Li, the newly minted fourth arbitrator.
Prince Johnathan naturally understood the rules; hence, he wasn’t disappointed by Lin Li’s vague answer. However, he believed that Lin Li’s words should hold some weight because he was still the fourth arbitrator no matter what. Besides, he wouldn’t freeload off of the inscribers, either. He just needed a middleman to help him contact them.
Seeing that Lin Li agreed to his request, Prince Jonathan was sensible enough not to impose on him any further as he stood up to leave the private room.
After Prince Jonathan left, Connoris burst into laughter, and mockingly said, “He asked you to help him engage the help of the inscribers, but little does he know that a Guru of Inscription was actually seated right in front of him. So, what do you plan to do? Are you going to help him yourself, or are you really going to let those few mediocre inscribers of the Supreme Council help him?”
If those Masters of Inscription of the Supreme Council were to find out that they had been called mediocre, they would probably fly into a rage and leave. For instance, Master Moke who drew mageweaths for the Tower of Dusk back then was incredibly arrogant, and had his nose high up in the air. If Lin Li hadn’t revealed some of his abilities, Master Moke would’ve probably still been unaware of where he stood compared to Lin Li.
“I’ll think about it when the time comes. Anyway, he just wants to stimulate the power of the Mirage Sphere. That doesn’t require an overly complicated mageweath, those few inscribers of the Supreme Council should be able to cope with it,” Lin Li said nonchalantly. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to help Jonathan, but, after all, the friendship between the Felan Kingdom and the Tower of Dusk wasn’t that strong. Besides, Jonathan might not believe Lin Li if the latter said that he could draw him a mageweath. Hence, there was no point in wasting his effort on doing that.
After Lin Li had some small talk with Connoris, another auction item was brought to the stage, and Grand Duke Vidi reached out to remove the red cloth, unveiling the painting beneath it. This time, the people present were a little puzzled. Although this piece of art also had the ability to make others comprehend laws, the comparative effect didn’t seem obvious, so it was clearly not worthy of being at such an auction.
“This painting is a gift to the Gilded Kingdom by the Octopus Clan, and was also created by Heldanos, the Legendary Master of the Octopus Clan.” In fact, even Grand Duke Vidi himself couldn’t comprehend why Bradlor and the others had decided to put this item up for auction, which he felt was absurd. Not to mention the strain that doing so might put on the diplomatic ties with the Octopus Clan, the value of the painting alone wasn’t enough to fetch a high price at the auction.