Richard stood by the window, silently holding up his bidding paddle.
Just a few seconds ago, Ulysses confirmed that the auction item was indeed the Starr Wraith Power Furnace he had seen before.
"Wow, I didn't expect those ghost craftsmen to come up with something new after all these years."
Ulysses gazed at the Starr Wraith Power Furnace on the auction stage, unable to contain his amazement.
Richard glanced at him and casually asked, "What's wrong? Isn't it normal for craftsmen to improve their creations?"
"No, you don't understand how rigid the beings that create this stuff are," Ulysses explained. "The Starr Wraith Power Furnace comes from the ghost craftsmen of the twisted world.
These ghost craftsmen are inherently rule-bound beings with nearly eternal lifespans, which makes their thinking extremely inflexible.
I've been dealing with them for three or four epochs, and I've never seen them create anything new."
"Eternal life?" Richard exclaimed, "Is there really such an unreasonable race in this world?"
"Well, it's nearly eternal," Ulysses corrected. "The lifespans of these ghost craftsmen are tied to the twisted world; as long as the twisted world doesn't perish, they won't die.
The lifespan of a world, compared to us living beings, can almost be considered eternal.
Moreover, this nearly eternal life comes at a cost.
The number of ghost craftsmen is fixed; only when one chooses to die will a new ghost craftsman be born in the twisted world.
Additionally, these ghost craftsmen cannot leave the twisted world throughout their lives; the walls of the world are an insurmountable sighing barrier for them.
Coupled with their eternal life, it can almost be described as imprisonment.
It's just that their prison is a bit larger."
After hearing this, Richard sighed, realizing that there are indeed no free benefits in this world.
Every gift from fate has its price set in the shadows.
"VIP number twelve bids five thousand five hundred Magic Essence. Is there any master who wants to bid higher?"
Brown scanned the room, and all the Wizards in the hall remained motionless.
"Alright, then this treasure will... VIP number thirty bids six thousand Magic Essence!"
Just as Brown's auction hammer was about to fall, someone in the VIP room suddenly chose to bid again.
Richard looked towards the left front of the thirty-number VIP room and saw a masked Wizard holding up a bidding paddle by the window.
"Who is this person?"
Richard frowned slightly and turned to Bob.
Bob shook his head, "I don't know. The thirty-number VIP room doesn't have a fixed guest. The complete list of participating Wizards is with Rosser; I only have part of it."
Richard rubbed his temples, puzzled as to why that Wizard across from him wanted to compete.
Could it be that he also recognized the origin of this item?
But regardless, since he wanted to compete, Richard would accompany him to the end.
Richard picked up his paddle and raised it again.
Brown on the auction stage immediately said, "VIP number twelve bids six thousand five hundred Magic Essence."
The Wizard in the thirty-number room looked at Richard; although he was wearing a mask, Richard could clearly feel the intense malice directed at him.
Richard felt a bit disgusted by that gaze; it was as if the Wizard was looking at a lamb to be slaughtered.
"Bob, go check on that Wizard in the thirty-number room. I have a feeling he might be a helper sent by one of your opponents."
Bob was taken aback for a moment, then immediately stood up and left the room.
"I'll check it out right away."
...
In the thirty-number room, Rosser leaned back in his chair and spoke slowly, "Master Leviou, why bother competing with him? Once you deal with him, won't this item still be yours?"
Leviou, standing by the window, turned to glance at Rosser.
"I really want this item, so I don't want to take any risks. What, can't you afford the price?"
Leviou's voice was as hoarse as a demon from hell, and as he spoke, dark wisps of energy flew from his mouth, swirling around the room like vengeful spirits, emitting faint cries.
"That's not the case; it's just unnecessary."
Rosser stood up from his chair and slightly bowed to Leviou.
"If the master wants it, I can have the backstage hold the item for you, and once you make your move, it will be delivered to you.
Please, master, refrain from further bidding."
Leviou looked at Rosser, his gaze as cold as if he were looking at a dead man.
He hated being refused.
But at the moment, he had signed a Soul Contract with this kid and couldn't act against him.
This made him very uncomfortable.
He stared at Rosser for a long time before finally speaking coldly, "Then do it your way. But remember, I only owe you this one favor."
Rosser straightened up, maintaining a proper demeanor, "Rest assured, master, I will remember this."
With that, Rosser quickly left the room, and as he closed the door, his expression suddenly darkened.
He leaned against the door, trying hard to calm himself.
At that moment, his heart was pounding like a drum in his chest.
Being in the same room with a Third Circle mad Wizard, Rosser was far from as relaxed as he appeared.
He absentmindedly touched the lining under his Wizard Robe and found it soaked with cold sweat.
Soon, a black-robed Wizard approached Rosser and said quietly, "My lord, Bob's people have started investigating Master Leviou's identity."
Rosser straightened up, his expression returning to calm.
"Feed him some false information."
"Yes."
The black-robed Wizard responded and quickly left, while Rosser adjusted his Wizard Robe and its lining, heading in another direction down the corridor.
Before he was about to leave, he glanced back at the thirty-number VIP room.
He muttered, "Madman, once you finish your business, Paradise City will be your burial ground!"
...
After Richard made his second bid, Leviou did not bid again.
Thus, Richard naturally secured the power furnace.
Richard looked curiously at the thirty-number room, muttering to himself, "Just a quick bid, could it really be a spur-of-the-moment decision?"
He drew the curtains and returned to his chair.
The subsequent items in the auction were no longer related to him.
One by one, the auction items were sold, and after the Starr Wraith Power Furnace, Brown auctioned off over a hundred items.
These items ranged from specimens of otherworldly creatures to special ores that had been mined to extinction, truly encompassing a wide variety.
Richard even saw a Secret Realm Fragment being auctioned.
Although the area of that Secret Realm Fragment was much larger than the one Richard had obtained, measuring a full three square kilometers, its quality was inferior to the fragment Richard had acquired back then.
However, even so, the final price for this Secret Realm Fragment reached thirty thousand Magic Essence.
This price instantly made Richard understand why the Wizards had been so surprised when they obtained the Secret Realm Fragment back then.
The Great Wizard of the Black Tower was not just casually generous.
As the auction continued, it quickly approached its end.
The mutated Fire Lizard flesh that Richard sold to Bob was the grand finale, and its appearance instantly ignited the entire auction hall.
Over two-thirds of the Third Circle Wizards at this auction were drawn here by this piece of flesh.
A piece of flesh with Life Radiation exceeding level three but not reaching level four.
For those Third Circle Wizards, this was even more enticing than a rule fragment.
Because it contained the terrifying secret of breaking through to Great Wizard.
In the Wizard World, the knowledge to break through to Great Wizard was kept strictly confidential. If a Third Circle Wizard wanted to obtain this knowledge, they had to be selected by the Tower of Truth and sign a non-disclosure contract with it.
While there were other ways to acquire knowledge in this area, those paths were no less difficult than this one.
And this was just knowledge; whether a Wizard could break through to Great Wizard after obtaining the knowledge was still an unknown.
Such harsh conditions naturally left a large number of Third Circle Wizards stuck at the third-level creature realm, slowly watching their lives come to an end.
So when faced with something that might allow them to glimpse the secrets of becoming a Great Wizard, their rational minds naturally boiled over.
Richard watched as these Third Circle Wizards frantically bid, quietly leaving the VIP room.
Not long after he left, a Wizard informed Leviou in the thirty-number room of the news.
"He ran? Alright, I got it."
Leviou waved his hand irritably, his eyes fixed on the blue piece of flesh on the auction stage.
If it weren't for the fact that the Third Circle Wizards present could instantly obliterate him, he would have already stormed the auction stage for a zero-cost purchase.
Ordinary Third Circle Wizards would be filtered out by the Tower of Truth, but mad Wizards didn't even get the chance to be filtered.
Watching the bids soar in the hall, Leviou angrily pulled the curtains shut and turned to leave the room.
"Once this matter is settled, I need that kid Rosser to give me the information on the Wizard who bought that piece of flesh."
...
After Richard left the auction hall, he did not return to his room in the White Tower but instead wandered around the Wizard district.
Due to the closed mode, Makar, a third-level creature, walking beside Richard looked like an alien magic statue, drawing no attention from other Wizards.
It was perfectly normal for an Alchemist Wizard to have a guard statue.
The Wizard district wasn't large, and Richard quickly finished his exploration.
After finishing the Wizard district, Richard immediately headed towards the transition area.
It seemed he intended to explore the entire Paradise City.
High above Richard, thousands of meters in the air, a formidable magic pet eagle was monitoring Richard's every move.
Sharing the eagle's vision, Rosser murmured, "He's heading towards the transition area. Truly Bob's trump card, bold and skilled."
He knew very well that Richard was fishing.
Once Richard entered the transition area, he suddenly looked up at the sky and made a hand gesture.
Rosser recognized that gesture; it was a universal combat signal among the White Wizard Legion—meaning to take action.
"Heh, really confident in his own strength."
A hint of a mocking smile appeared on Rosser's lips as he ordered those around him to relay Richard's coordinates to Leviou.
"I truly hope that when you see a Third Circle mad Wizard, you can still be this arrogant."
...
In the transition area, Richard lowered his head, put down his right hand, and began to look at the map.
For Richard, who had used a magic pet as a scout since his apprentice days, he had noticed Rosser's tactics as soon as he left the White Tower.
"Hope it can be quick."
Richard looked at the map in his hands, not lifting his head as he quickly walked towards a marked point on the map.
This location was a blank area that Richard had asked Aimon to prepare.
In this area, there were no Wizards from Nine Stars Commerce; if someone wanted to make a move, this would be the perfect spot to do so.
Soon, Richard arrived at the designated area.
He looked around a bit bored and muttered to himself, "These guys are really slow; I'm still waiting to settle the payment for that thing."
But he didn't notice that a figure silently emerged from the shadows behind him.
(End of Chapter)