Chapter Twenty: The Final Days

"Thirty-five diamond coins," Chai Guan, representing the human faction at seat number four, raised the bid.

"Forty diamond coins," Tao Lu countered immediately, refusing to be outdone.

At this point in the bidding war, the other factions began to realize that both the humans and the Winged Race were determined to obtain this item; otherwise, the price wouldn't have exceeded the market value by so much. With limited financial resources, these other factions had long since exceeded their psychological price limits. It was no longer possible for them to compete, leaving them as mere foils to the clash between the Winged Race and the humans.

"Fifty diamond coins!" Chai Guan increased the bid again.

"Sixty diamond coins!" Tao Lu shot back instantly.

Neither side wanted to lose momentum, so they simply raised the bid by ten diamond coins at a time. For Tao Lu, it wasn't her money anyway. If she won it, great; if not, so be it. What was the point of saving money for the higher-ups? They wouldn't share a single cent of it with her anyway.

"Seventy diamond coins!" Chai Guan's expression was already quite grim.

"Eighty diamond coins!" Tao Lu raised the bid.

Gong Kui had previously estimated that the Winged Race would only have about fifty diamond coins at their disposal. In reality, that was not the case at all, as Tao Lu's bid had already reached eighty.

"Ninety diamond coins!"

"One hundred diamond coins!"

The two kept raising the price, driving the cost of the Chain of Cleansing straight to one hundred diamond coins. At this point, everyone from the other factions, including the auctioneer, gasped. The price had soared to an absurd level.

It was just a Chain of Cleansing from another world. Even if it was extremely rare, twenty diamond coins should have been the absolute limit. How had the price quintupled?

No—more than five times, and they were still bidding!

"One hundred and five diamond coins!" Chai Guan was already starting to buckle under the pressure.

"One hundred and twenty diamond coins!" Tao Lu pressed her advantage, raising the bid by another fifteen diamond coins.

At seat number four, the six members of the human faction looked at each other in dismay. This was an entirely unexpected turn of events.

Lan Xin still remembered Gong Kui saying that they should be able to secure it with a maximum of one hundred and thirty diamond coins. Yet, the Winged Race's offensive was so fierce, and they showed no signs of stopping.

"We only brought one hundred and thirty diamond coins with us..." Chai Guan had a strange look on his face. "I thought winning the Chain of Cleansing would be a sure thing, but now..."

"What's the deal with that girl? How can someone so young be the representative for the Winged Race?" the black-haired woman asked, puzzled.

"Isn't she being a bit too bold? Every single bid is a massive jump. She actually raised it by fifteen last time..." Zhen Shi was also quite astonished.

"Let's go all in. We might as well bid everything we have," Chai Guan said, gritting his teeth. "If they raise the price any further, we won't be able to compete."

"If we can't outbid them, we can always just take it by force," Zhen Shi said, completely unfazed.

"One hundred and thirty diamond coins," Chai Guan bid once more.

At seat number three.

The four Winged Race members sitting next to Tao Lu felt rather awkward. Was Lady Tao Lu bidding a bit too aggressively?

"My Lady, perhaps we shouldn't bid this way? Maybe raise it by a smaller amount each time?" one of the Winged women suggested tentatively.

"Smaller amount my foot!" Tao Lu rolled her eyes. "It's not my money, so why should I care? We brought one hundred and fifty diamond coins this time. The fact that I didn't just bid the whole amount right at the start is already doing those old fogies at the top a huge favor."

The four Winged Race members were helpless, unable to argue with their superior.

"One hundred and forty-five diamond coins," Tao Lu bid quickly. Just like before, she raised the price by fifteen coins in one go.

The four Winged Race members looked at one another, completely speechless. Tao Lu didn't care about the cost, but they certainly did.

Fifteen diamond coins at a time...

Many of the auction attendees began to whisper among themselves.

"What on earth is the Winged Race trying to do?"

"They must be insane. I have no idea why that girl is bidding so aggressively!"

"Originally, one diamond coin was worth a million credits. But now that the major factions have hoarded them all, no one would exchange them for cash. Now, you probably couldn't even get one diamond coin for two or three million credits."

"This girl is spending like water, showing absolutely no regard for money. Who on earth is she?"

"I bet she's just the person in charge of this particular mission. She might not have any real connection to the purebloods!"

"If the purebloods who assigned her this task found out about this, they'd probably die of anger. The humans were clearly running out of steam just now. She might have won it by adding just one more diamond coin, yet she insisted on throwing in another fifteen!"

"Talk about having money to burn!"

"The higher-ups of the Free Zone must be laughing all the way to the bank. A Chain of Cleansing worth twenty diamond coins has been driven up to over seven times its value!"

"I doubt anyone else will bid now."

"Aside from the humans' Fierce Fang Squad, who else would compete with them?"

"Both the humans and the Winged Race are out of their minds. We came all this way for nothing."

"Who would look for trouble? Bidding higher than one hundred and forty-five is just begging to lose a fortune!"

"The Chain of Cleansing is only worth twenty diamond coins, and now it's at an astronomical price—more than seven times its value. Even if someone wanted to bid, they'd have to consider whether they actually have that many diamond coins."

"Exactly. Ordinary factions could never produce this many diamond coins!"

"One hundred and fifty diamond coins!" Just as everyone was discussing it, Xia Yan raised the bid.

"Who is the person in Seat Ten?"

"They're wearing a cloak, so we can't see their face. A suspicious character..."

"There doesn't seem to be any fluctuation of foreign race aura. Could it be a human?"

"But the human faction is clearly the group of six at seat number four, right?"

"Yeah, I even recognize the members of that Fierce Fang Squad."

This was Xia Yan's first bid, yet it stunned the entire hall. Everyone looked at each other in disbelief. They could not believe that someone dared to bid even higher than one hundred and forty-five diamond coins!

Inside seat number three.

"My Lady, the bid came from the person at seat number ten," the Winged woman asked. "Do we need to raise the bid?"

"Do we even have any diamond coins left?" Tao Lu was taken aback. "I only brought one hundred and fifty with me!"

"If we pool our resources, we can still scrape together a few more," the Winged woman replied awkwardly.

"Are you stupid? Pooling your own money? How do you know the higher-ups will reimburse you? If those old fogies refuse to recognize the expense, your money is gone," Tao Lu sneered. "Forget it, let them have it. There's no rush to snatch the Chain of Cleansing right this moment anyway!"

"You are quite right, My Lady!" the Winged woman quickly agreed.

For Tao Lu, this outcome was unexpected, yet perhaps also within expectations. Xia Yan had never been an ordinary person. Did he really have to steal the spotlight even here in the Free Zone?

However, Tao Lu still did not understand which faction was backing Xia Yan. After all, there were only a handful of factions capable of producing one hundred and fifty diamond coins!

Once Xia Yan bid one hundred and fifty diamond coins, the Chain of Cleansing naturally fell into his hands. At the same time, however, another plan was set in motion.

For Qi Hao, her only purpose in tolerating Xia Yan's existence all this time was to obtain the Chain of Cleansing. Now that the auction was over, did that mean Xia Yan's execution date had finally arrived?