"The starting price is one hundred million Gold Spirit Coins. Are there any honored guests who desire this Hundred-Thousand-Year Spirit Beast Embryo?"
"One hundred million!"
Room Number One immediately quoted the price.
Subsequently, another room offered one hundred and five million.
The Eight-Arms Elder from Room Number One immediately followed up: one hundred and ten million.
After a couple more rounds of back-and-forth, the final price was set at one hundred and thirty million.
Su Ming's gaze was profound as he stared at the various private rooms that had just quoted prices.
Obviously, there were shills among them.
But this time, he didn't mind.
What Su Ming couldn't stand was the previous incident with the Ice Jade Scorpion Left Arm Bone, which was put up for auction but essentially withdrawn through a form of malicious competition.
Tactics used to drive the auction price higher, however, were acceptable to him.
They had to let the Star Luo Royal Family make some profit.
Of course, the Star Luo Royal Family might have profited, but Su Ming was never at a loss. This wasn't just any Hundred-Thousand-Year Spirit Beast Embryo; this was the Snow Empress Embryo!
Never mind one hundred and thirty million, even three or five hundred million to secure the Snow Empress Embryo would surely tempt certain powers, and they could afford it – provided the news was released early enough for them to prepare.
Like this time, Mingde Hall's resources were fully capable of swallowing both this Hundred-Thousand-Year Spirit Beast Embryo and the ten quotas. The problem was that the Mingde Hall representative present wasn't the Hall Master himself, nor an expert fully prepared for this auction, but simply the team that came to Star Luo City to participate in the competition.
One hundred and thirty million.
Room Number One, the Body Sect, secured this Hundred-Thousand-Year Spirit Beast Embryo.
This was beyond Xu Jiawei's expectations.
But it also let Xu Jiawei breathe a sigh of relief.
This way, the Hundred-Thousand-Year Spirit Beast Embryo at least wouldn't fall into Mingde Hall's hands, and he wouldn't need to spend that hundred million Gold Spirit Coins on the bounty.
"There are still the quotas to auction off."
In Room Number Three, Xiao Hongchen was deflated.
The second Martial Soul, the Hundred-Thousand-Year Spirit Ring and Spirit Bone... were gone just like that.
"Let us congratulate the honored guest from Room Number One for securing this Hundred-Thousand-Year Spirit Beast Embryo with a bid of one hundred and thirty million Gold Spirit Coins."
Xu Jiujiu applauded.
"Finally, let us hand the stage over to the Blacksmith Association. Vice President Duan Lin will preside over the upcoming auction."
Duan Lin had voluntarily demoted himself to Vice President because he hadn't mastered Spirit Infused Thousand Refinement.
In reality, he was extremely close to achieving it. From Su Ming's understanding, Duan Lin could already perform the subsequent Spirit Infused Thousand Refinement forging on rare metals that others had already infused with a spirit.
Within the Association, there were three newly promoted Forging Masters, but actually, three others had also learned Spirit Infusion. However, their forging foundation was weak, and they hadn't yet mastered the subsequent Spirit Infused Thousand Refinement. Duan Lin, on the other hand, had a profound forging foundation and knew the subsequent Spirit Infused Thousand Refinement, but couldn't perform Spirit Infusion because he lacked a Spirit Soul.
Duan Lin didn't possess Xu Jiujiu's professional auctioneering flair. He took the stage without any flashy words.
"For this auction, the Blacksmith Association plans to auction ten quotas for the future construction of Blacksmith Association branches. Each city can have at most one branch. Each quota will include a piece of Spirit Metal as a bonus."
"Here, I will first explain the use of these so-called quotas."
"The Blacksmith Association will complete the construction of four main branches in the four empires within the next year. After the four main branches are established, a second expansion will occur. For any city possessing one of these ten quotas, we will directly build a Blacksmith Association branch in that city, with the four main branches providing talent transfer and training, enabling the circulation of Spirit Metal among all fourteen branches."
"In the future, for at least a hundred years, the Blacksmith Association will not actively establish any branches beyond these fourteen. If corresponding cities wish to build forces related to blacksmithing, they will have no affiliation with our Blacksmith Association."
Duan Lin's words undoubtedly reassured the various forces present.
At the very least, it sounded like this quota wasn't just for reaping profits.
It would be genuinely useful after purchase.
Many cities could fund the construction of their own Blacksmith Associations, but without Spirit Metal, without the support of the official Blacksmith Association, early development would be very difficult. Furthermore, there would be virtually no output of Spirit Metal, making it a massive money-burning project.
Of course, they could also send people to the orthodox Blacksmith Association to study first, and then wait for them to return and build up their hometown after completing their training.
But this would undoubtedly leave them far behind.
If development is slow, it's just slow.
Because the establishment of these orthodox branches would inevitably attract a gathering of forging talent from across the continent. Consequently, even if other cities later established their own associations, they would find it impossible to develop effectively.
Feeling reassured, the forces present also began to gear up for action.
They had to secure one quota!
The city lord's mansions of every city with sufficient resources had sent people.
The fifteen days of the group stage were given to them for preparation.
"The auction for the ten quotas begins now. First is the first quota. The starting price is five million Gold Spirit Coins. Each bid increment must be no less than one hundred thousand."
The starting price was only five million?
Many forces immediately became interested and began competing.
But it was clear that five million was just the starting price.
This wasn't the Hundred-Thousand-Year Spirit Beast Embryo, where the difference between the starting price and the final price was only thirty percent. The competition for these quotas was normal, and it also gave the various cities needing the quotas preparation time.
Often, doubling the starting price and adding thirty or forty percent was within the acceptable range.
That is, around twelve million would be a key point in the competition.
In fact, the competition for the first quota was extremely fierce.
Yes, there were nine more later, more chances to compete. Well, you go compete for the other nine; don't fight me for the first one.
The reality was that this was the first time such quotas were being auctioned, and the only time. No one knew their true market price.
The starting price set by the Blacksmith Association was merely their own estimation and might not necessarily be a reliable reference.
After all, this wasn't like Spirit Bones, which had a mature pricing system evolved over ten thousand years in the Spirit Master world.
In the end, the first quota, unexpectedly, was auctioned for the high price of twenty million Gold Spirit Coins, secured by Room Number Three.
The competition for the second quota was even more intense, but it stalled around eighteen million and was taken by Room Number Two.
The third quota rose to nineteen million.
The fourth quota broke twenty million, finally settling at twenty-two million.
The fifth, sixth, and seventh quotas all went for just over twenty-one million.
By this point, Room Number Three had also spent most of its funds. They had originally considered getting a refund from the Star Light Auction House for any unused Gold Spirit Coins to reclaim their spirit tools, but now it seemed that was purely wishful thinking.
In this competition, Mingde Hall directly obtained four quotas.
They had over ten million Gold Spirit Coins left. Elder Ma said they would follow the old rules and use it for purchasing supplies within the three Douluo nations.
With seven of the ten quotas gone, the competition for the final three instantly intensified.
Rooms Number One, Two, and Three no longer participated.
Coupled with the various forces having a better understanding of each other's positions, it now depended on who had the greater determination.
***
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(Chapter End)