Chapter 240 - Purgatory’s Shadow
“If that is still not enough, you can become the Vice Leader of the Guild. You can also form your own elite team and maintain independence. How about it?” Shi Feng added.
Twilight Echo’s abandonment of a future Tier 6 god-ranked powerhouse was the same as crippling both of their arms.
The reason Shi Feng thought “both” and not just one of their arms, was because, without Aqua Rose, her Tier 6 friend would not join Twilight Echo. Hence, Twilight Echo’s decision to expel Aqua Rose was the equivalent of expelling two future god-ranked powerhouses.
Meanwhile, Shi Feng had single-handedly caused this tragedy of Twilight Echo’s, albeit unintentionally.
If he could recruit Aqua Rose into his Guild, he very much looked forward to the Guild’s future.
“Even if I agreed to your offer, I still have a group of subordinates in the Storm Empire. I might be able to afford the expensive teleportation fee for myself, but they won’t be able to. Moreover, for my sake, they chose to leave Twilight Echo and abandon their bright futures there. I can’t just abandon them for my own selfish reasons. I am truly sorry about this.” Although Shi Feng’s offer was very attractive, Aqua Rose was not willing to abandon her subordinates.
“Are there a lot of them?” Shi Feng asked.
“There should be over a hundred people. Master Black Flame, you should just give up. Not even Twilight Echo can afford the teleportation fee for so many people,” Aqua Rose naturally understood Shi Feng’s intentions behind the question.
Teleportation across countries was costly. Moreover, the Storm Empire was very far away from Star-Moon Kingdom, so the teleportation fee involved would be far more expensive. A rough estimate for a single player was 2 to 3 Gold Coins, while the total for a hundred players would be at least 200 to 300 Gold Coins.
Not to mention just one first-rate Guild, even ten first-rate Guilds combined couldn’t afford such a price.
It was impossible that Shi Feng would possess so many Gold Coins.
“So, it’s only a hundred or so. Fortunately, there aren’t too many.” Shi Feng sighed in relief. If there were over a thousand players, then he would truly feel heartache from the teleportation fees. “Come to Star-Moon Kingdom, then. I’ll pay the teleportation fees.”
He had earned a ton from Twilight Echo before, and right now, it just so happened that he could return some of it to Aqua Rose. This could be considered as a type of fate as well. However, if Glorious Echo found out about this, he would most likely vomit blood out of anger.
“Master Black Flame, that’s 300—hundred—Gold Coins, not 3 Gold Coins,” Aqua Rose reminded Shi Feng.
“Yes, I know that. I’ll send 300 Gold to you in a moment. After you arrive in White River City, head to the Starstreak Trading Firm to look for me.” As the Blackwing Auction had already started, Shi Feng disconnected the call after saying so.
Shi Feng’s words left Aqua Rose utterly shocked.
“Just what kind of power is behind Master Black Flame? How could he have such astonishing wealth? To casually hand over 300 Gold Coins… Could it be one of those Super Guilds?” Shi Feng’s tone when he spoke had been very casual as if the 300 Gold Coins he mentioned were merely 3 Gold Coins. Aqua Rose shook her head. “No, even those Super Guilds can’t spend 300 Gold Coins with such ease.”
“This is interesting. Anyway, I’ll get my answers as long as I arrive at White River City.” Aqua Rose revealed a faint smile, anticipation filling her heart.
---
Meanwhile, the venue of today’s Blackwing Auction was already packed with players. Among all these players, a majority consisted of the upper echelons of large Guilds.
These Guilds had scraped up every single Coin they could for today’s auction.
From their inquiries, they learned that the Auction House sold many astonishing items. Even if it was only in the normal auction, items such as Fine-Gold Equipment and materials required to forge Dark-Gold Equipment would be available. There was also a small possibility for items such as Dark-Gold Weapons and Epic ranked items to appear in the auction. One only needed sufficient Coins to purchase these precious items.
After going through several warm-up auctions, the fiery atmosphere in the auction venue reached its zenith.
From the start, players desired every item that had been up for auction. However, none of these items piqued Shi Feng’s interest, as all of them were only Mysterious-Iron rank. Although such items were useful to a Guild’s elite members, they were not of much use to him.
Meanwhile, the following item that appeared on stage instantly caused the eyes of every player present to shine. They all expressed great interest in this item.
This item was a Fine-Gold ranked dagger.
[Ice Thorn] (Dagger, Fine-Gold Rank)
Level 15
Attack +134
Strength +18, Agility +24, Endurance +15
Additional Passive Skill-
Power of Frost: Deals 50% frost damage to the target, reducing target’s Movement Speed and Attack Speed by 50% for 4 seconds.
If an Assassin equipped this dagger, they would be like a tiger that had grown wings. Even if the Assassin failed to kill the enemy with a single hit, with the speed reduction in effect, they could continue linking skills to destroy their enemy.
Aside from the Ice Thorn, there was also a dagger called Raging Flames Dagger.
[Raging Flames Dagger] (Dagger, Fine-Gold Rank)
Level 15
Attack +134
Strength +18, Agility +24, Endurance +15
Additional Skill-
Power of Flames: Deals 50% flame damage to the target, reducing the target’s Defense by 10% for 20 seconds. Effect stacks up to a maximum of 5 times.
All Assassins in the auction venue grew excited at the appearance of these two daggers. They practically drooled, wishing they could equip these blades.
Regarding the speed reduction, the armor break effect, or the additional 50% magic damage, they were all precious to Assassins. One could say that these two daggers were the best weapons for Assassins at this stage of the game, and they were second to none.
However, the minimum bid also caused the players to feel helpless and frustrated.
The bidding started at 5 Gold Coins. Moreover, the minimum increment for each bid was 10 Silver Coins. If they were to compete for this item, the price would still increase by a lot. If one of the large Guilds present bid on these daggers, that Guild would lose the ability to compete for the following items to show up in the auction.
Unless they had a particular need for these daggers, none of the Guilds present would insist on buying them.
“Not bad. They are indeed top-tier weapons for a Level 15 Assassin. It just so happens that I can gift them to Fire Dance,” Shi Feng said in satisfaction after examining the Attributes of the daggers.
“Great! Heaven has yet to forsake me! If I can present these daggers to the Guild Leader, he would definitely be very happy! He might even decide to my repeal punishment!” Sitting at the forefront of the auction hall, Joking Scholar’s eyes turned crimson as he looked at the Ice Thorn and Raging Flames Dagger displayed on the stage. If Level 200 guards were not present, he might have rushed onto the stage to snatch the weapons.
After the auctioneer announced the start of the bidding, the entire auction hall exploded.
“Five Gold!”
“Five Gold, 50 Silvers!”
“Six Gold!”
…...
Before a minute had passed, the price of the daggers had reached 7 Gold 20 Silvers. When the majority of the Guilds saw such a price, they quickly gave up on the daggers.
Hahaha! You all can compete with each other all you want, but don’t even think that you can win against me! Joking Scholar was completely confident at the moment. He was not afraid that someone could bid higher than he could. Moreover, this was only the start of the auction; many more items would appear later on, and no one knew how powerful the following items would be. Everyone would hold back their bids. Hence, Joking Scholar was not afraid of someone competing with him over the daggers.
Seeing that the bids had stopped, Shi Feng opened his mouth and said, “10 Gold Coins.”
The auction venue instantly fell silent. Although these daggers were top-tier weapons for an Assassin, that price was simply too high. However, that was not to say that these daggers were worth such a price tag. Rather, not many players currently present could afford such a price. They had not brought that many Coins with them to the auction. If the auction were conducted using Credits, many players would be more than willing to spend 500,000 Credits to buy these daggers.
“Black Flame? Shit! He is actually trying to compete with me! How could he have so much money?!” Joking Scholar was on the brink of insanity. If he offered an even higher price for the daggers, then he could not afford to bid on later items. Yet, if he did not buy these daggers, his future would be bleak.
In the end, Joking Scholar made a decision, loudly shouting, “10 Gold 20 Silvers!”
In response, Shi Feng merely smiled as he casually said, “12 Gold.”
“Twelve Gold 10 Silvers!” Joking Scholar gripped his chest in pain as he shouted, his hatred for Shi Feng growing intensely.
“Annoying little pest. Twenty Gold.” Shi Feng did not wish to waste his time with Joking Scholar, so he abruptly raised the bid by a huge margin. He did not mind spending such a small amount of money. After all, he had made a huge profit off Twilight Echo today.
“Black Flame!” Joking Scholar glared at Shi Feng, a hint of despair hidden within his eyes. He only had 18 Gold on him right now, so he had no way to compete for the daggers at all. He never imagined that, in the very end, the Black Flame he had looked down on would give him the final blow, sending him into the abyss of despair.
On the other hand, Shi Feng felt it troublesome to pay attention to Joking Scholar. He did not even glance at the Maitreya as he focused on the next auctioned item.
Purgatory’s Shadow!
This was one of the three treasures one could only find in the Blackwing Auction House!