Chapter 415: Bidding war Inside his private booth, the only Grade 5 VIP room in the entire tower, Ethan leaned back into a chair made of stardust silk. Puffin was perched on his lap, munching on a Chaos Grade grape. Through the one-way enchanted glass, Ethan could see the entire auction hall. Thousands of seats were filled, and the energy in the room was electric, vibrating with the collective greed of the most powerful beings in the sector. "Okay, Puffin," Ethan whispered, a sharp glint in his eyes. "Let’s start the auction. Shall we?" He pressed a small rune on his armrest. Instantly, the lights in the grand hall dimmed, and a single pillar of brilliant light focused on the stage. The host Ethan had chosen stepped forward. She was a woman of ethereal beauty, wearing a gown that looked like it was woven from the aurora borealis. Her voice, amplified by the tower’s formations, was clear and enchanting. "Welcome, honored guests, to the first Grand Auction of the Ethan Hunt Company," she announced, bowing gracefully. "We have a vast collection today. To ensure we do not keep you waiting, we will begin with our Axiom Level artifacts. We will sell them in complementary batches of ten." The stage flickered. Ten weapons appeared, floating in a perfect circle. There were swords, shields, and staves, all pulsing with the same rhythmic energy. Ethan had designed them to work together. If ten warriors used them in a formation, their power would triple. "The starting price for this batch is 70,000 Origin Coins!" The bidding war began instantly. While the Eternal Sovereigns in the VIP rooms remained silent, saving their wealth for the true treasures, the Axiom Dominion experts and merchant guild leaders went into a frenzy. "80,000!" "100,000!" "150,000!" For the next five hours, the hall was a blur of shouting voices and flashing numbers. Batch after batch of high-level gear was sold. To the buyers, these were life-changing weapons. To Ethan, this was just a way to drain the middle class of the Dragon World. By the time the last Axiom batch was cleared, Ethan’s terminal showed a profit of 200 million Origin Coins. It was a massive sum for a day’s work. The atmosphere shifted. The light on the stage turned a deep, royal purple. "Now," the host said, her smile widening, "We move to the items that define legends. We have one thousand Origin Paragon artifacts. These will be sold individually." The first item appeared. It was a suit of heavy plate armor that seemed to swallow the light around it. It was a Paragon-level defensive treasure. The silence in the hall was broken by a roar from a Grade 2 VIP room. "500,000 Origin Coins!" The powerhouses were finally waking up. These artifacts were the pinnacle for most races. An Origin Paragon artifact could protect a sect for ten thousand years. Inside one Grade 3 VIP booth, Zara stared at her Golden Card with trembling hands. She looked at Rose. Rose was staring at a beautiful, slender longsword on the stage. The sword was made of Everfrost Crystal and radiated a chill that even the stage’s barriers could barely contain. "Sis, you love that sword, don’t you?" Zara whispered. "It is a fine blade," Rose said softly, her eyes locked on it. "But the price will be too high. We need to save our coins for the serum for you and Ryan." The bidding for the frost sword started at 300,000. "400,000!" Trian’s voice boomed from his booth. He wanted to buy it to gift it to Rose later, forcing her into his debt. "600,000!" another Fire Dragon elder shouted. Zara looked at her card. She remembered what the handsome demon had said. Ninety percent discount. Only you can use it. She waited until the price hit 1.5 million. Trian was looking smug, thinking he had won. "Two million!" Zara shouted, her voice squeaking slightly. The hall went quiet. Trian laughed. "Little girl, do you even have that much money? Your Master Melida won’t let you spend the sect’s entire budget on a sword!" Zara ignored him. She swiped her card on the booth’s terminal. Because of Ethan’s friendship gift, the system only deducted 200,000 coins from her account, even though the bid was two million. "Sold!" the host cried out. Rose looked at her sister in shock. "Zara! Where did you get that kind of money?" "The nice demon man gave me a discount, remember?" Zara giggled, handing the sword to her sister. "He said he’s my friend." Rose held the sword, feeling its power hum against her palm. She looked toward the Grade 5 VIP room. Her confusion deepened. "Why is he doing this for us?" By the time the one thousand Paragon artifacts were sold, Ethan had collected another one billion Origin Coins. But then came the ultimate artifact. The lights in the hall did not just dim. They vanished. For a moment, there was total darkness. Then, a soft golden hum filled the room. On the stage, a simple weapon rack rose. Resting on it was a spear. It was not flashy. It was ivory-white, with runes that seemed to shift and crawl like living insects. The moment it appeared, the seventy-nine Eternal Sovereigns in the VIP rooms stood up simultaneously. Their chairs scraped against the floors. Their auras leaked out in sheer shock. "An Eternal Artifact," Lady Melida whispered, her eyes lit up. "Honorable guests, this is an Eternal spear with no law binding it. That means any laws can be used with this spear.", the host gave a simple description, but it was enough to shake the entire auction house. This was unprecedented. Normally, eternal artifacts were fixed. If you were a fire cultivator and found an ice artifact, it was useless. But this spear was a universal key to power. Its aura far surpassed the seventy-nine Eternal Sovereigns in the room. "The starting price," the host said, her voice wavering under the pressure of the spear’s presence, "is 1 billion Origin Coins." The hall was dead silent for three seconds. Then, the world exploded. "1.5 billion!" "2 billion!" "5 billion!" The price climbed at a terrifying speed. This was not just a weapon. It was a guarantee that a sect, a family would become a superpower. "10 billion!" Trian’s guardian, the Fire Dragon, roared from his VIP suite. "11 billion!" Melida countered, her eyes bloodshot. She was willing to sell her soul for this spear. Ethan watched the chaos with a bored expression. He had created that spear in five minutes. To these people, it was a god-tier relic. To him, it was a fishing lure. He wanted to see exactly how much liquid capital these Original Races were hiding. "Master, they are getting very angry," Puffin chirped. "Good," Ethan replied. "Let them fight. The more they spend on the spear, the more desperate they will be when the bloodline serums come out. That’s when the real fun begins." Down in the hall, two Origin Paragons from a minor race tried to team up to bid. They were instantly outmatched by the sheer wealth of the Dragons. This spear was a game for kings only. As the price surged toward 12 billion, the air in the auction house became thick with killing intent. The Eternal Sovereigns were no longer looking at the stage. They were glaring at each other, hands resting on their weapons.