Chapter 272 : Chapter 272
Chapter 272. Before the Auction
After Fulan returned to the Material Realm, the Lord of Radiance could only choose to develop the domain He had created on His own.
In places unknown to Fulan, He used certain special methods to pull seven small fragments from elsewhere into the Radiant Domain.
Only then was He able to let believers like Una become Radiant Priests, and many other believers were also granted power by Him.
But in the course of expanding, He discovered that one particular resource was in desperately short supply: Spirit Crystals.
Spirit Crystals were a substance produced only in the Spirit Realm, and it was said that they represented a part of the Spirit Realm itself.
The Lord of Radiance did not know whether that was true, but He knew one other thing: Spirit Crystals were extremely useful.
The Radiant Domain He had opened up could no longer take in any more of those small fragments, which meant that its capacity was already full.
To increase the capacity of the Radiant Domain, the Lord of Radiance found that it was not impossible to do so with the divine power He projected downward, but if He did that, He could forget about doing anything else.
Using divine power solely to expand the Radiant Domain felt wasteful, so the Lord of Radiance set His sights on Spirit Crystals instead.
Although, as a god from the Astral Realm, He could use those fragments under His control to do legitimate business and earn Spirit Crystals that way,
the Lord of Radiance did not want to work that hard. He only made a rough calculation of how long it would take to earn enough Spirit Crystals, and even that was already more than He could tolerate, so He fixed His gaze on the Emerald Market instead.
As long as He could take some Spirit Crystals from the Emerald Market, enough to expand His domain to around thirty fragments, that would be sufficient. By that point, the power He granted would be enough to cultivate a Third-Tier Professional.
At that stage, He would at last have gained an initial foothold in the Spirit Realm, and He would no longer need to pour divine power into the Radiant Domain without limit just to maintain it.
Fulan walked through the central district of the Emerald Market and could not help marveling that it truly was different from the outside.
That artificial mountain alone, over a hundred meters tall and completely invisible from outside, was far grander than the building clusters of those nameless little places beyond.
And the space within was exceptionally spacious. The crowding outside was nowhere to be seen.
There were still many people on the roads, but the roads were broad, and no one was jostling shoulder to shoulder.
Along both sides of the road were display positions set in special locations, exhibiting armor, weapons, and rare monster materials.
These were the fixed display spots of the central district, used to showcase the goods currently being sold.
They were protected by the blessings of the Spirit Realm, and outsiders had no way of breaking the protective glass around them.
Only after taking a liking to an item, paying enough Spirit Crystals for it, and completing the purchase would a designated staff member hand the item over.
Aside from that, there was also an auction hall beneath the artificial mountain in the central district, specifically used to auction important items.
The purple short sword Fulan had put up for sale would also be auctioned there.
“The next auction is in three hours.”
Fulan frowned when she saw that information.
As an auction house located in the Spirit Realm, it naturally could not afford long waiting times between auctions.
The environment of the Spirit Realm could change at any moment and force the Emerald Market to close.
So once an item here was confirmed for auction, it would be inserted directly into the nearest upcoming auction session.
That schedule made Fulan doubt whether the Lord of Radiance could finish all His preparations before her short sword was sold off.
She remembered that the Lord of Radiance had said that, as long as she removed the Spirit Realm restrictions at the center of the Emerald Market, everyone outside the central district would first be expelled from the Emerald Market, and the local security forces would be afflicted with negative effects at the same time.
At that point, all restrictions on the storerooms would be lifted. Fulan would only need to make a round through the storeroom where the auction lots were kept, and everything there would become hers.
The Lord of Radiance had already arranged for believers to transport those Spirit Crystals. Fulan’s role was simply to get inside and buy enough time for Him to use divine power to break through the defenses here.
Those words left Fulan dumbfounded, and she asked carefully, “Are the defenses here really that fragile? Can you undo them that easily?”
And the Lord of Radiance had answered with only a single sentence:
“Divine power can do anything.”
That gave rise to an intense curiosity in Fulan regarding gods and divine power. She very nearly wanted to go to the Lord of Radiance immediately and study divine power with Him.
But she restrained herself. Since divine power could break through the defenses of the Emerald Market, it was obviously not something she could touch at her current level.
The Emerald Market carried enormous weight among low-tier professionals. That alone was enough to show its status.
A place like this was naturally under strict guard, and ordinary methods could never infiltrate it.
But the Lord of Radiance, a god from the Astral Realm, was an exception. He could use divine power to shatter the defenses within with ease.
That raised the standing of gods in Fulan’s mind by several notches.
As Fulan continued down the road, she saw many things that interested her.
But she could only keep walking without stopping, because she knew she did not have even a single Spirit Crystal in hand and simply could not afford any of them.
And there was no need for her to buy anything right now. If these things were not bought by someone else in the short term, she could simply go to the storerooms later and scoop up a heap of good items.
As for whether they would be the very items she had taken a liking to now, that would depend on fate.
Just then, Fulan saw a familiar figure. And when Fulan looked over, Nora looked over as well.
“Fulan, why are you here too?”
Nora stared at Fulan in complete disbelief. She had never expected Fulan to appear here.
She knew Fulan did not have any Spirit Crystals on her. For a professional who had only just entered a Spirit Realm market, that was perfectly normal.
After all, before learning about Spirit Realm markets, almost no professional would realize that there existed a currency called Spirit Crystals, one that circulated only in the Spirit Realm.
She had assumed Fulan might have a few valuable items on her, but even selling those would take time. So how had Fulan gotten in here just like that?
Fulan explained,
“I sold a weapon that made it into the featured auction lot list, so they specially gave me a pass permit.”
Ordinarily, there was only one way to obtain a pass permit for the central district: to buy one with a considerable amount of Spirit Crystals. Once purchased, it allowed entry to and exit from the central district for about a year.
And normally, consigning an item for sale was not enough to get a pass permit. But there were exceptions to everything.
If you consigned an item to the auction house, you did not actually need to enter the central district at all. You could simply go there later to collect the Spirit Crystals earned from the sale.
But what Fulan had consigned was a featured auction lot, one specifically recommended by the auction house and used as an important means of attracting attention. Naturally, clients of that sort could not be treated the same as everyone else.
After learning that this was Fulan’s first visit, the staff member helping her with the registration immediately handed her a pass permit, valid for roughly three months.
But Fulan did not care how long it remained valid. Whether today’s operation succeeded or not, she would have to stay away from this market afterward to avoid suspicion. Even if she came again in the future, it would be to a different market.
“I see. A featured auction lot? And you were actually willing to part with something like that.”
Nora revealed a shocked expression. She had not expected Fulan to possess something that could be classified as a featured auction lot.
There were times when the Emerald Market stayed open for three days straight and still did not see even a single item worthy of being labeled a featured auction lot.
And yet Fulan had directly brought one out for auction. That left Nora clicking her tongue, unsure what to say.
A featured auction lot like that would usually be worth several hundred gold coins in the Material Realm, and some with especially special uses could soar to over a thousand gold coins.
Knowing that someone she knew had an item worth several hundred gold coins made Nora feel both envious and a little miserable.
As a member of the Joberna Society, her financial situation had never been particularly good, because the experiments she conducted consumed far too much money.
That was also the main reason she had given up the superior learning environment of the Floating City, taken on assignments, and come to the Northern Society. There was no helping it. She was simply too short on money.
If she had not had such a great need for funds, and if she did not carry the identity of a Joberna Society member, why would she ever have come to a miserable place like the Northern Society?
At that moment, the auction house beneath the emerald artificial mountain shot a beam of purple light into the sky. That was how the auction house announced the appearance of a featured auction lot.
And the beam was purple, which meant the lot was a weapon.
Ordinarily, not everyone stayed in the central district all the time. Although the central district sold only extremely valuable goods,
not everyone had enough money on hand to bid in auctions, nor did everyone have no need for low-tier materials.
This was a complete magical world. Sometimes, certain low-tier materials were far more suitable than many high-tier ones.
Nora looked at the purple beam shooting into the sky and asked curiously,
“You’re really selling a staff that could become a featured auction lot just like that?”
Because Fulan, like Nora, was a mage, and because Nora knew Fulan was not a member of the Sword Chant School, she felt that Fulan probably would not be auctioning off some close-combat weapon or the like.
If she had possessed one, she probably would have sold it long ago. Why would she wait until now and then sell it here in the Spirit Realm? After all, a melee weapon was basically useless to most mages.
So Nora assumed that Fulan had painfully decided to sell a staff. When the purple beam marked a lot as a weapon, the only spell equipment that usually qualified was a staff.
Putting all that together, Nora concluded that Fulan had probably put up a staff for sale, most likely one of the type that broadly enhanced all kinds of spells.
“Huh? No, I’m selling a short sword,” Fulan immediately denied. She denied it so quickly that Nora did not even react for a moment.
“????”
But once she came back to herself, Nora’s face was filled with confusion and shock.
“You’re a mage. Why do you even have a short sword that powerful on you?”