The Highest Bounty

The man in the next stall was the beef-faced man who queued in line in front of Gu Ding earlier at the reception. He recognized Gu Ding instantly.

Gu Ding lowered his head to look at his stall. It turned out that the ax was quoted as “no value” by the appraiser robot at the reception earlier.

“Did he really think he was going to get a decent sum of money for his ax?” Gu Ding did not understand. He had the impression that the man was deliberately there to cause trouble. However, he had set up a stall in the tower and the tower charged a stall fee daily.

“Hey, young man. Don"t leave!” Gu Ding stopped in front of his stall for a moment before turning around for the next stall, but the man yelled at him.

“What"s the matter?” Gu Ding turned his head around, feeling confused.

“I just wanted to ask whether your item was also deemed as worthless.”

“There was no problem with my appraisal.” Gu Ding shook his head. He actually wanted to tell him that it was not an issue with the appraiser robot but rather with his axe, but he held back.

“How can that be?” The man looked at his ax in disbelief. “It was inherited from my ancestors; how could it be worthless?”

“Neptune, the appraiser robot can"t be wrong in this, right? Have you seen his ax?” Gu Ding could not resist asking.

“I"ve briefly scanned his ax and couldn"t find anything special about it. I can see the materials of each part clearly, including the structural alignment of each material. Additionally, the workmans.h.i.+p of this ax is average.” Neptune"s evaluation was not very satisfactory. “His elders probably have him fooled since he was a child, and he"s still in the dark about it.”

“Grandpa clearly said one of our ancestors slaughtered a dragon with the ax…” Neptune heard the man"s mutterings clearly.

Gu Ding was about to leave but Neptune yelled, “Gu Ding, hold on. Pick up the ax so I can scan it better.

Gu Ding was a little confused, but he turned around and asked the man, “Can I take a look at it?”

“Do you want to buy it?” The man stopped muttering and looked at Gu Ding in surprise as he had seemed visibly uninterested up to this point.

“I just want to take a look at it.” Gu Ding felt that even if Neptune scanned for a second time, the result would still be the same. However, he still went with Neptune"s request and picked up the ax. It was heavy but Gu Ding felt nothing else.

He carefully examined the ax in his hands. The handle was made of ferrous metal and the blade was rusty. The rust made Gu Ding furrow his eyebrows.

Noticing Gu Ding"s expression, the man quickly explained, “I can"t get rid of the rust stains. I"ve tried a lot of cleaning agents, but to no avail.”

A moment later, Gu Ding heard Neptune"s panicked voice. “Gu Ding, buy it! I couldn"t have been more wrong about it. We have something good on our hands!”

Gu Ding calmly reached over to touch at the rust stains, none of it fell off. “How much are you selling this ax for?”

“Ten billion Universe Credits!” Gu Ding was speechless when the man quoted the price.

When he heard ten billion, he thought he was for sure pulling his leg. He never thought he would ask for ten billion Universe Credits. However, by the looks of it, he was not joking. What surprised Gu Ding was that Neptune remained silent when he heard about the price.

“Since you"ve put it at this price, you must be reluctant on selling it, right?” Gu Ding squinted at him.

“I have no say in this. Before my grandpa pa.s.sed away, he told me that if I ever lost the family fortune and had no choice but to sell the ax, that I should sell it for at least ten billion Universe Credits. He even made me sign some sort of spiritual contract. If I sold it for less than ten billion Universe Credits, I"ll be cursed with one hundred years of bad luck…”

After hearing this, Gu Ding chose to bite his tongue and wait for Neptune"s reply.

“This worth more than that Witch Tribe staff of yours. It"d be considered cheap at ten billion Universe Credits.” After being silent for a while, Neptune"s reply surprised Gu Ding. “The curse he mentioned appears to be true. I"ve scanned his body and found traces of cursing. Special curses that bring you bad luck do exist.”

“I don"t think you can get it sold at that price.” What Gu Ding said was also directed at Neptune. “When the auction is over, there should be fewer buyers here. You can talk to me again if you haven"t sold it.”

When Gu Ding finished, he turned around and walked away. He was no longer in the mood to shop and immediately left the tower.

Once they were out of the tower, Gu Ding asked, “What exactly is that ax?”

“The owner of the ax should be a spirit. Unlike the Witch Tribe staff, this ax is a close combat weapon and is stained in dragon blood. The ax itself is under a seal, and the remaining dragon blood concealed its traces. That"s why I wasn"t able to notice the abnormality in the ax earlier. The rust spots you saw were traces of the dragon"s blood.” Neptune"s explanation caught Gu Ding by surprise.

“Did dragons really exist? I thought they were mythological creatures.” Gu Ding could not help asking.

“Dragons were one of the earliest intelligent creatures to exist in Cosmic Sea. Not only did they possess intelligence that was comparable to modern day humans. They were also born with great powers. Once a true dragon reaches maturity, they"ll attain powers comparable to the spirits. They were the most active in the Ancient Age, almost dominating the whole era. The entire Cosmic Sea was their kingdom, but they failed to escape the catastrophe brought by the changing times. The entire race was almost wiped out with only a few that survived…”

Gu Ding was slightly distracted as he heard Neptune"s story. He could hardly imagine the extinction of such a powerful species.

“The main reason why I asked you to buy the ax was not because of the ax itself, but rather the dragon blood. Through the remaining bloodstains, I should be able to study the characteristics of the dragons" gene chain. It will be helpful for your future evolution. If there is enough genetic information, I might even be able to clone a dragon. Of course, there"s no way to achieve this in a short window of time.”

“As for the ax, once you"re strong enough, you can erase the original owner"s remaining will to battle and refine it. It"s significantly more valuable than the Witch Tribe staff.” Neptune had calculated everything.

However, Gu Ding thought of a practical problem. “I think if the curse the man mentioned was real, he"d probably be unwilling to reduce the price. Therefore, the biggest problem right now is that we don"t have enough money for it.”

Neptune was silent for a while after hearing Gu Ding"s query. He then came up with an idea. “What if we sold the Witch Tribe staff? It"s useless anyway.”