Chapter 69: A Terrifying Price

The one who had been looking forward to this the most was naturally Liu Kongkong — though he was a little surprised to see Pure Love Invincible as the bidder.

"Didn't expect him to be loaded."

Liu Kongkong wasn't sure how far Pure Love Invincible and his crew would go, but if their leader had deep pockets, they might actually stir up some real waves on the Xingye Continent. Li Tiansheng probably never imagined that the ally he'd recruited would pull something like this.

But Pure Love Invincible's bid only lasted a few seconds.

Meanwhile, on the forums:

[Fortune Pavilion latest update! A mysterious figure strikes! Pure Love Invincible, the great villain, cut down at 6,500 gold!]

[Fortune Pavilion latest update! Pure Love Invincible strikes back! 7,000 gold!! Pure Love Invincible, you absolute legend!]

[Another whale enters the fray! Left-Hand Blade bids 8,888 gold! Divine Twilight number one under heaven!]

In-game, Big Dumb Duck saw the price and slammed his fist against the wall in anguish — he was one step away from logging off and having a real-life showdown with his father. That old man was absolutely screwing him over! Night's Gentle Chill wasn't faring much better; the person he'd traded with had offered 3 million yuan, which he'd thought was already sky-high — but the other party had a special identity, so there was nothing he could do.

"Did we sell too cheap?" Ye Weinuan said, watching the price continue to climb.

Night's Gentle Chill steadied himself: "It's fine. Some things can't be measured in money."

"Even at ten thousand gold?" Ye Weinuan glanced at the auction interface, then turned to Night's Gentle Chill.

"Ten thousand?! It's… it's fine." Night's Gentle Chill had clearly lost his earlier composure.

Liu Kongkong, meanwhile, pressed both hands over his mouth.

Ten thousand gold! This was insane — several million yuan flowing in within just a few minutes! He'd never seen anything like this! But the next second, his heart nearly stopped. He stared at the number on the auction interface: "Who in the world just did that… 20,000 gold!"

The forums exploded again.

[Left-Hand Blade and Pure Love Warrior are just roadside spectators now — the anonymous mystery figure is the true god of this world! 20,000 gold dominates the field! Daddy! Show yourself, I want to be your son!]

Seeing the 20,000 gold figure, even Left-Hand Blade was stunned. He could scrape together 8 million yuan, but his budget for the Guild Establishment Permit was only 10,000 gold — that is, 4 million yuan. Going any higher wasn't worth it. He could always wait a few more days; this item would eventually appear again.

But Pure Love Invincible hadn't dropped out yet — he was still holding on!

"Is Pure Love Invincible insane? He's still raising at 20,000 gold?" Big Dumb Duck couldn't understand it. The Guild Establishment Permit wasn't a limited item — there would be more of them over time. Was it really necessary to fight over this one?

But to Pure Love Invincible, this item truly mattered…

The Star Expedition Corps' assault on Hezi Town had ended in a crushing defeat. The reason was simple: the NPC levels on the Xingye Continent were far higher than theirs, and Hezi Town had a considerable number of NPCs. He'd originally planned to use the old strategy — exploiting the fact that players could respawn to slowly grind down the town's NPCs. But he quickly discovered that once the battle began, the fixed respawn points near Hezi Town were no longer available to them.

After all members died, they respawned scattered across various corners of the map. The distances weren't enormous, but just regrouping took a significant amount of time. Reinforcements couldn't keep up, the assault fell apart completely, and guild morale plummeted.

"The most urgent priority is still to establish the guild as soon as possible — to boost member confidence. Establishing it early also means we can claim a good Home Base." Pure Love Invincible studied the map; he'd already chosen the location for their Home Base. All he was missing now was this one Guild Establishment Permit. Even if he didn't get it, the financial strength he'd displayed would still shore up his members' confidence.

The forums continued to go wild.

[Bid at 21,000 gold! Haters speak up! Pure Love himself says he'll light the lamp!]

[Star Expedition Corps! I want to join the Star Expedition Corps!]

But those posts only lasted about ten seconds.

Then another post burst onto the scene.

[SHOCKING — 30,000 gold appears out of nowhere! Just how high is the anonymous mystery figure's ceiling?!]

The moment that price appeared, Liu Kongkong even saw the in-game currency exchange rate flicker for a moment…

"Ten million yuan… I feel like I could retire early…" Liu Kongkong pressed a hand to his chest. He'd originally thought the max would be around 10,000 gold.

This time, finally, Pure Love Invincible did not raise again.

"Is this person insane? Or just stupid?" Pure Love Invincible closed the auction interface, forced to admit that this anonymous figure was even more reckless than he was. If it had been some world-shattering piece of equipment, maybe he'd have kept bidding — but for a Guild Establishment Permit that only appeared a little earlier than usual, the other party had spent ten million yuan. Absolutely absurd.

And so, one minute later, the Guild Establishment Permit was officially sold for 30,000 gold.

When he saw the 29,700 gold deposited by Fortune Pavilion, Liu Kongkong felt like it wasn't real.

At the same time, on the forums, players who had been cheering for Pure Love Invincible as a true fan quickly defected to the anonymous mystery figure's hype squad.

But not long after that—

Another post appeared.

[Everyone go look at what's being auctioned right now — I think I'm seeing things.]

Players in-game were equally stunned. The moment the Guild Establishment Permit auction ended, Fortune Pavilion immediately refreshed with a new item: [Imperial Seal of the Canglan Empire], starting bid: 1,000,000 gold.

"How many zeroes is that?" Liu Kongkong counted carefully, then said in a trembling voice: "O-one… one million gold? Where did this thing come from?! And is there actually any player who can afford this?!"

But the truth was, someone had already placed a bid — and it wasn't low.

"Item currently being auctioned: Imperial Seal of the Canglan Empire. Current price: 2,000,000 gold. Bidder: Anonymous."

"Someone actually bid?! And what does this thing even do?" Big Dumb Duck stared at the auction item. The description was extremely simple: [The holder of this item may reestablish the Canglan Empire.]

The Canglan Empire? Liu Kongkong furrowed his brow, then suddenly remembered something.

"Wait — the old man at Fortune Pavilion said Fortune Pavilion was also open to friends, meaning it was previously open to native residents. And at this stage, the only ones who could put up hundreds of thousands of gold would have to be native residents of the Xingye Continent…"

So the bidder was a wealthy native of the Xingye Continent?!

"Compared to these native residents, we players are flat broke." Liu Kongkong shook his head helplessly. He also understood now why the old man at Fortune Pavilion had reacted so calmly to his bid of 5,200 gold — in his eyes, 5,200 gold probably wasn't a particularly high price. He casually closed the auction interface; this was already beyond the reach of any current player.

He split up the gold he was carrying and listed it for sale in batches, keeping 2,000 gold on hand to buy a shop — and if that wasn't enough, he'd buy a bit more from the trading exchange. The in-game currency exchange rate wasn't going to rise anytime soon, so converting to real money was the safer play.

He continued following the system's waypoint marker forward, and after a few minutes, Liu Kongkong arrived before a grand and imposing building.

He looked up at the three gilded characters on the plaque above the entrance.

"City… City Lord's Manor? I need to come to a place like this just to buy a shop?!"