Chapter 523: Chapter 523: The War of the Gilded Purse

Seraphina Valerius stood center stage, her red hair gleaming like a flame under the spotlights.

"Our first item!" she announced, gesturing to a tray held by a levitating silver construct. "The Heaven-Sunder Pill. Formulated in the heart of the Golden Dragon Empire. It guarantees a ninety percent success rate for anyone attempting to break through to the peak of the Golden Core Realm."

The room erupted.

"Five hundred thousand spirit stones!" a merchant from the Southern Trade Union shouted, his voice cracking.

"Seven hundred thousand!" countered a General from the Black Army Fleet.

The Captain of the White Unicorns leaned forward, his voice calm but firm. "One million spirit stones."

The hall went silent for a heartbeat. The White Unicorns rarely bid unless the Crown was interested. But then, a lazy, arrogant voice drawled from the Royal Box.

"Two million," Prince Charles said, not even looking at the stage.

The Captain’s jaw tightened. "Two point five million."

"Five million," Charles retorted instantly, sipping a glass of dark wine. He looked over toward the Captain’s box with a sneer. "Are we truly going to play this game, Captain? My sister’s budget is impressive, but it isn’t mine."

The Captain slowly sat back, his eyes burning. "He’s blocking us on purpose," he whispered to Ethan. "Anything we show interest in, he will bury under a mountain of stones just to ensure the Princess gains no ground."

"Is no one going to stop him?" Ethan asked, watching the frustrated faces of the surrounding nobles.

"Who? The Alchemists? The Merchants?" the Captain hissed. "They value their heads more than their stones. Charles is the First Prince. To outbid him when he’s in this mood is seen as a political challenge."

Seraphina’s laughter tinkled through the air. "Sold to Prince Charles! Next, we have a Stellar Map of the Sun-Drowned Wastes. This map details three hidden spirit veins and a derelict tomb belonging to a Spiritual Sea Realm ancestor."

"Ten million!" the Master of the Alchemist’s Guild shouted, his eyes wide with greed.

"Twelve million!" a representative from the Blacksmith’s Guild countered.

The Captain signaled his aide. "Fifteen million."

"Twenty-five million," Charles interjected, his voice dripping with boredom.

"Brother," Prince Alaric whispered beside him, his voice audible to those with high-level hearing. "You don’t even need that map. Our family already owns the Sun-Drowned Wastes."

"I don’t care about the map, Alaric," Charles replied loud enough for the Captain to hear. "I care about making sure our sister’s little ’pet project’ stays in its cage."

Ethan watched as the Captain’s hands gripped the armrest of his chair so hard the leather groaned. "He’s making a spectacle of us," Ethan muttered.

"Let him," the Captain replied through grit teeth. "He’s spending the national treasury to satisfy his ego. Let him bleed his funds on maps and pills. We are waiting for the ’trash’ tier. That’s where he’ll stop paying attention."

The auction continued at a frantic, suffocating pace. A Frost-Bite Saber at the peak of the Golden Core level went for forty million. A Spiritual Sea Soul-Protector charm went for eighty million—all of them snapped up by the Dragonia brothers or the Black Army Fleet.

"Next," Seraphina said, her golden eyes flashing with a hint of mischief, "is a collection of ’Unidentified Relics.’ These items were found in the deepest layers of a fallen Empire fortress. They are rusted, their arrays are dormant, and our masters cannot identify their origin. We start the bidding at a humble fifty thousand spirit stones for the lot."

The hall grew quiet. To the wealthy elite, "unidentified" was another word for "junk."

Ethan’s Spiritual Core suddenly gave a sharp, agonizing thrum. He felt a cold, ancient resonance pulling at his soul—not from the shiny sabers or the maps, but from a blackened, twisted piece of metal sitting at the back of the junk pile.

"Crul... do you feel that?" Ethan whispered, his breath hitching behind the silver mask.

Ethan’s Spiritual Core suddenly gave a sharp, agonizing thrum. He felt a cold, ancient resonance pulling at his soul—not from the shiny sabers or the maps, but from a blackened, twisted piece of metal sitting at the back of the junk pile.

["That is a treasure that shouldn’t even belong to this world. I’m searching my databanks... it feels familiar, but that should be impossible. Do not let this pass, Master. It is a relic of a logic far beyond this kingdom."]

The Captain leaned forward, his eyes narrowing as he surveyed the heap of rusted iron on the stage. His gaze settled on the same jagged, blackened silhouette that Crul had identified. To the untrained eye, it looked like a broken strut from a collapsed bridge, but the Captain saw the faint, lethal taper of a hilt.

"That’s it," the Captain whispered, nodding toward the pile. "It looks like a piece of garbage from a peasant’s forge. It fulfills the Princess’s requirements perfectly. It’s a sword that will let you pass completely unnoticed. No one will ever suspect a disciple of the Heavenly Sword Pavilion is carrying a rusted rod of pig iron."

Ethan let out a long, silent sigh of relief. He had been racking his brain for a way to convince the Captain to bid on a pile of junk without sounding insane.

Seraphina Valerius smiled at the lukewarm response from the crowd. "Starting bid is fifty thousand spirit stones. Do I hear fifty?"

The bidding started slowly, mostly from minor collectors who hoped to find a hidden enchantment under the rust.

"One hundred thousand!" a merchant called out.

"Five hundred thousand," another added, half-heartedly.

The price climbed sluggishly, eventually reaching ten million spirit stones. It was a paltry sum compared to the fortunes spent earlier, but for a pile of "unidentified" scrap, it was becoming an expensive gamble.

The Captain sensed the moment. He raised his hand, his voice clear and resonant. "Fifteen million."

Then, he did something he hadn’t done all night. He turned his head and looked directly at Prince Charles. A faint, mocking smile touched the corner of the Captain’s mouth—a deliberate, silent invitation for the Prince to jump in and block them again.

Prince Charles watched the Captain, his fingers drumming rhythmically on the golden armrest of his chair. He looked at the screen projecting the image of the rusted junk, his lip curling in a sneer of pure disdain.

"Does he think I’m a fool?" Charles muttered to the advisor sitting beside him, his voice a low, arrogant rumble. "He thinks I’ll buy every pile of horseshit Isabella wants just to spite her? Naive."

Charles let out a soft, dismissive chuckle. He leaned back and waved a hand in the air, signaling that he would not be bidding. "Let them have it," he whispered to his companion. "Let my dear sister waste her budget on a collection of paperweights. It will leave her even more desperate when the real prizes appear."

Seraphina waited, her golden eyes darting between the boxes. "Fifteen million once... fifteen million twice..."

Crack!

"Sold to the White Unicorn Corps!"

Ethan felt a surge of adrenaline so sharp it made his vision blur. The blackened blade was his. He didn’t know what it was yet, and he didn’t know why it felt like a part of his own soul was calling out to it, but he knew one thing: Prince Charles had just made the biggest mistake of his life by letting the "trash" slip through his fingers.

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From this moment forward, to avoid confusion regarding cultivation ranks, I will include this footer with the current established levels.

Note: These are only the ranks mentioned so far to avoid spoilers.

Body Refinement Realm

Skin Refinement / Bone Refinement / Organ Refinement

Spiritual Gathering Realm

Spiritual Perception / Spiritual Mist / Spiritual Condensation

Spiritual Core Realm

Core Solidification / Core Awakening / Spiritual Collapse (Half-step Spiritual Core)

Spiritual Soul Realm

Spiritual Soul Awakening / Soul Nourishing / Soul-Core Fusion

Golden Core Realm

Prime Fusion / Core Perfection / Core Destruction

Spiritual Sea Realm

Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??

Dao Manifestation Realm

Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??

Spiritual Transcendence

Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??