"A starting price of a hundred thousand gold?" Shi Feng shook his head with a bitter smile.
He was tempted by the mana crystal vein too.
But he had worked painstakingly to scrape together a hundred and twenty thousand gold. After purchasing fire-resistance equipment and ultra-rare materials, he currently had just over ninety thousand gold left—not nearly enough to even participate…
In the auction hall, while the major factions on the first floor were reeling from the staggering price, the second floor showed no surprise whatsoever and began bidding without hesitation.
"One hundred thousand gold!"
"One hundred and ten thousand!"
"One hundred and twenty thousand!"
…
As the bids rolled in, the price of the mana crystal vein soared at a dizzying pace, leaving the top-tier guilds utterly slack-jawed.
Although the minimum increment was supposedly one thousand gold, the super-factions and major consortiums were pushing it up ten thousand at a time—as though ten thousand gold were no more than ten thousand copper coins. In under a minute, the price had already reached an astonishing two hundred thousand gold.
It wasn't until two hundred and seventy thousand that the pace finally slowed, shifting from ten-thousand jumps to increments of two or three thousand. Yet even that was terrifying enough for the first-tier guilds.
"Damn it! Why are so many people fighting over this?" Jiu Long Huang watched the price climb ever higher, his brow deeply furrowed. He couldn't help turning to Long Wu beside him. "How's it going on the Dragon Blood side?"
He had brought only two hundred and ten thousand gold to begin with. Combined with his mana crystals, he had roughly two hundred and fifty thousand in total funds. After that, he had even mortgaged several prime lots in the Black Dragon Empire's capital, raising another hundred and forty thousand—which gave him three hundred and ninety thousand gold in all. That amount was a full ten times what any first-tier guild could muster.
But the super-factions and consortiums seemed like bottomless pits, matching every bid. By now the price had already climbed to nearly three hundred thousand…
And he knew full well that this was merely the preliminary probing between the major super-factions. None of them had even gotten serious yet.
But while the other super-factions and consortiums were still just feeling each other out, the price of the mana crystal vein was already nearing the absolute limit of what he could offer.
"Guild Master, the Dragon Blood side has borrowed from the guild elders. The elders think it's a good deal and are willing to lend us sixty thousand gold. If the bid succeeds, their interest will be a ten percent share of the vein. If it fails, they want thirty percent in interest." Long Wu said, a note of helplessness in his voice.
They were all in the same guild, of course, but the elders each had their own factions. Individually, none of them were particularly powerful, but together they were still formidable—and that power was held firmly in the hands of the Grand Guild Master. They couldn't deploy it at will; all they could do was curry favor.
"Those old foxes! They dare ask for ten percent?!" Jiu Long Huang's face turned ashen. "Fine! I'll agree. But tell them sixty thousand gold isn't enough—I want every last mana crystal they have too! Otherwise, I'll just walk away!"
Sixty thousand gold was no small sum, but in a contest among super-factions, plus another sixty thousand still wasn't a guarantee. He needed to throw in every resource he could possibly gather to have any chance of winning.
Combined, the mana crystals held by all the elders would bring his total war chest to roughly four hundred and seventy thousand gold equivalent.
If he won the bid, everything else would fall into place afterward. If he lost, the losses would be catastrophic.
It was a gamble where one man's triumph was built on ten thousand bones.
While Jiu Long Huang was scrambling to raise funds, the bidding price for the mana crystal vein had already reached three hundred and fifty-two thousand gold. Meanwhile, other small-box consortiums and super-factions were also racing to marshal their resources. But by now, the people seated in the first-floor hall had no idea what to say.