While the public present in the Black Market building of Hadia waited for the auction to start, all the captives were already duly allocated to their positions behind the stage curtains.
There were almost 600 captives trapped in that place, inside those cells that were on top of rails that led to the same place, on the opposite side of the curtain.
And in one of the smallest cells, which was about 4 square meters, five people stood in silence. There were three men and two women who looked relatively young, except for one of the men who already looked like an old man.
Of course, considering that all of them were already in the 5th stage of cultivation, it wouldn't be a surprise if each of them were already over 100-years-old, since the life expectancy of a Spiritual General is 850 years.
In any case, the five were dressed in clothes of the same type, like the rest of the captives, while each of them was leaning against the side of the cell bars, looking around apprehensively.
From that group, of course, Peter was there, along with Joey and Barbara, the people he had approached in the past period. In addition to them, there were two people that Peter had only recently met, as they had been victims of thugs from the region they came from, rather than Del's organization.
The young man had blond hair and a decent appearance, level 43, obviously had a Black talent, and his name was Milton. As for the girl, she was Robin, level 42, same talent as the other four people in this cell. She also was blond, but her particularity that caught the most attention was her petite body, with some parts still undeveloped...
Anyway, Peter and his two traveling companions had only met these two today when the Black Market separated them into groups to make the lots that would be offered off at the auction.
As for what had happened before that, well, nothing huge had occurred.
In the days that have passed since Del sold them to the Black Market, Peter and the other captives have been 'stayed' in a warehouse of this organization. There, they could rest from the terror days they had spent on that boat trip while slowly recovering, improving their appearance for today's auction.
But each one of them still looked miserable. After all, as cultivators, they needed great spiritual energy to recover fully. However, none of them had been allowed to cultivate, having been wearing those collars the entire time, preventing them from gathering and absorbing spiritual energy.
With that, it would be impossible for them to regain their original appearances during this past period.
However, they still had the 'luxury' of eating, drinking water, sleep, and even sunbathe once a day!
They also didn't have to go through the occasional beating they received while in the hands of Del's pirates, which was also an essential factor in improving each of their appearances.
Anyway, some time had passed since they had been allocated to that place when the five started talking in low voices, introducing themselves to each other.
"Where do you come from?" Barbara asked without showing much emotion.
The young woman with the 'small' body then responded with sad eyes. "I come from Stone Island. I was traveling alone when I ended up running into a group of thugs from that place. After that, I think you can already imagine what happened..."
After that, the young man then did the same as Robin. "In my case, I'm from here, from the Cromwell Kingdom. I ended up pissing off people I couldn't, so I ended up here after that nobleman handed me over to a pirate."
After listening to the two, Peter, Barbara, and Joey also talked about their origins, saying how they ended up in this situation.
They continued to talk for a while, waiting for what would happen next.
...
On the opposite side of the curtain, the thousands of people were already more and more eager for the auction to start, actively talking.
However, it wasn't long before the gong sound sounded in the air, when suddenly a tall, strong man, wearing an all-black suit, came from behind the stage, positioning himself in that spot that was being lit up by the arrays.
He then smiled and swept his eyes across the crowd from right to left, eventually giving a sharp look towards the VIP rooms.
As soon as they saw this, all the people who had been actively speaking a second ago stopped their voices and started paying attention to this man who had appeared on the stage.
This was one of the local Black Market managers, someone at level 49, the apex of the Spiritual General stage!
He finished looking at the audience and then began to speak. "Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the fortnightly auction of the Black Market of the city of Hadia!"
"Today, we have many lots to be sold, including three lots with Black talent's captives, with five individuals on each lot. Anyway, there will be some interesting items after the slave auction, so prepare your crystals, hehehe."
He then stopped for a moment and clapped his hands.
Pa!
"I declare that today's auction has started!"
After saying that, he positioned himself at that spot on the stage, standing in the left corner of that spot, turning into a position where he could see the item and the thousands of people present.
Right after that, a metallic sound could be heard by the audience before the lighting changes, illuminating, beyond the auctioneer, another place on the stage, where there was a large cell with more than 30 people inside.
"To start today's auction, I have here a group of 33 captives, from lot 1, the weakest of which is at level 22 and the strongest at level 34."
"Most of them are under the age of 100, so this group can serve for a long time to whoever buys them."
"The initial value of this lot is 70,000 low-grade crystals, with a minimum increase of 1,000 crystals per bid."
And as soon as he finished speaking, voices originated from the VIP rooms as bids were taken.
"71,000"
"72,000"
"73,000"
...
"88,000"
As the bids were placed on this first batch of Blue talent's captives, Kevin was quietly sitting on the porch of his VIP room.
He wasn't all that interested in these less talented groups of slaves. Of course, he still had to buy at least one group of slaves like that, as that was the order given by his father.
But Kevin had left that job to bodyguard Clive. He was only here today because he wanted to strengthen his forces, obtain future subordinates from the most talented slaves, and acquire a decent cauldron.
"151,000 for the gentleman in room 6, anyone else?" The auctioneer asked, but no one answered. This was already a high value for Blue talent's slaves, and there were still other lots to be sold at this auction.
"Okay, the first batch of slaves is sold for 151,000 crystals to the gentleman in room 6!"
"Let's go to the next batch..."
...
"163,000"
...
"179,000"
...
"Finally, the last batch, the 15th batch, was sold to the lord of room 19 for 149,000 crystals." After he says that, the last large cell that had appeared on the stage disappeared into the darkness as the auctioneer prepared to proceed to the apex of the slave auction.
He paused for a moment and looked in the direction of the VIP rooms, and then said with a smile on his face. "Now we will open the bids for the 2nd type of lots, containing the captives with Black talent!"
"Each of the slaves present in the three lots that will be sold are already in the 5th stage of cultivation and are mostly considered young!"
"We also don't have a big difference between the genres in the respective groups, with six women and nine men. It's not easy to get so many slave couples with this talent, hehe..."
He continued to present the 'product' when he finally got to the part that most interested those nobles present at today's auction.
"The starting bid for each lot is 100,000 low-grade crystals, with a minimum increase of 10,000 crystals!" The auctioneer spoke as he looked at the VIP rooms and waved towards the three cells, measuring 4 square meters each, already there in the middle of the stage.
Right after hearing this, Kevin immediately spoke out loud. "150 thousand!"
"160 thousand." Another voice sounded from one of the other VIP rooms.
"180 thousand."
...
"250,000!" The young Kevin made his bid, feeling a burden on his conscience for having to spend so much.
After that, the auctioneer asked if anyone else was willing to bid higher, but this time no response was heard. He then said. "OK, the first batch of this round will go to the young man in room 5."
Hearing that, Kevin smiled, satisfied. He looked at the cell with three men and two women, one of them being 'small,' and the other had a pretty body, considering her current situation.
As for the men, Kevin hadn't paid attention to the young Peter and the other two. These were just individuals he wouldn't even remember in the future after their children were born and they were killed...