Chapter 37
Ch.37 Curse Medium
“Ladies and gentlemen, the ‘residue of divine observation’ behind me originates from one of the Holy Descent events of the Goddess of Frozen Winter. It is said that the Goddess of Frozen Winter’s divine visitation was intended to…”
As expected, the auctioneer Leli began another lengthy introduction regarding the origin of the residue, though whether the tragic epic he described was true remains questionable.
“The story is merely for entertainment, but that divine residue should indeed stem from the Goddess of Frozen Winter, right?”
The Goddess of Frozen Winter, a primary deity in ‘The Shining Myriad Trails’, belongs to the third generation of deities. She maintains friendly relations with the chief deity of the Light Pantheon—the ‘Goddess of Dawn’. Both belong to the Order Faction and are adversaries to the Abyssal Faction led by the Abyssal Demonic Deities.
Through the transparent rectangular sealed cabinet, Luo Nan carefully observed the single drop of ‘Blood of the Saint’.
“If the auctioneer is correct, this should be the single drop of blood shed by the Saint who bore the Divine Descent.”
“I wonder what method this humble Hulos Exchange used to acquire such an item—wasn’t this kind of thing supposed to be seized and sealed by the Church and national authorities?”
“Perhaps the scale of that great war was too vast, and this single drop of the Saint’s blood was scattered so far that someone stumbled upon it by chance.”
“As for the price, it probably won’t be pleasant. But it doesn’t matter—I’m unaffected either way.”
Thinking this, Luo Nan calmed his mind and waited for the auctioneer to announce the starting bid.
“…It contains a trace of the undispersed divine power of the Goddess of Frozen Winter, and the Saint himself was also highly accomplished in the spiritual realm—its applications are naturally extensive…”
“Then… the opening bid is 100 Gold Faras!”
No sooner had the words left his mouth than a chorus of bidding voices erupted throughout the temporary auction hall.
“102 Faras!”
“105 Faras!”
“…”
Well, even the Blood of a Saint fetches no high price here.
Although these divine residues are precious, they hold little practical use for the vast majority of people.
Most of those currently bidding are essentially acting as middlemen, hoping to resell later.
But why doesn’t the Hulos Exchange itself act as the middleman? Or why not entrust this item to a professional black-market auction house?
“It must be Serela’s fault again. The marketplace is about to shut down, and every vendor is rushing to maximize profits through any possible channel—they’re all just sweeping their own doorstep clean.”
“In this context, it’s the perfect time to find a bargain.”
Luo Nan glanced around the room. “To be honest, I suspect the protagonists have already arrived here, activating their protagonist aura to scoop up everything.”
“But they’d likely go to official auction houses instead, since this auction was hastily arranged—I probably won’t run into any of them.”
“I still need to stay as far away from them as possible.”
With this thought, Luo Nan subtly composed himself and raised his bidder number. “120 Faras.”
This time, he did not employ an exaggerated doubling-style bid. Though he had plenty of money, there was no need to waste it unnecessarily.
“130 Faras.”
“Oh? Him again?”
The bidder this time was the smiling dwarf who had previously competed with Luo Nan over the ‘scale from the Corner of a Mermaid’s Eye’. Now he too raised his bidder number to challenge Luo Nan.
“After the scale incident, I’d completely forgotten about you—and never got a chance to deal with you. Who knew you were waiting until the very end?”
“150 Faras.”
Luo Nan immediately offered his new bid without hesitation.
As the price surpassed the threshold of 150 Gold Faras, the previously lively atmosphere gradually grew quiet.
Why? Other buyers likely didn’t bring enough cash—or perhaps this price made profit margins too slim to justify further bidding.
“160 Faras!”
The smiling dwarf quickly followed with another bid.
‘Hmph, are you really challenging me? Then I’m sorry… the power of Black Gold isn’t limited to this!’
“200 Faras.”
When Luo Nan announced his bid, the entire temporary auction hall fell momentarily silent.
Many attendees couldn’t help but turn toward Luo Nan, as if gazing upon a wealthy magnate.
“Two hundred… two hundred ten Faras!”
Yet the smiling dwarf did not back down. After a brief pause, he issued another bid.
However, this time his voice lacked its former casual ease—it trembled slightly.
“Is he weakening?” Luo Nan detected the shift in the dwarf’s demeanor and smiled inwardly. “Then let this young master shatter your hopes!”
“250 Faras.”
As predicted, when Luo Nan announced the 250 Faras bid, the smiling dwarf finally fell silent.
“In the Upper Districts, I wouldn’t dare boast—but in the Lower Districts… I could buy an entire street with my eyes closed. What do you think you can possibly match me with?”
“250 Faras once.”
“250 Faras twice.”
Auctioneer Leli raised his hammer high—once it struck, the divine residue would belong to Luo Nan.
Oh no—technically, it would belong to ‘Mr. Tree’.
“Wait a moment—I recall the Hulos Exchange permits payment in kind, correct?”
The smiling dwarf extended his hand, temporarily halting the auctioneer’s motion.
“Of course. If you possess any rare arcane materials or supernatural artifacts, we accept them as equivalent value offsets against the auction price.”
Leli promptly confirmed, knowing full well that the smiling dwarf had asked this question because he intended to continue bidding on the divine residue—but lacked sufficient cash, thus resorting to barter.
“How much is this worth?”
From beneath his cloak, the smiling dwarf pulled out a black skull radiating ominous dark energy. “This is a ‘Soul-Devouring Curse’ medium, personally crafted by a specialist priest—actually, a master—in this field. Its value is at least equivalent to 100 Gold Faras!”
He held the black skull above his head, attempting to display its terrifying power to everyone.
But due to his short stature, even with both arms raised, none of the other bidders could clearly see the skull’s features.
Yet the chilling, dangerous aura emanating from it sent a collective shiver through the crowd.
“That thing… feels familiar,” Luo Nan instantly recalled information from his past memories. “This must be an artifact created by a secondary priest of the Archdemon ‘Nature’, designed to communicate with Abyssal forces and impose curses upon humans.”
“This fellow dares to openly produce something related to ‘Nature’? How bold!”
Remember, although the common folk of the Material Plane, Estherya Continent, hold varying attitudes toward different Abyssal Archdemons, unfortunately, the Archdemon ‘Nature’ is universally despised by all intelligent races for his penchant for stirring chaos on the Material Plane.
Especially among the Order Faction’s leading force—the human population whose dominant faith centers on the Goddess of Dawn.
Whether it’s the Osoke Empire, the Dawn Cathedral, or any other nation or faction, all maintain a leave no survivors policy toward followers and adherents of this Archdemon.
At least publicly.
“So this guy’s identity isn’t ordinary. I wonder if he has any connection to the low-level believers of ‘Nature’ that Anya and I recently eradicated.”
“I’ll keep my guard up.”
“How did your inspection go? Is this medium truly worth what I said?”
As the Exchange staff completed their examination, the smiling dwarf asked confidently.
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