Chapter 1236: Loan
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
However, the Sea Serpents were the least powerful tribe among the seven overlords, and their sea region was not one that was rich in resources. It would be impossible for them to win the Heart of All Evil from the other overlords without breaking some bones.
“150,000,000 gold coins!” quoted Prince Cleve. This was a calculated move. He could tell that Falth had reached his limit, and Cleve was trying to eliminate Falth with the new price.
As expected, Falth’s expression changed upon hearing the new price. If the Siren Clan had been an inferior force, he would have threatened them with the status of the Sea Serpents like how he had done with the Bellerophons. Yet, he knew that the Sea Serpents could only subject themselves to the threat of the Siren Clan. After all, the two forces were starkly different from each other in their respective abilities.
“160,000,000 gold coins!” Another voice sounded from Octopus Clan’s compartment before Falth responded. The Octopus Clan was one of the richest among the seven overlords. They were reaping great revenue from their annual sales of magic scrolls.
The price raised by the Octopus Clan replaced Falth’s grave expression with one that screamed resignation. He plopped back into his seat. Although it was not impossible for him to offer this amount of gold coins, he was clear that the other party had not reached their limits. His effort to gather these gold coins would be in vain.
Just like what Falth thought, the price of the Heart of All Evil did not even stop at 160,000,000 gold coins. The value soon raced past the 200,000,000 mark as offered by the several overlords such as the Giant Shark and Octopus Clan. At this point, there were not many bidders left except the Siren Clan, Giant Shark Clan, and the Octopus Clan.
Of course, 200,000,000 was considered a large number to the three Sea Clans. The speed of the bidding also slowed down. It was beginning to only inch by the millions.
Lin Li originally had taken some interest in the Heart of All Evil. Yet, the absurdity of the price dissipated all that interest. Although he could afford the price, there was a question of whether it was a worthy investment.
The Heart of All Evil had two main uses: supplying an unlimited amount of mana and suppressing all forms of evil. To Lin Li, these weren’t important functions. He could easily use Sanctuary-level magic crystals to supply purer mana, and counter evil with the help of Holy Light and Gloomy Dark, the debris of the stars. His interest in the heart was purely out of a desire to study it. Lin Li certainly believed that it would not be worthy for him to spend such a fortune for it.
Having lost interest in the Heart of All Evil, Lin Li directed his attention to other places. It was then that he realized that the Bellerophon who had previously obtained the Coral Staff was nowhere to be found. This was not surprising for someone who obviously attended the auction for the staff. Now that he had acquired an item which many were vying for, it only made sense for him to take his leave as soon as possible.
As compared to the Heart of All Evil, Lin Li was more interested in the Bellerophons. Hence, he used his mental strength to reach the emba.s.sy to order Norfeller to secretly keep an eye on the Bellerophons.
Unlike the rest, Lin Li did not view the Bellerophons as weaklings, and thus he even had the intention to hire a group of Bellerophons. However, now that the Bellerophons had acquired the Coral Staff, Lin Li thought that it was only normal for the Bellerophons to take the chance to erase their tracks. Hence, Lin Li let Norfeller keep an eye on them to ensure that he could still find the Bellerophons after he completed his current plans.
After making the arrangement, Lin Li redirected his attention to the auction. The value of the Heart of All Evil had been raised to 230,000,000 gold coins by Prince Cleve from the Siren Clan. The Octopus Clan had withdrawn from the race. The only compet.i.tor of the Siren Clan was Grina from the Giant Shark Clan.
Grina did not raise his number plate immediately, but only did it after Grand Duke Vidi called the price twice to signal that he would like to increase the price by a million gold coins. Meanwhile, Zorro, one of his Four Divine Generals, appeared in Falth’s cabin.
It was obvious that Grina was stalling for time while he let Zorro bargain with Falth. After several rounds of bidding, Grina was very clear that he might not be as prepared as the Siren Clan in this auction. Hence, he s.h.i.+fted his focus onto Falth’s tens of millions of gold coins.
“You want to use the aquamarine veins in the eastern part of the Red Sea to exchange for all the gold coins in my hands?” asked Falth. Although he had a calm composure, Falth was deeply elated. He thought that this transaction would prevent him from leaving the auction empty-handed.
“No, it’s five years of mining rights!” Zorro emphasized expressionlessly as he took out a contract. The aquamarine veins in the eastern part of the Red Sea had ample resources, enough to last hundreds of years. It was not something that could be bought with tens of millions of gold coins. Even if it was only five years of mining rights, however, as long as one were to put in enough effort, the revenue to be gained would definitely be more than tens of millions of gold coins.
Falth knew the benefits very well. But, he was even clearer that the Giant Shark Clan needed his gold coins extremely urgently. Hence, he naturally hoped to use the chance to reap more benefits from the Giant Shark Clan.
“Well, you should know that we have yet to reach the finale of this auction, and that there is still going to be one last item. If I were to give you all my gold coins, the Sea Serpent would definitely suffer huge losses if the last item was something crucial to our development,” explained Falth slyly. He was really gleeful to be able to have an advantage over the Giant Shark Clan.
However, Zorro remained unaffected by his advancing of the price. “Well, then, Sir Falth, I wonder, what are your conditions? I also hope to remind you that I can easily find other interested dealers here. My master made you our first choice as he considered the good relations.h.i.+p between our clans. If your conditions are overly harsh, I will have to find someone else,” explained Zorro.
Hearing this, Falth was reminded that he shouldn’t be too demanding in his conditions. He was certain that he wouldn’t be the only one attracted to the deal. “Alright then, I want 10 years of mining rights and a guarantee that our deal will never be affected regardless of whether you have the last bid for the Heart of All Evil,” replied Falth after he heard the price of the heart being pushed to a new high.
“10 years is too much. At most seven years of mining rights,” a.s.serted Zorro with Grina’s bottom line. His words were very crisp and relayed with an unquestionable tone.
Although he was dissatisfied with Zorro’s att.i.tude, Falth knew that seven years of mining rights was a considerable benefit. Hence, Falth did not say anything else, and accepted the contract from Zorro. Before he signed on it, he edited the original contract to ensure that the deal would last for seven years and stay unaffected regardless of whether the Great Shark Clan won the bidding.
After completing the transaction with Falth, Zorro immediately returned to his cabin to report to Grina, who had been buying the time.
Upon receiving the news, Grina was invigorated, and changed his original strategy of raising the price by a million. He proceeded to raise the price by 20,000,000 gold coins, pus.h.i.+ng the price of the Heart of All Evil to 270,000,000 gold coins. As he did that, he was also implying to the Siren Clan that they had found external help.
Sure enough, the Siren Clan descended into a short period of silence after Grina added 20,000,000 gold coins to the bid. After all, the Siren Clan was going to reach their limits just when the Grina reached theirs. Now that Grina had found external support, it would be almost impossible for the Siren Clan to win if they continued to rely on themselves.
“I’m not sure who gave that kid more money. It seems like we would need to put in some effort in this bidding,” said Prince Cleve as he turned to look at his wife. He was not very worried about it.
Queen Halleleah smiled gently, and s.h.i.+fted her gaze to the Heart of All Evil that was on the stage. “I did not expect to see the heart here. Seems like our years of searching have not gone to waste. It is certainly worth to put in more effort to acquire it. However, I do not know whom has Grina found help from. Let’s ready ourselves as well,” she said.
Everyone in this auction venue had at least tens of millions of gold coins in their hands, while the seven overlords definitely had hundreds of millions of them. This auction would certainly not drain them dry. Hence, Queen Halleleah had to make some plans now. If not, it would be incredibly difficult for her to put her hands on the Heart of All Evil.
She knew she had to offer the best deal for not only others, but also something that would be reasonable for herself. Since everyone at the auction knew the Siren Clan needed money to compete in the bidding, they would certainly take the opportunity to suck the Sirens dry. If not, they would definitely be fools.
Grina from the Giant Shark Clan used seven years of mining rights to exchange for tens of millions of gold coins from Falth. Although Queen Halleleah and Prince Cleve did not know the details of the contract, they were certain that Grina had paid a hefty price for it. Hence, he was really wrecking his brain to think about an attractive offer.
The couple also had to consider another crucial matter—the reluctance of the other forces to offend the Giant Shark Clan while they lent their support to the Sirens. Even if they were not afraid to offend the Giant Shark Clan, most of them would definitely use it as an excuse to extort more benefits from the Sirens. Hence, it could be said that the Sirens had already been disadvantaged.
Halleleah and Cleve could not help but feel slightly helpless when they thought of that. Cleve only continued to increase the price by a million gold coins each time he heard Vidi’s voice. He was trying to stall for time as well.
This was contrasted by Grina’s enthusiasm. After the Sirens raised the price by 1,000,000 gold coins, he immediately raised his sign, and called out, “280,000,000 gold coins!”
“280,000,000 gold coins! The Giant Shark Clan has just raised the price to 280,000,000 gold coins! Is there anyone else who is willing to bid it at a higher price?” asked Grand Duke Vidi with great excitement. He could no longer suppress his emotions. It was an unprecedented value.
While Grand Duke Vidi was elated by the progress, it added more pressure to Halleleah and Cleve. Suddenly, a thought flashed across Cleve’s mind. “I have somebody in mind that we might be able to approach. This person has some tension with the Giant Shark Clan, but is fearless of them. It’s just that we do now have much interaction with him, so I’m not sure if he will want to lend us this favor,” shared Cleve.
Cleve’s words turned Halleleah’s frown upside down. “Might you be referring to President Felic, who was indifferent to Grina’s pride?” she asked knowingly.
“You’re right.” Prince Cleve nodded. Yet, he did not become more relaxed because of the mutual understanding. Instead, he started frowning. “Unfortunately, we are not familiar with him, and the last item of this auction has not yet appeared. I’m not sure if he would be willing to give up on his opportunity to render help to us,” continued Cleve.
“How can we be sure if we don’t try? We are looking for a fair deal,” a.s.sured Queen Halleleah. Although she knew that it might be difficult, she was willing to give it a go for the sake of the Heart of All Evil. Since it was going to be a fair deal, it did not matter whether they had a close-knitted relations.h.i.+p with Felic. The key was Felic’s boldness to go against the Giant Shark Clan.
Lin Li and Connoris were feeling a little bored sitting in their cabin. They were really not interested in the Heart of All Evil, but could only watch the two forces compete in the bidding. Then, they heard a knock at their door. Connoris went to the door, and saw Prince Cleve standing outside.
“President Felic, are you free to have a chat?” asked Prince Cleve. Although he looked ugly, Prince Cleve radiated a warm and affable aura. His voice could be considered hoa.r.s.e but also attractive.