The Highest Bounty

It took five or six minutes for Marceau to wake up. With the const.i.tution of his Rank-13 Gene Body, it was just as Gu Ding had expected.

As Marceau opened his eyes, he saw Gu Ding grin and show his white and even teeth. “You lost. It"s about time you handed that thing over, right?”

Marceau looked down at his hands. He was bound by anti-magic chains and was no longer in a position to negotiate. He knew that he had been defeated completely this time. Gu Ding was far more inferior to himself in terms of combat effectiveness, but when it came to combat skills, he was in any means not as good as Gu Ding. Shaking his head helplessly, he opened his Inventory, took out the Deity Position, and handed it to Gu Ding.

Gu Ding took the Deity Position in his hand and played with it. The Deity Position looked like a token that was the size of his palm and was entirely black. He did not know what it was made of but it felt heavy in his hands.

Nevertheless, several strange symbols and ciphertexts were carved on the token, and Gu Ding could not understand them at all. The most striking thing about it was that it was clearly missing a corner, and along with that missing corner, there was a crack in it visible to the naked eye that was about two centimeters long.

Gu Ding quickly noticed that many eyes were fixed on the Deity Position in his hands and some of them even had greed in their looks. Gu Ding quietly stowed the token in his Inventory. Then, he took out a key and unlocked the anti-magic chains on Marceau"s hands. “Our deal is done, you are free to go. You"d better go to the hospital. A broken hyoid bone should require a few days of rest.”

Marceau shook his head, clutched his neck, and left in disappointment.

“Neptune, unlock the communication s.h.i.+eld,” Gu Ding suddenly made a strange request.

Neptune was stunned for a while. “In that case, news that we"ve gotten hold of the Deity Position will get out immediately. That would lead to endless trouble.”

“That"s why I asked you to unlock it. I never intended to keep it for myself from the beginning.” Gu Ding grinned. “Don"t worry. Do as I say.”

Neptune did not know what Gu Ding was up to. Nevertheless, seeing Gu Ding"s determination, he chose to trust Gu Ding"s decision and unlocked the entire planet"s communication s.h.i.+eld.

Gu Ding, on the other hand, moved toward the crowd. “Listen, everybody. You can tell any of your demiG.o.d friends or elders about me getting the Deity Position. I will auction the Deity Position off to the highest bidder in two days. This kind of auction only comes once in a lifetime. So, if you miss this one, you may never get a second chance…”

Gu Ding"s statement quickly went viral. Nevertheless, he stayed put as if he was waiting for something.

Just as he had expected, three figures soon shot in his direction in no particular order.

The Childe family"s demiG.o.d, with an untamed look, looked at Gu Ding fiercely. “Hand that Deity Position over!”

“Why?!” Gu Ding asked without flinching.

“This is the Childe family"s territory. That Deity Position was stolen from us! Do I need any other reason to take it back now?” Meyer Childe lied with a straight face.

“How many people do you think you can fool with a lie like that?” Gu Ding raised his eyebrow. “You really should think of how many people are recording this incident here before you speak, old man. I"ve taken a look and estimate that at least eight hundred people recorded my fight with that muscular man. At least six hundred people are recording this conversation. How many people do you think will believe what you said when the videos are uploaded to Skynet?”

“Believe it or not, that Deity Position is a family heirloom. We just lost it today,” Meyer Childe said with a straight face. He had been a demiG.o.d for many years, and he knew that with his talent, becoming a deity was completely out of the question. How could he let go of a Deity Position that had appeared right in front of his very eyes?

“In that case, describe the Deity Position.” Gu Ding clearly wanted to make a fool of him.

Neptune immediately disabled the projection function of everyone"s intelligent wrist.w.a.tches because quite a few people had filmed it on video just now. He was afraid that someone would inadvertently project it to Meyer Childe.

“Black, the shape of a token, about the size of a palm,” Meyer Childe replied fluently.

The answer surprised Gu Ding a little.

“All Deity Positions that are of lower ranks are basically like that,” Neptune said in Gu Ding"s ear. “Keep asking him if it has any other features.”

“Those three points are correct, but that does not make the Deity Position yours. What a lot of people probably don"t know is that Deity Positions of lower ranks are basically black tokens the size of one"s palm,” Gu Ding gave the people a little bit of information before he went on to ask, “Are there any other distinct features of the Deity Position, please describe them.”

“There are some carvings of symbols and ciphertexts on it,” Meyer Childe continued to answer Gu Ding"s questions based on what he knew about Deity Positions.

“The carvings on a Deity Position are actually a projection of the deity"s ability. In other words, basically all Deity Positions have carvings of symbols and ciphertexts on them.” Neptune had told Gu Ding to say this. “Are there no other features?”

“I haven"t seen the Deity Position for a long time. I can"t quite remember some of its details. I think that the features I just gave are enough to prove that the Deity Position belongs to my family,” Mayer Childe continued cheekily.

“Is that so? Let me remind you for the sake of accuracy, there is a scar on this Deity Position, may I ask whether the scar was made by a saber, a sword, or some other weapon?” Gu Ding could not help but smirk when he asked the question.

Meyer Childe seemed aware that it was a trap. He pretended to recall for a moment when in actual fact, he was thinking about how to answer the question. A moment later, he said, “There are no scars.”

He gave this answer because he remembered clearly that his men had sent him a message saying that Gu Ding had a Deity Position in his hands. However, there was no mention of a scar being on the Deity Position. Hence, he was quite sure that Gu Ding was trying to fool him.

“Are you sure that it has no scars?” Gu Ding continued to ask.

“I"m very sure. There are absolutely no scars.” Mayer Childe"s confident answer left the stalker who had sent him the news tongue-tied.

“Then I have to tell you with great certainty that the Deity Position I hold in my hand is not the one your family has lost. That"s because there is a conspicuous notch on the Deity Position in my hand,” Gu Ding said as he projected a picture of the Deity Position. The notch in its upper-right corner was very visible and could be spotted from almost ten meters away. Such an obvious feature like that was impossible to forget.

Meyer Childe had planned on blaming Gu Ding and Marceau for the damage on the Deity Position. However, only a real deity could damage a Deity Position. If he did that, it would be like slapping his own face. Hence, he pretended to look at it carefully and then shake his head in mock regret. “It"s really not the Deity Position of our family. We just lost ours today, so I thought the one you just acquired is ours. It"s all a misunderstanding out of sheer desperation, a misunderstanding…”

The other two demiG.o.ds next to him despised him from the bottom of their hearts. Evidently, they knew what Meyer Childe was up to. Nevertheless, they were in someone else"s territory, and as guests, they could not simply interpose. They could only wait until the show was over.

“Since it is only a misunderstanding, this Deity Position is mine. Are there any other objections?” Gu Ding glanced around and his eyes landed on the other two demiG.o.ds. “Once again, I"ll have a small auction in two days. The highest bidder will get the Deity Position.”

“Gu Ding, why in two days? Can"t it be auctioned now?” A demiG.o.d asked a little anxiously. If they were to compete for it at the time, only three compet.i.tors would stand. Hence, the odds of them winning the bid were high. No one knew how many people would come in two days after hearing the news. What would happen then was uncertain.

“I plan on having it in two days for my own safety,” Gu Ding said as he s.h.i.+fted his gaze from the demiG.o.d to Meyer Childe. “I"m sure a lot of people already know why I"ve come to Red s.h.i.+eld. Therefore, there is also one condition to partic.i.p.ate in this auction. Before my crew leaves Red s.h.i.+eld, the bidder is not allowed to attack me or my crew members. To anyone who attacks, you can force your way into the auction, but I will ignore your bid.”

Meyer Childe"s face suddenly turned a little sour, and he could not have been clearer about the purpose of Gu Ding"s visit to Red s.h.i.+eld.

The opponent had set the condition against himself. The two demiG.o.ds he had invited would certainly choose to join the auction rather than attack Gu Ding. However, he would be put in an awkward position if Gu Ding"s crew directly came into conflict with his family members. If none of his family members managed to suppress Gu Ding, there was no way he could not intervene. However, the moment he attacked Gu Ding, he would lose his place to bid for the Deity Position. He had lived for more than three thousand years and had never expected himself to be outgunned by a little boy less than sixteen years old. Once his opponent struck, he was almost a hopeless cause. Losing the qualification to become a deity had almost become a foregone conclusion…