"Go and handle this! The target is merely a Crystallized Wizard. Take the shadow guards with you—you must capture them!"
The Blue Mountain King said coolly.
"I understand, Grandfather!"
The clan head nodded, bowed, and departed.
Once he had the intelligence, he would first let these prisoners dispose of their goods here, then hunt them down and eliminate them to claim the bounty. This practice of eating from both ends of the deal was nothing new to him.
The primitive accumulation of capital was either painfully slow or brutally bloody. Without such methods, even with the Blue Mountain King as a Dawn Star Wizard, the Oakheart Family could never have grown so rapidly.
The Oakheart clan head's heart burned with eagerness. He rushed to the control room on the side and rubbed his fingers together.
"How many Dawn Star Wizards will attend this private exchange this time? I'm quite looking forward to it…"
"This is the central control room—order the sub-units to transmit all collected images here!" He pressed a crystal and issued his command.
Soon, numerous fragmented projections formed into individual small grid screens, each displaying the appearance of a wizard participating in the exchange, with their true faces shown alongside.
Some particularly beautiful female wizards even had full-body images displayed next to them—of the unclothed variety, naturally.
The clan lord's eyes lit up, gleaming with excitement.
What he failed to notice was that, on a screen in one corner, the character played by Leilin displayed a completely different, utterly unfamiliar face.
The so-called exchange was held in a vast underground cavern.
The ground was covered with powerful rune inscriptions, radiating terrifying waves of energy.
The mask on Leilin's face also emitted a layer of dark luminescence, resonating with the magical array on the ground, completely shrouding his figure within the black radiance.
From the outside, the wizards who entered this place appeared as nothing more than dark orbs of light, making it nearly impossible to distinguish male from female.
Moreover, the power of the array was something Leilin had never seen before. He couldn't help but order the Chip to record these patterns.
This was clearly a magical array that only Dawn Star Wizards could deploy. It could even block spiritual power detection from wizards of the same level.
This had been jointly verified by the many wizards who had previously attended the private exchange.
What they didn't know, however, was that while the Oakheart Family hadn't tampered with the array itself, they had already planted deadly spies on every participant.
A bug a hundred thousand times smaller than a speck of dust—even if it landed on someone, they would never sense it.
Not to mention that these Star Motes had an innate talent for concealment and disguise.
Under the Oakheart Family's cultivation and specialized training, these Star Motes had become terrifying espionage agents, capable of thoroughly uncovering every wizard attending the private exchange.
"What a pity…"
Leilin walked along with the many dark orbs of light, feeling a tinge of regret.
So far, his research on these creatures hadn't gone deep enough to do more than conceal himself. Tracing the signals back, or even stealing other visual data from the central control room—that wasn't impossible, but it would require considerable time to crack, and he would even need to cultivate his own Star Motes to infiltrate the system.
All of that took time! And he only had the three days of the auction. What he'd accomplished already was remarkable enough. Hadn't those Dawn Star Wizards all failed to notice the secret of the Star Motes, their identities exposed completely?
When the dark orbs of light in the cavern had grown sufficiently numerous, a crisp bell suddenly rang out, drawing all the wizards' gazes to a circular platform at the center.
There, amid shifting light, a middle-aged wizard with golden hair appeared.
"Many of you may know me, and some may not. Please allow me to introduce myself—I am Leo Oakheart, the person in charge of the Blue Mountain Auction House. I will be presiding over this private exchange…"
Leo's face wore a warm, enthusiastic smile.
"I'll keep it brief, since the private exchange lasts only one night and I won't waste your valuable time. This exchange will consist of two segments. First, those wizards who wish to trade items may come up to the platform in order, display what you're offering, and state what you'd like in return—three items per person maximum! Once this public showcase period ends, the private trading begins. You may freely negotiate among yourselves, but—I must stress that fighting is strictly forbidden here, and once you leave the cavern's boundaries, the Oakheart Family will bear absolutely no responsibility for your traded goods!!!"
Leo's voice grew sharp and commanding at the end, and as if to underscore his words, a powerful wave of pressure suddenly surged from the magical array on the ground, pressing down like a mountain.
"Rest assured, we all know the Oakheart Family's rules…"
A low voice rose from among the observing wizards—clearly some of them had been here more than once or twice.
"Very good!" Leo nodded and stepped aside from the raised platform.