The Highest Bounty

The trade had been quite an efficient process at the backstage of the auction. All it needed was a quick scan of the smart.w.a.tch for the bank transaction. Once the money has been successfully transferred, the items can be collected.

With the sword in hand, Biggie could not wait to pull it out of the sheath. The black-bodied sword looked eerily beautiful. Biggie gripped the handle with his right hand while his left hand gently caressed the blade. Faint whispering could be heard coming from the sword as if it was reacting to something.

Biggie closed his eyes. This sword gave him a special feeling as if the outside world did not exist. It felt like reality had s.h.i.+fted to a point where only he and his sword were left.

It was not long before a few strange memories made their way into Biggie"s mind. There were memories of Darkness"s previous masters. Within these memories were the many sword techniques used by them. This was the swordsmans.h.i.+p experience mentioned earlier. All previous masters were of gene levels that were Rank 12 and above. Some of them were even demiG.o.d level powerhouses.

These memories alone had brought Biggie"s understanding of swordsmans.h.i.+p to the next level in a matter of seconds.

Biggie had a revelation and learned the source of the sword"s curse. It was not a curse at all. When Darkness was first created, it had wielded a special ability – Regeneration.

The definition of Regeneration was to absorb a person"s life force and convert it into battle power. Darkness had been originally designed to absorb the opponent"s life force in exchange for enhancing its users" battle power, however, Darkness"s none of previous masters had been able to establish a soulful connection with the sword. They could not understand this ability and had ended under the a.s.sumption that it was a curse instead. This had resulted in Darkness absorbing life force without discrimination of friend or foe, turning it into an ominous sword.

Biggie placed the sword back into its sheath and opened his eyes. A strangely bright look flashed in his eyes. He hung Darkness on his waist. This 1.5-meter-long sword did not look out of place at all on his huge body.

“Biggie, don"t go using this sword so flippantly. Let"s put it into storage first,” Liliath felt uneasy about it.

“It"s fine. Darkness"s ability isn"t actually a curse, it has been misunderstood all this time. I"m able to control its ability. It won"t affect me at all,” Biggie explained.

Liliath was still not fully convinced. She wanted to continue talking him out of it, but Gu Ding shook his head at her.

Gu Ding had noticed the change in Biggie. As an outstandingly talented martial arts pract.i.tioner, he could sense Biggie was gaining something from the sword. That was why he had no doubts at all with what Biggie had said.

Neptune, however, was slightly surprised. “That"s strange. Something seems different about that sword, even something about Biggie feels off. Could it be that he hasn"t lost his ability nor his knife heart? If that"s the case, it would explain why he"s able to understand everything about the sword in an instant, even inheriting every legacy left behind by the sword"s previous masters…”

Neptune did not voice out these thoughts but was mumbling to itself in private.

“If Biggie thinks it"s not a problem, then it shouldn"t be a problem. He has never lied.” Gu Ding smiled at Liliath.

Biggie nodded at the side as well. “I"ll be fine. If there really is a problem with it, the first thing I"ll do is place it in storage.”

Liliath felt slightly better about it, but she continued to turn her face to the side and pout as she said, “Do whatever you want. You"re the one who will end up with his life force absorbed, not me.”

At that very moment, an auction staff approached them. “How do you do, Mr. Gu Ding? You have 63 items that will be placed up for silent auction tonight. The appraisal for all 63 items has a total value of less than ten billion Star Credits. As time is of the essence, we were unable to auction it off on stage and we do hope you understand. Tonight"s silent auction will start in an hour. Please feel free to visit it if any of you are interested. The auction will be located at the first level of the fourth tower. You may have your meal at the bas.e.m.e.nt restaurant or visit the food street at the North entrance of the auction.”

“Thank you!” Gu Ding suddenly felt a little hungry at the mention of food.

He turned toward Biggie and Liliath to say, “Let"s have a meal. Do you want to head to the food street or the bas.e.m.e.nt restaurant?”

“The food street!” Liliath voiced her choice.

Biggie smiled and said nothing.

“Okay, let"s head to food street!” Gu Ding had never been picky about food. Everything was the same to him.

The three of them headed toward the North entrance. The food street was crowded. There seemed to be a never-ending stream of people and the sound of food sellers yelling to attract customers filled the street.

The Mayor Sector has a rich resource of mineral veins. Some of these minerals could be digested and were added into the food process as spices. The three of them were slightly overwhelmed with all the food the street had to offer.

“Hey, what"s that gold thing? It looks like gold bars. Can that be consumed?” Gu Ding made a beeline for that stall. He grew incredibly excited over the pieces that look like gold bars.

“This must your first visit to the Mayor Sector. This gilded spice is made from Mayor Sector"s special powder scaled from our unique gold scaling stone. The taste is sweet and refres.h.i.+ng, and it"s a popular ingredient for desserts.”

“Give us three sets for a taste,” Gu Ding took the three and pa.s.sed them out to Biggie and Liliath.

Liliath gushed about it at the first bite. “Let"s have another three. I don"t think we"ll need to have a proper meal tonight. These local street snacks are plenty for us.”

“Agreed!” Gu Ding gave his approval.

Biggie was focused on the spice and turned toward the owner of the stall. “Where can we buy this spice?”

“Follow this road and walk to where the road ends. There is a huge spice shop there. You can take a visit there if you are interested. 80% of the spices on Mayor Sector can be found there. The prices at the shop are also reasonably fair. Most of the stalls on this road buy their spices there,” the stall owner explained in a friendly manner.

The three of them continued shopping around for food excitedly. They ate as they walked along.

Suddenly, Gu Ding heard someone call him from behind.

“Gu Ding!” A young man who looked to be the same age as Gu Ding appeared abruptly in front of Gu Ding. His hair was completely white, and he had on a black hat.

“It really is you!”

“You are…” Gu Ding had no clue who this person was.

“My name is An Luo, pleased to meet you,” the young man reached out for a handshake. There was a friendly smile on his face.

“I"m Gu Ding,” Gu Ding reached out to shake his hand.

“Do you know me?”

“Of course I do. It"s not possible for Interstellar Pirates on Dragon Soar Cosmic Nation to not know who you are,” An Luo smiled as he nodded.

“You have the most potential for being this year"s Newcomer powerhouse, plus, you have a formidable crew.”

Gu Ding scratched his head in embarra.s.sment.

“An Luo person is a newcomer pirate who broke out onto the scene recently in the past few months. His current bounty is set at 2.3 billion and he is placed third on the Newcomers Ranking compet.i.tion. He may seem quite lazy and has a warm demeanor, but in fact, he is a professional a.s.sa.s.sin. His current crew is made up of two people. One of them is named Mi Dong. He is also a professional a.s.sa.s.sin but is seldom seen in action. His current bounty is set at eighty million,” Neptune quickly pulled up information on him.

“An Luo, you"re running around again. You"re terrible with directions. Aren"t you afraid of getting lost?” A big built young man walked toward them and berated An Luo.

“Run around again and I"ll leave you here and drive off with your s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p.”

“Mi Dong, look who I"ve b.u.mped into,” An Luo said excitedly.

This got Mi Dong"s attention as he looked at Gu Ding and the rest. He recognized him immediately, “Gu Ding?”

He took a look at the Biggie, who came off matured and composed, taking one step forward. He s.h.i.+elded half of An Luo behind himself.

“How do you do? You must be Mi Dong, am I right?” Gu Ding guessed who he was based on Neptune"s introduction.

“That"s strange. Why would Gu Ding know who you are, but not me? My bounty is supposed to be higher than you!” An Luo mumbled unhappily.

“That"s because he checked our information after immediately after meeting you,” there was no expression on Mi Dong"s face, looking warily at Gu Ding and the rest.

“Hey, what are you doing standing in front of me? They"re not the enemy,” An Luo was exasperated by Mi Dong"s sensitive reaction.

“Naïve people like you without a sense of danger will end up dead sooner rather than later,” Mi Dong chided.

“Come on. Gu Ding"s bounty is higher than mine. There"s no reason for him to attack me. Besides, I was the one who took the initiative to say hi. He didn"t even recognize me before this,” An Luo retorted.

Mi Dong finally relaxed a little upon hearing An Luo"s words.

“There seem to be many newcomers here,” Gu Ding tried to start a conversation.

“Yeah. I b.u.mped into Bart at the auction and even saw Mi En the Magician just now,” An Luo nodded.

“Mi En is another upcoming newcomer this year. His bounty is 1.6 billion and is currently ranked at Number four in the Newcomers Ranking compet.i.tion. He loves playing cards and his ability is visual deception and elementary divination,” Neptune explained.

“Mi En told me that he had divined his own fortune previously. There are bad signs for him, but no signs of imminent death. That was why he chose to come here. He mentioned as well that there will be a ma.s.sive event taking place on Great Divinity. The wisest choice right now is to leave early,” An Luo shared what Mi En told him.

“This ability for divination sounds interesting,” Gu Ding grew increasingly intrigued at the mention of Mi En.

“Elementary divination is only able to predict good or bad outcomes, and life or death. You won"t be able to see details, only the results,” explained Neptune.

“This ability will only appear in someone with a special physical const.i.tution. Their ancestors would need to be someone who had explored their ability for divinity at the highest level, or if their body has hidden genes from the Holy Gospel Tribe or the Witch Tribe. On top of that, the evolution of this ability is much more difficult than other abilities.”

“He has a stall not far from here. It costs ten thousand Star Credits for each session where he"ll predict good or bad outcomes. However, hardly anyone visits his stall. You can visit it if you are interested,” An Luo pointed to a direction.

“Oh, thanks! We"ll check it out!” Gu Ding nodded.

Just as Gu Ding and the others were preparing to leave, An Luo suddenly called out, “Wait! That thing in your hand looks delicious. Where did you buy it?”

Gu Ding looked at the meat skewers in his hand and pointed him in the direction of the stall, “Turn to your left and it"s the third stall. I think the owner said this is the thigh meat of the purple magic beetle. It tastes pretty good.”

“You glutton, chatting for such a long time with someone because of meat skewers…” the voice of Mi Dong berating An Luo could still be heard as they walked farther away. Gu Ding and the others finally knew the real reason why he had approached them.

The three of them walked toward where Mi En was.