The Lord’s Empire

Among those competing for the blueprint, apart from the six large families and the three main player factions, there were two other unknown factions who were participating.

The price of the blueprint became higher and higher, and soon, it reached 24,000 silver coins.

Within a private room, a few people were sitting around a table. One of them was Jiang Rou, and there was also a young man a few years older than her sitting next to her. The man was Jiang Feng, her eldest brother and the successor of the Jiang family.

“The Jiang family must obtain this blueprint. Luckily, Rou’Er has her clothing store; otherwise, we wouldn’t dare to make such a high bid,” Jiang Feng said as he grinned at Jiang Rou.

Jiang Rou lightly nodded her head and did not say anything in response. Even though they were brother and sister, their relationship was quite distant, and within the entire family, the only person who she was on good terms with was her second brother.

When Jiang Rou was told to marry Zhou Jie, her second brother had opposed it – he knew what sort of person that Zhou Jie was and knew that Jiang Rou would live a miserable life if she married him. However, the eldest brother had not only not opposed it, but he had also tried to persuade Jiang Ruo to marry Zhou Jie. He tried to do this by telling her to sacrifice a bit and to think of the family.

This was because Jiang Feng was the successor of the Jiang family, and if his little sister married into the Zhou family, their families would come together through a marriage alliance. This would be of great benefit to him in the future – after all, he was quite ambitious, and he did not just want to be a member of a large family. Rather, he wanted to one day become a king, and he was willing to sacrifice his little sister to do it.

The bidding was completely dominated by the Jiang family, causing the other factions to feel quite glum.

Within a private room, the Zhou family’s successor, Zhou Ming, coldly said, “The Jiang family isn’t giving the Zhou family any face at all.”

If it was in the real world and these factions were competing so intensely over something, they may have yelled something at each other. However, they were nothing in front of the system’s factions – yelling at each other would make them look like clowns in front of those factions.

As such, they suppressed the fury in their hearts and did not say anything.

In the end, the blueprint’s price rose to 32,000 silver coins. Within a private room, there were two men sitting with their backs incredibly straight against their chairs, and they gave off the airs of military men. Both of them looked incredibly serious and were part of one of the two mysterious factions. One of the two men, a young man, looked at the other man and asked, “Captain, should we continue to bid?”

The ‘captain’ let out a long sigh and said, “This price is too high; let’s forget about it. We won’t be able to compete against the Jiang family.”

The young man nodded and did not continue to bid.

In another room, a middle-aged man with a small beard and a youth playing with all kinds of wooden objects were sitting together. They were the second of the mysterious factions, and when the middle-aged man heard the price, he also decided to give up.

The other factions were of the same mind. In the end, the Jiang family obtained the blueprint, and Jiang Feng let out a breath of relief. He was not just worried about the pressure from the other large families – he had been praying that a certain person would not act. Even though the Jiang family now had more money than all of the other families, what they had was nothing compared to that person’s wealth.

Jiang Feng had been filled with anxiousness from the beginning to the end, and he had been praying that the person would not be interested in the blueprint. Only when the blueprint had been sold to him was he able to finally relax.

The other factions were quite displeased that the Jiang family had been able to obtain the blueprint, but they were also quite curious as to why that person had not participated in the bidding. He had definitely come to such a large auction, and he was most likely sitting in a VIP room.

Who would have thought that Zhao Fu was not in a VIP room or even a private room? He was within the crowd on the first floor being squashed to death.

All of the factions wondered why Zhao Fu had not bid on the blueprint. With his wealth, he should have been able to easily outbid all of them and suppress them, yet he had not made a single bid. Some of the factions decided that Zhao Fu was trying to be friendly with them, and their enmity towards Zhao Fu slightly lessened.

The fourth item up for auction was a skill book, which Zhao Fu was not interested in. The skill book was sold for 6,000 silver coins in the end.

Zhao Fu was not interested in the fifth, sixth, or seventh items either, so he did not participate. The eighth item was a Superior quality Silver grade material and had a reserve price of 3,000 silver coins.

Everyone started to bid for it, and Zhao Fu had a slight interest in it. Just as he was about to make a bid, a girl next to him, who looked around 17 years old, made a bid, saying, “8,000 silver coins!”

The young girl was quite short, but she was cute-looking and had a sweet voice. Zhao Fu looked over at her and decided to give up on the material. The Silver grade material was not worth that much – after all, normal Silver grade materials cost around 5,000 or 6,000 silver coins, and only Exquisite quality Silver grade materials were worth 8,000 silver coins. Moreover, even if he had made a bid, with how that girl had just outbid the previous person by 5,000 silver coins, the price might go up to 20,000 or 30,000 silver coins in the end.

Zhao Fu was a rational person, so he decided to give up on the material. In the end, the Silver grade material was sold to the girl.

The next few items did not attract Zhao Fu’s interest at all. However, some people from the VIP rooms started to make bids, and they were abnormally intense with their bidding.

The twentieth item was 6 wooden sticks that were all 2 meters long. The wooden sticks were slightly white, and both ends were quite sharp. There were many runes carved onto the wooden sticks, making them look quite extraordinary.

The beautiful woman started to introduce them, saying, “Six Wood Absolute Barrier, an advanced barrier formation that can seal all spatial equipment and skills, including teleportation channels.”

Zhao Fu became quite excited. He had been thinking about the God-Refining Plan, and he had considered the possibility of the clone of the godly spirit escaping. As such, he wanted to prepare a barrier.

Right now, normal barrier formations were useless to most people, but they would be useful in city battles in the future. They could make it so that one’s enemies would not be able to use their teleportation channels, and although they were fairly cheap to him, around 20,000 silver coins, Zhao Fu was not interested in ordinary barrier formations. However, the Six Wood Absolute Barrier caused his eyes to light up.

The reserve price for the Six Wood Absolute Barrier was 180,000 silver coins. It was useless to most people right now, and for most of them, even if they sold everything, they would not be able to afford it. Even the system’s factions weren’t very interested in the item.

As such, the appearance of this item caused the atmosphere to die down, and seeing this, the beautiful woman inwardly sighed, “ _This item hasn’t been auctioned off even after several auctions. The reserve price of 300,000 silver coins has already been reduced to 180,000 silver coins, and from their reactions, it looks like this price will continue to go down, or we’ll be forced to just keep it in the Storehouse.”_

“Would anyone like to make a bid?”

The beautiful woman asked this twice, but she was met with silence. Just as she was about to disappointedly call people up to take the wooden sticks away, someone finally spoke.

“180,500 silver coins!”

The speaker’s soft voice was extremely loud in the silent auction house, causing discussions to break out. Everyone looked over to see who was willing to spend so much money for something so useless.