Chapter 9 - Jackpot

“30 commander crystals, so be it! Congratulations venerable Northern General for your purchase!”

“Now, esteemed guests, I have two bulks of 5 advanced Dao Imprints each, their creator is the same wise expert who has created the previous ones” the charming woman stopped her speech at this point, allowing the audience to process the information.

“Advanced Dao Imprints from the same expert, what wonders we’ll see now?” an elder of a fourth rate sect wondered, while another renowned expert stated “This means the imprints can be further produced in the future, whatever power manages to build ties with their creator will have great benefits”.

A famous peak knight expert appeared on stage. “Unbroken Fang is going to be the model this time, things are getting serious” an old man coming from the Unbroken Country exclaimed. The sect master of an inferior sect from the outside curiously asked “Is that knight kinda famous? Even if he’s just a knight he seems to be a confident and solid cultivator”.

The old expert answered, rising his voice upon noticing the interested looks of many cultivators hailing from outside the kingdom “He was once a young disciple of the Devil Slaying Sect, but he decided to experience bloody slaughter and war struggles to temper himself. Thus, he left the protection of the sect and joined the mercenary world, fighting many battles for the kingdom until he became the leader of his own mercenary group. Even if his men are quite weak and he’s just a knight, he’s still a young dashing man, with a solid foundation and plenty of battle experience. His fate is to shine and become a high ranked expert. He’s not a vagrant cultivator in search of arts or skills, if he’s acting as a model it means this Dao Imprint shall be exceptional”.

The audience was hyped, Unbroken Fang unsheathed his saber displaying some basic moves and attacks against the mark on the stage, which would lit up depending on the force of the impact and the profundities of the laws.

After a brief show the mercenary took out a scroll and imprinted the runes in his saber. After taking some time to sense the changes to the sword and perceiving the laws, moments in which the audience was utterly silent fearing to prevent the magic from happening, a glad smiled appeared on his face.

Experts could see him silently bowing towards a balcony, his look plenty of gratitude. At that moment they knew this venerable Dao Imprinter was there, in the same room with them. Many powers started pondering how to win over such a formidable expert, but the thoughts reverted back to the knight, who was ready to strike.

“My saber has received no skills, but something even more amazing. The runes imprinted on the blade were laws, depending on how much you can understand them each of your move will gain its benefits by circulating the chi in them. Even if you cannot comprehend them you can still forcefully activate the runes to have your attack drenched in these laws. Although the gained power would not be as deep as the one provided by a through understanding and this process would drain more chi, the benefits are still significant”.

The modest explanation of the knight caused a great stir in the audience, if what he said was true then even cultivators at higher cultivation stages would profit by such Dao Imprints.

“I shall begin now!” the knight confidently approached the mark. Slash! Slash! Slash! Three consecutive slashes were released, which lightened up the mark covered in defensive chi. The chi was divided and the mark lacerated, the asura law could be perceived if only any of the presents would know what the asura law was.

A aggressive chi had covered the sword, a chi that attacked, eroded, struggled until the defensive chi fell apart. The chi blade could eventually slash the mark, lacerating it.

A bloodthirst aura covered the stage. This murderous aura was being emitted by Unbroken Fang’s blade and resonated with his laws, polished through killing and raging on many battlefields. The match between this Dao Imprint and the mercenary leader was perfect. He gave the impression of a savage beast, ready to prey on the presents and reveal its sharp fangs. His perception was indeed high, Falven was more and more approving of the knight, he could already display this much power. Such a spectacle would end up in enormous gains, no doubt.

As before, the pavilion expert explained everything that happened, praising the imprints, before leaving the stage followed by the knight.

Lady Fatal Moon let the audience discuss for a while, when she felt the hype was at its peak “Let’s start the auction of the first bulk of 5 advanced Dao Imprints, the starting price is 20 Commander crystals!”.

The price quickly increased until an authoritative voice echoed in the room “60 commander crystals”. The Crimson Sky Prince has started bidding, a young prodigy of a first rate sect had indeed the riches to back his position up. Everyone understood they could not compete with him in terms of money and that he wouldn’t let go this chance to empower his faction. A logical train of thought followed, wouldn’t anyone just end up making an enemy out of the Crimson Sky Prince if they called higher bids when it was clear none would be able to afford the imprints in the end? Thus, there was no more bidding, it seemed that the final price would be only 60 commander crystals.

Luckily, an angelic voice, angelic just to Falven’s ears, raised the bid “70 commander crystals” Sharp Leaves General claimed. She was antagonistic towards the prince because their two sects, the strongest sects of the Vastlands, were at war. Even if what was happening was far from being an all out war, many battles and skirmishes had broken out. The main forces had been low or mid ranked cultivators, external allies and vagrant experts. Both the sects didn’t intend to tear apart all pretences and make their strongest experts fight bringing a calamity to their sects. They both knew they would end up purchasing a bulk each, but the goal was to push the other to spend as much possible.

“80 commander crystals”, “90”, “120”, “150”, “300”, “400” Crimson Sky Prince called, glaring at the the general of the opposing force. She stated “Very well, I also offer 400 commander crystals for the next bulk, I hope we can go over with the formalities and conclude this bidding, unless the Crimson Sky Prince has nothing else to say”.

Any good opportunity to damage the other side had to be taken, but the two young geniuses had to consider also their internal struggles. Raising too much the price to damage the other party would end up damaging their own faction in the struggle for gaining the sectmaster seat. The two quickly found an agreement and each bulk was purchased for 400 commander crystals. Even if the process didn’t exactly follow the rules it was no big deal, exceptional treatment for such high level figures was not out of the ordinary.

Just like that, a total of 855 commander crystals had been gained by Falven… and the gains had yet to finish.