Chapter 1240: Powerful Figure
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Noticing how sullen Bradlor’s face was, Prince Monterey felt extremely uncomfortable, but he had no choice but to persuade, “Your Majesty, things may not be as terrible as they seem. We should have faith in Grand Duke Vidi, and in… President Felic.”
When it came to having faith in Lin Li, Prince Monterey still couldn’t help but stutter. In fact, he wasn’t very certain about it, nor was he confident in Lin Li’s mageweath. After all, just like Bradlor, he was a layman who barely knew anything about inscription. He merely had a slight understanding of mageweaths because he usually came into contact with them. Hence, they could never guess what Grand Duke Vidi had in mind when he put the scroll up for auction, and whether the scroll was an impressive item.
While everyone was getting riled up and breaking into a commotion incited by Grina, Prince Cleve of the Siren Clan stood out, and said in a low voice, “Grina, you can’t make baseless claims just like that. I believe we all understand what Grand Duke Vidi’s reputation is like, and I’m sure he has his reasons for doing this. If there isn’t anything that you have to see to urgently, why don’t you guys sit down and hear him out?”
In the Endless Ocean, Prince Cliff’s reputation was on par with that of the Great Monarchs of the other Sea Clans, which was far beyond what Grina, the prince of the Giant Shark Clan, could compare to. Hence, after hearing Prince Cleve’s words, the crowd in the hall suddenly quieted down.
In fact, the greatest winner of this auction was undoubtedly the Siren Clan which had successfully won the auction for the Heart of All Evil. Now that Grina wanted to question the fairness of the auction, Prince Cleve of the Siren Clan naturally had to stand out to refute him.
In fact, Prince Cleve couldn’t figure out why Lin Li would put up such an item for auction, either, but having crossed paths with Lin Li once, he could sense that Lin Li wasn’t the type to fool around and pull a prank on others. Hence, he instinctively felt that the scroll probably wasn’t as simple as it seemed to be.
Of course, the Siren Clan managed to acquire the Heart of All Evil all because of Lin Li’s help. Not to mention that the magic scroll that hadn’t been fully exhibited yet, even if it was eventually proven that the scroll was nothing but a Gravity Mageweath, Cleve would never criticize Lin Li.
No matter what, Prince Cleve’s words still carried more weight than Grina’s. Even though the people were still in disdain of the Gravity Mageweath on the auction stage, they at least stopped clamoring about wanting to leave the auction, and no longer openly questioned the fairness of the auction.
“Hmph.” Grina humphed coldly, but he didn’t say anything. Instead, he returned to his seat furiously. Despite being extremely displeased with Prince Cleve, he dared not express his dissatisfaction too obviously. After all, Prince Cleve was just as authoritative as the Great Monarchs of the various Sea Clans of the Endless Ocean. No matter how arrogant Grina was, he wouldn’t dare to disregard or disrespect Prince Cleve.
Grand Duke Vidi, who was standing on the stage and showcasing the magic scroll, felt extremely grateful to Prince Cleve for calming the people down even though he knew that Prince Cleve wasn’t doing it for his sake. Of course, he couldn’t thank Cleve now, because the most important thing to do currently was to complete the task at hand.
Hence, while praying that the appraisal report was true, Grand Duke Vidi slowly unrolled the magic scroll in his hand again. Perhaps because of a lack of confidence in the magic scroll, Grand Duke Vidi revealed a quarter of the scroll this time, which was enough for the people to see a portion of the mageweath on it.
If it was really just a Gravity Mageweath, the power that was released would remain about the same even if it was fully unrolled. Hence, when Grand Duke Vidi unrolled the scroll, the crowd below the stage didn’t bother paying much attention. Although they had been persuaded by Prince Cleve to stay, they were all still chatting among themselves about other matters, and thus completely ignoring Grand Duke Vidi who was on the stage.
However, just when the crowd was unprepared, the dense force that was engulfing them suddenly became 100 times denser. Immediately afterwards, dense sounds of things breaking filled the hall. Under the oppression of the invisible force, everyone could feel a ma.s.sive force being imposed on their bodies all of a sudden, causing the chairs they were sitting on to be crushed forcibly.
Everyone felt that the bones in their own bodies seemed to be crackling under the ma.s.sive force that was threatening to crush them at any time. Those who were weaker were forced to sit on the ground and were rendered immobile. They even began to develop breathing difficulties.
Fortunately, all the defensive Magic Arrays in the auction hall had finally been stimulated. The pillars in the auction hall, which initially looked rather ordinary, seemed to have their facade removed immediately as they began glistening brightly. The golden rays of light that were being emitted from the pillars soon fused together and became one, protecting everyone in the venue.
At this moment, everyone in the venue finally heaved a sigh of relief, and those people who had been forced to sit on the ground finally got up from the ground clumsily too. They were initially feeling rather awkward, but when they saw that everyone else was in the same state, they felt much better, and soon looked at the auction stage in unison.
Even the weakest of those people was near the Legendary-level. Ordinary Gravity Mageweaths had no effect on them at all. In their opinion, this mageweath should probably be at the Master-level since it could make them feel so overwhelmed. If not, it almost reached it.
However, although the force made everyone feel rather disheveled and awkward, it was not powerful enough for them to take it seriously. After all, it was far from being comparable to the Heart of All Evil.
Moreover, after coming back to their senses, they were rather infuriated because they thought that Grand Duke Vidi had deliberately caused them to make fools of themselves. Otherwise, he would have warned them in advance. Of course, it didn’t occur to them that they probably wouldn’t have taken it seriously even if Grand Duke Vidi had given them a reminder beforehand.
“Grand Duke Vidi, don’t you think your approach is overboard?” someone questioned in exasperation. The guests were all dignified figures, and the embarra.s.sing slipup that just happened felt like an insult thrown in their faces. Even though they were facing the grand duke of the Gilded Kingdom, they couldn’t stomach it.
“Grand Duke Vidi, you must get things right. We respect you for your reputation as a merchant, but we’re not afraid of you at all!” someone barked, seemingly wanting to go on stage to settle scores with Grand Duke Vidi.
However, Grand Duke Vidi was also a little confused at this point as he stared at the wreckage below the stage while holding the scroll with trembling hands. It wasn’t that he had been frightened by the force of the scroll, but rather everything that had happened so far seemed to fit the description in the appraisal report very closely. Hence, he thought of the terrifying conclusion at the end of the report.
Of course, Grand Duke Vidi was still skeptical and doubtful of the terrifying conclusion at the end of the report. Despite hoping it to be true, his rationality repeatedly told him that it was impossible.
It was extremely lively in the auction venue, and it was certainly unprecedented. Although intense bidding sessions over popular items were commonplace during auctions, that would just be an issue between bidders.
However, the current dispute was between the host of the auction, Grand Duke Vidi, and the bidders, which was absolutely unprecedented. Grand Duke Vidi, who had become the common enemy of all the bidders, snapped back to his senses, and felt like crying when he heard the people berating him.
However, not all of them were blaming Grand Duke Vidi. Among the various bidders, there were quite a few human inscribers who were all looking at the scroll in Grand Duke Vidi’s hand in confusion.
Apart from the Octopus Clan, which was talented in the field of inscription, inscribers were very rare in Anril. However, all the top figures of the Endless Ocean were gathered at the auction, so of course there had to be a few human inscribers present among them. However, due to the limitation of talent, the level of those inscribers was not very high, and even the best among them hadn’t reached the threshold of the Master-level.
However, even an inscription apprentice knew that the power of a mageweath would be determined by and kept constant at the power of the inscriber at the time of the drawing, which was a common sense in inscription. Even if the mageweath was given a new mana source, the amount of mana that could be carried would remain the same, so the power that could be exerted naturally would not change.
However, the current situation was somewhat misaligned with the common knowledge and facts of inscription known to those inscribers at the auction. They noticed that the power of the magic scroll was constantly enhanced as Grand Duke Vidi unrolled it, which didn’t seem logical according to that common sense of inscription. They wondered, Could it be that there is some kind of mechanism set up in the magic scroll that’s specifically used to adjust the input of mana? Once the scroll is unrolled completely, what level will the mana reach?
As the prince of the Octopus Clan, there was no way Harquess wouldn’t have been able to see the details that those few human inscribers had noticed. In fact, when Grand Duke Vidi had just started to unroll the magic scroll that everyone thought was a Gravity Mageweath, Harquess had already sensed the peculiarity of the scroll.
In particular, when Harquess had felt the force that everyone merely thought was an enhanced gravitational force, he had already felt that something had been amiss. However, at that time, he’d only felt that the force had been a little strange, and he hadn’t dwelled further on it. After all, the knowledge in the field of inscription was vast and profound. Even though he was already a Master of Inscription, he didn’t dare to claim that he had mastered all the mageweaths below the Master-level.
However, after Grand Duke Vidi unrolled the magic scroll and the force became stronger, which led to the unusual phenomena, Harquess finally came to terms with the extraordinariness of Lin Li, the human inscriber who even the grand elder of his clan thought was an expert in inscription.
As the magic scroll was unrolled, the mageweath on it was revealed. Harquess immediately focused his attention on it. Despite being seated quite a distance from the stage, Harquess could still clearly see the portion of the mageweath that had been revealed.
Unfortunately, even after racking his brains, Harquess still couldn’t tell what kind of mageweath was drawn on the scroll.
“Felic, what’s the name of this magic scroll of yours?” Although Connoris seemed to be very confident in Lin Li, he actually only developed his faith in him based on his past experience and understanding of Lin Li.
After drawing the magic scroll, Lin Li simply brought it to the Gilded Kingdom for the auction without showing it to anyone. Hence, it was also Connoris’ first time sensing the power contained in the magic scroll. However, he was clueless as to what was contained in it.
Strictly speaking, the incidents that occurred in the hall were actually caused by Lin Li’s magic scroll. However, Lin Li was just sipping on some wine in the private room leisurely as if he didn’t care about what was going on outside at all. Anyway, it was the last auction item, and he couldn’t possibly bid for his own item. Hence, he couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to the auction anymore.
Hearing Connoris’ question, Lin Li swirled his wine gla.s.s gently and stared at the opulent color of the wine that was flowing down the inner surface of the gla.s.s. He calmly said, “Mount Tai!”
After hearing his answer, Connoris was stunned for a moment, but he soon began to frown. What’s Mount Tai? Despite being an ancient demon deity of Anril, he had never heard of such a thing before, but he could infer that it was some kind of mountain. However, he couldn’t figure out what a mountain had to do with a mageweath.
However, Lin Li didn’t explain further. Well, he couldn’t possibly say that the name originated from another world. Although given his current strength, he wouldn’t face any huge trouble even if he told others about his transmigration, he didn’t want to waste his precious time on answering such a pointless question.
Mount Tai is Mount Tai. Call it a hillbilly among nameless places that’s unheard of, or a mythical mountain that was destroyed. Whatever it is, it’s up to them to decipher it.
Seeing that Lin Li did not intend to explain further, Connoris stopped probing, and instead turned to look over at the auction stage to continue watching the show unfold.
“Grand Duke Vidi, are you still not embarra.s.sed enough? Hurry up and get rid of that junk for a few gold coins lest you continue making a fool out of yourself here,” Grina said scornfully. He had also been frightened by that force just now, but like most of the people there, he was clueless about inscriptions, and naturally didn’t think that there was anything strange about that matter just now.